Wasn't there an article just yesterday about how cheaters were using technology to be able to see through walls? Now they can say it's OK since the military does it in real life.
I don't want that kind of realism in Counterstrike. Now all of the l4m3r5 will consider it justified since real soldiers now have wireframe mountains and buildings.
If only I had known this in elementary school. It would have saved me from detention.
Remember how all of the school health books had a little blurb on hiccups? The Q&A form went like this:
Q: What causes hiccups? A: Hiccups are a spastic contraction of the diaphragm combined with the closing of the windpipe. Drink some water...
I got in trouble for not accepting that. The teacher gave the class the same answer and I told him: "OK, so that's what they are, but WHY do we get them?" Same answer again. So I explained to the teacher and the class the difference between cause and effect.
2 hours after school...oh, the trauma! Freakin' great way to foster a sense of inquiry.
Unless you have Enterprise Licensing that is. As soon as you install Office for Mac, you have to pay them for an OS license as well. Check the fine print.
The deal is that you're licensing a certian number of "workstations" so as soon as you install Office you've got another workstation added to your network and have a certain minimum configuration you have to buy. Usually it's a copy of Windows (XP now), a copy of Office (whatever flavor you standarize on), and maybe some other standard thing like Project.
So just to add Office to a Mac under MS's licensing scheme it'll cost you maybe $800. YMMV but not by a whole lot.
If you think that's fun, check out setting up a Citrix MetaFrame network. MS's weird-ass Terminal Services licensing scheme almost guarantees you'll be out of compliance unless you just write them an enormous check up-front. It's the most screwed up scheme I've ever seen.
I was on a flight once where they didn't serve peanuts to anybody because there was one person somewhere in the plance who was alergic to them. Made an announcement and everything!
So can I keep everybody on my flight from using their phones because my doctor tells me that cell phone radiation is bad for me? If so, I'm scheduling an appointment right now. I'm sure I can find a doctor who will give me a note.
I guess my only hope is that the charges for the network you're allowed to use in the air are as high as the AirPhone ones. Maybe that'll keep these fools off of their phones.
Damn straight! That and BeOS support too. You might as well make the whole leap to technically superior and obscure. Then you can feel totally oppressed.
Honestly, I totally agree that.ogg support on all audio devices would be a good thing. But you also have to take into account the extra time cramming.ogg support on the embedded decoder vs. the typical consumer's wishes. It's hard to admit from the geek's standpoint, but there still isn't a real compelling reason on the vendors' parts to support.ogg. You probably won't see the shitty bundled software for Linux or even Mac for the same reason.
Can we please just get a Wired slashbox and not have to feature every fucking article from their site on the front page of Slashdot? Come on...2 in one day? And more on the way I'm sure.
Why doesn't Slashdot just save some front-page real estate and make a Wired SlashBox? Seems like every story except the letters section is featured here.
I know it's a good mag...I have a subscription. I just didn't think they needed to be featured here all the freakin' time!
I totally agree. I had a Jetta TDi for a couple of years (sold it for the D/P on a house...dammit) and it was amazing. I would routinely get >50 MPG on the highway...that's a 700-mile range. Try that with a hybrid!
And with the new diesel combustion technology, it really is a pretty clean car as well. It's definitely worth a look for somebody who wants to burn less fuel and support the terrorists less. (yes, that was a troll...kind of.)
For some really good, geek-level info about the TDi cars, go to the TDI Club.
I'm glad to see that this kind of scrutiny is becoming more popular. It has been kind an annoying irony that the Justice Dept has been suing M$ while the US Govt. continues to buy their products.
There's always talk among our elected officials that government spending needs to be controlled and that competitive bidding and cost analysis should be used to arrive at the most fiscally responsible solution. Of course, anybody who has seen the money spent through the defense budget knows that there is a lot of room for improvement.
I'm not real optimistic that this will lead to reforms, but at least it may bring the huge amount of money wasted each year into the spotlight. Remember that our elected officials don't make decisions without substantial money and lobbying involved, and in Microsoft's case that expense will be passed right back to the taxpayers.
Still, with the high-profile government endorsements of Open source in Peru, Germany, and other places, the pressure is increasingly on Microsoft to justify their huge cost and diminishing returns. If nothing else, maybe we'll get a better deal from them.
Yeah, I see your point. I guess there ought to be a bandwidth cutoff or maybe a Napster-style subscription model (cringe). There's plenty of people here who don't download music, so they shouldn't be required to pay for that.
And yes, satellite sucks. It always will because there's not a whole lot you can do about the speed of light (I know about this from trying to run a corporate WAN over satellite). Dial-up isn't what I would call a good medium for downloading songs either.
I wish this had been introduced by somebody who isn't purely evil. Unfortunately, the evil companies are the only ones who own enough infrastructure and politicians to make it feasable. It also scares me that Verizon would be some sort of gate-keeper for this, but it's not like Kazaa has any credibility with the lawmakers. They needed an ally who isn't currently pissing off the judges.
According to Rosen, the RIAA exists to protect the rights of the artists and to ensure that they are fairly compensated for their work. They aren't out to make money for themselves. They are just protecting the starving artists and making sure they get their money.
Right. If that were truly the case, you would see a little more support here than the outright dismissal in her quote.
Compulsory licensing works. It has for years in the radio, TV, and film industries. There's a flat royalty fee that radio stations pay to BMI and/or ASCAP to play music in public. This money (minus "administrative fees") goes to the artists directly as royalty checks.
This is exactly the kind of model needed for online distribution of music. Build it into my ISP monthly bill and I'll gladly pay up to $5.00 per onth to legally download/upload all the music I want. Send that money to the artists who deserve it and I will be completely happy with the arrangement.
What "poor Hilary" is worried about is the fact that her organization will be rendered redundant. Well, maybe if they hadn't acted like such greedy, self-important bastards they wouldn't be in this position now. They were in the absolute best position to lead an effort like this, but they blew it. Now somebody else comes along with a perfectly reasonable idea and they're scared to death.
And I don't care if it's Verizon and Kazaa leading the initiative. Eventually, it will get regulated and firm rules will be established. Sure, there's going to be some corruption (come on, it's money after all) but it won't be on the grand scale we're facing right now.
This was the big deciding factor for me. The initial capital expense is lower for rolling your own, but there's a lot to be said for picking up the phone and having a replacement mobo shipped to you overnight at no additional cost.
Besides, with the way vendors change their product lines these days, you'll be lucky to get the same box next year that you standardized on this year.
As for AMD, I've been using Athlon-based machines from Micron PC and haven't had any trouble related to the platform. They're about $300 cheaper for the same relative power and I haven't noticed any problems that the Intel-based boxes woudn't have had as well.
In the end, it's up to you. You might also consider that you might not always be the computer guy at this business, and whoever follows you will have a harder time learning about the quirks of your home-rolled systems than they would learning who to call to get the pre-made ones fixed.
When I lived in Michigan, I went to Digital Ops. It sounds just like what you're looking at doing. They provide the games and a fun environment, and stay open real late. They can probably tell you all about the pitfalls of running that kind of business.
When I was a kid, the Edmund catalog was the best thing in the world. That's where my birthday and christmas presents would come from. I had one of the big red fishing magnets, fresnel lenses, prisms, crystal growing kits, that flying saucer kite, and a crapload of surplus electronic and military gizmos.
I still want the Astroscan Telescope and some big lasers, but it's just not the same anymore.
IMHO, they jumped the shark when they put a french maid costume in the catalog. I remember my dad trying to explain what that was all about... =)
I remember seeing an original Mac with the case taken off running submerged in a vat of chlorofluorocarbon liquid. The same sort of stuff that was used to cool some of the Cray's, I believe. I always thought that would be fun to have in the living room.
I think you could also use Fomblin for that. Hmmm.... (laughs insanely and strokes persian cat) I could take an aquarium to my next LAN party. Put in a couple of air bubblers and one of those treasure chests that opens and closes and it would be awesome.
My favorite one was from Mad Magazine with a song called "Super Spectacular Day" that had 8 parallel grooves, The song would start the same way but it had 8 different endings. It was totally random which groove the needle would end up in, so you had to play it many MANY times before you got all 8.
It drove my parents up the wall, which was also great.
I'm sure there's very capable AD/DA conversion going on here, but a LOT of the sound you get from an electric guitar is the result of good ol' analog circuitry. The coils of the pickups interacting with the amp is what defines the "character" of the sound.
I know DSP has come a long way, but I can't see this being used by the real hardcore guitarists, since it removes all of the weirdness that defines the sound of that special guitar plugged into that old Marshall amp.
In Word 97 and earlier, if you typed the phrase: "unable to follow directions" and ran it through the thesaurus, the suggested alternative was "Unable to have an erection"
This is not useful, of course. Unless you call court-ordered behavioral remedies "directions"
Slashdot Mirror
Wasn't there an article just yesterday about how cheaters were using technology to be able to see through walls? Now they can say it's OK since the military does it in real life.
I don't want that kind of realism in Counterstrike. Now all of the l4m3r5 will consider it justified since real soldiers now have wireframe mountains and buildings.
If only I had known this in elementary school. It would have saved me from detention.
Remember how all of the school health books had a little blurb on hiccups? The Q&A form went like this:
Q: What causes hiccups?
A: Hiccups are a spastic contraction of the diaphragm combined with the closing of the windpipe. Drink some water...
I got in trouble for not accepting that. The teacher gave the class the same answer and I told him: "OK, so that's what they are, but WHY do we get them?" Same answer again. So I explained to the teacher and the class the difference between cause and effect.
2 hours after school...oh, the trauma! Freakin' great way to foster a sense of inquiry.
LOL dude. You beat me to it.
Unless you have Enterprise Licensing that is. As soon as you install Office for Mac, you have to pay them for an OS license as well. Check the fine print.
The deal is that you're licensing a certian number of "workstations" so as soon as you install Office you've got another workstation added to your network and have a certain minimum configuration you have to buy. Usually it's a copy of Windows (XP now), a copy of Office (whatever flavor you standarize on), and maybe some other standard thing like Project.
So just to add Office to a Mac under MS's licensing scheme it'll cost you maybe $800. YMMV but not by a whole lot.
If you think that's fun, check out setting up a Citrix MetaFrame network. MS's weird-ass Terminal Services licensing scheme almost guarantees you'll be out of compliance unless you just write them an enormous check up-front. It's the most screwed up scheme I've ever seen.
I was on a flight once where they didn't serve peanuts to anybody because there was one person somewhere in the plance who was alergic to them. Made an announcement and everything!
So can I keep everybody on my flight from using their phones because my doctor tells me that cell phone radiation is bad for me? If so, I'm scheduling an appointment right now. I'm sure I can find a doctor who will give me a note.
I guess my only hope is that the charges for the network you're allowed to use in the air are as high as the AirPhone ones. Maybe that'll keep these fools off of their phones.
Damn straight! That and BeOS support too. You might as well make the whole leap to technically superior and obscure. Then you can feel totally oppressed.
.ogg support on all audio devices would be a good thing. But you also have to take into account the extra time cramming .ogg support on the embedded decoder vs. the typical consumer's wishes. It's hard to admit from the geek's standpoint, but there still isn't a real compelling reason on the vendors' parts to support .ogg. You probably won't see the shitty bundled software for Linux or even Mac for the same reason.
Honestly, I totally agree that
Can we please just get a Wired slashbox and not have to feature every fucking article from their site on the front page of Slashdot? Come on...2 in one day? And more on the way I'm sure.
Yeah, and I also have the install floppies for Win95 and Office 95. You haven't lived until you installed those from floppies.
The best part was when you'd get about half way through and find out you had a corrupted disk.
And yes, that's when I started thinking of MicroSoft as evil.
Absolutely!!! The first thing I did this morning when I read this was to tell my boss that I would be there instead of here. How convenient!
We'll see what he thinks of the expense report...
Why doesn't Slashdot just save some front-page real estate and make a Wired SlashBox? Seems like every story except the letters section is featured here.
I know it's a good mag...I have a subscription. I just didn't think they needed to be featured here all the freakin' time!
I totally agree. I had a Jetta TDi for a couple of years (sold it for the D/P on a house...dammit) and it was amazing. I would routinely get >50 MPG on the highway...that's a 700-mile range. Try that with a hybrid!
And with the new diesel combustion technology, it really is a pretty clean car as well. It's definitely worth a look for somebody who wants to burn less fuel and support the terrorists less. (yes, that was a troll...kind of.)
For some really good, geek-level info about the TDi cars, go to the TDI Club.
Reminds me of something I heard a comedian say:
"I've been trying so hard not to treat women like objects that I've ended up treating objects like women."
I can't remember who said it, but I liked it.
Oh shit that's funny. I don't get that show on PBS where I live.
And yes, the moderator was really on the ball marking that one "Insightful"
I'm glad to see that this kind of scrutiny is becoming more popular. It has been kind an annoying irony that the Justice Dept has been suing M$ while the US Govt. continues to buy their products.
There's always talk among our elected officials that government spending needs to be controlled and that competitive bidding and cost analysis should be used to arrive at the most fiscally responsible solution. Of course, anybody who has seen the money spent through the defense budget knows that there is a lot of room for improvement.
I'm not real optimistic that this will lead to reforms, but at least it may bring the huge amount of money wasted each year into the spotlight. Remember that our elected officials don't make decisions without substantial money and lobbying involved, and in Microsoft's case that expense will be passed right back to the taxpayers.
Still, with the high-profile government endorsements of Open source in Peru, Germany, and other places, the pressure is increasingly on Microsoft to justify their huge cost and diminishing returns. If nothing else, maybe we'll get a better deal from them.
Yeah, I see your point. I guess there ought to be a bandwidth cutoff or maybe a Napster-style subscription model (cringe). There's plenty of people here who don't download music, so they shouldn't be required to pay for that.
And yes, satellite sucks. It always will because there's not a whole lot you can do about the speed of light (I know about this from trying to run a corporate WAN over satellite). Dial-up isn't what I would call a good medium for downloading songs either.
I wish this had been introduced by somebody who isn't purely evil. Unfortunately, the evil companies are the only ones who own enough infrastructure and politicians to make it feasable. It also scares me that Verizon would be some sort of gate-keeper for this, but it's not like Kazaa has any credibility with the lawmakers. They needed an ally who isn't currently pissing off the judges.
Well,
According to Rosen, the RIAA exists to protect the rights of the artists and to ensure that they are fairly compensated for their work. They aren't out to make money for themselves. They are just protecting the starving artists and making sure they get their money.
Right. If that were truly the case, you would see a little more support here than the outright dismissal in her quote.
Compulsory licensing works. It has for years in the radio, TV, and film industries. There's a flat royalty fee that radio stations pay to BMI and/or ASCAP to play music in public. This money (minus "administrative fees") goes to the artists directly as royalty checks.
This is exactly the kind of model needed for online distribution of music. Build it into my ISP monthly bill and I'll gladly pay up to $5.00 per onth to legally download/upload all the music I want. Send that money to the artists who deserve it and I will be completely happy with the arrangement.
What "poor Hilary" is worried about is the fact that her organization will be rendered redundant. Well, maybe if they hadn't acted like such greedy, self-important bastards they wouldn't be in this position now. They were in the absolute best position to lead an effort like this, but they blew it. Now somebody else comes along with a perfectly reasonable idea and they're scared to death.
And I don't care if it's Verizon and Kazaa leading the initiative. Eventually, it will get regulated and firm rules will be established. Sure, there's going to be some corruption (come on, it's money after all) but it won't be on the grand scale we're facing right now.
That's funny as hell. Thank you.
What does the Slashdot community think about having your retinal pattern embedded on a smart card?
How about embedding the taste of my ass on the card so Congress can be sure it's mine they're kissing?
This was the big deciding factor for me. The initial capital expense is lower for rolling your own, but there's a lot to be said for picking up the phone and having a replacement mobo shipped to you overnight at no additional cost.
Besides, with the way vendors change their product lines these days, you'll be lucky to get the same box next year that you standardized on this year.
As for AMD, I've been using Athlon-based machines from Micron PC and haven't had any trouble related to the platform. They're about $300 cheaper for the same relative power and I haven't noticed any problems that the Intel-based boxes woudn't have had as well.
In the end, it's up to you. You might also consider that you might not always be the computer guy at this business, and whoever follows you will have a harder time learning about the quirks of your home-rolled systems than they would learning who to call to get the pre-made ones fixed.
When I lived in Michigan, I went to Digital Ops. It sounds just like what you're looking at doing. They provide the games and a fun environment, and stay open real late. They can probably tell you all about the pitfalls of running that kind of business.
Nah, they're still open, but their soul is gone.
When I was a kid, the Edmund catalog was the best thing in the world. That's where my birthday and christmas presents would come from. I had one of the big red fishing magnets, fresnel lenses, prisms, crystal growing kits, that flying saucer kite, and a crapload of surplus electronic and military gizmos.
I still want the Astroscan Telescope and some big lasers, but it's just not the same anymore.
IMHO, they jumped the shark when they put a french maid costume in the catalog. I remember my dad trying to explain what that was all about... =)
I remember seeing an original Mac with the case taken off running submerged in a vat of chlorofluorocarbon liquid. The same sort of stuff that was used to cool some of the Cray's, I believe. I always thought that would be fun to have in the living room.
I think you could also use Fomblin for that. Hmmm.... (laughs insanely and strokes persian cat) I could take an aquarium to my next LAN party. Put in a couple of air bubblers and one of those treasure chests that opens and closes and it would be awesome.
My favorite one was from Mad Magazine with a song called "Super Spectacular Day" that had 8 parallel grooves, The song would start the same way but it had 8 different endings. It was totally random which groove the needle would end up in, so you had to play it many MANY times before you got all 8.
It drove my parents up the wall, which was also great.
I'm sure there's very capable AD/DA conversion going on here, but a LOT of the sound you get from an electric guitar is the result of good ol' analog circuitry. The coils of the pickups interacting with the amp is what defines the "character" of the sound.
I know DSP has come a long way, but I can't see this being used by the real hardcore guitarists, since it removes all of the weirdness that defines the sound of that special guitar plugged into that old Marshall amp.
In Word 97 and earlier, if you typed the phrase: "unable to follow directions" and ran it through the thesaurus, the suggested alternative was "Unable to have an erection"
This is not useful, of course. Unless you call court-ordered behavioral remedies "directions"