Ray "Bones" Barboni: Let me explain something to you. Momo is dead. Which means everything he had now belongs to Jimmy Cap, including you. Which also means, when I speak, I speak for Jimmy. E.g., from now on, you start showing me the proper fuckin' respect.
Chili Palmer: "E.g." means "for example". What I think you want to use is "i.e.".
Ray "Bones" Barboni: Bullshit! That's short for "ergo".
Chili Palmer: Ask your man.
Bodyguard: To the best of my knowledge, "e.g." means "for example".
Ray "Bones" Barboni: E.g., i.e., fuck you! The point is this: When I say "jump", you say "OK", okay?
We're working on it, but it'll probably be a bit of time before we can dig up the time to add all the necessary features. (n.b. this is still alpha code. I'm pointing it out in case anyone wants to help develop).
Actually, it is (relatively) open. Microsoft has a press release discussing the initiative. The passage of interest is:
Standards-based architecture. Live Communications Server is built using industry-standard protocols Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) and SIP for Instant Messaging and Presence Leveraging Extensions (SIMPLE), enabling a broad partner and developer ecosystem.
Of course, you'll always have individuals with better than 20/20 vision; I have 20/10 in my right eye (last it was tested, anyway), which means I'd have to have 4 times as many pixels as the numbers I cite above. Given what you say, I'm going to guess that you probably have somewhat above-average vision as well.
On a separate note, I've given a lot of thought to the paper-versus-monitor thing, and I'm not convinced that it's all due to resolution. I think a large part of what makes the paper experience so much more pleasant for me is that the paper isn't glowing at me.
Play around with this a bit. Take a few pages from a book and photocopy them onto transparancies. Now, project them onto a wall -- not necessarily large, just onto a wall somewhere. My experience is that doing so is much more similar to reading a screen than reading paper.
On the other hand, our videocamera has an option to turn off the LCD backlight and use ambient light to view the image. I've found that doing so makes it much easier on the eyes over long periods of time.
Yes, turbo diesel cars get incredible mileage, but the particulate emissions -- despite dramatic improvements over the past decade -- still fall near the bottom of the heap.
So, if you want to improve your mileage to save a couple of hundred dollars a year and/or to reduce dependance on foreign oil, a diesel is definitely the car for you.
On the other hand, if you're concerned about that grey haze hanging low in the sky that you notice every morning driving to work and wonder about
whatit'sdoingtoyourlungs,
you might want to consider other technologies.
At what pixel density do you fail to notice a difference in image quality, anyway?
The number that I've found is that the resolution of a human eye (for an individual with 20/20 vision) is about 60 pixels per degree, or about 140 pixels per inch for a screen 2 feet away from your eyes. (Reference: buried in this article. So, thinking about your 17" monitor: 17" diagonal with a 4:3 width-to-height ratio... oh, that's a 3-4-5 triangle. Never noticed that before. Anyway, that's 13.6 inches across, or 94 pixels per inch. So, you'd need to either sit further away than 2 feet for the monitor to exceed the average human eye resolution. On the other hand, if you could run it at 1904x1428 (not exactly a standard resolution, but still...) then you'd be there.
Working out the numbers for the megamonitor is left as an excercise for the reader, once the site that lists specs recovers from the slashdotting.
Then there was SBC's much touted "Project Pronto" that was supposed to bring higher-speed DSL to over 80% of their customers by year-end 2002, but they kept delaying it and, by Early 2002, the writing was pretty much on the wall that SBC had no plans to actually follow through with their promises.
Bully for SBC if they can see this push for fiber through to the end, but their history has shown a decided lack of resolve in this area in the past.
And if somebody can explain "Groklaw" -- "grok law"? -- to me, I'd appreciate.
Well, to save you from the obvious answer, I'll point out that "grok" is a term from Heinlein's "Stranger in a Strange Land". There's a definition and excerpt here.
It was decidedly freeserve. If you go down to the bottom of the article, they cite the specific study that performed the experiement. If you dig around that study in the section on the UK ISP, they accidentally left in a number of hyperlinks (which don't line up correctly) which they neglected to XXX out. For example, on the top of page 26, if you click between the phrases "Dear XXXX My Site User," and "Your website does not comply with XXXXX's My Site Terms of Use," you'll end up being taken to "http://www.freeserve.com/sitebuilder/tandc.htm" (which does redirect to wanadoo).
They didn't make the same gaffe on the US ISP -- which is too bad. I'd like to know who it was that handled it *correctly* more than I want to know who bungled it.
That said, the text of the response is boilerplate stuff that Lycos sends out. Compare it with the text here and here -- so the US ISP was almost certainly Lycos.
No; you made an arugment that state-run services were governmental excess. When it was pointed out to you that the service was, in fact, to be privately run, you changed what we were discussing. Instead of talking about whether the government should be providing services, you twisted it into an anarcho-libertarian rant calling for the abolition of governement in general.
It's a completely different topic, and not one that I've ever seen discussed in a reasonable manner.
I don't engage in coversations with people who will change the entire premise of the conversation to hide their errors.
I'm not having a discussion with you until you take off the tinfoil hat and put down the liberatarian flash cards.
Re:Terrible waste of money
on
WiFi Gone Wild
·
· Score: 3, Informative
If there is a compelling demand for this kind of service, then Texas should have stopped at a trial of 4 spots (if even that) and let private industry take over.
You mean, perhaps, like taking bids from private companies "able to provide free wireless Internet service and pay telephone-like Internet access at kiosks"? In other words, putting together a business case and selecting a private company to come in and run it, with no funding from the state? Perhaps you should RTFA.
Re:Fleecing of America..
on
WiFi Gone Wild
·
· Score: 3, Informative
I do love the idea of having more places to connect my laptop via wifi, but it's not blinding me of the fact that the state govenments will pay %4000 of what it should cost to install/run
Ironically, you are blinded -- but by a knee-jerk response that erroneously assumes that anything free with government involvment must be government funded. Re-read the news release. The wireless APs will be run by private companies, not the state. The companies make money by charging for internet kiosk use, but a condition of being in the rest stop is that they provide free wireless. The net cost to Texas taxpayers once the system is in place? Zero.
Re:Fleecing of America..
on
WiFi Gone Wild
·
· Score: 4, Informative
...this is a huge waste of taxpayer money.
You need to go back and read the news release more carefully.
TxDOT is taking bids for private companies to come in and install intenet kiosks in rest areas. These kiosks would charge users per time-unit to use them to access the internet.
These private vendors are also required by TxDOT to provide free wireless coverage. The income from the use of the kiosk is expected to fund the wireless usage.
The only expense to the taxpayer is whatever administrative time is required to run the bid and selection process. After that, it's all in the hands of private companies.
Mike Powell? Please. Unless you're a lobbying group who can line his pockets so well that he has trouble walking, you're not affecting anything. Consumer opinion has no bearing; the FCC is operating strictly on a highest-bidder policy at the moment, and the MPAA has him in pocket to the tune of millions. Think you can beat that? Go ahead.
Altavista has gotten much better since their fall from grace. I was using them back when they were part of DEC, too. They turned evil, but have recently repented.
I use them about as much as I use Google at the moment. If Google ever does something stupid -- like putting banner ads in their results -- it's no skin off my nose. I'll just switch to altavista 100%.
Yep. And actually, the new Priuses are classified at "AT-PZEV" (Advanced Technology Partial Zero Emissions Vehicles), which is somewhat more strict than even SULEV.
I regularly get 55 mpg in my Prius. When my wife drives it, she gets between 38 and 45.
Like with all cars, the mileage that you get is very much dependant on how you drive. I've noticed that, for the Prius at least, it mostly has to do with how you pull away from stoplights. If your impulse is to floor the accelerator when the light turns green, you get crap for mileage. (It's the same with all cars, but more pronounced in the Prius -- flooring it at a green light makes the gas engine kick in immediately; taking off at a sane pace lets the electric motor do what it does best: get you going).
As far as I can tell, the problem with hybrids right now is that type A drivers -- the type of people most likely to loudly complain about stuff -- are exactly the set of people who, by their own habits, get crappy mileage. The fault is not in the technology; it's in the people.
Ah, yes. That's an unfortnate consequence of the two-party system we have in the U.S. You end up with "representatives" that don't actually represent the people. The selection is always lesser of two evils.
The truth is, more Americans would vote for a block of wood than would vote for the current administration. In fact, you you look back at the 2000 election returns, that's exactly what happened.
Ermmmm... RTFRFC. The entire point is that putting morality-related bits in the protocols or partitioning off morality-related TLDs is a tremendously horrid idea. It was published to warn off any misguided attempts that might arise along those lines.
That's not to say your rant is completely invalid, but I do take objection to your painting a group of several hundred million people with a single broad stroke. Your beef is with "the religious nutcases in the USA", not "the USA."
Okay, well, if we're plugging audio timeshifting products, The ATI All-In-Wonder 9600 Pro has a built-in FM tuner, and allows you do do scheduled captures directly to MP3.
Slashdot Mirror
Chili Palmer: "E.g." means "for example". What I think you want to use is "i.e.".
Ray "Bones" Barboni: Bullshit! That's short for "ergo".
Chili Palmer: Ask your man.
Bodyguard: To the best of my knowledge, "e.g." means "for example".
Ray "Bones" Barboni: E.g., i.e., fuck you! The point is this: When I say "jump", you say "OK", okay?
We're working on it, but it'll probably be a bit of time before we can dig up the time to add all the necessary features. (n.b. this is still alpha code. I'm pointing it out in case anyone wants to help develop).
Of course, you'll always have individuals with better than 20/20 vision; I have 20/10 in my right eye (last it was tested, anyway), which means I'd have to have 4 times as many pixels as the numbers I cite above. Given what you say, I'm going to guess that you probably have somewhat above-average vision as well.
On a separate note, I've given a lot of thought to the paper-versus-monitor thing, and I'm not convinced that it's all due to resolution. I think a large part of what makes the paper experience so much more pleasant for me is that the paper isn't glowing at me.
Play around with this a bit. Take a few pages from a book and photocopy them onto transparancies. Now, project them onto a wall -- not necessarily large, just onto a wall somewhere. My experience is that doing so is much more similar to reading a screen than reading paper.
On the other hand, our videocamera has an option to turn off the LCD backlight and use ambient light to view the image. I've found that doing so makes it much easier on the eyes over long periods of time.
Yes, turbo diesel cars get incredible mileage, but the particulate emissions -- despite dramatic improvements over the past decade -- still fall near the bottom of the heap.
So, if you want to improve your mileage to save a couple of hundred dollars a year and/or to reduce dependance on foreign oil, a diesel is definitely the car for you.
On the other hand, if you're concerned about that grey haze hanging low in the sky that you notice every morning driving to work and wonder about what it's doing to your lungs, you might want to consider other technologies.
The number that I've found is that the resolution of a human eye (for an individual with 20/20 vision) is about 60 pixels per degree, or about 140 pixels per inch for a screen 2 feet away from your eyes. (Reference: buried in this article. So, thinking about your 17" monitor: 17" diagonal with a 4:3 width-to-height ratio... oh, that's a 3-4-5 triangle. Never noticed that before. Anyway, that's 13.6 inches across, or 94 pixels per inch. So, you'd need to either sit further away than 2 feet for the monitor to exceed the average human eye resolution. On the other hand, if you could run it at 1904x1428 (not exactly a standard resolution, but still...) then you'd be there.
Working out the numbers for the megamonitor is left as an excercise for the reader, once the site that lists specs recovers from the slashdotting.
Bully for SBC if they can see this push for fiber through to the end, but their history has shown a decided lack of resolve in this area in the past.
"Your website does not comply with XXXXX's My Site Terms of Use," you'll end up being taken to "http://www.freeserve.com/sitebuilder/tandc.htm" (which does redirect to wanadoo).
They didn't make the same gaffe on the US ISP -- which is too bad. I'd like to know who it was that handled it *correctly* more than I want to know who bungled it.
That said, the text of the response is boilerplate stuff that Lycos sends out. Compare it with the text here and here -- so the US ISP was almost certainly Lycos.
It's a completely different topic, and not one that I've ever seen discussed in a reasonable manner.
I don't engage in coversations with people who will change the entire premise of the conversation to hide their errors.
I'm not having a discussion with you until you take off the tinfoil hat and put down the liberatarian flash cards.
You need to go back and read the news release more carefully.
TxDOT is taking bids for private companies to come in and install intenet kiosks in rest areas. These kiosks would charge users per time-unit to use them to access the internet.
These private vendors are also required by TxDOT to provide free wireless coverage. The income from the use of the kiosk is expected to fund the wireless usage.
The only expense to the taxpayer is whatever administrative time is required to run the bid and selection process. After that, it's all in the hands of private companies.
Mike Powell? Please. Unless you're a lobbying group who can line his pockets so well that he has trouble walking, you're not affecting anything. Consumer opinion has no bearing; the FCC is operating strictly on a highest-bidder policy at the moment, and the MPAA has him in pocket to the tune of millions. Think you can beat that? Go ahead.
I use them about as much as I use Google at the moment. If Google ever does something stupid -- like putting banner ads in their results -- it's no skin off my nose. I'll just switch to altavista 100%.
Yep. And actually, the new Priuses are classified at "AT-PZEV" (Advanced Technology Partial Zero Emissions Vehicles), which is somewhat more strict than even SULEV.
Like with all cars, the mileage that you get is very much dependant on how you drive. I've noticed that, for the Prius at least, it mostly has to do with how you pull away from stoplights. If your impulse is to floor the accelerator when the light turns green, you get crap for mileage. (It's the same with all cars, but more pronounced in the Prius -- flooring it at a green light makes the gas engine kick in immediately; taking off at a sane pace lets the electric motor do what it does best: get you going).
As far as I can tell, the problem with hybrids right now is that type A drivers -- the type of people most likely to loudly complain about stuff -- are exactly the set of people who, by their own habits, get crappy mileage. The fault is not in the technology; it's in the people.
And they have the uncanny ability to make any source sound like an old Edison-style wax cylendar. These are completely useless devices.
So you never were a big Information Society fan, then, huh? (Kurt, their lead singer, went to U of Minnesota for a CompSci degree...)
Ah, yes. That's an unfortnate consequence of the two-party system we have in the U.S. You end up with "representatives" that don't actually represent the people. The selection is always lesser of two evils.
The truth is, more Americans would vote for a block of wood than would vote for the current administration. In fact, you you look back at the 2000 election returns, that's exactly what happened.
That's not to say your rant is completely invalid, but I do take objection to your painting a group of several hundred million people with a single broad stroke. Your beef is with "the religious nutcases in the USA", not "the USA."
I beleive the trademarked term is "Fair & Balanced."
Oh, and it's already available.
Okay, everyone, stop yelling "amd." We get it already.