Well, the sun's out now, with big fluffy white clouds against a blue sky... and besides, I *like* occasional drizzle. Beats the hell out of the semi-daily thunderstorms we've had for the last month.:P
In 2006 I got sick of contract lock-in and went to Virgin Mobile - phones that're cheap & easy to replace, no contract, and my usage fees total maybe twelve bucks a month. Uses the Sprint network, so coverage is not and never has been a problem.
If Sprint and Google can whizbang something together that whiffs of open construction and come up with a mini PCIe card that'll fit in my Asus EEE's spare slot, and price it reasonably with similar coverage, I'd happily sign away a two-year fraction of my monthly income.
They moved me to my department's sole window cube a few months ago -- two cube walls and huge window makes the third. It faces north, so the sun never shines on my stuff, but it's got an HVAC unit right under it, so I control how warm or cold it gets.
It faces Discovery Communications HQ with a cluster of nice trees in the foreground.
Carve me up and part me out. As long as it isn't before my time, I'm totally fine with that. A last bit of altruism, I guess, that doesn't even cost me anything.
This is pretty close.
On a related note, HOLY SHIT. I used to think orbital dynamics and the physics of space navigation were way over my head. Now, I realize they're way way way over my head. Does this thing even have thrusters of any kind, or did they shoot it into the sky, give it a push, and all this was planned out?
Hats off to the JPL nerds who made this work. I am floored.
Sure would be swell, wouldn't it?
Except that legally, in the US, humans DO own pets... so the terminology becomes more practical.
Here's the AKC's take on the subject. They support use of the word "owner." Pets do have financial as well as emotional value, and terminology must reflect that to effectively preserve both. Summed up at the bottom of the page:
The AKC believes that the term guardian may in fact reduce the legal status and value of dogs as property and thereby restrict the rights of owners, veterinarians, and government agencies to protect and care for dogs.
They were one of few sites with the bandwidth and the eyewitness accounts to accurately describe and present what was going on. I can wait a day or two for analysis -- when something big happens, I'll turn to somewhere like that for immediate presence. It's more annoying to separate the wheat from the chaff, but it's also an experience one doesn't get sitting in front of a TV or reading the sanitized version on the AP.
I ran Win2k and was quite happy with it... until it bloated itself off my paltry 10gig hard drive. Not so with Linux. It was much easier for me to switch to Ubuntu and learn all sorts of new stuff than to keep an old copy of Windows running securely and swiftly.
Alternatively, I did consider putting an nlited version of WinXP on my Asus EEE just so that I could get easy, streamlined GPS software running.
I've had mine for a little over three weeks. It was the first all-new computer I've bought since '97. I've got a grand total of two complaints:
- the 7" 800x480 screen really could stand to be a 8.9" 1024x600. - the right shift key is in a sort of weird spot.
Otherwise, it really is everything I could reasonably hope to ask for in a form factor that cannot be beaten by anything even twice the price. I use it daily when I'm kicking back on the sofa and don't want to get up or I have twenty minutes to kill at a coffee shop. You're gonna love it.
It does what I want. I was looking for a highly-portable full-featured computer, and the price was right. If I really need high-res at some point it's not like it doesn't have a VGA-out. I'm not using it for anything beyond e-mail and light surfing at the moment, but then I just got it ten days ago; I'll probably do light word processing at some point. I care much less than if I'd invested tons of cash into something nicer and it takes a fall or otherwise gets rendered a paperweight. The biggest kicker was portability -- I'm a big fan of not checking bags when I travel, and this thing makes that considerably easier.
I am currently typing this on one of them newfangled Asus Eee PCs. 4gb worth of Hynix HY27UG088G5M chips through a Silicon Motion SM223 controller. The only moving parts on this thing are the keys and this near-worthless little sideways-blowing fan. It's fast, reliable, shock-resistant, and pretty durn cheap.
...you're missing the point. "Why buy an Eee when I could get a normal, higher-powered 15" laptop for less?"
I own an Asus Eee, and it's a near-perfect little sub-kilo device. But if I had a kid in the 3-8 age group, I'd pounce on this OLPC deal so fast my keyboard would smoke. For the same price as the Eee I can get something way more kid-friendly AND support some third-world future 1337 h4ckz0r?! I can't think of a more noble place for my nerd-donation to go.
But my altruism only extends so far. I prefer the Eee for my own use, so that's what I bought.
It can be done, just expect to pay easily $200 plus service contract for mere CDMA. On the other hand, that little module will fit right into the bottom of the EEE, so it'll be all kinds of clean. Add another $50 for a USB GPS dongle and you've got quite the little $550ish package.
That little Calculator ap. A cousin of mine, Craig Brockschmidt, wrote it and pretty much retired. His name dropped from the "About..." menu ca. Win3.1, but I can't tell that it's otherwise changed since then.
...Jumpgate came awfully close, but I'd really like to see a large-scale universe based on the Privateer world. Pirate? Confed? Militia? Take missions, don't take missions, offer some dude $1000000 credits for his Steltek gun, trade in tobacco and hope you don't get scanned, form guilds of like-minded people...
Imagine a FLEET of a couple dozen Galaxy-class crusing down the spaceways - maybe with some Draymans if you've really got some money - holds full of cargo, actual players manning the turrets, with eight or ten Centurions running escort. Think about how sweet it would be to run your own trading post, along with a dozen of your online buddies, and get filthy stinkin' rich... but occasionally have to climb into a turret or Orion to defend your claim on the base. If you really want to have some fun, go join the Church of Man and swarm the hell out of Confed patrols. Tough to get rich, but you sure will stay on your toes!
Slashdot Mirror
How does this qualify as a complete sentence?
is this some sort of record?!
Well, the sun's out now, with big fluffy white clouds against a blue sky... and besides, I *like* occasional drizzle. Beats the hell out of the semi-daily thunderstorms we've had for the last month. :P
I have a 701. It cost me $399, and I received it on November 2 of last year.
For the last six months, since I static-zapped my desktop, it's been my only personal computer.
I'm typing this on it right now, from a plaza in Silver Spring, Maryland. It's a gorgeous day, the fountains are running.
I am super happy with it.
I don't feel "stiffed," I feel like I got in on something awesome before it was trendy.
offtopic coincidence...
alt text for that comic:
"Her daughter is named Help I'm trapped in a driver's license factory."
current quote at the bottom of slashdot:
"Help! I'm trapped in a Chinese computer factory!"
Little punks should've stayed off my damn lawn. That'll larn 'em.
In 2006 I got sick of contract lock-in and went to Virgin Mobile - phones that're cheap & easy to replace, no contract, and my usage fees total maybe twelve bucks a month. Uses the Sprint network, so coverage is not and never has been a problem.
If Sprint and Google can whizbang something together that whiffs of open construction and come up with a mini PCIe card that'll fit in my Asus EEE's spare slot, and price it reasonably with similar coverage, I'd happily sign away a two-year fraction of my monthly income.
They moved me to my department's sole window cube a few months ago -- two cube walls and huge window makes the third. It faces north, so the sun never shines on my stuff, but it's got an HVAC unit right under it, so I control how warm or cold it gets.
It faces Discovery Communications HQ with a cluster of nice trees in the foreground.
Window FTW.
...Thread are vicious.
At 93 ft^3 per unit, how many Volkswagen Beetles full of telephone directories does that equate to?
That seems like such an arbitrary unit of measurement.
Let's go with SI units here, people. We are looking at no fewer than 1.6953x10^27 Volkswagen Beetles.
Carve me up and part me out. As long as it isn't before my time, I'm totally fine with that. A last bit of altruism, I guess, that doesn't even cost me anything.
Hats off to the JPL nerds who made this work. I am floored.
Did you read Fark on September 11, 2001?
They were one of few sites with the bandwidth and the eyewitness accounts to accurately describe and present what was going on. I can wait a day or two for analysis -- when something big happens, I'll turn to somewhere like that for immediate presence. It's more annoying to separate the wheat from the chaff, but it's also an experience one doesn't get sitting in front of a TV or reading the sanitized version on the AP.
I ran Win2k and was quite happy with it... until it bloated itself off my paltry 10gig hard drive. Not so with Linux. It was much easier for me to switch to Ubuntu and learn all sorts of new stuff than to keep an old copy of Windows running securely and swiftly.
Alternatively, I did consider putting an nlited version of WinXP on my Asus EEE just so that I could get easy, streamlined GPS software running.
The right tool for the job and all, y'know?
I've had mine for a little over three weeks. It was the first all-new computer I've bought since '97. I've got a grand total of two complaints:
- the 7" 800x480 screen really could stand to be a 8.9" 1024x600.
- the right shift key is in a sort of weird spot.
Otherwise, it really is everything I could reasonably hope to ask for in a form factor that cannot be beaten by anything even twice the price. I use it daily when I'm kicking back on the sofa and don't want to get up or I have twenty minutes to kill at a coffee shop. You're gonna love it.
HE-MAN!
It does what I want. I was looking for a highly-portable full-featured computer, and the price was right. If I really need high-res at some point it's not like it doesn't have a VGA-out. I'm not using it for anything beyond e-mail and light surfing at the moment, but then I just got it ten days ago; I'll probably do light word processing at some point. I care much less than if I'd invested tons of cash into something nicer and it takes a fall or otherwise gets rendered a paperweight. The biggest kicker was portability -- I'm a big fan of not checking bags when I travel, and this thing makes that considerably easier.
Specs.
...you're missing the point. "Why buy an Eee when I could get a normal, higher-powered 15" laptop for less?"
I own an Asus Eee, and it's a near-perfect little sub-kilo device. But if I had a kid in the 3-8 age group, I'd pounce on this OLPC deal so fast my keyboard would smoke. For the same price as the Eee I can get something way more kid-friendly AND support some third-world future 1337 h4ckz0r?! I can't think of a more noble place for my nerd-donation to go. But my altruism only extends so far. I prefer the Eee for my own use, so that's what I bought.
It can be done, just expect to pay easily $200 plus service contract for mere CDMA. On the other hand, that little module will fit right into the bottom of the EEE, so it'll be all kinds of clean. Add another $50 for a USB GPS dongle and you've got quite the little $550ish package.
That little Calculator ap. A cousin of mine, Craig Brockschmidt, wrote it and pretty much retired. His name dropped from the "About..." menu ca. Win3.1, but I can't tell that it's otherwise changed since then.
Imagine a FLEET of a couple dozen Galaxy-class crusing down the spaceways - maybe with some Draymans if you've really got some money - holds full of cargo, actual players manning the turrets, with eight or ten Centurions running escort.
Think about how sweet it would be to run your own trading post, along with a dozen of your online buddies, and get filthy stinkin' rich... but occasionally have to climb into a turret or Orion to defend your claim on the base.
If you really want to have some fun, go join the Church of Man and swarm the hell out of Confed patrols. Tough to get rich, but you sure will stay on your toes!
man. the possibilities were ENDLESS. :(
"mms:judgeballoonfacilityorgicevideo" ...crappy webcam link, indeed.