Some points of the article make great sense, in particular the familiarity most people have with the keyboard, and the "dialog" with the computer using the command line.
But one thing bothers me about the whole drawn out "Aunt Tillie" example, she walks up to the mailbox and uses a movement of the hand, to open the mailbox, she doesn't talk to it, or write a note.
Futhermore leaving the open letter on her kitchen table as a reminder to get to it later, is more akin to an open app on a (computer) desktop.
In my experience there are two kinds of novice computer users (newbies, if you will), those you don't "get it" and those that do.
Those that "do get it" will quickly understand that the "little blue 'e'" is not "THE INTERNET" and that they are free to change thier start page for that application (or choose another one altogether).
The author choose a bunch of (his words) "the more advanced members" and gave them a little instruction on the command line, to kill a little time, while he tried to catch up the dense. At best, it is just a good way to interest the "soon to become power users", while the rest of the class catches up.
I use the command line frequently, and am very comfortable telneting (and SSH) to Solaris and Linux servers, but I don't think that most newbies will benifit from the extensive command line instruction, they would need to be truely "productive" on a system.
Your not the only one who is thinking this, I loved this quote...
Pillinger [the British scientist in charge of the Beagle 2] also said he had received letters from dog owners informing him the choice of name for the probe was unfortunate.
"Beagles are notoriously difficult to control when let off the leash," he said.
"Perhaps Beagle 2 will surface when he is hungry."
Most OEMs get it massively discounted, for something like $1 per machine... threaten with making the OEM pay the normal $45 price
I don't know where this quy got his figures but...
The "normal" price for Windows XP Home is $199 and that's the price they threaten the OEMs with. Anyone who knows where to look can find an OEM copy for about $100. A quick check found this store selling it for $108 but if you read the fine print at the bottom you will notice the "catch"; to comply with thier OEM license they must ship it with "a non-peripheral hardware component". Any dealer is careful to include some kinda hardware (usually a small cable, left over from a white box build).
Really, when my wife had my son, the hospital went "out of thier way" to get our new baby business. If it is such a risky business, then the hospitals wouldn't be so willing to have maternity wards. Hell, I have seen TV ads saying "have your baby here!"
Compliance with Laws. User shall not use the "Web Site" in a manner contrary to, or in violation of any applicable federal, state, or local law, rule, or regulation, including without limitation the Fair Credit Reporting Act (15 U.S.C.A. 1681 et seq.). User certifies that it will not use any information obtained by it through the "Web Site" as a factor in establishing a consumer's eligibility for credit or insurance to be used primarily for personal, family, or household purposes, for employment purposes or for governmental licenses.
Very interesting clause for a site that lists litigious people. That's a great business model, piss off a bunch of people who a known to sue. I give them no more than 6 months. They claim that the records are from "public documents", but allow anyone with a credit card upload data. Maybe I could upload a bunch of fake info* (including false information on me) then sue them for repeating it (now that's a way to make profit on the internet!).
* kidding about my involvement, but I think that it will happen.
Looks like they missed the style sheet. I am sure that once it is all put together, it was a good looking site, with a fair amount of up-to-date content (at least then).
Just to add a little, I don't think that he was arrested for demanding money for the site, but for the domain name, which is currently printed on all the stationary and patrol cars...Now that I think about it what the county should have done is paid him the $300,000 and charged him $600,000 for "advertising" the site.
www.macombsheriff.com must be one busy site. no wonder he wanted $300,000 dollars. That link is down, so what did he have on the site, lets check. Just in case your wondering the sherrif's office is in Mt. Clemens, MI
Is it only me who first thinks of "how to game the system" when presented with a new technology ?
NO, thank god. Your question is serious and important. It's sad that in today's world people feel like they need disclaimers(*) all the time. Any homeowner or business manager should look at his property like a thief, and not be appolgitic when he suggests that to others.
* - Note that I am not trying to offend anyone, but am just trying to get my point across.
The real irony here is that my original input into this thread was a "you must be new here" response to someone questioning the costs associated with a Roomba/ tablet combo, I quessed that the person had purchased each of them separtly and didn't find either of them sufficently useful for him. That post recieved (at least at this time) two responses from Roomba owners (interesting none from tablet owners), the first of the two was basicly an insult, I responed with a list of my concerns (which this poster is responing to). Now I find myself responing to someone who makes the same point by point argument as the poster directly above him in the thread. He could have saved himself 20 minutes of typing by simply saying "me too".
I would respond to each of you points, but all of them were covered by a previous poster (which rightfully got a mod point). However, I will further extend on my comments to that post by saying; I some situations, perhaps many, and maybe even most, the Roomba could a useful helper. (in my opinion) It certainly can't (yet) completely replace a standard vacuum cleaner for anyone, just by the fact that a round unit will never clean a corner(unless you have a round room).
Included the post you are responding to was a misconception; I later found out from my mother that the little box that plugs in is just a beam you need to use to keep it from falling down steps. (which also adds to my previous posts wish list).
Sparks aside (not quite FLAMES, IMHO), you are somewhat correct, I have very limited experience with Roombas, and my only input has been from my mother. However I have found her to be a great judge on the usefullness of household appliances before. After speaking with her, I found that I was correct in that the Roomba was having problems with chairs, nit-knacks, and getting into "sitting areas" (groups of furniture in the middle of a large room). The funny thing is that it might work ok on the main floor of my townhouse, and under the beds (maybe I'll ask her for it), I'd still hang on to the old machine.
Finally an happy Roomba owner, willing to defend the capibilities of his unit with more than an one-lined insult, or a single "I'm happy" statement.
I suspect a Roomba may operate well in a room with all the furiniture placed against the wall with nothing in the middle that it couldn't go under. Also, getting arount plant stands, wine racks, assororted nit-kacks and square corners are outside of the capabilities of a machine about a foot in diameter(quess). I am interested in how it does with the chairs to that dining room table, or do you move them out of the way.
"what kind of behaviors do you want", The ability to know that it hasn't done the sitting area would be a good start, and I did think that it found it's own powere unit, but I realize that I was wrong, but that would be an execelent feature (either a map or some kind of homing beacon). A small deployable boom to get into corners would be a nice hardware addition. In fairness, my knowledge of the Roomba is limited to a couple of short converations with my mother. The comments about "a tripping hazard" and I really thought that it had some kind of "auto return" feature, but after a short conversation with her, I found that I was at least on her mark with regards to it's inability to get around well.
Regardless of it's limitations, I am certain that the first true domestic robot will be able to trace it's roots to the Roomba.
entire post quoted...
does she have a "real" roomba or an imitation/knockoff as seen on TV one... I'd bet the latter...
*Shrug*
e.
(entire "argument" quoted)
So, what, are you now resorting to "yor mama" jokes. The Roomba is crap, a toy, a conversational item, what it isn't is a useful household appliance. BTW, she does have a "real" Roomba (TM)
If you want to be useful, maybe you should tell me why I am wrong. Does the "real" Roomba(TM) emit a loud buzzing sound when someone comes too close, so that one will not trip over it. Does the "real" Roomba(TM) carefully trace around furniture legs. Does it "remember" to go around the couch. NO, it just bounces around, util it is about outta juice, and then homes in on the power. Another problem is that the unit has all the sucking power of a dustbuster.
Eventually this type of unit will become more intelligent and thus more useful, but for now they really don't suck (sucking being a vacuum's primary function).
The upfront economics do not make sense. If someone could elaborate.
You must be new here...
because it's cool. Many "hack" projects are created not to save money, but to do something orginal, or difficult. If you want to do your "roombot" a little cheaper with an old notebook, more power to you, it might even be a better hack.
I also doubt if he purchased the tablet with this application in mind. He probally just got "tired" of each of those toys. The Roomba, itself isn't all that practical. My Mother has one, and it doesn't suck well, is a tripping hazard when operating, and can't get dirt next to item (like couches, walls, etc.). Also, most people here seem to have little respect for the tablet as well.
I had a simuliar problem with 4 AA batteries, loose at the bottom, of my laptop case. They all lined up neatly in a side pocket. This got me flagged, they even showed me what it looks like. They were really professional about it and it only "cost" me 5 minutes and the two-inch mini screwdriver I also had in the bag (which was not flagged by the x-ray machine operator).
I would suggest that anyone carrying extra batteries for a personal device, put them into the change cup.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again...
What highjacked those planes was not box cutters, but fear, weak doors and historial compliance to anyone. The Heroes of Flight 93 showed what really happens in the "new reality".
At that point, the audience's sympathies are with him.
But that's what you were "conditioned" to think (by the movie). I for one, believe that that ass got what he deserved, after spending a lifetime preying on the innocent and the weak, he was forced to become the weakest of the weak, and couldn't even find solice in his music. Now that's Justice.
Personally, I believe that sex preditors should have their balls cut off. Of course, that kind of pushishment would take "overwelming" evidence, such a semen taken from the victim.
I've even seen pages that return one set of content if your user-agent is "Googlebot", and another, totally different content (dialer, etc) if your user-agent is anything else.
This is probally Google's biggest problem. What they need to do is make a second pass at specific pages in a site which has recently been crawled with a more typical USER-AGENT to see if there is significant differences. They whould have to hit every page. The second crawler could also check to see what is "visiable" to the user. When sites fail the second crawler, lower (or eliminate) their ranking. If the Secondary crawler has enough problems with a domain they can lower all of the rankings on it. If they have enough problems with an IP address (say over 35% of know domains)they can do the same for that address, ditto for subnets.
Basicly use automated "scammer checks" to see if a particular area of the web is less "reputable" and then rank that area (directory, domain, IP address, subnet, netblock) lower. These scammer checks may change based on the flavor of the month.
"The acute threat of lead poisoning keeps (soldiers) from wanting to eat."
Really, I see some of this work as a boon for the weight-loss industry. A lot of the talk is about supression of hunger and changing how the cell use "fuel".
In my old hometown, a beach resort, there is one road leading to the "suburbs" and several bottlenecks, state and city cops would often set up road blocks and catch drunk drivers by the scores. I had worked in the restaurant/bar industry there and many of the "lifers" I knew there had at least one DUI.
Personally, I can't wait until cars are able to drive themselves. I believe that is the only real answer for the drunk driving problem. Of course for now the only solution is catching the offending drinkers.
As Traffic cameras become more ubiquitous, I think that the next step is to use them to "watch" for weaving or aggressive drivers, and use that to dispatch investigating officers.
Just check out the auto parts store, I have seen convex mirrors there. I've always thought that they "look a little junky", but you might not be so inclined.
I hate spam, but I hate the idea that important speech could be stifled by the use of badly considered spam 'solutions'.
I have never had, nor have I ever heard of anything important being "dropped" into my mailbox anonymously. Besides this wouldn't even stop anonymous emails, it would just make it easy to filter. If you don't want to use the filter, you may exercise your Freedom to choose. I would choose only to recieve mail from people and companies who are willing to "put up, or shut up!"
First, imagine putting face-recognition software in the surveillance drones. No reason not to. Then imagine that the drones pick out public-enemy-of-the-day and send a blip back to their controllers, but Mr. Baddy is gone before the humans can react, get permission to fire, and so on.
Second imagine someone who looks "just like" Bin Laden, or Bin Laden sitting with a bunch of school children. (imagining the headline)"Today the U.S. Robot Army killed Bin Laden and fifty pre-schoolers"
Facial recognition tech will (eventually) work well, but is useless against "random" ememy fighters. Perhaps if we were willing to employ a "acorched earth" policy (don't leave anything living) drones could be with out human controlers, but that is not political feasable (and a big step past any reasonable person's morals to boot).
Slashdot Mirror
In my experience there are two kinds of novice computer users (newbies, if you will), those you don't "get it" and those that do. Those that "do get it" will quickly understand that the "little blue 'e'" is not "THE INTERNET" and that they are free to change thier start page for that application (or choose another one altogether). The author choose a bunch of (his words) "the more advanced members" and gave them a little instruction on the command line, to kill a little time, while he tried to catch up the dense. At best, it is just a good way to interest the "soon to become power users", while the rest of the class catches up.
I use the command line frequently, and am very comfortable telneting (and SSH) to Solaris and Linux servers, but I don't think that most newbies will benifit from the extensive command line instruction, they would need to be truely "productive" on a system.
The "normal" price for Windows XP Home is $199 and that's the price they threaten the OEMs with. Anyone who knows where to look can find an OEM copy for about $100. A quick check found this store selling it for $108 but if you read the fine print at the bottom you will notice the "catch"; to comply with thier OEM license they must ship it with "a non-peripheral hardware component". Any dealer is careful to include some kinda hardware (usually a small cable, left over from a white box build).
01101010001100000011000000100000001101110011001101 01000001000000011010101110101010110000011000001010 10011010010011010100110111001000000110110100110000 01100110001100002
Really, when my wife had my son, the hospital went "out of thier way" to get our new baby business. If it is such a risky business, then the hospitals wouldn't be so willing to have maternity wards. Hell, I have seen TV ads saying "have your baby here!"
Very interesting clause for a site that lists litigious people. That's a great business model, piss off a bunch of people who a known to sue. I give them no more than 6 months. They claim that the records are from "public documents", but allow anyone with a credit card upload data. Maybe I could upload a bunch of fake info* (including false information on me) then sue them for repeating it (now that's a way to make profit on the internet!).
* kidding about my involvement, but I think that it will happen.
Part of the ruling in her favor was because she did not try to do that. To offer to do that now whould set her up for a lawsuit.
Just to add a little, I don't think that he was arrested for demanding money for the site, but for the domain name, which is currently printed on all the stationary and patrol cars...Now that I think about it what the county should have done is paid him the $300,000 and charged him $600,000 for "advertising" the site.
"...a paycheck in everybody's pocket, and a fusion reator in every home!"
I would respond to each of you points, but all of them were covered by a previous poster (which rightfully got a mod point). However, I will further extend on my comments to that post by saying; I some situations, perhaps many, and maybe even most, the Roomba could a useful helper. (in my opinion) It certainly can't (yet) completely replace a standard vacuum cleaner for anyone, just by the fact that a round unit will never clean a corner(unless you have a round room).
Included the post you are responding to was a misconception; I later found out from my mother that the little box that plugs in is just a beam you need to use to keep it from falling down steps. (which also adds to my previous posts wish list).
Sparks aside (not quite FLAMES, IMHO), you are somewhat correct, I have very limited experience with Roombas, and my only input has been from my mother. However I have found her to be a great judge on the usefullness of household appliances before. After speaking with her, I found that I was correct in that the Roomba was having problems with chairs, nit-knacks, and getting into "sitting areas" (groups of furniture in the middle of a large room). The funny thing is that it might work ok on the main floor of my townhouse, and under the beds (maybe I'll ask her for it), I'd still hang on to the old machine.
I suspect a Roomba may operate well in a room with all the furiniture placed against the wall with nothing in the middle that it couldn't go under. Also, getting arount plant stands, wine racks, assororted nit-kacks and square corners are outside of the capabilities of a machine about a foot in diameter(quess). I am interested in how it does with the chairs to that dining room table, or do you move them out of the way.
"what kind of behaviors do you want", The ability to know that it hasn't done the sitting area would be a good start, and I did think that it found it's own powere unit, but I realize that I was wrong, but that would be an execelent feature (either a map or some kind of homing beacon). A small deployable boom to get into corners would be a nice hardware addition. In fairness, my knowledge of the Roomba is limited to a couple of short converations with my mother. The comments about "a tripping hazard" and I really thought that it had some kind of "auto return" feature, but after a short conversation with her, I found that I was at least on her mark with regards to it's inability to get around well.
Regardless of it's limitations, I am certain that the first true domestic robot will be able to trace it's roots to the Roomba.
because it's cool. Many "hack" projects are created not to save money, but to do something orginal, or difficult. If you want to do your "roombot" a little cheaper with an old notebook, more power to you, it might even be a better hack.
I also doubt if he purchased the tablet with this application in mind. He probally just got "tired" of each of those toys. The Roomba, itself isn't all that practical. My Mother has one, and it doesn't suck well, is a tripping hazard when operating, and can't get dirt next to item (like couches, walls, etc.). Also, most people here seem to have little respect for the tablet as well.
I would suggest that anyone carrying extra batteries for a personal device, put them into the change cup.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again...
What highjacked those planes was not box cutters, but fear, weak doors and historial compliance to anyone. The Heroes of Flight 93 showed what really happens in the "new reality".
Personally, I believe that sex preditors should have their balls cut off. Of course, that kind of pushishment would take "overwelming" evidence, such a semen taken from the victim.
The second crawler would not have to hit every page.
Basicly use automated "scammer checks" to see if a particular area of the web is less "reputable" and then rank that area (directory, domain, IP address, subnet, netblock) lower. These scammer checks may change based on the flavor of the month.
In my old hometown, a beach resort, there is one road leading to the "suburbs" and several bottlenecks, state and city cops would often set up road blocks and catch drunk drivers by the scores. I had worked in the restaurant/bar industry there and many of the "lifers" I knew there had at least one DUI.
Personally, I can't wait until cars are able to drive themselves. I believe that is the only real answer for the drunk driving problem. Of course for now the only solution is catching the offending drinkers.
As Traffic cameras become more ubiquitous, I think that the next step is to use them to "watch" for weaving or aggressive drivers, and use that to dispatch investigating officers.
Just check out the auto parts store, I have seen convex mirrors there. I've always thought that they "look a little junky", but you might not be so inclined.
Second imagine someone who looks "just like" Bin Laden, or Bin Laden sitting with a bunch of school children. (imagining the headline)"Today the U.S. Robot Army killed Bin Laden and fifty pre-schoolers"
Facial recognition tech will (eventually) work well, but is useless against "random" ememy fighters. Perhaps if we were willing to employ a "acorched earth" policy (don't leave anything living) drones could be with out human controlers, but that is not political feasable (and a big step past any reasonable person's morals to boot).