Nope. My wife's laptop came with xp home on it -- talks to my linux/bsd network just fine using tcp/ip. I don't think there would be any way they could remove tcp/ip support -- it would make the OS completely unusable, even for a home user.
Great idea -- and I'd love to see it implemented. In fact, it's probably the most creative solution to this whole problem I've ever seen. Now -- here's why it won't work: MS works through licensing agreements with OEMs. So, what would happen to the OEM who does this? The next time their license comes up to be renewed, MS simply says: "Oh -- we're not going to license to you anymore." And the distributor goes out of business, and there's nothing any court in the country has been able to do about it. This is the behaviour that the government needs to stop -- this is the way they drove BE out of business. There was an OEM -- maybe HP, I don't remember for sure, that shipped BE on another partition on their machines. MS basically told them to stop shipping it -- they knuckled under immediately, because they knew if MS decided they couldn't ship computers with windows on them they'd be finished. That's the kind of power that only a MONOPOLY has -- and it's why we have anti-trust laws.
One more thing -- I'm not a programmer, I'm a military technician. In some ways, my job is more like a Surgeon's job than a "coder." And, yes -- I am a professional, and yes, I do get the job done. Regardless of time, day or night, whether I've been up for 18 hours or 3, whether I got a good night's sleep the night before, whether I have nice music to listen to, etc... you get the point. But... if I've gotten that good night's sleep, if I've had the time to relax, think through the problem(sometimes not an option -- tactical situations don't have a lot of room for downed equipment), I'll have a much better response to the problem, and I'll be better able to come up with the most expedient solution to get the equipment operational again. The point wasn't being a professional -- the point was how your environment affects your productivity.
There have been studies recently regarding the loss of sleep and how it affects surgeons and ER doctors in the performance of their duties. So when you say that "professionals find a way to just do it" maybe they "just do it" and people die.
A surgeon does a completely different job than a programmer. Even in conditions such as air traffic control and nuke power plant control, the situation is completely different. A surgeon can't always call on a second, and third, and fourth opinion -- he's got to make life and death decisions, right now, immediately. Sometimes they make the wrong decisions -- it happens -- and I'd be willing to bet they have some days and times when they make better decisions than others.
The point was that it is the norm for people to get their license at an early, hence irresponsible, age in the US. That said, the UK is weird in their rules/laws compared to the rest of europe -- I thought we were talking about Spain. I know I heard on the radio yesterday that in Germany the test is extremely difficult -- something like 80% fail the first time -- and they're only allowed to take it after they're 18. In the US, anybody can get one -- you can be legally blind, as long as you can get glasses that let you see a little bit and you can parallel park, you get a license.
I guess I'll take the bait on the gun issue -- guns cause death the same way many medicines can. Did you know that almost all medicines are poison? They work because they're poison, and they have the potential to cause death. And yet, no one would say that we should ban medicine. A gun, in the same way, works to dissuade crime because it is a deadly weapon in the hands of a law-abiding citizen. Look at Florida's murder statistics in the years since they legalized concealed carry. Look at any of the 25 (I think) states that have legalized concealed carry. But that's not even the main reason that we don't outlaw guns. We don't outlaw guns because our RIGHT to keep and bear arms is enshrined in our Constitution because our founding fathers saw that as the ultimate, final protection against dictatorship. There are many checks and balances built into our system of government -- an armed populace is the last one. I don't expect you to understand or agree with this one -- after all, we were fighting to remove ourselves from a british dictatorship (that's what king george was, like it or not). As a result, I would expect that your poulation would have been taught to believe that an armed people is a bad thing. I don't.
(It's a pity your law makers don't have the same attitude towards guns...)
No -- It's a pity you don't bother to research before posting. 21 is the legal age for ownership of a handgun in the US (this is federal law), which is what most of you rabid-anti-gunners are most afraid of.
The statement that more people drive cars in the US than in Spain is true if generalized to Europe. I've been to Europe, Asia, and the Middle East -- There are a lot of cars on the roads, but the vast majority of people travel via public transportation. Also, if I remember correctly a driver's license in Europe is very difficult to get and only available to age 18 and over. I think the original poster probably has a more accurate world view than you may understand -- maybe you don't understand the US. Over here, EVERYONE gets a car/driver's license when they turn 16 (well -- except maybe in new york). In my home state, the legal age to get a learner's permit is 14! Most families with teenage kids have a car for everyone in the family over the age of 15. The statement that limiting kids' access to alcohol due to their inherent irresponsibility is accurate -- most accidents in the US today are caused by kids between the ages of 16 and 20 -- add alcohol to that mix (like they don't drink anyway!) and you have a recipe for an even worse disaster.
Re:Saw something similar about EULAs in general
on
GPL's Strength
·
· Score: 1
How in the heck does something with a copy-cat goatse.cx link in it get modded +5 insightful????
Core memory is still used in some military applications -- some of the computers I worked on last year had it. Actually works pretty well -- never had a problem with it. But sometimes the programs would get to where they had to be unloaded and the memory had to be cleared and reloaded. It didn't help then, and I'm sure this memory would have the same problem.
I collect arcade games. Arcade games and pinball machines. Like many people that do this, I also have a dedicated game room. For quite a while, I had a computer in the gameroom that was filled with MP3's. The problem was, my non computer friends always had trouble selecting songs, creating songlists, deleting songlists, etc. I don't know how many times I had to clear songlists before a party, or how many hours I have spent at a party just showing people how to use the thing. Basically, I got tired of doing this.
While working on a MAME cabinet (which isn't yet finished, and I'll post here when it is), inspiration struck. I could build an MP3 jukebox for my gameroom. Something that was as easy to control as an arcade game, and had all of the features I needed to simply play music.
I started out with the intention of writing my own MP3 player. I got so far as to have an actual player written, and only needed to work on the interface and songlist abilities. While surfing the net for inspiration on my interface, I stumbled onto a program that was written specifically for a MAME machine by Mark Schwartz. In fact, the program was even named Arcade Jukebox . Mark apparently went through the same frustration I went through, and wrote a program himself. It was exactly what I was working on, so my development stopped after I tested his software out and found it to be exactly what I needed. His program gives the look and feel of an old-time jukebox while providing only the necessary features for such an application. Simple, and perfect. Step one completed!
The next step was to find an arcade cabinet that I could dedicate to a jukebox. I wasn't interested in sharing it with my MAME cabinet, as it was to be my main source of music for my gameroom, and therefore would be constantly accessed throughout any given night.
I was originally going to use a full sized, regular arcade game cabinet. I had a couple in the garage that weren't doing anything. Unfortunately, when you collect arcade games and pinball machines, you find space to be your largest restriction. I could easily fit another regular sized arcade machine in my gameroom, but I didn't want to waste so much space for a simple jukebox. So, I decided I would use a mini-cabinet. Unfortunately, my search for a mini-cabinet was difficult. I couldn't find one in my area to save my life! Then, one day, a fellow collector alerted me to an ad in the paper. There was a guy nearby that had 4 mini-cabinets for sale, $25 each! I visited him and found that his cabinets weren't quite the standard mini-cabinet size. His cabinets were, in fact, a medium size. They took up the same footprint as a mini-cabinet, but were much taller. I bought two of them. (I later bought a larger machine from him and got the other two for free!) Step two completed.
I already had a computer to use for this project. The one that noone could figure out how to use. Before putting it into place, however, I upgraded it a little. It is an Athlon 1.2Ghz machine, 128 Megs ram, and a 20 gig harddrive. Step three completed!
Time to start working on the thing. I removed the coindoor, and contemplated reusing it later, but decided against it as the hole it created was perfect for internal speakers.
I filled all the holes that I could find on the cabinet with wood filler, and sanded those repairs down. I didn't like the dark woodgrain of the cabinet and explored various ways to replace it. I settled on contac paper. Yes, the stuff you line shelves and kitchen drawers with. I found a couple rolls of a nice pine grain at the local hardware store, and painstakingly cut sheets to fit the cabinet. Wherever sheets would overlap each other, I didn't want lines to be visible. My solution was to cut the paper along the 'grain' whenever it overlapped. This masks the overlaps much better than I ever expected. I have to point out the overlaps in most places. Step four completed!
I removed the existing monitor from the cabinet as computers don't like arcade monitor refresh rates. I could have made it work, but didn't want to go through the special wiring I would have to construct, and finding just the right video card that would output the correct refresh rates. So, instead, I bought an Eygo 19" VGA arcade monitor. I bought this from eBay, and haven't seen any more available anywhere else in that size. What this monitor meant was that I could slip it right into the jukebox without any modification, and attach my computer to it. I was limited to 640x480, but that was ok as I was only running the jukebox program. Step five completed!
Along the edges of the cabinet is something called t-molding. This stuff is purely decorative, and isn't necessary. I could have papered over it, or wood filled and painted it, but I chose to simply replace the t-molding with new t-molding. One problem with this. t-molding has teeth that grip the wood, and keep it from slipping out of place. When I removed the t-molding, the slot that it inserted into became wider as it pulled some of the old wood out with it. The new t-molding I got wouldn't fit right. Luckily, I had heard of this problem before and knew exactly what to do. I broke out my trusty hot glue gun and started gluing the t-molding into place. This worked really well, although, I may never be able to remove the t-molding again! Step six completed!
I needed a marquee for the top of the machine, to tell people what it was. This was going to be difficult, i suspected, but it really wasn't. I was tempted to print up my own marquee on transparencies, but figured that when I printed black, light would shine through too much and look washed out. Screen printing wasn't an option as it was quite costly. I found a place called Photo Arts nearby which used a very large HP plotter to print with specialized UV resistant ink. The black was solid. That was important. They could also print it in one piece, which was another plus. On top of all that, I was able to supply my own artwork to them, so I didn't have to pay any design charges! The total cost for this was $28 for two of them. I bought a piece of plexiglass at my local hardware store and had them cut it to the correct size. I mounted the marquee behind the plexi, and put it into place. The light was already in the cabinet, and worked, so didn't need to be replaced. Worked like a charm. Step seven completed!
Next step was to get the controls. I used a 4-way joystick and 4 buttons from Happ Controls . I already had these items in my inventory (I collect and fix these games, so I have a lot of this stuff laying around.) I installed the joystick and 4 buttons into the control panel. Step eight completed!
Ok, everything is ready. All I need now is a way to tie it all together. That is where a device called the i-Pac came in. This is a very well designed device that allows me to hook up arcade joysticks and buttons, and program them to work as regular keypresses. It connects to the standard keyboard port, and allows me to connect a keyboard as it has a passthrough port, but a keyboard isn't needed once it is programmed. Programming the thing is a very easy process with the programming software included with the device. The device itself is printed with wiring instructions, and connecting it all together is VERY simple. Don't be intimidated by the wiring. You don't even have to do any soldering! Just crimp on some connectors to slip onto the joystick/buttons, and at the other end, they just screw right into the i-Pac using a screwdown type wiring block. It really couldn't be much easier. And since I don't need a mouse, this solution works perfectly. If I did, however, need a mouse, I could use an arcade trackball and an optipacdevice from the same company. Step nine done!
I used a 5 piece set of Altec Lansing speakers as my speaker system. There are two satellite speakers, two surround speakers and a subwoofer. Believe it or not, they sound GREAT. The subwoofer sits on the floor of the cabinet. The two satellites are run up the cabinet and are visible hanging above the monitor area. The volume control is on the right speaker. The two surround speakers are in front of that big hole that the coin door created, sitting on top of the computer case. All of the speakers are held into place using double sided tape, and thus far, no movement has occurred, except for the internal speakers as I have reached in many times playing and tweaking the unit. I didn't want that big hole there, so I bought a large picture frame and covered it with speaker grille fabric I found at Radio Shack. I screwed the frame into place from behind so no screws are visible from the outside. Step ten done!
I also wanted to be able to connect this to my home network to easily add songs, and use it as a music server if I ever chose to. So, I made a cat 5 cable with an RJ45 connector on one end, and a port on the other. I mounted a 4 slotted plate to the back of the cabinet, and put the port into place. This extended the network port to the outside of the cabinet, and allows me to connect it to my network. I also wanted to be able to connect it to an external stereo system, so I used a 'Y' adapter for the speakers. The speakers connect to one side of the 'Y', while the other side goes right into one of the four slots. This allows me to connect the cabinet to an external stereo if I choose to at a later date. Or, I can transmit the sound, wirelessly, to my stereo in the house. I also ran the MIC jack to the outside, too. Not sure why yet, though I could use it as an input at some point for another audio device if I needed to. Step 11 completed!
I also purchased a really cool power strip (sorry, I don't have the URL) that when it senses power on one plug, it powers the other plugs. This was good because I plug everything into the other plugs, and the computer into the power sensing plug. I then ran a pair of wires from the POWER pins on my motherboard to a momentary switch mounted on the top of the cabinet. One press and everything comes on.
All that was needed now was to set up the software, which was as simple as editing an ini file, and put the thing in the startup group. I am using Windows 98 for this machine as I don't need anything more than that. After that, I used a different contac paper to define the control panel, and printed up an instruction sheet.
To control the player, you move the joystick up/down/left/right. This will highlight the next song in the list, or move to the right side (as the list is displayed in two columns.) Button one queues a song, button 2 removes the currently playing song, button 3 removes all songs from the queue, and button 4 has a dual purpose. Pressing it alone will go down the list to the next letter in alphabetical order, and pressing it up while holding the joystick UP will move up the next letter in the list alphabetically. People have been able to use this thing rather easily with very little instruction from me. This has allowed me to drink more beer at my parties. Now you understand the need.:) As an added bonus, I can play many MAME games on it, though I only installed mostly classics which require less than 4 buttons.
Overall, this was an easier project than I expected it to be, and I recommend it to anyone that wants to try it out. It isn't terribly expensive, except for the computer. You can easily use a regular computer monitor if you wanted to.. I just wanted it to be more authentic.
Feel free to post any questions and I'll be happy to help out!
Below are a few pictures. Before and after shots of the cabinet, and a shot of the inside looking down from the front. It's pretty packed in there. The whole front lifts up to allow easy access to the inside, as well as the back comes off of the cabinet.
You're seriously misreading the link from the canadian treasury board -- it says that the system is required to deliver a 5% Halon concentration into the space within 10 seconds of the time the system is actuated -- in the same sentence it says it must continue to deliver this solution for 10 minutes to completely flood the space. I'm not a chemistry expert -- but I think if you do the math you'll find that there won't be much usable oxygen left in the room within about 2 minutes.
The EPA Link: Absolutely correct -- the atmosphere in the space to be extinguished must be about 34% CO2 -- but this doesn't really address the issue -- I never said CO2 was better than Halon -- it's not.
As for your army.mil link -- that's actually a shipboard firefighting manual -- funny that you would post that link, considering the fact that I've been on one of the fire teams on an aircraft carrier for five years. So -- I'm going to reprint in it's entirety the boldfaced warning that is immediately below the sentence you rippped out of context from it:
WARNING
HALON 1301 MAY CAUSE DIZZINESS AND IMPAIRED COORDINATION IF INHALED. IF HALON 1301 IS TO BE USED FOR THE TOTAL FLOODING OF NORMALLY OCCUPIED SPACES, AN EVACUATION ALARM MUST BE PROVIDED. PERSONNEL SHOULD LEAVE THE AREA PROMPTLY ON HEARING THE ALARM. WHEN A HALON 1301 EXTINGUISHER IS USED, THOSE NOT DIRECTLY INVOLVED IN THE OPERATION SHOULD LEAVE THE AREA IMMEDIATELY. THE EXTINGUISHER OPERATOR SHOULD STEP AWAY AS SOON AS THE APPLIANCE IS DISCHARGED. THE AREA SHOULD BE VENTED WITH FRESH AIR BEFORE IT IS REENTERED. IF IT IS NECESSARY TO REMAIN IN OR ENTER AN AREA WHERE HALON 1301 HAS BEEN DISCHARGED, A BREATHING APPARATUS AND LIFELINES SHOULD BE USED. THE ONLY VALID REASON FOR SUCH ENTRY WOULD BE TO SAVE A LIFE OR TO MAINTAIN CONTROL OF THE SHIP.
Does this sound like the Navy thinks this is a harmless gas??? I didn't think so -- I know that's not how they trained me anyway.
Your next link up -- the one from CDC.gov -- maybe you didn't know this, but "inhibiting the chemical reaction between fuel and oxygen" is another word for smothering. Exactly as I said.
Your next link -- fireturnkey.com -- is a bunch of marketing drivel. They're trying to sell you the system, so I don't really trust much of what they have to say -- especially when it goes against most of what I've learned.
Your first link -- from bnl.gov, is regarding a specific system. It's addressing an electrical fire, not a fuel fire, which is the context that this discussion started under. Perhaps a 7% concentration of Halon wouldn't be dangerous -- I don't think Halon is specifically poisonous by itself -- but that doesn't address the fact that above 15% concentration it is hazardous (that's according to your link).
I assume you thought I wasn't going to read the links you posted, or maybe I really was just talking to hear myself talk, but I'm not... All you proved was that you can rip statements out of context and that you really don't know what you're talking about. Maybe you should read your links next time instead of just cutting and pasting from your google window.... some of us actually have practical experience with this stuff.
BS. Water alone will NOT put out a kerosene fire. EVER. I've been through Navy boot camp... I've also been on a fire team on an aircraft carrier for the last five years. Jet fuel is put out using foam, period. You never, ever, EVER put straight water on a jet fuel fire, as the only thing you will succeed in doing is spreading the fire all over the ship and probably killing yourself and a whole bunch of other people in the process. Also, the LAST thing you want to do in a kerosene fire is put water on it and generate steam. Many more people die from steam burns than from the actual fire -- 212 degrees on enough of your body will kill you so quickly you won't have time to wonder how badly you F/d up...
Halon will kill you very quickly -- it's a common myth that it only "reacts to the free radicals" etc... The way Halon puts out a fire, quite simply, is to smother it -- in the process anyone inside will suffocate as the atmosphere will no longer sustain life (speaking as one who is trained to fight fires including the use of installed Halon systems). For Halon to work properly the space has to be sealed to the outside -- if the Halon blows away or is ventilated, oxygen is resupplied to the fire and it will almost instantly reflash(in the case of a petroleum based fire, anyway). Then there's the issue of the toxic byproducts --if you don't suffocate, they will kill you. Every Halon system I've seen has a mandatory time delay, coupled with klaxon horns, flashing red lights, etc... The time delay is based on the time necessary to get people out of the spaces and get the spaces sealed airtight BEFORE the Halon discharges. Also, this doesn't even address the issue of cost -- Halon is HORRENDOUSLY expensive -- to use it in a building the size of the world trade centers would simply be so cost prohibitive it couldn't be done.
"Complete MS Office 2000/XP compatibility" is a bit of a stretch -- but I'd have to agree that it's the most compatible product available. Also, OO does not include the database program. That's the main diff between it and SO, if I recall correctly. I believe you're correct that the source for SO 6.0 isn't going to be released. Neither the source for 5.2 or the source for Open Office, or the source for 6.0 has ever been solely released under the GPL. The source for Open office is "dual licensed" whatever that means, under the GPL AND the Sun SISSL. IANAL -- therefore I won't comment on this strategy, but you can read up on it at Openoffice.org under their main faq. SO 5.2 is available under the Sun Binary code license -- again, I don't know much about it either. And I would assume that 6.0 will be released under the same license. Anyone who knows about these licenses care to comment?
It's been common knowledge for at least the last six months that SO 6.0 was not going to be free. The price point that Sun picked is VERY reasonable, given what ms charges for their office suite. Also, Sun has supported OpenOffice as a free alternative to SO for those of us that can't afford the 100 dollars or so that SO is going to cost.
You were a lawyer and you enlisted in the Marines?? Now don't get me wrong -- if you really did, more power to you... But, I seriously doubt any recruiter would want you to enlist -- they'd at least try to get you to become an officer.
For polygraphs... I think you should do a bit more research -- cheating doesn't necessarily mean beating the whole test, all you have to do is skew the results enough that it's inconclusive. And that's not as hard as you may think.
No -- I'm not. BUT... that was my point. it makes life easier for me, I'm sure that it will for others as well. And just think what a boon it will be for tech support people. "hi, I installed the pirated cd of whatever that I got from my friend, and now my system doesn't work!! what do I do??" Tech: system restore.... five minutes and he's done, has them off the phone and goes on to other calls...
NT 4 could hardly be called stable... only by comparing it to windows 98, maybe. I ran NT 4 for years and saw the good old bsod way too frequently. 2000, now... that's a stable operating system. And from what I've seen of XP(running it since RC1) I'm quite impressed. I've only been able to get it to bsod once -- and my box runs for weeks at a time with no lockups. I only reboot to update drivers now, as opposed to rebooting every day with NT 4.
I'll say right now that I've used it several times already... there have been numerous driver problems in the rc's and even the final now, and it doesn't seem like there's a good way to get the old drivers completely uninstalled. System Restore works like a CHARM! I don't know how I ever lived without it now... of course, I do with linux... but that's another story...
I just got through reading the Onion's commentary, and what scares me the most about this whole situation is that if I hadn't known the source I would have thought it was a factual news report. I realize these people don't necessarily support exactly what it says -- but the ideas expressed are pretty close to being a true representation of what our elected officials seem to believe.
NTFS read has been supported for as long as I can remember -- write is definitely NOT supported though. I screwed up a whole partition trying it once (fortunately had good backups)...
I think that you prehaps have some of
your facts screwed up about Pearl Harbor. It is a common
misconception that the president knew all about what was going to
happen and let it happen to stimulate the economy, drag us into the
war, etc...
There are several theories about what
happened that day - I don't think anyone will know for sure, but
these links should clear up a little of it.
Theory
one(it's about halfway down the page) - (history place.com):
We broke the code in time to prevent the attack, but then we sent
the information by commercial telegraph. Something we need to
remember is that the president couldn't just pick up the phone and
call Pearl Harbor at the time - there were very few means of
communication with the mainland. According the the link, we had lost
radio contact with Pearl Harbor at the time, and this delayed the
message until about noon Hawaii time -- approximately four hours
after the attack had begun.
Theory Two: (ukans.edu)
Stephen Budiansky is a historian who's written a book on code-breaking in WWII - his theory is quite simply, we couldn't read the codes. The japanese had evidently been changing their codes quite frequently - or at least frequently enough the confuse our code-breakers. I'll leave a further explanation to reading the link - it sounds to me like he's saying the Navy really didn't decode the relevant messages until 1946, almost five years after the attack.
The main thing we have to remember here is that communications at the beginning of WWII were really bad. Nowdays we have ways to get messages and information across the globe in seconds - it's very easy to forget the fact that if a coded message was broken in the evening in Washington, in 1941 there was literally a very good chance it would not get to Hawaii by the following morning. This makes the most sense to me as an explanation for what happened - not saying the president and all his generals and code-breakers knew about this far enough in advance to prevent it and all conspired together to keep the base commander in Pearl from knowing.
There is a slightly more sinister idea that makes more sense to me than saying the president knew all about it. The code-breakers may well have known - as I mentioned earlier, there's some dissension on that point. The code-breaking community in the military is EXTREMELY secretive. There could very well have been an admiral or captain(I believe it was the navy running it at the time) who was told and simply decided not to pass the information on. In that case, he would have had to make a decision based on, first of all, how likely he thought it was that the information was accurate, and secondly, on how badly it would affect his intelligence gathering capabilities in the future for the japanese to find out that we knew about the attack in advance. That's the biggest problem with intelligence - frequently, when you use it, you compromise its source, and then you have to start all over again, either breaking a code, or compromising a foreign agent, etc... so it's a tough call for someone in that position - one I would never want to have to face.
The sabbath is a Jewish holiday which is observed from sundown friday evening to sundown saturday evening. The Christian Sunday is not related in any way to the sabbath other than the fact that it was specifically picked to be on a different day so as not to be confused with it. There is no prohibition in Christianity against waging war or working on Sunday -- there are only a few pacifist groups who would agree with you, and they would say all war is evil, regardless of what day it takes place on. The president (and his generals and admirals) probably picked today because it was the day that they had all the information they needed to start doing this -- not because of some religious significance. Also the time may have been picked to coincide with a time when fewer civilians would be killed -- I think we're being as careful as possible in this regard.
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Nope. My wife's laptop came with xp home on it -- talks to my linux/bsd network just fine using tcp/ip. I don't think there would be any way they could remove tcp/ip support -- it would make the OS completely unusable, even for a home user.
Great idea -- and I'd love to see it implemented. In fact, it's probably the most creative solution to this whole problem I've ever seen. Now -- here's why it won't work: MS works through licensing agreements with OEMs. So, what would happen to the OEM who does this? The next time their license comes up to be renewed, MS simply says: "Oh -- we're not going to license to you anymore." And the distributor goes out of business, and there's nothing any court in the country has been able to do about it. This is the behaviour that the government needs to stop -- this is the way they drove BE out of business. There was an OEM -- maybe HP, I don't remember for sure, that shipped BE on another partition on their machines. MS basically told them to stop shipping it -- they knuckled under immediately, because they knew if MS decided they couldn't ship computers with windows on them they'd be finished. That's the kind of power that only a MONOPOLY has -- and it's why we have anti-trust laws.
One more thing -- I'm not a programmer, I'm a military technician. In some ways, my job is more like a Surgeon's job than a "coder." And, yes -- I am a professional, and yes, I do get the job done. Regardless of time, day or night, whether I've been up for 18 hours or 3, whether I got a good night's sleep the night before, whether I have nice music to listen to, etc... you get the point. But... if I've gotten that good night's sleep, if I've had the time to relax, think through the problem(sometimes not an option -- tactical situations don't have a lot of room for downed equipment), I'll have a much better response to the problem, and I'll be better able to come up with the most expedient solution to get the equipment operational again. The point wasn't being a professional -- the point was how your environment affects your productivity.
Surgeons do make mistakes... so do programmers
What do you want to put down on which is worse?
There have been studies recently regarding the loss of sleep and how it affects surgeons and ER doctors in the performance of their duties. So when you say that "professionals find a way to just do it" maybe they "just do it" and people die.
A surgeon does a completely different job than a programmer. Even in conditions such as air traffic control and nuke power plant control, the situation is completely different. A surgeon can't always call on a second, and third, and fourth opinion -- he's got to make life and death decisions, right now, immediately. Sometimes they make the wrong decisions -- it happens -- and I'd be willing to bet they have some days and times when they make better decisions than others.
The point was that it is the norm for people to get their license at an early, hence irresponsible, age in the US. That said, the UK is weird in their rules/laws compared to the rest of europe -- I thought we were talking about Spain. I know I heard on the radio yesterday that in Germany the test is extremely difficult -- something like 80% fail the first time -- and they're only allowed to take it after they're 18. In the US, anybody can get one -- you can be legally blind, as long as you can get glasses that let you see a little bit and you can parallel park, you get a license.
I guess I'll take the bait on the gun issue -- guns cause death the same way many medicines can. Did you know that almost all medicines are poison? They work because they're poison, and they have the potential to cause death. And yet, no one would say that we should ban medicine. A gun, in the same way, works to dissuade crime because it is a deadly weapon in the hands of a law-abiding citizen. Look at Florida's murder statistics in the years since they legalized concealed carry. Look at any of the 25 (I think) states that have legalized concealed carry. But that's not even the main reason that we don't outlaw guns. We don't outlaw guns because our RIGHT to keep and bear arms is enshrined in our Constitution because our founding fathers saw that as the ultimate, final protection against dictatorship. There are many checks and balances built into our system of government -- an armed populace is the last one. I don't expect you to understand or agree with this one -- after all, we were fighting to remove ourselves from a british dictatorship (that's what king george was, like it or not). As a result, I would expect that your poulation would have been taught to believe that an armed people is a bad thing. I don't.
(It's a pity your law makers don't have the same attitude towards guns...)
No -- It's a pity you don't bother to research before posting. 21 is the legal age for ownership of a handgun in the US (this is federal law), which is what most of you rabid-anti-gunners are most afraid of.
The statement that more people drive cars in the US than in Spain is true if generalized to Europe. I've been to Europe, Asia, and the Middle East -- There are a lot of cars on the roads, but the vast majority of people travel via public transportation. Also, if I remember correctly a driver's license in Europe is very difficult to get and only available to age 18 and over.
I think the original poster probably has a more accurate world view than you may understand -- maybe you don't understand the US. Over here, EVERYONE gets a car/driver's license when they turn 16 (well -- except maybe in new york). In my home state, the legal age to get a learner's permit is 14! Most families with teenage kids have a car for everyone in the family over the age of 15. The statement that limiting kids' access to alcohol due to their inherent irresponsibility is accurate -- most accidents in the US today are caused by kids between the ages of 16 and 20 -- add alcohol to that mix (like they don't drink anyway!) and you have a recipe for an even worse disaster.
How in the heck does something with a copy-cat goatse.cx link in it get modded +5 insightful????
Core memory is still used in some military applications -- some of the computers I worked on last year had it. Actually works pretty well -- never had a problem with it. But sometimes the programs would get to where they had to be unloaded and the memory had to be cleared and reloaded. It didn't help then, and I'm sure this memory would have the same problem.
I collect arcade games. Arcade games and pinball machines. Like many people that do this, I also have a dedicated game room. For quite a while, I had a computer in the gameroom that was
filled with MP3's. The problem was, my non computer friends always had trouble selecting songs, creating songlists, deleting songlists, etc. I don't know how many times I had to clear songlists before a party, or how many hours I have spent at a party just showing people how to use the thing. Basically, I got tired of doing this.
While working on a MAME cabinet (which isn't yet finished, and I'll post here when it is),
inspiration struck. I could build an MP3 jukebox for my gameroom. Something that was as easy to control as an arcade game, and had all of the features I needed to simply play music.
I started out with the intention of writing my own MP3 player. I got so far as to have an actual player written, and only needed to work on the interface and songlist abilities. While surfing the net for inspiration on my interface, I
stumbled onto a program that was written specifically for a MAME machine by Mark Schwartz.
In fact, the program was even named Arcade Jukebox . Mark apparently went through the same frustration I went through, and wrote a program himself. It was exactly what I was working on, so my development stopped after I tested his software out and found it to be exactly what I needed. His program gives the look and feel of an old-time jukebox while providing only the necessary features for such an application. Simple, and perfect. Step one completed!
The next step was to find an arcade cabinet that I could dedicate to a jukebox. I wasn't interested in sharing it with my MAME cabinet, as it was to be my main source of music for my gameroom, and therefore would be constantly accessed throughout any given night.
I was originally going to use a full sized, regular arcade game cabinet. I had a couple in the garage that weren't doing anything. Unfortunately, when you collect arcade games and
pinball machines, you find space to be your largest restriction. I could easily fit
another regular sized arcade machine in my gameroom, but I didn't want to waste so much
space for a simple jukebox. So, I decided I would use a mini-cabinet. Unfortunately,
my search for a mini-cabinet was difficult. I couldn't find one in my area to save my life! Then, one day, a fellow collector alerted me to an ad in the paper. There was a guy nearby that had 4 mini-cabinets for sale, $25 each! I visited him and found that his cabinets weren't quite the standard mini-cabinet size. His cabinets were, in fact, a medium size. They took up the same footprint as a mini-cabinet, but were much taller. I bought two of them. (I later bought a larger machine from him and got the other two for free!) Step two completed.
I already had a computer to use for this project. The one that noone could figure out how to use. Before putting it into place, however, I upgraded it a little. It is an Athlon 1.2Ghz machine, 128 Megs ram, and a 20 gig harddrive. Step three completed!
Time to start working on the thing. I removed the coindoor, and contemplated reusing it later, but decided against it as the hole it created was perfect for internal speakers.
I filled all the holes that I could find on the cabinet with wood filler, and sanded those repairs down. I didn't like the dark woodgrain of the cabinet and explored various ways to replace it. I settled on contac paper. Yes, the stuff you line shelves and kitchen drawers with. I found a couple rolls of a nice pine grain at the local hardware store, and painstakingly cut sheets to fit the cabinet. Wherever sheets
would overlap each other, I didn't want lines to be visible. My solution was to cut the paper along the 'grain' whenever it overlapped. This masks the overlaps much better than I ever expected. I have to point out the overlaps in most places. Step four completed!
I removed the existing monitor from the cabinet as computers don't like arcade monitor refresh rates. I could have made it work, but didn't want to go through the special wiring I would have to construct, and finding just the right video card that would output the correct refresh rates. So, instead, I bought an Eygo 19"
VGA arcade monitor. I bought this from eBay, and haven't seen any more available anywhere else in that size. What this monitor meant was that I could slip it right into the jukebox without any modification, and attach my computer to it. I was limited to 640x480, but that was ok as I was only running the jukebox program. Step five completed!
Along the edges of the cabinet is something called t-molding. This stuff is purely
decorative, and isn't necessary. I could have papered over it, or wood filled and painted
it, but I chose to simply replace the t-molding with new t-molding. One problem with this. t-molding has teeth that grip the wood, and keep it from slipping out of place. When I removed the t-molding, the slot that it inserted into became wider as it pulled some of the old wood out with it. The new t-molding I got wouldn't fit right.
Luckily, I had heard of this problem before and knew exactly what to do. I broke out my
trusty hot glue gun and started gluing the t-molding into place. This worked really well,
although, I may never be able to remove the t-molding again! Step six completed!
I needed a marquee for the top of the machine, to tell people what it was. This was going to be difficult, i suspected, but it really wasn't.
I was tempted to print up my own marquee on transparencies, but figured that when I printed
black, light would shine through too much and look washed out. Screen printing wasn't
an option as it was quite costly. I found a place called Photo Arts nearby which used a very large HP plotter to print with specialized UV resistant ink. The black was solid. That was important. They could also print it in one piece, which was another plus. On top of all that, I was able to supply my own artwork to them, so I didn't have to pay any design charges! The total cost for this was $28 for two of them. I bought a piece of plexiglass at my local hardware store and had them cut it to the correct size. I mounted the marquee behind the plexi, and put it into place. The light was already in the cabinet, and worked, so didn't
need to be replaced. Worked like a charm. Step seven completed!
Next step was to get the controls. I used a 4-way joystick and 4 buttons from Happ Controls . I already had these items in my inventory (I collect and fix these games, so I have a lot of this stuff laying around.) I installed the joystick and 4 buttons into the control panel. Step eight completed!
Ok, everything is ready. All I need now is a way to tie it all together. That is where
a device called the i-Pac came in. This is a very well designed device that allows me to hook up arcade joysticks and buttons, and program them to work as regular keypresses. It connects to the standard keyboard port, and allows me to connect a keyboard as it has a passthrough port, but a keyboard isn't needed once it is programmed. Programming the thing is a very easy process with the programming
software included with the device. The device itself is printed with wiring instructions,
and connecting it all together is VERY simple. Don't be intimidated by the wiring. You don't even have to do any soldering! Just crimp on some connectors to slip onto the joystick/buttons, and at the other end, they just screw right into the i-Pac using a screwdown type wiring block. It really couldn't be much easier. And since I don't need a mouse, this solution works perfectly. If I did, however, need a mouse, I could use an arcade trackball and an optipacdevice from the same company. Step nine done!
I used a 5 piece set of Altec Lansing speakers as my speaker system. There are two satellite speakers, two surround speakers and a subwoofer. Believe it or not, they sound GREAT. The subwoofer sits on the floor of the cabinet. The two satellites are run up the cabinet and are visible hanging above the monitor area. The volume control is on the right speaker. The two surround speakers are in front of that big hole that the coin door created, sitting on top of the computer case. All of the speakers are held into place using double sided tape, and thus far, no movement has occurred, except for the internal speakers as I have reached in many times playing and tweaking the unit. I didn't want that big hole there, so I bought a large picture frame and covered it with speaker grille fabric I found at Radio Shack. I screwed the frame into place from behind so no screws are visible from the outside. Step ten done!
I also wanted to be able to connect this to my home network to easily add songs, and
use it as a music server if I ever chose to. So, I made a cat 5 cable with an RJ45 connector on one end, and a port on the other. I mounted a 4 slotted plate to the back of the cabinet, and put the port into place. This extended the network port to the outside of the cabinet, and allows me to connect it to my network. I also wanted to be able to connect it to an external stereo system, so I used a 'Y' adapter for the speakers. The speakers connect to one side of the 'Y', while the other side goes right into one of the four slots. This allows me to connect the cabinet to an external stereo if I choose to at a later date. Or, I can transmit the sound, wirelessly, to my stereo in the house.
I also ran the MIC jack to the outside, too. Not sure why yet, though I could use it as an input at some point for another audio device if I needed to. Step 11 completed!
I also purchased a really cool power strip (sorry, I don't have the URL) that when it senses power on one plug, it powers the other plugs.
This was good because I plug everything into the other plugs, and the computer into the power sensing plug. I then ran a pair of wires from the POWER pins on my motherboard to a momentary switch mounted on the top of the cabinet. One press and everything comes on.
All that was needed now was to set up the software, which was as simple as editing
an ini file, and put the thing in the startup group. I am using Windows 98 for this
machine as I don't need anything more than that. After that, I used a different contac paper to define the control panel, and printed up an instruction sheet.
To control the player, you move the joystick up/down/left/right. This will highlight the next song in the list, or move to the right side
(as the list is displayed in two columns.) Button one queues a song, button 2 removes the currently playing song, button 3 removes
all songs from the queue, and button 4 has a dual purpose. Pressing it alone will go down the list to the next letter in alphabetical order, and pressing it up while holding the joystick UP will move up the next letter in the list alphabetically. People have been able to use this thing rather easily with very little instruction from me. This has allowed me to drink more beer at my parties. Now you understand the need.
Overall, this was an easier project than I expected it to be, and I recommend it to anyone that wants to try it out. It isn't terribly expensive, except for the computer. You can easily use a regular computer monitor if you wanted to.. I just wanted it to be more authentic.
Feel free to post any questions and I'll be happy to help out!
Below are a few pictures. Before and after shots of the cabinet, and a shot of the inside
looking down from the front. It's pretty packed in there. The whole front lifts up to allow easy access to the inside, as well as the back comes off of the cabinet.
Taking your links from the end:
You're seriously misreading the link from the canadian treasury board -- it says that the system is required to deliver a 5% Halon concentration into the space within 10 seconds of the time the system is actuated -- in the same sentence it says it must continue to deliver this solution for 10 minutes to completely flood the space. I'm not a chemistry expert -- but I think if you do the math you'll find that there won't be much usable oxygen left in the room within about 2 minutes.
The EPA Link: Absolutely correct -- the atmosphere in the space to be extinguished must be about 34% CO2 -- but this doesn't really address the issue -- I never said CO2 was better than Halon -- it's not.
As for your army.mil link -- that's actually a shipboard firefighting manual -- funny that you would post that link, considering the fact that I've been on one of the fire teams on an aircraft carrier for five years. So -- I'm going to reprint in it's entirety the boldfaced warning that is immediately below the sentence you rippped out of context from it:
WARNING
HALON 1301 MAY CAUSE DIZZINESS AND IMPAIRED COORDINATION IF INHALED. IF HALON 1301 IS TO BE USED FOR THE TOTAL FLOODING OF NORMALLY OCCUPIED SPACES, AN EVACUATION ALARM MUST BE PROVIDED. PERSONNEL SHOULD LEAVE THE AREA PROMPTLY ON HEARING THE ALARM. WHEN A HALON 1301 EXTINGUISHER IS USED, THOSE NOT DIRECTLY INVOLVED IN THE OPERATION SHOULD LEAVE THE AREA IMMEDIATELY. THE EXTINGUISHER OPERATOR SHOULD STEP AWAY AS SOON AS THE APPLIANCE IS DISCHARGED. THE AREA SHOULD BE VENTED WITH FRESH AIR BEFORE IT IS REENTERED. IF IT IS NECESSARY TO REMAIN IN OR ENTER AN AREA WHERE HALON 1301 HAS BEEN DISCHARGED, A BREATHING APPARATUS AND LIFELINES SHOULD BE USED. THE ONLY VALID REASON FOR SUCH ENTRY WOULD BE TO SAVE A LIFE OR TO MAINTAIN CONTROL OF THE SHIP.
Does this sound like the Navy thinks this is a harmless gas??? I didn't think so -- I know that's not how they trained me anyway.
Your next link up -- the one from CDC.gov -- maybe you didn't know this, but "inhibiting the chemical reaction between fuel and oxygen" is another word for smothering. Exactly as I said.
Your next link -- fireturnkey.com -- is a bunch of marketing drivel. They're trying to sell you the system, so I don't really trust much of what they have to say -- especially when it goes against most of what I've learned.
Your first link -- from bnl.gov, is regarding a specific system. It's addressing an electrical fire, not a fuel fire, which is the context that this discussion started under. Perhaps a 7% concentration of Halon wouldn't be dangerous -- I don't think Halon is specifically poisonous by itself -- but that doesn't address the fact that above 15% concentration it is hazardous (that's according to your link).
I assume you thought I wasn't going to read the links you posted, or maybe I really was just talking to hear myself talk, but I'm not... All you proved was that you can rip statements out of context and that you really don't know what you're talking about. Maybe you should read your links next time instead of just cutting and pasting from your google window.... some of us actually have practical experience with this stuff.
BS.
Water alone will NOT put out a kerosene fire. EVER. I've been through Navy boot camp... I've also been on a fire team on an aircraft carrier for the last five years. Jet fuel is put out using foam, period. You never, ever, EVER put straight water on a jet fuel fire, as the only thing you will succeed in doing is spreading the fire all over the ship and probably killing yourself and a whole bunch of other people in the process. Also, the LAST thing you want to do in a kerosene fire is put water on it and generate steam. Many more people die from steam burns than from the actual fire -- 212 degrees on enough of your body will kill you so quickly you won't have time to wonder how badly you F/d up...
Halon will kill you very quickly -- it's a common myth that it only "reacts to the free radicals" etc... The way Halon puts out a fire, quite simply, is to smother it -- in the process anyone inside will suffocate as the atmosphere will no longer sustain life (speaking as one who is trained to fight fires including the use of installed Halon systems). For Halon to work properly the space has to be sealed to the outside -- if the Halon blows away or is ventilated, oxygen is resupplied to the fire and it will almost instantly reflash(in the case of a petroleum based fire, anyway).
Then there's the issue of the toxic byproducts --if you don't suffocate, they will kill you. Every Halon system I've seen has a mandatory time delay, coupled with klaxon horns, flashing red lights, etc... The time delay is based on the time necessary to get people out of the spaces and get the spaces sealed airtight BEFORE the Halon discharges. Also, this doesn't even address the issue of cost -- Halon is HORRENDOUSLY expensive -- to use it in a building the size of the world trade centers would simply be so cost prohibitive it couldn't be done.
"Complete MS Office 2000/XP compatibility" is a bit of a stretch -- but I'd have to agree that it's the most compatible product available. Also, OO does not include the database program. That's the main diff between it and SO, if I recall correctly.
I believe you're correct that the source for SO 6.0 isn't going to be released.
Neither the source for 5.2 or the source for Open Office, or the source for 6.0 has ever been solely released under the GPL. The source for Open office is "dual licensed" whatever that means, under the GPL AND the Sun SISSL. IANAL -- therefore I won't comment on this strategy, but you can read up on it at Openoffice.org under their main faq. SO 5.2 is available under the Sun Binary code license -- again, I don't know much about it either. And I would assume that 6.0 will be released under the same license. Anyone who knows about these licenses care to comment?
It's been common knowledge for at least the last six months that SO 6.0 was not going to be free. The price point that Sun picked is VERY reasonable, given what ms charges for their office suite.
Also, Sun has supported OpenOffice as a free alternative to SO for those of us that can't afford the 100 dollars or so that SO is going to cost.
You were a lawyer and you enlisted in the Marines?? Now don't get me wrong -- if you really did, more power to you... But, I seriously doubt any recruiter would want you to enlist -- they'd at least try to get you to become an officer.
For polygraphs... I think you should do a bit more research -- cheating doesn't necessarily mean beating the whole test, all you have to do is skew the results enough that it's inconclusive. And that's not as hard as you may think.
No -- I'm not. BUT... that was my point. it makes life easier for me, I'm sure that it will for others as well. And just think what a boon it will be for tech support people. "hi, I installed the pirated cd of whatever that I got from my friend, and now my system doesn't work!! what do I do??" Tech: system restore.... five minutes and he's done, has them off the phone and goes on to other calls...
NT 4 could hardly be called stable... only by comparing it to windows 98, maybe. I ran NT 4 for years and saw the good old bsod way too frequently. 2000, now... that's a stable operating system. And from what I've seen of XP(running it since RC1) I'm quite impressed. I've only been able to get it to bsod once -- and my box runs for weeks at a time with no lockups. I only reboot to update drivers now, as opposed to rebooting every day with NT 4.
I'll say right now that I've used it several times already... there have been numerous driver problems in the rc's and even the final now, and it doesn't seem like there's a good way to get the old drivers completely uninstalled. System Restore works like a CHARM! I don't know how I ever lived without it now... of course, I do with linux... but that's another story...
I just got through reading the Onion's commentary, and what scares me the most about this whole situation is that if I hadn't known the source I would have thought it was a factual news report. I realize these people don't necessarily support exactly what it says -- but the ideas expressed are pretty close to being a true representation of what our elected officials seem to believe.
NTFS read has been supported for as long as I can remember -- write is definitely NOT supported though. I screwed up a whole partition trying it once (fortunately had good backups)...
I think that you prehaps have some of your facts screwed up about Pearl Harbor. It is a common misconception that the president knew all about what was going to happen and let it happen to stimulate the economy, drag us into the war, etc... There are several theories about what happened that day - I don't think anyone will know for sure, but these links should clear up a little of it. Theory one(it's about halfway down the page) - (history place.com): We broke the code in time to prevent the attack, but then we sent the information by commercial telegraph. Something we need to remember is that the president couldn't just pick up the phone and call Pearl Harbor at the time - there were very few means of communication with the mainland. According the the link, we had lost radio contact with Pearl Harbor at the time, and this delayed the message until about noon Hawaii time -- approximately four hours after the attack had begun.
Theory Two: (ukans.edu) Stephen Budiansky is a historian who's written a book on code-breaking in WWII - his theory is quite simply, we couldn't read the codes. The japanese had evidently been changing their codes quite frequently - or at least frequently enough the confuse our code-breakers. I'll leave a further explanation to reading the link - it sounds to me like he's saying the Navy really didn't decode the relevant messages until 1946, almost five years after the attack.
The main thing we have to remember here is that communications at the beginning of WWII were really bad. Nowdays we have ways to get messages and information across the globe in seconds - it's very easy to forget the fact that if a coded message was broken in the evening in Washington, in 1941 there was literally a very good chance it would not get to Hawaii by the following morning. This makes the most sense to me as an explanation for what happened - not saying the president and all his generals and code-breakers knew about this far enough in advance to prevent it and all conspired together to keep the base commander in Pearl from knowing.
There is a slightly more sinister idea that makes more sense to me than saying the president knew all about it. The code-breakers may well have known - as I mentioned earlier, there's some dissension on that point. The code-breaking community in the military is EXTREMELY secretive. There could very well have been an admiral or captain(I believe it was the navy running it at the time) who was told and simply decided not to pass the information on. In that case, he would have had to make a decision based on, first of all, how likely he thought it was that the information was accurate, and secondly, on how badly it would affect his intelligence gathering capabilities in the future for the japanese to find out that we knew about the attack in advance. That's the biggest problem with intelligence - frequently, when you use it, you compromise its source, and then you have to start all over again, either breaking a code, or compromising a foreign agent, etc... so it's a tough call for someone in that position - one I would never want to have to face.
Martin Luther King was assasinated.
'nuf said.
that's another good point -- I hadn't thought of it, but it does make sense.
The sabbath is a Jewish holiday which is observed from sundown friday evening to sundown saturday evening. The Christian Sunday is not related in any way to the sabbath other than the fact that it was specifically picked to be on a different day so as not to be confused with it. There is no prohibition in Christianity against waging war or working on Sunday -- there are only a few pacifist groups who would agree with you, and they would say all war is evil, regardless of what day it takes place on. The president (and his generals and admirals) probably picked today because it was the day that they had all the information they needed to start doing this -- not because of some religious significance. Also the time may have been picked to coincide with a time when fewer civilians would be killed -- I think we're being as careful as possible in this regard.
I still use 75 baud modems in military applications... everything from 75-300 baud.. lots of fun..