Harmon Kardon (HK) makes the best receivers. They use totally discrete circuitry, which is much warmer and louder than comparable amplifiers. They're also probably the most expensive ($600-700 for a DTS receiver), but the sound quality is well worth i.
Companies like Yamaha tend to add a lot of features (acoustical shaping, 10-band EQ, etc), which never quite substitute in sound.
Speakers depend on yourmusic preference. I have JBL LXE990's (3-way, 10") which are about $800/pair, but you can get others which are just as nice for less if you don't need the power. They're good for rock music. Bose is better for home theater/movies, but isn't great for loud music. Plus, the reflecting speakers need to be perfectly aligned (if they're not, or you open a window nearby, forget about the sound quality).
Keep in mind that Virginia already has the usual abilities to fire someone goofing off at work - the only thing this law affects is employees who have legitimate reasons to view sexually explicit art, poetry, etc. as a part of their job.
Actually, Virginia is a "work at will" state, meaning both the employer and the employee can terminate employment at any time for any reason (or for no reason). I work in Northern Virginia, and my boss could walk in any day and fire the department because he's having a bad day, and there's nothing I could do about it (well, you can always sue, since it IS America, but it's a tough one to win if you can't prove discrimination).
Unfortunately, all the Linux package managers (apt/dpkg, rpm, etc) lack one vital feature that all the big guys (IBM, Sun, HP) have included for years - the ability to install, but not commit a package.
One of the things "enterprise" Unices have is the ability to upgrade a package, while the system backs up your old package. If the package upgrade breaks something, it's simple to roll back to the prior state. If everything goes OK, it can be run through it's paces for a while, and then eventually "committed", whereby the old information is deleted.
Until some flavor of Linux adds this to their package management, Linux WILL NEVER be able to take over the corporate world (yeah, there's a lot of other things it needs to, like 32-bit UIDs and a journaling filesystem, but at least they're on their way).
First in France, Last in the USA
on
Air-Powered Cars
·
· Score: 1
Unfortunately, it will be quite a while before the US sees anything like this. In France, gas is about 7.5 Francs per liter (about $4.00 per gallon). At $35-40 a fill up for an econo-box, it's well worth alternative technology. Heck, Swatch's Smart car took off in Europe.
But, the US has stricter standards on darn near everything. Ever try to import a European vehicle? Before you can drive it in the US, there are hundreds of modifications that need to be made. Everything from adding additional door beams, 3rd brake lights, catalytic converters, and so forth. Not only does this increase cost, but also weight. I couldn't see the original article (link seems broken), but the alternate one someone posted touts the vehicle, but it doesn't mention crash protection, total mileage on a "tank", or the like.
Also, I wonder what might happen if you were in an accident? If a pressurized scuba tank is standing up, and is knocked over - watch out! If the valve hits pavement, it will break off. A small metal valve being propelled by 5000 pounds of compressed air is deadly - imagine if you were in an accident!
Personally, I'ma bit disappointed with RedHat this time. Not because of GCC (though I think it was a bad idea), but because they have tended to stray from the standard. Here's my personal story:
I wrote a tool to make configuring LPRng easy. I really like it. Several other people like it too. RedHat started using LPRng in RedHat 7.0. But, while the LPRng rpms available on the company's site (as well as their tarballs) set the deafult user/group for spool directories to daemon/daemon, RedHat decided to make the default lp/lp. Sure, the change makes sense, but now I've had to patch my program to work with their new Linux release. Why didn't they just keep the original rpms? The original LPRng rpms worked fine, but RedHat's change has forced me to waste several hours working out a way to fix this. Why must they be different? If it was a major improvement, maybe I could understand it (or even a minor improvement, for that matter).
The frequency most phones run at is a shorter wavelength than the width of your head, so in most cases, you do absorb a minimal amount of radiation when using your phone (remember, of course radiation is just something which will pass through a vacuum). If you carry a phone all the time, digital is safer than analog because it requires less power, and searches for the closest antenna passively (which is why digital phones can have 3 week battery lives, which analog last 1/2 a day).
Presently the relation of cell phones to brain cancer seems to be overstated. There is always a chance, since you are absorbing a minute amount of radiation when using them (only while transmitting on digital phones). But, you also absorb radiation when standing in front of a microwave oven.
As for the number of cancer cases, you have to draw your own conclusions. Brain cancer shows up in about 1/100,000 of the population. So, if there's 80 million cell phone users, you expect to see about 4,000 cases. Does anyone know how many cases have shown up in the last several years?
You home cordless phone also gives off radiation (if it's a 900 or 2.4 GHz phone), but it's MUCH less, since they transmit only a few hundred feet, instead of several miles.
Personally, I'd be more worried about radiation from the three computer monitors around my desk at work.
Having graduated within the last couple years, I can certainly say that the sharp decline in government funding has a lot to do with the grwoing problem. Public universities used to get quite a bit of funding from state and federal government. As that has declined, tuition has risen significantly (my tuition had gone from $1689/semester to almost $2500 in four years), and universities have been forced to find other avenues of money. Catering to big business is just one avenue.
But, it's not such a terrible idea. If a computer science department in a University has, say, 10 full-time professors, and five of them do research for a large business (eg, SGI, IBM, etc) and bring in huge grants because of their results, and the other five are able to work on less lucrative projects, that doesn't necessarily seem like a problem. Businesses (at least in the old economy) need to be self-sufficient to survive, of they run out of capital and go bankrupt. Why is it such a crime if universities sell their research, if someone wants to pay for it?
The bigger problem is when academia decides to get in bed with big companies, and sell the souls of their students for money to build bigger campuses and attract new students (neglecting their current ones). My university struck a "deal" with Micro$oft to allow student to copy M$ software, or purchase it for almost nothing (I think something like Office 2000 runs $20). I'm not sure what the site license cost, but I'm sure it costs quite a bit of the student fees for something that those running Linux, Irix, or Mac OS (all common on campus) can't even use. The university got a deal on software, and M$ got a bunch of students by the cahoneys - probably assuming that if they forced them to use M$ software when they probably would have pirated it anyway, they would tempt them into using it after they graduated (and would then pay for it). Fortunately this all took place right after I graduated.
We've been experiencing similar problems with VA recently. Within the last year, we've had 2 RAID problems. The first time, it took over a month to work out the issue (we had to wait for a new scsi cable, then a new backplane, then a new card - which finally fixed the problem). VA was in no hurry to send parts (I had to bug them four times before the replacement Mylex 960 was finally sent).
Recently, our RAID died after a power outage (overheated, I think). It's a production system, but it took them four days to get a replacement Mylex 1100 to us, only to replace our current card and find that it is actually the disk array. VA refused to send us a new one as a replacement - they told us to send ours back and they would fix it, but wouldn't guarantee data integrity (eg, if they erased it, tough).
I've been terribly disappointed with how much trouble it takes for us to get past level 1 tech support, especially since, up until about a year ago we provided VA with more than half of all their business.
We've tried other vendors (Aspen Systems for one), but they haven't been able to ship something without it getting damaged in transit (three times now!).
Certainly tempts me to open my own hardware business...
Slashdot Mirror
Harmon Kardon (HK) makes the best receivers. They use totally discrete circuitry, which is much warmer and louder than comparable amplifiers. They're also probably the most expensive ($600-700 for a DTS receiver), but the sound quality is well worth i.
Companies like Yamaha tend to add a lot of features (acoustical shaping, 10-band EQ, etc), which never quite substitute in sound.
Speakers depend on yourmusic preference. I have JBL LXE990's (3-way, 10") which are about $800/pair, but you can get others which are just as nice for less if you don't need the power. They're good for rock music. Bose is better for home theater/movies, but isn't great for loud music. Plus, the reflecting speakers need to be perfectly aligned (if they're not, or you open a window nearby, forget about the sound quality).
Actually, Virginia is a "work at will" state, meaning both the employer and the employee can terminate employment at any time for any reason (or for no reason). I work in Northern Virginia, and my boss could walk in any day and fire the department because he's having a bad day, and there's nothing I could do about it (well, you can always sue, since it IS America, but it's a tough one to win if you can't prove discrimination).
Unfortunately, all the Linux package managers (apt/dpkg, rpm, etc) lack one vital feature that all the big guys (IBM, Sun, HP) have included for years - the ability to install, but not commit a package.
One of the things "enterprise" Unices have is the ability to upgrade a package, while the system backs up your old package. If the package upgrade breaks something, it's simple to roll back to the prior state. If everything goes OK, it can be run through it's paces for a while, and then eventually "committed", whereby the old information is deleted.
Until some flavor of Linux adds this to their package management, Linux WILL NEVER be able to take over the corporate world (yeah, there's a lot of other things it needs to, like 32-bit UIDs and a journaling filesystem, but at least they're on their way).
Unfortunately, it will be quite a while before the US sees anything like this. In France, gas is about 7.5 Francs per liter (about $4.00 per gallon). At $35-40 a fill up for an econo-box, it's well worth alternative technology. Heck, Swatch's Smart car took off in Europe.
But, the US has stricter standards on darn near everything. Ever try to import a European vehicle? Before you can drive it in the US, there are hundreds of modifications that need to be made. Everything from adding additional door beams, 3rd brake lights, catalytic converters, and so forth. Not only does this increase cost, but also weight. I couldn't see the original article (link seems broken), but the alternate one someone posted touts the vehicle, but it doesn't mention crash protection, total mileage on a "tank", or the like.
Also, I wonder what might happen if you were in an accident? If a pressurized scuba tank is standing up, and is knocked over - watch out! If the valve hits pavement, it will break off. A small metal valve being propelled by 5000 pounds of compressed air is deadly - imagine if you were in an accident!
So does that mean if someone is 40, but looks like they're 15, they can charge you with child pr0n-ography?
Personally, I'ma bit disappointed with RedHat this time. Not because of GCC (though I think it was a bad idea), but because they have tended to stray from the standard. Here's my personal story:
I wrote a tool to make configuring LPRng easy. I really like it. Several other people like it too. RedHat started using LPRng in RedHat 7.0. But, while the LPRng rpms available on the company's site (as well as their tarballs) set the deafult user/group for spool directories to daemon/daemon, RedHat decided to make the default lp/lp. Sure, the change makes sense, but now I've had to patch my program to work with their new Linux release. Why didn't they just keep the original rpms? The original LPRng rpms worked fine, but RedHat's change has forced me to waste several hours working out a way to fix this. Why must they be different? If it was a major improvement, maybe I could understand it (or even a minor improvement, for that matter).
Just my $.02.
The frequency most phones run at is a shorter wavelength than the width of your head, so in most cases, you do absorb a minimal amount of radiation when using your phone (remember, of course radiation is just something which will pass through a vacuum). If you carry a phone all the time, digital is safer than analog because it requires less power, and searches for the closest antenna passively (which is why digital phones can have 3 week battery lives, which analog last 1/2 a day). Presently the relation of cell phones to brain cancer seems to be overstated. There is always a chance, since you are absorbing a minute amount of radiation when using them (only while transmitting on digital phones). But, you also absorb radiation when standing in front of a microwave oven. As for the number of cancer cases, you have to draw your own conclusions. Brain cancer shows up in about 1/100,000 of the population. So, if there's 80 million cell phone users, you expect to see about 4,000 cases. Does anyone know how many cases have shown up in the last several years? You home cordless phone also gives off radiation (if it's a 900 or 2.4 GHz phone), but it's MUCH less, since they transmit only a few hundred feet, instead of several miles. Personally, I'd be more worried about radiation from the three computer monitors around my desk at work.
But, I will require your SSN, bank account number, credit history, and your digital signature before I can answer that.
Having graduated within the last couple years, I can certainly say that the sharp decline in government funding has a lot to do with the grwoing problem. Public universities used to get quite a bit of funding from state and federal government. As that has declined, tuition has risen significantly (my tuition had gone from $1689/semester to almost $2500 in four years), and universities have been forced to find other avenues of money. Catering to big business is just one avenue.
But, it's not such a terrible idea. If a computer science department in a University has, say, 10 full-time professors, and five of them do research for a large business (eg, SGI, IBM, etc) and bring in huge grants because of their results, and the other five are able to work on less lucrative projects, that doesn't necessarily seem like a problem. Businesses (at least in the old economy) need to be self-sufficient to survive, of they run out of capital and go bankrupt. Why is it such a crime if universities sell their research, if someone wants to pay for it?
The bigger problem is when academia decides to get in bed with big companies, and sell the souls of their students for money to build bigger campuses and attract new students (neglecting their current ones). My university struck a "deal" with Micro$oft to allow student to copy M$ software, or purchase it for almost nothing (I think something like Office 2000 runs $20). I'm not sure what the site license cost, but I'm sure it costs quite a bit of the student fees for something that those running Linux, Irix, or Mac OS (all common on campus) can't even use. The university got a deal on software, and M$ got a bunch of students by the cahoneys - probably assuming that if they forced them to use M$ software when they probably would have pirated it anyway, they would tempt them into using it after they graduated (and would then pay for it). Fortunately this all took place right after I graduated.
Geoff Silver
"Linux... for people with IQ's over '98"
We've been experiencing similar problems with VA recently. Within the last year, we've had 2 RAID problems. The first time, it took over a month to work out the issue (we had to wait for a new scsi cable, then a new backplane, then a new card - which finally fixed the problem). VA was in no hurry to send parts (I had to bug them four times before the replacement Mylex 960 was finally sent).
Recently, our RAID died after a power outage (overheated, I think). It's a production system, but it took them four days to get a replacement Mylex 1100 to us, only to replace our current card and find that it is actually the disk array. VA refused to send us a new one as a replacement - they told us to send ours back and they would fix it, but wouldn't guarantee data integrity (eg, if they erased it, tough).
I've been terribly disappointed with how much trouble it takes for us to get past level 1 tech support, especially since, up until about a year ago we provided VA with more than half of all their business.
We've tried other vendors (Aspen Systems for one), but they haven't been able to ship something without it getting damaged in transit (three times now!).
Certainly tempts me to open my own hardware business...
geoff@uslinux.net
http://uslinux.net
larger packaging helps prevent theft - it's a lot easier to steal a CD jewel case than to steal a box the size of your chest.