The cuts I'm talking about took teachers from what was considered by society a slightly above average salary (a little over $35k from what I remember) to an average salary (I think its about $30k). US$ of course. BTW -- these may not be "average" for your area, but they are for mine.
In my country you can live very reasonably on that amount. Not like a king, but then again do you know anyone who [but yourself] deserves to live the penultimate lifestyle?
I know a surprising amount of people (well, hardly surprising since its average) making that amount who own houses and have a family with multiple kids. They own cars, and certainly don't live off macaroni and cheese. So society (or stats, your choice) still considered the pay level very reasonable.
Had the pay levels been below average its likely our government wouldn't have been re-elected. It's hard to garner public support for a pay strike when you bring home more bacon than most.
All that is dead on (sardonically, I'm hoping), except this:
>Don't spend money on getting better teachers
Sorry, but (IMHO) better teachers teach for the love of teaching, or perhaps for the enjoyment of being in control of what gets put in kids minds today.
Poor teachers teach for the money.
This is somewhat akin to Windows programmers vs. Open Source programmers. Windows programmers do it because they get paid. Most of them _hate_ the environment they work in, but won't do anything about it because if they do they become what they fear: unpaid open source programmers.
I'm not suggesting that good teachers don't deserve to get well paid. I think they do. I am, however, suggesting that too high a pay attracts people who have no love for the profession. Again, look at your PHB (assuming you have one). Does he get paid more than you? Now, does he love the job more than you?
My government (whom I won't mention since arguing about local government is usually senseless on an international forum) has cut education hard. They are continuing to cut it harder. So hard that the schools have finally started to cut the _real_ chaff from their budget. Programs like environmental "studies", phys-ed (past the regular 1 class/year), and such are being cut.
Thank God. I can't believe the government had to cut funding this hard to get the schools to start going back to the 3 Rs! It's about time.
The funding cuts have taken their toll though. I have permanently lost all respect for many school teachers after being involved in (as a student), and later on, witnessing teacher strikes. In teaching I think respect is key, and without it you may as well be teaching a brick wall.
You don't build respect by using your students as a weapon against the government. You also can't build long-term respect by attempting to subvert young minds into thinking you are doing them a favour by striking. Eventually, if they are bright enough, and therefore the type who would enjoy a lifelong education, they will notice the disrespect of being used as a bargaining chip, traded for nothing more than cold, hard cash.
>to bad in the US we have that right under the fair use policies already, and we don't have to pay for it.
In Canada we also had fair use policies before the levy.
The levy, however, included a clause allowing us to extend fair use way, way, way father than what the US allows.
In Canada, you can, by law, go to a friends house with some CD-Rs and burn any music he has that you want (assuming it is all aluminum). Even if you borrow the CD from the library, you may copy it for yourself. You aren't allowed to copy the copies under the law, though.
Really, considering the industry needs a paradigm shift, and considering the industry isn't willing to take the hint from the past few years of MP3, I think this is just the start of a very good idea.
Its about time that we gave up on the whole idea of trying to control what people do with their data. Its quite obvious that many people are going to copy the stuff no matter how illegal it is. The laws of copyright have been stiffened to the point that murderers can get less time than copyright violators, yet your next door neighbour with the four kids is probably risking his butt anyways. There's no way that copyright violators don't know what the punishments are -- its written and spoken on most rental videotapes!
I think we need to implement a systemwide media levy that's reasonable and yet still allows people to make a living from creating music. I don't know how to go about that, but the CD-R levy seems like a good first step.
[I'm quite surprised I'm saying that now. During the pre-levy days I'd be moaning all about how that's a horrible idea. Times do change...]
I've used Intel CPU's all my life, and never had a problem with them.
Why should I decide to go for AMD CPU's ?
How do you convince them, that AMD is "better" ?
Tell them the truth; That intel makes processors that aren't guaranteed to work with your software. Translate these into "english":
F00F
FDIV
Dan-0411
Non-Booting Coppermine
P-III PCI Bus Master Lockups
Intel486 TR4 Register Anomaly
386 Failure of Math Coprocessor to Trigger #GP Exception
IRET causes a task switch to TSS (there's more to this, but it's big and I bet you can find it all on Google)
There's at least 10 more I can see on the various sites I just surfed, but I'm tired.:-)
Ok then, I'll play along, even though I have a feeling your uid biases you.
Any licenses that allow this person to retain his freedom over his future software licensing yet still don't allow money grubbing corporations to steal his work and at the same time allows any regular joe off the street the freedom to improve/modify the source code without cost? (now that's a mouthful!)
Made up licenses don't count. The license needs to have been proof-read by a lawyer to ensure it is truely legally binding.
If future FSF licensing changes force you to add GPL/ to all your software, you can relicense it.
You own the software, you made it, you license it. If RMS gets too big for his boots, reword the license and "re-release" your software. Problem solved.
Pffft, vi is for wussies. Ed isn't even close to being a real man's editor. Men toggle their text into the box through a row of switches and light bulbs on the front of the box. Real Men either burn PROMs or physically wire their data to the bus because there's no way they could be wrong and need to change anything.
The aluminum (well, metal covering some cheap fiberboard) cases they sell for $10-$20 at Home Depot. They are _exactly_ the width of the motherboard + 1" (leaving enough room for you to mount the motherboard backplate inside). They are tall enough for whatever peripherals you want inside, and are long enough to fit everything comfortably.
They aren't too hard to cut up, and you end up with a sheilded, easy to lug about computer that only has to be opened (via the EZ-open latches) for servicing!:-)
a) More time on one disc at the best quality
b) Better quality. _Especially_ at the same bitrates as ATRAC. www.r3mix.net has the truth.
c) Open format that plays in your neighbours' PC.
d) You can play it in a normal MP3 player as well.
e) Media is cheaper.
f) Media is more availiable (tell me, does Office Max have MiniDisc yet? They sure have 3" CDRs)
g) Media is round (ok, this one is stupid:)
h) MP3 offers you the trade off of more time for less quality. I don't think MiniDisc is so flexible.
i) MP3 ID3v2 tags are more versatile than what MiniDisc uses (I think)
j) *not* SDMI compliant
k) Burns 20x faster (or more) than MiniDisc
l) No generational re-encoding loss if your library is mostly in MP3 format (like a lot of people)
m) Compatibility with more of everything out there. Computers, DVD players, MPTrip clones, CellPhones, you name it.
n) MP3 is new. Minidisc is old. (this is for the people who need the newest gadget all the time)
o) Player is probably going to be cheaper than a MiniDisc player.
p) Player is not licensed by one of the biggest money grubbing record companies of all time, Sony.
q) Player is, however, developed by the company that (jointly with [ugh] Sony, I think) invented CDs.
r) Discs are readable at 27x if you want to copy then quickly.
s) All you mini MP3 discs can be backed up onto a large hard drive. From what I know, minidisc cannot be backed up to a hard drive due to SDMI restrictions. I may be wrong on this.
t) MP3 is for "computer use", so therefore in the US idiotic piracy taxes probably can't be applied (like they do to DAT -- I know that isn't MiniDisc, but you never know what might happen in the future). In Canada, though, that doesn't count as we have piracy taxes on data CDs.
There's probably more reasons I could come up with but a-t is enough for now.
Peoples' hearing is not worse today. Their equipment is better.
Would you suggest yesterday's cassette tape technology was a result of peoples' poor hearing? Not likely (I hope!). But the frequency response of a standard casette deck tops out at about 13 kHz. The signal to noise ratio isn't much better at just above 50 dB.
A new, record player has a signal to noise ratio so low I'm going to point it out to every future vynilphile I meet: 45 dB. Ugh!
CDs are much better than both of these, but is it really so hard to believe that people are willing to put up with lower quality sound when they've had it for the past few decades anyways?:-)
And besides, a 256 kbits MP3 is 99.9% of the quality of the original CD. I'd have to do some searching, but I think I can find the website that did the comparative testing.
Well, since you linked to it, lemme just say a couple of things about that page:
(Under "So, why don't I use Linux")
>I don't understand the Linux development system...
The Linux development system is so fragmented because it simply has to be. So much more development is done with Linux that the guy who writes xyz doesn't have time to be involved with the kernel or the distribution phase. You can be assured things keep working by the distribution you use. The people packaging your distribution are really "in charge" of ensuring the software that comes with it works, no hassles. I guess if you don't feel comfortable trusting the distribution maintainer you can do it yourself (that's really not a good idea at all).
>If I have found a problem and a solution, who should I go to?
Kernel Problem: Linux or Alan Cox. But since that isn't happening (they're too busy making the kernels!), I'd suggest posting on one of the kernel traffic mail lists -- your suggestion will be reveiwed.
Software Problem: If you have the latest distribution, and the software you are using has been seen to work on other distributions just fine, send mail to the distribution creator. If it has troubles on all distributions, then send a patch to the author of the software (its probably still in alpha/beta). In the primary case the problem is limited to just your distribution. In the latter case the main software tree is repaired, which in time will flow into the other distributions, ensuring they are working in the future too.
>There is (maybe there is these days) no standard for installing additional software.
Well, if you're an RPMer, sure. If you do things the UN*X way, then its just the same as BSD. Choose where you want your software to live then:
./configure --with-prefix=/where/i/want/it
make
make install
Not hard in the slightest. It's been that way for the past few years. Before that you needed to edit the Makefile and change the install location. Before that I would agree, Linux wasn't ready for primetime. But that would be before '95.
You can be sure it doesn't screw up parts of the OS the same way you would be sure in BSD: Read the Makefile.
>Why does my startup-screen gets spammed with copyright about this and that, in multiple colours?
Funny, I don't get colours on boot in my Linux (Slackware). If you don't like the copyrights, well, you have the source. Use it. This really isn't a good argument against Linux, IMHO. Sorta like arguing you don't want an AT&T phone because it's red and says "AT&T" on it.
>I don't like the GPL.
I do.:-) Anyone who is willing to accept plain copyright may use my GPL software. If you aren't willing to accept plain copyright, well, here's hoping you haven't read any books written this century...
As far as development goes, I prefer the protection the GPL gives my software from people like Microsoft or IBM using it in their proprietary OSes without my permission. But that's your choice, and I won't fault you for it. Other than that I really don't have much of a problem with the BSD license.
>which distribution should I take?
For you, definately Slackware.
>If I choose Red Hat or Debian or Suse, what are the consequences for later?
About the same as the consequences of choosing OpenBSD over FreeBSD. Nothing earth shatteringly different. Just -- well -- different. Like Swiss cheese is different from Mozerella cheese.
>Can I run the program compiled with Debian Linux under Red Hat or Suse.
If you compile it staticly, for sure. If you compile it dynamicly, make sure you have similar libraries on both. Again, the difficulty level is your choice.
>Can I even get it compiled?
If you are able to run *BSD, I don't see why not. You obviously have the necessary knowledge to run a Linux system without problems.
Just my 2 cents.
Re:Why people love Code Red
on
Code Red III
·
· Score: 1
Do what people always used to do when kids were bad, or made mistakes. Make the kid pay for the damage, literally.
The teenager could:
- Repair the webserver they trashed (under supervision). This would be good experience and would direct the teenager's "hacking" abilities in an appropriate direction. This is only good for a minor offense, as the average script kiddie isn't going to have the slightest clue about setting up a real server. This option also forces the teen to learn through personal experience what damage their acts cause (I wouldn't be surprised if script kiddies are thinking about the thrill of the hack, rather than the consequences when they hack -- this might make them do the latter).
You need to take more caution with that option than the latter. The teenager might enjoy the punishment and become worse. Perhaps making them do volunteer technical support for the company would be less enjoyable?:-)
or:
- Pay for the repair. Make the teenager get a job, and hold it long enough to pay a couple of thousand dollars for repairs and perhaps they might learn some respect for other's property through "hard time". This is a little more foolproof.
It's only if options like that fail that they need to see some more serious punishments, IMHO.
It's like a kid breaking a window. The first time the parents' should make the kid apologize for doing it and the parents' should pay for the repair. The second time the kid pays for the repair. The third time... well, I don't know. I don't think there's usually a third time for a well balanced kid.
Actually, they made us learn on Fujitsu Cobol for windows. I never tried a PIC that big on it, but that compiler even let you write object oriented, graphical windows applications in Cobol.
No joke. I couldn't believe it either until I saw examples in the book.
>Why didn't you use an indexed relative file to load your data set?
Sorry man, I tried to avoid learning anything even remotely complicated in that language... My goal was freedom 55 in that course (passing mark at the College). I somehow ended up with better than that though.:-)
What's funny about this is that the suing parties probably chose the serial port version as to what blew up their computer.
The serial port is normally the only device in the computer using a full +12v/-12v swing. It probably can handle more (someone else here said up to +/- 30v). It is also designed to handle TTL levels (0-5 V) with grace.
Basically, they couldn't have chosen a more silly thing to sue about. Assming the palm uses 3 volts it would have to generate 20 times that voltage before it could cause serial port damage. While this is not impossible (witness TVs that regularly generate 200 times line voltage), I don't see a flyback transformer anywhere in the palms' circuitry.
All in all, these people don't understand computer hardware. I really hope they release their names and pictures so I can frame them at home to show people why you need to understand a computer before you consider suing.
Oh, and on a modern computer, (somehow) blowing up a serial port would likely damage the multi I/O controller, causing failure of the HDD, FDD, and other fun things. If the multi I/O is integrated into the south bridge (probably is) you might also ruin your PCI ports.
But there's just no way you're gonna blow up the rest of the motherboard unless you hook the serial port up to line voltage.
Unfortunately, though, the serial port isn't likely to be protected by fuses. Current limiting resistors, maybe, but not fuses.
[The above are just opinions and I wouldn't reccomend finding out the sensitivity of your serial port to out of spec voltages].
It's not the burn once thing I was trying to refer to, it's making the fake 2.88 MB disk image and then burning it onto a disc.
ElTorito basicially makes your 650 MB CD into a floppy disk (which makes burning the CD a task as long as writing out the disc -- on my 6x burner the fixation takes 1 minute).
PROGRAM-ID. SLASHDOT-COMMENT.
AUTHOR. SHEPD.
INSTALLATION. UNIVAC.
DATE-WRITTEN. THE-EPOCH.
DATE-COMPILED. NEVER DID GET IT TO DO THAT.
SECURITY. NONE.
ENVIRONMENT DIVISION.
DATA DIVISION.
FILE SECTION.
WORKING-STORAGE SECTION.
01 PLEASE-GOD-NO.
05 THEY-MADE-ME-DO-IT PIC X(3) VALUE "TRUE"
05 OUTPUT-STUFF PIC X(100000) VALUE SPACES.
PROCEDURE DIVISION.
LET-ME-OUT-PROCEDURE.
IF THIS-LANGUAGE-SUCKS IS GREATER THAN OR EQUAL TO TRUE THEN
MOVE "COBOL" TO OUTPUT-STUFF
WRITE OUTPUT-STUFF AFTER ADVANCING 3 LINES
ELSE
MOVE "NOT COBOL" TO OUTPUT-STUFF
WRITE OUTPUT-STUFF AFTER ADVANCING 3 LINES
END IF.
END-LET-ME-OUT-PROCEDURE.
MOVE SPACES TO OUTPUT-STUFF
WRITE OUTPUT-STUFF AFTER ADVANCING 1 PAGE
STOP RUN.
Does that explain it? My College thought that Cobol would be a good skill to have when we graduate in 2002 so they figured they would make it a mandatory credit.
Instead I think it brain my damaged.
*** SNIP HERE ***
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Now, since power users like flexibility, lets remove the options that limit them from being able to make their own disks (assuming a robust network administrated by others, and one computer for you). You are left with:
- CD-ROM
Oh dear God is this the world's worst pain in the ass. I am not going to burn CDs just to boot. No freakin' way.
- External USB drives, firewire drives
Uhh, $300!?!? (Maybe you'll find 'em cheaper -- if it's under $20 total each I'll agree this is a viable option) That isn't a boot medium you can give to others or throw about without worrying. Don't forget these suckers are huge compared to normal removeable media.
- Other ATA/EIDE drives
Chicken and Egg. Which came first, the HDD with the OS or the one without. That and the size and price thing... No thanks.
Nope, none of these is a good option for a power user. Zip disks, maybe... but at $20 a pop, and with their ultra-proprietary nature, no thanks. I want something open, that way when/if iOmega tanks like SyQuest, I don't have to buy a new computer. So I'd say superdisk, but then why not use a floppy?
As far as I can see a floppy still beats all. Just my opinion.
>So, what's the argument for a floppy again?
Ubiquity outside of Jobs reality distortion field.
>I guess they'll haul out the "more=better" arguement now.
No, I'll just haul out the more=useless argument. Modem users aren't going to wait 15 minutes to boot their O/S over the net, and CodeRed will make your Cable boot like a 14.4. Ugh.
Slashdot Mirror
The cuts I'm talking about took teachers from what was considered by society a slightly above average salary (a little over $35k from what I remember) to an average salary (I think its about $30k). US$ of course. BTW -- these may not be "average" for your area, but they are for mine.
In my country you can live very reasonably on that amount. Not like a king, but then again do you know anyone who [but yourself] deserves to live the penultimate lifestyle?
I know a surprising amount of people (well, hardly surprising since its average) making that amount who own houses and have a family with multiple kids. They own cars, and certainly don't live off macaroni and cheese. So society (or stats, your choice) still considered the pay level very reasonable.
Had the pay levels been below average its likely our government wouldn't have been re-elected. It's hard to garner public support for a pay strike when you bring home more bacon than most.
All that is dead on (sardonically, I'm hoping), except this:
>Don't spend money on getting better teachers
Sorry, but (IMHO) better teachers teach for the love of teaching, or perhaps for the enjoyment of being in control of what gets put in kids minds today.
Poor teachers teach for the money.
This is somewhat akin to Windows programmers vs. Open Source programmers. Windows programmers do it because they get paid. Most of them _hate_ the environment they work in, but won't do anything about it because if they do they become what they fear: unpaid open source programmers.
I'm not suggesting that good teachers don't deserve to get well paid. I think they do. I am, however, suggesting that too high a pay attracts people who have no love for the profession. Again, look at your PHB (assuming you have one). Does he get paid more than you? Now, does he love the job more than you?
My government (whom I won't mention since arguing about local government is usually senseless on an international forum) has cut education hard. They are continuing to cut it harder. So hard that the schools have finally started to cut the _real_ chaff from their budget. Programs like environmental "studies", phys-ed (past the regular 1 class/year), and such are being cut.
Thank God. I can't believe the government had to cut funding this hard to get the schools to start going back to the 3 Rs! It's about time.
The funding cuts have taken their toll though. I have permanently lost all respect for many school teachers after being involved in (as a student), and later on, witnessing teacher strikes. In teaching I think respect is key, and without it you may as well be teaching a brick wall.
You don't build respect by using your students as a weapon against the government. You also can't build long-term respect by attempting to subvert young minds into thinking you are doing them a favour by striking. Eventually, if they are bright enough, and therefore the type who would enjoy a lifelong education, they will notice the disrespect of being used as a bargaining chip, traded for nothing more than cold, hard cash.
Sorry if that turned out a little ranty...
>to bad in the US we have that right under the fair use policies already, and we don't have to pay for it.
In Canada we also had fair use policies before the levy.
The levy, however, included a clause allowing us to extend fair use way, way, way father than what the US allows.
In Canada, you can, by law, go to a friends house with some CD-Rs and burn any music he has that you want (assuming it is all aluminum). Even if you borrow the CD from the library, you may copy it for yourself. You aren't allowed to copy the copies under the law, though.
Really, considering the industry needs a paradigm shift, and considering the industry isn't willing to take the hint from the past few years of MP3, I think this is just the start of a very good idea.
Its about time that we gave up on the whole idea of trying to control what people do with their data. Its quite obvious that many people are going to copy the stuff no matter how illegal it is. The laws of copyright have been stiffened to the point that murderers can get less time than copyright violators, yet your next door neighbour with the four kids is probably risking his butt anyways. There's no way that copyright violators don't know what the punishments are -- its written and spoken on most rental videotapes!
I think we need to implement a systemwide media levy that's reasonable and yet still allows people to make a living from creating music. I don't know how to go about that, but the CD-R levy seems like a good first step.
[I'm quite surprised I'm saying that now. During the pre-levy days I'd be moaning all about how that's a horrible idea. Times do change...]
Can I take my old CD-Rs back to CIRA for a refund?
I've actually got a spool of about 100 that don't contain any useful data anymore.
I've used Intel CPU's all my life, and never had a problem with them.
:-)
Why should I decide to go for AMD CPU's ?
How do you convince them, that AMD is "better" ?
Tell them the truth; That intel makes processors that aren't guaranteed to work with your software. Translate these into "english":
F00F
FDIV
Dan-0411
Non-Booting Coppermine
P-III PCI Bus Master Lockups
Intel486 TR4 Register Anomaly
386 Failure of Math Coprocessor to Trigger #GP Exception
IRET causes a task switch to TSS (there's more to this, but it's big and I bet you can find it all on Google)
There's at least 10 more I can see on the various sites I just surfed, but I'm tired.
If so, why can I get a third phone line anytime I want at the approx. $21 (CAN) per month gov't (well CRTC) capped Bell rate?
I've never heard of Bell "running out" of phone lines (save you wanting more than they already ran to your house).
>Yeah, don't use the GPL.
Ok then, I'll play along, even though I have a feeling your uid biases you.
Any licenses that allow this person to retain his freedom over his future software licensing yet still don't allow money grubbing corporations to steal his work and at the same time allows any regular joe off the street the freedom to improve/modify the source code without cost? (now that's a mouthful!)
Made up licenses don't count. The license needs to have been proof-read by a lawyer to ensure it is truely legally binding.
>Once there are numerous copyright holders, relicensing becomes problematic, if not, as a practical matter, impossible.
That's a valid point. Any one with suggestions about avoiding that problem?
If future FSF licensing changes force you to add GPL/ to all your software, you can relicense it.
You own the software, you made it, you license it. If RMS gets too big for his boots, reword the license and "re-release" your software. Problem solved.
Keep in mind, IANAL.
Pffft, vi is for wussies. Ed isn't even close to being a real man's editor. Men toggle their text into the box through a row of switches and light bulbs on the front of the box. Real Men either burn PROMs or physically wire their data to the bus because there's no way they could be wrong and need to change anything.
You know what works even better than a briefcase?
:-)
The aluminum (well, metal covering some cheap fiberboard) cases they sell for $10-$20 at Home Depot. They are _exactly_ the width of the motherboard + 1" (leaving enough room for you to mount the motherboard backplate inside). They are tall enough for whatever peripherals you want inside, and are long enough to fit everything comfortably.
They aren't too hard to cut up, and you end up with a sheilded, easy to lug about computer that only has to be opened (via the EZ-open latches) for servicing!
Best $10 I spent in quite a while.
Why mini MP3 CD over MiniDisc?
:)
a) More time on one disc at the best quality
b) Better quality. _Especially_ at the same bitrates as ATRAC. www.r3mix.net has the truth.
c) Open format that plays in your neighbours' PC.
d) You can play it in a normal MP3 player as well.
e) Media is cheaper.
f) Media is more availiable (tell me, does Office Max have MiniDisc yet? They sure have 3" CDRs)
g) Media is round (ok, this one is stupid
h) MP3 offers you the trade off of more time for less quality. I don't think MiniDisc is so flexible.
i) MP3 ID3v2 tags are more versatile than what MiniDisc uses (I think)
j) *not* SDMI compliant
k) Burns 20x faster (or more) than MiniDisc
l) No generational re-encoding loss if your library is mostly in MP3 format (like a lot of people)
m) Compatibility with more of everything out there. Computers, DVD players, MPTrip clones, CellPhones, you name it.
n) MP3 is new. Minidisc is old. (this is for the people who need the newest gadget all the time)
o) Player is probably going to be cheaper than a MiniDisc player.
p) Player is not licensed by one of the biggest money grubbing record companies of all time, Sony.
q) Player is, however, developed by the company that (jointly with [ugh] Sony, I think) invented CDs.
r) Discs are readable at 27x if you want to copy then quickly.
s) All you mini MP3 discs can be backed up onto a large hard drive. From what I know, minidisc cannot be backed up to a hard drive due to SDMI restrictions. I may be wrong on this.
t) MP3 is for "computer use", so therefore in the US idiotic piracy taxes probably can't be applied (like they do to DAT -- I know that isn't MiniDisc, but you never know what might happen in the future). In Canada, though, that doesn't count as we have piracy taxes on data CDs.
There's probably more reasons I could come up with but a-t is enough for now.
Just my opinions.
Thank you so much for that link.
I've been looking for that link for a while. I remember seeing it a long time ago and I never bookmarked it.
So many times have I wanted to _prove_ that MP3 isn't horrible if you know what you are doing.
This will prove handy next time there's another Minidisc (256kbits ATRAC) vs. MP3 argument.
Actually, I have a 23 Min 3" CDR in my hand right now. The writing on it states it holds 200 MB of data.
Probably just a tiny version of an 80 Min CDR.
My pioneer slot load DVD-ROM wouldn't grab onto the 3" CD. Infact, I almost lost one of my 3" recordables inside it trying it. :-/
Peoples' hearing is not worse today. Their equipment is better.
:-)
Would you suggest yesterday's cassette tape technology was a result of peoples' poor hearing? Not likely (I hope!). But the frequency response of a standard casette deck tops out at about 13 kHz. The signal to noise ratio isn't much better at just above 50 dB.
A new, record player has a signal to noise ratio so low I'm going to point it out to every future vynilphile I meet: 45 dB. Ugh!
CDs are much better than both of these, but is it really so hard to believe that people are willing to put up with lower quality sound when they've had it for the past few decades anyways?
And besides, a 256 kbits MP3 is 99.9% of the quality of the original CD. I'd have to do some searching, but I think I can find the website that did the comparative testing.
Well, since you linked to it, lemme just say a couple of things about that page:
:-) Anyone who is willing to accept plain copyright may use my GPL software. If you aren't willing to accept plain copyright, well, here's hoping you haven't read any books written this century...
(Under "So, why don't I use Linux")
>I don't understand the Linux development system...
The Linux development system is so fragmented because it simply has to be. So much more development is done with Linux that the guy who writes xyz doesn't have time to be involved with the kernel or the distribution phase. You can be assured things keep working by the distribution you use. The people packaging your distribution are really "in charge" of ensuring the software that comes with it works, no hassles. I guess if you don't feel comfortable trusting the distribution maintainer you can do it yourself (that's really not a good idea at all).
>If I have found a problem and a solution, who should I go to?
Kernel Problem: Linux or Alan Cox. But since that isn't happening (they're too busy making the kernels!), I'd suggest posting on one of the kernel traffic mail lists -- your suggestion will be reveiwed.
Software Problem: If you have the latest distribution, and the software you are using has been seen to work on other distributions just fine, send mail to the distribution creator. If it has troubles on all distributions, then send a patch to the author of the software (its probably still in alpha/beta). In the primary case the problem is limited to just your distribution. In the latter case the main software tree is repaired, which in time will flow into the other distributions, ensuring they are working in the future too.
>There is (maybe there is these days) no standard for installing additional software.
Well, if you're an RPMer, sure. If you do things the UN*X way, then its just the same as BSD. Choose where you want your software to live then:
./configure --with-prefix=/where/i/want/it
make
make install
Not hard in the slightest. It's been that way for the past few years. Before that you needed to edit the Makefile and change the install location. Before that I would agree, Linux wasn't ready for primetime. But that would be before '95.
You can be sure it doesn't screw up parts of the OS the same way you would be sure in BSD: Read the Makefile.
>Why does my startup-screen gets spammed with copyright about this and that, in multiple colours?
Funny, I don't get colours on boot in my Linux (Slackware). If you don't like the copyrights, well, you have the source. Use it. This really isn't a good argument against Linux, IMHO. Sorta like arguing you don't want an AT&T phone because it's red and says "AT&T" on it.
>I don't like the GPL.
I do.
As far as development goes, I prefer the protection the GPL gives my software from people like Microsoft or IBM using it in their proprietary OSes without my permission. But that's your choice, and I won't fault you for it. Other than that I really don't have much of a problem with the BSD license.
>which distribution should I take?
For you, definately Slackware.
>If I choose Red Hat or Debian or Suse, what are the consequences for later?
About the same as the consequences of choosing OpenBSD over FreeBSD. Nothing earth shatteringly different. Just -- well -- different. Like Swiss cheese is different from Mozerella cheese.
>Can I run the program compiled with Debian Linux under Red Hat or Suse.
If you compile it staticly, for sure. If you compile it dynamicly, make sure you have similar libraries on both. Again, the difficulty level is your choice.
>Can I even get it compiled?
If you are able to run *BSD, I don't see why not. You obviously have the necessary knowledge to run a Linux system without problems.
Just my 2 cents.
Do what people always used to do when kids were bad, or made mistakes. Make the kid pay for the damage, literally.
:-)
The teenager could:
- Repair the webserver they trashed (under supervision). This would be good experience and would direct the teenager's "hacking" abilities in an appropriate direction. This is only good for a minor offense, as the average script kiddie isn't going to have the slightest clue about setting up a real server. This option also forces the teen to learn through personal experience what damage their acts cause (I wouldn't be surprised if script kiddies are thinking about the thrill of the hack, rather than the consequences when they hack -- this might make them do the latter).
You need to take more caution with that option than the latter. The teenager might enjoy the punishment and become worse. Perhaps making them do volunteer technical support for the company would be less enjoyable?
or:
- Pay for the repair. Make the teenager get a job, and hold it long enough to pay a couple of thousand dollars for repairs and perhaps they might learn some respect for other's property through "hard time". This is a little more foolproof.
It's only if options like that fail that they need to see some more serious punishments, IMHO.
It's like a kid breaking a window. The first time the parents' should make the kid apologize for doing it and the parents' should pay for the repair. The second time the kid pays for the repair. The third time... well, I don't know. I don't think there's usually a third time for a well balanced kid.
Actually, they made us learn on Fujitsu Cobol for windows. I never tried a PIC that big on it, but that compiler even let you write object oriented, graphical windows applications in Cobol.
:-)
No joke. I couldn't believe it either until I saw examples in the book.
>Why didn't you use an indexed relative file to load your data set?
Sorry man, I tried to avoid learning anything even remotely complicated in that language... My goal was freedom 55 in that course (passing mark at the College). I somehow ended up with better than that though.
What's funny about this is that the suing parties probably chose the serial port version as to what blew up their computer.
The serial port is normally the only device in the computer using a full +12v/-12v swing. It probably can handle more (someone else here said up to +/- 30v). It is also designed to handle TTL levels (0-5 V) with grace.
Basically, they couldn't have chosen a more silly thing to sue about. Assming the palm uses 3 volts it would have to generate 20 times that voltage before it could cause serial port damage. While this is not impossible (witness TVs that regularly generate 200 times line voltage), I don't see a flyback transformer anywhere in the palms' circuitry.
All in all, these people don't understand computer hardware. I really hope they release their names and pictures so I can frame them at home to show people why you need to understand a computer before you consider suing.
Oh, and on a modern computer, (somehow) blowing up a serial port would likely damage the multi I/O controller, causing failure of the HDD, FDD, and other fun things. If the multi I/O is integrated into the south bridge (probably is) you might also ruin your PCI ports.
But there's just no way you're gonna blow up the rest of the motherboard unless you hook the serial port up to line voltage.
Unfortunately, though, the serial port isn't likely to be protected by fuses. Current limiting resistors, maybe, but not fuses.
[The above are just opinions and I wouldn't reccomend finding out the sensitivity of your serial port to out of spec voltages].
It's not the burn once thing I was trying to refer to, it's making the fake 2.88 MB disk image and then burning it onto a disc.
ElTorito basicially makes your 650 MB CD into a floppy disk (which makes burning the CD a task as long as writing out the disc -- on my 6x burner the fixation takes 1 minute).
CD-RW is a nice idea though.
Well, they did do it in a very limited fashion (ssssh! I shouldn't refute my own arguments! It's wrong I tell you, Wrong!).
grep -r blah xyz/
Is probably what you want. It is quite similar to windows find in that fashion...
IDENTIFICATION DIVISION.
PROGRAM-ID. SLASHDOT-COMMENT.
AUTHOR. SHEPD.
INSTALLATION. UNIVAC.
DATE-WRITTEN. THE-EPOCH.
DATE-COMPILED. NEVER DID GET IT TO DO THAT.
SECURITY. NONE.
ENVIRONMENT DIVISION.
DATA DIVISION.
FILE SECTION.
WORKING-STORAGE SECTION.
01 PLEASE-GOD-NO.
05 THEY-MADE-ME-DO-IT PIC X(3) VALUE "TRUE"
05 OUTPUT-STUFF PIC X(100000) VALUE SPACES.
PROCEDURE DIVISION.
LET-ME-OUT-PROCEDURE.
IF THIS-LANGUAGE-SUCKS IS GREATER THAN OR EQUAL TO TRUE THEN
MOVE "COBOL" TO OUTPUT-STUFF
WRITE OUTPUT-STUFF AFTER ADVANCING 3 LINES
ELSE
MOVE "NOT COBOL" TO OUTPUT-STUFF
WRITE OUTPUT-STUFF AFTER ADVANCING 3 LINES
END IF.
END-LET-ME-OUT-PROCEDURE.
MOVE SPACES TO OUTPUT-STUFF
WRITE OUTPUT-STUFF AFTER ADVANCING 1 PAGE
STOP RUN.
Does that explain it? My College thought that Cobol would be a good skill to have when we graduate in 2002 so they figured they would make it a mandatory credit.
Instead I think it brain my damaged.
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Now, since power users like flexibility, lets remove the options that limit them from being able to make their own disks (assuming a robust network administrated by others, and one computer for you). You are left with:
- CD-ROM
Oh dear God is this the world's worst pain in the ass. I am not going to burn CDs just to boot. No freakin' way.
- External USB drives, firewire drives
Uhh, $300!?!? (Maybe you'll find 'em cheaper -- if it's under $20 total each I'll agree this is a viable option) That isn't a boot medium you can give to others or throw about without worrying. Don't forget these suckers are huge compared to normal removeable media.
- Other ATA/EIDE drives
Chicken and Egg. Which came first, the HDD with the OS or the one without. That and the size and price thing... No thanks.
Nope, none of these is a good option for a power user. Zip disks, maybe... but at $20 a pop, and with their ultra-proprietary nature, no thanks. I want something open, that way when/if iOmega tanks like SyQuest, I don't have to buy a new computer. So I'd say superdisk, but then why not use a floppy?
As far as I can see a floppy still beats all. Just my opinion.
>So, what's the argument for a floppy again?
Ubiquity outside of Jobs reality distortion field.
>I guess they'll haul out the "more=better" arguement now.
No, I'll just haul out the more=useless argument. Modem users aren't going to wait 15 minutes to boot their O/S over the net, and CodeRed will make your Cable boot like a 14.4. Ugh.
>How come zealots of tools that lack major functionality always turn it into a badge of honor?
Because the plugins are separate.
Remember the Unix code of coding: Do One Thing, And Do It Well.
A web browser should browse the web, nothing more. A plugin should plugin to the web browser to add enhancements.
Just like you could (in some strange fashion) consider grep a plugin to find when used like this:
find . -iname blah.txt -exec grep -i hello {} \;
That doesn't mean grep should be embedded in find. Infact, if it was, you yourself would likely cry out in horror (or so we would hope).