On the one hand, you appear to support the laws that let consumers sue companies for selling them products that aren't as advertised (fraud laws, I would suppose). On the other hand you say that consumers are always at fault.
I'm having trouble seeing that as anything but contradictory. Why would you support fraud laws yet suggest it is the consumer's fault? Normally in law the one at fault is the one in the wrong.
>That gas probably came from Iraq and contributed to funding those 9/11 terrorists and was cheaply refined so they could sell it to you at twice the price because they know how much you trust them.
Sure could have been. The gas was only advertised as gas. They didn't say who made it. Heck, 1000 people could have died to bring that gas to my tank. I don't know. Then again, I suppose I'm cold hearted and don't care all that much, otherwise I'd have asked.
But what I see on the sign, I think I have the right to assume it is true, unless it is clearly outrageous. I don't think it is outrageous to expect the speed of processor in your computer that's listed on your receipt.
>You live in a fantasy world. Try that in the real world sometime and see how long you stay in business. My guess is you would be slapped with a lawsuit before the end of your openning day.
I sure would be. However, it'd be hard for you to prove I didn't sell you a computer if you're already out the door! [ Not that I'd ever do this, but I'm trying to illustrate a point here. ] My question is: Who is _really_ at fault if I sell you an empty case as a whole computer? [ Note: I'd fill the thing with bricks so you wouldn't be able to tell it's empty. ]
>Isn't that the one with the combo black+color cartridge that's like $50 to replace and prints like 1 page a minute? If that's all you want from a printer, I guess I can't argue there.
It is slow as all hell, but the black and colour are separate. It looks like crap for anything but solid colours -- however, it only is used when I have to print colour, as I have a laser.
It's really just a supplement printer. It gets used about once a month, max.:)
>Ummm, yeah. I don't know this for a fact, but I would guess that for areas of sufficient population density, the infrastructure for cell phones is cheaper than the infrastructure for land lines. So it actually is likely to make a good deal of sense to put up cell networks...
I'm sure you're right, but...
I just don't think Iraqis are looking to chat on the phone as a top after-war priority. Just my guess. And those emergency communications that need to be done will likely be done by things that are more convenient (and far cheaper) like CB radio. Again, just IMHO.
I say yes to this because, well, wait a minute, I say no to both technologies.
Iraqis, at the moment, don't exactly look like they really need cellphones. And that's coming from the rose colour glasses that would be IraqTV. They can't even get a signal over from their only international TV station here better than an EP VHS tape and we think they need CELL PHONES? Heck, their TV station only has ONE microphone for everything! Their music videos look like they came out of 1960! Yikes!
Holy screwed up priorities people! Maybe they would like... radios first? That's if they need gadgets. I think most Iraqis would rather, right now, have their homes rebuilt after the US bombs the hell out of them. You know, rebuilt with running water, and toilets inside! Wow!
CDMA vs. GSM vs. Surviving in Iraq. What's your choice?
Because I'm sure the first thing on the Iraqis mind, when they're liberated, is exactly how they're going to rebuild their cell phone network. It'd be the first thing on my mind too!
>It is the exact same way with cellphones, look at the cost of a unlocked (gsm) cellphone compared to the cost of getting the same phone under contract with a cellphone provider that locks you into the use of that one provider. Granted, some people do go for the unlocked phones, but the vast majority are fine with a locked phone from the provider because it is the same phone but much cheaper. Same with DirecTV who eat a loss of somewhere around $200 for each reciever they sell. Oh, and it only works with DirecTV.
All these things are pirated. All idiotic business models will attract some form of pirate to screw it up. It is only a matter of time. It has always been like this, and always will be.
The funny thing is in the case of things like DirecTV, the employment of those selling pirate equipment is larger than the amount employed in the sales of legal equipment by my estimation.
The minute I bought my phone at the discounted price I unlocked it. This was partly because the phone company was so inept they couldn't figure out the unlock code for me, so I figured I'd just do the damn thing myself. Now my phone is worth a bunch more, all for the price of a $20 cable.
Expect some company to make more money than Dell from their stupidity by "pirating" their chips in some fashion. Sooner, rather than later.
>There is a technical reason for this actually, the ink nozzles tend to get clogged over time. Thus printing quality over the life of the printer will be better if you change the nozzles every time you change the ink.
They say that, but my Epson Stylus Color (original) printed like the day I bought it for over 10 years. And I had refilled the black cart many times (and had replaced it many times as well). Tried colour, but the lack of pressure caused it to leak.:-(
So, permanent cartridges, done right ($1 per dpi) will work just fine.
BTW: Impact printers still have the cheapest cost per page. They probably always will.:-)
Let's put this into another context: Older cordless phones on the 49 Mhz band didn't authenticate, and broadcasted in the clear (much like most of today's phones, which only authenticate -- Oh they joys of owning a scanner! Find out if your neighbours hate you [yet] or not!). This means that if you had your cordless phone off the base station and your neighbour had his tuned to the same channel (with his base station off), he'd be able to use your phone line. Illegal? Wrong? I'll let you decide. I suppose it all depends on how you used it. Did you make a call to a toll-free number? Probably not morally reprehensible, but probably also illegal. Call a phone-sex line? A little from column A, a little from column B!
Since no real hard and fast laws exist about this (that I know of) you'd be best not pushing the issue, IMHO. You don't want to become case law, do you?;-)
>You had every chance to buy that electric vehicle or research each gas company you are so ready to trust. If you don't make the right decisions who can you blame but yourself?
I did. The sign said they were selling me gas for my car. Their pumps fit only cars. What I bought wasn't a grade of gas fit for use in a car. You're suggesting that it should be my fault that they lied?
[Like I said, this actually happened, not to me, but to others. My other examples are also unusual, but certainly not impossible]
And where are electric vehicles coming in to this? What if the company wired the polarity of their charger backwards and it blew out the electronics on my car... is that my fault also? Or should I have just bought a hydrogen vehicle?
>Its not like you're forced into buying gas, or even driving, for that matter.
So, let's see. Because gas isn't an essential product I deserve no recompense?
Owning a home isn't essential, therefore if the bank decides to forclose on your mortgage, despite the fact you violated no terms of the contract, hell, they should be able to, right?
Hell, shoes aren't essential. What if your pair of Nikes (or whatever) fell to bits the moment you wore them, before you even set foot on the ground? Your fault, I guess.
Basically, you're telling me that only water, tofu, and vegetables shouldn't be buyer beware. I humbly suggest you're the only one on earth with that opinion.
>Oh, and if they sell you something other than what they have clearly stated it is known as fraud and can be illegal in some places.
Exactly. And that's what selling an overclocked machine is, assuming they haven't told you it was such.
Unlike some laws (like jaywalking) this one not only makes the act illegal, but the act itself is morally reprehensible with or without such laws.
I think the some places qualifier is unnecessary, unless you're going to drag dictatorships (or near dictatorships) into the debate... I can't think of a single free country where being given something different than advertised is legal unless the company disclaims such liability.
>I think the consumer is always at fault.
Good. Please shop at my store, where I will sell you a "computer" which, when you bring it home, is nothing more than a case with no parts inside. I could use the 1,000% profit, and since you don't care for any consumer rights, I've got nothing to worry about.
>I shop at Fry's. I have purchased stuff online before and been ripped off, but usually when I'm purchasing a chip I want to be able to return it if it doesn't work. I have never been given the wrong chip on accident from Fry's.
First off, the people working at Fry's are too stupid to figure out how to overclock a system. If they did, it was by complete idiot mistake, not on purpose, either that or they were lucky and got a Chinese FOB who could read the manual in its untranslated form.
Second, if you're buying the raw chip, you can look at it and see the speed printed on it. Good luck returning it if they sent you the wrong part though...
Lastly, if you're buying a computer and are a "moron" (don't take that personally -- I'm not calling you or the parent to your post a moron) you don't look inside your computer ever and so even if the processor is marked at the slower speed the only thing you ever see is the BIOS screen saying the processor's overclocked speed.
>An ignorant consumer is no one's fault.
Hmmmm. Let's say I'm selling gas. I add 20% crap to the gas at a cost of virtually nothing to me and you buy my gas at full price without being told it's full of crap. Luckily the crap doesn't destroy your car, but after a year or two your mechanic asks you why theres a big pool of crap in your gas tank that's been slowly destroying your engine, and now it needs replacing.
Should you take it up the ass because you were ignorant that the gas company sold you crap gas that destroyed your engine? Or is it their fault for not selling you what they said they'd sell you (gasoline safe for you to fill your car with)?
BTW: This has actually happened, more than just a few times...
>Actually, Intel CPU's produce more heat than AMD CPU's, but they are just much more efficient at dissipating it (comparing the latest from each).
Not exactly.
Intel CPUs slow down until they cool off to a "reasonable" point, whereas AMD chips will run at top speed until they set on fire.
Assuming you've got the chip cooled properly, the setting on fire thing doesn't present a problem.
However, all this means that the intel chip will always run cooler than the AMD chip, unless AMD does something really new with their chips. Of course the cool runnings are at the price of speed, and are one of the reasons why I'm not all that interested in P4 processors (next reason being price).
>If a 19 year old raver goes in to a mercedes dealership and buys a car, they don't turn him down. That doesn't mean they'll start marketting towards 19 year old ravers, though. Its about who they can sell the most to, at the higher price.
That 19 year old raver will one day be the executive in charge of approving computer orders. And guess what executives are most comfortable ordering? What they already know, of course. And, as many of us have found out the hard way, whether it's good for the company or not isn't the issue.
Smart companies (like McDonald's, as an example) get people "hooked" before they're able to make rational descisions.
I think when I open my store I'm going to pipe chamber music into the computer repair area. Last thing I want to do is to get the workers excited about their jobs...
Nope, sorry. With all the current laws on streaming, expect to pay out the ass to be an internet radio station to do it legally.
If you don't, there's always the public performance laws.
The files would be fine to share, IMH non-laywer O, if one was to set up the server to lock the files so that only one user can read each one at a time.
Fortunately, I'm in Canada, and, as far as I can tell, it is completely legal for me to do this (set up an MP3 repository at my company with music ripped from CDs I keep there) because of the guilty-before-proven-innocent CD-R levy. I'm pretty sure I'd only have to set it up to deny access when I'm not at work.
>RSA isn't uncrackable. It's not designed to be uncrackable.
Neither is a One Time Pad. Unless you're dumb enough to give the customer the pad... which is what so very many companies do. All the time.
How do you think most digital TV gets cracked? If it's worth it, it will be cracked. Hell, for the last big crack at TV they electron microscoped and reverse-engineered the actual smartcard (which contains a key).
With people willing to go to those extremes, anything that's supposed to be a neat little encypted package will get cracked if it's valuable enough.
That is, unless you don't let the customer have the key in any form whatsoever. In which case the item is totally useless, so why bother?
Encryption is only secure if the intended recipient can be completely trusted. Otherwise kiss goodbye to anything of "value".
>Maybe this won't be technically uncrackable, but what will one have to go through to crack it? Cracking Hardware isn't like cracking Software.
Considering the amount of effort scammers put into remarking chips back in the day, it will happen. Imagine selling a P4 1.7 Ghz as a P4 2.2 Ghz and having it fully authenticated as "the real thing". Rake in $$$ hand over fist.
>Loss productive time due to you running patches and updates on Windows, redoing lost work due to the system hanging -- it adds up!
One would hope you're patching your Mac OS! Windows does that for you semi-automatically, anyways, at the cost of signing your rights away.
If the system is hanging during image editing, it's adobe's fault. If it's hanging because you're browsing slashdot and MSIE explodes while you have adobe open, that's Microsoft's fault, and why are you not working?;-)
>But things just run better on the Mac
Blech. Things are way slower on a Mac for me. The other day I was surfing the web with mozilla on one of those new eMacs, and the fact that I had to "palm" the mouse to make it click, combined with the lack of scroll wheel broke my productivity way down past the crappy PII 350 work gave me. Sure, pages appeared quicker, but working with that mouse was hell on my arm and wrists.
Not to mention figuring out how to get anything started was a PITA on a Mac. How the hell do I start the equivalent of notepad (I assume such a basic utility is included with the OS, right?) I clicked on that little apple menu in the corner, but it didn't seem to present me with any solutions (yes, it was running the old Mac OS -- I suppose the new one isn't bad for this -- I'll try it out if I ever find a machine running it anywhere convenient [ie: Without sales staff]).
The only reason I got mozilla started is because someone was nice enough to leave a link to it on the desktop. Blech. That's a sucky place to start your programs.
But hey, each to their own. Perhaps if I had the missing Mac OS manual handy, I'd be in the zone. But with any other system (including all sorts of wacky X window managers) I don't usually have such trouble getting simple applications going, so I'm leaning towards usability problem rather than lack of knowledge. If anyone would care to enlighten me, though, hey, I'm game.
On expensive portable items, if you plan to use them a lot. I've already ruined one keyboard on my laptop, and was happy to not pay $300 (or so) to have it fixed. Same thing with my phone. My Motorola V-BOX POS finally busted a few months ago and they were happy to replace it with a Nokia 8390. And then the power button on that busted, so I got a third phone (which I had to unlock manually because Rogers are stupid).
I doubt I'd get coverage like that without a warranty.
Anything else is probably a waste of money. And while they say the warranty doesn't cover abuse, it takes some really obvious abuse (like running over your laptop with a car [happened to me]) before the customer service guys will care. I'll let you guess how my keyboard broke, just like I let them guess.:-)
Risky? Hardly. I can't think of a single fatality resulting from a CANDU reactor, apart from those not related to the fact the plant is nuclear.
Or did you mean "OLD" nuclear energy, like Windscale and Chernobyl? These poor designs should never have been put into production, and people have suffered as a result.
Nuclear energy, done right, is far more safe than any other energy production method. The risks for an installer of solar panels are likely higher than the risks of working at a CANDU reactor. Certainly more people have died as a result of energy dam accidents, and I can't even imagine the numbers that die as a result of toxic smoke spewed from coal and gas fired energy generators.
In fact, CANDU Nuclear Reactors are so safe that even this anti-nuclear article, try as it might, can't find a single death resulting from any accident at a CANDU reactor. Not one. Nada. Zip. Zero.
I'd feel safer working there than programming. Programmers get RSI. I think I'll move to Pickering and see if I can get a job at the reactor. That way I don't have to worry about on the job lethal accidents.
IIRC, there was a posting some time ago that added up the entire waste output from all nuclear reactors since day one. They estimated it would fit in three football fields. At that rate, we'll be able to perform cold fusion before waste management becomes a problem.
Pac Man cereal was the best cereal on earth! It mixed my two favourite cereals into one (That being corn pops and lucky charms). Mmmmmm. Goes right up there with cocoa puffs before Nestle rebranded them with the rabbit instead of the bird (and make them taste like cardboard) and that cocoa rice cereal I seem to recall a monkey schilling... Mmmmm. I wish I had some of those cereals now.
I guess I'll have to stick with the unholy couple of Frakenberries and Count Chocula.
>Unlike spam, a single fax can tie up your machine and make you miss a wanted fax, while for spam, only the overwhelming volume, not any one message, can be in rare cases responsible for filling a mailbox to the point it can't get mail.
Hmmm, if this is correct, most of us are paying about $10 - $20 a month to receive spam. Companies would be paying in the $100 to $200 a month range.
Well, if I can get the replacement battery for $10, that's not bad at all.
The headphone jack is still a disapointment, as it means I'll have to carry a dongle around that's likely to get lost. I've already had enough problems with silly dongles for network adapters on my laptop... I'd rather not bother dealing with that stuff for a toy.
I'll take a look at the price of replacement batteries. If I can get them for a reasonable price, I'm game. It's just been my experience that such parts from all other manufacturers are overpriced by about 5-10x (Can you tell I've dealt with IBM stuff yet?):-)
Until I found out about it using a non-standard battery.
Thanks for warning me slashdot! I hate products where replacing the battery is likely going to cost more than the value of the item, and refuse to buy them. The only exception I make is laptops, where there is limited choice.
And no headphone jack? That's inexcusable. And highly surprising for a Japanese product.
And I was just getting interested, what with the media player / programming flash pack hacks that are being made for it. Ho-hum.
Slashdot Mirror
You're still confusing me.
On the one hand, you appear to support the laws that let consumers sue companies for selling them products that aren't as advertised (fraud laws, I would suppose). On the other hand you say that consumers are always at fault.
I'm having trouble seeing that as anything but contradictory. Why would you support fraud laws yet suggest it is the consumer's fault? Normally in law the one at fault is the one in the wrong.
>That gas probably came from Iraq and contributed to funding those 9/11 terrorists and was cheaply refined so they could sell it to you at twice the price because they know how much you trust them.
Sure could have been. The gas was only advertised as gas. They didn't say who made it. Heck, 1000 people could have died to bring that gas to my tank. I don't know. Then again, I suppose I'm cold hearted and don't care all that much, otherwise I'd have asked.
But what I see on the sign, I think I have the right to assume it is true, unless it is clearly outrageous. I don't think it is outrageous to expect the speed of processor in your computer that's listed on your receipt.
>You live in a fantasy world. Try that in the real world sometime and see how long you stay in business. My guess is you would be slapped with a lawsuit before the end of your openning day.
I sure would be. However, it'd be hard for you to prove I didn't sell you a computer if you're already out the door! [ Not that I'd ever do this, but I'm trying to illustrate a point here. ] My question is: Who is _really_ at fault if I sell you an empty case as a whole computer? [ Note: I'd fill the thing with bricks so you wouldn't be able to tell it's empty. ]
>Isn't that the one with the combo black+color cartridge that's like $50 to replace and prints like 1 page a minute? If that's all you want from a printer, I guess I can't argue there.
:)
It is slow as all hell, but the black and colour are separate. It looks like crap for anything but solid colours -- however, it only is used when I have to print colour, as I have a laser.
It's really just a supplement printer. It gets used about once a month, max.
>Ummm, yeah. I don't know this for a fact, but I would guess that for areas of sufficient population density, the infrastructure for cell phones is cheaper than the infrastructure for land lines. So it actually is likely to make a good deal of sense to put up cell networks...
I'm sure you're right, but...
I just don't think Iraqis are looking to chat on the phone as a top after-war priority. Just my guess. And those emergency communications that need to be done will likely be done by things that are more convenient (and far cheaper) like CB radio. Again, just IMHO.
I say yes to this because, well, wait a minute, I say no to both technologies.
Iraqis, at the moment, don't exactly look like they really need cellphones. And that's coming from the rose colour glasses that would be IraqTV. They can't even get a signal over from their only international TV station here better than an EP VHS tape and we think they need CELL PHONES? Heck, their TV station only has ONE microphone for everything! Their music videos look like they came out of 1960! Yikes!
Holy screwed up priorities people! Maybe they would like... radios first? That's if they need gadgets. I think most Iraqis would rather, right now, have their homes rebuilt after the US bombs the hell out of them. You know, rebuilt with running water, and toilets inside! Wow!
CDMA vs. GSM vs. Surviving in Iraq. What's your choice?
Because I'm sure the first thing on the Iraqis mind, when they're liberated, is exactly how they're going to rebuild their cell phone network. It'd be the first thing on my mind too!
>It is the exact same way with cellphones, look at the cost of a unlocked (gsm) cellphone compared to the cost of getting the same phone under contract with a cellphone provider that locks you into the use of that one provider. Granted, some people do go for the unlocked phones, but the vast majority are fine with a locked phone from the provider because it is the same phone but much cheaper. Same with DirecTV who eat a loss of somewhere around $200 for each reciever they sell. Oh, and it only works with DirecTV.
All these things are pirated. All idiotic business models will attract some form of pirate to screw it up. It is only a matter of time. It has always been like this, and always will be.
The funny thing is in the case of things like DirecTV, the employment of those selling pirate equipment is larger than the amount employed in the sales of legal equipment by my estimation.
The minute I bought my phone at the discounted price I unlocked it. This was partly because the phone company was so inept they couldn't figure out the unlock code for me, so I figured I'd just do the damn thing myself. Now my phone is worth a bunch more, all for the price of a $20 cable.
Expect some company to make more money than Dell from their stupidity by "pirating" their chips in some fashion. Sooner, rather than later.
>How exactly is this supposed to drive up prices again?
I don't know about you, but I got my HP/Apollo printer for $6 US. Tell me how it's 1/4 full cartridges are cheaper to buy separate again....
>There is a technical reason for this actually, the ink nozzles tend to get clogged over time. Thus printing quality over the life of the printer will be better if you change the nozzles every time you change the ink.
:-(
:-)
They say that, but my Epson Stylus Color (original) printed like the day I bought it for over 10 years. And I had refilled the black cart many times (and had replaced it many times as well). Tried colour, but the lack of pressure caused it to leak.
So, permanent cartridges, done right ($1 per dpi) will work just fine.
BTW: Impact printers still have the cheapest cost per page. They probably always will.
60 W PiMPO!
/sarcasm
Includes a subwoofer. Oh yeah...
Seems to me if the game has a quit button, there's an alternate way of resolving the conflict.
Let's put this into another context: Older cordless phones on the 49 Mhz band didn't authenticate, and broadcasted in the clear (much like most of today's phones, which only authenticate -- Oh they joys of owning a scanner! Find out if your neighbours hate you [yet] or not!). This means that if you had your cordless phone off the base station and your neighbour had his tuned to the same channel (with his base station off), he'd be able to use your phone line. Illegal? Wrong? I'll let you decide. I suppose it all depends on how you used it. Did you make a call to a toll-free number? Probably not morally reprehensible, but probably also illegal. Call a phone-sex line? A little from column A, a little from column B!
;-)
Since no real hard and fast laws exist about this (that I know of) you'd be best not pushing the issue, IMHO. You don't want to become case law, do you?
>You had every chance to buy that electric vehicle or research each gas company you are so ready to trust. If you don't make the right decisions who can you blame but yourself?
I did. The sign said they were selling me gas for my car. Their pumps fit only cars. What I bought wasn't a grade of gas fit for use in a car. You're suggesting that it should be my fault that they lied?
[Like I said, this actually happened, not to me, but to others. My other examples are also unusual, but certainly not impossible]
And where are electric vehicles coming in to this? What if the company wired the polarity of their charger backwards and it blew out the electronics on my car... is that my fault also? Or should I have just bought a hydrogen vehicle?
>Its not like you're forced into buying gas, or even driving, for that matter.
So, let's see. Because gas isn't an essential product I deserve no recompense?
Owning a home isn't essential, therefore if the bank decides to forclose on your mortgage, despite the fact you violated no terms of the contract, hell, they should be able to, right?
Hell, shoes aren't essential. What if your pair of Nikes (or whatever) fell to bits the moment you wore them, before you even set foot on the ground? Your fault, I guess.
Basically, you're telling me that only water, tofu, and vegetables shouldn't be buyer beware. I humbly suggest you're the only one on earth with that opinion.
>Oh, and if they sell you something other than what they have clearly stated it is known as fraud and can be illegal in some places.
Exactly. And that's what selling an overclocked machine is, assuming they haven't told you it was such.
Unlike some laws (like jaywalking) this one not only makes the act illegal, but the act itself is morally reprehensible with or without such laws.
I think the some places qualifier is unnecessary, unless you're going to drag dictatorships (or near dictatorships) into the debate... I can't think of a single free country where being given something different than advertised is legal unless the company disclaims such liability.
>I think the consumer is always at fault.
Good. Please shop at my store, where I will sell you a "computer" which, when you bring it home, is nothing more than a case with no parts inside. I could use the 1,000% profit, and since you don't care for any consumer rights, I've got nothing to worry about.
>I shop at Fry's. I have purchased stuff online before and been ripped off, but usually when I'm purchasing a chip I want to be able to return it if it doesn't work. I have never been given the wrong chip on accident from Fry's.
First off, the people working at Fry's are too stupid to figure out how to overclock a system. If they did, it was by complete idiot mistake, not on purpose, either that or they were lucky and got a Chinese FOB who could read the manual in its untranslated form.
Second, if you're buying the raw chip, you can look at it and see the speed printed on it. Good luck returning it if they sent you the wrong part though...
Lastly, if you're buying a computer and are a "moron" (don't take that personally -- I'm not calling you or the parent to your post a moron) you don't look inside your computer ever and so even if the processor is marked at the slower speed the only thing you ever see is the BIOS screen saying the processor's overclocked speed.
>An ignorant consumer is no one's fault.
Hmmmm. Let's say I'm selling gas. I add 20% crap to the gas at a cost of virtually nothing to me and you buy my gas at full price without being told it's full of crap. Luckily the crap doesn't destroy your car, but after a year or two your mechanic asks you why theres a big pool of crap in your gas tank that's been slowly destroying your engine, and now it needs replacing.
Should you take it up the ass because you were ignorant that the gas company sold you crap gas that destroyed your engine? Or is it their fault for not selling you what they said they'd sell you (gasoline safe for you to fill your car with)?
BTW: This has actually happened, more than just a few times...
>Actually, Intel CPU's produce more heat than AMD CPU's, but they are just much more efficient at dissipating it (comparing the latest from each).
Not exactly.
Intel CPUs slow down until they cool off to a "reasonable" point, whereas AMD chips will run at top speed until they set on fire.
Assuming you've got the chip cooled properly, the setting on fire thing doesn't present a problem.
However, all this means that the intel chip will always run cooler than the AMD chip, unless AMD does something really new with their chips. Of course the cool runnings are at the price of speed, and are one of the reasons why I'm not all that interested in P4 processors (next reason being price).
>If a 19 year old raver goes in to a mercedes dealership and buys a car, they don't turn him down. That doesn't mean they'll start marketting towards 19 year old ravers, though. Its about who they can sell the most to, at the higher price.
That 19 year old raver will one day be the executive in charge of approving computer orders. And guess what executives are most comfortable ordering? What they already know, of course. And, as many of us have found out the hard way, whether it's good for the company or not isn't the issue.
Smart companies (like McDonald's, as an example) get people "hooked" before they're able to make rational descisions.
>None of these things is worth doing, anyway; you're there to work, not to listen to music.
;-)
Listening to music increases productivity.
I think when I open my store I'm going to pipe chamber music into the computer repair area. Last thing I want to do is to get the workers excited about their jobs...
Nope, sorry. With all the current laws on streaming, expect to pay out the ass to be an internet radio station to do it legally.
If you don't, there's always the public performance laws.
The files would be fine to share, IMH non-laywer O, if one was to set up the server to lock the files so that only one user can read each one at a time.
Fortunately, I'm in Canada, and, as far as I can tell, it is completely legal for me to do this (set up an MP3 repository at my company with music ripped from CDs I keep there) because of the guilty-before-proven-innocent CD-R levy. I'm pretty sure I'd only have to set it up to deny access when I'm not at work.
>RSA isn't uncrackable. It's not designed to be uncrackable.
Neither is a One Time Pad. Unless you're dumb enough to give the customer the pad... which is what so very many companies do. All the time.
How do you think most digital TV gets cracked? If it's worth it, it will be cracked. Hell, for the last big crack at TV they electron microscoped and reverse-engineered the actual smartcard (which contains a key).
With people willing to go to those extremes, anything that's supposed to be a neat little encypted package will get cracked if it's valuable enough.
That is, unless you don't let the customer have the key in any form whatsoever. In which case the item is totally useless, so why bother?
Encryption is only secure if the intended recipient can be completely trusted. Otherwise kiss goodbye to anything of "value".
>Maybe this won't be technically uncrackable, but what will one have to go through to crack it? Cracking Hardware isn't like cracking Software.
Considering the amount of effort scammers put into remarking chips back in the day, it will happen. Imagine selling a P4 1.7 Ghz as a P4 2.2 Ghz and having it fully authenticated as "the real thing". Rake in $$$ hand over fist.
>Loss productive time due to you running patches and updates on Windows, redoing lost work due to the system hanging -- it adds up!
;-)
One would hope you're patching your Mac OS! Windows does that for you semi-automatically, anyways, at the cost of signing your rights away.
If the system is hanging during image editing, it's adobe's fault. If it's hanging because you're browsing slashdot and MSIE explodes while you have adobe open, that's Microsoft's fault, and why are you not working?
>But things just run better on the Mac
Blech. Things are way slower on a Mac for me. The other day I was surfing the web with mozilla on one of those new eMacs, and the fact that I had to "palm" the mouse to make it click, combined with the lack of scroll wheel broke my productivity way down past the crappy PII 350 work gave me. Sure, pages appeared quicker, but working with that mouse was hell on my arm and wrists.
Not to mention figuring out how to get anything started was a PITA on a Mac. How the hell do I start the equivalent of notepad (I assume such a basic utility is included with the OS, right?) I clicked on that little apple menu in the corner, but it didn't seem to present me with any solutions (yes, it was running the old Mac OS -- I suppose the new one isn't bad for this -- I'll try it out if I ever find a machine running it anywhere convenient [ie: Without sales staff]).
The only reason I got mozilla started is because someone was nice enough to leave a link to it on the desktop. Blech. That's a sucky place to start your programs.
But hey, each to their own. Perhaps if I had the missing Mac OS manual handy, I'd be in the zone. But with any other system (including all sorts of wacky X window managers) I don't usually have such trouble getting simple applications going, so I'm leaning towards usability problem rather than lack of knowledge. If anyone would care to enlighten me, though, hey, I'm game.
On expensive portable items, if you plan to use them a lot. I've already ruined one keyboard on my laptop, and was happy to not pay $300 (or so) to have it fixed. Same thing with my phone. My Motorola V-BOX POS finally busted a few months ago and they were happy to replace it with a Nokia 8390. And then the power button on that busted, so I got a third phone (which I had to unlock manually because Rogers are stupid).
:-)
I doubt I'd get coverage like that without a warranty.
Anything else is probably a waste of money. And while they say the warranty doesn't cover abuse, it takes some really obvious abuse (like running over your laptop with a car [happened to me]) before the customer service guys will care. I'll let you guess how my keyboard broke, just like I let them guess.
>"Modern" nuclear energy is too risky, period.
Risky? Hardly. I can't think of a single fatality resulting from a CANDU reactor, apart from those not related to the fact the plant is nuclear.
Or did you mean "OLD" nuclear energy, like Windscale and Chernobyl? These poor designs should never have been put into production, and people have suffered as a result.
Nuclear energy, done right, is far more safe than any other energy production method. The risks for an installer of solar panels are likely higher than the risks of working at a CANDU reactor. Certainly more people have died as a result of energy dam accidents, and I can't even imagine the numbers that die as a result of toxic smoke spewed from coal and gas fired energy generators.
In fact, CANDU Nuclear Reactors are so safe that even this anti-nuclear article, try as it might, can't find a single death resulting from any accident at a CANDU reactor. Not one. Nada. Zip. Zero.
I'd feel safer working there than programming. Programmers get RSI. I think I'll move to Pickering and see if I can get a job at the reactor. That way I don't have to worry about on the job lethal accidents.
IIRC, there was a posting some time ago that added up the entire waste output from all nuclear reactors since day one. They estimated it would fit in three football fields. At that rate, we'll be able to perform cold fusion before waste management becomes a problem.
Pac Man cereal was the best cereal on earth! It mixed my two favourite cereals into one (That being corn pops and lucky charms). Mmmmmm. Goes right up there with cocoa puffs before Nestle rebranded them with the rabbit instead of the bird (and make them taste like cardboard) and that cocoa rice cereal I seem to recall a monkey schilling... Mmmmm. I wish I had some of those cereals now.
I guess I'll have to stick with the unholy couple of Frakenberries and Count Chocula.
>Unlike spam, a single fax can tie up your machine and make you miss a wanted fax, while for spam, only the overwhelming volume, not any one message, can be in rare cases responsible for filling a mailbox to the point it can't get mail.
Hmmm, if this is correct, most of us are paying about $10 - $20 a month to receive spam. Companies would be paying in the $100 to $200 a month range.
That seems like enough to me.
>There's no law against sending unsolicited postal mail, so far as I know.
There is, but it's opt-out.
Enjoy! Don't forget to send it to Wal-Mart for their bra advertisements!
Well, if I can get the replacement battery for $10, that's not bad at all.
:-)
The headphone jack is still a disapointment, as it means I'll have to carry a dongle around that's likely to get lost. I've already had enough problems with silly dongles for network adapters on my laptop... I'd rather not bother dealing with that stuff for a toy.
I'll take a look at the price of replacement batteries. If I can get them for a reasonable price, I'm game. It's just been my experience that such parts from all other manufacturers are overpriced by about 5-10x (Can you tell I've dealt with IBM stuff yet?)
Until I found out about it using a non-standard battery.
Thanks for warning me slashdot! I hate products where replacing the battery is likely going to cost more than the value of the item, and refuse to buy them. The only exception I make is laptops, where there is limited choice.
And no headphone jack? That's inexcusable. And highly surprising for a Japanese product.
And I was just getting interested, what with the media player / programming flash pack hacks that are being made for it. Ho-hum.