You may wanna back up a bit and do your research there, friend... I'm typing this on a Dell laptop that's about 6 months old, and which came with Ubuntu LTS preinstalled (Vostro V130n). They don't actively market it, because they don't want customers calling them to complain that their Windows-only software doesn't work on it, but they do sell it on consumer-class devices, on both desktop and laptop form factors, and they go out of their way to make sure that as much of their hardware as possible is supported by Linux, even if they don't provide the OS with it.
Surprisingly enough, they do sell an Ubuntu V131 laptop, and it's $120 Cheaper than the equivalent Win7 version. The only difference I can see is that the Ubuntu model doesn't include a finger print reader, and the Windows version lets you customize with a faster processor, more memory, and larger hard drive if you want to, while the Ubuntu version comes in only a single configuration. The probably don't want to qualify Ubuntu with multiple hardware configurations so they stick with a single config.
A few years back when I was looking for a Dell laptop, the Linux laptop configuration cost more than the Windows laptop configuration for equivalent hardware.
How long are we going to accept excuses for what is patent fraud? If he doesn't get smacked hard, we're going to be putting up with this crap indefinitely.
If you think that's fraud, wait until you see Star Wars - some may be fooled, but I for one don't believe that the Death Star could generate enough power to destroy an entire planet with a death ray.
A few weeks ago, I asked my 5 year old daughter who knows how to use my iphone, etc. if she knows what a calculator is, surprisingly she said no. Even when I showed her one.
Why would a 5 year old know what a calculator is? Kids must be more sophisticated these days if they need a calculator in pre-school.
It wasn't the sound of a mimeograph machine, it was the SMELL of a new math or history test -- with purple ink.
Exactly - I've never actually heard a mimeograph machine since it was locked up in the teacher staff room, but I definitely remember the smell of a purple inked pop quiz.
You're a bit out of touch with reality. But judging by your username, it's probably a bit of a stretch to expect you to be objective in this discussion.
The San Francisco Muni already has NextBus powered LED displays at bus stops that show arrival time of the next few buses - they should package them up like this and sell them to transit riders as a quick and easy way to see the arrival time of the next bus at their stop. Much more convenient to look at the bus-shaped sign by the door to see that I have 2 minutes 'till the next bus than to pull out my phone, unlock it, and load up the app.
Ahh yes, being in a hurry and blind reliance on spellcheck are not a good combination. I wish my browser's spell checker would look at frequency of use in language (or look at surrounding words for the best fit) when ordering recommendations!
At least I'm not the only one to make that mistake!
My boss signed up for a certain accounting software and quickly found out that it wouldn't work for our company because we do business internationally and the cloud version is not set up to handle different currencies. I don't know the details, but I thought that was pretty lame considering how much business is transacted internationally. So, whether a 'meltdown' is likely to happen or not, for our company it will be some time before the cloud version of this particular software is ready for us to find out!
Would his poor choice have been any different than if he bought software that runs on the computer in his office?
The cloud is not some magical being that suddenly makes applications work for every possible scenario, you still have to undergo the same specification and evaluation process that you do for software that you run yourself. The difference is that if the cloud provider adds international currency support, you don't have to upgrade your software. But you do still need to test the new software release to make sure it's doing what it's supposed to.
Too many people think that services in the cloud mean that there's no more software release cycle to deal with - that new functionality just magically appears and works perfectly. That's what our CFO thought when he was looking at cloud hosted accounting software - it wasn't until IT got involved and started asking questions about how to test new releases before they were migrated to our production system and how to control the release cycle (so, for example, we don't have new code released during our annual audit) that the CFO realized that cloud software doesn't magically mean perfect bug free software that never needs to be tested.
I've always thought that the problem would be when companies start using cloud services that rely on cloud servers that rely on cloud services and one of those cloud services has an outage.
A problem at one cloud provider can trickle up and affect your service that's running on a completely different cloud service, so for example, your website running on EC2 depends on order fulfillment software running on Rackspace's cloud, which uses back-end software on MS's Azure cloud.
If Azure has a hiccup, then your web store goes down, and if enough sites are affected, it can make real changes in the load (maybe less load because people can't shop, maybe more load because users keep hitting "reload" to try to place their order) on EC2 and Rackspace which could cause additional problems as load balancers try to shift load around as they respond to the sudden and huge change in load.
Part of the issue is that consumers may want to do the right thing but have no information as to which is the least of all evils. A device/company/plant database that can be checked before buying an electronic device would help solve that particular issue.
Another part of the issue is how you define "least of all evils". Is it less evil to build a factory in rural USA and hire factory workers that otherwise may have worked some other first-world job (working in a Mcdonalds, sweeping floors, general laborer, etc), or is it less evil to build a factory in China where the other option is either working at a less ethical factory under worse conditions or trying to eek out a living at subsidence farming.
That leads me to another point, if you do spend a good amount of time on conference calls, invest in a good desktop phone, like a Polycom. They're expensive (you get to write it off as an office expense, in the States, at least), but just another one of those things that lets you communicate clearly and effectively and not be the "that guy/gal" that nobody can ever understand over the echo.
Unless you're hosting multiple people for conferences in your home office, a good headset will make you sound far better than a $1000 Polycom conference phone.
Make sure you know what you're going to do when your VPN or phone line or cell phone fails. It doesn't happen to me too often (thankfully I've got two different ways of connecting to my companies VPN) but when it does it's a PITA. You need a plan for whether you phone in and take the rest of the day off or drive in to the local branch office and use the backbone network there.
Anther option is to use a cellular internet device as backup (either something like a Mifi, or a cell phone with a tethering plan). Then even if your primary connection goes down, you always have a backup
Every antivirus product I've used claims to scan memory for viruses (usually as the first step of a full scan). If it's not looking for these RAM based viruses, then what is it looking for?
People trot this tired line out again and again with NO BACKING.
I'm sorry you have such trouble understanding basic physics.
His argument is not that objects flying about the cabin aren't hazardous, it's that small electronic devices are no more dangerous than books. I don't know about Australia, but on airlines in the USA, I've never been asked to put away a book or magazine for takeoff, while flight attendants regularly warn people that all electronic devices (Kindles, iPods, phones, etc) *must* be put away for takeoff.
Why do I have to put away my 8 ounce Kindle during takeoff when the guy next to me gets to read his thick 24 ounce hardcover book? Granted, if the book hits you in the right way (open pages against your body), it might hurt less than a phone hitting on you on edge, but surely airlines aren't relying on geometry of a book strike lessening the blow?
If your airlines make you put away all handheld objects, then they are much more consistent than our airlines.
GPS?? Underground? Cool, so my scuba GPS is just around the corner too then.
Unless your SCUBA activities consist of walking around above the water level, I don't think you're going to find a GPS based solution to help you - water attenuates the signals too much.
However, if you're underground, there are a number of companies that can sell you GPS repeaters that will help you navigate even when you can't receive any satellite signals directly:
How well can an elephant's womb support an animal of a different species? Even human babies born to human mothers are in danger if something as simple as the mother's Rh factor is different than the baby's. Surely implanting an animal of one species into a completely different species will run into problems with rejection?
It will be good to finally get back to the moon. Can't wait to find out in what ways it's changed since the last time we visited.
Actually a lot has changed since we last visited - sort of. When the first moon landings happened, the technology that folks were able to take down to the surface was exceptionally limited. This means that any landings in the future will be able to carry out experiments that could have only been dreamed about in the 60s. SO, while things on the moon itself may not have changed, we are probably still going to learn a vast amount for the first time.
Besides, perhaps this is just the embarassment that the US space program needs to get some funding again.
Are there any lunar surface experiments that are better done by humans than by a robotic lander? Seems like it's an ideal place to run a remotely controlled lander since there's only a few second radio delay making control much easier than the Mars landers. And an unmanned mission would be much cheaper than any manned mission.
I know the Russians sent up a few unmanned lunar landers, but I think they were only capable of bringing home a sample.
All of my content at home is purchased and legal. What kind of suspicious behavior can I do to make Comcast flag me as a pirate (without having to actually download pirated content)?
No one that drinks coffee for the taste drinks "flavored coffee". They'd rather drink coffee that was pooped out of a monkey than drink vanilla flavored coffee.
Kopi Luwak is the world's most expensive coffee, and it is indeed "pooped out of" an animal. Try not to let your cultural biases cloud your thinking.
So I say that coffee connoisseurs would enjoy a cup of coffee pooped out of a monkey, and you point out the actual coffee I was referring to (ok, it's a civet, not a monkey), and you accuse me of culturally clouded thinking?
It's not like the pooped out coffee is that obscure, even Dave Barry mentioned it:
Then I thought: What kind of world is this when you worry that people might be ripping you off by selling you coffee that was NOT pooped out by a weasel?
Not everyone had internet acces in 1993.... I didn't get online until 1998.
Couldn't you say the same thing today? Not everyone has internet access in 2012 - only those that pay for it.
In 1993 Internet access was available to pretty much anyone who wanted it - and there was real competition, a medium sized city might have a dozen or more providers to choose from. It's not like today when a few large players are pretty much your only choice so they get to set the price. Back then, phone companies were complaining that internet use was killing them since people were pinning up their lines for hours or days at a time and their network wasn't built to handle that. Now phone companies are complaining that video downloads are killing them so they have to constrain bandwidth.
I paid much less for my internet access in 1993 than I pay today for internet. Of course, my connection is nearly a thousand times faster than when i had dialup.
Agree. Like I care to get coffee for the taste. If I want something tasty, very likely it will be a smoothie or plain juice.K I wonder if Starbucks has statistics about the consumption of decaf?
Yes they do - like any large retailer, they have a very sophisticated business intelligence system that gives them a great deal of detailed information about the buying habits of its customers, possibly in real-time fed from the cash registers. They love when people use Starbucks cards since it lets them track behavior of individuals across multiple stores instead of just aggregate statistics customers (plus they save a bundle in credit card transaction fees).
But they may not be willing to share the information.
Agreed. What good is non-caffeine coffee? I know of no one who actually drinks coffee just for the taste of it...even gourmet and flavored coffees. Maybe de-caff coffee is for people who can't drink coffee (due to religion or medical reasons) but want to "fit in" to crowds that do break-room or hallway gossip...I'm conjecturing.
No one that drinks coffee for the taste drinks "flavored coffee". They'd rather drink coffee that was pooped out of a monkey than drink vanilla flavored coffee.
Slashdot Mirror
You may wanna back up a bit and do your research there, friend... I'm typing this on a Dell laptop that's about 6 months old, and which came with Ubuntu LTS preinstalled (Vostro V130n). They don't actively market it, because they don't want customers calling them to complain that their Windows-only software doesn't work on it, but they do sell it on consumer-class devices, on both desktop and laptop form factors, and they go out of their way to make sure that as much of their hardware as possible is supported by Linux, even if they don't provide the OS with it.
Surprisingly enough, they do sell an Ubuntu V131 laptop, and it's $120 Cheaper than the equivalent Win7 version. The only difference I can see is that the Ubuntu model doesn't include a finger print reader, and the Windows version lets you customize with a faster processor, more memory, and larger hard drive if you want to, while the Ubuntu version comes in only a single configuration. The probably don't want to qualify Ubuntu with multiple hardware configurations so they stick with a single config.
A few years back when I was looking for a Dell laptop, the Linux laptop configuration cost more than the Windows laptop configuration for equivalent hardware.
How long are we going to accept excuses for what is patent fraud? If he doesn't get smacked hard, we're going to be putting up with this crap indefinitely.
If you think that's fraud, wait until you see Star Wars - some may be fooled, but I for one don't believe that the Death Star could generate enough power to destroy an entire planet with a death ray.
A few weeks ago, I asked my 5 year old daughter who knows how to use my iphone, etc. if she knows what a calculator is, surprisingly she said no. Even when I showed her one.
Why would a 5 year old know what a calculator is? Kids must be more sophisticated these days if they need a calculator in pre-school.
It wasn't the sound of a mimeograph machine, it was the SMELL of a new math or history test -- with purple ink.
Exactly - I've never actually heard a mimeograph machine since it was locked up in the teacher staff room, but I definitely remember the smell of a purple inked pop quiz.
You're a bit out of touch with reality. But judging by your username, it's probably a bit of a stretch to expect you to be objective in this discussion.
So what is the real story?
The San Francisco Muni already has NextBus powered LED displays at bus stops that show arrival time of the next few buses - they should package them up like this and sell them to transit riders as a quick and easy way to see the arrival time of the next bus at their stop. Much more convenient to look at the bus-shaped sign by the door to see that I have 2 minutes 'till the next bus than to pull out my phone, unlock it, and load up the app.
He fixes the cable?
He must be a Sysadmin!
Thank you, I was afraid there wouldn't be an opening for the obligatory XKCD reference.
at subsidence farming.
You, sir, are undermining your own argument!
Ahh yes, being in a hurry and blind reliance on spellcheck are not a good combination. I wish my browser's spell checker would look at frequency of use in language (or look at surrounding words for the best fit) when ordering recommendations!
At least I'm not the only one to make that mistake!
My boss signed up for a certain accounting software and quickly found out that it wouldn't work for our company because we do business internationally and the cloud version is not set up to handle different currencies. I don't know the details, but I thought that was pretty lame considering how much business is transacted internationally. So, whether a 'meltdown' is likely to happen or not, for our company it will be some time before the cloud version of this particular software is ready for us to find out!
Would his poor choice have been any different than if he bought software that runs on the computer in his office?
The cloud is not some magical being that suddenly makes applications work for every possible scenario, you still have to undergo the same specification and evaluation process that you do for software that you run yourself. The difference is that if the cloud provider adds international currency support, you don't have to upgrade your software. But you do still need to test the new software release to make sure it's doing what it's supposed to.
Too many people think that services in the cloud mean that there's no more software release cycle to deal with - that new functionality just magically appears and works perfectly. That's what our CFO thought when he was looking at cloud hosted accounting software - it wasn't until IT got involved and started asking questions about how to test new releases before they were migrated to our production system and how to control the release cycle (so, for example, we don't have new code released during our annual audit) that the CFO realized that cloud software doesn't magically mean perfect bug free software that never needs to be tested.
I've always thought that the problem would be when companies start using cloud services that rely on cloud servers that rely on cloud services and one of those cloud services has an outage.
A problem at one cloud provider can trickle up and affect your service that's running on a completely different cloud service, so for example, your website running on EC2 depends on order fulfillment software running on Rackspace's cloud, which uses back-end software on MS's Azure cloud.
If Azure has a hiccup, then your web store goes down, and if enough sites are affected, it can make real changes in the load (maybe less load because people can't shop, maybe more load because users keep hitting "reload" to try to place their order) on EC2 and Rackspace which could cause additional problems as load balancers try to shift load around as they respond to the sudden and huge change in load.
Part of the issue is that consumers may want to do the right thing but have no information as to which is the least of all evils. A device/company/plant database that can be checked before buying an electronic device would help solve that particular issue.
Another part of the issue is how you define "least of all evils". Is it less evil to build a factory in rural USA and hire factory workers that otherwise may have worked some other first-world job (working in a Mcdonalds, sweeping floors, general laborer, etc), or is it less evil to build a factory in China where the other option is either working at a less ethical factory under worse conditions or trying to eek out a living at subsidence farming.
That leads me to another point, if you do spend a good amount of time on conference calls, invest in a good desktop phone, like a Polycom. They're expensive (you get to write it off as an office expense, in the States, at least), but just another one of those things that lets you communicate clearly and effectively and not be the "that guy/gal" that nobody can ever understand over the echo.
Unless you're hosting multiple people for conferences in your home office, a good headset will make you sound far better than a $1000 Polycom conference phone.
Make sure you know what you're going to do when your VPN or phone line or cell phone fails. It doesn't happen to me too often (thankfully I've got two different ways of connecting to my companies VPN) but when it does it's a PITA. You need a plan for whether you phone in and take the rest of the day off or drive in to the local branch office and use the backbone network there.
Anther option is to use a cellular internet device as backup (either something like a Mifi, or a cell phone with a tethering plan). Then even if your primary connection goes down, you always have a backup
I've always thought that if I return to working from home, I'd build a backyard office:
https://www.google.com/search?q=backyard+office&hl=en&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch
By being separate from the house it's easier to separate work from home life. When I used to work from home I got distracted by home things. And TV.
Every antivirus product I've used claims to scan memory for viruses (usually as the first step of a full scan). If it's not looking for these RAM based viruses, then what is it looking for?
I'm sorry you have such trouble understanding basic physics.
His argument is not that objects flying about the cabin aren't hazardous, it's that small electronic devices are no more dangerous than books. I don't know about Australia, but on airlines in the USA, I've never been asked to put away a book or magazine for takeoff, while flight attendants regularly warn people that all electronic devices (Kindles, iPods, phones, etc) *must* be put away for takeoff.
Why do I have to put away my 8 ounce Kindle during takeoff when the guy next to me gets to read his thick 24 ounce hardcover book? Granted, if the book hits you in the right way (open pages against your body), it might hurt less than a phone hitting on you on edge, but surely airlines aren't relying on geometry of a book strike lessening the blow?
If your airlines make you put away all handheld objects, then they are much more consistent than our airlines.
GPS?? Underground? Cool, so my scuba GPS is just around the corner too then.
Unless your SCUBA activities consist of walking around above the water level, I don't think you're going to find a GPS based solution to help you - water attenuates the signals too much.
However, if you're underground, there are a number of companies that can sell you GPS repeaters that will help you navigate even when you can't receive any satellite signals directly:
http://www.vialite.co.uk/gps_band_overview.php
http://www.leica-geosystems.us/en/GPS-Machine-Guidance_1939.htm
How well can an elephant's womb support an animal of a different species? Even human babies born to human mothers are in danger if something as simple as the mother's Rh factor is different than the baby's. Surely implanting an animal of one species into a completely different species will run into problems with rejection?
This isn't one of the ones they tested, but does anyone know how safe KeePass is?
I use this on my desktop and Droid, which is pretty convenient since I can share the database file between them.
It will be good to finally get back to the moon. Can't wait to find out in what ways it's changed since the last time we visited.
Actually a lot has changed since we last visited - sort of. When the first moon landings happened, the technology that folks were able to take down to the surface was exceptionally limited. This means that any landings in the future will be able to carry out experiments that could have only been dreamed about in the 60s. SO, while things on the moon itself may not have changed, we are probably still going to learn a vast amount for the first time.
Besides, perhaps this is just the embarassment that the US space program needs to get some funding again.
Are there any lunar surface experiments that are better done by humans than by a robotic lander? Seems like it's an ideal place to run a remotely controlled lander since there's only a few second radio delay making control much easier than the Mars landers. And an unmanned mission would be much cheaper than any manned mission.
I know the Russians sent up a few unmanned lunar landers, but I think they were only capable of bringing home a sample.
All of my content at home is purchased and legal. What kind of suspicious behavior can I do to make Comcast flag me as a pirate (without having to actually download pirated content)?
No one that drinks coffee for the taste drinks "flavored coffee". They'd rather drink coffee that was pooped out of a monkey than drink vanilla flavored coffee.
Kopi Luwak is the world's most expensive coffee, and it is indeed "pooped out of" an animal. Try not to let your cultural biases cloud your thinking.
So I say that coffee connoisseurs would enjoy a cup of coffee pooped out of a monkey, and you point out the actual coffee I was referring to (ok, it's a civet, not a monkey), and you accuse me of culturally clouded thinking?
It's not like the pooped out coffee is that obscure, even Dave Barry mentioned it:
http://www.davebarry.com/misccol/decaf.htm
Then I thought: What kind of world is this when you worry that people might be ripping you off by selling you coffee that was NOT pooped out by a weasel?
Not everyone had internet acces in 1993.... I didn't get online until 1998.
Couldn't you say the same thing today? Not everyone has internet access in 2012 - only those that pay for it.
In 1993 Internet access was available to pretty much anyone who wanted it - and there was real competition, a medium sized city might have a dozen or more providers to choose from. It's not like today when a few large players are pretty much your only choice so they get to set the price. Back then, phone companies were complaining that internet use was killing them since people were pinning up their lines for hours or days at a time and their network wasn't built to handle that. Now phone companies are complaining that video downloads are killing them so they have to constrain bandwidth.
I paid much less for my internet access in 1993 than I pay today for internet. Of course, my connection is nearly a thousand times faster than when i had dialup.
Agree. Like I care to get coffee for the taste. If I want something tasty, very likely it will be a smoothie or plain juice.K I wonder if Starbucks has statistics about the consumption of decaf?
Yes they do - like any large retailer, they have a very sophisticated business intelligence system that gives them a great deal of detailed information about the buying habits of its customers, possibly in real-time fed from the cash registers. They love when people use Starbucks cards since it lets them track behavior of individuals across multiple stores instead of just aggregate statistics customers (plus they save a bundle in credit card transaction fees).
But they may not be willing to share the information.
Agreed. What good is non-caffeine coffee? I know of no one who actually drinks coffee just for the taste of it...even gourmet and flavored coffees. Maybe de-caff coffee is for people who can't drink coffee (due to religion or medical reasons) but want to "fit in" to crowds that do break-room or hallway gossip...I'm conjecturing.
No one that drinks coffee for the taste drinks "flavored coffee". They'd rather drink coffee that was pooped out of a monkey than drink vanilla flavored coffee.