The internet encourages anti-social behaviour some people
Quick and easy confirmation: read Slashdot comments with your threshold at -1. Obviously, those morons wouldn't say the same face-to-face: too big risk for a tiny, stupid, reward.
Re:DRM === All Yuor Base R bLong 2 US
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Buzzword du Jour: DRM
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· Score: 2, Insightful
I leave this country and never come back.
Where would you move to? Trust me, there are worse places, having the same screw-the-citizen laws, but not even having the same public debate because the government controls most media, directly or indirectly.
Sadly, the equivalence "1 corporation = millions of voters" is gaining ground in the entire planet. For example, in Spain we never had a chance to say anything when they imposed a levy on blank CD-Rs.
Countermeasure: baseband jamming
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Cell-Phone Wars
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· Score: 1
I know a guy that talks *really* loud on his mobile... he does so while walking around my office, so he does not disturb people in his office.
Countermeasure: all of us pick our phones, fixed or mobile, and start yelling at each other (why bother dialling first?). After a while (10 seconds or less) the loud idiot flies away.
I agree with you 100%. You will have rude people around everywhere everytime, with or without cellphones, but the worst about cellphones is having your partner interrupt a conversation, talk for 10 minutes, leaving you with your fork, knife and the poor trout on the dish, and resume... until the next call arrives.
I am the typical guy that whispers: 'sorry, I am busy now, can I come back to you later?', but I feel that my behavior is the odd one.
...whether I am stupid and will die poor (because I have never requested a penny for my help), or I have very mean friends and family.
Mind you, neither. At least, in my network of friends, requesting money for help is totally forbidden, a perfect taboo, probably it is a cultural matter. But the payoff is huge: whenever I need help with cooking some strange thing, or to spend some nights at somebody's flat while I find something (once it was for three months!), or I am moving, I only need to make a few phone calls. You'd better have a really good reason to say no, same cultural reasons as above:)
Having a skill that not everybody has is a real blessing. And you get plenty of beer.
The BBC has always been a reference in public broadcasting. The only one that dared challenge its own government (Irak invasion), the one that produces the best series and documentaries, the envy of every other European country.
Let's hope this is not the beginning of a downwards slope towards the most atrocious yellow press... this is comparable to accusing all Muslim people of Bin Laden's crimes. Oh quality journalism, where are you when we need you most!
In many european town/city centres, to avoid constant digging and re-digging, narrow tunnels are built where power and communication cables, along with gas and water pipes, are neatly racked along the tunnel walls. It is the typical case of high upfront investment paying off over the following decades: no more digging, no more overhead cables.
Young stundents in their mid-teens could do complex mathetmatics in their heads, and knew classical Greek and Latin fluently in some upper-scale schools in the 1800s. Now it's not uncommon for students to graduate without a complete grasp of the English language -- much less math, foreign language, or anything else.
This is something that has always made me wonder: not only upper-scale schools in the 1800s, also state high schools in the 1960s had much more 'heavier' content that nowadays, at least in my country.
It is also true that only a minority did attend secondary school, but I just cannot understand the relationship between making secondary education available for everybody and dumbing it down, other than politicians wanting nice grades to be issued for everyone.
You can take my word for it - they do insert so called 'comfort noise' to avoid having thousands of users hanging because "the line went dead". BTW, I am a telecommunication engineer.
Try entering the term in Google, I got 540,000 hits.
In most western Europe, it would be really hard to make a normal analog call: almost all transmision and switching equipment is digital nowadays. Analog-to-digital coding is made at the local switch, not in your terminal.
As others have said before, the noise you hear has been artificially generated, to avoid users thinking the line has gone dead. The quality of switched circuits at 64 kbps is really good.
In cellular networks (at least in GSM) that same 'comfort noise' is also used, but it is added at the receiving end: saving bandwith when a user is silent really matters there.
Well, at least in my little country (Spain), it is not a debit card but more like a prepaid one: you 'refill' it at an ATM and use it until is finished. There is no way to recover the amount you have stored there but to spend it, and it is not tied to a bank account.
Some three or four years ago, when they introduced the system, they tried to push the cards down everybody's throats. Even my University ID card was issued with a chip and could function as a 'wallet card' (tarjeta monedero).
Grade inflation exists because no-one is willing to tell Johnny to get off his ass and actually WORK because he is dragging everyone else down with him.
I could not agree more. That happens in most countries I know, and it is a common complaint of most people working in education (from primary school to university). Sometimes it is a consequence of managing the school like a business (they demand nice grades, we supply them); but in other cases it comes ordered by some demagogue politicians: let us end school failure by passing everybody and their dog.
Sad times are these when nobody is ever told to work hard.
Sad, true, and I see the same everyday. Now that we see the axe looming above us -a matter of weeks or months, but we are doomed-, we are being asked to double our efforts by managers who do not even try to act as if they believed what they say.
When reflections about this sad truth enter my mind, that is a lost day of work. Impossible to concentrate anymore.
Well, fruey's post, greenhide's reply and fruey's contra-reply are a wonderful example of what the article was all about. Your exchange of ideas has really improved the original article content, discussing different points of view, but keeping them on-topic... that's what I look for when I visit Slashdot, and this time I have not been disappointed at all. Thanks guys!
Some Japanese invented a wooden coating material they claim absorbs electromagnetic signals: a blessing for, say, an Opera house or a simple movie theater.
I read it here, it's in Spanish but probably you can find an English translation somewhere else...
OK, let's be nice to the huge English-speaking audience and do the search myself... here it explains it works by embedding magnetic particles in wooden panels. A really bright idea!
Um, and if you are a doctor on call, why can't you wait until tomorrow to go to the movies?
Last thing I wanted to read now!
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Generation Wrecked
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· Score: 2, Funny
Frozen salary, every day reading e-mails with subjects like "Thank you and good-bye", helplessly watching how entire product lines are being discontinued, development units are closing, waiting for my turn to say goodbye...
Another telecom engineer developing network products for an equipment provider... oh yes, and born in 1974! There lies my mistake! Unrecoverable error!
Not a single problem with Mozilla 1.1, on Windows NT 4, even when browsing Sci/Tech. So all I can say is that probably the cause is somewhere else (I would like to be more helpful, really, but this is all I can say now).
Slashdot Mirror
The internet encourages anti-social behaviour some people
Quick and easy confirmation: read Slashdot comments with your threshold at -1. Obviously, those morons wouldn't say the same face-to-face: too big risk for a tiny, stupid, reward.
I leave this country and never come back.
Where would you move to?
Trust me, there are worse places, having the same screw-the-citizen laws, but not even having the same public debate because the government controls most media, directly or indirectly.
Sadly, the equivalence "1 corporation = millions of voters" is gaining ground in the entire planet. For example, in Spain we never had a chance to say anything when they imposed a levy on blank CD-Rs.
I know a guy that talks *really* loud on his mobile... he does so while walking around my office, so he does not disturb people in his office.
Countermeasure: all of us pick our phones, fixed or mobile, and start yelling at each other (why bother dialling first?). After a while (10 seconds or less) the loud idiot flies away.
We love this kind of jamming...
I agree with you 100%. You will have rude people around everywhere everytime, with or without cellphones, but the worst about cellphones is having your partner interrupt a conversation, talk for 10 minutes, leaving you with your fork, knife and the poor trout on the dish, and resume... until the next call arrives.
I am the typical guy that whispers: 'sorry, I am busy now, can I come back to you later?', but I feel that my behavior is the odd one.
...whether I am stupid and will die poor (because I have never requested a penny for my help), or I have very mean friends and family.
:)
Mind you, neither. At least, in my network of friends, requesting money for help is totally forbidden, a perfect taboo, probably it is a cultural matter. But the payoff is huge: whenever I need help with cooking some strange thing, or to spend some nights at somebody's flat while I find something (once it was for three months!), or I am moving, I only need to make a few phone calls. You'd better have a really good reason to say no, same cultural reasons as above
Having a skill that not everybody has is a real blessing. And you get plenty of beer.
The BBC has always been a reference in public broadcasting. The only one that dared challenge its own government (Irak invasion), the one that produces the best series and documentaries, the envy of every other European country.
Let's hope this is not the beginning of a downwards slope towards the most atrocious yellow press... this is comparable to accusing all Muslim people of Bin Laden's crimes. Oh quality journalism, where are you when we need you most!
In many european town/city centres, to avoid constant digging and re-digging, narrow tunnels are built where power and communication cables, along with gas and water pipes, are neatly racked along the tunnel walls. It is the typical case of high upfront investment paying off over the following decades: no more digging, no more overhead cables.
Using it since 1981.
Young stundents in their mid-teens could do complex mathetmatics in their heads, and knew classical Greek and Latin fluently in some upper-scale schools in the 1800s. Now it's not uncommon for students to graduate without a complete grasp of the English language -- much less math, foreign language, or anything else.
This is something that has always made me wonder: not only upper-scale schools in the 1800s, also state high schools in the 1960s had much more 'heavier' content that nowadays, at least in my country.
It is also true that only a minority did attend secondary school, but I just cannot understand the relationship between making secondary education available for everybody and dumbing it down, other than politicians wanting nice grades to be issued for everyone.
Good Lord, only true barbarians would attempt such a sin against centuries-old customs and traditions!
Don't try that at this side of the Ocean, children.
Regarding self-involved assholes... I have already met quite a few. All of them in ol' Europe.
Try entering the term in Google, I got 540,000 hits.
As others have said before, the noise you hear has been artificially generated, to avoid users thinking the line has gone dead. The quality of switched circuits at 64 kbps is really good.
In cellular networks (at least in GSM) that same 'comfort noise' is also used, but it is added at the receiving end: saving bandwith when a user is silent really matters there.
Some three or four years ago, when they introduced the system, they tried to push the cards down everybody's throats. Even my University ID card was issued with a chip and could function as a 'wallet card' (tarjeta monedero).
I only know one guy who actually tried to use it.
I could not agree more. That happens in most countries I know, and it is a common complaint of most people working in education (from primary school to university). Sometimes it is a consequence of managing the school like a business (they demand nice grades, we supply them); but in other cases it comes ordered by some demagogue politicians: let us end school failure by passing everybody and their dog.
Sad times are these when nobody is ever told to work hard.
That would be sooo nice... maybe our grandchildren will see it
Sad, true, and I see the same everyday. Now that we see the axe looming above us -a matter of weeks or months, but we are doomed-, we are being asked to double our efforts by managers who do not even try to act as if they believed what they say.
When reflections about this sad truth enter my mind, that is a lost day of work. Impossible to concentrate anymore.
Hemeroteca, in Spanish, is just a kind of library for newspapers, magazines and other periodicals.
Well, fruey's post, greenhide's reply and fruey's contra-reply are a wonderful example of what the article was all about. Your exchange of ideas has really improved the original article content, discussing different points of view, but keeping them on-topic... that's what I look for when I visit Slashdot, and this time I have not been disappointed at all. Thanks guys!
Some Japanese invented a wooden coating material they claim absorbs electromagnetic signals: a blessing for, say, an Opera house or a simple movie theater.
I read it here, it's in Spanish but probably you can find an English translation somewhere else...
OK, let's be nice to the huge English-speaking audience and do the search myself... here it explains it works by embedding magnetic particles in wooden panels. A really bright idea!
Um, and if you are a doctor on call, why can't you wait until tomorrow to go to the movies?
Frozen salary, every day reading e-mails with subjects like "Thank you and good-bye", helplessly watching how entire product lines are being discontinued, development units are closing, waiting for my turn to say goodbye...
Another telecom engineer developing network products for an equipment provider... oh yes, and born in 1974! There lies my mistake! Unrecoverable error!
Metaslashdotting: One Of The Few Ways A Web Site Can Commit Suicide
The Second Law of Thermodynamics must surely say something against it...
... the short term vision that motivates suit fear...
My God! A suit motivated by anything short term!
I am sure that, if the idea catches on, we will soon have national/regional Google News pages, same as they do with the search engine.
For example, if you go to www.google.cl (Google Chile), you might restrict your searches to pages in Spanish / Chilean pages / the entire web.
Sadly, www.google.co.uk does only provide two options: you can either a) search the web or b) search UK pages. A bit unfair, isn't it?
Not a single problem with Mozilla 1.1, on Windows NT 4, even when browsing Sci/Tech. So all I can say is that probably the cause is somewhere else (I would like to be more helpful, really, but this is all I can say now).