...just how much of this recent surge was a result of the increased competition from AMD?
Never mind the recent surge. Competition from AMD has been keeping commodity CPU prices down for at least a decade. And their x64 chips rescued us all from the Itanium nightmare.
Right now, I'm writing manuals for an Opteron-based high-end server. My job simply wouldn't exist without AMD.
It's been almost 10 years since I stopped using POP, so I'd really have to dredge my memory to come up with good examples. Don't feel like it. Figure it out for yourself.
Easier to just do "View/Message Source". But that's still a workaround for a very stupid bug.
Mozilla/Netscape developers in general seem to have a lot of trouble anticipating situations where text or graphics might not fit in a finite space. Every version seems to have at least one dialog box where part of it is invisible on some platforms. Dumb.
why has the newsreader been left unchanged for so long? Because the whole newsgroup concept is obsolete. There are much better ways host online discussions. You're using one of them right now.
Yeah, don't you hate web sites run by marketroids? But if you look very carefully, you'll find a link to the release notes, which tell you most of what you need to know.
POP3 is just way too insecure And flaky. And a painful to use if you need to access the same mailbox from multiple computers. And let's not even talk about attachments....
Six years ago I was having flamefests with other slashdotters who thought my anti-POP prejudice was dumb. Now history has caught up with me. Nice to be proven right once in a while.
Vietnam is not exactly a benchmark for efficient or effective killing. Aside from the figures you cite (which I think you've inflated, but even the real figures are pretty high) it's my understanding that the U.S. exploded more bomb tonnage in Vietnam than it did in both theaters of WW II. I also seem to recall a calculation that the U.S. spent some huge figure (I forget the precise amount, but it was in the millions) for each enemy killed. A common joke was that it would probably be cheaper to bribe them!
It's widely accepted by many pundits (including a lot of people who are now wearing eagles and stars on their shoulders) that Vietnam was a low point for the U.S. in terms of training and leadership. Add to that a war totally lacking in clear goals, and you end up with an operational strategy that consists of throwing a lot of crap at the general direction of the enemy and hoping it does you some good. Not a basis for any comparison with later wars.
I'm pretty ignorant of infantry weapons (or any weapons, come to that) but from what little I know, it appears that the M-16 and the AK-47 were designed for completely different forces. The U.S. military recruits and drafts its grunts from a pool that is relatively well-educated and used to thinking for itself; these people are then subjected to a massive amount of training to maximize this advantage. By contrast, the Soviet military (the original consumers of the AK-47) had a poorly educated recruit pool and gave a low priority to training. The "non-conventional" forces who have kept the AK-47 in production for 60 years have the same priorities, only more so.
So you end up with the M-16 being used by well-trained, carefully deployed forces that don't like to take more casualties than they have to, while the AK-47 is used by ad-hoc units that just don't give a shit. It seems to me that each weapon is the more appropriate one for the forces that actually use it.
The first, most obvious difference between the current suite of soldier equipment and Land Warrior is the flip-down eyepiece attached to the helmet. In it, an infantryman can see a map of the area, with his fellow troops marked by blue icons. (In the military, blue denotes friendly forces.) I thought military people tended to be Republicans...
What's the point of your reference to the AK-47/M16 comparison? Are you claiming that the AK-47 is better because it's simpler? I'm no weapons expert (I haven't even picked up a gun since my last turn at summer camp), but the article seems to imply that the two weapons were designed to be used by completely different forces. The AK-47 is easier to operate and has a lot of brute firepower, but it's relatively inaccurate (according to the article). So if you have the leisure to train your grunts properly, the more advanced M16 would seem to be a better choice.
Gaa. It sounds funny, but I've been reading Ian Kershaw's biography of Hitler, and that's precisely the attitude Der Führer took when he realized he was losing the war. Prevented him from listening to his more pragmatic generals. "Nein, we don't need to redeploy defensively, Herr Dokter von Braun is working on a wonder weapon that will obliterate all those pesky invaders!"
It isn't "sufficiently advanced" technology that's indistinguishable from magic. It's technology that you get infatuated with just because you've bungled the low-tech approach.
I seem to be missing something here. If your preferences are set to "Real Player," the JavaScript just gives you a Real Player.rpm file (not to be confused with a Redhat Package Manager.rpm file) which contains nothing but a link to a server-side script such as this:
One thinks of NPR as a sort of liberal-hippie haven (no flames, please, I've been listening to them every day for longer than many Slashdotters have been alive; I'm a serious radio new junkie), but that's just the people on the air. Their management has pretty much the same culture as the rest of the media industry. Which means they're paranoid about having their content "stolen". So like the rest of the media, they use closed streaming formats.
They're shooting themselves in the foot this way, at least with me. These days I listen to live radio less and less and to stuff I can download to my MP3 player more and more. There are NPR shows I don't listen to as much as I'd like to, because it's too much hassle to convert the streams to MP3. Much easier to download Australian and Canadian (and some independently-produced NPR) shows that are available on MP3.
(Yes, there are some NPR MP3 podcasts, but not a lot, and they don't archive them. And yes, ripping the stream is against the npr.org terms of use; I pay my member fees and don't pass on the MP3s, so fuck that.)
I'm sure I'm not alone — there are folks out there who only know NPR from their podcasts, and have never heard them from the radio! They need to remember how dependent they are on voluntary donations. If they put a tip-jar link next to each MP3 download link, I suspect they'd have more revenue than they get from the stations.
My dream device is one that uses a thin rugged design, has LONG battery life, provides effective finger or stylus input, has a screen that is readable in bright sunlight, provides a large enough screen to provide really productive information access, and is small enough to fit in a typical cargo-pants pocket. Here you go.
All very logical. And I personally have always disliked the idea of making the cell phone into a universal information appliance. But the sad fact is that few consumers (and prosumers? do prosuming prosumers boost the epromany?) will consider putting a second electronic widget in their pocket. I myself have 3 (PDA, phone, MP3 player; and I'm thinking of getting a separate mini-digicam, 'cause the phone cams suck), but people like me are not a target demo for anything.
Microsoft should pre-publish a whole bunch of tasty looking security advisories that are 100% fake every time they publish one that is real. If they had the expertise to do that, they wouldn't have so many security holes in the first place!
You're an ignorant jerk. These are not rentacops. Like most big universities, VT has a regular police force manned by a fair number of sworn officers.
So, why didn't they prevent this tragedy? Well, this is a country where "bearing arms" is a sacred right. As long as millions of folks have their own private arsenals, you're going to have the odd nutcase staging a small massacre.
Please, spare me the usual second amendment stuff. I'm not interested in arguing over whether private guns protect from tyranny or not. I just know two things (1) Americans are in love with their fucking guns (2) as long as that's true, you're going to have the odd mass killing.
We like to think we have freedom of speech and a peaceful protest like this wouldn't be broken up here. That is false. In Russia they require permits and his permit was denied. He and some other protesters were arrested for marching without a permit. I think you'll find that it's a lot harder to get a permit to hold an anti-government protest march in Russia than it is here. You'll also find that what the government gets away with calling "an anti-government protest march" is whole lot broader in Russia than here.
It's not that we're that much friendlier to dissent than Russia (though we are). It's simply that there are more safeguards here. Somewhat eroded, alas, but still better than Russia's.
I really get tired of mentally lazy bozos who whine "double standard" every time their favorite "bad boy" gets caught with his pants down. First off, the "double standard" is in your weak little mind — rappers and other artists who rely on degrading language have been taking flack for years, much of it from the very black and liberal leaders you accuse of being blind to it. I suspect Al Gore might be President now if Tipper had been less vocal on the subject.
Second, if something is wrong, it's wrong. "Everybody does it" is an argument worthy of children. Stupid children.
Slashdot Mirror
When people like this compare themselves to Jesus, it's not out of admiration, it out of jealousy.
Right now, I'm writing manuals for an Opteron-based high-end server. My job simply wouldn't exist without AMD.
Pity about their inability to make a profit.
It's been almost 10 years since I stopped using POP, so I'd really have to dredge my memory to come up with good examples. Don't feel like it. Figure it out for yourself.
http://www.imap.org/imap.vs.pop.brief.html
Easier to just do "View/Message Source". But that's still a workaround for a very stupid bug.
Mozilla/Netscape developers in general seem to have a lot of trouble anticipating situations where text or graphics might not fit in a finite space. Every version seems to have at least one dialog box where part of it is invisible on some platforms. Dumb.
Yeah, don't you hate web sites run by marketroids? But if you look very carefully, you'll find a link to the release notes, which tell you most of what you need to know.
Six years ago I was having flamefests with other slashdotters who thought my anti-POP prejudice was dumb. Now history has caught up with me. Nice to be proven right once in a while.
Vietnam is not exactly a benchmark for efficient or effective killing. Aside from the figures you cite (which I think you've inflated, but even the real figures are pretty high) it's my understanding that the U.S. exploded more bomb tonnage in Vietnam than it did in both theaters of WW II. I also seem to recall a calculation that the U.S. spent some huge figure (I forget the precise amount, but it was in the millions) for each enemy killed. A common joke was that it would probably be cheaper to bribe them!
It's widely accepted by many pundits (including a lot of people who are now wearing eagles and stars on their shoulders) that Vietnam was a low point for the U.S. in terms of training and leadership. Add to that a war totally lacking in clear goals, and you end up with an operational strategy that consists of throwing a lot of crap at the general direction of the enemy and hoping it does you some good. Not a basis for any comparison with later wars.
I'm pretty ignorant of infantry weapons (or any weapons, come to that) but from what little I know, it appears that the M-16 and the AK-47 were designed for completely different forces. The U.S. military recruits and drafts its grunts from a pool that is relatively well-educated and used to thinking for itself; these people are then subjected to a massive amount of training to maximize this advantage. By contrast, the Soviet military (the original consumers of the AK-47) had a poorly educated recruit pool and gave a low priority to training. The "non-conventional" forces who have kept the AK-47 in production for 60 years have the same priorities, only more so.
So you end up with the M-16 being used by well-trained, carefully deployed forces that don't like to take more casualties than they have to, while the AK-47 is used by ad-hoc units that just don't give a shit. It seems to me that each weapon is the more appropriate one for the forces that actually use it.
What's the point of your reference to the AK-47/M16 comparison? Are you claiming that the AK-47 is better because it's simpler? I'm no weapons expert (I haven't even picked up a gun since my last turn at summer camp), but the article seems to imply that the two weapons were designed to be used by completely different forces. The AK-47 is easier to operate and has a lot of brute firepower, but it's relatively inaccurate (according to the article). So if you have the leisure to train your grunts properly, the more advanced M16 would seem to be a better choice.
Gaa. It sounds funny, but I've been reading Ian Kershaw's biography of Hitler, and that's precisely the attitude Der Führer took when he realized he was losing the war. Prevented him from listening to his more pragmatic generals. "Nein, we don't need to redeploy defensively, Herr Dokter von Braun is working on a wonder weapon that will obliterate all those pesky invaders!"
It isn't "sufficiently advanced" technology that's indistinguishable from magic. It's technology that you get infatuated with just because you've bungled the low-tech approach.
It would be very nice if I could use the Windows version of mplayer instead of Real's semi-spyware. So please educate me!
One thinks of NPR as a sort of liberal-hippie haven (no flames, please, I've been listening to them every day for longer than many Slashdotters have been alive; I'm a serious radio new junkie), but that's just the people on the air. Their management has pretty much the same culture as the rest of the media industry. Which means they're paranoid about having their content "stolen". So like the rest of the media, they use closed streaming formats.
They're shooting themselves in the foot this way, at least with me. These days I listen to live radio less and less and to stuff I can download to my MP3 player more and more. There are NPR shows I don't listen to as much as I'd like to, because it's too much hassle to convert the streams to MP3. Much easier to download Australian and Canadian (and some independently-produced NPR) shows that are available on MP3.
(Yes, there are some NPR MP3 podcasts, but not a lot, and they don't archive them. And yes, ripping the stream is against the npr.org terms of use; I pay my member fees and don't pass on the MP3s, so fuck that.)
I'm sure I'm not alone — there are folks out there who only know NPR from their podcasts, and have never heard them from the radio! They need to remember how dependent they are on voluntary donations. If they put a tip-jar link next to each MP3 download link, I suspect they'd have more revenue than they get from the stations.
PIM functions? You didn't mention PIM functions!
Yeah, I know, it's sort of implicit. But I couldn't resist...
Get a life.
All very logical. And I personally have always disliked the idea of making the cell phone into a universal information appliance. But the sad fact is that few consumers (and prosumers? do prosuming prosumers boost the epromany?) will consider putting a second electronic widget in their pocket. I myself have 3 (PDA, phone, MP3 player; and I'm thinking of getting a separate mini-digicam, 'cause the phone cams suck), but people like me are not a target demo for anything.
Mine will run DOS.
Since you're fond of waving a phallic symbol, I'd be careful with words like "suck".
Guns don't kill? What was that guy using yesterday, a bowie knife?
You're an ignorant jerk. These are not rentacops. Like most big universities, VT has a regular police force manned by a fair number of sworn officers.
So, why didn't they prevent this tragedy? Well, this is a country where "bearing arms" is a sacred right. As long as millions of folks have their own private arsenals, you're going to have the odd nutcase staging a small massacre.
Please, spare me the usual second amendment stuff. I'm not interested in arguing over whether private guns protect from tyranny or not. I just know two things (1) Americans are in love with their fucking guns (2) as long as that's true, you're going to have the odd mass killing.
Guns do kill people.
It's not that we're that much friendlier to dissent than Russia (though we are). It's simply that there are more safeguards here. Somewhat eroded, alas, but still better than Russia's.
I really get tired of mentally lazy bozos who whine "double standard" every time their favorite "bad boy" gets caught with his pants down. First off, the "double standard" is in your weak little mind — rappers and other artists who rely on degrading language have been taking flack for years, much of it from the very black and liberal leaders you accuse of being blind to it. I suspect Al Gore might be President now if Tipper had been less vocal on the subject.
Second, if something is wrong, it's wrong. "Everybody does it" is an argument worthy of children. Stupid children.