No problem. Just pick it up, and send the bill to Rick Berman, c/o Paramount Pictures.
No sir. Not by a longshot. Granted, the KB101 is old, comparatively rare, and a
bit hard too come by in good shape. While while much beloved by me, it's
still far too economical for the purposes of retribution -- in this case.
Replacement I'd rightly ask for, justice requires a little more.
Gimme a couple days and I'll find a nice, high-end keyboard that I was using
what needs replacing. I'm thinking something in stainless steel, most likely
NEMA-rated. It'll be our secret.
Reloaded and Revolutions are sequels to Matrix 1. The next 2 that come out will be the prequels.
Have you, by chance, been away for a very long time in a place without access to mainstream media?
There are three movies in the series. "The Matrix" was the first one. We've already seen that one, by the way. "The Matrix Reloaded" will be the second. "The Matrix Revolutions" will be the third. And that's pretty much all there is. No prequels. Just the three. Or am I missing something in your post?
This statement presupposes that it is OK to cheat, and that cheating is in the best interests of shareholders.
As long as a public company's main focus is to preserve shareholder value, then you will always have ethical problems. CEOs can get sued for not protecting investments. That can cause them to cut corners. I'd bet most large sharholders (the kind with lawyers and such) care primarily about money. What they don't know won't hurt them. Sure, some folks won't buy RJ Reynolds and Philip Morris and whatever, but lots of people do.
For the record, if MS wants to keep their file formats obfuscated, then more power to them. It's their right to do so. Is it nasty? Yeah. Do I like it? No. Do I understand why they do it? Yes. They have a responsibility to their shareholders. The only way they know to fulfill that responsibility is by engaging in shady business practices (viz. "embrace, extend, extinguish").
At least with XML it will not be very long until many software companies and project reverse engineer the XML.
And these other apps can cut into Office revenue. Which is as good a cease-and-desist argument as any.
I suppose they could put some weird binary or encrypted data in the files, but that would defeat the purpose of XML.
It defeats nothing if every app speaks the same binary/encrypted language. It prevents other apps from conversing with Office stuff, and that's probably seen as a good thing for MS.
Anyone who thinks MS is using XML as their file format for the purpose of being "open" or playing well with others had better find another daydream. They're doing it because it helps them in some way, not because it'll help others. And there's actually nothing wrong with that. They're in business to protect shareholder value, after all.
They treat a loyal customer Like a lying, thieving turd.
After listening to my wife (who's a senior buyer for a large-ish defense contractor) relate the woe that was having to sit through *an entire day* with Microsoft reps so they could explain to her what MS's new licensing schemes were going to do to her company, I'd say that line above just about sums it up. They were pretty nasty, it seems, and had a "we don't care how much you've bought in the past" attitude.
I showed her Open Office even, and she liked it. But using it wasn't an option, since the head of their IT department acts like he wants to climb in bed with Bill Gates and try to have his children. I guess they decided to lay off more people and pay up, the poor dumb bastards.
I'm going to forward her the link so she'll have something to make her day go by faster...
Or if you're like many people, the fix has already installed during an automatic update check last night.
I don't wear the tinfoil hats either, but I find it a little unnerving that people let their system be updated automatically. There's just so many things wrong with that concept. Some updates I don't want, others I defintiely do. All of them I want to see before they get installed so I know what is going to be done. Although I suppose figuring out what an MS update will do can be pretty hard, since they tend to bundle lots of fixes into sinlge packages.
On the other hand, we're not talking about a dedicated SQL Server machine or anything, so maybe auto updates for desktops isn't a bad idea after all...
Opera just made a mistake, in my opinion, with that. I liked how they kept the browser streamlined and stripped down; this new feature is, possibly, a sign of creeping featurism and surrender to the forces of software bloat.
Have you been using Opera recently? Like over the last couple years? The new betas are really pretty speedy and also smaller than the 6.x release versions. I just downloaded the last beta and the latest production release. Here they are:
[wee@host tmp]$ ls -l total 6836 -rw------- 1 wee wee 3588280 Dec 18 16:06 ow32enen605.exe -rw------- 1 wee wee 3397867 Dec 18 16:05 ow32enen700b2.exe
My boss and I were talking about this very topic. They've apparently re-written the rendering engine from the ground up. We suspect that they use the same engine in the desktop versions as in the embedded versions. Then they tack on JavaScript and Java and the various UI bits to make each platform-specific release.
Whatever they do, they haven't succumbed to to creature feep. They've done just about the opposite: they started fresh and the result is a faster, leaner browser. Of course, I've only used the windows version a couple times, but it was noticeably nimbler than the 6.x Linux versions.
When I was in London last month, I saw A TON or displays for this "game" called Peeball. The tagline "Do a wee bit for charity" caught my eye.
I wound up buying one for a buddy back home. I had to as I couldn't stop staring at the big yellow sign every time I got another round. I was curious to see what it was, and thought it was inordinately amusing. And I had had a few too many Kronenbourgs. It was only one pound so no big loss as far as "drunken purchases discovered the morning after" go.
I never did open it, but apparently you wiz on these little yellows balls and they disintegrate. Supposed to help your aim, I guess, or keep you from playing Fire Brigade whilst in the loo. Helps a charity as well. I shoulda bought a couple of them.
The link above points to the 2nd edition, which was published about a year ago (almost excatly a year ago, actually). Go to Sams' website and get the 3rd edition. It's a bit more up to date.
Installing nVidia drivers means changing open source operating system into open-closed source hybride
I'm already running Opera, and won't downgrade to mozilla or the like. I play games like Return to Castle Wolfentstein and Tribes2. They're closed source, and I have no problem running them. So what's the big deal about using a closed-source driver? Who ever said that I must use a 100% open source system?
Keep in mind, that you have choice with other cards, like ATI or Matrox.
Choice is good. But the choice bewteen dealing with buggy, third-party, months-late drivers for ATI cards (which can be non-trivial to install), or using slow Matrox hardware is no choice at all. My GeForce2 cost me about a hundred bucks, and is incredibly fast. The drivers install in about 45 seconds. The card works great and 3D is fine. There's not a chance I'd "put up with" those other video cards. Not when nVidia has made it so easy to use their hardware.
I understand what you're saying about Open Source and I realize all its benefits. I'm a big proponent of open source. But none of the Open Source alternatives to using nVidia cards even come close to comparing. There isn't much choice there. So I have to use a closed-srouce driver. When I look at what I get in return, I think "big deal" and move on.
But ultimately, it was that constant need to run just to stay caught up that completely drove me out of IT. Now the closest that I get to a computer is my POS system at my shop. Talk about burnout!
I hear you on that one. I know a lot of people that got completely burned out on anything involving a computer. Die-hard Solaris guys swearing off Unix and buying Macs (before OS X even), Unix/network guys going back to school for biology degrees, and even one 4D database guy becoming a middle manager at a Windows IT outsourcing shop.
We're all getting to the same place: stasis. We're seeking our own level. We all want to become one with that hypothetical environment we long imagined ourselves being happy in. It's a different imagined environment for everyone, each customized to one's own proclivities and world view.
You're happy running an old-school, physical-world shop. I'm happy as a pensioner. It's all good, and better than working in food service.
Wow. You sound like a bitter "perm" employee who's never worked as a contractor. First off, every contract job I did paid 50-100% times more than the same people doing the same job as "perm". That MORE than made up for the "benefits" such as those few paltry days off (which contractors generally get to take at will, unlike the poor "perm" people who have to beg off), the stock options which generally cost more in tax liability then you ever make, or nonexistent "retirement" benefits.
I'm not at all bitter (if anything, you sound like you've been burned as perm worker or something). I'm the type that likes to have a known quantity: I know what money is coming in at what time. I've done contract work, and made decent money. It's just not a life I want to live. You do get to learn a lot and do a lot of interesting things over short periods of time for different people. That part I liked. But there are risks involved with being a contractor and I'm not at this poitn willing to take them. I've known a few that had some pretty lean months. Others have done ok (mostly because of very long-term contracts). Every one I've known has had at least one experience of abject terror, every one has had to chase down payment. Some people love it. Others not so much. Lately, I'm more into just being a plain old worker bee.
I already won the stock option lottery (I worked for Qualcomm and got in on the eight-to-one split), and now I am into protecting what I have and the stability that money has created. That's why I took a job at a university. I get 11 paid holidays and 3 weeks vacation a year. My salary is in line with industry standards. I can work from home a couple days a week as well if I want. I get nearly free health care, free schooling if I want to take it, a 403(b) that got my 401(k) rolled into it, and even a pension (at a guaranteed 7.5%). All that's worth a lot to me. Sure, it's the oatmeal of jobs. It's kind of bland and not very flashy, but it's good, interesting work with incredibly smart people and it's very stable. I like stable. Maybe I'm just getting old. I dunno.
BTW, I agree 100% about security coming through being valuable. Making a reputation for yourself as someone who can do whatever needs doing whenever it needs to be done is of paramount importance if you want to stay employed. When you get to the point where people want to hire you purely because they know who you are and what you can do, then things are where they need to be security-wise. That's doubly true in this economy.
Hourly IS the only way to go in IT. ... But, hourly, you get paid more, you work less (or get paid a HELL of a lot more), you don't have to deal with the beauracratic bullshit, and you can switch jobs at will.
That's a completely absurd statment and you know it. The days of switching IT jobs "at will" are gone (assuming they were even really there). You might get paid more up front as an non-exempt employee, but you lose a lot in the long run (like vacation time, paid holidays, medical benefits, retirement benefits, stock options/profit sharing, etc) which can make up for a lot of "lost pay".
I can't recall any instance of a company wanting to hire someone who demands an hourly wage over one who doesn't. If you're a 1099 contractor type, then that's one thing. But it's not the same as getting paid hourly.
Anyway, if you've found your niche then more power to you. But let people find security where they can -- in actually having a job. If you find a good job that you wouldn't mind doing which pays a decent salary, then take it. If you don't, then lots of others will be glad to fill your place.
...and net connectivity as necessary as any other utility. To some, anyway. Would you begrudge a writer's need to buy books, paper, dictionaries, etc. or a painter's need for paints and canvas based solely on their income?
One might say the same about the way all the/. Linux geeks feel about their OS
Most of the people who come to Slashdot use Windows, not Linux. That everyone here is a die-hard Linux fanatic is just a misperception. Although I will say that a lot of the younger ones do show some fanaticism. Everyone wants 3l337 bragging rights, I guess.
Don't take it personally.
I think you misunderstood me. I merely said it was hard to read through the close-minded bias, not that I personally cared one way or the other. I happen to use Macs, as well other operating systems; whatever turns out to be the right tool for the job. But my point remains: they are all still just operating systems, not lifestyles.
No doubt. Between the fixation on baseball bats and how evil "PC" (I assume his loathing extends to Linux and *BSD x86 users as well) that was a hard article to read. The guy's practically foaming at the mouth with his rabid Mac-ness...
No, but that's what everyone calls me. My dad gave me the nickname a long time ago and it stuck. In my signature (the real, on-paper kind), my first name appears as "Wm". Giving Madonna another, shorter name is like calling me "W". That was my point.
Well, I used dd in my last one much as you do (it was nearly identical, in fact, with $HOME instead of ~ and such). I wound up using 'cut' one day and got to thinking of pipes and how useful they are. Then I saw two.sigs in the same day that used dd. So I figured up a new way to get a fresh.sig. Think of it as.sig, version 1.1.
About the "wasting" of processes... I'm not so sure about that. Lots of little utilities strung together is practically the "Unix Way", and one of its best "features". Pipes and input/ouput redirection are one of the things that made Unix as strong as it is and are very powerful. Besides, I have a really, really fast machine.
Hmm, is your sig opensource? Hmm, I may have that to license that as LGPL...
Heh heh... feel free. It works very well in Kmail.
UCSD has a lot of 802.11 clouds. The CSE building has its own network. The rest of campus is nearly completely "unwired". Hell, even the coffee cart outside the arts building has an AP. Double hell: even one of the shuttle buses has 802.11 access (suck that, CMU).
Slashdot Mirror
No sir. Not by a longshot. Granted, the KB101 is old, comparatively rare, and a bit hard too come by in good shape. While while much beloved by me, it's still far too economical for the purposes of retribution -- in this case. Replacement I'd rightly ask for, justice requires a little more.
Gimme a couple days and I'll find a nice, high-end keyboard that I was using what needs replacing. I'm thinking something in stainless steel, most likely NEMA-rated. It'll be our secret.
-B
-B
Having the VFD sit up on a stick is what really makes it useful, IMO.
-B
Have you, by chance, been away for a very long time in a place without access to mainstream media?
There are three movies in the series. "The Matrix" was the first one. We've already seen that one, by the way. "The Matrix Reloaded" will be the second. "The Matrix Revolutions" will be the third. And that's pretty much all there is. No prequels. Just the three. Or am I missing something in your post?
-B
As long as a public company's main focus is to preserve shareholder value, then you will always have ethical problems. CEOs can get sued for not protecting investments. That can cause them to cut corners. I'd bet most large sharholders (the kind with lawyers and such) care primarily about money. What they don't know won't hurt them. Sure, some folks won't buy RJ Reynolds and Philip Morris and whatever, but lots of people do.
For the record, if MS wants to keep their file formats obfuscated, then more power to them. It's their right to do so. Is it nasty? Yeah. Do I like it? No. Do I understand why they do it? Yes. They have a responsibility to their shareholders. The only way they know to fulfill that responsibility is by engaging in shady business practices (viz. "embrace, extend, extinguish").
-B
And these other apps can cut into Office revenue. Which is as good a cease-and-desist argument as any.
I suppose they could put some weird binary or encrypted data in the files, but that would defeat the purpose of XML.
It defeats nothing if every app speaks the same binary/encrypted language. It prevents other apps from conversing with Office stuff, and that's probably seen as a good thing for MS.
Anyone who thinks MS is using XML as their file format for the purpose of being "open" or playing well with others had better find another daydream. They're doing it because it helps them in some way, not because it'll help others. And there's actually nothing wrong with that. They're in business to protect shareholder value, after all.
-B
Like a lying, thieving turd.
After listening to my wife (who's a senior buyer for a large-ish defense contractor) relate the woe that was having to sit through *an entire day* with Microsoft reps so they could explain to her what MS's new licensing schemes were going to do to her company, I'd say that line above just about sums it up. They were pretty nasty, it seems, and had a "we don't care how much you've bought in the past" attitude.
I showed her Open Office even, and she liked it. But using it wasn't an option, since the head of their IT department acts like he wants to climb in bed with Bill Gates and try to have his children. I guess they decided to lay off more people and pay up, the poor dumb bastards.
I'm going to forward her the link so she'll have something to make her day go by faster...
-B
I don't wear the tinfoil hats either, but I find it a little unnerving that people let their system be updated automatically. There's just so many things wrong with that concept. Some updates I don't want, others I defintiely do. All of them I want to see before they get installed so I know what is going to be done. Although I suppose figuring out what an MS update will do can be pretty hard, since they tend to bundle lots of fixes into sinlge packages.
On the other hand, we're not talking about a dedicated SQL Server machine or anything, so maybe auto updates for desktops isn't a bad idea after all...
-B
Have you been using Opera recently? Like over the last couple years? The new betas are really pretty speedy and also smaller than the 6.x release versions. I just downloaded the last beta and the latest production release. Here they are:
[wee@host tmp]$ ls -l
total 6836
-rw------- 1 wee wee 3588280 Dec 18 16:06 ow32enen605.exe
-rw------- 1 wee wee 3397867 Dec 18 16:05 ow32enen700b2.exe
My boss and I were talking about this very topic. They've apparently re-written the rendering engine from the ground up. We suspect that they use the same engine in the desktop versions as in the embedded versions. Then they tack on JavaScript and Java and the various UI bits to make each platform-specific release.
Whatever they do, they haven't succumbed to to creature feep. They've done just about the opposite: they started fresh and the result is a faster, leaner browser. Of course, I've only used the windows version a couple times, but it was noticeably nimbler than the 6.x Linux versions.
-B
I wound up buying one for a buddy back home. I had to as I couldn't stop staring at the big yellow sign every time I got another round. I was curious to see what it was, and thought it was inordinately amusing. And I had had a few too many Kronenbourgs. It was only one pound so no big loss as far as "drunken purchases discovered the morning after" go.
I never did open it, but apparently you wiz on these little yellows balls and they disintegrate. Supposed to help your aim, I guess, or keep you from playing Fire Brigade whilst in the loo. Helps a charity as well. I shoulda bought a couple of them.
-B
-B
I'm already running Opera, and won't downgrade to mozilla or the like. I play games like Return to Castle Wolfentstein and Tribes2. They're closed source, and I have no problem running them. So what's the big deal about using a closed-source driver? Who ever said that I must use a 100% open source system?
Keep in mind, that you have choice with other cards, like ATI or Matrox.
Choice is good. But the choice bewteen dealing with buggy, third-party, months-late drivers for ATI cards (which can be non-trivial to install), or using slow Matrox hardware is no choice at all. My GeForce2 cost me about a hundred bucks, and is incredibly fast. The drivers install in about 45 seconds. The card works great and 3D is fine. There's not a chance I'd "put up with" those other video cards. Not when nVidia has made it so easy to use their hardware.
I understand what you're saying about Open Source and I realize all its benefits. I'm a big proponent of open source. But none of the Open Source alternatives to using nVidia cards even come close to comparing. There isn't much choice there. So I have to use a closed-srouce driver. When I look at what I get in return, I think "big deal" and move on.
-B
I hear you on that one. I know a lot of people that got completely burned out on anything involving a computer. Die-hard Solaris guys swearing off Unix and buying Macs (before OS X even), Unix/network guys going back to school for biology degrees, and even one 4D database guy becoming a middle manager at a Windows IT outsourcing shop.
We're all getting to the same place: stasis. We're seeking our own level. We all want to become one with that hypothetical environment we long imagined ourselves being happy in. It's a different imagined environment for everyone, each customized to one's own proclivities and world view.
You're happy running an old-school, physical-world shop. I'm happy as a pensioner. It's all good, and better than working in food service.
-B
I'm not at all bitter (if anything, you sound like you've been burned as perm worker or something). I'm the type that likes to have a known quantity: I know what money is coming in at what time. I've done contract work, and made decent money. It's just not a life I want to live. You do get to learn a lot and do a lot of interesting things over short periods of time for different people. That part I liked. But there are risks involved with being a contractor and I'm not at this poitn willing to take them. I've known a few that had some pretty lean months. Others have done ok (mostly because of very long-term contracts). Every one I've known has had at least one experience of abject terror, every one has had to chase down payment. Some people love it. Others not so much. Lately, I'm more into just being a plain old worker bee.
I already won the stock option lottery (I worked for Qualcomm and got in on the eight-to-one split), and now I am into protecting what I have and the stability that money has created. That's why I took a job at a university. I get 11 paid holidays and 3 weeks vacation a year. My salary is in line with industry standards. I can work from home a couple days a week as well if I want. I get nearly free health care, free schooling if I want to take it, a 403(b) that got my 401(k) rolled into it, and even a pension (at a guaranteed 7.5%). All that's worth a lot to me. Sure, it's the oatmeal of jobs. It's kind of bland and not very flashy, but it's good, interesting work with incredibly smart people and it's very stable. I like stable. Maybe I'm just getting old. I dunno.
BTW, I agree 100% about security coming through being valuable. Making a reputation for yourself as someone who can do whatever needs doing whenever it needs to be done is of paramount importance if you want to stay employed. When you get to the point where people want to hire you purely because they know who you are and what you can do, then things are where they need to be security-wise. That's doubly true in this economy.
-B
...
But, hourly, you get paid more, you work less (or get paid a HELL of a lot more), you don't have to deal with the beauracratic bullshit, and you can switch jobs at will.
That's a completely absurd statment and you know it. The days of switching IT jobs "at will" are gone (assuming they were even really there). You might get paid more up front as an non-exempt employee, but you lose a lot in the long run (like vacation time, paid holidays, medical benefits, retirement benefits, stock options/profit sharing, etc) which can make up for a lot of "lost pay".
I can't recall any instance of a company wanting to hire someone who demands an hourly wage over one who doesn't. If you're a 1099 contractor type, then that's one thing. But it's not the same as getting paid hourly.
Anyway, if you've found your niche then more power to you. But let people find security where they can -- in actually having a job. If you find a good job that you wouldn't mind doing which pays a decent salary, then take it. If you don't, then lots of others will be glad to fill your place.
-B
-B
I'd say no stones have been cast.
-B
First, most people here use Windows.
Second, I'd say the same thing if it was a Linux (or BSD, or Solaris, or Amgia, or ...) guy bashing Macs.
-B
Most of the people who come to Slashdot use Windows, not Linux. That everyone here is a die-hard Linux fanatic is just a misperception. Although I will say that a lot of the younger ones do show some fanaticism. Everyone wants 3l337 bragging rights, I guess.
Don't take it personally.
I think you misunderstood me. I merely said it was hard to read through the close-minded bias, not that I personally cared one way or the other. I happen to use Macs, as well other operating systems; whatever turns out to be the right tool for the job. But my point remains: they are all still just operating systems, not lifestyles.
-B
Get a grip, pal. It's only an operating system.
-B
Be strong, brother.
-B
No, but that's what everyone calls me. My dad gave me the nickname a long time ago and it stuck. In my signature (the real, on-paper kind), my first name appears as "Wm". Giving Madonna another, shorter name is like calling me "W". That was my point.
-B
Ah... I mean more ridiculous than Madonna as a conceptual whole.
-B
Well, I used dd in my last one much as you do (it was nearly identical, in fact, with $HOME instead of ~ and such). I wound up using 'cut' one day and got to thinking of pipes and how useful they are. Then I saw two .sigs in the same day that used dd. So I figured up a new way to get a fresh .sig. Think of it as .sig, version 1.1.
About the "wasting" of processes... I'm not so sure about that. Lots of little utilities strung together is practically the "Unix Way", and one of its best "features". Pipes and input/ouput redirection are one of the things that made Unix as strong as it is and are very powerful. Besides, I have a really, really fast machine.
Hmm, is your sig opensource? Hmm, I may have that to license that as LGPL...
Heh heh... feel free. It works very well in Kmail.
-B
-B