You may jest but the old Wang computer at the place where I work had a bank of three 'frequency converters' powering it. All they are is a motor and a generator set up to take 50Hz up to 60Hz.
More of a problem is that removing them to make space for more racks of servers would involve 5000 pounds worth of electrical work. The result is they stay wired in and taking up floor space and electricity. (They are on the same circuit breaker as the PC servers.)
A typical exchange: "Just give me your account number, I will transfer you the money." "Oh, I can't give out information like that, can't you send me a cheque?" "No, I don't have a cheque book."
I can usually persuade people to pay me by bank transfer because it involves giving them my number rather than the other way round.
That's nothing, I read Slashdot and have a wife, and she reads Slashdot too! Admittedly it's only when I say "Hey, here's an interesting science/religion article on Slashdot" but she does read it sometimes.
This is probably not a popular viewpoint, but having used windows, linux, mac, IRIX and other systems, I prefer linux on my own system but I think Windows is currently the best option we have in the workplace.
For years I have used Linux at home and more recently switched to Mac OS X. A month ago I started a job looking after computers for a small company and my views have rapidly changed. The company I work for uses IT extensively and has several windows servers, SQL server, Exchange, and desktops have Windows XP, MS Office, Great Plains and Biztrack. The system fits together well and allows versatility and management options that just aren't available on Linux and are harder on a Mac.
Users can log on to any desktop to work and get their desktop, documents and application settings loaded seamlessly over a DFS share from their nearest server, authentication for email and for web applications is covered by the Active Directory, their computer is configured by the Group Policy, updates are downloaded on my say so from WSUS without downloading everything multiple times, and I can manage everything from one place with MMC. (Microsoft Management Console.) I have been using Linux at home and work since kernel version 0.92 but it would take a long time to set up a system that well integrated with Linux.
Yes, there are many things that irritate me about the setup I have to use especially as a fanatical Linux user but I am very impressed by the current Microsoft offerings.
Differential pricing for peak and off peak electricity is fairly common here in the UK. It is called Economy 7 because we get 7 hours of cheaper electricity overnight. I pay 8.77p/KWh in the day but only 3.6p/KWh at night. Most installations of this type use the off peak electricity to heat up night storage heaters and hot water tanks.
Night storage heaters are particularly crap because you have to know in advance what the weather will do. If you turn it off overnight and the weather is cold the next day then you have to use expensive electricity to stay warm. If you leave it on and the weather is warm, you roast and there is nothing you can do about it. Storage heaters often make the bedroom too hot overnight but that is necessary in order to have heat the following evening.
That is bizzare. All those posts that show in my history as +4, are actually +5 when I log out and look at them. Why on earth would slashdot think that hiding my karma bonus from me is a good idea? For months I thought I just didn't get one anymore.
The current chip contains a scanned photo. Future passports will be issued with an ID card which means going to an enrolment centre to get your iris and finger prints scanned and entering all your details into the national identity register. The iris scan may or may not be included in the passport RFID chip and the fingerprints won't be at first.
The price of passports will go up from 51 pounds to 66 pounds in october (they were only 42 pounds last year!) to cover the costs and may rise again when ID card start being issued.
Anyone who wants to avoid the National Identity Register should join the renew for freedom campaign and renew their passport early. It is too late to avoid the biometric passport with RFID, but you will stay off of the NIR and will not have to provide fingerprints and iris scans in person. It will cost you 51 pounds but may well be worth it to avoid having to tell the Identity and Passport service every time you move house.
For instance, suppose athletes, as a condition of their scholarship, were required to say, not engage in sexual relations with anyone outside of a legal union. Or perhaps, were required not to enage in homosexual relations of any kind?
Once at the college, the students ceremonially sign a covenant which commits them to a strict behaviour code: no alcohol, drugs or obscene literature; sex will be reserved for marriage; personal conflicts will be resolved biblically; the students will be above reproach, will uphold the tenets of evangelical Christianity and lead the nation for Christ.
I find this level of control over students life scary, even as a christian myself.
There are two different formats, DVD Audio, and DVD Video. DVD Audio contains very high quality sound (192KHz/24 bit/lossless compression) and does not allow it to be output over a digital connection at that quality unless it is encrypted. Most DVD Audio players therefore only output DVD Audio over six analogue connectors.
DVD Video contains lower quality sound, and does allow a digital output.
Confusingly, most DVD Audio disks also contain a Dolby Digital soundtrack in order to also be compatible with DVD Video players, albeit at a lower quality.
"Just a big of a threat to net neutrality as that QoS crap"
QoS is useful. I want to be able to use my VoIP phone without having to stop bittorent first. I would quite like interactive stuff to be given priority over less urgently needed stuff. I just don't want my internet provider to be able to charge the content providers for better access or to drop packets from people they don't like.
Actually, the law was changed in 2001, but the law lords only ruled it legal to permanently keep DNA records of cleared suspects in 2004.
The register has followed this story in some detail. (See the links at the bottom of that page.) There has also been some coverage in mainstream newspapers.
UK law gives you four weeks holiday, which is 20 days a year if you work 5 days a week, but the law does not give anyone time off on bank holidays. Some employers will give you a paid day off, but some will make you use your annual leave allowance if you don't want to work on a bank holiday.
If your employer gives you bank or public holidays off and pays you for them, they will count towards your four weeks' holiday unless your employment contract says that you get bank/public holidays on top of the holiday the law gives you. For example, if you work five days a week and you get eight paid bank holidays off each year, these are taken off the 20 days' holiday the law gives you.
Many ISPs in the UK now actually give out free wireless routers with a new broadband connection - it is seen as an extra draw for new customers and a marketing advantage to get them to sign up for more expensive packages. And no, most are not encrypted by default.
BT Broadband give away a wireless modem with their more expensive connections and Wannadoo include a wireless router and claim that it is secure, although I haven't tried it.
Yes, I agree that the commandments are grouped differently. I didn't want to get into a lengthy explanation though, it would probably just fuel the "catholics conspiracy" argument. The poster I replied to was trying to imply that catholics altered the commandments in order to allow idol worship, which is just insulting.
Slashdot Mirror
Read the website again - it uses 6 litres per 100km, which is only 52mpg (us) or 63mpg (uk).
You may jest but the old Wang computer at the place where I work had a bank of three 'frequency converters' powering it. All they are is a motor and a generator set up to take 50Hz up to 60Hz.
More of a problem is that removing them to make space for more racks of servers would involve 5000 pounds worth of electrical work. The result is they stay wired in and taking up floor space and electricity. (They are on the same circuit breaker as the PC servers.)
some of us keep a modest arsenal in the free states
I don't see you using them.
There are many translations of the Bible, and most of them are copyrighted. Only The original "Thee and Thou" King James version is not.
I hate to break it to you, but the King James bible wasn't the original. Jesus didn't speak english, not even with thee's and thou's in it.
It isn't quite like that in Britain...
A typical exchange:
"Just give me your account number, I will transfer you the money."
"Oh, I can't give out information like that, can't you send me a cheque?"
"No, I don't have a cheque book."
I can usually persuade people to pay me by bank transfer because it involves giving them my number rather than the other way round.
But the original and the best (worst?) is in Colchester and I have to navigate it every day on the way to work.
p.s. I'm not a highway geek, I'm a traffic engineer.
What's the difference?
Yes, a god with no free time and whose computers are not safe from sticky kids...
(Yes, I read /. *and* have a wife. Bow before me.)
That's nothing, I read Slashdot and have a wife, and she reads Slashdot too! Admittedly it's only when I say "Hey, here's an interesting science/religion article on Slashdot" but she does read it sometimes.
This is probably not a popular viewpoint, but having used windows, linux, mac, IRIX and other systems, I prefer linux on my own system but I think Windows is currently the best option we have in the workplace.
For years I have used Linux at home and more recently switched to Mac OS X. A month ago I started a job looking after computers for a small company and my views have rapidly changed. The company I work for uses IT extensively and has several windows servers, SQL server, Exchange, and desktops have Windows XP, MS Office, Great Plains and Biztrack. The system fits together well and allows versatility and management options that just aren't available on Linux and are harder on a Mac.
Users can log on to any desktop to work and get their desktop, documents and application settings loaded seamlessly over a DFS share from their nearest server, authentication for email and for web applications is covered by the Active Directory, their computer is configured by the Group Policy, updates are downloaded on my say so from WSUS without downloading everything multiple times, and I can manage everything from one place with MMC. (Microsoft Management Console.) I have been using Linux at home and work since kernel version 0.92 but it would take a long time to set up a system that well integrated with Linux.
Yes, there are many things that irritate me about the setup I have to use especially as a fanatical Linux user but I am very impressed by the current Microsoft offerings.
My local town centre is subject to a police control order.
A police officer can ask anyone to leave the town centre, and refusing to do so is an arrestable offence.
Now that, is the genesis of a police state.
Differential pricing for peak and off peak electricity is fairly common here in the UK. It is called Economy 7 because we get 7 hours of cheaper electricity overnight. I pay 8.77p/KWh in the day but only 3.6p/KWh at night. Most installations of this type use the off peak electricity to heat up night storage heaters and hot water tanks.
Night storage heaters are particularly crap because you have to know in advance what the weather will do. If you turn it off overnight and the weather is cold the next day then you have to use expensive electricity to stay warm. If you leave it on and the weather is warm, you roast and there is nothing you can do about it. Storage heaters often make the bedroom too hot overnight but that is necessary in order to have heat the following evening.
That is bizzare. All those posts that show in my history as +4, are actually +5 when I log out and look at them. Why on earth would slashdot think that hiding my karma bonus from me is a good idea? For months I thought I just didn't get one anymore.
The RFID chip is only the first step.
The current chip contains a scanned photo. Future passports will be issued with an ID card which means going to an enrolment centre to get your iris and finger prints scanned and entering all your details into the national identity register. The iris scan may or may not be included in the passport RFID chip and the fingerprints won't be at first.
The price of passports will go up from 51 pounds to 66 pounds in october (they were only 42 pounds last year!) to cover the costs and may rise again when ID card start being issued.
Anyone who wants to avoid the National Identity Register should join the renew for freedom campaign and renew their passport early. It is too late to avoid the biometric passport with RFID, but you will stay off of the NIR and will not have to provide fingerprints and iris scans in person. It will cost you 51 pounds but may well be worth it to avoid having to tell the Identity and Passport service every time you move house.
ObsessiveMathsFreak said:
Patrick Henry College requires it's students to promise that. They were in a Channel 4 documentary recently in the UK, this is from the report:
I find this level of control over students life scary, even as a christian myself.
There are two different formats, DVD Audio, and DVD Video. DVD Audio contains very high quality sound (192KHz/24 bit/lossless compression) and does not allow it to be output over a digital connection at that quality unless it is encrypted. Most DVD Audio players therefore only output DVD Audio over six analogue connectors. DVD Video contains lower quality sound, and does allow a digital output. Confusingly, most DVD Audio disks also contain a Dolby Digital soundtrack in order to also be compatible with DVD Video players, albeit at a lower quality.
"Just a big of a threat to net neutrality as that QoS crap"
QoS is useful. I want to be able to use my VoIP phone without having to stop bittorent first. I would quite like interactive stuff to be given priority over less urgently needed stuff. I just don't want my internet provider to be able to charge the content providers for better access or to drop packets from people they don't like.
"Addiction Consultants" - is that what we are calling drug dealers now?
Things have changed.
Actually, the law was changed in 2001, but the law lords only ruled it legal to permanently keep DNA records of cleared suspects in 2004.
The register has followed this story in some detail. (See the links at the bottom of that page.) There has also been some coverage in mainstream newspapers.
That's alright, we never paid you back our world war 1 debts.
No, you are wrong.
UK law gives you four weeks holiday, which is 20 days a year if you work 5 days a week, but the law does not give anyone time off on bank holidays. Some employers will give you a paid day off, but some will make you use your annual leave allowance if you don't want to work on a bank holiday.
There is lots of information here and here.
From adviceguide.org.uk:
This from a person whos Slashdot ID is poopie?
Many ISPs in the UK now actually give out free wireless routers with a new broadband connection - it is seen as an extra draw for new customers and a marketing advantage to get them to sign up for more expensive packages. And no, most are not encrypted by default.
BT Broadband give away a wireless modem with their more expensive connections and Wannadoo include a wireless router and claim that it is secure, although I haven't tried it.
Have you told any of the editors? You can't expect them to read comments, you know.
Yes, I agree that the commandments are grouped differently. I didn't want to get into a lengthy explanation though, it would probably just fuel the "catholics conspiracy" argument. The poster I replied to was trying to imply that catholics altered the commandments in order to allow idol worship, which is just insulting.