Well, any two-bit sci-fi author can tell you that carbon and silicon are similar enough that life can be based on either carbon -or- silicon. It only follows that they both make equally good semiconductors.
The important question, however, is how does the hardness compare? Many gemstones that are quite beautiful are also soft and fragile; their strength is one of the things that leads to the saying that "diamonds are forever". I hate to say it, but diamonds are a good fit for a ring that's going to be worn every day for a (hopefully) extended period of time.
You're missing the point; they're not selling machines running Linux, they're selling machines without Windows here. Just like the Wal-Mart linux systems, they don't really plan on having people use the Linux as much as they want to be able to say "we're not promoting piracy of Windows, these machines don't need it 'cuz they've already got an OS".
That and the retailer makes more profit by selling machine + retail Windows than they do off a machine w/ a bundled OEM install.
Anyone with a HS education can get a job in sales at these places. Often it takes little more than simply having an A+ cert to be a hardware tech. If you have any actual skills or knowledge, you'd be working somewhere else for more money. (to top things off, most places won't let minors staff registers; a combination of insurance issues and being able to actually press charges if somebody's robbing the till)
Maybe since you were young things have changed; there's nothing 'technical' about selling this stuff. It's all pre-packaged, pre-assembled crap that doesn't even come with real user manuals (instead they've got glossy 'quick-start' cards) that most people are buying from these places. What is there to learn by looking at the stats on an HP v. an eMachines system?
Then there's the whole bit about the cost of high-tech toys being so low that working any job can score you a decent system before too long (a kick-ass DIY system can be had for under $1500; something usable can be picked up, used, for a few hundred).
Not to mention that, while working minimum wage, relying on commissions to actually make money, anyone with a conscience will quickly slide in sales under the goons that sell $3k systems to ppl who just want to browse the web & read email.
I've got a friend who does some occassional work for some of the labs on campus, and that gear is fucked. One example that immediately pops to mind was the machine (I forget what it was.. $300k+, maybe a mass spectometer or something) that interfaced a PC via ethernet.
The problem was two-fold:
a) the PC interface software was written in MS Java and wouldn't run on a modern JVM.
b) the machine had a hard-wired IP address that was actually allocated to something in the Real World, making having the machine it's connected to connected to the outside world more of a hassle than it should've been.
Don't you mean "who is Cartman's father"? The two part, cliff-hanger episode, that was interupted, as an april-fools' day joke, by those damned farting Canadians, Terrence and Phillip, to finally conclude by telling us that Cartman's mom was a hermaphrodite?
I've gotta seriously wonder how somebody would even come across this in normal activity; unless it's a painfully obvious exploit, putting any effort into finding the exploit would be enough to get in trouble w/ the university for...
It doesn't really matter; Ernesto Miranda, of "Miranda Rights" fame, kidnapped a girl and raped her. Even though he was later re-tried and convicted, the Supreme Court decision set a legal precident.
While a convicted felon loses some of their rights, until the point of their conviction they've got all of their rights and should still be treated as such until a conviction is reached. Innocence or guilt are irrelevant when it comes to imporoper imprisonment.
OF course, a big company like Microsoft would be able to, through various creative accounting methods, offshore investments and the like, reduce their 'worth' to far less than the company's really worth.
There's a number of things wrong with this that aren't directly related to microsoft. Formost of which is the class-action lawsuit system, which is just a way for the rich to prey upon the rich in the name of the little guy. For smaller, individual suits, I guess taking a quarter of the winnings, if you're taking it on contingincy, isn't too bad, but when you're dealing with hundreds of thousands of claimants, there's a certain economy of scale that's not being recognized. I doubt the law-firm, had they been actually billing clients, would have even done a million dollars worth of work here.
Then there's the settlement itself. People got screwed by microsoft, so they joined in on the lawsuit. What to they get? For less than $20 (when they most likely got taken for more to begin with) of _vouchers_ to spend on more MSFT crap (and possibly get screwed again), they have consider this case closed and can no longer take action against MSFT for ANYTHING. EVER....and then the law firm pulls in enough money so that even their secretaries' children can retire in the Bahamas at age 18.
With these one off/rare things, it's really more of a high-stakes gamble; Assuming this $1M rocket has a 10% chance of catastrophic failure, taking $100k in premiums would allow you to 'break-even' on the deal. Charging 'break-even' rates for a 15% chance of failure gives you something for your trouble.
Inspecting luggage on a Greyhound sounds more like a War on Drugs thing than a War on Terrorism thing. The end result's the same (you're pissed and nobody's really any safer), but...
Yeah... it sucks. I'm doing a case mod project and got a USB floppy thinking I could boot off of it. No such luck; the mobo I'm using doesn't support USB boots. Maybe I'll have to scrap the s370 FlexATX board and shell out the cash for a VIA miniITX board.
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Err... you mean 2 of which AREN'T ex-navy folk?
Just for completeness sake, how does going through the Navy program affect job prospects?
Did they fix the bug in NT-based systems that makes them crash when printing tabs followed by backspaces?
Well, any two-bit sci-fi author can tell you that carbon and silicon are similar enough that life can be based on either carbon -or- silicon. It only follows that they both make equally good semiconductors.
postdoc at your favorite national lab.
Los Alamos? I like 'em 'cuz they're so generous; everyone gets to take home cool toys when they visit.
The important question, however, is how does the hardness compare? Many gemstones that are quite beautiful are also soft and fragile; their strength is one of the things that leads to the saying that "diamonds are forever". I hate to say it, but diamonds are a good fit for a ring that's going to be worn every day for a (hopefully) extended period of time.
That's about as insightful as bitching about Python being white-space sensitive. Both problems virtually disappear when using a good text editro.
Yeah... I tend to see /. stories pop up on some of the mailing lists I'm on after being on the fron page...
You're missing the point; they're not selling machines running Linux, they're selling machines without Windows here. Just like the Wal-Mart linux systems, they don't really plan on having people use the Linux as much as they want to be able to say "we're not promoting piracy of Windows, these machines don't need it 'cuz they've already got an OS".
That and the retailer makes more profit by selling machine + retail Windows than they do off a machine w/ a bundled OEM install.
Anyone with a HS education can get a job in sales at these places. Often it takes little more than simply having an A+ cert to be a hardware tech. If you have any actual skills or knowledge, you'd be working somewhere else for more money. (to top things off, most places won't let minors staff
registers; a combination of insurance issues and being able to actually press charges if somebody's robbing the till)
Maybe since you were young things have changed; there's nothing 'technical' about selling this stuff. It's all pre-packaged, pre-assembled crap that doesn't even come with real user manuals (instead they've got glossy 'quick-start' cards) that most people are buying from these places. What is there to learn by looking at the stats on an HP v. an eMachines system?
Then there's the whole bit about the cost of high-tech toys being so low that working any job can score you a decent system before too long (a kick-ass DIY system can be had for under $1500; something usable can be picked up, used, for a few hundred).
Not to mention that, while working minimum wage, relying on commissions to actually make money, anyone with a conscience will quickly slide in sales under the goons that sell $3k systems to ppl who just want to browse the web & read email.
I've got a friend who does some occassional work for some of the labs on campus, and that gear is fucked. One example that immediately pops to mind was the machine (I forget what it was.. $300k+, maybe a mass spectometer or something) that interfaced a PC via ethernet.
The problem was two-fold:
a) the PC interface software was written in MS Java and wouldn't run on a modern JVM.
b) the machine had a hard-wired IP address that was actually allocated to something in the Real World, making having the machine it's connected to connected to the outside world more of a hassle than it should've been.
Don't you mean "who is Cartman's father"? The two part, cliff-hanger episode, that was interupted, as an april-fools' day joke, by those damned farting Canadians, Terrence and Phillip, to finally conclude by telling us that Cartman's mom was a hermaphrodite?
It's -really- hard to be worse than that.
I've gotta seriously wonder how somebody would even come across this in normal activity; unless it's a painfully obvious exploit, putting any effort into finding the exploit would be enough to get in trouble w/ the university for...
It doesn't really matter; Ernesto Miranda, of "Miranda Rights" fame, kidnapped a girl and raped her. Even though he was later re-tried and convicted, the Supreme Court decision set a legal precident.
While a convicted felon loses some of their rights, until the point of their conviction they've got all of their rights and should still be treated as such until a conviction is reached. Innocence or guilt are irrelevant when it comes to imporoper imprisonment.
OF course, a big company like Microsoft would be able to, through various creative accounting methods, offshore investments and the like, reduce their 'worth' to far less than the company's really worth.
Too bad the case was settled before it went to court, thus no legal precedent was set.
There's a number of things wrong with this that aren't directly related to microsoft. Formost of which is the class-action lawsuit system, which is just a way for the rich to prey upon the rich in the name of the little guy. For smaller, individual suits, I guess taking a quarter of the winnings, if you're taking it on contingincy, isn't too bad, but when you're dealing with hundreds of thousands of claimants, there's a certain economy of scale that's not being recognized. I doubt the law-firm, had they been actually billing clients, would have even done a million dollars worth of work here.
...and then the law firm pulls in enough money so that even their secretaries' children can retire in the Bahamas at age 18.
Then there's the settlement itself. People got screwed by microsoft, so they joined in on the lawsuit. What to they get? For less than $20 (when they most likely got taken for more to begin with) of _vouchers_ to spend on more MSFT crap (and possibly get screwed again), they have consider this case closed and can no longer take action against MSFT for ANYTHING. EVER.
You forgot to mention a stack of invoices so that you can offset the cost of building up that toolkit.
With these one off/rare things, it's really more of a high-stakes gamble; Assuming this $1M rocket has a 10% chance of catastrophic failure, taking $100k in premiums would allow you to 'break-even' on the deal. Charging 'break-even' rates for a 15% chance of failure gives you something for your trouble.
Most colleges have exclusive distribution contracts with either Coke or Pepsi. What's different about this?
And drinking orange juice makes LSD work better.
Inspecting luggage on a Greyhound sounds more like a War on Drugs thing than a War on Terrorism thing. The end result's the same (you're pissed and nobody's really any safer), but...
Now I can refuse to fly, on ideological grounds, and not have to deal with flying to visit the family for the holidays.
Another similar scenario... If you go to some trade show / convention on the company dime, who owns the schwag that you're given there?
Yeah... it sucks. I'm doing a case mod project and got a USB floppy thinking I could boot off of it. No such luck; the mobo I'm using doesn't support USB boots. Maybe I'll have to scrap the s370 FlexATX board and shell out the cash for a VIA miniITX board.