Depends on the type of site. I ship a lot of fairly low-value, small items. Probably 80% of my shipments are by first class mail, or airmail letter post for international shipments. A typical package with an electronic kit and a connector or two might cost $1.10 within the US, and maybe $2.80 to just about anywhere in the world.
Not only is it vastly cheaper than UPS, FedEx, or DHL, but it's quite a bit faster compared to ground service. Three days is typical for coast-to-coast shipment. I can get a package to Australia in less time, and for less money, than I could get the same package to the east coast by UPS.
Also, it goes almost anywhere. Ok, so the one package I sent to Antarctica went through some sort of forwarder, but I've shipped to about 40 countries so far, with a loss rate of well under 1%. I don't think I've ever had a domestic package permanently lost.
As for shipping to myself, I use priority mail whenever it's an option, unless it's something heavy. Assuming the vendor charges honest shipping rates, of course.
Re:Comments from people who actually create Creati
on
Beginning GIMP
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· Score: 1
Any suggestions for open source vector graphics manipulation? If GIMP does it, I haven't seen it. I find myself doing a lot of stuff these days that requires me to submit.eps or.ai files for banners, pad printing, and that sort of thing. I can't find anything inexpensive that'll do it.
A lot of this can be attributed to staff turnover and lack of continuity. I used to work in a building associated with various launch programs at Vandenberg AFB. I found out at some point that the systems I was responsible for used to be housed in a basement computer room, and that there might still be documentation and stuff there. But with the exception of the maintenance guys, NO ONE had key card access through the three locked doors you had to go through, and no one had even been assigned responsibility for those areas. When I finally did get access, I found whole racks of equipment that were still powered on, not connected to the outside world. A power line monitor had logged every power glitch for years before its paper tape finally jammed. To this day, I think there are still racks of backup tapes down there.
Of more historical interest, I was once in a plain, ordinary conference room in another building when someone pulled aside the curtains draped around the walls to show me what was there. One whole wall was covered with a schedule matrix running from maybe 1985 through 1989 or so, with little magnetic space shuttles on it. When the west coast shuttle program was canned back in '86, they just pulled the curtains closed and walked away.
Yeah, some stuff of historical value gets stolen. But much of it is just overlooked, misfiled, misplaced, or just plain forgotten.
I'll second that. Scored in the 99th percentile in state-mandated standardized testing all through grade school, and got D's in high school when I couldn't stay focused on anything. I can remember trying my best to focus and take notes one day in College Algebra, and that lasted roughly 30 seconds. It was some minutes later before I came back around enough to realize I'd been thinking about microprocessor design or something and hadn't heard a word that had been said.
Strattera's been working well for me. I can now sit through meetings without compulsively disassembling and reassembling ballpoint pens, and when someone asks for my opinion on something I don't have to scramble to make sense of what's on the whiteboard because I actually know what's going on.
I just wish someone had recognized the symptomps about 15 years ago and done something about it.
For many of us geeks, absolutely it's more fun. Orbiter is one of my favorite time-wasters - I have endless fun plotting Earth - Mars transfer orbits with barely enough fuel, having to execute a seat-of-your-pants aerobraking without the proper instruments, then having to try to put the ship down on a 10-meter docking pad on the surface with what tiny bit of fuel I've got left. Or taking a cargo module as far down into the atmosphere as I dare with the orbital tug, dropping it, trying to climb out again before I lose too much of my orbital velocity, and then keeping the fuel cells from overheating (due to the lack of an active cooling system in the model) before I can make it back to the station.
On the other hand, some folks just want to shoot stuff. It just comes down to personal preference.
"...a jumbo jet packed with gear designed to shoot down enemy missiles half a world away..."
Assuming your world is not larger than 600 kilometers across, that is. Or do they mean that the plane's going to be in the Middle East? In that case, an M-16 is able to kill enemy soldiers half a world away, too.
Plus, it's got lots of lesbians. That's a virtual guarantee of success for even the ugliest of websites!
Re:The Next Big Thing Is... Already Here...
on
No More Next Big Thing?
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· Score: 3, Interesting
My bet for the Next Big Thing is automated fabrication technology. And yes, it's already here - and it's gotten a lot cheaper in the last decade. 3-dimensional inkjets that make plastic parts, selective laser sintering for metal parts, that sort of thing.
The general public hasn't really seen it yet, and it's still out of the price range for home use. Plus, the selection of materials is somewhat limited, but it's improving. There's no doubt in my mind that at some critical point of price and functionality, the market is going to explode. How long before a single machine is capable of building the physical housing of a device, plus conductive circuits, passive components, semiconductors, and moving parts? Imagine the innovation that will inspire, when you can electronically design and distribute everything from doorknobs to handguns, to be fabricated by people everywhere at minimal cost.
I can tell you that Bluecoat is the standard for Air Force Space Command at least, and possibly other commands. And yes, they're overly broad, especially in the 'chat' category. This isn't something that's applied only to overseas installations to censor anything - it's part of an overall attempt to restrict network access to 'appropriate use'.
But once you've experienced the speed of broadband and the convenience of not having to dial up and log in, you'll never want to go back
You want a real dilemma? My DSL provider introduced a new plan, twice as fast as my current plan, and a bit cheaper. The catch? Two weeks of downtime! The agony! I was ready to get another line installed so I could order the new package without disconnecting the old.
Then I discovered that one of my neighbors has an open wireless access point...
But he's got such nice diagrams, compared to most of the kooks out there! And only a moderate sprinkling of bizarre philosophy and scorn for the established scientific community. The grammar is even up to about an 8th grade level - this guy is clearly a big step ahead of your average kook.
First, let me say I'm against anything that erodes civil liberties like this - I'm certainly not a supporter of this sort of surveilance. But it's not fair to say that it's pointless. Plenty of people have been caught because they've practiced poor OPSEC and COMSEC. No, you won't catch anyone being particularly careful or clever, but you'll still catch a lot of the dumb, lazy, or just poorly-trained ones. And sometimes that's enough - especially when the dumb ones point you to the ones that really do know what they're doing.
I talked to one of the guys responsible for the payload at a conference a few months ago. It comes down to the fact that they were going to throw an old Orlan suit away anyway, and someone thought it'd be cool to put some electronics in it. But you have to understand that all those electronics were designed and delivered specifically for that purpose, and for the same amount of delivered weight you could probably deploy a standalone microsat. The suit really doesn't add much. Except for the novelty factor, anyway.
Exactly. I've read articles from the 1950's and 60's about how, by the year 2000, we'd have critical shortages of such vital resources as mercury and asbestos. Today, no one even produces mercury for mercury's sake - it's all a byproduct of gold mining, because it's cheaper to sell it than to dispose of it properly. And asbestos - you literally have to pay people to take it.
And you've got to love the part about figuring out how to filter and stabilize the electricity. Gee, I bet no one's had to design a power supply to do THAT before!
You want stable, filtered 12 volts from it? Go to Maxim, get yourself an inductor-based regulated DC-DC converter chip, some decent sized filter capacitors on both sides, and you're set. But you're still better off with lemons. And I'm no biochemist, but I'm guessing the tree's not going to like having its sap chemistry messed with, either. At the very least, I imagine you'd deplete the electrolyte around the aluminum electrode and it'd stop working. Maybe there's enough flow in there to keep the circuit going, but again, it's going to be doing something funky to the tree if there's any significant chemical process going on.
And then there's the guy's initial assumption - that because lighting can go from the ground to the sky (sort of), there must be some sort of energy in the earth. Maybe if the Kansas Board of Education has their way, we can ALL achieve this level of scientific insight someday!
They filed for a PATENT on this? Sticking a nail in a tree and a pipe in the ground? Aren't we a bit late for a patent on a voltaic pile? It's exactly the same thing as using a lemon or potato as a battery. I can get much better results from a stack of zinc and copper plates, some napkins, and a bunch of vinegar.
The fact that they're equating voltage with power should be a big clue that something's not right. It's like that comment in the Matrix about a human being generating as much power as a 100-volt battery. Without knowing current, it really tells you nothing. I can produce thousands of volts from a 3-volt battery with a fairly simple circuit. Will that create more power? Not at all - it's less, because of the losses in the circuit.
Slashdot Mirror
Depends on the type of site. I ship a lot of fairly low-value, small items. Probably 80% of my shipments are by first class mail, or airmail letter post for international shipments. A typical package with an electronic kit and a connector or two might cost $1.10 within the US, and maybe $2.80 to just about anywhere in the world.
Not only is it vastly cheaper than UPS, FedEx, or DHL, but it's quite a bit faster compared to ground service. Three days is typical for coast-to-coast shipment. I can get a package to Australia in less time, and for less money, than I could get the same package to the east coast by UPS.
Also, it goes almost anywhere. Ok, so the one package I sent to Antarctica went through some sort of forwarder, but I've shipped to about 40 countries so far, with a loss rate of well under 1%. I don't think I've ever had a domestic package permanently lost.
As for shipping to myself, I use priority mail whenever it's an option, unless it's something heavy. Assuming the vendor charges honest shipping rates, of course.
Any suggestions for open source vector graphics manipulation? If GIMP does it, I haven't seen it. I find myself doing a lot of stuff these days that requires me to submit .eps or .ai files for banners, pad printing, and that sort of thing. I can't find anything inexpensive that'll do it.
A lot of this can be attributed to staff turnover and lack of continuity. I used to work in a building associated with various launch programs at Vandenberg AFB. I found out at some point that the systems I was responsible for used to be housed in a basement computer room, and that there might still be documentation and stuff there. But with the exception of the maintenance guys, NO ONE had key card access through the three locked doors you had to go through, and no one had even been assigned responsibility for those areas. When I finally did get access, I found whole racks of equipment that were still powered on, not connected to the outside world. A power line monitor had logged every power glitch for years before its paper tape finally jammed. To this day, I think there are still racks of backup tapes down there.
Of more historical interest, I was once in a plain, ordinary conference room in another building when someone pulled aside the curtains draped around the walls to show me what was there. One whole wall was covered with a schedule matrix running from maybe 1985 through 1989 or so, with little magnetic space shuttles on it. When the west coast shuttle program was canned back in '86, they just pulled the curtains closed and walked away.
Yeah, some stuff of historical value gets stolen. But much of it is just overlooked, misfiled, misplaced, or just plain forgotten.
How is it even possible to use 11,000 different type faces??
You've never been on MySpace, have you?
Strattera's been working well for me. I can now sit through meetings without compulsively disassembling and reassembling ballpoint pens, and when someone asks for my opinion on something I don't have to scramble to make sense of what's on the whiteboard because I actually know what's going on.
I just wish someone had recognized the symptomps about 15 years ago and done something about it.
Hey, just be glad their not out trying to 'reach kids through their hip-hop music' for once!
On the other hand, some folks just want to shoot stuff. It just comes down to personal preference.
Hah! Your double-ROT13 is no match for my quadruple-XOR encoding!
Assuming your world is not larger than 600 kilometers across, that is. Or do they mean that the plane's going to be in the Middle East? In that case, an M-16 is able to kill enemy soldiers half a world away, too.
Err, never mind..
Plus, it's got lots of lesbians. That's a virtual guarantee of success for even the ugliest of websites!
The general public hasn't really seen it yet, and it's still out of the price range for home use. Plus, the selection of materials is somewhat limited, but it's improving. There's no doubt in my mind that at some critical point of price and functionality, the market is going to explode. How long before a single machine is capable of building the physical housing of a device, plus conductive circuits, passive components, semiconductors, and moving parts? Imagine the innovation that will inspire, when you can electronically design and distribute everything from doorknobs to handguns, to be fabricated by people everywhere at minimal cost.
And how naive do you have to be to believe that your personal information isn't on the Internet just because you didn't put it there?
I can tell you that Bluecoat is the standard for Air Force Space Command at least, and possibly other commands. And yes, they're overly broad, especially in the 'chat' category. This isn't something that's applied only to overseas installations to censor anything - it's part of an overall attempt to restrict network access to 'appropriate use'.
Thank God... otherwise Chuck Norris would have killed us all by now with roundhouse kicks to the head.
You want a real dilemma? My DSL provider introduced a new plan, twice as fast as my current plan, and a bit cheaper. The catch? Two weeks of downtime! The agony! I was ready to get another line installed so I could order the new package without disconnecting the old.
Then I discovered that one of my neighbors has an open wireless access point...
But he's got such nice diagrams, compared to most of the kooks out there! And only a moderate sprinkling of bizarre philosophy and scorn for the established scientific community. The grammar is even up to about an 8th grade level - this guy is clearly a big step ahead of your average kook.
First, let me say I'm against anything that erodes civil liberties like this - I'm certainly not a supporter of this sort of surveilance. But it's not fair to say that it's pointless. Plenty of people have been caught because they've practiced poor OPSEC and COMSEC. No, you won't catch anyone being particularly careful or clever, but you'll still catch a lot of the dumb, lazy, or just poorly-trained ones. And sometimes that's enough - especially when the dumb ones point you to the ones that really do know what they're doing.
Interestingly, the pulsating eyes thing isn't unique to snails when it comes to animal mind control.
I talked to one of the guys responsible for the payload at a conference a few months ago. It comes down to the fact that they were going to throw an old Orlan suit away anyway, and someone thought it'd be cool to put some electronics in it. But you have to understand that all those electronics were designed and delivered specifically for that purpose, and for the same amount of delivered weight you could probably deploy a standalone microsat. The suit really doesn't add much. Except for the novelty factor, anyway.
Exactly. I've read articles from the 1950's and 60's about how, by the year 2000, we'd have critical shortages of such vital resources as mercury and asbestos. Today, no one even produces mercury for mercury's sake - it's all a byproduct of gold mining, because it's cheaper to sell it than to dispose of it properly. And asbestos - you literally have to pay people to take it.
You want stable, filtered 12 volts from it? Go to Maxim, get yourself an inductor-based regulated DC-DC converter chip, some decent sized filter capacitors on both sides, and you're set. But you're still better off with lemons. And I'm no biochemist, but I'm guessing the tree's not going to like having its sap chemistry messed with, either. At the very least, I imagine you'd deplete the electrolyte around the aluminum electrode and it'd stop working. Maybe there's enough flow in there to keep the circuit going, but again, it's going to be doing something funky to the tree if there's any significant chemical process going on.
And then there's the guy's initial assumption - that because lighting can go from the ground to the sky (sort of), there must be some sort of energy in the earth. Maybe if the Kansas Board of Education has their way, we can ALL achieve this level of scientific insight someday!
They filed for a PATENT on this? Sticking a nail in a tree and a pipe in the ground? Aren't we a bit late for a patent on a voltaic pile? It's exactly the same thing as using a lemon or potato as a battery. I can get much better results from a stack of zinc and copper plates, some napkins, and a bunch of vinegar.
Nothing to see here...
Let's hope Jack doesn't find out about X-Plane...