The only way to make the dollar coin work in the U.S. is to do what Canada did -- after the "Loonie" (dollar coin) was introduced, the 1 dollar bill was retired. The dollar bills in circulation were removed as they aged and were no longer fit for circulation. After a few years the dollar bill was effectively gone from circulation.
Canada then did the same thing with the "twoonie" (2 dollar coin). As long as dollar bills are available, they will be used over dollar coins just because that is what people are used to.
Does the seat stink, or does the bowl? Seriously, the only thing that should be touching the seat is butt cheeks -- the nasty stuff goes through the hole and into the bowl. And since (for guys) the seat goes up for a pee, the seat justs needs a clorox wipe once in awhile to keep it clean. The bowl on the other hand...
I can see why a keyboard can get so many germs. There's no telling where those hands have been, and anything on the fingers ends up on the keys.
.. what kind of person takes their Sony CDs to work in order to play them on PCs on a military network. Kinda bizarre that that's even possible.
Once upon a time, bringing in the CD would have been the safest way to listen to music. Nothing can be copied to a CD, and nothing could be brought in on a pressed CD other than music. Nothing for Military Security to be worried about. Ipods and other MP3 players could potentially be used to sneak data out.
Of course now with the DRM crap on the "CD", this is no longer true. The once friendly store bought CD is now a potential risk. Way to go Music Industry! And you wonder why sales are down in 2005 from 2004...besides crappy offerings.
Now the MLB have laid claim to the 'official' statistics.
It seems to me that a decision for MLB could be gotten around by scoring. Scoring is where you bring a sheet of paper (scoring form) and mark every play (hit, strike, sac fly, error, etc.) on your paper as it happens. As long as you keep an accurate account of what happens, then your score sheet should be a correct account of the game. After the game, you can take your score sheet and enter it into a spreadsheet or any one of a number of software products designed to compile baseball statistics, then produce your own stats. A fantasy league could hire/get volunteers to score games, have a person/group serve as official statistician. There -- no need to purchase or use MLB statistics. As long as the group agrees that the statistics compiled are the official statistics for the fantasy league, then there should be no problems.
If MLB has problems with player names, then just "officially" refer to them by city and number. i.e. instead of Barry Bonds, keep the statistics under San Francisco #25 and let each member fill in the name. For cities with more than one team, just add National or American to the description.
Of course, once the oil turns rancid, things could get interesting as well as smelly...
I thought the same thing -- interesting concept, but cooking oil would either have to be changed every few days or so, or it would get stinky. Of course, they included a plug at the bottom of the case to make draining the oil easier.
They say at the end of the article that they recommend motor oil for long term operation. They used cooking oil for proof-of-concept. I still don't know if I would want the top of the case open as they did, even with motor oil, so I guess some sort of heat exchanger would have to be included to run this with a totally sealed interior. You'd need something to keep the oil at 104 deg F or cooler with the top on -- I'm sure it wouldn't be that hard to design something.
It depends on the show and how the advertising is done. CSI:Miami is a good example of the okay and the bad. Okay: the CSIs drive Hummer H2s in the show. The vehicle for the most part is just there -- the actors don't make a big deal about it. The bad: a few weeks ago they were advertising some cellphone music service. The in show advertising was so blatant that it disrupted the flow of the show (reminded me of the in-show advertising spoof in the move The Truman Show.
In show advertising doesn't bother me in games shows such as Survivor (sorry folks, they call it a "reality show" but it is in reality a game show where the top prize is a million bucks). Game shows have had in show advertisers forever, so if someone wins Mountain Dew or a new Pontiac Whatever-it-was, that doesn't bother me that much.
A show having a sponsor -- that's the way most shows were originally funded. The daytime soaps are called soaps because they were originally sponsored by soap companies back in the days of radio and early television. If Acme wants to sponsor a "commercial free" hour of 24, then thats okay by me. If they want a character that drinks Mountain Dew in a show, that's okay as long as they don't do it to the point where the flow of the show is interrupted. On the other hand, if it gets carried away to the point of where it starts looking like NASCAR or the advertising scene in CSI: Miami then it is too much.
Just my $0.02.
BTW, kudos to the gang at Mythbusters for some great answers. Keep up the good work!
I'm way over the hill as far as 25 is concerned, but I'll comment because my Daughter is 15 and my Sister-in-Law just turned 25.
My Sis in law is a big Dave Matthews fan. Better than 90% of the concerts she ever went to were Dave's, and most of the music she listens to is Dave Matthews, Phish, and other similar bands. She has little or no interest in most of the stuff that the RIAA has put out this year.
My Daughter is 15, prime age for the RIAA. Problem is (for the RIAA) that she is not interested in much of the stuff that the RIAA has put out that is "targeted" to her age group. She does like "American Idiot", but has been lately taking an interest in groups such as the Rolling Stones, AC/DC, and Aerosmith. Most of the new music she likes is punk, and is not mainstream RIAA fare. It is funny to go into Hot Topic and see t-shirts that would have fit in perfectly when I went to High School and College.
It seems that other than hip-hop and rap, the RIAA has not pushed any new music styles since the late '80s/early '90s. Punk has continued to develop outside of the RIAA mainstream, but that has not helped "big music" (not that I mind). My Daughter and her friends are also big purchasers of DVDs, so there is more money that the RIAA will never see.
It seems that the consolidation of Record companies has lead big music to shy away from new sounds. This, along with affordable DVDs has made RIAA music much more irrelevant to my Daughter and most of her friends. They still buy some music, but not like previous generations.
This is a good example why we need to roll back copyright to a reasonable period of time, or at least require periodic registration and renewal for copyright protection to continue. If they had the copyright laws back then that we have now, these recordings would never see the light of day. There is little or no commercial value to these recordings, but they are a valuable part of our history. It would be a shame to lose them to the ravages of time because of insane copyright laws, like what can (and is happening) to film from 1923 on.
Our QA department is the test team where I work. IT is required to do unit testing and some system testing, but our QA serves as an independent testing unit that both tests the particular change and does full regression testing. The idea (at least at our shop) is that QA catches anything that the programmer may have missed, and any changes made don't foul up anything else in the system.
We are still developing and refining our development cycle but positive results have already been seen in the projects that have gone through QA.
We have been dealing with this in our organization. In the past, we have been programming by the seat of our pants -- we get requirements, program what we think our Customers want, do a little testing, then throw it into production, then wonder why we have problems in the middle of the night.
Sarbanes-Oxley plus the competition is putting an end to this method of coding. In the past year, we have hired real Project Managers and have begun doing real Project Management.
We now require a Functional Systems Design (FSD), a document that details what the customer wants at a high level. A Computer Systems Design (CSD) document is then written. This document is the actual design of the system that Developers and Programmers use to design the system, design and build databases, and determine what programs need to be written and computer system(s) (PC, Mainframe, Unix)they will live on. Once the programs are written and unit tested, we have a QA department to do real testing. We currently use Microsoft Project, TrackRecord (a Compuware defect tracking tool), and Bugzilla (an open source tracking tool) to track what has been done, what defects we have run into, and how they were resolved.
We still have a long way to go, and have faced opposition from some Managers, but support from Upper Management (and auditors) has helped to pave the way.
Implementing change is tough, but it is starting to pay off in better designed and implemented software which helps keeps our customers around (which means no layoffs, at least for now). Getting requirements in writing is a big help when it comes to analysis and design -- it by no means eliminates problems, but it sure does help reduce them.
Can't you sue for the product not technically being an audio CD in the first place?
Unfortunately, you can't sue for that. I looked at the CDs in question at the store, and they do have a warning that the disc is "copy protected". It's on the back, in small print next to the FBI warning logo, but it is there.
That being said, given that Sony/BMG feels that they need to resort to Black Hat hacker root kits to "protect" their precious Music, I have decided to no longer purchase (or allow my Daughter to purchase) any Sony/BMG products since the CD could contain malware that could damage our computers. I'm not sure if a class action suit can be brought against Sony for this root kit, but I can certainly tell everyone I know about the dangers of using Sony/BMG products in their computers. Word of mouth can hurt as much as a class action suit if enough people take the time to tell everyone they know.
Boycott RIAA is a good site to learn more about the Music Labels and the crap they are pulling these days.
Great post! Definitely one to keep in mind when dealing with other departments. I am currently working in the QA department. We are a new department in our division of the company which was set up to meet Sarbanes-Oxley requirements. We are currently fighting the battles that I.T. traditionally fought, the worst one being sales people promising products to clients on a certain date without consulting the developers.
In the past, this ended up causing I.T. to work overtime and weekends to get a product developed on time. Because of the lack of time, most testing beyond unit testing was skipped, and the product was put into production with fingers crossed. Any problems were fixed on the fly.
We have been trying to change this culture without much success -- until the last few months. Our ally has turned out to be our parent corporation -- they have sent in auditors to review the process. They have the clout to force changes that will improve the process, and we (QA) don't have to step on any toes to get it done. The best part is that we were programming before moving to QA, we have been able to get I.T. to buy into the QA process. It is nice to work with I.T. people who care about what they write.
Yes, but even 100+ years ago, the average Joe didn't totally know how their technology worked. For example, the Horse -- hay goes in one end, horse poop comes out the other. If the horse gets sick, take it to the local vet. When the horse needs shoes, take it to the smithy. Yes, there were people who were able to take care of their horse completely (medical care and shoeing), especially on the frontier, but that knowledge was not required for non-frontiersmen.
The same situation developed when cars were invented. Early on, anyone who had a car HAD to know everything about it from changing tires to rebuilding the motor, but as time went on, mass produced cars, service stations, and the AAA came along and the average Joe no longer HAD to know how a car worked. There still were/are amateur mechanics who can rebuild a car, but that became a hobby instead of a necessity.
The same thing is occurring starting to occur with computers now. Even though (in my opinion) we are not completely to the point where the computer is an appliance, eventually the average Joe will be able to buy a computer out of the box and use it without having to know what exactly is "under the hood." At this point, OSX is the closest thing we have to that, followed by some Linux distros, and last, but least, Windows. Win XP is better, but there is still too many problems that the user needs to address to say it is totally ready for the average Joe (a topic for another post).
Every new technology starts out the same way, the first adapters HAVE to be experts to get it to work and keep it working, then eventually the technology matures and gets to the point where anyone can use it without knowing how it works. Then a new technology comes along and the cycle starts anew...
I'd love to see an American version of allofmp3.com. Granted the prices would be higher than the Russian version, but as long as they were reasonable I would be willing to try it out. Charge per MB and let the customer choose the format -- just keep DRM out of it. Unfortunately, I doubt this will happen, at least with the current buttheads in charge of the RIAA.
This decision is a breath of fresh air -- I still think that this bullshiat will continue until the RIAA sues and DRMs themselves out of business, but perhaps there is hope yet...we shall see.
Finally. When I went to PSU in the early '80s, not only did they use your SSN as your student number, but it was published in the friggen campus phone directory. It may be another number to remember, but at least your SSN won't be plastered over every document in the future.
That's okay. You can transfer from California University (of Pennsylvania) to Indiana University (of Pennsylvania) and never leave the state of Pennsylvania. You can also go to Notre Dame and never visit Indiana -- Notre Dame College of Ohio that is. Pennsylvania and Ohio love to give their Colleges and Universities confusing names.
Thing is, there are hazards no matter where you live. Live in California -- you have earthquakes and wildfires to worry about. Move to Arizona -- now you have to worry about water.
Move to Cape Girardeau, MO (Nice midwestern town) and you have to worry about river flooding (the Mighty Mississippi), tornadoes, and yes, earthquakes (New Madrid fault).
I live in Louisville, KY, and we have the same basic worries (the Ohio River instead of the Mississippi, and we are further, but not out of danger from New Madrid). Even "quiet" places like Cleveland, OH or Erie, PA face lake flooding and tornado problems.
The best thing to do is just go ahead and live your life and prepare the best you can just in case something happens. I think Americans can do a better job of preparing for disaster (better construction in Hurricane zones, not living below sea level near the ocean), but nothing is foolproof.
In your case, pay attention to the animals. If they start acting crazy, get the hell out of dodge. Animals can sense when an earthquake is coming.
I looked at the screenshots and it looks like a (bad) photoshop or MS Paint job.
Look closely at the Free Space. It is obvious that the 2,189,394,472,960 bytes is a cut and paste job. Also, what's with the one tab in Cyrillic (Perevod if written in English letters, not sure of translation) while everything else is in English.
Methinks this may be a wee bit of vaporware. I'll believe it when I see it.
If you look at sucessfull bands that came from the indie scene, either they were good at marketing, or had someone on their side that was.
Marketing is phone calls, footwork, contacts, etc. We'd rather smoke weed and write songs.:)
That is what a record label should do. A band should be able to sign up with a label/promoter for a fair cost. Unfortunately the RIAA labels are not this way. Instead of being the Artist's friend, they have turned into greedy little maggots that not only take money from the Artist, but also wants to own their music (copyright). This has worked in the past, but Artists are starting to get wise and use the Internet to get their music out. There are also Independent labels and sites (DMusic.com, CDBaby.com, and Garageband.com) just to name a few that are willing to give the Artist a fair shake.
Hopefully sites like this will prosper and the big labels will continue to lose business.
I'll check out your site -- I'm always looking for something new.
Unfortunately, what Garcia is saying is all too true. My Wife has worked for a local (Louisville, KY) day care program (children K through 5th grade -- 5 to 10 years old or so) and a Niece of mine currently works at a day care (Erie, PA), so I have heard too many stories that validate what Garcia is saying.
That said, part of the problem is the attitude of some Parents today and part of the problem is 2 Parents/a single Parent working full time jobs. Also, not ALL kids are that way, there are Parents that still discipline their children and don't believe their child is a little angel that can do no wrong.
Payola is a term that dates back to the late 1950's when Rock and Roll was just getting started. Back then, AM radio was king, radio stations were independently owned (no Clear Channel), and DJs had a lot of control over what they played, especially at night.
To keep it simple, what happened is that music labels began offering DJs money to play their songs. Music producers began targeting the AM stations ran high power at night since these "clear channel" (nothing to do with the company) stations could be heard for hundreds, if not thousands of miles at night.
In the end, the Feds had to step in and put a stop to this practice. Payola, as it was called, was ended around 1960, but the labels found ways around the law through the use of "Indys" and such. The practice has gotten worse since the FCC allowed companies to own many radio stations. Do some googling if you want to learn more -- it is fascinating.
I was wondering when someone would bring up Aliens. This is the first thing I thought of until I read the article. Ripley used an industrial version of this type of suit in that movie. The "suit" was a cross between this type of device and a forklift, and was used (when not fighting aliens) to move freight on the ship. Although the suit in the article is much smaller, it looks like it could be used for loads that are too heavy for a normal human, but too small for a fork lift.
Well, I hope you have fun paying that tax on every piece of software you write (including anything you release as open source).
Easy way to solve this. Just have a small fee ($10 or so ) to register your work, and have that registration be good for 14 years (original U.S. copyright length). After 14 years, you either pay the price for renewal, or let the work go into the public domain. Let the renewal fee be based on the profitablity of the work. Little or no profit (maybe you give the software away, but want to hold on the the rights) - $10.00 for another 7 years. Make the fee 1% of the gross for amounts over $1000 (I say gross instead of profits, because the *AA's have a bad habit of "losing" money on every project, even if they gross Millions). Double the percentage for each renewal. This gives the Disney's and Steven Kings of the world the ability to continue to profit on their works, but effectively limits the term (unless they are willing to pay more than 100% of their profits to keep the copyright).
There are other problems that need to be worked out, but that's for another post.
The only way to solve the copyright issue is to get a group of reasonable people from both sides, start with a clean slate, and build a copyright law that benefits EVERYONE. The current copyright law is broken to the point where it is all out war between the corporations and the little guy. If this keeps going, IMHO nobody is going to win.
Lucas must of changed his mind in Ep3. (Note: SPOILER If you haven't seen Revenge of the Sith) Luke and Leah are twins with Luke being born first, Leah second. Amadala sees the babies, but dies soon after the births. Bail takes Leah to Alderaan and Obi-Wan takes Luke to Tatooine and gives him to Owen and Veru.
This change makes a line in ROTJ not make sense. Luke and Leah are talking about their pasts and Luke mentions he doesn't remember his Mother. Leah says she has memories of her real Mother (not Bail's wife), and remembers her as being real sad. I suppose you can explain it with Jedi feelings and abilities, but it doesn't Jive with what we see in Revenge of the Sith.
Slashdot Mirror
The only way to make the dollar coin work in the U.S. is to do what Canada did -- after the "Loonie" (dollar coin) was introduced, the 1 dollar bill was retired. The dollar bills in circulation were removed as they aged and were no longer fit for circulation. After a few years the dollar bill was effectively gone from circulation.
Canada then did the same thing with the "twoonie" (2 dollar coin). As long as dollar bills are available, they will be used over dollar coins just because that is what people are used to.
Does the seat stink, or does the bowl? Seriously, the only thing that should be touching the seat is butt cheeks -- the nasty stuff goes through the hole and into the bowl. And since (for guys) the seat goes up for a pee, the seat justs needs a clorox wipe once in awhile to keep it clean. The bowl on the other hand...
I can see why a keyboard can get so many germs. There's no telling where those hands have been, and anything on the fingers ends up on the keys.
Once upon a time, bringing in the CD would have been the safest way to listen to music. Nothing can be copied to a CD, and nothing could be brought in on a pressed CD other than music. Nothing for Military Security to be worried about. Ipods and other MP3 players could potentially be used to sneak data out.
Of course now with the DRM crap on the "CD", this is no longer true. The once friendly store bought CD is now a potential risk. Way to go Music Industry! And you wonder why sales are down in 2005 from 2004...besides crappy offerings.
Now the MLB have laid claim to the 'official' statistics.
It seems to me that a decision for MLB could be gotten around by scoring. Scoring is where you bring a sheet of paper (scoring form) and mark every play (hit, strike, sac fly, error, etc.) on your paper as it happens. As long as you keep an accurate account of what happens, then your score sheet should be a correct account of the game. After the game, you can take your score sheet and enter it into a spreadsheet or any one of a number of software products designed to compile baseball statistics, then produce your own stats. A fantasy league could hire/get volunteers to score games, have a person/group serve as official statistician. There -- no need to purchase or use MLB statistics. As long as the group agrees that the statistics compiled are the official statistics for the fantasy league, then there should be no problems.
If MLB has problems with player names, then just "officially" refer to them by city and number. i.e. instead of Barry Bonds, keep the statistics under San Francisco #25 and let each member fill in the name. For cities with more than one team, just add National or American to the description.
Problem Solved.
Of course, once the oil turns rancid, things could get interesting as well as smelly...
I thought the same thing -- interesting concept, but cooking oil would either have to be changed every few days or so, or it would get stinky. Of course, they included a plug at the bottom of the case to make draining the oil easier.
They say at the end of the article that they recommend motor oil for long term operation. They used cooking oil for proof-of-concept. I still don't know if I would want the top of the case open as they did, even with motor oil, so I guess some sort of heat exchanger would have to be included to run this with a totally sealed interior. You'd need something to keep the oil at 104 deg F or cooler with the top on -- I'm sure it wouldn't be that hard to design something.
Yes.
(couldn't resist)
It depends on the show and how the advertising is done. CSI:Miami is a good example of the okay and the bad. Okay: the CSIs drive Hummer H2s in the show. The vehicle for the most part is just there -- the actors don't make a big deal about it. The bad: a few weeks ago they were advertising some cellphone music service. The in show advertising was so blatant that it disrupted the flow of the show (reminded me of the in-show advertising spoof in the move The Truman Show.
In show advertising doesn't bother me in games shows such as Survivor (sorry folks, they call it a "reality show" but it is in reality a game show where the top prize is a million bucks). Game shows have had in show advertisers forever, so if someone wins Mountain Dew or a new Pontiac Whatever-it-was, that doesn't bother me that much.
A show having a sponsor -- that's the way most shows were originally funded. The daytime soaps are called soaps because they were originally sponsored by soap companies back in the days of radio and early television. If Acme wants to sponsor a "commercial free" hour of 24, then thats okay by me. If they want a character that drinks Mountain Dew in a show, that's okay as long as they don't do it to the point where the flow of the show is interrupted. On the other hand, if it gets carried away to the point of where it starts looking like NASCAR or the advertising scene in CSI: Miami then it is too much.
Just my $0.02.
BTW, kudos to the gang at Mythbusters for some great answers. Keep up the good work!
I'm way over the hill as far as 25 is concerned, but I'll comment because my Daughter is 15 and my Sister-in-Law just turned 25.
My Sis in law is a big Dave Matthews fan. Better than 90% of the concerts she ever went to were Dave's, and most of the music she listens to is Dave Matthews, Phish, and other similar bands. She has little or no interest in most of the stuff that the RIAA has put out this year.
My Daughter is 15, prime age for the RIAA. Problem is (for the RIAA) that she is not interested in much of the stuff that the RIAA has put out that is "targeted" to her age group. She does like "American Idiot", but has been lately taking an interest in groups such as the Rolling Stones, AC/DC, and Aerosmith. Most of the new music she likes is punk, and is not mainstream RIAA fare. It is funny to go into Hot Topic and see t-shirts that would have fit in perfectly when I went to High School and College.
It seems that other than hip-hop and rap, the RIAA has not pushed any new music styles since the late '80s/early '90s. Punk has continued to develop outside of the RIAA mainstream, but that has not helped "big music" (not that I mind). My Daughter and her friends are also big purchasers of DVDs, so there is more money that the RIAA will never see.
It seems that the consolidation of Record companies has lead big music to shy away from new sounds. This, along with affordable DVDs has made RIAA music much more irrelevant to my Daughter and most of her friends. They still buy some music, but not like previous generations.
This is a good example why we need to roll back copyright to a reasonable period of time, or at least require periodic registration and renewal for copyright protection to continue. If they had the copyright laws back then that we have now, these recordings would never see the light of day. There is little or no commercial value to these recordings, but they are a valuable part of our history. It would be a shame to lose them to the ravages of time because of insane copyright laws, like what can (and is happening) to film from 1923 on.
Our QA department is the test team where I work. IT is required to do unit testing and some system testing, but our QA serves as an independent testing unit that both tests the particular change and does full regression testing. The idea (at least at our shop) is that QA catches anything that the programmer may have missed, and any changes made don't foul up anything else in the system.
We are still developing and refining our development cycle but positive results have already been seen in the projects that have gone through QA.
We have been dealing with this in our organization. In the past, we have been programming by the seat of our pants -- we get requirements, program what we think our Customers want, do a little testing, then throw it into production, then wonder why we have problems in the middle of the night.
Sarbanes-Oxley plus the competition is putting an end to this method of coding. In the past year, we have hired real Project Managers and have begun doing real Project Management.
We now require a Functional Systems Design (FSD), a document that details what the customer wants at a high level. A Computer Systems Design (CSD) document is then written. This document is the actual design of the system that Developers and Programmers use to design the system, design and build databases, and determine what programs need to be written and computer system(s) (PC, Mainframe, Unix)they will live on. Once the programs are written and unit tested, we have a QA department to do real testing. We currently use Microsoft Project, TrackRecord (a Compuware defect tracking tool), and Bugzilla (an open source tracking tool) to track what has been done, what defects we have run into, and how they were resolved.
We still have a long way to go, and have faced opposition from some Managers, but support from Upper Management (and auditors) has helped to pave the way.
Implementing change is tough, but it is starting to pay off in better designed and implemented software which helps keeps our customers around (which means no layoffs, at least for now). Getting requirements in writing is a big help when it comes to analysis and design -- it by no means eliminates problems, but it sure does help reduce them.
Can't you sue for the product not technically being an audio CD in the first place?
Unfortunately, you can't sue for that. I looked at the CDs in question at the store, and they do have a warning that the disc is "copy protected". It's on the back, in small print next to the FBI warning logo, but it is there.
That being said, given that Sony/BMG feels that they need to resort to Black Hat hacker root kits to "protect" their precious Music, I have decided to no longer purchase (or allow my Daughter to purchase) any Sony/BMG products since the CD could contain malware that could damage our computers. I'm not sure if a class action suit can be brought against Sony for this root kit, but I can certainly tell everyone I know about the dangers of using Sony/BMG products in their computers. Word of mouth can hurt as much as a class action suit if enough people take the time to tell everyone they know.
Boycott RIAA is a good site to learn more about the Music Labels and the crap they are pulling these days.
Great post! Definitely one to keep in mind when dealing with other departments. I am currently working in the QA department. We are a new department in our division of the company which was set up to meet Sarbanes-Oxley requirements. We are currently fighting the battles that I.T. traditionally fought, the worst one being sales people promising products to clients on a certain date without consulting the developers.
In the past, this ended up causing I.T. to work overtime and weekends to get a product developed on time. Because of the lack of time, most testing beyond unit testing was skipped, and the product was put into production with fingers crossed. Any problems were fixed on the fly.
We have been trying to change this culture without much success -- until the last few months. Our ally has turned out to be our parent corporation -- they have sent in auditors to review the process. They have the clout to force changes that will improve the process, and we (QA) don't have to step on any toes to get it done. The best part is that we were programming before moving to QA, we have been able to get I.T. to buy into the QA process. It is nice to work with I.T. people who care about what they write.
Yes, but even 100+ years ago, the average Joe didn't totally know how their technology worked. For example, the Horse -- hay goes in one end, horse poop comes out the other. If the horse gets sick, take it to the local vet. When the horse needs shoes, take it to the smithy. Yes, there were people who were able to take care of their horse completely (medical care and shoeing), especially on the frontier, but that knowledge was not required for non-frontiersmen.
The same situation developed when cars were invented. Early on, anyone who had a car HAD to know everything about it from changing tires to rebuilding the motor, but as time went on, mass produced cars, service stations, and the AAA came along and the average Joe no longer HAD to know how a car worked. There still were/are amateur mechanics who can rebuild a car, but that became a hobby instead of a necessity.
The same thing is occurring starting to occur with computers now. Even though (in my opinion) we are not completely to the point where the computer is an appliance, eventually the average Joe will be able to buy a computer out of the box and use it without having to know what exactly is "under the hood." At this point, OSX is the closest thing we have to that, followed by some Linux distros, and last, but least, Windows. Win XP is better, but there is still too many problems that the user needs to address to say it is totally ready for the average Joe (a topic for another post).
Every new technology starts out the same way, the first adapters HAVE to be experts to get it to work and keep it working, then eventually the technology matures and gets to the point where anyone can use it without knowing how it works. Then a new technology comes along and the cycle starts anew...
I'd love to see an American version of allofmp3.com. Granted the prices would be higher than the Russian version, but as long as they were reasonable I would be willing to try it out. Charge per MB and let the customer choose the format -- just keep DRM out of it. Unfortunately, I doubt this will happen, at least with the current buttheads in charge of the RIAA.
This decision is a breath of fresh air -- I still think that this bullshiat will continue until the RIAA sues and DRMs themselves out of business, but perhaps there is hope yet...we shall see.
Finally. When I went to PSU in the early '80s, not only did they use your SSN as your student number, but it was published in the friggen campus phone directory. It may be another number to remember, but at least your SSN won't be plastered over every document in the future.
That's okay. You can transfer from California University (of Pennsylvania) to Indiana University (of Pennsylvania) and never leave the state of Pennsylvania. You can also go to Notre Dame and never visit Indiana -- Notre Dame College of Ohio that is. Pennsylvania and Ohio love to give their Colleges and Universities confusing names.
Thing is, there are hazards no matter where you live. Live in California -- you have earthquakes and wildfires to worry about. Move to Arizona -- now you have to worry about water.
Move to Cape Girardeau, MO (Nice midwestern town) and you have to worry about river flooding (the Mighty Mississippi), tornadoes, and yes, earthquakes (New Madrid fault).
I live in Louisville, KY, and we have the same basic worries (the Ohio River instead of the Mississippi, and we are further, but not out of danger from New Madrid). Even "quiet" places like Cleveland, OH or Erie, PA face lake flooding and tornado problems.
The best thing to do is just go ahead and live your life and prepare the best you can just in case something happens. I think Americans can do a better job of preparing for disaster (better construction in Hurricane zones, not living below sea level near the ocean), but nothing is foolproof.
In your case, pay attention to the animals. If they start acting crazy, get the hell out of dodge. Animals can sense when an earthquake is coming.
I looked at the screenshots and it looks like a (bad) photoshop or MS Paint job.
Look closely at the Free Space. It is obvious that the 2,189,394,472,960 bytes is a cut and paste job. Also, what's with the one tab in Cyrillic (Perevod if written in English letters, not sure of translation) while everything else is in English.
Methinks this may be a wee bit of vaporware. I'll believe it when I see it.
If you look at sucessfull bands that came from the indie scene, either they were good at marketing, or had someone on their side that was.
:)
Marketing is phone calls, footwork, contacts, etc. We'd rather smoke weed and write songs.
That is what a record label should do. A band should be able to sign up with a label/promoter for a fair cost. Unfortunately the RIAA labels are not this way. Instead of being the Artist's friend, they have turned into greedy little maggots that not only take money from the Artist, but also wants to own their music (copyright). This has worked in the past, but Artists are starting to get wise and use the Internet to get their music out. There are also Independent labels and sites (DMusic.com, CDBaby.com, and Garageband.com) just to name a few that are willing to give the Artist a fair shake.
Hopefully sites like this will prosper and the big labels will continue to lose business.
I'll check out your site -- I'm always looking for something new.
Unfortunately, what Garcia is saying is all too true. My Wife has worked for a local (Louisville, KY) day care program (children K through 5th grade -- 5 to 10 years old or so) and a Niece of mine currently works at a day care (Erie, PA), so I have heard too many stories that validate what Garcia is saying.
That said, part of the problem is the attitude of some Parents today and part of the problem is 2 Parents/a single Parent working full time jobs. Also, not ALL kids are that way, there are Parents that still discipline their children and don't believe their child is a little angel that can do no wrong.
Payola is a term that dates back to the late 1950's when Rock and Roll was just getting started. Back then, AM radio was king, radio stations were independently owned (no Clear Channel), and DJs had a lot of control over what they played, especially at night.
To keep it simple, what happened is that music labels began offering DJs money to play their songs. Music producers began targeting the AM stations ran high power at night since these "clear channel" (nothing to do with the company) stations could be heard for hundreds, if not thousands of miles at night.
In the end, the Feds had to step in and put a stop to this practice. Payola, as it was called, was ended around 1960, but the labels found ways around the law through the use of "Indys" and such. The practice has gotten worse since the FCC allowed companies to own many radio stations. Do some googling if you want to learn more -- it is fascinating.
I was wondering when someone would bring up Aliens. This is the first thing I thought of until I read the article. Ripley used an industrial version of this type of suit in that movie. The "suit" was a cross between this type of device and a forklift, and was used (when not fighting aliens) to move freight on the ship. Although the suit in the article is much smaller, it looks like it could be used for loads that are too heavy for a normal human, but too small for a fork lift.
Well, I hope you have fun paying that tax on every piece of software you write (including anything you release as open source).
Easy way to solve this. Just have a small fee ($10 or so ) to register your work, and have that registration be good for 14 years (original U.S. copyright length). After 14 years, you either pay the price for renewal, or let the work go into the public domain. Let the renewal fee be based on the profitablity of the work. Little or no profit (maybe you give the software away, but want to hold on the the rights) - $10.00 for another 7 years. Make the fee 1% of the gross for amounts over $1000 (I say gross instead of profits, because the *AA's have a bad habit of "losing" money on every project, even if they gross Millions). Double the percentage for each renewal. This gives the Disney's and Steven Kings of the world the ability to continue to profit on their works, but effectively limits the term (unless they are willing to pay more than 100% of their profits to keep the copyright).
There are other problems that need to be worked out, but that's for another post.
The only way to solve the copyright issue is to get a group of reasonable people from both sides, start with a clean slate, and build a copyright law that benefits EVERYONE. The current copyright law is broken to the point where it is all out war between the corporations and the little guy. If this keeps going, IMHO nobody is going to win.
Lucas must of changed his mind in Ep3. (Note: SPOILER If you haven't seen Revenge of the Sith) Luke and Leah are twins with Luke being born first, Leah second. Amadala sees the babies, but dies soon after the births. Bail takes Leah to Alderaan and Obi-Wan takes Luke to Tatooine and gives him to Owen and Veru.
This change makes a line in ROTJ not make sense. Luke and Leah are talking about their pasts and Luke mentions he doesn't remember his Mother. Leah says she has memories of her real Mother (not Bail's wife), and remembers her as being real sad. I suppose you can explain it with Jedi feelings and abilities, but it doesn't Jive with what we see in Revenge of the Sith.