I'm pretty much the only tech in the office, and I had not time to hit the Asterisk learning curve. Could not find a single asterisk installer in the UK. Not one.
Anyway, all the VoIP stuff I saw was shite, or expensive. The one we chose, the zultys mx250 is not too shabby, but it isn't that cheap, although their phones are reasonable, and don't look like sci-fi monsters. It is linux (on PPC) under the hood, and has reasonable levels of UK support.
Surely you saw this coming? MS decides to use Xml for doc. interchange. Yeah, they can futz with it, but it's trivial to work out what they're doing, as it's human readable. The idea is that finished documents would leave in this new format, and it will be just as tricky to read as.doc, and just as only-MS-can-read-it-style.
You didn't think they were going to let just *anyone* read documents created on Windog, did you?
Bah.. on your scale, i'd score BNC connectors a 13 - you have to consider play value here - I challenge anyone who's ever built a 10base2 net *not* to have built castles/spaceships/whatever out of t-pieces and terminators.. man those things feel gooood going together (shiver);]
On a similar note.. you gotta hand it to ZIF processor sockets.. those with the "klunky" levers.. a real feeling of staisfaction/amazement that they dont bust up the teensy lil' pins!
Anyone remember Guru Meditation on the amiga? (Supposedly) this came from an early version of the OS, where one had to balance carefully on a skateboard-type controller for a few minutes after a crash, and the system wouldn't reboot untill you'd calmed the hell down and stopped twiching like a psycho. 'Course when I got my A500 you just had to hit the mouse button, that's progress, I suppose:)
Here's a URL on the subject: http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/jargon/html/e ntry/guru- meditation.html
Laws can only be so effective, the easiest way to make people abide by the law is to make it the easiest option to do so.
If it were easy (read: cheap, fast, convenient) to get music legally, I'm quite sure the illegal methods would become much less popular. On the other hand, squash one illegal method with the "might" of the law, and another springs up to replace it.
At the minute, it's very easy to get music illegally without being caught. It's going to cost a lot of money to make it a lot more difficult whichever way you look at it, so a scheme like tis seems the only viable option!
Firstly, if you're using this, then you're by definition also using some other non-Free software. Just because this is from a developer that works primarily with Free software doesn't make it any worse. In fact, quite the opposite.
This (small) piece of proprietry s/w could open the door for thousands of gigs of totally Free software being installed - eventually obviating the need for itsself, perhaps?
Finally, if it pays for more Free software (lets face it, everything has a cost, if not a price) then i'm all for it...
..is a USB version - advantages being: No serial-port theft (I use all of mine, ta!) and if you have internal USB headers there'd be no shonky cabling out back. Bonanza.
I wonder if there's a USB device class for this sort of thing?
Of course! Copy the requisite illegal plans to a floppy, jam it in a bag, and bury it in your garden. Of course, if you have a dog, he might dig it up and nark on you to the feds, but that's life I suppose:)
Personally, my data is about as interesting as a box of dry Jacob's cream crackers, so I ain't about to go hiding it, either in my slack space *or* my window box!!!
> I find people that put things in email they would > not put on ordinary paper quite unaware of > reality.
Perhaps, however it's more the fact that to post someone a letter or fax someone you have to get out of your chair, and usually have to pay. This gives you more incentive to think "is this crap worth sending?" Compare: slashdot postings, emails where sending crap is the norm, rather than the exception;)
Simply include some extremely useful or important information in every email you send, and voila, you will find that it disappears every time, resisting even the most sophisticated attempts at retrieval:)
NB. This method works best if this is also the only copy of said information.
Isn't that yet-another-big-player (tm) is using Free s/w in some way, but that there's going to be some quick convergence between Gecko and the rest of the web - IE-centric pages are going to have some real body of non-IE users to moan at them (let's face it, at the moment it is perfectly feasible for most businesses to run IE only sites) and Gecko's bugs are going to get stamped a whole heap faster. This can only be a good thing.
To be honest, I have to say that the _only_ company that's got my stuff to me on time (we live out of the way, and drivers have fun finding us!) and in good nick is UPS. My least favourite, on all counts - "city link" (guess their nickname!!!) but is you ever visit linux.org.uk, you might notice that one of the boxes is called "parcelfarce.linux.org.uk" - this is an Alan-Coxism after the UK Post Office's parcel division (Parcel Force) screwed up the delivery of his machine from Wales to Leeds (where the fat network wires are at) a few times too many.. I've kept those boys on my boycott list, and I _try_ to avoid companies who use deliverers who I've blacklisted:)
Is it really interesting to "code" in VB? Woo, look lads.. I made a really interesting... database?:) Not only does it teach you almost nothing bar how to control your stress by berating a paperclip;~) but it ain't interesting either. I would suggest starting as you mean to go on. C++. Unix. If you want super-fun coding, TBPH OpenGL is not that hard to get started in (kick off by ignoring the Z axis, etc., ignore displaylists..) and you get immense satisfaction from having a green square rush about in response to keypresses;)
Well, we get away with allowing 400 CS undergraduates to bash away at our RedHat boxes at our Uni, and CS undergrads are notoriously dimwitted (I am one, before anyone comments;)
BTW, rm -R * would do beggar all on many systems, as a (sensible) sysasmin, and in fact many distros have rm aliased to rm -i - yet another precaution against dim users:)
It doesn't help that MS assume were all too stupid to see the TLE on the end of the filename. That, surely, is the cause of a good many virus-clickings.. "Oh it's just text" no harm done...
I might be very wrong, but as far as I remember, the signal is degraded and the militayry h/w knows how to "fix" it, but our stuff doesn't, hence differential GPS, which compares a few signals, but is well costly. Personally tho, I can usually find the pub without too much hassle:)
Just because something was done the wrong way last time (was it? I never flamed anyone, I doubt many people got screwed up over it) doesn't mean we should do it again. Nice to see another hardware company becoming more GNU/Linux aware, even if they are learning the hard way. Better than denying its existance like some companies!
Slashdot Mirror
At what point exactly does the equator run through Tanzania?
Last time i was in East Africa it ran through Nanyuki, Kenya - many miles north of TZ.
I'm pretty much the only tech in the office, and I had not time to hit the Asterisk learning curve. Could not find a single asterisk installer in the UK. Not one.
Anyway, all the VoIP stuff I saw was shite, or expensive. The one we chose, the zultys mx250 is not too shabby, but it isn't that cheap, although their phones are reasonable, and don't look like sci-fi monsters. It is linux (on PPC) under the hood, and has reasonable levels of UK support.
- Credit card (refused, 2 cards)
- Phone (voicemail)
- Email (bounced)
Should I trust a Marketting Guru who doesn't know how to treat his own (potential) customers?!?Surely you saw this coming? .doc, and just as only-MS-can-read-it-style.
MS decides to use Xml for doc. interchange. Yeah, they can futz with it, but it's trivial to work out what they're doing, as it's human readable. The idea is that finished documents would leave in this new format, and it will be just as tricky to read as
You didn't think they were going to let just *anyone* read documents created on Windog, did you?
Bah.. on your scale, i'd score BNC connectors a 13 - you have to consider play value here - I challenge anyone who's ever built a 10base2 net *not* to have built castles/spaceships/whatever out of t-pieces and terminators.. man those things feel gooood going together (shiver) ;]
On a similar note.. you gotta hand it to ZIF processor sockets.. those with the "klunky" levers.. a real feeling of staisfaction/amazement that they dont bust up the teensy lil' pins!
So we can pirate it, natch :)
(Note to humo(u)rless types: JOKE!)
Anyone remember Guru Meditation on the amiga? :)
e ntry/guru- meditation.html
(Supposedly) this came from an early version of the OS, where one had to balance carefully on a skateboard-type controller for a few minutes after a crash, and the system wouldn't reboot untill you'd calmed the hell down and stopped twiching like a psycho.
'Course when I got my A500 you just had to hit the mouse button, that's progress, I suppose
Here's a URL on the subject:
http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/jargon/html/
By 2050 I'll be way too old to play... I was hoping to buy a couple of these things to make up the numbers next time we're a few short for 5 a side :)
Laws can only be so effective, the easiest way to make people abide by the law is to make it the easiest option to do so.
If it were easy (read: cheap, fast, convenient) to get music legally, I'm quite sure the illegal methods would become much less popular. On the other hand, squash one illegal method with the "might" of the law, and another springs up to replace it.
At the minute, it's very easy to get music illegally without being caught. It's going to cost a lot of money to make it a lot more difficult whichever way you look at it, so a scheme like tis seems the only viable option!
about us having a "gravitation model" in our heads.
Surely it's just called "experience"?
Firstly, if you're using this, then you're by definition also using some other non-Free software. Just because this is from a developer that works primarily with Free software doesn't make it any worse. In fact, quite the opposite.
This (small) piece of proprietry s/w could open the door for thousands of gigs of totally Free software being installed - eventually obviating the need for itsself, perhaps?
Finally, if it pays for more Free software (lets face it, everything has a cost, if not a price) then i'm all for it...
is found to suffer one of the following about 3 days later:
"Is a complete ballache to use under linux"
"Has the life expectancy of a bunny in the crocodile enclosure"
"Starts house fires. On purpose."
And yes, I did buy a deskstar, but it got nicked within a month so who knows how it's doing?!?
..is a USB version - advantages being: No serial-port theft (I use all of mine, ta!) and if you have internal USB headers there'd be no shonky cabling out back. Bonanza.
/dev/usb/wasteoftime/ ;)
I wonder if there's a USB device class for this sort of thing?
ls
You get to ride on the inside :)
Of course! Copy the requisite illegal plans to a floppy, jam it in a bag, and bury it in your garden. Of course, if you have a dog, he might dig it up and nark on you to the feds, but that's life I suppose :)
Personally, my data is about as interesting as a box of dry Jacob's cream crackers, so I ain't about to go hiding it, either in my slack space *or* my window box!!!
> I find people that put things in email they would
;)
> not put on ordinary paper quite unaware of
> reality.
Perhaps, however it's more the fact that to post someone a letter or fax someone you have to get out of your chair, and usually have to pay. This gives you more incentive to think "is this crap worth sending?" Compare: slashdot postings, emails where sending crap is the norm, rather than the exception
Simply include some extremely useful or important information in every email you send, and voila, you will find that it disappears every time, resisting even the most sophisticated attempts at retrieval :)
NB. This method works best if this is also the only copy of said information.
Isn't that yet-another-big-player (tm) is using Free s/w in some way, but that there's going to be some quick convergence between Gecko and the rest of the web - IE-centric pages are going to have some real body of non-IE users to moan at them (let's face it, at the moment it is perfectly feasible for most businesses to run IE only sites) and Gecko's bugs are going to get stamped a whole heap faster. This can only be a good thing.
To be honest, I have to say that the _only_ company that's got my stuff to me on time (we live out of the way, and drivers have fun finding us!) and in good nick is UPS. My least favourite, on all counts - "city link" (guess their nickname!!!) but is you ever visit linux.org.uk, you might notice that one of the boxes is called "parcelfarce.linux.org.uk" - this is an Alan-Coxism after the UK Post Office's parcel division (Parcel Force) screwed up the delivery of his machine from Wales to Leeds (where the fat network wires are at) a few times too many.. I've kept those boys on my boycott list, and I _try_ to avoid companies who use deliverers who I've blacklisted :)
Is it really interesting to "code" in VB? :) ;~) ;)
Woo, look lads.. I made a really interesting... database?
Not only does it teach you almost nothing bar how to control your stress by berating a paperclip
but it ain't interesting either.
I would suggest starting as you mean to go on. C++. Unix. If you want super-fun coding, TBPH OpenGL is not that hard to get started in (kick off by ignoring the Z axis, etc., ignore displaylists..) and you get immense satisfaction from having a green square rush about in response to keypresses
Well, we get away with allowing 400 CS undergraduates to bash away at our RedHat boxes at our Uni, and CS undergrads are notoriously dimwitted (I am one, before anyone comments ;)
:)
BTW, rm -R * would do beggar all on many systems, as a (sensible) sysasmin, and in fact many distros have rm aliased to rm -i - yet another precaution against dim users
It doesn't help that MS assume were all too stupid to see the TLE on the end of the filename. That, surely, is the cause of a good many virus-clickings.. "Oh it's just text" no harm done...
Not sure what experience you have with *nix users, but lets see:
Lads.. how many of you are logged in as root, right now? Show of hands?
I might be very wrong, but as far as I remember, the signal is degraded and the militayry h/w knows how to "fix" it, but our stuff doesn't, hence differential GPS, which compares a few signals, but is well costly. Personally tho, I can usually find the pub without too much hassle :)
Just because something was done the wrong way last time (was it? I never flamed anyone, I doubt many people got screwed up over it) doesn't mean we should do it again. Nice to see another hardware company becoming more GNU/Linux aware, even if they are learning the hard way. Better than denying its existance like some companies!