But, even for people who don't, there are way too many people that can fix computers to make a living doing this sort of thing. The most i've seen anyone be able to do is get a little extra money on the side.
There are still plenty of people who don't weant to take the computer apart and take it down to a shop, where the guy says "looks fine to me, lady"
Now if to many techs get into the field, then you have to go on reputation.
they'd find a way to get partnered with the local Best Buy
Best Buy usually has their own internal/infernal repair shop, and what isn't handled locally is shipped to some central location. Plus they don't do house calls.
As in the case of most repair shops, they won't won't fix software beyond the obvious.
Most repair shops won't recommend other shops or techicians. It cuts into their business. And many on the sales floor will hand out business cards on the sly to make a few extra bucks.
However, the link to the "Big Attic House Development Association" at the bottom of your page goes to a domain squatter, with the usual generic junky search page.
...how do they determine who has "computer skills"? And is this really feasible? How will they make someone work for them? How will they even know if a computer programmer is a computer programmer? Do they have some kind of national database of them?
They could always draft those skript kiddies, who want to show off their leet skilzs
Regarding article "Unused space on hard drives recovered?" at this URL.
I am the "Linux SATA guy".
First, users are usually amused to learn that the capacity of modern hard drives is _unknown_, until it goes through the factory's qualification tests. The 120GB hard drive you purchased may have been physically identical to a 250GB hard drive, but simply it only passed qualification at 120GB.
Intel does the same thing with processors. A 3.0Ghz processor may be sold as 2.4Ghz, simply because it didn't pass qualification at 3.0Ghz but did at a lower clock speed.
Second, in the ATA standard there is a feature known as the "host protected area". This area is accessible from any OS -- but it requires special ATA commands in order to make this area available to the OS.
Third, all hard drives reserve a certain amount of free space to use for reallocation of bad sectors. These "spare sectors" are free space on your drive... completely unused until your hard drive starts finding problems on the physical media.
So this is old news:) Although the host-protected area (HPA) can be used for insidious purposes such as DRM/CPRM that is completely hidden from the users, most of the "invisible free space" exists for a purpose -- either it's spare sectors for bad sector remapping, or its capacity that didn't pass factory qualification, that you don't want to use anyway.
Feel free to edit/reproduce/publish this email.
Jeff Garzik
Not speaking for my employer, speaking as an Open Source guy
Simply, I would use the strength of understanding in technology to educate them in social skills. Social Skills are a variety of communications protocol. Therefore, first I would educate them in the basics of Communications Theory and protocols.
Especially with attention to the example of asynchronous communications as seen in modems.
When this was well understood I would illustrate how this example of communications technology applies elsewhere.
When you receive an inbound signal you need to send an ack in a form that is both appropriate and understandable to the sender. If there is a signal error, this must also be indicated.
When sending data, you must allow the receiver to send return acks or half acks (i.e, got it! continue!)
Worked out in enough detail, you could develop a technology of manners based on the above.
You could even develop exercises to develope these skills, depending on what component part of the communications protocol is not being implemented correctly, as seen by the crashes taking place on the communication lines.
But this sounds suspiciously like trying to apply the thinking of technology to life, and some social workers and shrinks won't like the competition.
You are only authorized to be happy using products properly licensed and sanctioned by the central authorities.
Otherwise you may picked up certain dangerous habits, such as thinking
The key use of the broadcast flag will be to prohibit the recording of political speeches, so that history can be re-written more easily. All of those incovenient slips of the tongue can be made to just "go away", among other things.
people are working on a TV series so that you are properly educated:
D.H.S. - The Series.... a multimillion-dollar episodic series, will explore the inner workings of the Department of Homeland Security, teaming the FBI, CIA, Secret Service, and National Security Administration (NSA) together with first responders such as local police, fire and safety administrators.
The series is being pitched to prospective networks and has the full support of President Bush and Tom Ridge. They love it. They think it is fantastic, say the series' producers at Steeple Productions. Not familiar with Steeple Productions? Well, perhaps you might find their four-episode Creation Vs Evolution series enlightening.
in a world where there are guys with little paste-it labels with price tags on it who would stick it on every idea on earth if it would make value for the shareholders.
So who's going to be the first to figure out some way to patent/copyright/trademark/whatever the idea of free speech itself?
Normally you would think of this was a crazy idea, but these days, watch somebody try.
EIS Online:
The current owners of Tradewars 2002, the best known Tradewars clone. They also market Tradewars Gold and and the Tradewars Game Server for online play. TradeWars 2002 is up to version 3
a patched up version to keep the income stream happening. Which doesn't mean it won't have some interesting stuff, but the MS history is that it will wind up as another dead end.
The fact is, this story is old because the FBI has already started returning the equipment back as of yesterday. The FBI confiscated everything on the 14th.
You got to know that this story was submitted earlier by somebody in the Slashdot community, but whoever was on duty at the time didn't think it important enough, possibly due to lack of cutting edge wit or something. Such is life on the internet.
There is always the following classic option, as first posted on Segfault back in april 99:
Mafia Don Announces New Anti-Spam Venture
As the NSA and FBI fear, traditional crime organizations have been incorporating high-tech communication into their organizations. Although Janet Reno was quoted stating "This is law enforcement's worst nightmare.", techies around the world are sure to be pleased with one New York Syndicate's new venture.
It all started when Don Dominiqi signed onto his AOL account last Monday morning. His inbox was filled with "Make Money Fast", "Viagra On-Line", and "Teenybopper Web Sex" ads. Lost amidst the drivel was an important note detailing a non-taxed shipment of Marlboros, which were later confiscated by the BATF. Little did he know, as he shouted "Bring me the left hand of this f*cking gutterslime!" what would become of it all.
Later that same day, Billy "Run!" Brutekowski and Larry "My Eyes!" Plucker cornered the pasty-faced offender of the Family in a small cyber cafe in Grenich Village. "This was by far the creepiest place the Boss has ever sent us." stated Billy, who only spoke on condition of anonymity. "Everyone in this place looked pale and sickly, like they had already been 'spoken to'. We asked for this punk, and several people quickly pointed him out. Most of the scum we find in gin joints aren't so quick to finger one of their own," Billy continued.
"He must not watch much TV, because this sh*t didn't even flinch when we came to the corner he was hiding in," Larry proceeded to relate. "We dropped this sheet of paper the Boss had given us on his table and he says 'So you guys want to make money fast, eh?' He puts out his and says to give him $20. This scrawny little dirtball tells me to give him $20!" Larry was quite agitated at this part in his story, and his description of how Sammy Spammer's hand fell off was quite garbled.
Billy continued, "Up till now, this was a routine visit. We was just being playful. The weird sh*t began when we tried to leave." "This pimply faced kid blocks the door as we try to leave, and I'm thinking to myself 'Great, a f*cking Karate Kid hero. He just stand there, and then he hands me a $5 bill." Billy pulls out the $5, and holds it like it is his first quarter from his favorite grandmother. "They lined up after that, and we had $175 in 'tips' when we left the joint."
Later that day the Don himself visited the cafe, unwilling to believe the story. Although the details are unclear, sources at the cafe indicate that the Don has hired them to build and host a new Anti-Spam site. Through a SSL transaction system, the site will accept spam complaints and credit card donations towards 'solutions to problems'. Multiple complaints against the same spammer are added to the total until an acceptable solution has been found.
Larry tells us that a typical $250 solution is a broken hand, and for $2000 all anyone ever sees again of 'the problem' are his shoes.
The URL is to be announced next week, and the cyber cafe's phones have been jammed with requests for more information.
Long ago I suggested a spam license, complete of cute orange ear tags.
Ear tags aside (I'm sure many would volunteer to help install them), this ties in with the idea of making it cost something to send spam. This also can be seen in charging spammers money to send spam.
There is complete legal precedence for this. Just look at the Us Post office. They charge in the form of stamps, etc.
A License structure means that there is a legal registry of spammers, complete with accurate names addresses and phone numbers. This means making them legally accountable.
I also propose that companies and individuals be permitted their own "spam processing fees" chargable to these individuals and companies.
And as proposed more recently, spam hunters, who go out and track down illegal spammers, for a certain fees, not always small.
Man of Steel Woman of Kleenex
on
Comic Book Physics
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
Larry Biven has an excellent analysis on the difficulties of of the the physics of beingfg superman, called Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex which is both a good read, and funny as well.
For example
What turns on a kryptonian? What arouses Kal-El's mating urge? Did kryptonian women carry some subtle mating cue at appropriate times of the year? Whatever it is, Lois Lane probably didn't have it. We may speculate that she smells wrong, less like a kryptonian woman than like a terrestrial monkey.
Can human breed with kryptonian? Do we even use the same genetic code? On the face of it, LL could more easily breed with an ear of corn than with Kal-El. But coincidence does happen. If the genes match...
Slashdot Mirror
There are still plenty of people who don't weant to take the computer apart and take it down to a shop, where the guy says "looks fine to me, lady"
Now if to many techs get into the field, then you have to go on reputation.
And certain tools will run stand alone from the CD.
for those that haven't thought it through, this is an educational example
Best Buy usually has their own internal/infernal repair shop, and what isn't handled locally is shipped to some central location. Plus they don't do house calls.
As in the case of most repair shops, they won't won't fix software beyond the obvious.
Most repair shops won't recommend other shops or techicians. It cuts into their business. And many on the sales floor will hand out business cards on the sly to make a few extra bucks.
the trick is to keep the cost under half the cost of a new machine. In most cases, this will be a couple of hours of work, depending on your rates.
Someone handed me the clipping, so I may have had the date wrong.
Stale links does not a good website make.
They could always draft those skript kiddies, who want to show off their leet skilzs
They are likely even the right age.
Of course they are the fastest. They ran away.
Well, this sort of sounds better than saying:
if I'm paying $$$ for software, I don't wanna have read a book to tell me how to use it
Which is not what you said, but it is what it reminded me of
Besides, I am sure that plenty of people would volunteer to help out attaching them
Unless some has a better idea?
I am the "Linux SATA guy".
First, users are usually amused to learn that the capacity of modern hard drives is _unknown_, until it goes through the factory's qualification tests. The 120GB hard drive you purchased may have been physically identical to a 250GB hard drive, but simply it only passed qualification at 120GB.
Intel does the same thing with processors. A 3.0Ghz processor may be sold as 2.4Ghz, simply because it didn't pass qualification at 3.0Ghz but did at a lower clock speed.
Second, in the ATA standard there is a feature known as the "host protected area". This area is accessible from any OS -- but it requires special ATA commands in order to make this area available to the OS.
Third, all hard drives reserve a certain amount of free space to use for reallocation of bad sectors. These "spare sectors" are free space on your drive... completely unused until your hard drive starts finding problems on the physical media.
So this is old news :) Although the host-protected area (HPA) can be used for insidious purposes such as DRM/CPRM that is completely hidden from the users, most of the "invisible free space" exists for a purpose -- either it's spare sectors for bad sector remapping, or its capacity that didn't pass factory qualification, that you don't want to use anyway.
Feel free to edit/reproduce/publish this email.
Jeff Garzik
Not speaking for my employer, speaking as an Open Source guy
which answers the question nicely. You can see the original letter here [scroll down a bit]
Especially with attention to the example of asynchronous communications as seen in modems.
When this was well understood I would illustrate how this example of communications technology applies elsewhere.
When you receive an inbound signal you need to send an ack in a form that is both appropriate and understandable to the sender. If there is a signal error, this must also be indicated.
When sending data, you must allow the receiver to send return acks or half acks (i.e, got it! continue!)
Worked out in enough detail, you could develop a technology of manners based on the above.
You could even develop exercises to develope these skills, depending on what component part of the communications protocol is not being implemented correctly, as seen by the crashes taking place on the communication lines.
But this sounds suspiciously like trying to apply the thinking of technology to life, and some social workers and shrinks won't like the competition.
well, I was intending a little bit of dry humor/irony in the comment.
and besides, I was thinking a 300 baud modem, one step up from teletype soeed. Which is what it is behaving like with the slashdotting it's getting.
So Pure. So Simple.
It's Art
Otherwise you may picked up certain dangerous habits, such as thinking
The key use of the broadcast flag will be to prohibit the recording of political speeches, so that history can be re-written more easily. All of those incovenient slips of the tongue can be made to just "go away", among other things.
D.H.S. - The Series. ... a multimillion-dollar episodic series, will explore the inner workings of the Department of Homeland Security, teaming the FBI, CIA, Secret Service, and National Security Administration (NSA) together with first responders such as local police, fire and safety administrators.
The series is being pitched to prospective networks and has the full support of President Bush and Tom Ridge. They love it. They think it is fantastic, say the series' producers at Steeple Productions. Not familiar with Steeple Productions? Well, perhaps you might find their four-episode Creation Vs Evolution series enlightening.
So who's going to be the first to figure out some way to patent/copyright/trademark/whatever the idea of free speech itself?
Normally you would think of this was a crazy idea, but these days, watch somebody try.
You can sometimes still play it online, often via telnet:
The Home Sector: Lots of Tradewars news.
Tradewars: Dark Millenium: Large-scale multiplayer game in development. Seems to be based on Tradewars 2002 under an agreement with EIS Online.
tradewars.org: Tradewars news, links, and more.
EIS Online: The current owners of Tradewars 2002, the best known Tradewars clone. They also market Tradewars Gold and and the Tradewars Game Server for online play. TradeWars 2002 is up to version 3
Hekate's TW Links: News, links, and everything else.
TWAR Homepage: Home of the TWAR helper.
of a maze of twisted paragraphs, all of them alike
a patched up version to keep the income stream happening. Which doesn't mean it won't have some interesting stuff, but the MS history is that it will wind up as another dead end.
You got to know that this story was submitted earlier by somebody in the Slashdot community, but whoever was on duty at the time didn't think it important enough, possibly due to lack of cutting edge wit or something. Such is life on the internet.
Mafia Don Announces New Anti-Spam Venture
As the NSA and FBI fear, traditional crime organizations have been incorporating high-tech communication into their organizations. Although Janet Reno was quoted stating "This is law enforcement's worst nightmare.", techies around the world are sure to be pleased with one New York Syndicate's new venture.
It all started when Don Dominiqi signed onto his AOL account last Monday morning. His inbox was filled with "Make Money Fast", "Viagra On-Line", and "Teenybopper Web Sex" ads. Lost amidst the drivel was an important note detailing a non-taxed shipment of Marlboros, which were later confiscated by the BATF. Little did he know, as he shouted "Bring me the left hand of this f*cking gutterslime!" what would become of it all.
Later that same day, Billy "Run!" Brutekowski and Larry "My Eyes!" Plucker cornered the pasty-faced offender of the Family in a small cyber cafe in Grenich Village. "This was by far the creepiest place the Boss has ever sent us." stated Billy, who only spoke on condition of anonymity. "Everyone in this place looked pale and sickly, like they had already been 'spoken to'. We asked for this punk, and several people quickly pointed him out. Most of the scum we find in gin joints aren't so quick to finger one of their own," Billy continued.
"He must not watch much TV, because this sh*t didn't even flinch when we came to the corner he was hiding in," Larry proceeded to relate. "We dropped this sheet of paper the Boss had given us on his table and he says 'So you guys want to make money fast, eh?' He puts out his and says to give him $20. This scrawny little dirtball tells me to give him $20!" Larry was quite agitated at this part in his story, and his description of how Sammy Spammer's hand fell off was quite garbled.
Billy continued, "Up till now, this was a routine visit. We was just being playful. The weird sh*t began when we tried to leave." "This pimply faced kid blocks the door as we try to leave, and I'm thinking to myself 'Great, a f*cking Karate Kid hero. He just stand there, and then he hands me a $5 bill." Billy pulls out the $5, and holds it like it is his first quarter from his favorite grandmother. "They lined up after that, and we had $175 in 'tips' when we left the joint."
Later that day the Don himself visited the cafe, unwilling to believe the story. Although the details are unclear, sources at the cafe indicate that the Don has hired them to build and host a new Anti-Spam site. Through a SSL transaction system, the site will accept spam complaints and credit card donations towards 'solutions to problems'. Multiple complaints against the same spammer are added to the total until an acceptable solution has been found.
Larry tells us that a typical $250 solution is a broken hand, and for $2000 all anyone ever sees again of 'the problem' are his shoes.
The URL is to be announced next week, and the cyber cafe's phones have been jammed with requests for more information.
I've posted this before, but it is still funny.
Ear tags aside (I'm sure many would volunteer to help install them), this ties in with the idea of making it cost something to send spam. This also can be seen in charging spammers money to send spam.
There is complete legal precedence for this. Just look at the Us Post office. They charge in the form of stamps, etc.
A License structure means that there is a legal registry of spammers, complete with accurate names addresses and phone numbers. This means making them legally accountable.
I also propose that companies and individuals be permitted their own "spam processing fees" chargable to these individuals and companies.
And as proposed more recently, spam hunters, who go out and track down illegal spammers, for a certain fees, not always small.
For example
What turns on a kryptonian? What arouses Kal-El's mating urge? Did kryptonian women carry some subtle mating cue at appropriate times of the year? Whatever it is, Lois Lane probably didn't have it. We may speculate that she smells wrong, less like a kryptonian woman than like a terrestrial monkey.
Can human breed with kryptonian? Do we even use the same genetic code? On the face of it, LL could more easily breed with an ear of corn than with Kal-El. But coincidence does happen. If the genes match...