As someone who worked Admin/Support in a K-12 school long enough to see kids come in one end and leave at the other, I can say that a good portion of people in this age group simply like breaking shit (that does not belong to them).
They get a kick out of knowing that SOMEONE is going to be inconvenienced by it, either the next user or the support guys who have to try and fix it.
For example; Switching to optical mice saved us a good 30 mins a day in replacing mouse balls, we would usually find the balls with the rubber peeled off them sitting on the desk next to the mouse... The switch to small form factor PCs with laptop style optical drives saved us hours a week fixing the little drive belts that open and close the tray (which can be flipped off in seconds with a paperclip)... but also provided us several chances a week to try and explain to the warranty people how the lens in the drive got covered in permanent texta (this destroys them BTW)...
Additionally, a handful of these sticks dropped around a school would result in many, many broken computers by the end of the day... "Hey Jimmy, this USB stick I found in the playground doesn't work in this PC, try it in yours..."
If only we had been allowed to install the taser mice I suggested life would have been much more fun (for us)...:P
For a number of years I worked as an IT guy in a K-12 school. I frequently had to explain the subject matter to the IT teacher in the break time before they took a class.
"You can turn it on, work a mouse and keyboard? You get to teach IT!"
The vast majority of children at the school (ages 5 to 18) knew more about technology and computers (note I did not say IT) than any of the teachers.
Actually you will find that it was RAMBUS that inserted their patented technologies into the SDRAM and DDR-SDRAM standards, without telling any of the other members of the consortioum about the (submarine?) patents.
They then waited until this RAM went into production before declaring their patents and demanding royalties from ALL makers of SDRAM and DDR-SDRAM.
The entire managment (and probably a lot of the staff) of RAMBUS is owed daily cavity searches in a tiny little cell somewhere...
That piece of pie you own was a waste of pastry to bake, and the stock certificates aren't worth the toilet paper they are printed on.
And this fact is what will eventually put the last nail in the coffin of the free internet, if it still exists by then...
Once the people currently laying the seeds of their future embarrasment get into positions of power and/or responsibility, they will lobby/legislate to remove the offending material, and make it impossible for it to happen again...
Um... we have many (~100) IBM laptops here where I work... Oldest ~7yrs old, and newest less than 3 months old... ALL of them have TrackPoints as standard equipment, only the newest ones have touchpads, and even they still have the TrackPoint...
I had a user who stored several hundred megabytes of (important) word/excel documents in \windows\temp... The she got upset when during routine maintenenace I deleted them without realising that they were important.
Thankfully MY boss just laughed at her and told HER boss she was a F@cking idiot...
Unfortunately DC power distribution is highly inefficient. When transmitting power down a long lenght of wire DC creates a much higher voltage drop (power loss) across the line than AC.
I do not remember the figures, but this is the reason why AC was chosen for power distribution, even though there were various factions hyping the danger of using AC (electrocution and such).
Also this is why AC is transmitted at such high voltages for the large runs... for the same amount of power, a higher voltage means less current, less current means less voltage drop across the line, therefore less loss of power...
Won't Make Much Difference...
on
Linux Hits the Road
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
VicRoads recently resurfaced the main road near my house... After 4 weeks working on a 400m (1/4 mile) stretch of road they went away. Leaving a worse surface than they had started with...
It's fairly typical of VicRoads to resurface perfectly good roads regularly (every 6-12 months) and the roads that are actually in bad shape get ignored, or made worse... I guess it must have something to do with where the money lives...
The Stylus COLOUR 800 is circa 2000. It is a different beast to the Stylus 800, which is black only, also not to be confused with a Stylus 820, or a Stylus Colour 820, neither of which is even usefull as a paperweight.
Having to clean both "heads" at once always used to be a problem with the "low end" printers, as they only have ONE head cleaning unit, wheras the higher end printers have TWO head cleaning units, one for colour and one for black.
I have not had any experience with the C60, but if the ink in the head is drying check the head capping mechanism, a square (or rectangular) sorta suction cup looking device (probably with a small piece of foam in the middle of it). This is the part that performs the head cleaning, but which also SHOULD seal the head when it is parked (ie printer is idle or off). If this part is covered with gunk or debris (bits of paper etc), or if the rubber seal is damaged, then it will not seal the head properly when the printer is not in use, and will also lead to poor head cleaning performance. Try cleaning it with a little Metho. on a clean cloth, but beware it is a MESSY operation. Also check the operation of the unit as I have seen the springs jump out of them, so they do not come up to mmet the print head correctly.
Sorry, but I have to disagree with some of your post...
> 3. Printing regularly (or otherwise wasting ink) is the only way to combat the ink drying problem. > 4. Consumers are reluctant to print anything unless absolutely necessary thanks to the artificially high price of ink. > Thus, inkjet printers are rarely excercised enough to maintain them and rarely work right when they are needed.
BULLSHIT!!!
I have and Epson Stylus Colour 800. It is approximately 5 years old. I purchased it when I worked for an Epson service center. It barely gets used (maybe once 6 months), and I have NEVER had any problems with the ink drying out, if the printer is designed and used correctly ink drying in the head should NOT be a problem.
> Ink cartridges have a short shelf life and no printer manufacturer has been able to solve that problem.
BULLSHIT!!!
I have a BOX full of ink cartridges (genuine Epson) that I got at the same time as the printer, and just the other day I had to put a new black one in the printer, it worked fin, and it was OVER 2 YEARS OUT OF DATE!!! Once again, if they are left sealed, and stored correctly there should be no issues.
On the subject of non-genuine and refilled ink cartridges... They DO FSCK PRINTERS!!! When I worked fixing these things EVERY printer that came in with non genuine or refilled cartridges had print quiality issues. Sometimes the customer was lucky and a set of genuine cartridges fixed the problem, but usually a new print head was required (several hundred $AU). I have also seen many cases of non-genuine (and refilled) inks simply draining into the bottom of the printer overnight... Or coming out of the packet dry, whilst still IN DATE!!! Try explaining to a customer why the ink they bought thismorning, and put in an hour ago is empty out of the box...
Once upon a time I too thought non-genuine and refilled ink was OK... Then I spent a couple of years seeing the damage that these inks cause. And after that I will never use non genuine inks, nor would I perform warranty service on a printer with non genuine inks in it.
About time this came back around. I've been playing this throught my head over and over again, every time this SCO thing comes up, and finally we see the way it really works out......Blah Blah Blah......shot down an "exhaust tube" (an exhaust tube). I hope that cleared it all up for everybody.
Hopefully the "exhaust tube" is Darl's backside...
Yeah well, I didn't even start seeing the jokes until the day (1/4) had been over for 8.5 hours, not even taking into account the supposed 12 noon shutoff point...that would make the first joke I saw 20.5 hours late...
College in Australia also means a tertiary college and in a University setting specificially means the 'dorms'.
Well, yes, however most Universities in Aust. are called Universities, not Colleges (one notable exception being the Australian Maritime College), however all High Schools are now known as Colleges (at least in Vic. and Tas. presumably also in other states)
Also as a slight correction to my previous post, technically speaking we are both a Primary School and a Secondary School.
I take it then that the dorms do not have any sort of internet connection. If they do and you're blocking the MUDs further upstream then shame on you. If they don't (the public machines are the only connected ones) then block away.
Ahhh...oops...
Slight cultural/language difference here... (I'm in Aust.)
College != University (or other tertiary education) College == High School (secondary school, ages 5yo - 18yo)
As this is a high school we have no dorms, and none of our students live on campus...
Whilst it is true that MUDs do not use a great deal of bandwidth, the student who is MUDing is denying the use of that computer to someone who wants to do actual WORK. which is the real issue in a school environment.
Whilst it may be a bit extreme to say "criple" ther is some justification there...
I am the system administrator at a college here in Australia and if we did not filter/limit the kids access to the internet then all the bandwidth on our (meager) internet connection would be soaked up by kids wasting time on MUDs, IRC, HotMail, Chat, Online games, Warez sites, and other such activities, and the staff and students who actually try to do some work (research/E-mail etc) would have a hell of a time trying to get anything done.
So whilst I agree that private use of the 'net should be allowed, there is limits that need to be put on WHAT private use is allowed. Not only to free up the bandwidth for legitimate uses, but also free up computers for thos that wish to work rather than just waste their time...
Slashdot Mirror
As someone who worked Admin/Support in a K-12 school long enough to see kids come in one end and leave at the other, I can say that a good portion of people in this age group simply like breaking shit (that does not belong to them).
They get a kick out of knowing that SOMEONE is going to be inconvenienced by it, either the next user or the support guys who have to try and fix it.
For example; Switching to optical mice saved us a good 30 mins a day in replacing mouse balls, we would usually find the balls with the rubber peeled off them sitting on the desk next to the mouse... The switch to small form factor PCs with laptop style optical drives saved us hours a week fixing the little drive belts that open and close the tray (which can be flipped off in seconds with a paperclip)... but also provided us several chances a week to try and explain to the warranty people how the lens in the drive got covered in permanent texta (this destroys them BTW)...
Additionally, a handful of these sticks dropped around a school would result in many, many broken computers by the end of the day... "Hey Jimmy, this USB stick I found in the playground doesn't work in this PC, try it in yours..."
If only we had been allowed to install the taser mice I suggested life would have been much more fun (for us)... :P
Cheers.
You're kidding right?
For a number of years I worked as an IT guy in a K-12 school. I frequently had to explain the subject matter to the IT teacher in the break time before they took a class.
"You can turn it on, work a mouse and keyboard? You get to teach IT!"
The vast majority of children at the school (ages 5 to 18) knew more about technology and computers (note I did not say IT) than any of the teachers.
IF there is an intelligent creator, and he/she/it is capable of creating universes/planets/life out of nothing...
What makes you think that you could possibly understand his/her/it's design decisions?
For the record I do not beleive in such an entity...
Actually you will find that it was RAMBUS that inserted their patented technologies into the SDRAM and DDR-SDRAM standards, without telling any of the other members of the consortioum about the (submarine?) patents.
They then waited until this RAM went into production before declaring their patents and demanding royalties from ALL makers of SDRAM and DDR-SDRAM.
The entire managment (and probably a lot of the staff) of RAMBUS is owed daily cavity searches in a tiny little cell somewhere...
That piece of pie you own was a waste of pastry to bake, and the stock certificates aren't worth the toilet paper they are printed on.
Victa.
And this fact is what will eventually put the last nail in the coffin of the free internet, if it still exists by then...
Once the people currently laying the seeds of their future embarrasment get into positions of power and/or responsibility, they will lobby/legislate to remove the offending material, and make it impossible for it to happen again...
Victa
Um... we have many (~100) IBM laptops here where I work... Oldest ~7yrs old, and newest less than 3 months old...
ALL of them have TrackPoints as standard equipment, only the newest ones have touchpads, and even they still have the TrackPoint...
Or even better;
http://www.mailinator.com/mailinator/Welcome.do
Yes but this may enevtually allow you to visualise the whole "outfit"... Not just the clothes, but also hair and accessories, etc...
But what if the fake fingerprint was a thin layer of latex (or other suitable material) stuck to someone's finger?
You would have a fake fingerprint with a pulse, and using it would not look suspicious to shop assistants, bank tellers, etc.
I had a user who stored several hundred megabytes of (important) word/excel documents in \windows\temp... The she got upset when during routine maintenenace I deleted them without realising that they were important.
Thankfully MY boss just laughed at her and told HER boss she was a F@cking idiot...
Unfortunately DC power distribution is highly inefficient. When transmitting power down a long lenght of wire DC creates a much higher voltage drop (power loss) across the line than AC.
I do not remember the figures, but this is the reason why AC was chosen for power distribution, even though there were various factions hyping the danger of using AC (electrocution and such).
Also this is why AC is transmitted at such high voltages for the large runs... for the same amount of power, a higher voltage means less current, less current means less voltage drop across the line, therefore less loss of power...
VicRoads recently resurfaced the main road near my house... After 4 weeks working on a 400m (1/4 mile) stretch of road they went away. Leaving a worse surface than they had started with...
It's fairly typical of VicRoads to resurface perfectly good roads regularly (every 6-12 months) and the roads that are actually in bad shape get ignored, or made worse... I guess it must have something to do with where the money lives...
Yeah well not everybody has to lack a funnybone either...
Jeez man, chill...
The Stylus COLOUR 800 is circa 2000. It is a different beast to the Stylus 800, which is black only, also not to be confused with a Stylus 820, or a Stylus Colour 820, neither of which is even usefull as a paperweight.
Having to clean both "heads" at once always used to be a problem with the "low end" printers, as they only have ONE head cleaning unit, wheras the higher end printers have TWO head cleaning units, one for colour and one for black.
I have not had any experience with the C60, but if the ink in the head is drying check the head capping mechanism, a square (or rectangular) sorta suction cup looking device (probably with a small piece of foam in the middle of it). This is the part that performs the head cleaning, but which also SHOULD seal the head when it is parked (ie printer is idle or off). If this part is covered with gunk or debris (bits of paper etc), or if the rubber seal is damaged, then it will not seal the head properly when the printer is not in use, and will also lead to poor head cleaning performance. Try cleaning it with a little Metho. on a clean cloth, but beware it is a MESSY operation. Also check the operation of the unit as I have seen the springs jump out of them, so they do not come up to mmet the print head correctly.
Hope this is of some use to you (or someone!).
Not to mention the cost (to the printer manufacturer) of warranty work to repair damage caused by cheap shitty cartridges (or refills).
Sorry, but I have to disagree with some of your post...
> 3. Printing regularly (or otherwise wasting ink) is the only way to combat the ink drying problem.
> 4. Consumers are reluctant to print anything unless absolutely necessary thanks to the artificially high price of ink.
> Thus, inkjet printers are rarely excercised enough to maintain them and rarely work right when they are needed.
BULLSHIT!!!
I have and Epson Stylus Colour 800. It is approximately 5 years old. I purchased it when I worked for an Epson service center. It barely gets used (maybe once 6 months), and I have NEVER had any problems with the ink drying out, if the printer is designed and used correctly ink drying in the head should NOT be a problem.
> Ink cartridges have a short shelf life and no printer manufacturer has been able to solve that problem.
BULLSHIT!!!
I have a BOX full of ink cartridges (genuine Epson) that I got at the same time as the printer, and just the other day I had to put a new black one in the printer, it worked fin, and it was OVER 2 YEARS OUT OF DATE!!!
Once again, if they are left sealed, and stored correctly there should be no issues.
On the subject of non-genuine and refilled ink cartridges... They DO FSCK PRINTERS!!! When I worked fixing these things EVERY printer that came in with non genuine or refilled cartridges had print quiality issues. Sometimes the customer was lucky and a set of genuine cartridges fixed the problem, but usually a new print head was required (several hundred $AU).
I have also seen many cases of non-genuine (and refilled) inks simply draining into the bottom of the printer overnight... Or coming out of the packet dry, whilst still IN DATE!!! Try explaining to a customer why the ink they bought thismorning, and put in an hour ago is empty out of the box...
Once upon a time I too thought non-genuine and refilled ink was OK... Then I spent a couple of years seeing the damage that these inks cause. And after that I will never use non genuine inks, nor would I perform warranty service on a printer with non genuine inks in it.
About time this came back around. I've been playing this throught my head over and over again, every time this SCO thing comes up, and finally we see the way it really works out... ...Blah Blah Blah... ...shot down an "exhaust tube" (an exhaust tube). I hope that cleared it all up for everybody.
Hopefully the "exhaust tube" is Darl's backside...
Does this mean that I have to microwave my car now???
Hey, if you compare this to the state of our television talent (ie. Steve Irwin...bleh) then this is world class stuff...
Yeah well, I didn't even start seeing the jokes until the day (1/4) had been over for 8.5 hours, not even taking into account the supposed 12 noon shutoff point...that would make the first joke I saw 20.5 hours late...
When you say Aust. I think Austria, as in the European country.
:)
Oops...:)
Perhaps I should use Oz instead, however then I keep waiting for Dorothy to come skipping along with Toto in tow...
College in Australia also means a tertiary college and in a University setting specificially means the 'dorms'.
Well, yes, however most Universities in Aust. are called Universities, not Colleges (one notable exception being the Australian Maritime College), however all High Schools are now known as Colleges (at least in Vic. and Tas. presumably also in other states)
Also as a slight correction to my previous post, technically speaking we are both a Primary School and a Secondary School.
I take it then that the dorms do not have any sort of internet connection. If they do and you're blocking the MUDs further upstream then shame on you. If they don't (the public machines are the only connected ones) then block away.
Ahhh...oops...
Slight cultural/language difference here... (I'm in Aust.)
College != University (or other tertiary education)
College == High School (secondary school, ages 5yo - 18yo)
As this is a high school we have no dorms, and none of our students live on campus...
Whilst it is true that MUDs do not use a great deal of bandwidth, the student who is MUDing is denying the use of that computer to someone who wants to do actual WORK. which is the real issue in a school environment.
Whilst it may be a bit extreme to say "criple" ther is some justification there...
I am the system administrator at a college here in Australia and if we did not filter/limit the kids access to the internet then all the bandwidth on our (meager) internet connection would be soaked up by kids wasting time on MUDs, IRC, HotMail, Chat, Online games, Warez sites, and other such activities, and the staff and students who actually try to do some work (research/E-mail etc) would have a hell of a time trying to get anything done.
So whilst I agree that private use of the 'net should be allowed, there is limits that need to be put on WHAT private use is allowed. Not only to free up the bandwidth for legitimate uses, but also free up computers for thos that wish to work rather than just waste their time...