I have a Delonghi Pinguino Classic PAC-85U in my apartment. It is one of the with/without water models (ie, it will cool without adding water to it... but not as well - only 7500 Btu instead of 8500 - and with a bit more noise). I've had pretty good luck with it. It doesn't seem to do as well as an in-window model, but it does get the job done. I just wish it hadn't cost as much as it did ($1000 at the time). Oh, Delonghi does have a section of their site in English as well. The A/C page is here.
Yeah... just keep mousing over the the links on the lefthand side... the quotes that come up in the picture below appear to be random. Eventually, this one will come up.
Actually, didn't mean you, specifically, NetJunkie... but after I wrote it, I realized it came out like that... should preview more often, perhaps. The comment about checking out the review if you haven't seen it was actually meant for everyone besides you... heh.
Yes, Windows XP does look promising, but don't all MS OSes look that way before they come out? If you haven't seen it, I suggest checking out the review over at winsupersite. Hopefully, this will keep us on one desktop codebase. Of course, there will still be Windows CE (or whatever they call it now), XBox, Windows Embedded, etc floating around.
Hmmm... that does make some sense. But wouldn't it have made more sense to have more logical zoning restrictions and keep the residence areas and town square/hall/etc seperate? My friend ended up there and thinks it is really annoying. Can't pickup dry cleaning or look for a new stereo or anything on Sunday. For me, Sunday is when I get my stuff done. Of course the loophole is, sell some food and stay open. That's what Blockbuster does.
This is just another example of blue laws interfering with people's (and business') lives. Laws that attempt to dictate morality have been on the books for years and are the result of times when the church had more control than it should have.
These laws place ridiculous restrictions on:
Business Hours (eg: it is illegal to be open on sunday in one NJ county unless you sell food)
Alcohol (eg: no alcohol on sundays, or after 8pm, or before noon, or on a full moon)
Free Speech (eg: anything judged pornographic and the whole "i know it when i see it" camp)
Physical Activities (you'd be surprised how many states make it illegal to place certain parts of yourself in certain parts of your significant other or the fact that in some states it is actually illegal to live together without being married)
These laws never had a time or a place, they were just forced upon us by the "moral majority"... that, when you get down to it, isn't very moral at all.
Actually, we really aren't. We're a secular nation. The constitution has no mention of god or christianity. Most of the "pilgrims" were here for trade and not for "religious freedom". And "under god" in the pledge of allegiance and "in god we trust" on paper money did not appear until the 50's during McCarthyism (remember the *other* witch-hunt).
Using Velcro (with its adhesive backing) would be fine if it weren't for the residue and stuff, right? Well, try getting it off with Goo Gone. It does a great job of getting adhesives off. It does warn that it "may dull some plastics", so try it on an inconspicuous place first (like the inside of the battery cover, but please don't squirt any inside).
I'd wager a guess that most of us who read Slashdot have experienced this at some point in our lives. I experienced it at my first few jobs. I distinctly remember one of the employees who had a major problem with suggestions I made for improving our tech support desk because a) I was young, and b) I was a summer intern. I think he also felt a bit threatened since I knew more about the systems we were supporting than he did, and he'd been there 5 years. I was lucky, though, since my boss had no such hang-ups and loved the work I did.
I think it has alot to do with fear. They (ie older folks at work) see people 1/2 their age who know alot more about modern systems and programming than they do. Granted, some young folks have this ridiculous ego that can also get them into trouble.
Of course some of them want to say: "Respect your elders." I say: HAH. Respect ability, respect experience, respect knowledge... but respect age?!? NEVER!
Microsoft actually has an accurate price comparison of Oracle, DB2 and SQL server. Granted, this is before you negoatiate "corporate discounts", but in an 8-way 1GHz setup, Oracle costs $800,000 compared to DB2 at $180,800 and SQL at $159,992.
The e-commerce site I am currently working on (in testing with the client now) has a Security Policy page, similar to a Privacy Policy page. It mentions the basic stuff, 128-bit SSL Encryption, Thawte Digital Certificate... plus it also mentions a couple more advanced things... seperate secured relational database and, most importantly, removal of credit card data from online systems.
Basically, we are a smaller site who is hosting in a shared environment (as are virtually all smaller e-commerce sites). We added some extra precautions that the big guys should do, too. For instance, once the credit card is processed, it is removed from our online systems. We move it to another system for record-keeping purposes, but the online system's database is altered to show just the last 4 digits (XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-1234) of the credit card, mainly so a customer can tell which credit card was used when later looking at the order online. Sure, this is more of a hassle for us, but it makes things a heck of a lot better for our customers. And we wouldn't even think about storing the numbers in our system for "convenience" of customers when placing a new order. That's just asking for trouble.
Also, someone noted that even if you check a company out, you can't be sure what will happen when that company is bought or merges. Well, we actually make a statement about that. For security, it doesn't really matter, since cc numbers are removed from our online systems. For privacy, we state that if we merge, etc, we will ensure that your data has the same protections we offer (no unwanted contact, no spam, no renting, no selling, no changes to our policy without notifying you).
I wish all sites I dealt with offered these same protections.
Shutton: Uh, Dave Shutton, Springfield Daily Shopper. Who are you? Where are you going? Kent: Oh, do your research, Shutton!
Ever notice most of the questions people ask in these things are already answered in the FAQs, manuals and news items on various sites. Luckily, it's usually only the better questions that get modded up.
One of the biggest problems the unions have had in breaking into the tech sector is most tech workers (rather correct) assumption that unions protect workers regardless of ability and productivity. They rely on seniority and other nonsense. These things don't fly in the tech industry. More ability and productivity = more pay. It should always work this way. Unions have never been structured to handle this.
This applies in tech and just about every other industry. The perfect example is my grandfather. He worked for Stanley (the US company that makes tools) way back before they were a union shop. He was a tool and die maker, dealing with 1/1000ths of an inch daily. He had good steady hands and a keen eye and could fix just about everything in the shop. He was a higher level tool and die maker because of his abilities. Then the shop unionized. He and the other high-level makers got pay-cuts, so that the lower-level (and lower-skilled) tool and die makers could get a raise and make the SAME money that he now did. Gone were raises, promotions and perks based on ability. Now things like seniority mattered. The work suffered, the tools suffered, and it was never the same through the rest of the time he worked there. But it was considered *OK* because now everyone made the same money and even the unskilled tool and die makers were now *protected* from the evil company that only wanted to make a buck.
You had to see his face while he told this story to fully comprehend it. He used to love his work, before he was in a union.
Excel 97 and up has a neat feature that lets it read in HTML tables directly. Here are a few tips:
Pass the MIME type "application/vnd.ms-excel" to the browser. IE will open Excel in-case, Netscape should allow you to launch Excel.
Leave out the HTML, BODY, HEAD and other tags. Just do a straight table of data.
You can include a header, etc. above the table by putting in some regular text, experiment a bit.
Standard HTML formatting will be used by Excel. If memory serves, this includes bold, italic, cellspan, width, height, font, color, background color (ie cell color), etc.
You can use standard Excel formulas like SUM, etc. You do, however, have to use the standard Excel cell names (A1, B1, A2, etc).
This is a bit from memory. I've done it in ASP for a couple of different projects and there are examples on the web of this here and here. The formatting information is from my own experience and from memory (from a project about a year ago that I no longer have code for).
The advantages to doing it this way: good printing, most users have Excel, not much coding, just quick PHP and SQL calls with a bit of HTML formatting, no extra software. The disadvantages: requires Excel, no simple report writer, etc.
From Qode's Terms of Use: "The Company may change the Rules and the scope of the Services in whole or in part, at any time without notice. Such changes will be posted on the Company's Site and such posting will constitute notice to you."
So, in theory, they could later change their mind and decide to give your email (that you optionally submitted as a part of your account in case you forget your password) and you account info to companies later on and not even tell you. I hate it when companies say things like the above.
I have RCN, my neighbor has TW and has had it since it went into beta. Here are the two stories:
My Experience With RCN
RCN was pretty good initially. I got it soon after they were out of beta in my area. Then they grew too fast. Their entire network was overloaded for about a month. After a few hassles including 2 modem swaps (they use Hybrids which aren't that good) and numerous short outtages, I would say their service is now pretty good. I usually get decent speed (up to 3 megabits/sec at 3am), my ping times are usually good enough for online game play (under 250ms) which is a necessity for my occasional Subspace fix. I still get occasional problems. Their customer service isn't that great. I've been on hold an hour on more than one occasion.
My Neighbor's Experience With Time Warner
My neighbor got her cable modem last year while TW was beta testing. In the beginning, her speed was unbelievable, mainly cuz she was only one of a few people on the network. Now, it is similar to mine. She isn't really a techie, she mainly browses and sends mail, so she doesn't notice high ping times and such like I do. She said she's gotten good customer service when she called in with questions, too. Oh, and they do use better modems (don't remember which, offhand).
Random Thoughts
If anybody would like, I could do some traceroutes from both of our boxes to a few servers, test turnaround time and packetloss. Let me know if you're interested.
Also, you may wanna pick up the Linksys BEFSR41 4-Port Cable/DSL Router. Great unit. Two of my friends swear by them, mine is on the way. And you can update the firmware using a TFTP client from a non-windows box. Most of the others require windows to update. Plus, the manual is totally written by geeks with FAQ questions like "How do I get my quake server to..." No cheesy business questions here.
NYC is not most places. You can only get things in with a building owner's permission (or coop board), and that isn't going to happen unless the owner gets something in return. For instance, the block of apartments I live in, RCN cut a deal to wire it for cable and phone with the landlord... that's how they got in.
This is a job? At my last job, the guys did this every day. The challenge: find the most disturbing video clip of the day / week / fortnight / whatever. It was a hobby for them. So, every so often, you'd hear laughter or groans from the back room, venture in, and find a bunch of people crowded around a screen watching someone doing unnatural things to a horse... or a chicken.
And just think... this could have been their actual job...
If you do nothing else, watch the video promo for the car (on the page linked to in the article, Windows Media Format only). The cheesiness throughout it as a typical american family 'rediscovers the backroads' is hysterical.
Slashdot Mirror
I have a Delonghi Pinguino Classic PAC-85U in my apartment. It is one of the with/without water models (ie, it will cool without adding water to it... but not as well - only 7500 Btu instead of 8500 - and with a bit more noise). I've had pretty good luck with it. It doesn't seem to do as well as an in-window model, but it does get the job done. I just wish it hadn't cost as much as it did ($1000 at the time). Oh, Delonghi does have a section of their site in English as well. The A/C page is here.
Yeah... just keep mousing over the the links on the lefthand side... the quotes that come up in the picture below appear to be random. Eventually, this one will come up.
Actually, didn't mean you, specifically, NetJunkie... but after I wrote it, I realized it came out like that... should preview more often, perhaps. The comment about checking out the review if you haven't seen it was actually meant for everyone besides you... heh.
http://pcep465.cjb.net
Check it out... there are some cool pictures on this site.
PS: Please don't mod this up... only reason it isn't anonymous is so people will see it as a reply.
Yes, Windows XP does look promising, but don't all MS OSes look that way before they come out? If you haven't seen it, I suggest checking out the review over at winsupersite. Hopefully, this will keep us on one desktop codebase. Of course, there will still be Windows CE (or whatever they call it now), XBox, Windows Embedded, etc floating around.
Did his teacher push the "Independent Thought Alarm" button?
The children there must be overstimulated. Maybe it's the colored chalk. Afterall, that colored chalk was forged by Lucifer himself.
Hmmm... that does make some sense. But wouldn't it have made more sense to have more logical zoning restrictions and keep the residence areas and town square/hall/etc seperate? My friend ended up there and thinks it is really annoying. Can't pickup dry cleaning or look for a new stereo or anything on Sunday. For me, Sunday is when I get my stuff done. Of course the loophole is, sell some food and stay open. That's what Blockbuster does.
These laws place ridiculous restrictions on:
- Business Hours (eg: it is illegal to be open on sunday in one NJ county unless you sell food)
- Alcohol (eg: no alcohol on sundays, or after 8pm, or before noon, or on a full moon)
- Free Speech (eg: anything judged pornographic and the whole "i know it when i see it" camp)
- Physical Activities (you'd be surprised how many states make it illegal to place certain parts of yourself in certain parts of your significant other or the fact that in some states it is actually illegal to live together without being married)
These laws never had a time or a place, they were just forced upon us by the "moral majority"... that, when you get down to it, isn't very moral at all.Connecticut has the exact same thing. Stupid blue laws.
Actually, we really aren't. We're a secular nation. The constitution has no mention of god or christianity. Most of the "pilgrims" were here for trade and not for "religious freedom". And "under god" in the pledge of allegiance and "in god we trust" on paper money did not appear until the 50's during McCarthyism (remember the *other* witch-hunt).
Read: http://www.ffrf.org/nontracts/xian.html
Know where I can get one of those??
Using Velcro (with its adhesive backing) would be fine if it weren't for the residue and stuff, right? Well, try getting it off with Goo Gone. It does a great job of getting adhesives off. It does warn that it "may dull some plastics", so try it on an inconspicuous place first (like the inside of the battery cover, but please don't squirt any inside).
I'd wager a guess that most of us who read Slashdot have experienced this at some point in our lives. I experienced it at my first few jobs. I distinctly remember one of the employees who had a major problem with suggestions I made for improving our tech support desk because a) I was young, and b) I was a summer intern. I think he also felt a bit threatened since I knew more about the systems we were supporting than he did, and he'd been there 5 years. I was lucky, though, since my boss had no such hang-ups and loved the work I did.
I think it has alot to do with fear. They (ie older folks at work) see people 1/2 their age who know alot more about modern systems and programming than they do. Granted, some young folks have this ridiculous ego that can also get them into trouble.
Of course some of them want to say: "Respect your elders." I say: HAH. Respect ability, respect experience, respect knowledge... but respect age?!? NEVER!
Microsoft actually has an accurate price comparison of Oracle, DB2 and SQL server. Granted, this is before you negoatiate "corporate discounts", but in an 8-way 1GHz setup, Oracle costs $800,000 compared to DB2 at $180,800 and SQL at $159,992.
The e-commerce site I am currently working on (in testing with the client now) has a Security Policy page, similar to a Privacy Policy page. It mentions the basic stuff, 128-bit SSL Encryption, Thawte Digital Certificate... plus it also mentions a couple more advanced things... seperate secured relational database and, most importantly, removal of credit card data from online systems.
Basically, we are a smaller site who is hosting in a shared environment (as are virtually all smaller e-commerce sites). We added some extra precautions that the big guys should do, too. For instance, once the credit card is processed, it is removed from our online systems. We move it to another system for record-keeping purposes, but the online system's database is altered to show just the last 4 digits (XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-1234) of the credit card, mainly so a customer can tell which credit card was used when later looking at the order online. Sure, this is more of a hassle for us, but it makes things a heck of a lot better for our customers. And we wouldn't even think about storing the numbers in our system for "convenience" of customers when placing a new order. That's just asking for trouble.
Also, someone noted that even if you check a company out, you can't be sure what will happen when that company is bought or merges. Well, we actually make a statement about that. For security, it doesn't really matter, since cc numbers are removed from our online systems. For privacy, we state that if we merge, etc, we will ensure that your data has the same protections we offer (no unwanted contact, no spam, no renting, no selling, no changes to our policy without notifying you).
I wish all sites I dealt with offered these same protections.
Shutton: Uh, Dave Shutton, Springfield Daily Shopper. Who are you? Where are you going?
Kent: Oh, do your research, Shutton!
Ever notice most of the questions people ask in these things are already answered in the FAQs, manuals and news items on various sites. Luckily, it's usually only the better questions that get modded up.
One of the biggest problems the unions have had in breaking into the tech sector is most tech workers (rather correct) assumption that unions protect workers regardless of ability and productivity. They rely on seniority and other nonsense. These things don't fly in the tech industry. More ability and productivity = more pay. It should always work this way. Unions have never been structured to handle this.
This applies in tech and just about every other industry. The perfect example is my grandfather. He worked for Stanley (the US company that makes tools) way back before they were a union shop. He was a tool and die maker, dealing with 1/1000ths of an inch daily. He had good steady hands and a keen eye and could fix just about everything in the shop. He was a higher level tool and die maker because of his abilities. Then the shop unionized. He and the other high-level makers got pay-cuts, so that the lower-level (and lower-skilled) tool and die makers could get a raise and make the SAME money that he now did. Gone were raises, promotions and perks based on ability. Now things like seniority mattered. The work suffered, the tools suffered, and it was never the same through the rest of the time he worked there. But it was considered *OK* because now everyone made the same money and even the unskilled tool and die makers were now *protected* from the evil company that only wanted to make a buck.
You had to see his face while he told this story to fully comprehend it. He used to love his work, before he was in a union.
- Pass the MIME type "application/vnd.ms-excel" to the browser. IE will open Excel in-case, Netscape should allow you to launch Excel.
- Leave out the HTML, BODY, HEAD and other tags. Just do a straight table of data.
- You can include a header, etc. above the table by putting in some regular text, experiment a bit.
- Standard HTML formatting will be used by Excel. If memory serves, this includes bold, italic, cellspan, width, height, font, color, background color (ie cell color), etc.
- You can use standard Excel formulas like SUM, etc. You do, however, have to use the standard Excel cell names (A1, B1, A2, etc).
This is a bit from memory. I've done it in ASP for a couple of different projects and there are examples on the web of this here and here. The formatting information is from my own experience and from memory (from a project about a year ago that I no longer have code for).The advantages to doing it this way: good printing, most users have Excel, not much coding, just quick PHP and SQL calls with a bit of HTML formatting, no extra software. The disadvantages: requires Excel, no simple report writer, etc.
Well, that's it. I hope it helps someone.
From Qode's Terms of Use: "The Company may change the Rules and the scope of the Services in whole or in part, at any time without notice. Such changes will be posted on the Company's Site and such posting will constitute notice to you."
So, in theory, they could later change their mind and decide to give your email (that you optionally submitted as a part of your account in case you forget your password) and you account info to companies later on and not even tell you. I hate it when companies say things like the above.
Seems like that acquisition of Cobalt Networks is bearing some fruit.
I have RCN, my neighbor has TW and has had it since it went into beta. Here are the two stories:
My Experience With RCN
RCN was pretty good initially. I got it soon after they were out of beta in my area. Then they grew too fast. Their entire network was overloaded for about a month. After a few hassles including 2 modem swaps (they use Hybrids which aren't that good) and numerous short outtages, I would say their service is now pretty good. I usually get decent speed (up to 3 megabits/sec at 3am), my ping times are usually good enough for online game play (under 250ms) which is a necessity for my occasional Subspace fix. I still get occasional problems. Their customer service isn't that great. I've been on hold an hour on more than one occasion.
My Neighbor's Experience With Time Warner
My neighbor got her cable modem last year while TW was beta testing. In the beginning, her speed was unbelievable, mainly cuz she was only one of a few people on the network. Now, it is similar to mine. She isn't really a techie, she mainly browses and sends mail, so she doesn't notice high ping times and such like I do. She said she's gotten good customer service when she called in with questions, too. Oh, and they do use better modems (don't remember which, offhand).
Random Thoughts
If anybody would like, I could do some traceroutes from both of our boxes to a few servers, test turnaround time and packetloss. Let me know if you're interested.
Also, you may wanna pick up the Linksys BEFSR41 4-Port Cable/DSL Router. Great unit. Two of my friends swear by them, mine is on the way. And you can update the firmware using a TFTP client from a non-windows box. Most of the others require windows to update. Plus, the manual is totally written by geeks with FAQ questions like "How do I get my quake server to..." No cheesy business questions here.
NYC is not most places. You can only get things in with a building owner's permission (or coop board), and that isn't going to happen unless the owner gets something in return. For instance, the block of apartments I live in, RCN cut a deal to wire it for cable and phone with the landlord... that's how they got in.
This is a job? At my last job, the guys did this every day. The challenge: find the most disturbing video clip of the day / week / fortnight / whatever. It was a hobby for them. So, every so often, you'd hear laughter or groans from the back room, venture in, and find a bunch of people crowded around a screen watching someone doing unnatural things to a horse... or a chicken.
And just think... this could have been their actual job...
If you do nothing else, watch the video promo for the car (on the page linked to in the article, Windows Media Format only). The cheesiness throughout it as a typical american family 'rediscovers the backroads' is hysterical.
Look at the pictures on the website. In particular the DVD shot and the Quicktime VR image. One big, honkin button underneath the touch pad.
Stupid click-and-hold context menus.