P.E.'s aren't just Civil Engineers but many of them are because what the P.E. title is primarily important for is the ability to sign-off on designs, certifications, etc. for various regulatory and government agencies. And, of course, a lot of those regulatory requirements are around the sort of structures that Civil Engineers design. However, the power supply engineer who signs off on submittals to UL is probably a P.E. as well.
But, yes, Texas is basically saying Engineeer==P.E. which is sort of silly. In a lot of branches of engineering there is simply very little reason for your typical engineer to get a P.E. I got an E.I.T. (Engineer in Training which was the first phase of the certification) myself but never followed up, simnply because I had no reason to do so.
Since the Pentium Pro, there's been a feature called PAE (Physical Address Extensions) that allow for up to 64GB of memory to be supported on a system. The logical address space is still 4GB (typically 2GB of user space). Essentially there is an additional level of page translation which tends to slow things down somewhere between a lot or a little depending upon the application. It's never been all that popular -- supposedly because the applications that can use a lot of memory (e.g. large databases) tend to fall into the group of applications that slow down quite a bit under stress.
It depends what features you use. In my environment (basically writing/publishing) we make *extensive* use of revision tracking. It could still be much improved but Office XP is materially better than its predecessors (or indeed Star Office). So no, not "virtually no difference."
The increasing prevalence of digital images rather than hardcopy versions ends up simultaneously both providing an opportunity to more thoroughly preserve images while, at the same time, introducing a whole new set of risks -- especially for the casual, non- computer saavy user.
On the one hand, digital images (and other types of digital records) can be easily backed up multiple times, copies stored in multiple locations, etc. This is a much better story than traditional media that can easily be destroyed by a flooded basement, fire, etc.
On the other hand, as many here have observed, lots of people don't make any kind of backup or they depend on a single backup that could deteriorate over time etc. And there's a big difference between an unreadable CD and a stack of photos that have yellowed a bit.
So, we end up with media that is theoretically more durable, but in practice will be a whole lot less durable for many people. I predict that in a few years as digital photography becomes even more prevalent, a lot of people are going to start losing all their pictures of little Johnny growing up as their cheap hard drives with those images stored on them crap out.
Companies can, do, and usually should discriminate on the basis of lots of things: experience, intelligence, work habits, communications skills... Some things companies aren't supposed to discriminate on the basis of (e.g. race) -- which is not to say they don't. Otherthings, it would be absurd to discriminate on the basis of (how many dogs you have, for example).
In general, the more personal and the less job-relevant, the harder it is to justify. IMO, this is a borderline case: it is personal information but, at least for many jobs, it has the same sort of relevancy as a criminal background check. It shouldn't automatically disqualify someone, but does raise flags that need to be explained.
You can build a PVR easily enough. If I were doing it I'd probably put an ATI AIW card in a Shuttle SFF PC, toss in a good sound card and have my very own media center. Not sure the best way to integrate a remote control into the mix though you could potentially do something with a Sound Blaster Extigy if you went that route. There are lower cost options as well if you just went with a PCI tuner card.
There are other options, such as software for a PS2.
However, this isn't "TiVO functionality." It's basic PVR functionality. I have an ATI AIW in one of my computers and I can assure you it's nowhere near the functionality of a TiVO which has season passes, lots of conflict resolution capabilities etc. (It also crashes and hangs on a regular basis.) Basically these other approaches are more along the lines of click on a grid and tell the machine to record the program in that time slot.
in the Ziemann report. There's a great deal of emphasis placed on the decline of the number of releases over the past couple of years. However, this whole train of reasoning seems to be based on the following quote:
"Each year, of the approximately 27,000 new releases that hit the market, the major labels release about 7,000 new CD titles and after production, recording, promotion and distribution costs, most never sell enough to recover these costs, let alone make a profit." (from the RIAA Price of a CD page).
Now, perhaps the number of releases *has* declined markedly over the past couple of years. But it strikes me as an awful big assumption to just plug in this 27,000 number as the number of new releases for each of the past two years.
Again, not saying it's wrong. I'm just saying that it could as well be an average over the past decade or an inexact number thrown out in a context other than market data. It's a slender thread on which to hang a big chunk of analysis.
There are analogies with cell phones. However, I think it's difficult to see people wanting to use computer communications instead of cell phone (voice) communications. Which implies that -- to succeed -- you're going to need an infrastructure that does double-duty for voice and data.
On the other tentacle, there's little evidence for and quite a bit against a widespread desire to have internet-enabled handhelds. Stock quotes wherever you go? Puhleese! That's so 1999:-) Yes, I'd like to check directions every now and then or lookup restaurants, but how much is all that worth?
And while I might like to pull out my laptop outdoors sometimes and check my mail, it's not a compelling need that I'd spend a lot of money for. If I could get it for free/cheap as part of my cellphone plan, then sure! But otherwise...
Sure it would be cool to have the long promised everywhere, everywhen connectivity. But aside from the technical issues (e.g. what version of the standard), it's difficult to see us getting anywhere close to the point where enough people are willing to plop down the requisite amount of monthly $$'s to make this viable.
Pick a number: $50/month, $100/month? How much are you willing to pony up for patchy wireless internet connectivity primarily in relatively heavily populated areas? Consider that even broadband penetration seems to have plateaued to a large degree in the areas where it is available. Not everyone's willing to pay $40-$50/month for better computer access.
None of these PC devices have nailed it
on
Mac PVR Coming Soon
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· Score: 4, Informative
The difference between a Tivo and all of the PC hardware/software combinations is like night and day. Tivo (usually) just works and fundamentally lets you break away from being tied to program schedules.
By contrast all the PC software that I've tried is still fundamentally based on pointing at a programming ggrid and asking the software to record something. That's when it works. I've had a lot of problems with, not only drivers, but also the software itself doing things like having problems recording adjacent programs -- to say nothing of crashing on a fairly regular basis.
I've come to believe that we'll move toward having a "digital entertainment center" that may be (hopefully will be) based on as open an architecture as possible but will be optimized for specific types of entertainment-related functions as opposed to general computing. We all like the idea of this infinitely hackable, totally open computer device, but -- at least for now -- I think Tivo has demonstrated rather convincingly that specialization has some advantages too.
Inspired by the tablets in "Surface Tension" no doubt:-)
Re:so any recommendations for us Joe 6-packs?
on
Digital Dark Ages?
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· Score: 1
It basically comes down to money and effort. Any removable media approach (whether it's CD-R or tape) should have a couple of copies that should be periodically verified. The copies should be kept in different locations. Over and above that, you may want to keep your most crucial stuff on a hard drive as well -- ideally mirrored to another disk that is ideally in a different system.
I'm not quite that rigorous myself. However, I do store all my data on disk a mirror it to another system on my home network and periodically burn data directories to CD-R. I don't have an off-site backup (keep saying I'll stash some CD-R's in my office) and I don't go back to verify my CD-R's (but probably have enough different copies that anything important could probably be recovered from something.)
>you'll have the home consumer trying to back up all his photos to CD
Actually, I think this is a pretty optimistic view. The average consumer has little or no real understanding of backup discipline. More and more data and state is getting stored on hard drives in the form of digital images, music, etc. with NO backups of any kind. Suddenly one day all the pictures of little Johnny growing up get wiped out with the crash of a disk head. To be sure, there are probably prints of the better pictures nd maybe that's all most people really need. But as more and more information is stored digitally even at the individual consumer level, the issue of backup increasingly needs to be addressed better than it is being addressed.
This question has been danced around a bit on this topic and is covered only in a very general way on Red Hat's web site, so let me try it here.
What if one has a Red Hat 7.1 with Ximian and wants to go to a straight Red Hat 7.2 without Ximian? Red Hat's website makes reference to removing Ximian GNOME -- but we've heard elsewhere on this topic that removing all Ximian packages is a no-no. Which packages exactly ought to be removed to make the install go smoothly?
It's not different (and it is). I have a home-built "media server" that I didn't pay all that much more for than this toy and it's got a pair of RAID 1 mirrored 45GB drives. (It'll be interesting to see what happens when all these stateful consumer electronic toys start to die and lose state -- a new concept -- but I digress.)
What IS different are two main things. Streamlined usability for the computerphobes and better form factor/noise/etc. for the entertainment center. The big downsides of my homebuilt "media center" are it doesn't fit in my stereo cabinet and it's too loud.
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P.E.'s aren't just Civil Engineers but many of them are because what the P.E. title is primarily important for is the ability to sign-off on designs, certifications, etc. for various regulatory and government agencies. And, of course, a lot of those regulatory requirements are around the sort of structures that Civil Engineers design. However, the power supply engineer who signs off on submittals to UL is probably a P.E. as well.
But, yes, Texas is basically saying Engineeer==P.E. which is sort of silly. In a lot of branches of engineering there is simply very little reason for your typical engineer to get a P.E. I got an E.I.T. (Engineer in Training which was the first phase of the certification) myself but never followed up, simnply because I had no reason to do so.
Maybe that the top of the chip is usually under a big honking heatsink (and/or fan) these days? Besides, stamps can be fairly easily altered.
Since the Pentium Pro, there's been a feature called PAE (Physical Address Extensions) that allow for up to 64GB of memory to be supported on a system. The logical address space is still 4GB (typically 2GB of user space). Essentially there is an additional level of page translation which tends to slow things down somewhere between a lot or a little depending upon the application. It's never been all that popular -- supposedly because the applications that can use a lot of memory (e.g. large databases) tend to fall into the group of applications that slow down quite a bit under stress.
It depends what features you use. In my environment (basically writing/publishing) we make *extensive* use of revision tracking. It could still be much improved but Office XP is materially better than its predecessors (or indeed Star Office). So no, not "virtually no difference."
The increasing prevalence of digital images rather than hardcopy versions ends up simultaneously both providing an opportunity to more thoroughly preserve images while, at the same time, introducing a whole new set of risks -- especially for the casual, non- computer saavy user.
On the one hand, digital images (and other types of digital records) can be easily backed up multiple times, copies stored in multiple locations, etc. This is a much better story than traditional media that can easily be destroyed by a flooded basement, fire, etc.
On the other hand, as many here have observed, lots of people don't make any kind of backup or they depend on a single backup that could deteriorate over time etc. And there's a big difference between an unreadable CD and a stack of photos that have yellowed a bit.
So, we end up with media that is theoretically more durable, but in practice will be a whole lot less durable for many people. I predict that in a few years as digital photography becomes even more prevalent, a lot of people are going to start losing all their pictures of little Johnny growing up as their cheap hard drives with those images stored on them crap out.
Companies can, do, and usually should discriminate on the basis of lots of things: experience, intelligence, work habits, communications skills... Some things companies aren't supposed to discriminate on the basis of (e.g. race) -- which is not to say they don't. Otherthings, it would be absurd to discriminate on the basis of (how many dogs you have, for example).
In general, the more personal and the less job-relevant, the harder it is to justify. IMO, this is a borderline case: it is personal information but, at least for many jobs, it has the same sort of relevancy as a criminal background check. It shouldn't automatically disqualify someone, but does raise flags that need to be explained.
IMHO, you can't. You get what you pay for.
You can build a PVR easily enough. If I were doing it I'd probably put an ATI AIW card in a Shuttle SFF PC, toss in a good sound card and have my very own media center. Not sure the best way to integrate a remote control into the mix though you could potentially do something with a Sound Blaster Extigy if you went that route. There are lower cost options as well if you just went with a PCI tuner card.
There are other options, such as software for a PS2.
However, this isn't "TiVO functionality." It's basic PVR functionality. I have an ATI AIW in one of my computers and I can assure you it's nowhere near the functionality of a TiVO which has season passes, lots of conflict resolution capabilities etc. (It also crashes and hangs on a regular basis.) Basically these other approaches are more along the lines of click on a grid and tell the machine to record the program in that time slot.
in the Ziemann report. There's a great deal of emphasis placed on the decline of the number of releases over the past couple of years. However, this whole train of reasoning seems to be based on the following quote:
"Each year, of the approximately 27,000 new releases that hit the market, the major labels release about 7,000 new CD titles and after production, recording, promotion and distribution costs, most never sell enough to recover these costs, let alone make a profit." (from the RIAA Price of a CD page).
Now, perhaps the number of releases *has* declined markedly over the past couple of years. But it strikes me as an awful big assumption to just plug in this 27,000 number as the number of new releases for each of the past two years.
Again, not saying it's wrong. I'm just saying that it could as well be an average over the past decade or an inexact number thrown out in a context other than market data. It's a slender thread on which to hang a big chunk of analysis.
There are analogies with cell phones. However, I think it's difficult to see people wanting to use computer communications instead of cell phone (voice) communications. Which implies that -- to succeed -- you're going to need an infrastructure that does double-duty for voice and data.
On the other tentacle, there's little evidence for and quite a bit against a widespread desire to have internet-enabled handhelds. Stock quotes wherever you go? Puhleese! That's so 1999:-) Yes, I'd like to check directions every now and then or lookup restaurants, but how much is all that worth?
And while I might like to pull out my laptop outdoors sometimes and check my mail, it's not a compelling need that I'd spend a lot of money for. If I could get it for free/cheap as part of my cellphone plan, then sure! But otherwise...
Sure it would be cool to have the long promised everywhere, everywhen connectivity. But aside from the technical issues (e.g. what version of the standard), it's difficult to see us getting anywhere close to the point where enough people are willing to plop down the requisite amount of monthly $$'s to make this viable.
Pick a number: $50/month, $100/month? How much are you willing to pony up for patchy wireless internet connectivity primarily in relatively heavily populated areas? Consider that even broadband penetration seems to have plateaued to a large degree in the areas where it is available. Not everyone's willing to pay $40-$50/month for better computer access.
The difference between a Tivo and all of the PC hardware/software combinations is like night and day. Tivo (usually) just works and fundamentally lets you break away from being tied to program schedules.
By contrast all the PC software that I've tried is still fundamentally based on pointing at a programming ggrid and asking the software to record something. That's when it works. I've had a lot of problems with, not only drivers, but also the software itself doing things like having problems recording adjacent programs -- to say nothing of crashing on a fairly regular basis.
I've come to believe that we'll move toward having a "digital entertainment center" that may be (hopefully will be) based on as open an architecture as possible but will be optimized for specific types of entertainment-related functions as opposed to general computing. We all like the idea of this infinitely hackable, totally open computer device, but -- at least for now -- I think Tivo has demonstrated rather convincingly that specialization has some advantages too.
Inspired by the tablets in "Surface Tension" no doubt :-)
It basically comes down to money and effort. Any removable media approach (whether it's CD-R or tape) should have a couple of copies that should be periodically verified. The copies should be kept in different locations. Over and above that, you may want to keep your most crucial stuff on a hard drive as well -- ideally mirrored to another disk that is ideally in a different system.
I'm not quite that rigorous myself. However, I do store all my data on disk a mirror it to another system on my home network and periodically burn data directories to CD-R. I don't have an off-site backup (keep saying I'll stash some CD-R's in my office) and I don't go back to verify my CD-R's (but probably have enough different copies that anything important could probably be recovered from something.)
>you'll have the home consumer trying to back up all his photos to CD
Actually, I think this is a pretty optimistic view. The average consumer has little or no real understanding of backup discipline. More and more data and state is getting stored on hard drives in the form of digital images, music, etc. with NO backups of any kind. Suddenly one day all the pictures of little Johnny growing up get wiped out with the crash of a disk head. To be sure, there are probably prints of the better pictures nd maybe that's all most people really need. But as more and more information is stored digitally even at the individual consumer level, the issue of backup increasingly needs to be addressed better than it is being addressed.
This question has been danced around a bit on this topic and is covered only in a very general way on Red Hat's web site, so let me try it here.
What if one has a Red Hat 7.1 with Ximian and wants to go to a straight Red Hat 7.2 without Ximian? Red Hat's website makes reference to removing Ximian GNOME -- but we've heard elsewhere on this topic that removing all Ximian packages is a no-no. Which packages exactly ought to be removed to make the install go smoothly?
It's not different (and it is). I have a home-built "media server" that I didn't pay all that much more for than this toy and it's got a pair of RAID 1 mirrored 45GB drives. (It'll be interesting to see what happens when all these stateful consumer electronic toys start to die and lose state -- a new concept -- but I digress.)
What IS different are two main things. Streamlined usability for the computerphobes and better form factor/noise/etc. for the entertainment center. The big downsides of my homebuilt "media center" are it doesn't fit in my stereo cabinet and it's too loud.