The A-1 takes the AE-1 one better. You ought to be able to do this on ebay. The A-1 is the big brother to the AE-1 with a choice of shutter or speed priority, plus auto and full manual. The AE-1, in contrast, has just one of those priorities (I forget which one). There are a few more bells and whistles on the A-1 as well. It takes the same lenses. In my opinion one of the best SLR's ever made, long outdated but never excelled. I went to a Nikon digital myself (Coolpix 5700), but will always remember many good years with the A-1
Reminds me of my neighbor, Richard Abrams, who is in the paper distribution business (which is huge). He owns West Coast Paper company. His big, yellow trucks ply I-5 all ove rthe place. I was buying for my org, so I asked Dick for a discount.
"Sure!" he said. "How big a discount do you want?"
"You mean I get to choose?" I asked. Wow! Nice neighbor. It must pay to know people in high places.
"Sure!" he said again. "You tell me what discount you want, then I'll tell you the retail price!"
The whole issue begs the question of the advertisements themselves, which are largely insipid, at best. I like being entertained by a good ad! Make it funny. Have some good production values, and I'll be happy to watch it. Bang me over the head with a hammer ten times per hour and I'll fast forward through it. I have a "TiVo-like" system (Dish Network), and if the ads are good, I let them roll.
And maybe this was a typical result of being slashdotted. Don't you kind of EXPECT a server subject to the most recent slashdot story to be having trouble keeping up with a sudden and unexpected increase in load?
Yeah, but you used to. If you're my age and Canadian, you still resent the strong-arm jack boot forced imposition of metric onto an unwilling Canadian populace. Furthermore, you will NEVER really understand how hot or cold 20 degrees Centigrade (Oops!, I mean 'Celsius') is!
Fundamentalists said the same thing about the barcode 20 years ago. I work in a library where we implemented barcode technology in, umm, 1983. Several people demanded that their names be dis-associated with any barcode because that was clearly the sign of the beast as foretold in the Bible. Thus they could check out no books, thus remaining ignorant, which, I suppose, was the whole point of the exercise.
It may be unusual, but I've had a Yahoo account for years and NEVER receieved any spam until they changed to their "Bulk Mail" folder system a short time ago. Now the spam just sits there and erases itself, so no big deal.
But I also received the policy change, checked my preferences, and found that ALL of them were STILL checked as "No" They made me look, but I didn't have to do anything but confirm everything was still set to "No"
Every time a carrier sails into port around here all the key-fob RFID systems fail at once. Everyone shows up at the car dealers claiming their doors won't open. I mean, really! I have to use my damn KEY instead of push the button! What a wretched inconvenience! The FCC gets involved and runs around the bay here in their fancy antenna vans trying to figure it out. Finally they suggest maybe the USN has something to do with it and there WAS that 90,000 tons of diplomacy just sailed in here, so just maybe.....
But, no. Of course not. Silly me. The Navy says, "Wha? Us? No way, man! Couldn't'a been us. We dunno!"/switch/
"Hey! I can get into my car again! Wasn't that just the strangest thing?"
Next Installment: What happens at 4:00 pm every day to our spread-spectrum Air LAN install that points straight across the shipyard.
I hate to point this out, but my daughter's house in Scripp's Ranch in San Diego just narrowly escaped completely burning down. She evacuated with her hard disk (smart thinking there, kid!). The place is uninhabitable with smoke damage. How the fire went around that cul de sac is just amazing.
The point is: 8 computers in the house won't help diddly in a real disaster. That's a lot of work just to see it burn up. (I know it will never happen to you; it was 2,000 other houses that burned to the foundation.
And further, I've had two RAID systems go TU in the last few years. For me RAID doesn't cut it at all. Distributed File System works pretty cool--but so does a fire safe.
Pet Peeve #843287: SUV drivers that whine about the price of gas. You bought that overpriced penis extension, learn to live with the consequences.
You know, I used to think that and I still agree with you about the whining part. But I rode in my son-in-law's Suburban a few times. We have two grandkids. They *must* (by Law) be placed in these monster kid's car seats. That takes up th emiddle row of seats. My wife and daugther sit in the back seats so that's full: they're small. U sguys sit in the front. That's six people. There's a small cargo space, filled with strollers, diaper bags, and our luggage from the airport. There is quite literally no more room in that SUV/car. None.
Now, we could have taken two cars which got a lot better mileage, but, then, we'd have to divide by two and guess what. The Suburban gets better mileage than the two other cars combined.
You want me to stick everyone in a Subaru Outback? No thanks, buddy. The last one I saw crunched everybody died. But hey! It was an ecological death.
So my plea is not to diss SUVs in general. In some cases, they make a lot of sense.
I seem to remember when Apple did exactly the same thing, donating hardware and software to schools. It was a 'good thing' and ever so clever marketing (Remember the Black Apple for education?) From about 1978 or so an entire generation of elementary and secondary school children were inundated with Apple this and Apple that. The educational market, at least in my state, was absolutely and completely dominated by Apple--no question. You couldn't walk into a school without encountering Apple, Viscalc, and even Zardax (Does ANYONE but me remember Zardax (Australian word processor)?
But those kids are now in their twenties and thirties and Apple now has what? 3% of the market? Somehow Apple invested in this sure thing and it didn't work out.
Over 20 years ago I introduced the first personal computer to the organization, an Apple II. That was 1979. I started with Visicalc, the Data Factory, and a weird word processor called Zardax. Life was good. I added several more Apple II's for a couple of years. Ultimately, I stuck a CP/M card in the first Apple and used dBase II to automate payroll and accounts payable. Yeah, I had to move to III to get more than two tables, but the sucker ran for years. In fact, an Intel version STILL RUNS for another organization I gave it to. It's had a fifteen year run!
Then IBM came out. Apple competed with IBM head to head--same price. However, the clones came in under: $700 for an 8088. Then my mainframe vendor decided to do a backup system onto 5-1/4" floppies, and chose Intel. Then my service bureau changed from Hazeltine Modular One dumb terminals to an emulation package (3270, I think) -- based on Intel. The dye was cast. It was just a matter of time.
We didn't have much money, but the basic math was this: Buy two Intels or one Apple. My goal was to get a computer on the desk of every employee. I chose Intel for monetary reasons.
Now I have two PCs for every employee. Dell "sticks it to me" for $700 a PC with the O/S, a meg of RAM, and a ridiculously huge hard disk. But it's easy. I get office for $50 bucks a pop. The guys browse the web. They still telnet. They don't really need anything else. Maybe the Art Dept could use Macs, but I'll tell you what. They all run Pagemaker and Freehand, so what's the big deal?
Point: I started out a loyal Apple user. They had to work hard to get me to change to Intel. I resisted at first, but they finally won. I left, and neither I, nor my organization, will ever look back. It's really too bad. The quest for high margins and a bit of greed did Apple in, and THAT's why their market share ever dwindles. I'm really sorry, but I've gota business to run.
I don't think so. It is already known that Microsoft cut a deal with them, so it couldn't be new news. If SCO is really touting their MS agreement AGAIN, then we know for certain no one else has ante'd up.
Here's what's happened. A long time ago the people of California, in their infinite wisdom, voted in something called "Proposition 13." Otherwise known as the "welcome, neighbor" law. This instantly created huge disparities in property taxes. For people wanting tax relief, it gave it in spades by freezing property taxes. For people moving to the fine state of California, "welcome, neighbor!" Your taxes are based on the price you paid, regardless that your neighbor in an indentical house pays 1/4th as much. (Bear in mind, please, that this fellow's net worth has increased dramatically. Sell your million dollar bungalow these days and move to Washington State waterfront with enough left over to retire.
It seemed like such a good idea at the time. But social services were cut. Libraries, for example, were decimated and whaddyaknow, the so-calledd "quality of life" began to deteriorate. (But hey! You lifers' property taxes are low, so to hell with your neighbors!)
So what did the government do? Began to rely on income tax. With the 90's boom the (state) government stayed afloat on dot-commers' riches for a few more years. Then the bust.
Now the chickens are home to roost. This has nothing to do with Davis. He inherited this mess caused by the voters when Proposition 13 was passed many years ago. But the *Voters* take no responsibility for the mess they created. They voted Prop 13 in; they vote Davis out. Somehow, they see no connection.
If elected, you will also inherit this mess. What will you do to educate voters to being citizens of the state instead of citizens of their own plot of land? How will you teach voters that word that is so hard to say, Responsibility?
Sure, I agree about the money, but it's also about whining. Are you a political threat? You sure are. You make your $80K and whine that you're exploited, mis-treated, screwed-over, and your boss is Dilbert's boss. You want your employer to give you a lifetimne job, but you can quit any time on two week's notice. If you take an additional breath beyond the quota you've established, you want overtime.
And then we have to listen to you tell us how you're the universe's great gift to your employer because you know how to initilize a variable and by God you've forgotten more about programming than I will ever know.
At least the guys in India are thankful for the opportunity.
"Oh, dear! This American programmer says I can't use this software, so I guess I'll just have to leave it alone! Darn these modified GPL licenses anyway. What's this world coming to? These programmer types just have too much power. Now I can't do what I want to."
I wrote an entire accounts payable/payroll program which was run by six different organizations for over ten years and accounted for 1/4 billion dollars over that time--in dBase. It had many dozens of tables and thousands of lines of code, but it 'wasn't a real program.'
My guess is Symantec did no such thing. They said the same thing about Nimda. I was one of the first sites hit by Nimda. Why we were at the 'cutting edge' I don't know. (God, memories of that day are flooding back!) We knew what it was within minutes of getting hit. It was a full 24 hours before Symantec had a patch, but they claimed later they were on top of it right away and claimed they had a patch out the day before they really did. I was monitoring the site every few minutes for a clean up tool and I know darn well they weren't ready when they said they were. The first day of Nimda our eradication efforts were totally manual. We lost three servers completely and it took us more than a week to fully recover. Thank goodness we just happened to be paying attention that morning. It could have been a lot worse. I hate to think what would have happened if we'd got hit at night.
A team of I.B.M. researchers plans to report on what would be the world's smallest transistor when they deliver a research paper this week at the annual International Electronic Device Meeting opening here on Monday.
The researchers said the advance would help ensure that the semiconductor industry could fulfill its performance projections through at least 2016. Source: NYT
Close Encounters of the Worst Kind
on
Spielberg's Taken
·
· Score: 1
Spielberg had nothing to do with Taken other than letting his name be used. If it wasn't, no one would watch this stuff. It has ten (yes, as in 10) directors. The first did "Dante's Peak." The second, Breck Eisner, is famous for two things: The Budweiser power surge commercial and being the spawn of Disney's Michael Eisner.
To use the term "character" or "plot" are more fairly applied to Barney than this flick. But, hey! If you like Barney and your daily soaps, you're bound to go ga ga on this trash. Rock on, dudes.
My truck is designed to take E-85 (85% ethanol; 15% gasoline). It is my understanding that this is available in the midwest. In my area it doesn't get more than 10%. Can anyone confirm availability of E85 anywhere?
Several comments to the original suggest that "as soon as things get better" folks will be leaving in droves because they are under-appreciated, over-worked, blah, blah, blah.
Where are you all going to go? Will you be filling positions vacated by others for the same reasons you left your position? Do you think better economic times will suddenly germinate new companies who will better pander to your needs?
Something has to change about this picture, particularly if you see the same thing at more than one location. The only constant variable there is you. Things WILL get better--when you realize no one else in the world really cares whether you know Linux.
If you read the entire letter, not just the juicy bits posted here, you might notice this is a reply to a letter we haven't read. My guess is the original was belligerent, accusative, haranguing, and likely with erroneous facts. I don't know that for a fact; these are my suspicions. **IF** this is true then I say kudos to the Deutsch for slapping this idiot back into his cave. Having a bit of experience with the German psyche I judge them to be very much like Americans in that when they get into this 'customer is always right' pose neither group is particularly polite or reasonable. I've worked in an organization where "customer service" is presented with enough religious fervor to cause projectile vomiting. Employees on the front lines are forced to be flak catchers and subservient to anyone with a bitch and an attitude. Sorry, but the world doesn't revolve around these self-important masturabatory a**holes. To have someone stand up to these guidos is a breath of fresh air. If I can't do it myself, then I can at least enjoy this letter vicariously. Hooray!
Slashdot Mirror
The A-1 takes the AE-1 one better. You ought to be able to do this on ebay. The A-1 is the big brother to the AE-1 with a choice of shutter or speed priority, plus auto and full manual. The AE-1, in contrast, has just one of those priorities (I forget which one). There are a few more bells and whistles on the A-1 as well. It takes the same lenses. In my opinion one of the best SLR's ever made, long outdated but never excelled. I went to a Nikon digital myself (Coolpix 5700), but will always remember many good years with the A-1
Reminds me of my neighbor, Richard Abrams, who is in the paper distribution business (which is huge). He owns West Coast Paper company. His big, yellow trucks ply I-5 all ove rthe place. I was buying for my org, so I asked Dick for a discount.
"Sure!" he said. "How big a discount do you want?"
"You mean I get to choose?" I asked. Wow! Nice neighbor. It must pay to know people in high places.
"Sure!" he said again. "You tell me what discount you want, then I'll tell you the retail price!"
Guess there's a reason he's still in business.
The whole issue begs the question of the advertisements themselves, which are largely insipid, at best. I like being entertained by a good ad! Make it funny. Have some good production values, and I'll be happy to watch it. Bang me over the head with a hammer ten times per hour and I'll fast forward through it. I have a "TiVo-like" system (Dish Network), and if the ads are good, I let them roll.
And maybe this was a typical result of being slashdotted. Don't you kind of EXPECT a server subject to the most recent slashdot story to be having trouble keeping up with a sudden and unexpected increase in load?
Yeah, but you used to. If you're my age and Canadian, you still resent the strong-arm jack boot forced imposition of metric onto an unwilling Canadian populace. Furthermore, you will NEVER really understand how hot or cold 20 degrees Centigrade (Oops!, I mean 'Celsius') is!
Fundamentalists said the same thing about the barcode 20 years ago. I work in a library where we implemented barcode technology in, umm, 1983. Several people demanded that their names be dis-associated with any barcode because that was clearly the sign of the beast as foretold in the Bible. Thus they could check out no books, thus remaining ignorant, which, I suppose, was the whole point of the exercise.
It may be unusual, but I've had a Yahoo account for years and NEVER receieved any spam until they changed to their "Bulk Mail" folder system a short time ago. Now the spam just sits there and erases itself, so no big deal.
But I also received the policy change, checked my preferences, and found that ALL of them were STILL checked as "No" They made me look, but I didn't have to do anything but confirm everything was still set to "No"
Every time a carrier sails into port around here all the key-fob RFID systems fail at once. Everyone shows up at the car dealers claiming their doors won't open. I mean, really! I have to use my damn KEY instead of push the button! What a wretched inconvenience! The FCC gets involved and runs around the bay here in their fancy antenna vans trying to figure it out. Finally they suggest maybe the USN has something to do with it and there WAS that 90,000 tons of diplomacy just sailed in here, so just maybe.....
/switch/
But, no. Of course not. Silly me. The Navy says, "Wha? Us? No way, man! Couldn't'a been us. We dunno!"
"Hey! I can get into my car again! Wasn't that just the strangest thing?"
Next Installment: What happens at 4:00 pm every day to our spread-spectrum Air LAN install that points straight across the shipyard.
"Hey, computer room! We're down again!"
I hate to point this out, but my daughter's house in Scripp's Ranch in San Diego just narrowly escaped completely burning down. She evacuated with her hard disk (smart thinking there, kid!). The place is uninhabitable with smoke damage. How the fire went around that cul de sac is just amazing.
The point is: 8 computers in the house won't help diddly in a real disaster. That's a lot of work just to see it burn up. (I know it will never happen to you; it was 2,000 other houses that burned to the foundation.
And further, I've had two RAID systems go TU in the last few years. For me RAID doesn't cut it at all. Distributed File System works pretty cool--but so does a fire safe.
Pet Peeve #843287: SUV drivers that whine about the price of gas. You bought that overpriced penis extension, learn to live with the consequences.
You know, I used to think that and I still agree with you about the whining part. But I rode in my son-in-law's Suburban a few times. We have two grandkids. They *must* (by Law) be placed in these monster kid's car seats. That takes up th emiddle row of seats. My wife and daugther sit in the back seats so that's full: they're small. U sguys sit in the front. That's six people. There's a small cargo space, filled with strollers, diaper bags, and our luggage from the airport. There is quite literally no more room in that SUV/car. None.
Now, we could have taken two cars which got a lot better mileage, but, then, we'd have to divide by two and guess what. The Suburban gets better mileage than the two other cars combined.
You want me to stick everyone in a Subaru Outback? No thanks, buddy. The last one I saw crunched everybody died. But hey! It was an ecological death.
So my plea is not to diss SUVs in general. In some cases, they make a lot of sense.
I seem to remember when Apple did exactly the same thing, donating hardware and software to schools. It was a 'good thing' and ever so clever marketing (Remember the Black Apple for education?) From about 1978 or so an entire generation of elementary and secondary school children were inundated with Apple this and Apple that. The educational market, at least in my state, was absolutely and completely dominated by Apple--no question. You couldn't walk into a school without encountering Apple, Viscalc, and even Zardax (Does ANYONE but me remember Zardax (Australian word processor)?
But those kids are now in their twenties and thirties and Apple now has what? 3% of the market? Somehow Apple invested in this sure thing and it didn't work out.
Over 20 years ago I introduced the first personal computer to the organization, an Apple II. That was 1979. I started with Visicalc, the Data Factory, and a weird word processor called Zardax. Life was good. I added several more Apple II's for a couple of years. Ultimately, I stuck a CP/M card in the first Apple and used dBase II to automate payroll and accounts payable. Yeah, I had to move to III to get more than two tables, but the sucker ran for years. In fact, an Intel version STILL RUNS for another organization I gave it to. It's had a fifteen year run!
Then IBM came out. Apple competed with IBM head to head--same price. However, the clones came in under: $700 for an 8088. Then my mainframe vendor decided to do a backup system onto 5-1/4" floppies, and chose Intel. Then my service bureau changed from Hazeltine Modular One dumb terminals to an emulation package (3270, I think) -- based on Intel. The dye was cast. It was just a matter of time.
We didn't have much money, but the basic math was this: Buy two Intels or one Apple. My goal was to get a computer on the desk of every employee. I chose Intel for monetary reasons.
Now I have two PCs for every employee. Dell "sticks it to me" for $700 a PC with the O/S, a meg of RAM, and a ridiculously huge hard disk. But it's easy. I get office for $50 bucks a pop. The guys browse the web. They still telnet. They don't really need anything else. Maybe the Art Dept could use Macs, but I'll tell you what. They all run Pagemaker and Freehand, so what's the big deal?
Point: I started out a loyal Apple user. They had to work hard to get me to change to Intel. I resisted at first, but they finally won. I left, and neither I, nor my organization, will ever look back. It's really too bad. The quest for high margins and a bit of greed did Apple in, and THAT's why their market share ever dwindles. I'm really sorry, but I've gota business to run.
I don't think so. It is already known that Microsoft cut a deal with them, so it couldn't be new news. If SCO is really touting their MS agreement AGAIN, then we know for certain no one else has ante'd up.
Here's what's happened. A long time ago the people of California, in their infinite wisdom, voted in something called "Proposition 13." Otherwise known as the "welcome, neighbor" law. This instantly created huge disparities in property taxes. For people wanting tax relief, it gave it in spades by freezing property taxes. For people moving to the fine state of California, "welcome, neighbor!" Your taxes are based on the price you paid, regardless that your neighbor in an indentical house pays 1/4th as much. (Bear in mind, please, that this fellow's net worth has increased dramatically. Sell your million dollar bungalow these days and move to Washington State waterfront with enough left over to retire.
It seemed like such a good idea at the time. But social services were cut. Libraries, for example, were decimated and whaddyaknow, the so-calledd "quality of life" began to deteriorate. (But hey! You lifers' property taxes are low, so to hell with your neighbors!)
So what did the government do? Began to rely on income tax. With the 90's boom the (state) government stayed afloat on dot-commers' riches for a few more years. Then the bust.
Now the chickens are home to roost. This has nothing to do with Davis. He inherited this mess caused by the voters when Proposition 13 was passed many years ago. But the *Voters* take no responsibility for the mess they created. They voted Prop 13 in; they vote Davis out. Somehow, they see no connection.
If elected, you will also inherit this mess. What will you do to educate voters to being citizens of the state instead of citizens of their own plot of land? How will you teach voters that word that is so hard to say, Responsibility?
Sure, I agree about the money, but it's also about whining. Are you a political threat? You sure are. You make your $80K and whine that you're exploited, mis-treated, screwed-over, and your boss is Dilbert's boss. You want your employer to give you a lifetimne job, but you can quit any time on two week's notice. If you take an additional breath beyond the quota you've established, you want overtime.
And then we have to listen to you tell us how you're the universe's great gift to your employer because you know how to initilize a variable and by God you've forgotten more about programming than I will ever know.
At least the guys in India are thankful for the opportunity.
Goodness, gracious, Great balls of fire!
"Oh, dear! This American programmer says I can't use this software, so I guess I'll just have to leave it alone! Darn these modified GPL licenses anyway. What's this world coming to? These programmer types just have too much power. Now I can't do what I want to."
What, you think RFID tags are invisible or something? Take off the #$%@ tag!
I wrote an entire accounts payable/payroll program which was run by six different organizations for over ten years and accounted for 1/4 billion dollars over that time--in dBase. It had many dozens of tables and thousands of lines of code, but it 'wasn't a real program.'
My guess is Symantec did no such thing. They said the same thing about Nimda. I was one of the first sites hit by Nimda. Why we were at the 'cutting edge' I don't know. (God, memories of that day are flooding back!) We knew what it was within minutes of getting hit. It was a full 24 hours before Symantec had a patch, but they claimed later they were on top of it right away and claimed they had a patch out the day before they really did. I was monitoring the site every few minutes for a clean up tool and I know darn well they weren't ready when they said they were. The first day of Nimda our eradication efforts were totally manual. We lost three servers completely and it took us more than a week to fully recover. Thank goodness we just happened to be paying attention that morning. It could have been a lot worse. I hate to think what would have happened if we'd got hit at night.
A team of I.B.M. researchers plans to report on what would be the world's smallest transistor when they deliver a research paper this week at the annual International Electronic Device Meeting opening here on Monday.
The researchers said the advance would help ensure that the semiconductor industry could fulfill its performance projections through at least 2016. Source: NYT
Spielberg had nothing to do with Taken other than letting his name be used. If it wasn't, no one would watch this stuff. It has ten (yes, as in 10) directors. The first did "Dante's Peak." The second, Breck Eisner, is famous for two things: The Budweiser power surge commercial and being the spawn of Disney's Michael Eisner. To use the term "character" or "plot" are more fairly applied to Barney than this flick. But, hey! If you like Barney and your daily soaps, you're bound to go ga ga on this trash. Rock on, dudes.
My truck is designed to take E-85 (85% ethanol; 15% gasoline). It is my understanding that this is available in the midwest. In my area it doesn't get more than 10%. Can anyone confirm availability of E85 anywhere?
Several comments to the original suggest that "as soon as things get better" folks will be leaving in droves because they are under-appreciated, over-worked, blah, blah, blah.
Where are you all going to go? Will you be filling positions vacated by others for the same reasons you left your position? Do you think better economic times will suddenly germinate new companies who will better pander to your needs?
Something has to change about this picture, particularly if you see the same thing at more than one location. The only constant variable there is you. Things WILL get better--when you realize no one else in the world really cares whether you know Linux.
If you read the entire letter, not just the juicy bits posted here, you might notice this is a reply to a letter we haven't read. My guess is the original was belligerent, accusative, haranguing, and likely with erroneous facts. I don't know that for a fact; these are my suspicions. **IF** this is true then I say kudos to the Deutsch for slapping this idiot back into his cave. Having a bit of experience with the German psyche I judge them to be very much like Americans in that when they get into this 'customer is always right' pose neither group is particularly polite or reasonable. I've worked in an organization where "customer service" is presented with enough religious fervor to cause projectile vomiting. Employees on the front lines are forced to be flak catchers and subservient to anyone with a bitch and an attitude. Sorry, but the world doesn't revolve around these self-important masturabatory a**holes. To have someone stand up to these guidos is a breath of fresh air. If I can't do it myself, then I can at least enjoy this letter vicariously. Hooray!