If american industry keeps shipping Jobs to foreign countires, there will be no rich Americans to pay for those products. Easy-peasy. They are sacrificing the future of our country for the momentary gain. Good for India, bad for us.
Of course, it's all us Americans who are at fault for organizing Unions and the like and elevating the plight of the worker. If you all can get ahead by being exploited, more(less?) power to ya.
Regardless of Sendo's complaint, it still falls under the count your fingers after shaking hands with Ballmer thread of Microsoft's past. Perhaps the claims are baseless, but you are still looking at another small company blasted by the Death Star.
The flip side of this is how many of us would have heard of Sendo if not for this?? I'm starting to wonder if the next wave of tech start-ups shouldn't just keep suing each other to generate headlines with their names in 90 point helvetica.
Perhaps these companies have been smoking too much of the wacky weed... I leave you with a quote from Frank Black: "alone with the beast and my skull choppers now i'm just a name dropper and i'm bust in these deep slumberweeds stone was in me"
No, they remove the RF filter and this is what renders th cable TV inoperative. The real trick is to see what the part number is for the RF filter they left on the cable modem jack and get a duplicate.
In many areas, they cannot turn on Cable Modem service without turning on Basic cable. That's why many times the cable companies act like you can only get broadband if you have basic cable.
I personally made the switch to DirecTV last year... I wish there was a third option. The no local channel B.S. with DirecTV is the major drawback to the service. I ended up getting a smart card programmer and hacking the system so I could get ABC. Total BS.
Cable TV should be regulated like a utility. In many cities they will not even allow for another cable carrier to run wire. This strikes me as the very essence of a utility. In saner times, the Cable companies would be acting as a utility. Only in our corrupt age we deregulate and give them more freedom.
but, by the time you get to 1000-2000 servers in 3 data centers in 3 countries on three continents... those two guys and a perl book aren't going to be very affective...
Those two guys and a perl book could probably have a management and monitoring solution for that enterprise by the time a P.O. gets filled out and the Commercial management software is configured.
It is not hard to program a network monitor. I have written them in TCL/TK and Perl. SNMP does most of the work. The only real benefit to products like open-view is that the vendor support gives them more options with network hardware.
If all this is really giving you trouble, I'll let you know my rates.
Clue to Nine... This is not for watching DVD's! Really. The DVD player does, guess what, plays DVD's. It can also hook to your PC to play MP3's, show JPG's, and possibly even DIVX files.
"The only people who'd like this would be uber-geeks" No, the Uber-Geeks already have one. The Uber-Geeks build a computer to go with every TV so that they can do what this $250 consumer device can.
"(since most people don't rip DVD's onto hard drives, and the few who do are pretty stupid), " Then who ripped all of the DVD's available on Gnutella?? Why is ripping a DVD to your HD a bad idea?? The same could be said for MP3's using your logic. "nobody rips CD's to their HDD, and those who do are stupid."
I have Kids, Kids destroy DVD's. I rip my DVD's to the HDD and then burn them to SVCD. This alone has saved me two extra purchases of Snow White. Now when you figure that Disney DVD's only enjoy limited release, this also means that I can rip DVD's rented at Blockbuster, borrowed from a friend, etc... In many cases after the DVD/Video has ceased to be available. (And it also means that I would not have purchased Snow White again, We simply would not have that movie anymore. My daughter's favorite movie.)
I also have recorded lick videos and teaching tapes. It is much easier to use them (as they are networked) split them up into individual licks, rewind and fast-forward, etc...
Quite frankly, what other means do you have of backing up the content of a DVD?? Now, if you think back-ups are stupid, then I am simply arguing with a moron. Or perhaps you think Ceasar should get another 20 sheckles every time a DVD gets scratched, or a VCR eats a tape.
The fact that you see no use for this product is a symptom of your limited imagination, not a failure to deliver a desirable feature. Had you read the article, it has ethernet (which most people do have on their PC's.) and wireless is an option.
"money to blow on huge hard drives to store movies, broadband to download those movies" Yep, who could afford it?? This HDD would only store some 1,000 movies in DIVX format. For shame. That's after we leave room for WinXP. One would need the resources of a Bill Gates to have an IDE RAID of these...
1,000 DVD @ $15ea. = $15,000
Really though, I can't even think of 1,000 movies I'd like to keep. But I have all the Mr. Show, South Park, and Duckman episodes. Much of this simply is not available on DVD.
As far as broadband, if you don't have it yet, please turn in your geek keys on the way out. I would keep Broadband just for the always on connection. Subtract the cost of a second phone line, etc...
So, for the Joe who has his TV hooked to his stereo, and the crappy OEM Labtec speakers still on his PC, this might be a good product for him to listen to his MP3's on his stereo, show vacation snaps from his digital camera to his friends, or even show the AVI of his wedding on the TV.
None of this requires Broadband or a Huge HDD. But most people unaccustomed to creating any thought or content of their own generally see devices like this as a tool for only enjoying others creative output.
Again, read the article before you post. I'm not even sure that this thing will play a DVD across the network, why would you need that when the darn thing is a DVD player??
You might be interested in the way he thinks and feels because this is the primary determining factor in his performance.
Reading a scene from a book, you envision it one way, someone else sees something totally different. The way that William Shatner thought and felt about Cpt. Kirk influenced the way he played him, and subsequently how we felt about Kirk.
That being said, I cannot believe that neither of you are willing to pony up some writing cred for Shatner... He did write the Tek-War series. (as bad as it was....)
There may be no reason for Sauron to run, but if you are the invader, you cannot simply make that assumption. If sauron books out a back exit, the trilogy runs to 6 books.
Re:This doesn't sound like a very good simulator
on
Old Age Simulator
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· Score: 3, Insightful
Really, In my old age I plan to have sufered a car accident leaving me paralyzed from the waist down. Will this simulate that??
It would be nice if our joints stiffened on a predictable schedule. If we all had arthritis with the same severity at the same age.
I can understand where this might aid in usability studies and the like (of course, you could just hire 75 year olds to test products) but I worry that statements like Julia's could have the opposite effect. The young believeing that every elderly person is some sort of invalid. Statements such as "I could barely buy a rail ticket" implies that anyone over the age of 60 is incapable of being fit and lively.
Heck, why not design a suit that simulates being thirtyish. Give everyone a bad back, too little sleep, make the joints in the suit pop incessantly between 8:00 and 9:00 in the morning. Put twenty pounds in the thighs and belly of the suit, and small needles in the ass to simulate your newly found irritable bowel and hemorroids. A visor that slightly blurrs the vision to simulate staring at a monitor all day and that monday hangover you get from trying to prove you can still party. Same pins in the hand to simulate your carpal tunnel.
"I couldn't even ride a bike!" says Julia, 18. "After sitting for 8 hours in that office chair staring at a monitor, My back hurt too bad, and the bike seat aggrivated my Hemmoroids." Another user concluded "I couldn't even buy a rail ticket. My eyes were exhausted from staring into a CRT all day, I couldn't read the schedule, and benefits and taxes consumed so much of my pay check that I could barely afford the rail anyway."
The Thirty-something suit should also include a 25 lb. weight that is strapped on the chest when they get home to simulate their children.
I guess as much as we know that this is not every thirty year old, we should realize that the "Old Suit" is not every elderly person. Also, we need to realize that over time you become accustomed to your joints becoming stiff, you eyesight fading. To have it happen in 30 seconds as opposed to 30 years is bound to have a more drastic effect.
Have some pity on a noob who can't tell the difference between the X system and a Windowmanager. (If he used Gnome you'd be explaining what a desktop environment is.)
I mostly use Blackbox and TWM. I guess you could say I have no response problems. I also don't have full fledged clipboard, etc., etc., etc...
Quite frankly, I don't think someone groomed on windows would ever feel comfortable in Blackbox. There are simply some usability issues. Windows users have never experienced a computer that doesn't have some of the conveniences of a Win system. They'd be confused by the desktop, a lack of filemanager. (Ok, native fm....)
I have always found KDE to be painfully slow. On a 500MHz box with 256 Ram it was unusable for me. Windows has KDE hands down as far as I'm concerned. When you figure that KDE has emulated Windows to the point of even having the same inconsistancies and annoyances (the friggin' start/k menu...) The slightly improved speed and responsiveness of Win 98 or better is well worth it. Gnome is a productivity sink.
Linux certainly has shown that geeks know jack and crap about interfaces.
Aside from this essentially being an advertorial, there remains the fact that he presents a problem, (kindof) and then presents no solution.
Auto Mechanics, tired of only being appreciated when that car breaks?? Try fixing it before it breaks! Don't ask how.
Firemen, tired of only being appreciated when someone rams a plane into a building?? Try just driving around town hosing everything down.
Now, lets talk "DataCentre Management tools". My experience is this: You need to hire two extra geeks just to get it running, It never really works that well, and spending that money of some clustering and a good perl guru would have a more drastic effect on your uptime. I personally don't have a Unix box that has not maintained 5 9's in availability over the last 4 years. I have a few NT servers that can boast the same.
Products like these are only supposed to appeal to the shirts in a business. You know, the same guys who get freaky about "free" software.
When I met my wife, she was a medical wreck. A sufferer of Type II diabetes since she was 8, her blood sugars were always off, she was underweight, listless, etc.
Now my diet is one that makes most GP's cringe. I live off of cheesesteaks, hot dogs, etc. High fat, med carb, high protein. Add to that that I am very sensitive to Antibiotics, and I can not eat farm raised poultry and fish. So, it's red meat for me.
Of course, my wife ended up adopting my diet after time, and her cholesterol is down, her blood sugars are normal, and she has achieved her target weight. Her doctor asked what she had been doing, and when she explained "Eating alot of Cheeseburgers" he refused to believe it.
The problem with modern science is that it is based on too many antique fallacies. Much like the 10th century monk never thought about germs because GOD caused disease... When the devil didn't. Most of Einstein's later work was highly speculative musings on extra-dimensions and trans-dimensional physics. Most of his conclusions cannot be verified, and those that can have shown anomolies.
This however, does not mean that super-string theory isn't still the basis for most high level physics research. Indeed, disagreeing with super-string theory is enough to convince many universities that you don't belong in their program. Gee, I always thought it was religion that placed so much importance on blind faith.
Cut the strings! Physics doesn't demand Any vibrating band Of string.
I won't step in your noose I don't believe in your loops Of string.
Demenchuk "Cut the strings" - From "A 5th dimension of Beethoven"
Naw, I want one... With wireless in the office, this would be too incredible. The only thing is this: How would it interact with a terminal window. I'm not about to tap in "xp21_verify -s images@images1 -n FN" all day long.
But hey, as a mobile tech taking notes, getting help desk reports, etc... I can see where this would be mega handy.
I have to say that as I trawl the web, I have simply stopped looking at ad banners. I get the general shape, peripherially notice some flashing or wahtever, and I ignore it.
Perhaps the FBI should use the dude's mug shot as a/. topic icon, I'd see it then...
Mafia: Give us money or we send in guys to beat you up. Government: Give us 28% of your income and do exactly as we say, or we send in guys to take you to jail, sieze all your property and assets, put your wife and children on the street, and then let guys in jail beat you up and gang rape you.
Actually, Microsoft would give a lot of power in the hands of Linus: a few touches here and there and it would be update nightmare for Microsoft to make sure that their interface runs on every new release of the kernel.....
Linux isn't done until WinX won't run?? I would certainly hope that this is not the case. For that matter, MS could release their own kernel and not have to worry about it. So long as they complied with the licensing and submitted changes and made the kernel and its source available via FTP, Linus can't stop them from doing anything but calling it Linux.
That's the point of Open Source. The EULA turns IP into a bludgeon, not the GPL.
As for the ability to profit, if 40% of the market turns to Linux, (as proposed in the report we are commenting on...) how many potential customers are there for Office on Linux??
Why would MS release a proprietary X?? Well, could be easier to port. No LGPL library issues to be concerned about, could only require minor changes to the actual Office codebase for porting. I think it is far fetched.
MS doesnt want control, it wants synergy. BIll G wants every consumer to need Office, so they have to have Windows, etc... If bill could get every consumer to walk out of a CompUSA with 1,000 $5 boxes or one $5,000 box, he wants them buying lots and lots of $5 boxes. (for $30...)
While I agree that CD's are over priced, there are far more that 4-10 hands that go into any CD. If you have a 4 piece band, you must have an engineer, at the very least. The engineer brings as much musical knowledge to the table as any of the musicians and has just as much influence on the final sound of the album.
The engineer then has his assistants who do the grunt work, and then the sound guys, etc... There are probably an average of 40 sets of hands on any modern commercial CD just from the artistic side. The biggest difference is there is no union like there is with film, so you don't see all of those names.
If you really can't figure out where those 40 names come from, ponder the best boy and gaffer positions. Or Assistant to 3 venezuelan llamas...
Vigilante justice is often seen when the law does not protect the common good.
I honestly do not think that you can call what happened "vigilante justice" as there was no physical harm done. I think this falls under vandalism, or practical jokery, and as such is most appropriate.
Indeed, perhaps this high profile case will highlight how harassing it can be to get on several catalogue lists. Many of us suffer through the same nonsense that he is because we shopped at Amazon, AOL, CDNOW, etc... and had our contact details sold and resold.
Let this Ralsky moron have a kid. You get junk mail like never before. I get 6-7 credit card offers a day! So what if he gets 300.... I get 4 viagra e-mails from him a day and he's proud of it.
Also, don't forget that this was the pig-happy guy who was looking at putting pop-ups right on your desktop by exploiting windows messenger. For that alone, I'd like to send a small army of door-to-door salesmen to his house.
I just hope they signed him up for telemarketing........
I agree totally with your comments. The others who have replied are apologists. This is too true. Even with all of the arguments for Sauron causing the battle to happen at Mordor, this does not explain why he would leave "The One Road" so lightly defended and scouted.
Also, even if his goal is capturing the Ring Bearer, why not lay siege to Minas Tirith?? You stand a good chance of uncovering the Ring Bearer in due time, you have the troops, you don't leave your enemies unhindered to plot against you. You either starve Minas Tirith or make the ring bearer show himself in their rescue.
I would think that under any circumstances I would at least have small patrols at each bridge. Not only for looking for the ring bearer, but for policing and taxation.
They also must be pretty sure that Sauron is too stupid to run. They do no work trying to make sure the area is secure. There is no intelligence gathering beyond a 1-2 night look over of the outside of the gates. Although I find it hard to believe that Sauron could be that stupid and old at the same time.
I guess that the real points are this: Tolkien was a linguist, not a strategist, and in his utopian society the evil lord doesn't even collect unjust taxes from public works like bridges.
The first rule in taking over any land is control the lanes and means of transportation. This restricts supply, etc. The second is to limit communication. Sauron does neither. The only good explanation is Hubris. Again, how can he be this stupid and old??
Yeah, but in the US they're no longer scandals. Here you tell someone that George Bush gave $661,000,000 from our taxes to GE to repay them for $4,000,000 in campaign contributions and they just shrug their shoulders like it's all just part of it.
Think about it.... The Enron scandal. GWB flew to every campaign stop on the Enron Corporate Jet. After the company falls apart, none of the national news can "draw a connection" between Ken Lay and GWB. Harken made the news briefly over here. None of our national news media has reported on the fact that Hamed Karzai was a consultant for the US (Oil) company Unocal right up until assuming the presidency of Afghanistan.
Just because we Americans think it's immoral doesn't mean we don't accept it like the good little sheep that we are.
For I'm proud to be an American, Where I'll always have gas 'Cause we sent all our teens To kick Afghani ass. And I'll gladly stand there next to you And steal Iraqui oil away Ain't no doubt he's got an evil plan.... God bless the USA
~Hammy
Re:I am sure I am not the only one bothered by thi
on
Human-Mouse Hybrids?
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· Score: 2
So your argument is: "We have been dabbling in areas we don't understand for a long, long time. Nothing bad has happened yet, heck, most of you aren't aware of the really troubling things we're doing. Don't get caught up in this moral miasma."
Why do we need to engineer mice to have human cells for experimentation?? Because human life is too precious?? What about Mouse life??
I am just tired of this idiot mentality that Human life takes some sort of precedence. This is the same mentality that led to Blacks and Indians not being considered "human". As long as they weren't "human" anything was OK. I'm not stealing a Human's land, I'm taking the land from these red animals that are everywhere.
Indeed, this is only even debatable because we have now added 1,000 human cells to that mouse. Is he now human enough that we should feel bad about killing him?? Is 0.01% human too human to experiment on?? I guess not, 3/5ths of a man can still be a slave.
And finally, the idea that we should have faith in scientists to do what is right... HaHaHa.... Please.... Don't insult us. I could point out the big villans of history, Your Mengeles, Dr. Burt, etc... But instead, I would like to point to one of the/. idols. Einstein was just doing science right?? Now we have Nuclear (GWB spelling) proliferation, and the sins of Nagasaki to remember. Indeed, most "science" is put to military use long before the general populous sees the benefits.
In fact, science is what leads these chicken hawks on Capitol hill to think we can go to war around the globe without hitting too hard on the home front. "Look, none of our guys get killed in this.... We have technology." Our (correct) belief that we have this huge edge in science both encourages our leaders to wage war, but conditions our population to accept it. I cannot help but wonder if we had lost 300,000 troops in Desert Storm, would we be as eager for the latest attack on Iraq?? (Note: 300,000 is the number of kurds that died in Desert Storm fighting for our side.)
Now, for the quotes:
"genetic engineering of food has the potential to solve or at least lessen the ongoing starvation of millions (while we continue to worry about whether we should upgrade to the latest video card...)." - Meanwhile, Farm Subsidies continue. We pay farmers not to grow too much food. Genetically engineered food is the answer?? No, genetic research on agricultural products has had a devastating effect on every farmer except the big corporate farms. Now, every strain of corn is copyright Monsanto, you can't plant anything without paying to a large American corporation. Read the recent stories on Golden Rice.
"to be a scientist is to revere life and the process of living above all else." - Unless that life is a mouse, rabbit, or other inferior species. I do note that in your entire post you don't mention the mice. You probably think I'm some soft-skulled liberal for even thinking of them. It would never occur to you that that mouse is as alive as you. No, you and most others are worried about the stem cells, a dead lump of human.
You want some subjects for experimentation?? Pull a Dr. Jekyl and use yourself.
I just plain think it is inhumane. I can't help think that in some distant future (or even distant past) that some other being was going "Hmmm, should we merge Atlantean stem cells with this monkey's bio-catalyst??" "Yeah, sure, what'll it hurt??"
Personally, I think we wouldn't even need to consider this if we just allowed human experimentation. Oh, wait, that's wrong....
They state that the problem was application, workstation level. The solution, install a second network. WTF?? If it really was a researcher at his workstation, disconnecting his station and possibly a reset of his hub and go. Problem solved, I'm back to finding out what shows are playing at Harvard Square this weekend.
Now, Fast forward 5 years when the network goes out like this again... If their past maintenance performance is any judge, I'll just assume they did not maintain quarterly testing of the secondary network (It's a pain in the butt, and Hospitals are 24 hour operations) and I'll bet it doesn't work when they need it. The extra switches and such might come in handy, but I'm positive that they could have achieved better reliability for the same money by spending in other areas.
For our 1,000 person operation, installing a second network would involve about 50-60 hubs, routers, switches, etc. Involve the extra telco racks, and running that cable, that's mighty frikken' expensive. We do have a backup for our backbone, but the entire thing?? Ewww....
So, TW acts as a middleman between artist and distributor, AOL acts as distributor... Why doesn't TW just buy Tower and Borders??
Time Warner can really begin to shaft their mid-tier distributors. This makes good sense.
Offer premimum content to flesh out your dead-tree subscribers and keep the normal content to show non-subscribers what they're missing. And I steadfastly refuse to pay for any content that is not ad-free. Period.
Often times the "work" that goes into coding is not the coding. As a developer on some very small projects I offer two methods: upfront payment, and extended payment. Upfront payment: 35$ per hour coding. ($135 ph. for work on-site) Flat. I don't show up to install, support, nothing. If you need my services afterwards, $135 hourly. (Normal Rates)
Extended Payment: Flat rate on the coding - pre-determined, with a 2 year maintenance contract at X amount.
If the customer owns the source, $85 ph. for coding, or the flat rate doubles for Extended.
I am assuming that once you have completed your analysis that your customers do not expect you to be available at 2:00 A.M. to discuss the facts in that report for up to five years after it's completion??
Since most business software is expensed as a two-three year amortization, the Extended payment option is doubly attractive businesses. Many small users are concerned about support, they get the maintenance specifically to avoid only being able to call 9AM. - 5PM.
In 4 years, I have written ~1000 scripts and small executables. I can think of three people who didn't get extended. I can also think of well over 50 people who paid me for support on freely available scripts around the web.
I think the point is this. Companies choose coders on esoteric qualities, support after the sale, reputation, cool logo or tagline, golfing buddies. But noone really looks at the code to see if you knew what you were doing. The worst thing they will do is call another coder to improve on the code you left behind. My reputation is built on fair pricing, good support, and meeting deadlines. The quality of my code does not even enter into a reason why a business would hire me. As long as it compiles that is....
I guess a good analogy is this: If cars were as unreliable as software, would you buy one if the dealership couldn't give you some reassurances that they could keep it running?? Your warranty provides that functionality. You pay for your warranty as part of the car. (In many cases 5 years after you take posession of the car.)
The same applies with those in store warranties. People want the piece of mind, and in software, more than anything. Heck, most software doesn't even promise to be serviceable upon reciept. Of course people want piece of mind.
Slashdot Mirror
If american industry keeps shipping Jobs to foreign countires, there will be no rich Americans to pay for those products. Easy-peasy. They are sacrificing the future of our country for the momentary gain. Good for India, bad for us.
Of course, it's all us Americans who are at fault for organizing Unions and the like and elevating the plight of the worker. If you all can get ahead by being exploited, more(less?) power to ya.
~Hammy
Regardless of Sendo's complaint, it still falls under the count your fingers after shaking hands with Ballmer thread of Microsoft's past. Perhaps the claims are baseless, but you are still looking at another small company blasted by the Death Star.
The flip side of this is how many of us would have heard of Sendo if not for this?? I'm starting to wonder if the next wave of tech start-ups shouldn't just keep suing each other to generate headlines with their names in 90 point helvetica.
Perhaps these companies have been smoking too much of the wacky weed... I leave you with a quote from Frank Black:
"alone with the beast and my skull choppers
now i'm just a name dropper
and i'm bust in these deep slumberweeds
stone was in me"
~Hammy
No, they remove the RF filter and this is what renders th cable TV inoperative. The real trick is to see what the part number is for the RF filter they left on the cable modem jack and get a duplicate.
In many areas, they cannot turn on Cable Modem service without turning on Basic cable. That's why many times the cable companies act like you can only get broadband if you have basic cable.
I personally made the switch to DirecTV last year... I wish there was a third option. The no local channel B.S. with DirecTV is the major drawback to the service. I ended up getting a smart card programmer and hacking the system so I could get ABC. Total BS.
Cable TV should be regulated like a utility. In many cities they will not even allow for another cable carrier to run wire. This strikes me as the very essence of a utility. In saner times, the Cable companies would be acting as a utility. Only in our corrupt age we deregulate and give them more freedom.
Sad.
~Hammy
but, by the time you get to 1000-2000 servers in 3 data centers in 3 countries on three continents... those two guys and a perl book aren't going to be very affective...
Those two guys and a perl book could probably have a management and monitoring solution for that enterprise by the time a P.O. gets filled out and the Commercial management software is configured.
It is not hard to program a network monitor. I have written them in TCL/TK and Perl. SNMP does most of the work. The only real benefit to products like open-view is that the vendor support gives them more options with network hardware.
If all this is really giving you trouble, I'll let you know my rates.
Glad I'm on your foes list...
Clue to Nine... This is not for watching DVD's! Really. The DVD player does, guess what, plays DVD's. It can also hook to your PC to play MP3's, show JPG's, and possibly even DIVX files.
"The only people who'd like this would be uber-geeks"
No, the Uber-Geeks already have one. The Uber-Geeks build a computer to go with every TV so that they can do what this $250 consumer device can.
"(since most people don't rip DVD's onto hard drives, and the few who do are pretty stupid), "
Then who ripped all of the DVD's available on Gnutella?? Why is ripping a DVD to your HD a bad idea?? The same could be said for MP3's using your logic. "nobody rips CD's to their HDD, and those who do are stupid."
I have Kids, Kids destroy DVD's. I rip my DVD's to the HDD and then burn them to SVCD. This alone has saved me two extra purchases of Snow White. Now when you figure that Disney DVD's only enjoy limited release, this also means that I can rip DVD's rented at Blockbuster, borrowed from a friend, etc... In many cases after the DVD/Video has ceased to be available. (And it also means that I would not have purchased Snow White again, We simply would not have that movie anymore. My daughter's favorite movie.)
I also have recorded lick videos and teaching tapes. It is much easier to use them (as they are networked) split them up into individual licks, rewind and fast-forward, etc...
Quite frankly, what other means do you have of backing up the content of a DVD?? Now, if you think back-ups are stupid, then I am simply arguing with a moron. Or perhaps you think Ceasar should get another 20 sheckles every time a DVD gets scratched, or a VCR eats a tape.
The fact that you see no use for this product is a symptom of your limited imagination, not a failure to deliver a desirable feature. Had you read the article, it has ethernet (which most people do have on their PC's.) and wireless is an option.
"money to blow on huge hard drives to store movies, broadband to download those movies"
Yep, who could afford it?? This HDD would only store some 1,000 movies in DIVX format. For shame. That's after we leave room for WinXP. One would need the resources of a Bill Gates to have an IDE RAID of these...
1,000 DVD @ $15ea. = $15,000
Really though, I can't even think of 1,000 movies I'd like to keep. But I have all the Mr. Show, South Park, and Duckman episodes. Much of this simply is not available on DVD.
As far as broadband, if you don't have it yet, please turn in your geek keys on the way out. I would keep Broadband just for the always on connection. Subtract the cost of a second phone line, etc...
So, for the Joe who has his TV hooked to his stereo, and the crappy OEM Labtec speakers still on his PC, this might be a good product for him to listen to his MP3's on his stereo, show vacation snaps from his digital camera to his friends, or even show the AVI of his wedding on the TV.
None of this requires Broadband or a Huge HDD. But most people unaccustomed to creating any thought or content of their own generally see devices like this as a tool for only enjoying others creative output.
Again, read the article before you post. I'm not even sure that this thing will play a DVD across the network, why would you need that when the darn thing is a DVD player??
~Hammy
You might be interested in the way he thinks and feels because this is the primary determining factor in his performance.
Reading a scene from a book, you envision it one way, someone else sees something totally different. The way that William Shatner thought and felt about Cpt. Kirk influenced the way he played him, and subsequently how we felt about Kirk.
That being said, I cannot believe that neither of you are willing to pony up some writing cred for Shatner... He did write the Tek-War series. (as bad as it was....)
~Jason
There may be no reason for Sauron to run, but if you are the invader, you cannot simply make that assumption. If sauron books out a back exit, the trilogy runs to 6 books.
Really, In my old age I plan to have sufered a car accident leaving me paralyzed from the waist down. Will this simulate that??
It would be nice if our joints stiffened on a predictable schedule. If we all had arthritis with the same severity at the same age.
I can understand where this might aid in usability studies and the like (of course, you could just hire 75 year olds to test products) but I worry that statements like Julia's could have the opposite effect. The young believeing that every elderly person is some sort of invalid. Statements such as "I could barely buy a rail ticket" implies that anyone over the age of 60 is incapable of being fit and lively.
Heck, why not design a suit that simulates being thirtyish. Give everyone a bad back, too little sleep, make the joints in the suit pop incessantly between 8:00 and 9:00 in the morning. Put twenty pounds in the thighs and belly of the suit, and small needles in the ass to simulate your newly found irritable bowel and hemorroids. A visor that slightly blurrs the vision to simulate staring at a monitor all day and that monday hangover you get from trying to prove you can still party. Same pins in the hand to simulate your carpal tunnel.
"I couldn't even ride a bike!" says Julia, 18. "After sitting for 8 hours in that office chair staring at a monitor, My back hurt too bad, and the bike seat aggrivated my Hemmoroids." Another user concluded "I couldn't even buy a rail ticket. My eyes were exhausted from staring into a CRT all day, I couldn't read the schedule, and benefits and taxes consumed so much of my pay check that I could barely afford the rail anyway."
The Thirty-something suit should also include a 25 lb. weight that is strapped on the chest when they get home to simulate their children.
I guess as much as we know that this is not every thirty year old, we should realize that the "Old Suit" is not every elderly person. Also, we need to realize that over time you become accustomed to your joints becoming stiff, you eyesight fading. To have it happen in 30 seconds as opposed to 30 years is bound to have a more drastic effect.
~Hammy
Dogun,
Have some pity on a noob who can't tell the difference between the X system and a Windowmanager. (If he used Gnome you'd be explaining what a desktop environment is.)
I mostly use Blackbox and TWM. I guess you could say I have no response problems. I also don't have full fledged clipboard, etc., etc., etc...
Quite frankly, I don't think someone groomed on windows would ever feel comfortable in Blackbox. There are simply some usability issues. Windows users have never experienced a computer that doesn't have some of the conveniences of a Win system. They'd be confused by the desktop, a lack of filemanager. (Ok, native fm....)
I have always found KDE to be painfully slow. On a 500MHz box with 256 Ram it was unusable for me. Windows has KDE hands down as far as I'm concerned. When you figure that KDE has emulated Windows to the point of even having the same inconsistancies and annoyances (the friggin' start/k menu...) The slightly improved speed and responsiveness of Win 98 or better is well worth it. Gnome is a productivity sink.
Linux certainly has shown that geeks know jack and crap about interfaces.
~Hammy
s/Meatless Drivel/Total Bullshit/;
Aside from this essentially being an advertorial, there remains the fact that he presents a problem, (kindof) and then presents no solution.
Auto Mechanics, tired of only being appreciated when that car breaks?? Try fixing it before it breaks! Don't ask how.
Firemen, tired of only being appreciated when someone rams a plane into a building?? Try just driving around town hosing everything down.
Now, lets talk "DataCentre Management tools". My experience is this: You need to hire two extra geeks just to get it running, It never really works that well, and spending that money of some clustering and a good perl guru would have a more drastic effect on your uptime. I personally don't have a Unix box that has not maintained 5 9's in availability over the last 4 years. I have a few NT servers that can boast the same.
Products like these are only supposed to appeal to the shirts in a business. You know, the same guys who get freaky about "free" software.
And to think MS once feared this guy....
~Hammy
That is too funny...
When I met my wife, she was a medical wreck. A sufferer of Type II diabetes since she was 8, her blood sugars were always off, she was underweight, listless, etc.
Now my diet is one that makes most GP's cringe. I live off of cheesesteaks, hot dogs, etc. High fat, med carb, high protein. Add to that that I am very sensitive to Antibiotics, and I can not eat farm raised poultry and fish. So, it's red meat for me.
Of course, my wife ended up adopting my diet after time, and her cholesterol is down, her blood sugars are normal, and she has achieved her target weight. Her doctor asked what she had been doing, and when she explained "Eating alot of Cheeseburgers" he refused to believe it.
The problem with modern science is that it is based on too many antique fallacies. Much like the 10th century monk never thought about germs because GOD caused disease... When the devil didn't. Most of Einstein's later work was highly speculative musings on extra-dimensions and trans-dimensional physics. Most of his conclusions cannot be verified, and those that can have shown anomolies.
This however, does not mean that super-string theory isn't still the basis for most high level physics research. Indeed, disagreeing with super-string theory is enough to convince many universities that you don't belong in their program. Gee, I always thought it was religion that placed so much importance on blind faith.
Cut the strings!
Physics doesn't demand
Any vibrating band
Of string.
I won't step in your noose
I don't believe in your loops
Of string.
Demenchuk "Cut the strings" - From "A 5th dimension of Beethoven"
~Hammy
Oh, Yeah, they're expensive as all get out. Now I can see why this is overhyped....
Naw, I want one... With wireless in the office, this would be too incredible. The only thing is this: How would it interact with a terminal window. I'm not about to tap in "xp21_verify -s images@images1 -n FN" all day long.
But hey, as a mobile tech taking notes, getting help desk reports, etc... I can see where this would be mega handy.
My $0.02
~Hammy
I have to say that as I trawl the web, I have simply stopped looking at ad banners. I get the general shape, peripherially notice some flashing or wahtever, and I ignore it.
/. topic icon, I'd see it then...
Perhaps the FBI should use the dude's mug shot as a
Mafia: Give us money or we send in guys to beat you up.
Government: Give us 28% of your income and do exactly as we say, or we send in guys to take you to jail, sieze all your property and assets, put your wife and children on the street, and then let guys in jail beat you up and gang rape you.
Hooray for crime bosses!
~Hammy
Actually, Microsoft would give a lot of power in the hands of Linus: a few touches here and there and it would be update nightmare for Microsoft to make sure that their interface runs on every new release of the kernel.....
Linux isn't done until WinX won't run?? I would certainly hope that this is not the case. For that matter, MS could release their own kernel and not have to worry about it. So long as they complied with the licensing and submitted changes and made the kernel and its source available via FTP, Linus can't stop them from doing anything but calling it Linux.
That's the point of Open Source. The EULA turns IP into a bludgeon, not the GPL.
As for the ability to profit, if 40% of the market turns to Linux, (as proposed in the report we are commenting on...) how many potential customers are there for Office on Linux??
Why would MS release a proprietary X?? Well, could be easier to port. No LGPL library issues to be concerned about, could only require minor changes to the actual Office codebase for porting. I think it is far fetched.
MS doesnt want control, it wants synergy. BIll G wants every consumer to need Office, so they have to have Windows, etc... If bill could get every consumer to walk out of a CompUSA with 1,000 $5 boxes or one $5,000 box, he wants them buying lots and lots of $5 boxes. (for $30...)
~Hammy
Still haven't seen The Phantom Menace. Downloaded it, but it was all in Norwegian. Haven't tried again.
If you think the Phantom Menace wasn't a flop, compare it's DVD sales with LOTR. There should be a comparison, there isn't.
All that being said, it couldn't have been as bad as Harry Pothead.
~Hammy
While I agree that CD's are over priced, there are far more that 4-10 hands that go into any CD. If you have a 4 piece band, you must have an engineer, at the very least. The engineer brings as much musical knowledge to the table as any of the musicians and has just as much influence on the final sound of the album.
The engineer then has his assistants who do the grunt work, and then the sound guys, etc... There are probably an average of 40 sets of hands on any modern commercial CD just from the artistic side. The biggest difference is there is no union like there is with film, so you don't see all of those names.
If you really can't figure out where those 40 names come from, ponder the best boy and gaffer positions. Or Assistant to 3 venezuelan llamas...
Vigilante justice is often seen when the law does not protect the common good.
I honestly do not think that you can call what happened "vigilante justice" as there was no physical harm done. I think this falls under vandalism, or practical jokery, and as such is most appropriate.
Indeed, perhaps this high profile case will highlight how harassing it can be to get on several catalogue lists. Many of us suffer through the same nonsense that he is because we shopped at Amazon, AOL, CDNOW, etc... and had our contact details sold and resold.
Let this Ralsky moron have a kid. You get junk mail like never before. I get 6-7 credit card offers a day! So what if he gets 300.... I get 4 viagra e-mails from him a day and he's proud of it.
Also, don't forget that this was the pig-happy guy who was looking at putting pop-ups right on your desktop by exploiting windows messenger. For that alone, I'd like to send a small army of door-to-door salesmen to his house.
I just hope they signed him up for telemarketing........
~Hammy
I agree totally with your comments. The others who have replied are apologists. This is too true. Even with all of the arguments for Sauron causing the battle to happen at Mordor, this does not explain why he would leave "The One Road" so lightly defended and scouted.
Also, even if his goal is capturing the Ring Bearer, why not lay siege to Minas Tirith?? You stand a good chance of uncovering the Ring Bearer in due time, you have the troops, you don't leave your enemies unhindered to plot against you. You either starve Minas Tirith or make the ring bearer show himself in their rescue.
I would think that under any circumstances I would at least have small patrols at each bridge. Not only for looking for the ring bearer, but for policing and taxation.
They also must be pretty sure that Sauron is too stupid to run. They do no work trying to make sure the area is secure. There is no intelligence gathering beyond a 1-2 night look over of the outside of the gates. Although I find it hard to believe that Sauron could be that stupid and old at the same time.
I guess that the real points are this: Tolkien was a linguist, not a strategist, and in his utopian society the evil lord doesn't even collect unjust taxes from public works like bridges.
The first rule in taking over any land is control the lanes and means of transportation. This restricts supply, etc. The second is to limit communication. Sauron does neither. The only good explanation is Hubris. Again, how can he be this stupid and old??
~Hammy
Yeah, but in the US they're no longer scandals. Here you tell someone that George Bush gave $661,000,000 from our taxes to GE to repay them for $4,000,000 in campaign contributions and they just shrug their shoulders like it's all just part of it.
Think about it.... The Enron scandal. GWB flew to every campaign stop on the Enron Corporate Jet. After the company falls apart, none of the national news can "draw a connection" between Ken Lay and GWB. Harken made the news briefly over here. None of our national news media has reported on the fact that Hamed Karzai was a consultant for the US (Oil) company Unocal right up until assuming the presidency of Afghanistan.
Just because we Americans think it's immoral doesn't mean we don't accept it like the good little sheep that we are.
For I'm proud to be an American,
Where I'll always have gas
'Cause we sent all our teens
To kick Afghani ass.
And I'll gladly stand there next to you
And steal Iraqui oil away
Ain't no doubt he's got an evil plan....
God bless the USA
~Hammy
So your argument is: "We have been dabbling in areas we don't understand for a long, long time. Nothing bad has happened yet, heck, most of you aren't aware of the really troubling things we're doing. Don't get caught up in this moral miasma."
/. idols. Einstein was just doing science right?? Now we have Nuclear (GWB spelling) proliferation, and the sins of Nagasaki to remember. Indeed, most "science" is put to military use long before the general populous sees the benefits.
Why do we need to engineer mice to have human cells for experimentation?? Because human life is too precious?? What about Mouse life??
I am just tired of this idiot mentality that Human life takes some sort of precedence. This is the same mentality that led to Blacks and Indians not being considered "human". As long as they weren't "human" anything was OK. I'm not stealing a Human's land, I'm taking the land from these red animals that are everywhere.
Indeed, this is only even debatable because we have now added 1,000 human cells to that mouse. Is he now human enough that we should feel bad about killing him?? Is 0.01% human too human to experiment on?? I guess not, 3/5ths of a man can still be a slave.
And finally, the idea that we should have faith in scientists to do what is right... HaHaHa.... Please.... Don't insult us. I could point out the big villans of history, Your Mengeles, Dr. Burt, etc... But instead, I would like to point to one of the
In fact, science is what leads these chicken hawks on Capitol hill to think we can go to war around the globe without hitting too hard on the home front. "Look, none of our guys get killed in this.... We have technology." Our (correct) belief that we have this huge edge in science both encourages our leaders to wage war, but conditions our population to accept it. I cannot help but wonder if we had lost 300,000 troops in Desert Storm, would we be as eager for the latest attack on Iraq?? (Note: 300,000 is the number of kurds that died in Desert Storm fighting for our side.)
Now, for the quotes:
"genetic engineering of food has the potential to solve or at least lessen the ongoing starvation of millions (while we continue to worry about whether we should upgrade to the latest video card...)." - Meanwhile, Farm Subsidies continue. We pay farmers not to grow too much food. Genetically engineered food is the answer?? No, genetic research on agricultural products has had a devastating effect on every farmer except the big corporate farms. Now, every strain of corn is copyright Monsanto, you can't plant anything without paying to a large American corporation. Read the recent stories on Golden Rice.
"to be a scientist is to revere life and the process of living above all else." - Unless that life is a mouse, rabbit, or other inferior species. I do note that in your entire post you don't mention the mice. You probably think I'm some soft-skulled liberal for even thinking of them. It would never occur to you that that mouse is as alive as you. No, you and most others are worried about the stem cells, a dead lump of human.
You want some subjects for experimentation?? Pull a Dr. Jekyl and use yourself.
~Hammy
I just plain think it is inhumane. I can't help think that in some distant future (or even distant past) that some other being was going "Hmmm, should we merge Atlantean stem cells with this monkey's bio-catalyst??" "Yeah, sure, what'll it hurt??"
Personally, I think we wouldn't even need to consider this if we just allowed human experimentation. Oh, wait, that's wrong....
~Hammy
This whole thing makes no sense....
They state that the problem was application, workstation level. The solution, install a second network. WTF?? If it really was a researcher at his workstation, disconnecting his station and possibly a reset of his hub and go. Problem solved, I'm back to finding out what shows are playing at Harvard Square this weekend.
Now, Fast forward 5 years when the network goes out like this again... If their past maintenance performance is any judge, I'll just assume they did not maintain quarterly testing of the secondary network (It's a pain in the butt, and Hospitals are 24 hour operations) and I'll bet it doesn't work when they need it. The extra switches and such might come in handy, but I'm positive that they could have achieved better reliability for the same money by spending in other areas.
For our 1,000 person operation, installing a second network would involve about 50-60 hubs, routers, switches, etc. Involve the extra telco racks, and running that cable, that's mighty frikken' expensive. We do have a backup for our backbone, but the entire thing?? Ewww....
~Hammy
So, TW acts as a middleman between artist and distributor, AOL acts as distributor... Why doesn't TW just buy Tower and Borders??
Time Warner can really begin to shaft their mid-tier distributors. This makes good sense.
Offer premimum content to flesh out your dead-tree subscribers and keep the normal content to show non-subscribers what they're missing. And I steadfastly refuse to pay for any content that is not ad-free. Period.
My misgiuded rant....
~Hammy
Often times the "work" that goes into coding is not the coding. As a developer on some very small projects I offer two methods: upfront payment, and extended payment. Upfront payment: 35$ per hour coding. ($135 ph. for work on-site) Flat. I don't show up to install, support, nothing. If you need my services afterwards, $135 hourly. (Normal Rates)
Extended Payment: Flat rate on the coding - pre-determined, with a 2 year maintenance contract at X amount.
If the customer owns the source, $85 ph. for coding, or the flat rate doubles for Extended.
I am assuming that once you have completed your analysis that your customers do not expect you to be available at 2:00 A.M. to discuss the facts in that report for up to five years after it's completion??
Since most business software is expensed as a two-three year amortization, the Extended payment option is doubly attractive businesses. Many small users are concerned about support, they get the maintenance specifically to avoid only being able to call 9AM. - 5PM.
In 4 years, I have written ~1000 scripts and small executables. I can think of three people who didn't get extended. I can also think of well over 50 people who paid me for support on freely available scripts around the web.
I think the point is this. Companies choose coders on esoteric qualities, support after the sale, reputation, cool logo or tagline, golfing buddies. But noone really looks at the code to see if you knew what you were doing. The worst thing they will do is call another coder to improve on the code you left behind. My reputation is built on fair pricing, good support, and meeting deadlines. The quality of my code does not even enter into a reason why a business would hire me. As long as it compiles that is....
I guess a good analogy is this: If cars were as unreliable as software, would you buy one if the dealership couldn't give you some reassurances that they could keep it running?? Your warranty provides that functionality. You pay for your warranty as part of the car. (In many cases 5 years after you take posession of the car.)
The same applies with those in store warranties. People want the piece of mind, and in software, more than anything. Heck, most software doesn't even promise to be serviceable upon reciept. Of course people want piece of mind.