Here in Australia, the doctor might prescribe some antibiotic, say, Amoxycillin. This is a brand name of some big pharma company. When I get to the chemist, because this is a prescription medicine, the Chemist asks if I would like the "cheaper" alternative. Cheaper is the "no frills" manufacturers. This is what advertising should be about. To tell the consumer, that there are exact copies of the same medications made by "no frills" manufacturers, aka generic drugs.
"support coming soon"? But I was able to use this portal page in my FF1.5 Beta2. I was actually impressed at the speed. I wonder what other gadgets they'll add in the future. By the way, this is what Office Live is saying about the service:
WHY MICROSOFT OFFICE LIVE?
A professional Web site, expertly hosted by Microsoft
A secure online workspace for organizing and managing customer and business information
A complete set of tools for managing time, tasks, projects, and company data that integrates with your existing Microsoft Office programs
It looks like it's an online version of SharePoint services to me. Like others have mentioned, this looks like the old ASP (application services providors) that was the buzz in the late 90s. I reckon it'll be just as successful and popular!
Obviously you didn't know that Christians don't think of the devil as a red character with a pitchfork and horns, no more than they think of God as some really old dude with a long white beard and a flowing robe. Get off your high horse and stop pretending you're better than others. What Christians say about the devil is that it is dangerous to ignore him, pretend that he doesn't exist or to give him more power than he actually has, and so live in constant fear of him.
I'll start with a couple of disclaimers:
1- I am not American.
2- I am a Christian, and hold a Christian world view.
Having said that, it is really disheartening to see so many anti-Christian views being expressed because a "they don't believe in Evolution". It is this kind of attitude that makes all things america look silly to an outsider. Science is not Evolution. Science is much much more than that. There's chemistry, physics, engineering, mathematics, astrophysics, you name it. Biology is just one part of quite a large field. A statement that says: America is becoming less scientifically inclined, means that they are no longer interested in engineering, mathematics, physics etc etc. Is this the case?
To blame christians for this percieved lack of interest is naive and misinformed. It also harbours an agenda. It's like saying the problems with the western world are all related to TV. Is this a valid statement?
I mean in Australia, we've had magnetic strips on the passports for a while. All they do at customs is scan through a "card reader". There is no need to embed an RFID in the passport and worry about people reading it from a distance.
I'll give you a worse scenario than VCRs. In sydney during the Olympics, daylight savigs was started a month or so earlier than usual (sugust rather than October). MS issued a "patch" for for Windows to "create a new timezone". You would not believe how many problems this caused in the corporate world (using outlook calendars). It was a problem in some companies for years afterwards. The problem arose when one company applied the patch, but another didn't and the appointments were off by an hour and people missed important meetings. People who have thought this through, actually decided not to apply the patch "and told their employees to manually move their appointments during the extra DST period". These were the companies that didn't have problems. So, to answer another question about why 2007 for the implementation date: well it gives people time to prepare for situations like this!
I think you're asking a very pertinent question. Although I am no expert on Americans or your politics, I have one thing to say (from distant observations). I was reading an opinion piece on the BBC website last week or so (sorry, can't find the link) It was about the response to the hurricane contrasting how the people responded generously and quickly, while the governments didn't (or were too slow). The author mentioned a very poignant remark and it goes like this: Americans don't expect much from their government, and so when the government doesn't deliver, well,... nothing happens. The government stays. It is this lack of expectation that makes people complacent. Not just in disasters, but also in privacy issues: You don't expect the government to respect your privacy, so when they don't you're neither surprised, not willing to do much about it.
Note: I know I am generalising, but on a topic like this, I'm not sure how to not generalise or stereotype.
I agree with the parent post. I am a volunteer in our state's Emergency Service organisation, and I can think of a couple more things you might need. You haven't clarified what exactly you'll be tasked to do (rebuilding/helping the refugees, cleanups etc.) Still, I'll chip in with a few more suggestion, keeping in mind all you have is a trailer.
- Blankets: handy for a lot of things. - Plastic Tarulins (and a roll of the heavy duty plastic sheets) - Some ropes (the synthetic tie down ropes get a couple of rolls, and some hauling ropes (sythetic or natural fibre ones) - Lots of (gaffa? or duct tape) very handy. - Brooms and rakes. - Spare boots and socks (unless you can obtain them locally) - A ladder, I would recommend a Folding ladder: can be made into a step ladder or a long one. - Drinking water containers (and water if you can, minimum 4 litres per person per day since you'll be "working" in a hot/humid place)
If you restrict the trailer to only equipment, you'll have a decent amount of essential tools/supplies for tasks in disaster areas. I'm assuming for a group of 10, you'll be going in a convoy or at least a bus. Keep personal gear in your cars and spare the trailer for equipment and tools.
One piece of advice I'd give you though. Working in disaster areas is not easy, especially when you are dealing with people who have lost a lot. Although it is easy to "say it", try not to get overwhelmed by the scale of things. Concentrate on your immediate tasks, and forget everything else while doing it. Also, it may not come naturally, you should appoint a "team leader" if you don't already have one. Makes running jobs much more smooth.
I wouldn't discount this story out of hand. It's been very dry in Australia lately, and I have been getting shocks quite often. I have on many occasion got a zap when touching my car or closing the garage do. Once (a few days ago) while in the process of shaking hands, we even heard the crack. It is painful. So, I think this story is not exagerated. Afterall, they even called in the CFS.
So far I have captured the formulae for: the perfect way to eat ice cream (AxTpxTm/FtxAt +VxLTxSpxW/Tt=3d20), the perfect TV sitcom (C=3d[(RxD)+V]xF/A+S), the perfect boiled egg, love...
Wow. Icecream and Love. What else would anyone want in life?
There is a program already in place. It managed by the Red Cross: see here. It's been successfully in use for decades. I can confirm the value it adds because we have used this service before.
There are many of applications that can be installed and run in "user space" on a Windows machine. The only time you'd need admin rights is when the application modifies the registry, or adds/changes files in the %systemroot% directory.
I agree that managing Windoews permissions is not simple, but with increased permission granularity, comes the complexity. This does not mean that Windows ACLs are inferior or bad or flawed. It just means they're complex.
However, I want to respond to the "everyone runs as administrator" sites: You probably didn't know, but in Windows 2000 and newer, when you're logged on as a "restricted" user, you can launch any application (including installers) as a "different user". This means that you can install an application without logging on as administrator. to do this, you shift+right click and you get offered the "Run as..." option.
Again, I am no MS fan boy. I only use their products at Work. I use Ubuntu and a Mac at home, but I have been using and supporting all three platforms since the mid nineties.
I was reading that Longhorn will finally have GNU/Unix-like user permissions. That's probably not the case. Windows ACL is much better than the "standard" unixy permissions, and much grainier. SELinux is trying to come close to what Windows already offers. I am not trying to defend MS or anything, but a statement like that was clearly not thought through. Anyway, my thoughts on such news is that MS now acknowledges that Linux is a genuine market player that they need to play nice with, much more so than they do with Apple for example.
On the Mac it was actually application based. The applications (usually graphics ones) created a "preview icon" and then placed that into the icon fork for the file. Remember, on Pre-OSX Macs, files had two "forks" one for data and one for everything else.
Thank you for this link. This is very interesting. I was always thinking that the periodic table is more suitable as a 3-D image, and lo and behold, it is there already. However, for simplicity, re-producability and the amount of info, I think the current periodic table will be with us for a long time.
There was a feature in MacOS Classic. I also think it's there in OSX. Basically, drag a file over a folder and hold the mouse, the folder opens up, closing the previous window. You can keep drilling until you get to the desired folder. It's pity that Windows or Gnome don't have a similar feature.
I know this is funny, and i take the comment as such, but I will talk from experience about the UN Peace Keepers. I lived in an area where there were both UN Observers and later on, UN Peace Keepers. Or just simply, The UN. These guys are as good as the countries they come from. Most of the time, they genuinely do what the UN has mandated, hich in some cases is vetoed by the Security Council. The UN has always been very helpful to the population where they are positioned. Everyone remembers them fondly even after they've left. However, there is one problem with the UN Peace Keepers: The UN does not have the mandate to interfere. That is why, when somethign needs to be done, countries get he "OK" from the UN Security council and then they do something. Think of NATO sending troops with authorisation to "interfere" into the Balkans. Or Afghanistan: it is a NATO operation. Also, you will need to keep in mind that the UN needs to "appear" as neutral, and thus the peace keepers need to come from countries with no obvious bias to any of the parties. That is one main reason why the US (an in it's day the USSR) does not always participate.
Actually, HP also has a fully supported Linux SOE for internal use. They call it LinuxCOE (common Operating environment) Like others have mentioned, they do a lot of Linux development, but it's mainly to support their own platforms. Have a look at their Linux website
The difference between the US and westminister system countries (like Australia, UK, Canada etc) is not just that the President, Prime Minister (call them whatever, the Big Boss) only rules if his/her party want them to rule. We don't elect prime ministers, we elect members of parliament who appoint a prime minister (who usually happens to be the leader of the majority party). The main difference is that they usually are a multi party system; occasionally independents or minor parties hold the "balance of power" in the senate. this effectively means that the people proposing law changes will have to satisfy these independents or minor parties. It's truely: "keeping the bastards honest" (in general).
Yet they apparently believe in an invisible monster who loves them, but sends them to hell for eternity if they don't play by rules they don't understand.
What rules are you refering to? maybe, Love your neighbour?
GST=Goods and Services Tax. What is happening with eBay is that the ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Comission) is starting to treat eBay "stores" like any other store, where the displayed price MUST include the GST component if most of your target audience Will Be Paying GST. In other words, if you only sell to companies (that can claim GST back), then there is no need to include GST. Everyday consumers will, so you have to include the GST in the price.
Also, like some people in NZ and Canada have already pointed out, you don't need to worry too much about that if your income is below a certain threshold (50K IIRC).
So, to summarise, this is A Good Thing. Nothing to see here, move along.
I know I am being sucked in to answer to a troll, but what the heck, I'm on my lunch break. I'm an Australian, and remember the tragedy you are refering to very well. What is confusing me is your reference to "Privatizing" the BOM, your cost estimates, and the number of boats that needed rescue! For those interested, you can read about it http://www.bom.gov.au/inside/services_policy/marin e/sydney_hobart/execsum.htmlhere. First I hear of your information. Not even googling for this has not yielded anything. What you don't seem to understand (or know) is that we have what is called Statutory Government Bodies in Australia. These are government agencies, publicly funded and operate for the public benefit, but are allowed to generate income through some means. The BOM is effectively one of them. They provide raw data (see http://www.bom.gov.au) and they also provide more detailed information to subscribers. Anyway, back to your original example, although I don't agree that there should be a limit to the "raw" information provided by public weather services, Private Weather Forcasters might have been more assertive in their advice to the race organisers if only to protect their reputation and keep their profits.
There is an interesting project being run using the same techniques to determine the extent of the Phoenicians' expansion across the Mediterannean. National Geographic had a feature about it alst year. Interesting reading.
The US no longer has provisions for TRANSIT either. For those who don't know TRANSIT means you only stop in a certain country because you need to change planes. You actually have no intention of visiting that country, just passing through. This usually means you have to stay at the airport. Well, the US doesn't have this provision. You land at the airport, you HAVE to go through customs and check out your baggage. This takes a lot of time, and last trip I made (october 2003) made me miss my connecting flights because my travel agent didn't factor this into the equation. So now, when I want to go to Canada, instead of taking the shortest route (a stop over in Hawaii or LA), I have to go via North Asia somewhere. Very disappointing. Also, like the previous poster, I don't want anyone to have my finger prints or photos taken.
Slashdot Mirror
Here in Australia, the doctor might prescribe some antibiotic, say, Amoxycillin. This is a brand name of some big pharma company. When I get to the chemist, because this is a prescription medicine, the Chemist asks if I would like the "cheaper" alternative. Cheaper is the "no frills" manufacturers.
This is what advertising should be about. To tell the consumer, that there are exact copies of the same medications made by "no frills" manufacturers, aka generic drugs.
I was actually impressed at the speed. I wonder what other gadgets they'll add in the future.
By the way, this is what Office Live is saying about the service:
WHY MICROSOFT OFFICE LIVE?
It looks like it's an online version of SharePoint services to me. Like others have mentioned, this looks like the old ASP (application services providors) that was the buzz in the late 90s. I reckon it'll be just as successful and popular!
Huh indeed!
Obviously you didn't know that Christians don't think of the devil as a red character with a pitchfork and horns, no more than they think of God as some really old dude with a long white beard and a flowing robe.
Get off your high horse and stop pretending you're better than others.
What Christians say about the devil is that it is dangerous to ignore him, pretend that he doesn't exist or to give him more power than he actually has, and so live in constant fear of him.
I'll start with a couple of disclaimers:
1- I am not American.
2- I am a Christian, and hold a Christian world view.
Having said that, it is really disheartening to see so many anti-Christian views being expressed because a "they don't believe in Evolution".
It is this kind of attitude that makes all things america look silly to an outsider. Science is not Evolution. Science is much much more than that. There's chemistry, physics, engineering, mathematics, astrophysics, you name it. Biology is just one part of quite a large field.
A statement that says: America is becoming less scientifically inclined, means that they are no longer interested in engineering, mathematics, physics etc etc.
Is this the case?
To blame christians for this percieved lack of interest is naive and misinformed. It also harbours an agenda. It's like saying the problems with the western world are all related to TV. Is this a valid statement?
I mean in Australia, we've had magnetic strips on the passports for a while. All they do at customs is scan through a "card reader". There is no need to embed an RFID in the passport and worry about people reading it from a distance.
I'll give you a worse scenario than VCRs. In sydney during the Olympics, daylight savigs was started a month or so earlier than usual (sugust rather than October).
MS issued a "patch" for for Windows to "create a new timezone". You would not believe how many problems this caused in the corporate world (using outlook calendars). It was a problem in some companies for years afterwards. The problem arose when one company applied the patch, but another didn't and the appointments were off by an hour and people missed important meetings. People who have thought this through, actually decided not to apply the patch "and told their employees to manually move their appointments during the extra DST period". These were the companies that didn't have problems.
So, to answer another question about why 2007 for the implementation date: well it gives people time to prepare for situations like this!
I think you're asking a very pertinent question. Although I am no expert on Americans or your politics, I have one thing to say (from distant observations).
I was reading an opinion piece on the BBC website last week or so (sorry, can't find the link) It was about the response to the hurricane contrasting how the people responded generously and quickly, while the governments didn't (or were too slow).
The author mentioned a very poignant remark and it goes like this:
Americans don't expect much from their government, and so when the government doesn't deliver, well,... nothing happens. The government stays.
It is this lack of expectation that makes people complacent. Not just in disasters, but also in privacy issues: You don't expect the government to respect your privacy, so when they don't you're neither surprised, not willing to do much about it.
Note: I know I am generalising, but on a topic like this, I'm not sure how to not generalise or stereotype.
I agree with the parent post. I am a volunteer in our state's Emergency Service organisation, and I can think of a couple more things you might need.
You haven't clarified what exactly you'll be tasked to do (rebuilding/helping the refugees, cleanups etc.) Still, I'll chip in with a few more suggestion, keeping in mind all you have is a trailer.
- Blankets: handy for a lot of things.
- Plastic Tarulins (and a roll of the heavy duty plastic sheets)
- Some ropes (the synthetic tie down ropes get a couple of rolls, and some hauling ropes (sythetic or natural fibre ones)
- Lots of (gaffa? or duct tape) very handy.
- Brooms and rakes.
- Spare boots and socks (unless you can obtain them locally)
- A ladder, I would recommend a Folding ladder: can be made into a step ladder or a long one.
- Drinking water containers (and water if you can, minimum 4 litres per person per day since you'll be "working" in a hot/humid place)
If you restrict the trailer to only equipment, you'll have a decent amount of essential tools/supplies for tasks in disaster areas. I'm assuming for a group of 10, you'll be going in a convoy or at least a bus. Keep personal gear in your cars and spare the trailer for equipment and tools.
One piece of advice I'd give you though. Working in disaster areas is not easy, especially when you are dealing with people who have lost a lot. Although it is easy to "say it", try not to get overwhelmed by the scale of things. Concentrate on your immediate tasks, and forget everything else while doing it. Also, it may not come naturally, you should appoint a "team leader" if you don't already have one. Makes running jobs much more smooth.
Good luck,
There is another link to this story on the ABC.
I wouldn't discount this story out of hand. It's been very dry in Australia lately, and I have been getting shocks quite often. I have on many occasion got a zap when touching my car or closing the garage do. Once (a few days ago) while in the process of shaking hands, we even heard the crack. It is painful.
So, I think this story is not exagerated. Afterall, they even called in the CFS.
There is a program already in place. It managed by the Red Cross: see here. It's been successfully in use for decades. I can confirm the value it adds because we have used this service before.
There are many of applications that can be installed and run in "user space" on a Windows machine. The only time you'd need admin rights is when the application modifies the registry, or adds/changes files in the %systemroot% directory.
I agree that managing Windoews permissions is not simple, but with increased permission granularity, comes the complexity. This does not mean that Windows ACLs are inferior or bad or flawed. It just means they're complex.
However, I want to respond to the "everyone runs as administrator" sites:
You probably didn't know, but in Windows 2000 and newer, when you're logged on as a "restricted" user, you can launch any application (including installers) as a "different user". This means that you can install an application without logging on as administrator. to do this, you shift+right click and you get offered the "Run as..." option.
Again, I am no MS fan boy. I only use their products at Work. I use Ubuntu and a Mac at home, but I have been using and supporting all three platforms since the mid nineties.
I was reading that Longhorn will finally have GNU/Unix-like user permissions.
That's probably not the case. Windows ACL is much better than the "standard" unixy permissions, and much grainier. SELinux is trying to come close to what Windows already offers.
I am not trying to defend MS or anything, but a statement like that was clearly not thought through.
Anyway, my thoughts on such news is that MS now acknowledges that Linux is a genuine market player that they need to play nice with, much more so than they do with Apple for example.
On the Mac it was actually application based. The applications (usually graphics ones) created a "preview icon" and then placed that into the icon fork for the file. Remember, on Pre-OSX Macs, files had two "forks" one for data and one for everything else.
Thank you for this link. This is very interesting. I was always thinking that the periodic table is more suitable as a 3-D image, and lo and behold, it is there already.
However, for simplicity, re-producability and the amount of info, I think the current periodic table will be with us for a long time.
There was a feature in MacOS Classic. I also think it's there in OSX. Basically, drag a file over a folder and hold the mouse, the folder opens up, closing the previous window. You can keep drilling until you get to the desired folder. It's pity that Windows or Gnome don't have a similar feature.
I know this is funny, and i take the comment as such, but I will talk from experience about the UN Peace Keepers.
I lived in an area where there were both UN Observers and later on, UN Peace Keepers. Or just simply, The UN. These guys are as good as the countries they come from. Most of the time, they genuinely do what the UN has mandated, hich in some cases is vetoed by the Security Council. The UN has always been very helpful to the population where they are positioned. Everyone remembers them fondly even after they've left. However, there is one problem with the UN Peace Keepers: The UN does not have the mandate to interfere. That is why, when somethign needs to be done, countries get he "OK" from the UN Security council and then they do something. Think of NATO sending troops with authorisation to "interfere" into the Balkans. Or Afghanistan: it is a NATO operation.
Also, you will need to keep in mind that the UN needs to "appear" as neutral, and thus the peace keepers need to come from countries with no obvious bias to any of the parties. That is one main reason why the US (an in it's day the USSR) does not always participate.
Actually, HP also has a fully supported Linux SOE for internal use. They call it LinuxCOE (common Operating environment)
Like others have mentioned, they do a lot of Linux development, but it's mainly to support their own platforms.
Have a look at their Linux website
(Disclaimer, I work for HP)
The difference between the US and westminister system countries (like Australia, UK, Canada etc) is not just that the President, Prime Minister (call them whatever, the Big Boss) only rules if his/her party want them to rule. We don't elect prime ministers, we elect members of parliament who appoint a prime minister (who usually happens to be the leader of the majority party).
The main difference is that they usually are a multi party system; occasionally independents or minor parties hold the "balance of power" in the senate. this effectively means that the people proposing law changes will have to satisfy these independents or minor parties. It's truely: "keeping the bastards honest" (in general).
Yet they apparently believe in an invisible monster who loves them, but sends them to hell for eternity if they don't play by rules they don't understand.
What rules are you refering to?
maybe, Love your neighbour?
GST=Goods and Services Tax.
What is happening with eBay is that the ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Comission) is starting to treat eBay "stores" like any other store, where the displayed price MUST include the GST component if most of your target audience Will Be Paying GST. In other words, if you only sell to companies (that can claim GST back), then there is no need to include GST. Everyday consumers will, so you have to include the GST in the price.
Also, like some people in NZ and Canada have already pointed out, you don't need to worry too much about that if your income is below a certain threshold (50K IIRC).
So, to summarise, this is A Good Thing. Nothing to see here, move along.
I know I am being sucked in to answer to a troll, but what the heck, I'm on my lunch break.n e/sydney_hobart/execsum.htmlhere.
I'm an Australian, and remember the tragedy you are refering to very well. What is confusing me is your reference to "Privatizing" the BOM, your cost estimates, and the number of boats that needed rescue! For those interested, you can read about it http://www.bom.gov.au/inside/services_policy/mari
First I hear of your information. Not even googling for this has not yielded anything.
What you don't seem to understand (or know) is that we have what is called Statutory Government Bodies in Australia. These are government agencies, publicly funded and operate for the public benefit, but are allowed to generate income through some means. The BOM is effectively one of them. They provide raw data (see http://www.bom.gov.au) and they also provide more detailed information to subscribers.
Anyway, back to your original example, although I don't agree that there should be a limit to the "raw" information provided by public weather services, Private Weather Forcasters might have been more assertive in their advice to the race organisers if only to protect their reputation and keep their profits.
There is an interesting project being run using the same techniques to determine the extent of the Phoenicians' expansion across the Mediterannean.
National Geographic had a feature about it alst year.
Interesting reading.
The US no longer has provisions for TRANSIT either. For those who don't know TRANSIT means you only stop in a certain country because you need to change planes. You actually have no intention of visiting that country, just passing through. This usually means you have to stay at the airport.
Well, the US doesn't have this provision. You land at the airport, you HAVE to go through customs and check out your baggage. This takes a lot of time, and last trip I made (october 2003) made me miss my connecting flights because my travel agent didn't factor this into the equation.
So now, when I want to go to Canada, instead of taking the shortest route (a stop over in Hawaii or LA), I have to go via North Asia somewhere. Very disappointing. Also, like the previous poster, I don't want anyone to have my finger prints or photos taken.