A few months back, I got a gig working for a school district. They provide all their techs with Dell Axims runnning the PocketPC OS. I took it with me out on my first runs, and started using it's Notepad to scribble down some things I needed to remember - like IP numbers, teacher names and room numbers, computers that I had to fix - the same way I used to use my dear old Newt2100. No resolving, just straight "ink" scribbbles. I opened my notes later, and found that my scribbles had been re-arranged on the page - words moved, numbers scrambled, and in some cases, data completely deleted.
The next day, I showed up with my Newton, and I have never lost another single scribbled note. I haven't touched the Axim to take another note since. I still keep it charged up and stuffed in a pocket for wireless stuff, since my Newton only does 64 bit encryption, and the schools use 128, but that's the only use I have for that thing.
I've had that page linked since St. Helen's started rumbling last year. Of course, now that it's finally doing something worth watching again, the cam's conked out. *sigh*
I currently have Comcast Cable... When multiple people are online, this effectively can go as low as 1.5 megabits or worse depending on what they are doing. Sometimes if the are uploading stuff or using bittorrent, my connection can really lag ass.
I have Comcast, and had signed up for Vonage. I had lousy connectivity, and scrapped my service. I found out after the fact that if there's p2p traffic on the wire (from one of my computers *or not*), my transfer speeds go to crap - as bad as 56k upload speeds and 400k downloads.
I've just discovered that my local phone monopoly upgraded service in my area, and I can get DSL... it's looking like more of an option, since they offer the option to host servers at home, unlike cable. Yeah, dyndns, I know - but it's a violation of cable ToS, and seeing that they'll already cripple my service for something that I'm not doing, why risk it.
What kind of name is ZugZugDaboo for a human?:) Chipok is my alternate online name, for when someone's already grabbed Zaren. It's a word I learned from my father, that (according to memory) refers to sandhill cranes.
He wrote urban dead too? Nifty. I totally agree with your comment - I didn't see the point at first, but after giving it a few days, it's quite addictive. Even more so if you dig into the wiki and dig into the history and the community that's grown up around it, and play as a human for a while and get into the roleplaying...
Just be nice to me if you run across me - I'm either Chipok or ZugZugDaboo, depending on if I'nm trying to survive as either a zombie or a human, respectively:)
Re:How About Best Geek History Books...
on
Top 20 Geek Novels
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· Score: 1
I was going to suggest Levy books, but it's nice to see someone beat me to them:) Elsewise in the history section, I would highly recommend "Where Wizards Stay Up Late" by Katie Hafner. It's a history of the foundation of the Internet - and I'm not talking about the Web and AOL, I'm talking about MIT and BBN and DARPA and 56k *backbones*. Very good read.
Re:iChat encryption - but fist you have to pay tax
on
Mac OS X 10.4.3 Released
·
· Score: 0, Troll
I've poked around in the.Mac pages, but see no reference to getting a free.Mac IM account. Haven't done 10.4.3 yet, so could you provide more info about this feature?
We swtiched over to SBC for our landline to save a few bucks a month, because we're in a multi-provider dead zone where I live out in the 'burbs of the 'burbs (plus, my wife hates cell phones). I tried to sign up with DSL from SBC at the same time as the landline signup - they don't run DSL to my address. Nobody does. (Well, Speakeasy managed to find someone to do it back in the dot-com daze, but it was over $100 a month for 144k IDSL, and my work covered the bill.)
So I can safely say to Mr. Dinosaur at SBC - I'll never pay to download stuff over your pipes! You can't make me! Ha ha ha!
"Commissioner Kevin Cramer said he does not believe the law applies to people who sell their own goods over eBay, but it could cover those who sell property consigned by others for a fee."
In other words, he's not sure exactly what it covers, but he's backing it anyway.
Well, I haven't bought a CD this year so far, but I'm looking at buying a few for the missuz for Christmas (like I usually do). Pirating music? Nope. Downloading from iTunes? Nope. Listening to satellite radio? Nope. There's just no new music out there worth spending the money or time on. In fact, I just re-discovered my old Dream Theater cds and am working on ruining my voice again trying to sing along:)
And in those two hours of TV you watch on average, FOURTY MINUTES of commercials for diet pills, home re-finance schemes, truck ads, penis pills, annoying network news teasers, "amazing new closet organizers", crappy beer, and $200 tennis shoes.
Penis pills, on tv? Dude, I don't want to know what you watch if you're seeing commercials like that.
And no, I don't see commercials for crappy beer and $200 shoes. If I bother to stay in the room during the commericals (and not spend that time talking to the missuz) I'm treated to commercials for tampons and osteoperosis drugs and new medications to control the frequency of your periods.
Needless to say, I don't watch many commercials, what with not being part of the target market and all.
If you only sit down at a TV for two hours a week, why have those two hours be for the random garbage that's on when you happened to sit down?
Because it's not random garbage, it's the same two hours of programming, every week. It's not like I randomly flump down on the couch with the wife and say "Gee, I wonder what's on tv?" - we're sitting down to watch specific shows that are on at specific times, which are conviently programmed to be on at times we can watch them.
Which would you rather do - sit down at a VCR (that you need to make sure you don't fill up, and that you need to rewind) to watch your two shows per week
Well, since I already HAVE the VCR, and it does exactly what you tell me I need a Tivo to do... why not? Why waste the money on more hardware and a subscription to a service I don't need to do something I can already do?
And how worried do you think i'm going to be about filling up a tape if I'm only recording two shows a week?
(EACH week - and now vacations become a problem if you actually follow those shows, because you need to fit everything onto a tape)
So, I could only take a three week vacation before the VCR fills up... I think I could risk it, seeing as how I've never managed to actually take a vacation in the last, oh, ten years or so.
- OR - sit down at your TiVo, see the shows you want, and find out that you also have Blade Runner and five Twilight Zone episodes waiting for you, if you choose to watch them
Why would they be on there if I didn't want to watch them? Yes, I know, Tivo learns... but I don't want something to record even more stuff for me to watch. I want to watch my two shows, and that's it. I don't have time to sloth on the couch and watch more tv.
As an aside, you're missing out by not watching Lost
Well, I'll never know. I saw nothing in any of the promo material from the start of the series that interested me, and now that it's in season 2, I'm not about to start watching it now.
Ok, I'm still stunned there are people who haven't decided to get a TiVo yet in this day and age.
Well, there are still people out there in this day and age that don't watch enough tv to make it worth the expense. I'm one of those people. I watch maybe two HOURS of tv a week. My viewing habits consist of watching two shows in the evening with the wife, and that's about it. We don't have HBO or Showtime... hell, we don't even have premium cable. All we have is minimum service cable, and we wouldn't even have that if they wouldn't charge more for cable internet to non-tv subscribers.
I've never seen an episode of Lost or The Sopranos or Desperate Housewives, I really could care less about American Idol or Fear Factor or Survivor... the only stuff I'd be interested in watching would be on a) Sci-Fi Channel, b) Cartoon Network, or c) Discovery Channel. As it stands, I don't think I'm suffering all that much.
Captain America Didn't they do this one and it sucked?
Yeah, back in 91. A lot of movies sucked back then. As did that one.
The Avengers A facless hero clan. I can't even name a single hero in this group.
Do you mean the West Coast Avengers? Or the East Coast Avengers? Or the Great Lakes Avengers?
Now, I'm not surprised that you can't name any of the Avengers, because there have been so many (and even I don't know who's in the teams now). But seriously, their lineup has included:
Captain America Thor The Hulk The Sub-Mariner Iron Man
And let's not forget Ant-Man, Hawkeye, and the entire Fantastic Four!
Nick Fury I guess because the Punisher movie worked so well...
Come on, in this day and age, you think a movie about a super-tough anti-terrorist government agent with tons of nifty guns and gadgets (and a floating fortress) isn't going to play?
Black Panther Ah, a hero named after a hyper-racist group. I don't see anything wrong with that.
Hey, he was a big deal back in the day, leader of his own country as well as a powerful hero.
Ant-Man Honey, I shrunk the superhero!
Okay, I've gotta go with you on that one. I see little potential to that movie.
Cloak & Dagger Not that Cloak was a completely contrived character, or that Dagger wore far too little clothing, but how could this movie possibly be interesting?
A bit more modern spin - she the naive and innocent girl from the good side of the tracks, and he the rough and tough gangsta from the mean streets. Mix in some exotic street drugs, some righteous vengeance, and you've got a winner.
Dr. Strange Who?
Dr. Stephen Strange, the Master Mystic, the Sorcerer Supreme! All sorts of juicy ghost-busting special-effecty opportunities there.
Hawkeye Ah, Daredevil without charisma, but empowered with a ridiculous costume.
And don't forget the fancy bow and arrow!
Power Pack Never heard of them.
Nobody did, and more's the shame. Some decent writing effort went into making and managing the characters in that series. It could be a really good kiddie movie.
Shang-Chi Is this like the token Asian guy?
Could be. And yet, it could be their excuse for a lovely martial arts wire fest.
Yea I've managed to avoid that so far. My first hint that it was crap was having David Hasslehoff anywhere near the film.
Maybe we were watching different shows, but I thought it was really faithful to the books (which I loved). It was campy, but that's how it needed to be handled. Hasselhoff managed to play ol' Nick really well, and all the elements that made S.H.I.E.L.D. great were there - the Helicarrier, the LMDs, Dum-Dum Duggan... good times.
Thankfully, Marvel is dealing with production personell who have actually made hit movies in the past now, rather than doing direct to DVD crap. Still, I can't figure out how they think Power Pack or Shang-Chi are going to be hits... Iron Fist maybe...
I can actually see Power Pack coming across as a decent kid's movie - maybe a la Toy Story and computer animated to accent the toy look / marketing appeal. I thought that series was always looked down on as just being a "kiddie" book, but there was some decent writing and character development in there.
I would have to assume, however, that this K9 is the one the Doctor left with Sarah back on Earth, and not the one he left with Romana back in N-Space...
why are you looking at me like that? Come adventuring in my D&D world, and you might just find yourself a sonic screwdriver:)
I can still vividly recall playing Pac-Man and Scramble at the local roller rinks, and Donkey Kong and Defender at the front entrance of the local grocery store. I would scrape together all the change I could find just on the off chance my parents would let me hit the arcade at the mall, just to take a whack at Tempest or Spy Hunter.
Space Invaders, Lunar Lander, Omega Race... Rush N' Attack, Yie Ar Kung-Fu, P.O.W.... Ladybug, Tapper, Mappy... yeah, I know my roots.
And thanks to the joys of emulators, I can go back to my roots any time I want!:D
I concur. I'd never heard of them before this (but have heard of Radiohead, and think they're overrated), so I hit the iTunes music store and checked out their Spiberbait samples, and found them quite good. Better still that I found out I still had two free downloads, so I burned them on Spiderbait. Who'd have thought I'd ever get *musical* advice from slashdot...
Well, to be on topic, I was working for the Indianapolis Public Schools last year supporting their One-To-One program, and they had thousands of iBooks and Powerbooks, as well as a handful of XServes to support them. (Stuff that was paid for, mind you, and not given to the schools.) I'm kind of curious (having not RTFA) where these Linspires are going and what's going to happen with all that laptop gear.
As with many other "advances", this technology isn't targeted towards you, dear parent poster. It's targeted to the user that still has their ISP's home page set as their default, who uses their ISP's email as their only email address, and who cheerfully clicks on the "to unsubscribe, click here" links.
This is meant for those without the technical savvy to install a video card in their computer, or to bother with something as "advanced" as a PVR. It's meant for someone who will just exert themselves enough to sign up for another service and have it handed to them on their existing equipment. If you can sort it all out your way, more power to you. But there's still a ton of computer users out there who can't (or won't), who are happy to let someone else do it for them, and that's why this matters.
Also, there's been some bumping going on it the iPod line - all full-size iPods are now photo capable, you now have a choice of a 20 or 60 gig iPod (nee Photo), and the 1 gig Shuffle got a $20 price cut.
Or better yet, set up those email accounts, post them both at the same time to a blatent spammer scrape zone, and collect stats on which one gets hit forst, and with how much, and with what kind of spam. I'm curious to see how many minutes / hours it would take for an aaa.. address to get the same spam as a zzz.. address.
It'd be nice if they did pay me, what with me being out of work and all. Just some honest praise for a useful site... not that I'd turn down an offer of a little compensation for linking to them from my cafepress stores;)
Slashdot Mirror
A few months back, I got a gig working for a school district. They provide all their techs with Dell Axims runnning the PocketPC OS. I took it with me out on my first runs, and started using it's Notepad to scribble down some things I needed to remember - like IP numbers, teacher names and room numbers, computers that I had to fix - the same way I used to use my dear old Newt2100. No resolving, just straight "ink" scribbbles. I opened my notes later, and found that my scribbles had been re-arranged on the page - words moved, numbers scrambled, and in some cases, data completely deleted.
The next day, I showed up with my Newton, and I have never lost another single scribbled note. I haven't touched the Axim to take another note since. I still keep it charged up and stuffed in a pocket for wireless stuff, since my Newton only does 64 bit encryption, and the schools use 128, but that's the only use I have for that thing.
I've had that page linked since St. Helen's started rumbling last year. Of course, now that it's finally doing something worth watching again, the cam's conked out. *sigh*
I currently have Comcast Cable... When multiple people are online, this effectively can go as low as 1.5 megabits or worse depending on what they are doing. Sometimes if the are uploading stuff or using bittorrent, my connection can really lag ass.
I have Comcast, and had signed up for Vonage. I had lousy connectivity, and scrapped my service. I found out after the fact that if there's p2p traffic on the wire (from one of my computers *or not*), my transfer speeds go to crap - as bad as 56k upload speeds and 400k downloads.
I've just discovered that my local phone monopoly upgraded service in my area, and I can get DSL... it's looking like more of an option, since they offer the option to host servers at home, unlike cable. Yeah, dyndns, I know - but it's a violation of cable ToS, and seeing that they'll already cripple my service for something that I'm not doing, why risk it.
What kind of name is ZugZugDaboo for a human? :) Chipok is my alternate online name, for when someone's already grabbed Zaren. It's a word I learned from my father, that (according to memory) refers to sandhill cranes.
He wrote urban dead too? Nifty. I totally agree with your comment - I didn't see the point at first, but after giving it a few days, it's quite addictive. Even more so if you dig into the wiki and dig into the history and the community that's grown up around it, and play as a human for a while and get into the roleplaying...
:)
Just be nice to me if you run across me - I'm either Chipok or ZugZugDaboo, depending on if I'nm trying to survive as either a zombie or a human, respectively
I was going to suggest Levy books, but it's nice to see someone beat me to them :) Elsewise in the history section, I would highly recommend "Where Wizards Stay Up Late" by Katie Hafner. It's a history of the foundation of the Internet - and I'm not talking about the Web and AOL, I'm talking about MIT and BBN and DARPA and 56k *backbones*. Very good read.
I've poked around in the .Mac pages, but see no reference to getting a free .Mac IM account. Haven't done 10.4.3 yet, so could you provide more info about this feature?
We swtiched over to SBC for our landline to save a few bucks a month, because we're in a multi-provider dead zone where I live out in the 'burbs of the 'burbs (plus, my wife hates cell phones). I tried to sign up with DSL from SBC at the same time as the landline signup - they don't run DSL to my address. Nobody does. (Well, Speakeasy managed to find someone to do it back in the dot-com daze, but it was over $100 a month for 144k IDSL, and my work covered the bill.)
So I can safely say to Mr. Dinosaur at SBC - I'll never pay to download stuff over your pipes! You can't make me! Ha ha ha!
"Commissioner Kevin Cramer said he does not believe the law applies to people who sell their own goods over eBay, but it could cover those who sell property consigned by others for a fee."
In other words, he's not sure exactly what it covers, but he's backing it anyway.
Well, I haven't bought a CD this year so far, but I'm looking at buying a few for the missuz for Christmas (like I usually do). Pirating music? Nope. Downloading from iTunes? Nope. Listening to satellite radio? Nope. There's just no new music out there worth spending the money or time on. In fact, I just re-discovered my old Dream Theater cds and am working on ruining my voice again trying to sing along :)
And in those two hours of TV you watch on average, FOURTY MINUTES of commercials for diet pills, home re-finance schemes, truck ads, penis pills, annoying network news teasers, "amazing new closet organizers", crappy beer, and $200 tennis shoes.
Penis pills, on tv? Dude, I don't want to know what you watch if you're seeing commercials like that.
And no, I don't see commercials for crappy beer and $200 shoes. If I bother to stay in the room during the commericals (and not spend that time talking to the missuz) I'm treated to commercials for tampons and osteoperosis drugs and new medications to control the frequency of your periods.
Needless to say, I don't watch many commercials, what with not being part of the target market and all.
If you only sit down at a TV for two hours a week, why have those two hours be for the random garbage that's on when you happened to sit down?
Because it's not random garbage, it's the same two hours of programming, every week. It's not like I randomly flump down on the couch with the wife and say "Gee, I wonder what's on tv?" - we're sitting down to watch specific shows that are on at specific times, which are conviently programmed to be on at times we can watch them.
Which would you rather do - sit down at a VCR (that you need to make sure you don't fill up, and that you need to rewind) to watch your two shows per week
Well, since I already HAVE the VCR, and it does exactly what you tell me I need a Tivo to do... why not? Why waste the money on more hardware and a subscription to a service I don't need to do something I can already do?
And how worried do you think i'm going to be about filling up a tape if I'm only recording two shows a week?
(EACH week - and now vacations become a problem if you actually follow those shows, because you need to fit everything onto a tape)
So, I could only take a three week vacation before the VCR fills up... I think I could risk it, seeing as how I've never managed to actually take a vacation in the last, oh, ten years or so.
- OR - sit down at your TiVo, see the shows you want, and find out that you also have Blade Runner and five Twilight Zone episodes waiting for you, if you choose to watch them
Why would they be on there if I didn't want to watch them? Yes, I know, Tivo learns... but I don't want something to record even more stuff for me to watch. I want to watch my two shows, and that's it. I don't have time to sloth on the couch and watch more tv.
As an aside, you're missing out by not watching Lost
Well, I'll never know. I saw nothing in any of the promo material from the start of the series that interested me, and now that it's in season 2, I'm not about to start watching it now.
Ok, I'm still stunned there are people who haven't decided to get a TiVo yet in this day and age.
Well, there are still people out there in this day and age that don't watch enough tv to make it worth the expense. I'm one of those people. I watch maybe two HOURS of tv a week. My viewing habits consist of watching two shows in the evening with the wife, and that's about it. We don't have HBO or Showtime... hell, we don't even have premium cable. All we have is minimum service cable, and we wouldn't even have that if they wouldn't charge more for cable internet to non-tv subscribers.
I've never seen an episode of Lost or The Sopranos or Desperate Housewives, I really could care less about American Idol or Fear Factor or Survivor... the only stuff I'd be interested in watching would be on a) Sci-Fi Channel, b) Cartoon Network, or c) Discovery Channel. As it stands, I don't think I'm suffering all that much.
Just my impressions of the list:
:)
And my impressions of your impressions
Captain America
Didn't they do this one and it sucked?
Yeah, back in 91. A lot of movies sucked back then. As did that one.
The Avengers
A facless hero clan. I can't even name a single hero in this group.
Do you mean the West Coast Avengers? Or the East Coast Avengers? Or the Great Lakes Avengers?
Now, I'm not surprised that you can't name any of the Avengers, because there have been so many (and even I don't know who's in the teams now). But seriously, their lineup has included:
Captain America
Thor
The Hulk
The Sub-Mariner
Iron Man
And let's not forget Ant-Man, Hawkeye, and the entire Fantastic Four!
Nick Fury
I guess because the Punisher movie worked so well...
Come on, in this day and age, you think a movie about a super-tough anti-terrorist government agent with tons of nifty guns and gadgets (and a floating fortress) isn't going to play?
Black Panther
Ah, a hero named after a hyper-racist group. I don't see anything wrong with that.
Hey, he was a big deal back in the day, leader of his own country as well as a powerful hero.
Ant-Man
Honey, I shrunk the superhero!
Okay, I've gotta go with you on that one. I see little potential to that movie.
Cloak & Dagger
Not that Cloak was a completely contrived character, or that Dagger wore far too little clothing, but how could this movie possibly be interesting?
A bit more modern spin - she the naive and innocent girl from the good side of the tracks, and he the rough and tough gangsta from the mean streets. Mix in some exotic street drugs, some righteous vengeance, and you've got a winner.
Dr. Strange
Who?
Dr. Stephen Strange, the Master Mystic, the Sorcerer Supreme! All sorts of juicy ghost-busting special-effecty opportunities there.
Hawkeye
Ah, Daredevil without charisma, but empowered with a ridiculous costume.
And don't forget the fancy bow and arrow!
Power Pack
Never heard of them.
Nobody did, and more's the shame. Some decent writing effort went into making and managing the characters in that series. It could be a really good kiddie movie.
Shang-Chi
Is this like the token Asian guy?
Could be. And yet, it could be their excuse for a lovely martial arts wire fest.
Yea I've managed to avoid that so far. My first hint that it was crap was having David Hasslehoff anywhere near the film.
Maybe we were watching different shows, but I thought it was really faithful to the books (which I loved). It was campy, but that's how it needed to be handled. Hasselhoff managed to play ol' Nick really well, and all the elements that made S.H.I.E.L.D. great were there - the Helicarrier, the LMDs, Dum-Dum Duggan... good times.
Thankfully, Marvel is dealing with production personell who have actually made hit movies in the past now, rather than doing direct to DVD crap. Still, I can't figure out how they think Power Pack or Shang-Chi are going to be hits... Iron Fist maybe...
I can actually see Power Pack coming across as a decent kid's movie - maybe a la Toy Story and computer animated to accent the toy look / marketing appeal. I thought that series was always looked down on as just being a "kiddie" book, but there was some decent writing and character development in there.
A movie of The Pitt could be interesting, but probably not in the current "don't nuke major cities" mood of the world...
Never mind K9 coming back, Sarah's coming back!
:)
I would have to assume, however, that this K9 is the one the Doctor left with Sarah back on Earth, and not the one he left with Romana back in N-Space...
why are you looking at me like that? Come adventuring in my D&D world, and you might just find yourself a sonic screwdriver
In the school administration building I work in, they still have a few Win95 machines in active use, along with tons of Win98 machines.
I can still vividly recall playing Pac-Man and Scramble at the local roller rinks, and Donkey Kong and Defender at the front entrance of the local grocery store. I would scrape together all the change I could find just on the off chance my parents would let me hit the arcade at the mall, just to take a whack at Tempest or Spy Hunter.
:D
Space Invaders, Lunar Lander, Omega Race... Rush N' Attack, Yie Ar Kung-Fu, P.O.W.... Ladybug, Tapper, Mappy... yeah, I know my roots.
And thanks to the joys of emulators, I can go back to my roots any time I want!
I concur. I'd never heard of them before this (but have heard of Radiohead, and think they're overrated), so I hit the iTunes music store and checked out their Spiberbait samples, and found them quite good. Better still that I found out I still had two free downloads, so I burned them on Spiderbait. Who'd have thought I'd ever get *musical* advice from slashdot...
Well, to be on topic, I was working for the Indianapolis Public Schools last year supporting their One-To-One program, and they had thousands of iBooks and Powerbooks, as well as a handful of XServes to support them. (Stuff that was paid for, mind you, and not given to the schools.) I'm kind of curious (having not RTFA) where these Linspires are going and what's going to happen with all that laptop gear.
As with many other "advances", this technology isn't targeted towards you, dear parent poster. It's targeted to the user that still has their ISP's home page set as their default, who uses their ISP's email as their only email address, and who cheerfully clicks on the "to unsubscribe, click here" links.
This is meant for those without the technical savvy to install a video card in their computer, or to bother with something as "advanced" as a PVR. It's meant for someone who will just exert themselves enough to sign up for another service and have it handed to them on their existing equipment. If you can sort it all out your way, more power to you. But there's still a ton of computer users out there who can't (or won't), who are happy to let someone else do it for them, and that's why this matters.
Also, there's been some bumping going on it the iPod line - all full-size iPods are now photo capable, you now have a choice of a 20 or 60 gig iPod (nee Photo), and the 1 gig Shuffle got a $20 price cut.
Or better yet, set up those email accounts, post them both at the same time to a blatent spammer scrape zone, and collect stats on which one gets hit forst, and with how much, and with what kind of spam. I'm curious to see how many minutes / hours it would take for an aaa.. address to get the same spam as a zzz.. address.
It'd be nice if they did pay me, what with me being out of work and all. Just some honest praise for a useful site... not that I'd turn down an offer of a little compensation for linking to them from my cafepress stores ;)