I found a stack of 8-track players at a store-closing sale at an old Radio Shack, all new in box, just a few years ago. They were still priced in 1980s dollars.
I went back the next day to buy them, and (predictably) they were already gone.
It's not hyperbole; it's opinion. Don't worry - you're entitled to yours, too, no matter what the crackhead moderators think. I'm eager to hear what you have to say.
In my fantasy land, I'm happy to see that Joe, the bum, gets treatment for his cancer. I think health care is a basic service which should be provided to everyone at minimal or zero direct cost, much like roads, traffic signals, crime prevention/justice, and fire services are. I guess I don't care if it really should cost 10 million dollars to get lousy odds at fixing up Joe's cancer...but I also think that health care in general is corrupted by greed and that most every treatment is overpriced.
For example: A few years ago, I had mono. It was misdiagnosed at a clinic, and I was wrongly prescribed antibiotics (which don't do anything but make it worse). These things happen, of course. Eventually, a day or so later, my fever got genuinely scary, I ended up at the ER. There, the doctor promptly and correctly diagnosed my condition as mono, and I was admitted.
It cost me $8,000 per day to stay in that hospital.
For that price, I got a clean bed, some intravenous fluid, some ibuprofen, and a small amount of very bland food. I also got visits from their in-house doctor, about once a day, but that was billed separately.
I was uninsured at the time, but making enough money that I didn't qualify for any sort of reduction in price.
And since I'm by no means rich, I'm still paying that bill. And it is absurd that it was so expensive. I didn't get any advanced treatments, or use any fancy equipment -- it was basically like a 3-star hotel with room service, a glucose drip, and a motorized bed, but with no swimming pool and limited access to everything, including the lousy room service, along with upscale penthouse prices.
So, no, I don't want anyone to have to choose to deal with either dieing or being in debt for years at a time (or the rest of their life, whichever comes first). I feel that it's inhumane for such a decision to even be in the cards to begin with.
I think the whole system is fucked. I think that things need to change, drastically. And don't get me wrong: I'm not blind, and I'm not stupid. I, for one, am terrified of the government running health care for us, but I do not see any better way to flush the system except to abolish what we have and start over, and I don't see any productive way to do that which does not involve substantial government intervention and oversight.
However, these days, I have a very good family doctor who has fixed me up a number of different times without fault, and I have insurance that pays for all but a very small portion of what he charges. I don't want to lose that ability to choose my provider.
And I know that the government is generally staffed by lazy inefficient fucks who are incapable of caring about constituents. I'm not very satisfied with any current proposal or rumored utterance, and I'm not very satisfied with my own ideas, either. I just happen to think that it's the best way to proceed out of this sea of ugliness that we call health care, even though it's certain to be imperfect and/or horrific in a number of ways.
Having an organization running things which is motivated by something other than shareholder profit is, I think, a good start. I think that it's unfortunate that the only such organization that I'm aware of that has enough weight to accomplish this is called the Federal Government of the United States of America.
Sadly, the box is indeed gone. I did fire off some hatemail to Stant regarding the incident, however, though I don't expect a reply for a couple more days since I sent it late on a Friday.
In it, I told them I was going to do a writeup on BMW thermostat replacement for a few online enthusiast forums, and I asked that they explain the situation so that I can address it fairly. Hopefully, that's enough to get them to explain the incongruity, and/or give me a new thermostat for my 1979 Firebird.;)
Oh, please. We deserve pay-through-the-nose private health care for everyone who manages to work hard enough -- we've earned it!
Capitalism FTW!!!!1!!!, er sth.
(I write this as I contemplate calling a surgeon about a half dozen or so lypomas that have grown since the last time I had some excised. They're probably nothing, but there's a significant chance that they're a horrible cancer that will kill me in a hurry. So great it is, living as a tax-paying, insurance-card-holding American, that I must contemplate having these things looked at before actually doing it. Yeah.)
Naw, I believe you just fine. The patent is yours. Please think of me in your future. (I prefer German hotrods, hookers, and blow, in that order, for whatever it's worth.)
I really don't see it as a problem:
Admin: Why does your box hit our DNS server on port 3324 every evening around six? User: Well, that's just what Starcraft does. Sometimes I wind down with a round or two with Steve over there when we're done for the day. Admin: Oh. Yeah, I've seen similar stuff at home. User: *nod* Admin: Did you win?
On a gaming-allowed network, I submit that things are loose enough for this to be a non-issue -- LAN games poke at all kinds of things, almost as a rule, to simplify hooking up with the guy across the room. Meanwhile, with a heavily-locked-down-and-monitored network, not so much leniency would be expected -- but then, one probably shouldn't be playing Starcraft with company resources if one isn't permitted to do so.
I, the network admin at our small shop where I personally know all of my users, probably won't even notice. The admins at the couple of fortune-500 clients that we have probably would notice, but then, games aren't allowed on their networks anyway.
I still have a vintage 1997 Cirque Glidepoint (what you whipper-snappers might call a "trackpad"). It works fine on any surface, and takes up a whole lot less room than a typical trackball.
There's a ? icon right next to the drop-down list. This pops up a little help screen, which actually has more information about Gizmo on it than it does anything else.
You connect to battle.net and start a game; your roommate (on the same NATted LAN) does the same.
Your battle.net client knows that it is 10.0.0.1. Your roommate's client knows that it is 10.0.0.2. You're both on the same LAN; the same unmanaged switch, even. Meanwhile, Blizzard sees you both as 12.64.123.5.
With me so far?
You start a game. Your roommate joins.
Then, you, 10.0.0.1, issue a cryptographic challenge (determined and distributed by Blizzard) to 10.0.0.2. If it hits and matches, you get a local game authenticated by Battle.net and get to be all low-latency and LOLz.
If it the challenge isn't met, then it's only because those particular 10.0.0.1 and 10.0.0.2 addresses can't talk to eachother some reason (ranging from your personal firewalls being gorfed, or being on independent 10.x.x.x subnets on opposite sides of the globe, or whatever). And then, simply, you still get to play through Blizzard's servers...because that's the best you'll be able to do in a world of firewalls and NAT, anyway.
I'm sure, however, that it doesn't work this way. But it should. (And if I had my wits about me, I'd be talking to a patent attorney right now instead of writing about it on Slashdot.)
Hey, now. My usual hours are something like 10am-3pm.
Does this mean that all I have to do to get a private jet and a shapely 5'3" "personal assistant" is start hating on competition and underlings on a regular basis, and fire random folks for no reason from time to time?
Not to muddy the water here (since I generally agree with your argument), but: Google Voice does support VOIP using Gizmo, and until fairly recently could be talked into connecting to random SIP clients.
Of course (and AFAICT), there's no Gizmo for the iPhone. Still, though, at least pedantically: It's not entirely true that GV does not (or cannot) use VOIP.
That's OK -- you'll likely be buying Chinese stuff anyway.
I bought a new thermostat for my car today from the local big-chain auto parts store. A quality Stant unit, at a quality price. Printed on the box it said "Made in USA" in about six different languages, but on the thermostat itself, stamped right into the metal, were the words "Made in China."
I'd have returned it, on this basis alone, but it was the only thermostat in stock in this town which would work with my old BMW, and I needed to get it fixed today.
Adding an extra letter (or two) and turning things lower case (or, better, case-insensitive) would be an absolute fucking boon for brevity and verbal communication of Web things.
Oh, sure. I can make a link out of it, which works fine on a web forum, but does not fucking work on a telephone or a newletter or a postcard or...
"Yeah, Jeff. Amazon's taking preorders on Windows 7. Can you believe how much they want for that shit? No, really: Just go to double-yoo-double-you-double-you dot amazon dot com forward slash gee pee forward slash product forward slash capitol b zero zero two dee aitch ell vee eight five forward slash are eee eff equals-sign ess nine underscore ess eye emm zee underscore gw underscore ess eight underscore pee sixty-five underscore eye one questionmark pee eff underscore are dee underscore[...], and see for yourself."
Yeah. Sure. That's so much easier than saying it like "Yeah, Jeff. Amazon's taking preorders on Windows 7. Can you believe how much they want for that shit? No, really: Just go to tr.im/wHMJ and see for yourself"
(I'd write a conclusion here, but really don't think my point needs one.)
I try to keep at least a few hundred bucks on me whenever I can. No particular reason for it, except that it's handy to have, and it spends everywhere.
Is there anything the BBC can do, that a cheap microcontroller cannot in terms of (say) irrigation control?
If you're driving the thing from a wind turbine, obviously power consumption is a big concern. A big PCB full of TTL ICs is going to be a lot less efficient than a single-package microcontroller.
Slashdot Mirror
I found a stack of 8-track players at a store-closing sale at an old Radio Shack, all new in box, just a few years ago. They were still priced in 1980s dollars.
I went back the next day to buy them, and (predictably) they were already gone.
If we're still fucking stuck with SATA 15 years from now, I'm leaving. I'm fucking serious.
It's not hyperbole; it's opinion. Don't worry - you're entitled to yours, too, no matter what the crackhead moderators think. I'm eager to hear what you have to say.
In my fantasy land, I'm happy to see that Joe, the bum, gets treatment for his cancer. I think health care is a basic service which should be provided to everyone at minimal or zero direct cost, much like roads, traffic signals, crime prevention/justice, and fire services are. I guess I don't care if it really should cost 10 million dollars to get lousy odds at fixing up Joe's cancer...but I also think that health care in general is corrupted by greed and that most every treatment is overpriced.
For example: A few years ago, I had mono. It was misdiagnosed at a clinic, and I was wrongly prescribed antibiotics (which don't do anything but make it worse). These things happen, of course. Eventually, a day or so later, my fever got genuinely scary, I ended up at the ER. There, the doctor promptly and correctly diagnosed my condition as mono, and I was admitted.
It cost me $8,000 per day to stay in that hospital.
For that price, I got a clean bed, some intravenous fluid, some ibuprofen, and a small amount of very bland food. I also got visits from their in-house doctor, about once a day, but that was billed separately.
I was uninsured at the time, but making enough money that I didn't qualify for any sort of reduction in price.
And since I'm by no means rich, I'm still paying that bill. And it is absurd that it was so expensive. I didn't get any advanced treatments, or use any fancy equipment -- it was basically like a 3-star hotel with room service, a glucose drip, and a motorized bed, but with no swimming pool and limited access to everything, including the lousy room service, along with upscale penthouse prices.
So, no, I don't want anyone to have to choose to deal with either dieing or being in debt for years at a time (or the rest of their life, whichever comes first). I feel that it's inhumane for such a decision to even be in the cards to begin with.
I think the whole system is fucked. I think that things need to change, drastically. And don't get me wrong: I'm not blind, and I'm not stupid. I, for one, am terrified of the government running health care for us, but I do not see any better way to flush the system except to abolish what we have and start over, and I don't see any productive way to do that which does not involve substantial government intervention and oversight.
However, these days, I have a very good family doctor who has fixed me up a number of different times without fault, and I have insurance that pays for all but a very small portion of what he charges. I don't want to lose that ability to choose my provider.
And I know that the government is generally staffed by lazy inefficient fucks who are incapable of caring about constituents. I'm not very satisfied with any current proposal or rumored utterance, and I'm not very satisfied with my own ideas, either. I just happen to think that it's the best way to proceed out of this sea of ugliness that we call health care, even though it's certain to be imperfect and/or horrific in a number of ways.
Having an organization running things which is motivated by something other than shareholder profit is, I think, a good start. I think that it's unfortunate that the only such organization that I'm aware of that has enough weight to accomplish this is called the Federal Government of the United States of America.
Tradeoffs, indeed. *sigh*
Right on.
I, for one, want to bring Nanny up on abuse charges. I want CASA supervision of Nanny.
Sadly, the box is indeed gone. I did fire off some hatemail to Stant regarding the incident, however, though I don't expect a reply for a couple more days since I sent it late on a Friday.
In it, I told them I was going to do a writeup on BMW thermostat replacement for a few online enthusiast forums, and I asked that they explain the situation so that I can address it fairly. Hopefully, that's enough to get them to explain the incongruity, and/or give me a new thermostat for my 1979 Firebird. ;)
I think that given a choice between sickness and health, everyone should be free and able to choose health without severe personal consequence.
Even you. Or Joe the bum. Or anyone else.
That's just my opinion. Feel free to disagree.
Oh, please. We deserve pay-through-the-nose private health care for everyone who manages to work hard enough -- we've earned it!
Capitalism FTW!!!!1!!!, er sth.
(I write this as I contemplate calling a surgeon about a half dozen or so lypomas that have grown since the last time I had some excised. They're probably nothing, but there's a significant chance that they're a horrible cancer that will kill me in a hurry. So great it is, living as a tax-paying, insurance-card-holding American, that I must contemplate having these things looked at before actually doing it. Yeah.)
Precisely.
Naw, I believe you just fine. The patent is yours. Please think of me in your future. (I prefer German hotrods, hookers, and blow, in that order, for whatever it's worth.)
I really don't see it as a problem:
Admin: Why does your box hit our DNS server on port 3324 every evening around six?
User: Well, that's just what Starcraft does. Sometimes I wind down with a round or two with Steve over there when we're done for the day.
Admin: Oh. Yeah, I've seen similar stuff at home.
User: *nod*
Admin: Did you win?
On a gaming-allowed network, I submit that things are loose enough for this to be a non-issue -- LAN games poke at all kinds of things, almost as a rule, to simplify hooking up with the guy across the room. Meanwhile, with a heavily-locked-down-and-monitored network, not so much leniency would be expected -- but then, one probably shouldn't be playing Starcraft with company resources if one isn't permitted to do so.
I, the network admin at our small shop where I personally know all of my users, probably won't even notice. The admins at the couple of fortune-500 clients that we have probably would notice, but then, games aren't allowed on their networks anyway.
*shrug*
I still have a vintage 1997 Cirque Glidepoint (what you whipper-snappers might call a "trackpad"). It works fine on any surface, and takes up a whole lot less room than a typical trackball.
Hidden?
When I click on "Add Phone," I get four options:
Mobile
Work
Home
Gizmo
There's a ? icon right next to the drop-down list. This pops up a little help screen, which actually has more information about Gizmo on it than it does anything else.
So, again: Hidden? Easter egg?
How about: Properly supported and in-your-face?
It's easier than that.
You connect to battle.net and start a game; your roommate (on the same NATted LAN) does the same.
Your battle.net client knows that it is 10.0.0.1. Your roommate's client knows that it is 10.0.0.2. You're both on the same LAN; the same unmanaged switch, even. Meanwhile, Blizzard sees you both as 12.64.123.5.
With me so far?
You start a game. Your roommate joins.
Then, you, 10.0.0.1, issue a cryptographic challenge (determined and distributed by Blizzard) to 10.0.0.2. If it hits and matches, you get a local game authenticated by Battle.net and get to be all low-latency and LOLz.
If it the challenge isn't met, then it's only because those particular 10.0.0.1 and 10.0.0.2 addresses can't talk to eachother some reason (ranging from your personal firewalls being gorfed, or being on independent 10.x.x.x subnets on opposite sides of the globe, or whatever). And then, simply, you still get to play through Blizzard's servers...because that's the best you'll be able to do in a world of firewalls and NAT, anyway.
I'm sure, however, that it doesn't work this way. But it should. (And if I had my wits about me, I'd be talking to a patent attorney right now instead of writing about it on Slashdot.)
Oh.
Hey, now. My usual hours are something like 10am-3pm.
Does this mean that all I have to do to get a private jet and a shapely 5'3" "personal assistant" is start hating on competition and underlings on a regular basis, and fire random folks for no reason from time to time?
I can handle that. Where do I sign up?
Not to muddy the water here (since I generally agree with your argument), but: Google Voice does support VOIP using Gizmo, and until fairly recently could be talked into connecting to random SIP clients.
Of course (and AFAICT), there's no Gizmo for the iPhone. Still, though, at least pedantically: It's not entirely true that GV does not (or cannot) use VOIP.
Didn't Logitech make a mouse that worked on "any surface" about five fucking years ago?
*puzzle*
That's OK -- you'll likely be buying Chinese stuff anyway.
I bought a new thermostat for my car today from the local big-chain auto parts store. A quality Stant unit, at a quality price. Printed on the box it said "Made in USA" in about six different languages, but on the thermostat itself, stamped right into the metal, were the words "Made in China."
I'd have returned it, on this basis alone, but it was the only thermostat in stock in this town which would work with my old BMW, and I needed to get it fixed today.
I think you mis-translated the Chinglish warning, which should read "Do clothes the wearing while iron not!"
Hope this helps.
Hear, hear.
I second the motion.
(And, no, I don't know of any.)
Adding an extra letter (or two) and turning things lower case (or, better, case-insensitive) would be an absolute fucking boon for brevity and verbal communication of Web things.
Case in point:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002DHLV8S/ref=s9_simz_gw_s8_p65_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=10Y89T4V261QMCTNJ4VJ&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846
Oh, sure. I can make a link out of it, which works fine on a web forum, but does not fucking work on a telephone or a newletter or a postcard or...
"Yeah, Jeff. Amazon's taking preorders on Windows 7. Can you believe how much they want for that shit? No, really: Just go to double-yoo-double-you-double-you dot amazon dot com forward slash gee pee forward slash product forward slash capitol b zero zero two dee aitch ell vee eight five forward slash are eee eff equals-sign ess nine underscore ess eye emm zee underscore gw underscore ess eight underscore pee sixty-five underscore eye one questionmark pee eff underscore are dee underscore[...], and see for yourself."
Yeah. Sure. That's so much easier than saying it like "Yeah, Jeff. Amazon's taking preorders on Windows 7. Can you believe how much they want for that shit? No, really: Just go to tr.im/wHMJ and see for yourself"
(I'd write a conclusion here, but really don't think my point needs one.)
I find that a layer or two of red 3M vinyl electrical tape works wonders at calming down blue LEDs, while still maintaining their general utility.
Green tape works pretty good on overly-bright red LEDs. And so on.
[citation needed]
I try to keep at least a few hundred bucks on me whenever I can. No particular reason for it, except that it's handy to have, and it spends everywhere.
Is there anything the BBC can do, that a cheap microcontroller cannot in terms of (say) irrigation control?
If you're driving the thing from a wind turbine, obviously power consumption is a big concern. A big PCB full of TTL ICs is going to be a lot less efficient than a single-package microcontroller.
So, really (in all seriousness): Why bother?
Do you expect perfection? Cuz, I mean: We're a long way from CSI's enhance button.