I've been running Gentoo for years on at least a box or two. It's nice to be able to compile some things the way you want them, instead of how some dissociated package maintainer thinks you want them.
I generally do a stage 3 install, which goes very quickly. My install goes like this: Boot Knoppix, partition and format, wget the appropriate stage, pipe that directly into tar (skipping the disk), and then do the same with portage. A chroot and some mounting of/proc and such later, simply configure lilo (or grub or whatever), and reboot: Working box, in just slightly longer time than it took to download the binaries.
And since the install procedure is all within Knoppix, one still has a very functional computer to use while all of this is happening.
One side-effect of Gentoo is that one might be lead to configure a bunch of hosts to run distcc to speed up compiles, and that makes compiling other things faster, too -- having a compile farm is handy from time to time for all sorts of stuff unrelated to Gentoo.
Can I sit at the side of a public road and write down the license plate numbers of every car that goes past? Of course.
Can I sit at the side of a public and type the license plate numbers of every car that goes past into a database? Of course -- why wouldn't I be able to do so?
Can I use a computer vision to do the same thing? Doubtless so -- I'm a free person, doing free things in a public space.
Why should it be different for someone under the employ of the State?
The real issue with LCD panels as readers is that they are directional, and contrast varies (sometimes greatly) depending on the viewing angle. This means that each eye sees an image with different contrast (especially when held in portrait mode), which can be very fatiguing.
This is not very much of an issue with IPS panels, as opposed to say a TN panel.
An LCD is not an LCD is not an LCD. I currently sit before a very good IPS display (NEC 2090uxi) and a TN display of the same calibre that most folks have (a random, inexpensive 24" Asus), and the difference in viewing angles is immediately obvious once it is noticed. (Unfortunately, once noticed, it can also never be un-noticed...)
More to the point: When I had the NEC IPS display next to a quality Viewsonic monitor with a Trinitron CRT, I liked them both equally well in terms of viewing angle as neither of them had any issues with having a particular sweet spot to view them from. Indeed, by the time I was off-axis enough for the LCD to start looking meaningfully wrong, I was also getting optical distortion from the thick glass on the CRT.
So. IPS panel in a reader? Please, sign me up. From what I've seen, Apple does a brilliant job with their IPS displays. (And no, I don't own an Apple product and don't really care to, but the displays are fucking gorgeous.)
Back in the day, I had a Zoltrix Nightingale card (actually, I still have it -- all $23 worth of it including the optional TOSLINK module), and was able to do verifiably-correct recording and playback over S/PDIF under Linux and Windows.
The C-Media 8738 chip on that card is simultaneously marvelous in its simplicity and signal routing and lousy for its analog audio quality. As an S/PDIF IO, though, it did just fine. (I bought it specifically to use with an external DAC.)
A bit further back, I was involved with a small studio that had a Lexicon Core2 card which would do exactly as it was told (even if it was wrong), and it also made accurate digital recordings -- 10 channels at a time. That was fun when it worked right, though it was much less-than-fun when the owner recorded a bunch of things incorrectly and I had to patiently explain to him (again) that he and his recordings were fucked.
These days? Meh. It's all blurry, apparently by design. I don't much like it from the purist standpoint, but as a realist I hear (with my own ears) that it's not so bad. Gone, at least, are the ticks-and-pops from mismatched clocks... and we seem to be making up for yesteryear's inefficiency with modern overkill horsepower and vastly improved analog electronics at all levels (including on motherboards -- those little ICs keep getting better).
My X-Fi is said to have one of the best arbitrary sample rate converters around, for instance, though I also understand that the majority of the millions of transistors on the (heatsinked) DSP are dedicated to that task alone. I've done useful and (at the time) modern things with computers that, in total, had fewer transistors than are used for this solitary purpose.
Meh. I doubt many consumer systems have bit-perfect outputs, these days -- it seems there's always something in the loop to screw things up (including volume controls, whether implemented in software or otherwise).
If it actually is a bit-perfect output, then you can take a DTS CD*, play it on the computer over S/PDIF to any modern(ish) AVR, and very simply get 5.1 channels of analog output without additional fuckery. It's a fun test, and I think you'll be surprised at the result: Chances are good that your "bit-perfect" S/PDIF out fails miserably.
Thanks for the input. It'll take me a bit to get my head completely wrapped around the concept, but now that it's in there it's inevitable...
Over the past couple of years, I've had packages delivered by USPS SmartPost, wherein Fedex (or sometimes another carrier) does the long-haul route, and USPS handles local delivery. This seems to work OK (as in: it seems to be able to reliably get things to me), but it's slow (I seem to be far from wherever it is that they transfer packages between companies) and difficult to track. This seems similar in concept, if only so-so in execution.
The greatest problem I see with more (both local and otherwise) DCs is that every time a package gets routed, labor is involved if for no other reason than to pack the truck. This adds up quickly.
Labor could be reduced or eliminated by using standardized packaging and automation, though, with a surcharge for handling irregular packages.
I like the concept a lot. If designed properly the system could be wildly competitive at the local level, which ought to help everyone in the grand scheme of things. I, for instance, would welcome the opportunity to pick up and deliver someone's shopping while I'm driving about for my own purposes, as long as I got paid to do so. And a good system, with sufficient competition, will make sure that it's efficiently routed.
I'm reminded of an episode of Top Gear wherein the daily distribution of home-cooked lunch to workers in India is a Big Deal, and there is an ad-hoc system in place that seems to work very well at getting it all delivered where it goes.
The kiosks weren't so inconvenient or dis-leisurely: They were abundant and substantially built-out, with comfortable chairs and dividers and (at the time) paper catalogs.
Either way, it's all meh to me: I should be in the target market for this service (no bank account, and no desire for one), and I just don't care: I've got a Wal-Mart prepaid Visa that I've used for years to buy things online, and it gets loaded for free whenever I cash a check (which does cost $3, but which I can do 24 hours a day -- unlike at banks here).
Oh, that part: The part where it takes two trips to Wal-Mart and an online order to get anything done, while being unable to place a similar order in the store.
You're right. I did miss that.
FFS, at that point I don't even see the merit of the program: It's not far off from the services that JC Penny used to offer, where you'd order at a kiosk, pay for your stuff, and come back another day to pick it up.
This was, as I recall, a very slow failure over the course of decades. It ramped down at about the same time HSN and QVC ramped up.
Please disregard my argument(s) and instead substitute a random doom-filled rant. Thanks!
I'd expect an online vendor to bring me the best produce and meat that they could, in the interest of keeping my business and warding off bad reviews.
I'm in favor of ridding the shelves of all inedible food to begin with in general, though. Nobody (whether a picker for a delivery service, or a customer inside of bricks-and-mortar) should have to sort through bad food to get to the good stuff.
Bad food does happen (you cannot tell me that you can see within the steak to know whether or not it has an hunk of knotty connective tissue within, nor can you say that you've never bought a wonderful-looking onion only to find it rotten at its core), but I do not believe that anyone should be in the business of selling it on purpose if they want to stay in business.
Grocery stores throw out huge amounts of food every day that has turned south, just to keep their offerings fresh for their customers. I do not see any mechanism by which a delivery service would change that at all if there is any desire for the delivery service to be successful.
(And I'd rather see the best of the less-than-premium selections be donated to food banks, or at least composted, instead of trashed, but that's a different discussion.)
Or use a combination lock that remembers every pending delivery, and has a unique code for each one.
But that's getting pretty complicated getting the authorization correct, even though it does give decent incentive to finally implement IPv6.:)
What I've done in the past, if I'm expecting something expensive, is literally just place a note on the door asking the UPS guy to put the package inside.
He opens my unlocked front door, puts the box in there, and leaves. (He's always taken the note, too.)
For once-in-awhile deliveries, the chances of being robbed (it seems to me) are only reduced by at most, by about 1/365.
Disclaimer: I grew up in a house in a city where we never, ever locked our doors, except the one side door that we never used, which the gas company had their own key for so they could read the meter in the basement. And for the first house that I bought for myself, I never even had a key to the door during the half-decade that I lived there: It was lost, and I never bothered with changing the locks/having a key made/whatever. Never a problem, except when the cheap-shit doorknob would lock itself and I would have to climb onto the roof to get into a window (which any thief could do just as easily).
YMMV, and things have changed somewhat, but I'm not -that- old. I currently have Schlage electronic keypad on my front door, and I'd be pleased to give the code to the UPS/Fedex/USPS guy if they had a system in place to make sure that the driver-of-the-day could use it. Like sysadmins, these are, by default, some of the most trustworthy folks around -- and if they have an eye for pilferage, it's not likely that they'll be around long enough for them to pilfer my things anyway.
All said I'd rather trust the UPS guy with my house, than Random Guy Walking By when he sees a giant black cardboard box on the porch with Alienware written on all sides. If only there were a way to make that happen...
It would be nice if they did a better job than wal-mart and instead of requiring photo-id to pick-up a cash purchase, they will just give you a receipt that can be exchanged for the product when it comes in, regardless of who holds the receipt.
Why bother with either one? Just let the customer say "I'm here to pick up order number 302-333-3331", take their cash, and be done. And if they don't know the order number, then simply offer the customer the option of looking it up based on an ID (or a phone number, or both, or whatever).
Where's the harm in it? It's just like picking up take-out food that you've ordered in advance, but not yet paid for: Sure, someone can "take" your food, but it is damn-near certain that they'd rather spend their own money on something they actually want to eat instead of whatever it is that you ordered for yourself.
(Unless it's someone fucking with you, just to fuck with you. And then you've got bigger things to worry about.)
Who are you censoring yourself for? Can't you just use the word? And if you don't want to use the word due to some sense of moral obligation, can't you come up with some better verbiage?
More to the point: On what planet would "fuck" be deemed offensive, but "f_ck" be perfectly OK?
Real farmers who really care for the land can push a plow behind and ox. Real carpenters can make furniture entirely by hand. Luddites always say such things.
Automation makes life better, because it lets you spend your time on what you actually care about in your life, rather than force you to be a specialist in everything you need.
If you don't actually care about trading stocks, then perhaps you should hire a specialist to do it for you -- much as you might hire a carpenter to build furniture.
If the problem is (or ever was) available manpower vs. an ever-increasing web, I've just got to say that Yahoo has grown so large that it's difficult to see how such a directory could not be maintained properly.
Slashdot Mirror
I've been running Gentoo for years on at least a box or two. It's nice to be able to compile some things the way you want them, instead of how some dissociated package maintainer thinks you want them.
I generally do a stage 3 install, which goes very quickly. My install goes like this: Boot Knoppix, partition and format, wget the appropriate stage, pipe that directly into tar (skipping the disk), and then do the same with portage. A chroot and some mounting of /proc and such later, simply configure lilo (or grub or whatever), and reboot: Working box, in just slightly longer time than it took to download the binaries.
And since the install procedure is all within Knoppix, one still has a very functional computer to use while all of this is happening.
One side-effect of Gentoo is that one might be lead to configure a bunch of hosts to run distcc to speed up compiles, and that makes compiling other things faster, too -- having a compile farm is handy from time to time for all sorts of stuff unrelated to Gentoo.
Can I sit at the side of a public road and write down the license plate numbers of every car that goes past? Of course.
Can I sit at the side of a public and type the license plate numbers of every car that goes past into a database? Of course -- why wouldn't I be able to do so?
Can I use a computer vision to do the same thing? Doubtless so -- I'm a free person, doing free things in a public space.
Why should it be different for someone under the employ of the State?
Ew.
This is not very much of an issue with IPS panels, as opposed to say a TN panel.
An LCD is not an LCD is not an LCD. I currently sit before a very good IPS display (NEC 2090uxi) and a TN display of the same calibre that most folks have (a random, inexpensive 24" Asus), and the difference in viewing angles is immediately obvious once it is noticed. (Unfortunately, once noticed, it can also never be un-noticed...)
More to the point: When I had the NEC IPS display next to a quality Viewsonic monitor with a Trinitron CRT, I liked them both equally well in terms of viewing angle as neither of them had any issues with having a particular sweet spot to view them from. Indeed, by the time I was off-axis enough for the LCD to start looking meaningfully wrong, I was also getting optical distortion from the thick glass on the CRT.
So. IPS panel in a reader? Please, sign me up. From what I've seen, Apple does a brilliant job with their IPS displays. (And no, I don't own an Apple product and don't really care to, but the displays are fucking gorgeous.)
Yep.
Back in the day, I had a Zoltrix Nightingale card (actually, I still have it -- all $23 worth of it including the optional TOSLINK module), and was able to do verifiably-correct recording and playback over S/PDIF under Linux and Windows.
The C-Media 8738 chip on that card is simultaneously marvelous in its simplicity and signal routing and lousy for its analog audio quality. As an S/PDIF IO, though, it did just fine. (I bought it specifically to use with an external DAC.)
A bit further back, I was involved with a small studio that had a Lexicon Core2 card which would do exactly as it was told (even if it was wrong), and it also made accurate digital recordings -- 10 channels at a time. That was fun when it worked right, though it was much less-than-fun when the owner recorded a bunch of things incorrectly and I had to patiently explain to him (again) that he and his recordings were fucked.
These days? Meh. It's all blurry, apparently by design. I don't much like it from the purist standpoint, but as a realist I hear (with my own ears) that it's not so bad. Gone, at least, are the ticks-and-pops from mismatched clocks... and we seem to be making up for yesteryear's inefficiency with modern overkill horsepower and vastly improved analog electronics at all levels (including on motherboards -- those little ICs keep getting better).
My X-Fi is said to have one of the best arbitrary sample rate converters around, for instance, though I also understand that the majority of the millions of transistors on the (heatsinked) DSP are dedicated to that task alone. I've done useful and (at the time) modern things with computers that, in total, had fewer transistors than are used for this solitary purpose.
Meh. I doubt many consumer systems have bit-perfect outputs, these days -- it seems there's always something in the loop to screw things up (including volume controls, whether implemented in software or otherwise).
If it actually is a bit-perfect output, then you can take a DTS CD*, play it on the computer over S/PDIF to any modern(ish) AVR, and very simply get 5.1 channels of analog output without additional fuckery. It's a fun test, and I think you'll be surprised at the result: Chances are good that your "bit-perfect" S/PDIF out fails miserably.
*: Yes, these exist. They're fairly neat.
Thanks for the input. It'll take me a bit to get my head completely wrapped around the concept, but now that it's in there it's inevitable...
Over the past couple of years, I've had packages delivered by USPS SmartPost, wherein Fedex (or sometimes another carrier) does the long-haul route, and USPS handles local delivery. This seems to work OK (as in: it seems to be able to reliably get things to me), but it's slow (I seem to be far from wherever it is that they transfer packages between companies) and difficult to track. This seems similar in concept, if only so-so in execution.
The greatest problem I see with more (both local and otherwise) DCs is that every time a package gets routed, labor is involved if for no other reason than to pack the truck. This adds up quickly.
Labor could be reduced or eliminated by using standardized packaging and automation, though, with a surcharge for handling irregular packages.
I like the concept a lot. If designed properly the system could be wildly competitive at the local level, which ought to help everyone in the grand scheme of things. I, for instance, would welcome the opportunity to pick up and deliver someone's shopping while I'm driving about for my own purposes, as long as I got paid to do so. And a good system, with sufficient competition, will make sure that it's efficiently routed.
I'm reminded of an episode of Top Gear wherein the daily distribution of home-cooked lunch to workers in India is a Big Deal, and there is an ad-hoc system in place that seems to work very well at getting it all delivered where it goes.
I think the part I'm missing is any similarity between the merits industrial automation, and those of high-frequency trading.
Good call.
Funny: I bought a foam mattress a few years ago.
I did my research, went to Wal-Mart, bought one, loaded it up (it actually fit into my 3-series BMW without too much drama), and used it.
WTF? Over.
Oh. Y_o got me on that one: I didn't _nderstand that we were still doing that.
D_ly noted. I won't make this mistake in the f_t_re, I ass_re you.
The kiosks weren't so inconvenient or dis-leisurely: They were abundant and substantially built-out, with comfortable chairs and dividers and (at the time) paper catalogs.
Either way, it's all meh to me: I should be in the target market for this service (no bank account, and no desire for one), and I just don't care: I've got a Wal-Mart prepaid Visa that I've used for years to buy things online, and it gets loaded for free whenever I cash a check (which does cost $3, but which I can do 24 hours a day -- unlike at banks here).
Oh, that part: The part where it takes two trips to Wal-Mart and an online order to get anything done, while being unable to place a similar order in the store.
You're right. I did miss that.
FFS, at that point I don't even see the merit of the program: It's not far off from the services that JC Penny used to offer, where you'd order at a kiosk, pay for your stuff, and come back another day to pick it up.
This was, as I recall, a very slow failure over the course of decades. It ramped down at about the same time HSN and QVC ramped up.
Please disregard my argument(s) and instead substitute a random doom-filled rant. Thanks!
I understand that just fine.
Which part of my post don't you understand?
A little bit of faith:
I'd expect an online vendor to bring me the best produce and meat that they could, in the interest of keeping my business and warding off bad reviews.
I'm in favor of ridding the shelves of all inedible food to begin with in general, though. Nobody (whether a picker for a delivery service, or a customer inside of bricks-and-mortar) should have to sort through bad food to get to the good stuff.
Bad food does happen (you cannot tell me that you can see within the steak to know whether or not it has an hunk of knotty connective tissue within, nor can you say that you've never bought a wonderful-looking onion only to find it rotten at its core), but I do not believe that anyone should be in the business of selling it on purpose if they want to stay in business.
Grocery stores throw out huge amounts of food every day that has turned south, just to keep their offerings fresh for their customers. I do not see any mechanism by which a delivery service would change that at all if there is any desire for the delivery service to be successful.
(And I'd rather see the best of the less-than-premium selections be donated to food banks, or at least composted, instead of trashed, but that's a different discussion.)
Or use a combination lock that remembers every pending delivery, and has a unique code for each one.
But that's getting pretty complicated getting the authorization correct, even though it does give decent incentive to finally implement IPv6. :)
What I've done in the past, if I'm expecting something expensive, is literally just place a note on the door asking the UPS guy to put the package inside.
He opens my unlocked front door, puts the box in there, and leaves. (He's always taken the note, too.)
For once-in-awhile deliveries, the chances of being robbed (it seems to me) are only reduced by at most, by about 1/365.
Disclaimer: I grew up in a house in a city where we never, ever locked our doors, except the one side door that we never used, which the gas company had their own key for so they could read the meter in the basement. And for the first house that I bought for myself, I never even had a key to the door during the half-decade that I lived there: It was lost, and I never bothered with changing the locks/having a key made/whatever. Never a problem, except when the cheap-shit doorknob would lock itself and I would have to climb onto the roof to get into a window (which any thief could do just as easily).
YMMV, and things have changed somewhat, but I'm not -that- old. I currently have Schlage electronic keypad on my front door, and I'd be pleased to give the code to the UPS/Fedex/USPS guy if they had a system in place to make sure that the driver-of-the-day could use it. Like sysadmins, these are, by default, some of the most trustworthy folks around -- and if they have an eye for pilferage, it's not likely that they'll be around long enough for them to pilfer my things anyway.
All said I'd rather trust the UPS guy with my house, than Random Guy Walking By when he sees a giant black cardboard box on the porch with Alienware written on all sides. If only there were a way to make that happen...
Why bother with either one? Just let the customer say "I'm here to pick up order number 302-333-3331", take their cash, and be done. And if they don't know the order number, then simply offer the customer the option of looking it up based on an ID (or a phone number, or both, or whatever).
Where's the harm in it? It's just like picking up take-out food that you've ordered in advance, but not yet paid for: Sure, someone can "take" your food, but it is damn-near certain that they'd rather spend their own money on something they actually want to eat instead of whatever it is that you ordered for yourself.
(Unless it's someone fucking with you, just to fuck with you. And then you've got bigger things to worry about.)
But: They should. That's what we hire them for.
Who are you censoring yourself for? Can't you just use the word? And if you don't want to use the word due to some sense of moral obligation, can't you come up with some better verbiage?
More to the point: On what planet would "fuck" be deemed offensive, but "f_ck" be perfectly OK?
If you don't actually care about trading stocks, then perhaps you should hire a specialist to do it for you -- much as you might hire a carpenter to build furniture.
If the problem is (or ever was) available manpower vs. an ever-increasing web, I've just got to say that Yahoo has grown so large that it's difficult to see how such a directory could not be maintained properly.
Wish I had mod points, but instead I'll just say "thanks."
So, thanks. That brings Google closer to the level of usefulness that it used to have.
Remarkably, it held up just fine.
(as a corollary, it may be interesting to point out that an uncle of mine was responsible for producing the Winnebago prop in Space Balls.)
Meth labs on Mars? Where are the farms that it will steal the ammonia nitrate from?