I considered submitting this story yesterday but thought that someone else already did.
Looking around the offices in the past 5 years I'm seeing less and less people using Palm's and those that are have the old Vx's or 50x series. Almost everyone who has a PDA these days has a PocketPC. Even I moved from a Vx to an iPaq and probably won't go back.
If I did then it would be if
Support of the fields that Outlook has is better than on a PocketPC. Sure I can install another application (KeySuite) but then I can't integrate that data with other applications.
A decent today screen with plugins. I don't want something flexible that allows me to define what my today screen shows and the order that it shows it.
Continious syncing. This is a big one for me. If I take my PDA out of the cradle then I want to know that it is up-to date at that very moment in time. This is especially important when I have someone else managing my diary so I don't necessarily know when I have to sync. I do not want to have to remember to press the "sync" button 5 minutes before I want to take the PDA to a meeting.
Palm kind of remind me of Apple, in the sense that they have only a few people making their hardware. Microsoft on the other hand has a large number of hardware manufacturers which means that they are pushing the specifications further and quicker than Palm are.
Camera, Bluetooth, wireless networking - all came from the PocketPC first because there was competition from the hardware manufacturers to differentiate their product from others. With Palm, there isn't quite so much of a need and so I get the feeling they're playing catch up (even though their screen resolution is better than the PocketPC's - but still no virtual grafitti area)
I read that the main problem was that even when the operators knew it was a scam, their rules stated that they must finish the call.
So for an effective short term solution change these rules so that any operator who believes that it's a scam can (after some procedures have been followed) terminate the call.
I'm all for alternative solutions too, but this will make some headway into solving the issue. After the scammers know that you'll terminate the call as soon as it becomes evident then they'll look elsewhere.
So when I learned vi, I could use the knowledge on every Unix system I've ever been on. That alone makes it more useful than JOE.
Well yes, but just because it is everywhere doesn't mean you have to use it all the time.
I know how to use Vi, I think it's worth learning when you don't have anything else - but i'll be damned if I'm going to use Vi on a perminant basis if I am able to install something else.
Use Vi when you have no choice, use your favourite when you do.
And as a consumer it is nice to find sites that require software that I cannot install since I use Linux.
If you use an operating system that commands less than 1% of total market share and cannot view a format that is viewable by 92% of the market share you have to, sadly, expect that some sacrifices will have to be made.
Yes it sucks, but it's no different from any other markets and life has never been and will never be fair.
The ones that came configured with the sound volume set to 0 by default.
Even better, Mandrake 8 for me, would ask me to insert the next CD into/dev/cdrom and then promptly eject the wrong CD drive.
So of course, I'd put it in the one it opened for me and it would continue to ask me to insert the CD. All sorts of thoughts about me having a broken CD went through my mind before I even considered that I might have to use the other one.
And Linux just sucks at supporting some sound cards. I have an ASUS A7V8X motherboard with a VIA82xxx sound card. I can't get the bastard to work for love nor money.
Oh thank god, there is someone else out there that is having this problem. I can't get the network to work either.
And don't get me started on my old Hayes Accura external modem. Kudzu picks it up quite happily, but all 3 (3?? Couldn't we just have one that works properly?) of the dialer programs I have installed claim I don't have such a modem. At least I got somewhere with Redhat, Mandrake's dialer software just crashed on me with an error message I didn't understand.
Until I can get on the Internet under Linux, it's just not going to be "ready" for me.
How is it a 'scoop' if the news/story/whatever is innacurate? I could scoop ALL the major news sources just by making up crap stories featuring the right players.
If thats the case, I'm off to submit some news:
Here are your recent submissions to Slashdot, and their status within the system:
2003-04-19 20:29:00 Linus admits that Linux security.c file stolen from unused Microsoft code (articles,linux) (pending)
2003-04-19 20:31:10 RIAA sues music pirate, settles for custody of ship (articles,your rights online) (pending)
2003-04-19 20:32:07 SCO voted company Linux kernel hackers would most like to work for (articles,sco) (pending)
approach to fighting spam. Your idea will not work. Here is why it won't work. (One or more of the following may apply to your particular idea, and it may have other flaws which used to vary from state to state before a bad federal law was passed.)
( ) Spammers can easily use it to harvest email addresses ( ) Mailing lists and other legitimate email uses would be affected (x) No one will be able to find the guy or collect the money ( ) It is defenseless against brute force attacks ( ) It will stop spam for two weeks and then we'll be stuck with it ( ) Users of email will not put up with it ( ) Microsoft will not put up with it ( ) The police will not put up with it (x) Requires too much cooperation from spammers (x) Requires immediate total cooperation from everybody at once ( ) Many email users cannot afford to lose business or alienate potential employers ( ) Spammers don't care about invalid addresses in their lists ( ) Anyone could anonymously destroy anyone else's career or business
Specifically, your plan fails to account for
( ) Laws expressly prohibiting it (x) Lack of centrally controlling authority for email ( ) Open relays in foreign countries ( ) Ease of searching tiny alphanumeric address space of all email addresses (x) Asshats (x) Jurisdictional problems ( ) Unpopularity of weird new taxes ( ) Public reluctance to accept weird new forms of money ( ) Huge existing software investment in SMTP ( ) Susceptibility of protocols other than SMTP to attack ( ) Willingness of users to install OS patches received by email ( ) Armies of worm riddled broadband-connected Windows boxes ( ) Eternal arms race involved in all filtering approaches ( ) Extreme profitability of spam ( ) Joe jobs and/or identity theft ( ) Technically illiterate politicians ( ) Extreme stupidity on the part of people who do business with spammers (x) Dishonesty on the part of spammers themselves ( ) Bandwidth costs that are unaffected by client filtering ( ) Outlook
and the following philosophical objections may also apply:
(x) Ideas similar to yours are easy to come up with, yet none have ever been shown practical ( ) Any scheme based on opt-out is unacceptable ( ) SMTP headers should not be the subject of legislation ( ) Blacklists suck ( ) Whitelists suck ( ) We should be able to talk about Viagra without being censored ( ) Countermeasures should not involve wire fraud or credit card fraud ( ) Countermeasures should not involve sabotage of public networks ( ) Countermeasures must work if phased in gradually ( ) Sending email should be free ( ) Why should we have to trust you and your servers? ( ) Incompatiblity with open source or open source licenses ( ) Feel-good measures do nothing to solve the problem ( ) Temporary/one-time email addresses are cumbersome ( ) I don't want the government reading my email ( ) Killing them that way is not slow and painful enough
Furthermore, this is what I think about you:
(x) Sorry dude, but I don't think it would work. ( ) This is a stupid idea, and you're a stupid person for suggesting it. ( ) Nice try, assh0le! I'm going to find out where you live and burn your house down!
I created a chatroom robot from an eliza perl module, gave it a suggestive sounding female name and ran it amok on a talker swamped with oversexed-fourteen year olds.
I don't understand why people choose to jog instead of bike.
Because they want to?:o)
In addition, if you bike, you're using a tool to help you. When you're running, it's you and the road and nothing else to help you. The sense of achievement is more.
True, you can go further and longer on a bike, but it's still not really the same.
Personally I prefer running because it gets me fitter quicker than cycling on a bike ever could.
operating system bugs that cause systems to lock up when in power-saving modes
Given that I don't experience this in W2K and XP, I can only assume you're talking about Linux (which I frequently get this problem).
Even if you are, I don't believe that most people turn it off for Linux given that, as shocking as it might be, most people don't run Linux.
The actual fact of the matter is that most people don't turn it off. They use the PC in whatever default settings it comes out of the box. Those that do are a small minority.
I disagree. This is news because its the first for the UK and it's nice to see Slashdot not be completely US-centric.
If a railway company in another predominately English speaking country (Austrialia for example) is the first to do this, then I see no reason why it's not "stuff that matters".
I see no reason why Slashdot has to limit itself to the US and Canada. Even more so when one of the most frequent sources they link to is based outside of those countries.
Given that your battery will go flat after no more than two hours, it's only going to cost you about a tenner anyway:o)
Of course i'm ignoring the fact you might have a spare battery - but also I think that Virgin Trains are the only ones at the moment to offer power points in their trains. First class only.
As soon as Bill Gates and his henchmen manage to reconcile the facts that I am a 104 year old man from Zimbabwe, lots of hot teens want to meet me and I have a massive interest in cable descramblers then I am sure they have some evil plan to oppress me.
I want to skin my windows crash screens, can I do that too? It'd be great to skin the crash screen to look just like the regular o/s, so I get the impression that everything is fine.
I'm not sure if you're trolling or trying to be funny, but never mind.
However, you can actually change the colour of the BSOD to make it more PSOD (pink screen of death) or maybe YSOD (yellow screen of death).
Details are here although many Slashdotters probably won't like to admit that on W2K/XP they might never actually see the fruits of their labour.
And then I go to look and, I'll be dammed, the brand spanking new dell they just bought contains 0 patches. No service pack 1, nothing.
If you don't have broadband, then you realise pretty quickly that downloading 170 megs worth of Service Pack on a 56k modem redefines the meaning of the word "futile".
I use Innosetup for my installers and I'm extremely happy with it. In fact, whilst everyone else was jumping on the Nullsoft installer (NIS), I kept with Innosetup because I thought it produced better installers.
I know that it's not GPL, but that doesn't bother me because it's free, it's good and if I really really wanted to (I don't) I could look at the source code.
So, given that WiX (from the blog) looks somewhat complicated, what compelling reasons are there to move to it?
This game could easily pay dividends in advertising... "Go find the new coffee flavour at the $tarbucks store".
No thanks.
In America, you might be used to having adverts rammed down your throats wherever and whatever you do, but as someone who lives in a country where advertising is a little less "in your face" the last thing I want is a game peppered with commercials.
Revised Hall of Technical Documentation Weirdness
Posted by simoniker on Thursday April 01, @08:26AM
from the you-only-live-twice dept.
DBarefoot writes "Last August, my Hall of Technical Documentation Weirdness was killed by Slashdot. Some folks found it at least mildly amusing that a poor server should die in such agony, and I received a bunch of submissions of documentation weirdness from Slashdotters and others. Given that I've run out of spoons to gouge my eyes out, I've decided that I might as well kill the server for a second time."
Are the majority of mod chip users 'pirates' or are they legitimate users with legitimate applications for the modifications that Bray hasn't considered?
I think we are wearing rose coloured tinted specs again.
Please bear in mind when you read the 40 comments about how X only uses his chipped PS2 for development and how Y only uses his to backup games that the kids trash that the people on Slashdot are not indicative of the whole world.
In other words, yes, 99% of people who purchase a mod-chip do so to pirate games and yes, the 1% who don't pirate are probably the 40 posting to Slashdot.
I've seen some american TV and it's tripe. You have adverts rammed down your throat every 10 minutes and everything, absolutely everything (even the scoreboards for football) has adverts plastered all over it.
In the UK you get a 3 minute slot of adverts every 15 minutes. That means in a 30 minute programme you have exactly one (1) advert break.
In the USA you'd have one directly after the opening titles, then one in the middle and then one just before the final credits. The final credits?? Why on earth are people going to stick around to see the credits and then... a whole bunch more of adverts??
Seriously, the USA has gone advert crazy. When I went skiing last year you'd even put adverts on the bar that goes over your knees on the ski lifts.
Slashdot Mirror
Looking around the offices in the past 5 years I'm seeing less and less people using Palm's and those that are have the old Vx's or 50x series. Almost everyone who has a PDA these days has a PocketPC. Even I moved from a Vx to an iPaq and probably won't go back.
If I did then it would be if
- Support of the fields that Outlook has is better than on a PocketPC. Sure I can install another application (KeySuite) but then I can't integrate that data with other applications.
- A decent today screen with plugins. I don't want something flexible that allows me to define what my today screen shows and the order that it shows it.
- Continious syncing. This is a big one for me. If I take my PDA out of the cradle then I want to know that it is up-to date at that very moment in time. This is especially important when I have someone else managing my diary so I don't necessarily know when I have to sync. I do not want to have to remember to press the "sync" button 5 minutes before I want to take the PDA to a meeting.
Palm kind of remind me of Apple, in the sense that they have only a few people making their hardware. Microsoft on the other hand has a large number of hardware manufacturers which means that they are pushing the specifications further and quicker than Palm are.Camera, Bluetooth, wireless networking - all came from the PocketPC first because there was competition from the hardware manufacturers to differentiate their product from others. With Palm, there isn't quite so much of a need and so I get the feeling they're playing catch up (even though their screen resolution is better than the PocketPC's - but still no virtual grafitti area)
- Where is the confirmation from the author that he didn't give permission? I see only one website which claims he doesn't
- Where is any kind of response from Lindows regarding this? Do they even know that it's copyrighted?
I'm all for protecting peoples rights, but I don't think we should go around making accusations until all the facts are in.So for an effective short term solution change these rules so that any operator who believes that it's a scam can (after some procedures have been followed) terminate the call.
I'm all for alternative solutions too, but this will make some headway into solving the issue. After the scammers know that you'll terminate the call as soon as it becomes evident then they'll look elsewhere.
Well yes, but just because it is everywhere doesn't mean you have to use it all the time.
I know how to use Vi, I think it's worth learning when you don't have anything else - but i'll be damned if I'm going to use Vi on a perminant basis if I am able to install something else.
Use Vi when you have no choice, use your favourite when you do.
If you use an operating system that commands less than 1% of total market share and cannot view a format that is viewable by 92% of the market share you have to, sadly, expect that some sacrifices will have to be made.
Yes it sucks, but it's no different from any other markets and life has never been and will never be fair.
Even better, Mandrake 8 for me, would ask me to insert the next CD into /dev/cdrom and then promptly eject the wrong CD drive.
So of course, I'd put it in the one it opened for me and it would continue to ask me to insert the CD. All sorts of thoughts about me having a broken CD went through my mind before I even considered that I might have to use the other one.
Oh thank god, there is someone else out there that is having this problem. I can't get the network to work either.
And don't get me started on my old Hayes Accura external modem. Kudzu picks it up quite happily, but all 3 (3?? Couldn't we just have one that works properly?) of the dialer programs I have installed claim I don't have such a modem. At least I got somewhere with Redhat, Mandrake's dialer software just crashed on me with an error message I didn't understand.
Until I can get on the Internet under Linux, it's just not going to be "ready" for me.
If thats the case, I'm off to submit some news:
Fingers crossed.Ahh well, you win some you lose some :o)
Your post advocates a
( ) technical (x) legislative ( ) market-based ( ) vigilante
approach to fighting spam. Your idea will not work. Here is why it won't work. (One or more of the following may apply to your particular idea, and it may have other flaws which used to vary from state to state before a bad federal law was passed.)
( ) Spammers can easily use it to harvest email addresses
( ) Mailing lists and other legitimate email uses would be affected
(x) No one will be able to find the guy or collect the money
( ) It is defenseless against brute force attacks
( ) It will stop spam for two weeks and then we'll be stuck with it
( ) Users of email will not put up with it
( ) Microsoft will not put up with it
( ) The police will not put up with it
(x) Requires too much cooperation from spammers
(x) Requires immediate total cooperation from everybody at once
( ) Many email users cannot afford to lose business or alienate potential employers
( ) Spammers don't care about invalid addresses in their lists
( ) Anyone could anonymously destroy anyone else's career or business
Specifically, your plan fails to account for
( ) Laws expressly prohibiting it
(x) Lack of centrally controlling authority for email
( ) Open relays in foreign countries
( ) Ease of searching tiny alphanumeric address space of all email addresses
(x) Asshats
(x) Jurisdictional problems
( ) Unpopularity of weird new taxes
( ) Public reluctance to accept weird new forms of money
( ) Huge existing software investment in SMTP
( ) Susceptibility of protocols other than SMTP to attack
( ) Willingness of users to install OS patches received by email
( ) Armies of worm riddled broadband-connected Windows boxes
( ) Eternal arms race involved in all filtering approaches
( ) Extreme profitability of spam
( ) Joe jobs and/or identity theft
( ) Technically illiterate politicians
( ) Extreme stupidity on the part of people who do business with spammers
(x) Dishonesty on the part of spammers themselves
( ) Bandwidth costs that are unaffected by client filtering
( ) Outlook
and the following philosophical objections may also apply:
(x) Ideas similar to yours are easy to come up with, yet none have ever been shown practical
( ) Any scheme based on opt-out is unacceptable
( ) SMTP headers should not be the subject of legislation
( ) Blacklists suck
( ) Whitelists suck
( ) We should be able to talk about Viagra without being censored
( ) Countermeasures should not involve wire fraud or credit card fraud
( ) Countermeasures should not involve sabotage of public networks
( ) Countermeasures must work if phased in gradually
( ) Sending email should be free
( ) Why should we have to trust you and your servers?
( ) Incompatiblity with open source or open source licenses
( ) Feel-good measures do nothing to solve the problem
( ) Temporary/one-time email addresses are cumbersome
( ) I don't want the government reading my email
( ) Killing them that way is not slow and painful enough
Furthermore, this is what I think about you:
(x) Sorry dude, but I don't think it would work.
( ) This is a stupid idea, and you're a stupid person for suggesting it.
( ) Nice try, assh0le! I'm going to find out where you live and burn your house down!
The code and the resulting comedy confusion it provided was promptly posted online.
Thank god I don't live in the USA!
- You're only hearing half the conversation
- They generally have a tendency to speak louder than they would if they were speaking to someone face to face.
I find that (1) is the key point here. If you can hear the other side of the conversation it just becomes another bit of background noise.Because they want to? :o)
In addition, if you bike, you're using a tool to help you. When you're running, it's you and the road and nothing else to help you. The sense of achievement is more.
True, you can go further and longer on a bike, but it's still not really the same.
Personally I prefer running because it gets me fitter quicker than cycling on a bike ever could.
Given that I don't experience this in W2K and XP, I can only assume you're talking about Linux (which I frequently get this problem).
Even if you are, I don't believe that most people turn it off for Linux given that, as shocking as it might be, most people don't run Linux.
The actual fact of the matter is that most people don't turn it off. They use the PC in whatever default settings it comes out of the box. Those that do are a small minority.
I disagree. This is news because its the first for the UK and it's nice to see Slashdot not be completely US-centric.
If a railway company in another predominately English speaking country (Austrialia for example) is the first to do this, then I see no reason why it's not "stuff that matters".
I see no reason why Slashdot has to limit itself to the US and Canada. Even more so when one of the most frequent sources they link to is based outside of those countries.
Given that your battery will go flat after no more than two hours, it's only going to cost you about a tenner anyway :o)
Of course i'm ignoring the fact you might have a spare battery - but also I think that Virgin Trains are the only ones at the moment to offer power points in their trains. First class only.
Apology accepted :o)
I'm not sure if you're trolling or trying to be funny, but never mind.
However, you can actually change the colour of the BSOD to make it more PSOD (pink screen of death) or maybe YSOD (yellow screen of death).
Details are here although many Slashdotters probably won't like to admit that on W2K/XP they might never actually see the fruits of their labour.
If you don't have broadband, then you realise pretty quickly that downloading 170 megs worth of Service Pack on a 56k modem redefines the meaning of the word "futile".
I know that it's not GPL, but that doesn't bother me because it's free, it's good and if I really really wanted to (I don't) I could look at the source code.
So, given that WiX (from the blog) looks somewhat complicated, what compelling reasons are there to move to it?
No thanks.
In America, you might be used to having adverts rammed down your throats wherever and whatever you do, but as someone who lives in a country where advertising is a little less "in your face" the last thing I want is a game peppered with commercials.
Posted by simoniker on Thursday April 01, @08:26AM from the you-only-live-twice dept.
DBarefoot writes "Last August, my Hall of Technical Documentation Weirdness was killed by Slashdot. Some folks found it at least mildly amusing that a poor server should die in such agony, and I received a bunch of submissions of documentation weirdness from Slashdotters and others. Given that I've run out of spoons to gouge my eyes out, I've decided that I might as well kill the server for a second time."
I think we are wearing rose coloured tinted specs again.
Please bear in mind when you read the 40 comments about how X only uses his chipped PS2 for development and how Y only uses his to backup games that the kids trash that the people on Slashdot are not indicative of the whole world.
In other words, yes, 99% of people who purchase a mod-chip do so to pirate games and yes, the 1% who don't pirate are probably the 40 posting to Slashdot.
In the UK you get a 3 minute slot of adverts every 15 minutes. That means in a 30 minute programme you have exactly one (1) advert break.
In the USA you'd have one directly after the opening titles, then one in the middle and then one just before the final credits. The final credits?? Why on earth are people going to stick around to see the credits and then ... a whole bunch more of adverts??
Seriously, the USA has gone advert crazy. When I went skiing last year you'd even put adverts on the bar that goes over your knees on the ski lifts.
That's small-'f', not capital-'F' free
and yet the article title is:
Gates: Hardware, Not Software, Will Be Free
So if it's not capital 'F' free, whats it doing in the title like that?