Perfect for cable operations
on
Book on NR-1
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
Considering its directly-downward crew viewport, and a claw manipulator capable of lifting roughly 1000 pounds (id wager there is a seperate claw control set right near the viewport), NR-1 would be perfect for tapping and/or interfearing with deep-water communications cables.
Even today, when America has almost nothing in the way of global powers about which to spread FUD and justify massive military spending on a project such as this, NR-1 would still be extremely useful as an intelligence gatherer operating against foreign corporates in the interests of American compaines, via taps on shallow and deep-water data lines.
Kind of makes you wonder if all those cable cuts in the north of Australia were really caused by ships anchors, or by FUBAR'd operations by boats such as the NR-1
1) At home: Games. Games may be appearing more and more frequently on Linux thanks to WineX but until the time comes where there's a dedicated Linux client for every new game that appears, I'll be doing what most people are - sticking to Windows as my main OS so I may game on a powerful machine without a reboot. WineX just doesn't cut it for many games, especially some older ones that I still love to play.
2) At work: Applications - primarily Exchange and MS Office. I'm SysAdmin for an SME publishing company with around 40 users. The publishing industry is extremely windows-centric, and the majority of files passed around are in doc format. Now before everyone starts screaming about Open and StarOffice, I can say that OpenOffice and MS Office are most definately NOT interchangable, even when using RTF format for documents. I recently wrote a work-related proposal for presentation to my manager(s), only to find the bold, italic and fonts totally fscked up when the RTF was opened under Word 2000. Luckily I managed to reformat it all under the MS solution before my boss got hold of it, but had I not double-checked my proposal most likely would have been dismissed out of hand. Oh, and it's not like it was a complicated document in the way of formatting - standard fonts, bold, italics and bullet points.
The other major app that keeps us from using Linux at work (aside from retraining every user, most of whom have never used Linux before) is Exchange. There is simply NO Free (as in speech - we will pay for a GPL solution if it can meet our needs) that is a plug-in solution for Exchange! My users need shared calenders, free/busy scheduling and everything else Exchange provides. Until the day comes where someone releases a reliable plug-in Exchange replacement that duplicates *all* of Exchange's features, we won't even consider switching.
I think you'll find that these three things are what keeps 95% of people from attempting a total conversion to Linux, in both the home and business markets.
1) Time-limited DVD type media has been tried before, and has failed (the other Divx).
2) It should be perfectly clear to the music studios that people are willing to purchase special CD/DVD music bundles. Case in point; one of my favourite bands, Disturbed, recently released their second album (Believe). There was a 'special limited edition' release that also contained a DVD with music videos, a few interviews etc. I pre-ordered this thing by over a month, and still missed out. So they're a proven method of distribution.
Im also sure that most people would feel much more comfortable paying $AU40.00 for a CD/DVD bundle than they would the current $AU32.00 for just the CD. I know I sure would buy more albums if that 'value for money' factor was increased.
Of course, they could acheive the same rise in sales by just dropping to a $AU20.00 price point, but we are talking about the music industry here...
Does anyone else find it suspect, that *smack bang* in the middle of that New York Times article is a 10cm by 10cm advertisement for MSN 8, "it's better with the butterfly".
Kinda makes you wonder if the article is "news" at all, or whether the NYT's subscription model is starting to show some cracks.
They've done this before, and should know better
on
Microsoft Vandalizes NYC
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
You really think Microsoft would have learned after doing this before and having it backfire on them.
When the Xbox launched here in Australia, Microsoft spent obscene amounts of money on the advertising campaign (it actually began a few months prior to launch). Part of this was to spraypaint the green Xbox X on the sidewalk at pretty much every bus stop in central Sydney. Needless to say, the relevent local councils were not amused.
As far as I know, the responsible parties were ordered by the court to pay for council workers to clean every single spray. However, Microsoft is nothing if not careful, and instead of doing the original grafitti themselves, they'd contracted it to a local, well-known (in the industry) PR company.
Last we heard, poor [company name omitted] were stuck not only with the bill for councils to clean up the Microsoft grafitti, but also the responsability to clean it off themselves (the more they got to, the less council had to do and thus the less they paid).
As far as I can tell, one of the major reasons many businesses refuse to change over from Microsoft Office to cheaper options is due to file compatability. As our company's IT admin put it recently on the suggestion of using OpenOffice, "I get sent hundreds of Microsoft Word, Excel and Access documents a week. I need to know that I can open and access every single one of those without problems". An example of proprietry file formats helping Microsoft keep the monopoly.
However, if Microsoft Office documents become "built around an open, internationalized standard", i.e. XML, would this not enable the people behind OpenOffice, StarOffice etc to acheive total 100% file compatability and thus negate Microsoft's largest advantage with Office?
Of course, this could be yet another Microsoft "embrace and extend" tactic, a la` kerberos. Incorporate the standard in a bastardised form, claim standards compatability, then pollute it so you must be using Microsoft technology to properly interact with it.
A little company by the name of ArrayComm is currently testing a technology they call I-Burst here in Sydney. Basically, it (should) offer pervasive, roaming wireless internet access across every major city in the country, at 1Mbps per user.
What does this mean? Well, it means that if you've got I-Burst capable NIC's, you'll have a 1Mbps Internet connection at any point across all our major cities (as long as you're not moving too fast) on your laptop, PDA or even your phone (assuming there is phones to take advantage of the tech - doubtful perhaps).
This is beyond what any of the 3G's (W-CDMA, CDMA2000 etc) can offer. The only reason Australian telco's are pimping 3G is because they all spent small fortunes purchasing spectrum to run it on. Considering that these 3G solutions are a long way off, and that we should have a working commercial I-Burst service here in Oz sometime next year, 3G may just die a very quick death.
We conducted an in-depth breakdown of the technology behind I-Burst, including the special directional antennas that make it possible. You can check it out here if you're interested.
Actually, ArrayComm's I-Burst technology is far more than a fixed last-mile solution. The setup they're currently testing in Sydney is not the first deployement of this technology, but it is a first for Australia where wide-ranging, wireless broadband access is prettymuch non-existant.
I-Burst, at least in Australia, is focused on giving city areas (and perhaps suburban areas), pervasive, roaming wireless Internet access for mobile devices across every major city in the country. And doing it at 1Mbps per connection.
In a slightly related note, we've seen here in Australia the 5 disc LOTR boxed set listed for $X amount of US dollars online (can't remember the US amount). This translated to roughly $AUD90.
The exact same boxed collection, with the exact same feature set, sells online from Australian retailers at over $AUD160.
Yes, DVD regioning is only used to protect privacy and not to fix prices. In the same way, creationism is an exact and accurate account of how the world came to be.
Lindows isn't aimed at your average Linux geek. Its core market will be people who want a cheap, functional OS (at the very least, cheap rules out MS solutions) but don't/can't/won't/ use GNU/Linux.
To misquote the oft-cited Slashdot Linux line - "I'm going to install (%distro) on my parent's home machine!" But would you really? Would you really install Red Hat or Mandrake on your parent's machine, when you know all they need is a web browser, an email client and perhaps an instant messenger client? Would you *really* take the time to install it, secure it, solve dependency issues and then *teach* them step-by-step how to use the OS until they reached the point where they weren't calling you five times a week for support?
The entire reason Lindows exists is to provide a cheap, functional and easy-to-use alternative to Microsoft on the desktop. They seem to have the first part worked out, but it remains to be seen if they can get the last two right.
Linux geeks aren't going to replace their Debian or Gentoo boxes with Lindows, because its not what most of them want (primarily). If Lindows fails to get the "mum and dad" and "I just want to do my homework and then use IRC" groups of people, than it will die a slow and painfull death.
That is why an AOL client on the Lindows desktop would be beneficial. It's a quick, easy and relatively painless way to get normal, non-tech-savvy users on the 'Net.
Of course, this is all rather academic because if you'd read the article, you'd know that the headline is BS and that the linked story talks about including Netscape 7, not AOL.
As one poster said earlier, this News feature could be even more useful if it localised based on where the viewer was. Imagine the potential if it provided the same function, but across *all* online news sites, not just well-known ones.
Also, it occurs to me, with all this added functionality, Google could soon become *the* one single place to go for - well, for everything. By providing what people want and need, and providing all of it in one easy to use and enjoyable experience, Google.com could soon become a portal.
More interesting still, doing it so differently from other so-called portals (AOL, yahoo et. al), Google as a portal would actually succeed.
Heck, I'd pay for it.
Telecommuting is one of those wonderful benefits that was supposed to give us all the oportunity to kick back, relax and work at our lesuire from home. As long as the work was done, and the projects on time, who cared if you started your working day at 9am or 3am, right?
Unfortunately, the real world doesn't work like that.
Telecommunting isn't a myth. It's not equal to the fabled "paperless office". You actually can telecommunte. However, don't expect to do it straight off at your new job.
Telecommuting has many advantages. It also has many potential down sides. Which is why 99.99% of employers will want you in their building, at one of their desks for at least your first 6 to 12 months. Why? To ensure that you actally can do the work you're supposed to be doing. It's all well and good sayin you can code like a guru, or are to systems administration what Tolkien was to the fantasy genre, but most employers won't take that risk on new people.
For situations such as yours where you're going to be moving away, I wouldn't count on telecommuting to make your life easier. Unless you're insanely lucky, no-one will give you a telecommute job - regardless of your past achievements at other firms - without testing you out in-situ first.
"Thank you for handing out information regarding how to steal our products."
Steal your products? I think you need to relearn the meaning of "steal". Cisco sells network hardware. They compete with other companies that sell network hardware. Cisco's having a hard time in the market because their once all-encompassing monopoly and brand name recognition are slipping. People are finally realising that Router != Cisco, that there are other choices out there. One of these choices is to build your own hardware. Thanks to the linked article, its much easier.
Cisco's in trouble. They're facing tough competition, and a market that no longer automatically comes running to them as the only choice in networking. As a consequence (and judging form what you've said), things are starting to fall apart finance-wise. Now you're whinging that people have a cheaper option to implement hardware that your company sells for astronomical prices. To this I have three words for you - deal with it.
Believe it or not, we're not all here to help maintain Cisco's market share. If we can get the same functionality without actually forking out $X trillion dollars to do it, we will. If Cisco cant deal with that in any other way than crying that people are "stealing" its products, well tough f%$king shit dude.
Have the execs look at the company's strategies. Change the business plans, the products, whatever. Be proactive about keeping the marketshare - EARN it. Dont just whinge about losing it and ridicule people who help destroy the monopoly be showing people a *better alternative*
Err, excuse me, but since when have we had the expectation of privacy when using company resources?
You send email via Outlook and your company's Exchange server. It's logged (or at least monitored), for legal reasons.
You Web-browse on your company Workstation during lunch. It's logged (or at least monitored), for legal (and HR) reasons.
You send IM traffic across the company network to an external friend via ICQ. It's logged (or at least monitored), for legal reasons.
You send email via Hotmail using a company Workstation, out a company NIC, across the company Cat5, through the company switches and routers, out the company gateway and upstream to you company's service provider. It's logged (or at least monitored) for legal reasons.
Personal use of company assets on company time. Unless you have an absoultely rockin' Acceptable Usage Policy (from the employee's point of view), you're "up shit creek without a paddle".
You can bitch and moan about this kind of thing all you want, but it comes down to one thing. Is use of Web-based mail against the AUP policy you signed when you commenced work? If it is, and you do it anyway, you're screwed.
Sheesh, you'd think it was rocket science or something...
Alas, but the Sydney Slashdot meet was scheduled for the same time SLUG was scheduled. It was a tossup between SLUG,/. or sleep (curse my company's birthday party last night. ill never ever ever ever drink again until tomorrow night:).
In the end, sleep won out. Although, as you'll notice, im still awake:/
Hopefully i'll be able to make it to the next one!
Take a look at Windows Messenger (aka MSN Messenger). An integral part of Windows XP - almost impossible to remove for your average user and thus, for all intents and purposes, *part* of the OS.
Now, what do you see at the bottom of the latest version? Ads...
This article has been on slashdot barely 5 minutes and the source is already slashdotted... sheesh. Either that or someone cut the cat-5 right before pimprig's server exploded.
Anyway, here is a direct link to the image. You can find a more reliable link (tho the picture is smaller) here, just scroll down the page.
While not exactly a tech story, the artice is an interesting reminder (imho) about what can happen in our society. Remember the dot-com boom? Remeber the crash? Know anyone who lost their job and *still* hasn't found another? Just because we work in a (usually) highly-paid industry, doesn't mean we're any more immune from total poverty then John Q. Citizen labourer.
Living in the tunnels is what some people are reduced to, when they suddenly find they've got no more money left to pay the rent or the electricity or the gas bills. Perhaps those of you making jokes about the differences between bums and people may not be so high and haughty if you lose your job and you're down there yourself in six months time.
Slashdot Mirror
Considering its directly-downward crew viewport, and a claw manipulator capable of lifting roughly 1000 pounds (id wager there is a seperate claw control set right near the viewport), NR-1 would be perfect for tapping and/or interfearing with deep-water communications cables.
Even today, when America has almost nothing in the way of global powers about which to spread FUD and justify massive military spending on a project such as this, NR-1 would still be extremely useful as an intelligence gatherer operating against foreign corporates in the interests of American compaines, via taps on shallow and deep-water data lines.
Kind of makes you wonder if all those cable cuts in the north of Australia were really caused by ships anchors, or by FUBAR'd operations by boats such as the NR-1
1) At home: Games. Games may be appearing more and more frequently on Linux thanks to WineX but until the time comes where there's a dedicated Linux client for every new game that appears, I'll be doing what most people are - sticking to Windows as my main OS so I may game on a powerful machine without a reboot. WineX just doesn't cut it for many games, especially some older ones that I still love to play.
2) At work: Applications - primarily Exchange and MS Office. I'm SysAdmin for an SME publishing company with around 40 users. The publishing industry is extremely windows-centric, and the majority of files passed around are in doc format. Now before everyone starts screaming about Open and StarOffice, I can say that OpenOffice and MS Office are most definately NOT interchangable, even when using RTF format for documents. I recently wrote a work-related proposal for presentation to my manager(s), only to find the bold, italic and fonts totally fscked up when the RTF was opened under Word 2000. Luckily I managed to reformat it all under the MS solution before my boss got hold of it, but had I not double-checked my proposal most likely would have been dismissed out of hand. Oh, and it's not like it was a complicated document in the way of formatting - standard fonts, bold, italics and bullet points.
The other major app that keeps us from using Linux at work (aside from retraining every user, most of whom have never used Linux before) is Exchange. There is simply NO Free (as in speech - we will pay for a GPL solution if it can meet our needs) that is a plug-in solution for Exchange! My users need shared calenders, free/busy scheduling and everything else Exchange provides. Until the day comes where someone releases a reliable plug-in Exchange replacement that duplicates *all* of Exchange's features, we won't even consider switching.
I think you'll find that these three things are what keeps 95% of people from attempting a total conversion to Linux, in both the home and business markets.
Two things:
1) Time-limited DVD type media has been tried before, and has failed (the other Divx).
2) It should be perfectly clear to the music studios that people are willing to purchase special CD/DVD music bundles. Case in point; one of my favourite bands, Disturbed, recently released their second album (Believe). There was a 'special limited edition' release that also contained a DVD with music videos, a few interviews etc. I pre-ordered this thing by over a month, and still missed out. So they're a proven method of distribution.
Im also sure that most people would feel much more comfortable paying $AU40.00 for a CD/DVD bundle than they would the current $AU32.00 for just the CD. I know I sure would buy more albums if that 'value for money' factor was increased.
Of course, they could acheive the same rise in sales by just dropping to a $AU20.00 price point, but we are talking about the music industry here...
Hey, at least he didnt link the 3MB TIFF...
Err... Oops
Actually, according to conventional wisdom, the majority of network admins and the world in general, (oh, and TCP/IP Illustrated 2nd Edition):
MTU: Maximum Transmission Unit.
I have no idea where the MSS people got "transfer" from.
Google Partner Link
I swear, it takes all of 60 seconds effort - why can't submitters/editors include the Google partner link as well as the reg-required one!
Does anyone else find it suspect, that *smack bang* in the middle of that New York Times article is a 10cm by 10cm advertisement for MSN 8, "it's better with the butterfly".
Kinda makes you wonder if the article is "news" at all, or whether the NYT's subscription model is starting to show some cracks.
You really think Microsoft would have learned after doing this before and having it backfire on them.
When the Xbox launched here in Australia, Microsoft spent obscene amounts of money on the advertising campaign (it actually began a few months prior to launch). Part of this was to spraypaint the green Xbox X on the sidewalk at pretty much every bus stop in central Sydney. Needless to say, the relevent local councils were not amused.
As far as I know, the responsible parties were ordered by the court to pay for council workers to clean every single spray. However, Microsoft is nothing if not careful, and instead of doing the original grafitti themselves, they'd contracted it to a local, well-known (in the industry) PR company.
Last we heard, poor [company name omitted] were stuck not only with the bill for councils to clean up the Microsoft grafitti, but also the responsability to clean it off themselves (the more they got to, the less council had to do and thus the less they paid).
As far as I can tell, one of the major reasons many businesses refuse to change over from Microsoft Office to cheaper options is due to file compatability. As our company's IT admin put it recently on the suggestion of using OpenOffice, "I get sent hundreds of Microsoft Word, Excel and Access documents a week. I need to know that I can open and access every single one of those without problems". An example of proprietry file formats helping Microsoft keep the monopoly.
However, if Microsoft Office documents become "built around an open, internationalized standard", i.e. XML, would this not enable the people behind OpenOffice, StarOffice etc to acheive total 100% file compatability and thus negate Microsoft's largest advantage with Office?
Of course, this could be yet another Microsoft "embrace and extend" tactic, a la` kerberos. Incorporate the standard in a bastardised form, claim standards compatability, then pollute it so you must be using Microsoft technology to properly interact with it.
A little company by the name of ArrayComm is currently testing a technology they call I-Burst here in Sydney. Basically, it (should) offer pervasive, roaming wireless internet access across every major city in the country, at 1Mbps per user.
What does this mean? Well, it means that if you've got I-Burst capable NIC's, you'll have a 1Mbps Internet connection at any point across all our major cities (as long as you're not moving too fast) on your laptop, PDA or even your phone (assuming there is phones to take advantage of the tech - doubtful perhaps).
This is beyond what any of the 3G's (W-CDMA, CDMA2000 etc) can offer. The only reason Australian telco's are pimping 3G is because they all spent small fortunes purchasing spectrum to run it on. Considering that these 3G solutions are a long way off, and that we should have a working commercial I-Burst service here in Oz sometime next year, 3G may just die a very quick death.
We conducted an in-depth breakdown of the technology behind I-Burst, including the special directional antennas that make it possible. You can check it out here if you're interested.
Actually, ArrayComm's I-Burst technology is far more than a fixed last-mile solution. The setup they're currently testing in Sydney is not the first deployement of this technology, but it is a first for Australia where wide-ranging, wireless broadband access is prettymuch non-existant.
I-Burst, at least in Australia, is focused on giving city areas (and perhaps suburban areas), pervasive, roaming wireless Internet access for mobile devices across every major city in the country. And doing it at 1Mbps per connection.
For more information, see this article: http://www.atomicmpc.com.au/iburst.asp
In a slightly related note, we've seen here in Australia the 5 disc LOTR boxed set listed for $X amount of US dollars online (can't remember the US amount). This translated to roughly $AUD90.
The exact same boxed collection, with the exact same feature set, sells online from Australian retailers at over $AUD160.
Yes, DVD regioning is only used to protect privacy and not to fix prices. In the same way, creationism is an exact and accurate account of how the world came to be.
Lindows isn't aimed at your average Linux geek. Its core market will be people who want a cheap, functional OS (at the very least, cheap rules out MS solutions) but don't/can't/won't/ use GNU/Linux.
To misquote the oft-cited Slashdot Linux line - "I'm going to install (%distro) on my parent's home machine!" But would you really? Would you really install Red Hat or Mandrake on your parent's machine, when you know all they need is a web browser, an email client and perhaps an instant messenger client? Would you *really* take the time to install it, secure it, solve dependency issues and then *teach* them step-by-step how to use the OS until they reached the point where they weren't calling you five times a week for support?
The entire reason Lindows exists is to provide a cheap, functional and easy-to-use alternative to Microsoft on the desktop. They seem to have the first part worked out, but it remains to be seen if they can get the last two right.
Linux geeks aren't going to replace their Debian or Gentoo boxes with Lindows, because its not what most of them want (primarily). If Lindows fails to get the "mum and dad" and "I just want to do my homework and then use IRC" groups of people, than it will die a slow and painfull death.
That is why an AOL client on the Lindows desktop would be beneficial. It's a quick, easy and relatively painless way to get normal, non-tech-savvy users on the 'Net.
Of course, this is all rather academic because if you'd read the article, you'd know that the headline is BS and that the linked story talks about including Netscape 7, not AOL.
As one poster said earlier, this News feature could be even more useful if it localised based on where the viewer was. Imagine the potential if it provided the same function, but across *all* online news sites, not just well-known ones. Also, it occurs to me, with all this added functionality, Google could soon become *the* one single place to go for - well, for everything. By providing what people want and need, and providing all of it in one easy to use and enjoyable experience, Google.com could soon become a portal. More interesting still, doing it so differently from other so-called portals (AOL, yahoo et. al), Google as a portal would actually succeed. Heck, I'd pay for it.
Restricting distribution of Tori Amos CDs by gluing them inside a walkman...
Are they sure it's enough to prevent her latest un-named terror from spreading into the general populace?
This isnt Intellectual Property control. It's quality control!
Telecommuting is one of those wonderful benefits that was supposed to give us all the oportunity to kick back, relax and work at our lesuire from home. As long as the work was done, and the projects on time, who cared if you started your working day at 9am or 3am, right?
Unfortunately, the real world doesn't work like that.
Telecommunting isn't a myth. It's not equal to the fabled "paperless office". You actually can telecommunte. However, don't expect to do it straight off at your new job.
Telecommuting has many advantages. It also has many potential down sides. Which is why 99.99% of employers will want you in their building, at one of their desks for at least your first 6 to 12 months. Why? To ensure that you actally can do the work you're supposed to be doing. It's all well and good sayin you can code like a guru, or are to systems administration what Tolkien was to the fantasy genre, but most employers won't take that risk on new people.
For situations such as yours where you're going to be moving away, I wouldn't count on telecommuting to make your life easier. Unless you're insanely lucky, no-one will give you a telecommute job - regardless of your past achievements at other firms - without testing you out in-situ first.
"Thank you for handing out information regarding how to steal our products."
Steal your products? I think you need to relearn the meaning of "steal". Cisco sells network hardware. They compete with other companies that sell network hardware. Cisco's having a hard time in the market because their once all-encompassing monopoly and brand name recognition are slipping. People are finally realising that Router != Cisco, that there are other choices out there. One of these choices is to build your own hardware. Thanks to the linked article, its much easier.
Cisco's in trouble. They're facing tough competition, and a market that no longer automatically comes running to them as the only choice in networking. As a consequence (and judging form what you've said), things are starting to fall apart finance-wise. Now you're whinging that people have a cheaper option to implement hardware that your company sells for astronomical prices. To this I have three words for you - deal with it.
Believe it or not, we're not all here to help maintain Cisco's market share. If we can get the same functionality without actually forking out $X trillion dollars to do it, we will. If Cisco cant deal with that in any other way than crying that people are "stealing" its products, well tough f%$king shit dude.
Have the execs look at the company's strategies. Change the business plans, the products, whatever. Be proactive about keeping the marketshare - EARN it. Dont just whinge about losing it and ridicule people who help destroy the monopoly be showing people a *better alternative*
Err, excuse me, but since when have we had the expectation of privacy when using company resources?
You send email via Outlook and your company's Exchange server. It's logged (or at least monitored), for legal reasons.
You Web-browse on your company Workstation during lunch. It's logged (or at least monitored), for legal (and HR) reasons.
You send IM traffic across the company network to an external friend via ICQ. It's logged (or at least monitored), for legal reasons.
You send email via Hotmail using a company Workstation, out a company NIC, across the company Cat5, through the company switches and routers, out the company gateway and upstream to you company's service provider. It's logged (or at least monitored) for legal reasons.
Personal use of company assets on company time. Unless you have an absoultely rockin' Acceptable Usage Policy (from the employee's point of view), you're "up shit creek without a paddle".
You can bitch and moan about this kind of thing all you want, but it comes down to one thing. Is use of Web-based mail against the AUP policy you signed when you commenced work? If it is, and you do it anyway, you're screwed.
Sheesh, you'd think it was rocket science or something...
Photoshop. Or, as the case may be, Gimp. Either way its a 15 minute job. 10 for someone who knows what they're doing.
Alas, but the Sydney Slashdot meet was scheduled for the same time SLUG was scheduled. It was a tossup between SLUG, /. or sleep (curse my company's birthday party last night. ill never ever ever ever drink again until tomorrow night :).
In the end, sleep won out. Although, as you'll notice, im still awake :/
Hopefully i'll be able to make it to the next one!
Not true.
I run XP pro on my main home machine, and MSN messenger installed with that (then upgraded to latest version) has advertisements.
Take a look at Windows Messenger (aka MSN Messenger). An integral part of Windows XP - almost impossible to remove for your average user and thus, for all intents and purposes, *part* of the OS.
Now, what do you see at the bottom of the latest version? Ads...
*sigh*
And the sad thing is, it'd probably make just as much money as the Ad-Sponsored Desktop. If not more.
This article has been on slashdot barely 5 minutes and the source is already slashdotted... sheesh. Either that or someone cut the cat-5 right before pimprig's server exploded.
Anyway, here is a direct link to the image. You can find a more reliable link (tho the picture is smaller) here, just scroll down the page.
While not exactly a tech story, the artice is an interesting reminder (imho) about what can happen in our society. Remember the dot-com boom? Remeber the crash? Know anyone who lost their job and *still* hasn't found another? Just because we work in a (usually) highly-paid industry, doesn't mean we're any more immune from total poverty then John Q. Citizen labourer.
Living in the tunnels is what some people are reduced to, when they suddenly find they've got no more money left to pay the rent or the electricity or the gas bills. Perhaps those of you making jokes about the differences between bums and people may not be so high and haughty if you lose your job and you're down there yourself in six months time.