declaring how Windows is cheaprer, less error prone, and more cost effective than Linux.
Yea, right...
One of my Windows 98 boxes just lunched itself and ate the contents of several subdirectories. I was backing up one machine to the box, when one of my kids decided to use it to jump on the Internet. Needless to say, massive crash and data loss.
I know the cost of Windows, the endless patches, the endless errors caused by vunerabilities.
I'm much more willing to try SUSE 9.1 than re-install Windows for free. The reinstall is free if you don't count your time and trouble of re-configureing it and getting all the patches. I am looking for something less error prone and cost effective. It's not Windows that I'm looking to. I've seen it's expense. Windows is not cheap. It's certanly prone to errors.
but then some of them are detectable by golden eyes/ears.
What are you talking about. I wear glasses and have trouble seeing street signs. I have no problems seeing the big bunch of orange spots in the middle of the film. Does that mean I still have golden eyes?
So if you take some "no-name" talented actor and put them in a movie with some real depth to it [even if it's a comedy] then people should be able to enjoy the experience.
I agree. A good example is "The Gods must be Crazy". It came out quite a few years ago. None of the actors are known. There are no high budget special effects. The photography was first class. The story simple and well presented. The star spoke no english at all.
When it came to the United States (it's an import film), the studio decided to use it to do a marketing experiment. It was released with absolutely no promotion. No TV or radio spots. They didn't spend much on the film, so they didn't have to have large box office revenue. I bought a ticket to see it because a friend of mine recommended it. I'm glad I did see it. The film did well in spite of having no promotion. Later when it went to Cable TV, then it was promoted.
We need more good movies with good story lines and good photography.
I didn't bother to watch the Matrix or MIB until they were out on DVD. Instead of buying a theatre ticket, we got a rental for the family. We were done with them after the first viewing. We bought "The Gods must be Crazy". It is worth watching again.
Why? I'm still on dial-up simply because the local broadband providers simply provide too little for too much. Someday I hope it will be priced so I can get off dial-up.
What sucks is the cable operator thinking they can play the bundle card to keep people off Satelite TV. You can get broadband for less if you are also getting cable TV. I don't have cable TV. To me that means there is a $15/month penalty for not having cable TV. That runs the marginal price up out of reason. So yes, I'm still on dial-up and I'm still complaining.
I do have excelent broadband at work. DSL reports makes makes broadband cable or DSL look like dial-up in comparison. I download my distro's, patches, and OSS software such as Mozilla, Firefox, and Open Office, at work.
Dial-up is ok for posting on Slashdot at home and reading e-mail.
For some reason, I couldn't get into safe mode. I let it boot, hit the MS key to open the start menu, then shut down and reboot into DOS prompt. I ran the command and it mostly fixed the Windows ills. I got the mouse back, my screen settings, and passwords. I tried to get online to thank you. I couldn't open a browser. Upon further investigation, I found about 1/3 of the programs could not be found. Not only was Netscape gone, but so was Internet Explorer. (Funny MS claims it can't be removed!) Checking the directorys I found most anything that was open during the crash now has empty directories.
Wow, a Windows crash can empty the contents of multiple directories. I found in the Program Files directories, Netscape, Chat, Internet Explorer, CDeX, Winamp, and several others contained 0 files. The write of the TOC must have gotten biffed or something. Oh well.
Anyway the lesson is learned. I won't be re-installing Windows. The machine is getting upgraded to SUSE instead. Maybe users won't be able to toast the OS as easly.
I wonder if Ebay dropped it because lots of people including myself didn't want the third party involved in a transaction. I wouldn't sign up for an Ebay account simply because I refuse to have a Passport account.
(Of course, they don't realize that all of this spyware s!ht they have installed could grab their numbers just as easily.)
It can't grab any information I haven't provided it. I've never entered my CC number online, or offline. It isn't there to be compromised. I shop online, but reputable businesses have a physical presence. Many take phone orders and other payment options. A business with just a webpage and takes only PayPa1 doesn't get my business. I look for something more established than that. With a wire transfer I can lose the amount of the transfer, but not more. There is no chance of having to fight re-occuring charges to a CC or debit card. I prefer it that way. It costs more, but the risk is much less.
Thinner wires typically have higher resistance to current flow (impedance - measured in ohms) than their thicker counterparts
Thanks for the bad information in your link. Resistance is a DC measurement of the conductor in a wire. The longer the cable the more resistance. The smaller the conductor the more the resistance.
Impedance on the other hand has absolutely nothing to do with conductor resistance, or cable length. That's why a Cat5e cable of any length is still about 120 ohms in impedance. Impedance is related to the amount of inductance per foot and capacitance per foot. Length is not a factor in impedance of a cable. Conductor size does affect resistance per foot. Conductor size affects capacitance per foot and so it also affects impedance. So does the spacing between conductors and insulation dielectric constant.
Take two stereo's. One has 0.005% THD and the other has 0.1% THD. Do a side by side test, but have the 0.1% reciever set 3 DB louder. Guess which sounds better?
The Audioholics article shows many gross misunderstandings
What I don't understand people who spend $10/foot for speaker cables, then don't want to damage an expensive cable so they have a 30 foot cable to go 5 feet to the speaker.. If you are measuring results of cable inductance, A cheap 5 foot cable of the same conductor size as an expensive cable, is better. Cable length is important. This is more important the more the load impedance does not match the transmission line impedance. A 75 ohm SPDIF cable feeding a 75 ohm SPDIF receiver is a good match and will have minimum distortion and thus few data errors. A 120 ohm impedance $10/foot speaker cable feeding an 8 ohm impedance speaker is going to see high frequency attenuation due to the inductive reactance presented by the speaker cable. So many cable manufactures try to go with low capacitance cables to reduce the shunt capacitance. Low capacitance means a higher impedance because the inductance per foot remains the same. This makes a larger impedance mismatch between the cable and speaker. A high capacitance cable will have the capacitive reactance canceled by the inductive reactance resulting in a lower impedance cable. This would be a better match to the speaker. Any good radio tech knows the best response with the least reflected power is when the load impedance matches the transmission line impedance. The insulation used is important. Low dilectric loss is important to reduce high frequency attenuation.
Just for grins, visit your local wire and cable outlet and try to find sweep tested 8 ohm impedance wire...
Where it counts to have quality known impedance cable, it comes sweep tested. They don't sweep test speaker cable because the cable impedance is such a bad match to the load. In this case, shorter is better.
That's why in the days of RG58 ethernet, the cable was terminated with 50 ohm terminations. The termination did not overload the network cable, but eliminated unwanted reflections that would contaminate the data.
This is also why pro audio (stage) uses low impedance microphones. The long haul from the mike to the mixer is done using a low impedance microphone feeding a shielded twisted pair cable feeding a low impedance mixer. Typical impedances are 100-250 ohm. Plugging in a high impedance microphone will overload it resulting in poor sound. Plugging in a low impedance microphone on a long cable into a high impedance mixer also results in poor sound unless a matching transformer is used. When matching the cable impedance to the source and load, you get the most power transmission with the least distortion.
When you go very short distances such as the one you mentioned, (SPDIF) then neither the capacitive or inductive components of a cable are very significant, and as mentioned, a bad match may work OK for a short run. In a short run, cable capacitance and inductance impacts on the signal are small.
In theatrical lighting, the DMX512 standard specifies the need to terminate the data cable into it's impedance which is near 120 ohm. Many manufactures mention the termination is not needed for short runs. This is in violation of the spec, but they have found it still funtions for runs of less than about 30 feet. Longer runs must be terminated because data errors will cause problems. DMX512 operates at 250K Baud. The 6Mhz SPDIF signal runs at 24X that rate. Cable problems will show up at shorter distances on the higher frequency applications.
Many years ago, I had cable TV. Being a technical type, I dinked with it to see what I could do. Later they changed the law so if you get caught, they can charge you for everything, including PPV, even if you simply broke one channel.
They also raised the rate for basic cable to double what it was while dropping a couple good channels from basic.
I dropped cable TV like a hot potato. Now instead of having me as a basic subscriber, they don't have me as a subscriber at all.
This is analagous to saying if someone who can't take care of a car, uses a different brand, they will have better luck. While true, the other brand may very well have fewer issues needing repair, it still will break down, and the person will still find a way to fubar it.
Some things are more idiot proof. Some things are easly broken without even trying.
I had a Ford mustang. It was a 5 speed. It had cruise control. Making the simple mistake of down shifting on a hill when you have been on cruise control is the simplest way to destroy the engine. When I bought it, it had a thrown rod. I had it rebuilt. I discovered the hard way what probably blew the engine the first time.
Why is there a switch to kick off the criuse control on the brakes but not on the clutch? Dumb design.
By contrast, my Prius, if I knock it into nutral and floor it.. Nothing happens. Good design.
On to operating systems.
My wife's XP Dell 2 months out of warranty has a failing hard drive. Followed the troubleshooter and sent the error report.. Yep failing hard drive. Started backing it up to a Windows 98 box. (is had spare HD space). One of the kids tried to use the 98 box since the XP box was bad. 98 didn't like a large high speed transfer and a local user at the same time. It locked up. After a reboot, the windows 98 box is pretty badly toasted. Much of the system is corrupt. It now has a taskmanager list of only 5 items. Even the service for the mouse is corrupt. It boots with no mouse. All user passwords are blanked.
Needless to say a local user shouldn't have crashed the system halfway through a backup. Now I have to fix the backup machine to backup the failing system.
Since it's a dual boot box, I'm just going to configure SAMBA so I can finish the backup. I don't know how to fix windows. The taks isn't made easier having a bunch of services fail to load, including the mouse service.
Linux is built more like my Prius. Windows is built more like my old Ford. The Mustang was a popular domestic brand and lots of parts and support, but was fragile. The Toyota on the other hand isn't as much of a show car with lots of eye-candy, but it has a lot built in to enhance reliability and dependibility.
It reminded me of this from a few years ago regarding solid programming.
If houses were built like software, then the first woodpecker that came along would destroy civilization. They were not too far off.. There has been a lot of repairs and patches applied just to keep it standing a few days longer.
The earliest game I really enjoyed was the original Adventure game. It is text based. It is included in most Linux distributions. How long does it take you to either get the rug out from under the dragon or get the gold chain that is locked to the wall. By the way, a bear is wearing the chain. Have fun.
You've spent some time in the game when you get to type BLAST and something happens.
Anybody read dwarfish? I need a translator for my copy of Spelunker Today.
Wow! I never expected a note from the page owner.. You are the page owner aren't you?;-) I work nights, so I'll have to check out the page in the morning and try for a screen capture of the famous airplane invasion shot. Thanks for the heads up.
The epilogue is great. The question arises about how the site being fake wasn't a hoax on the Wall Street Journal.
It's a hoot.
One "problem" when I talked to the Wall Street Journal is that Charles Forelle was concerned I was pulling a "double-dupe" - i.e. I claim to the world that there was a webcam, but to them, I said it was fake... but maybe it really was real, so the WSJ gets eggs on their face - I hadn't thought of that, but WOW, that would be quite the hoax. Good skepticism - we need more of that in the media! So then the issue was how can I PROVE to Charles that it really is fake since he is on the East Coast. I suggested he have a trusted person come by the house some night, and (while Charles was on the Internet watching the lights flash on and off), his friend could park in my driveway - not only would the car not be visible on the web, but the lights would not be changing. Charles said he would try "something" but would not tell me (again, good for him!)... and another thing we did is I enabled the webcam dedicated to his IP address... during the day! Needless to say, my house looked pretty dark on his computer screen despite it being 1:00 in the afternoon here. And then I did some stupid geek tricks like make tonsa cars drive by, lotsa people, have the garage door go crazy up/down, and have the entire United Airlines fleet show up in the sky over my house. While he got a good laugh out of all of it, I'm sure he independantly did some confirmation - yet another reason why I've been a WSJ subscriber for 20+ years - these guys do good news!
I hope he puts some of the airplane overload photos on his site. I would also think it would be fun to leave the "webcam" up 24/7.
I questioned the website when there was no explination of how the video got cross the street. Most webcams don't do Christmas light very well. I know, I've tried. Most webcams don't do dark very well (high video noise). His shots were low noise and long exposure (evidance by streak of car headlight and tail lights). From the beginning the webcam photos were questionable to me. They were just too good for the conditions. They were not NTSC over a wireless link. An X10 cam does not do long exposures in low light.
Generaly only a Digital cam can produce the photos as displayed by the site, not a webcam.
You bet I would quit speeding if this was the case.
When you hit your first speed trap, you would quit driving..
I was lost upstate New York. The area was brushy with lots of tall hedges. I needed an intersection. I slowed down (55Mph zone) and found a 35mph sign. I'd never have seen it if I wasn't looking for a street sign in the overgrowth. Behind the next billboard was the cop with a radar gun. If I didn't need to take a corner, I'd have been nailed.
Just opening your browser and visiting a website that has an embeded MIDI backbround file can get you just like that. You cache the file.. Boom you have pirated the songwriters IP.
Just deciding not to speed or not copy copyrighted material is not that simple. Anytime you go down a strange road, you are at risk.
They are starting with FTP and P-P. Where will it end?
Will it end when your browser can't visit any site (because there are not any) that has any content not fully endorsed by Clear Channel?
A debt you can never repay is what bankruptcy helpfully ends in 8 years or less.
And how many crimes of survival will you have in those 8 years. Homeless starving kids without a clean set of clothes do not make good imprssions at interviews. When their take home pay does not get them home, then they tend to borrow things to get by. If permission is not obtained first it can lead to a longer criminal record.
Methlabs make quick tax free money...
Remember, they are looking for money they can use for themselves, not give it all away to feed some monster debt. They are looking for food, shelter, transportation... A regular job does not provide it with the huge judgement over their head. All their money and more is due someone else.
They need money that isn't taken away the instant it's earned. If I had a full time job, and all my income was taken away leaving me none, I would soon stop showing up for work. I would be looking for shelter, food, clothing, and transportation instead.
So if I get a speeding ticket, I deal with it like a big boy.
Would you feel the same way if they downloaded your car's computer and didn't ticket you for the once they caught you but instead ticked you for each and every time in the last 10 years you went at least one mile over the limit?
Are you ready to get hit with a half million dollar speeding ticket?
Monitoring someone who regularly speeds and holding all the tickets for several months, then nailing them for each and every offence is kind of a nuke impact ticket. That's what these folks are facing.
If my car could be downloaded and every time I had some infraction no matter how small (over the speed, rolling stop, stopping into the crosswalk, light out, seatbelt off to get billfold for drive up teller, etc) then I probably wouldn't drive. The probable loss of livelyhood by getting nailed once is way too risky.
For the suits at the **AA, I don't buy music, share music, burn music, etc. It's too risky. I don't have Cable TV or Satelite TV for the same reason. I just listen to the radio once in a while. Hopefully they won't bust me when I go to the bathroom during a station break.
In many instances the widespread warezing of their software actually helps Adobe, since in a couple of years those 12-year-olds are going to enter their professional lives trained on Adobe's product, not their competitors'.
I know that's my case. I could not afford Photoshop. I started on ArcSoft which came with my camera. Then I graduated to the Gimp. I have no idea how to use Photoshop. I've never used it. I would try it if it wasn't so expensive.
It's like the software for doing DMX512 lighting. Several packages are $500 to $1700 in price. I use FreeStyler instead. It's free like Firefox.
Sometimes when you don't need the best, second best will save you a bundle of your best income.
Slashdot Mirror
declaring how Windows is cheaprer, less error prone, and more cost effective than Linux.
Yea, right...
One of my Windows 98 boxes just lunched itself and ate the contents of several subdirectories. I was backing up one machine to the box, when one of my kids decided to use it to jump on the Internet. Needless to say, massive crash and data loss.
I know the cost of Windows, the endless patches, the endless errors caused by vunerabilities.
I'm much more willing to try SUSE 9.1 than re-install Windows for free. The reinstall is free if you don't count your time and trouble of re-configureing it and getting all the patches. I am looking for something less error prone and cost effective. It's not Windows that I'm looking to. I've seen it's expense. Windows is not cheap. It's certanly prone to errors.
but then some of them are detectable by golden eyes/ears.
What are you talking about. I wear glasses and have trouble seeing street signs. I have no problems seeing the big bunch of orange spots in the middle of the film. Does that mean I still have golden eyes?
So if you take some "no-name" talented actor and put them in a movie with some real depth to it [even if it's a comedy] then people should be able to enjoy the experience.
I agree. A good example is "The Gods must be Crazy". It came out quite a few years ago. None of the actors are known. There are no high budget special effects. The photography was first class. The story simple and well presented. The star spoke no english at all.
When it came to the United States (it's an import film), the studio decided to use it to do a marketing experiment. It was released with absolutely no promotion. No TV or radio spots. They didn't spend much on the film, so they didn't have to have large box office revenue. I bought a ticket to see it because a friend of mine recommended it. I'm glad I did see it. The film did well in spite of having no promotion. Later when it went to Cable TV, then it was promoted.
We need more good movies with good story lines and good photography.
I didn't bother to watch the Matrix or MIB until they were out on DVD. Instead of buying a theatre ticket, we got a rental for the family. We were done with them after the first viewing. We bought "The Gods must be Crazy". It is worth watching again.
Stop complaining
Why? I'm still on dial-up simply because the local broadband providers simply provide too little for too much. Someday I hope it will be priced so I can get off dial-up.
What sucks is the cable operator thinking they can play the bundle card to keep people off Satelite TV. You can get broadband for less if you are also getting cable TV. I don't have cable TV. To me that means there is a $15/month penalty for not having cable TV. That runs the marginal price up out of reason. So yes, I'm still on dial-up and I'm still complaining.
I do have excelent broadband at work. DSL reports makes makes broadband cable or DSL look like dial-up in comparison. I download my distro's, patches, and OSS software such as Mozilla, Firefox, and Open Office, at work.
Dial-up is ok for posting on Slashdot at home and reading e-mail.
Here is the feedback I promised.
For some reason, I couldn't get into safe mode. I let it boot, hit the MS key to open the start menu, then shut down and reboot into DOS prompt. I ran the command and it mostly fixed the Windows ills. I got the mouse back, my screen settings, and passwords. I tried to get online to thank you. I couldn't open a browser. Upon further investigation, I found about 1/3 of the programs could not be found. Not only was Netscape gone, but so was Internet Explorer. (Funny MS claims it can't be removed!) Checking the directorys I found most anything that was open during the crash now has empty directories.
Wow, a Windows crash can empty the contents of multiple directories. I found in the Program Files directories, Netscape, Chat, Internet Explorer, CDeX, Winamp, and several others contained 0 files. The write of the TOC must have gotten biffed or something. Oh well.
Anyway the lesson is learned. I won't be re-installing Windows. The machine is getting upgraded to SUSE instead. Maybe users won't be able to toast the OS as easly.
I wonder if Ebay dropped it because lots of people including myself didn't want the third party involved in a transaction. I wouldn't sign up for an Ebay account simply because I refuse to have a Passport account.
(Of course, they don't realize that all of this spyware s!ht they have installed could
grab their numbers just as easily.)
It can't grab any information I haven't provided it. I've never entered my CC number online, or offline. It isn't there to be compromised. I shop online, but reputable businesses have a physical presence. Many take phone orders and other payment options. A business with just a webpage and takes only PayPa1 doesn't get my business. I look for something more established than that. With a wire transfer I can lose the amount of the transfer, but not more. There is no chance of having to fight re-occuring charges to a CC or debit card. I prefer it that way. It costs more, but the risk is much less.
then type: scanreg /fix and press enter. This will fix 90% of Win98 problems. Give it a try, may save some time.
Thanks, I'll give it a try. I figured I was probably at format C: and try again. I'll post later when I get home and try it.
Thinner wires typically have higher resistance to current flow (impedance - measured in ohms) than their thicker counterparts
Thanks for the bad information in your link. Resistance is a DC measurement of the conductor in a wire. The longer the cable the more resistance. The smaller the conductor the more the resistance.
Impedance on the other hand has absolutely nothing to do with conductor resistance, or cable length. That's why a Cat5e cable of any length is still about 120 ohms in impedance. Impedance is related to the amount of inductance per foot and capacitance per foot. Length is not a factor in impedance of a cable. Conductor size does affect resistance per foot. Conductor size affects capacitance per foot and so it also affects impedance. So does the spacing between conductors and insulation dielectric constant.
It's easier to just listen, though.
I've seen many people fooled by listening.
Take two stereo's. One has 0.005% THD and the other has 0.1% THD. Do a side by side test, but have the 0.1% reciever set 3 DB louder. Guess which sounds better?
The Audioholics article shows many gross misunderstandings
What I don't understand people who spend $10/foot for speaker cables, then don't want to damage an expensive cable so they have a 30 foot cable to go 5 feet to the speaker.. If you are measuring results of cable inductance, A cheap 5 foot cable of the same conductor size as an expensive cable, is better. Cable length is important. This is more important the more the load impedance does not match the transmission line impedance. A 75 ohm SPDIF cable feeding a 75 ohm SPDIF receiver is a good match and will have minimum distortion and thus few data errors. A 120 ohm impedance $10/foot speaker cable feeding an 8 ohm impedance speaker is going to see high frequency attenuation due to the inductive reactance presented by the speaker cable. So many cable manufactures try to go with low capacitance cables to reduce the shunt capacitance. Low capacitance means a higher impedance because the inductance per foot remains the same. This makes a larger impedance mismatch between the cable and speaker. A high capacitance cable will have the capacitive reactance canceled by the inductive reactance resulting in a lower impedance cable. This would be a better match to the speaker. Any good radio tech knows the best response with the least reflected power is when the load impedance matches the transmission line impedance. The insulation used is important. Low dilectric loss is important to reduce high frequency attenuation.
Just for grins, visit your local wire and cable outlet and try to find sweep tested 8 ohm impedance wire...
Where it counts to have quality known impedance cable, it comes sweep tested. They don't sweep test speaker cable because the cable impedance is such a bad match to the load. In this case, shorter is better.
That's why in the days of RG58 ethernet, the cable was terminated with 50 ohm terminations. The termination did not overload the network cable, but eliminated unwanted reflections that would contaminate the data.
This is also why pro audio (stage) uses low impedance microphones. The long haul from the mike to the mixer is done using a low impedance microphone feeding a shielded twisted pair cable feeding a low impedance mixer. Typical impedances are 100-250 ohm. Plugging in a high impedance microphone will overload it resulting in poor sound. Plugging in a low impedance microphone on a long cable into a high impedance mixer also results in poor sound unless a matching transformer is used. When matching the cable impedance to the source and load, you get the most power transmission with the least distortion.
When you go very short distances such as the one you mentioned, (SPDIF) then neither the capacitive or inductive components of a cable are very significant, and as mentioned, a bad match may work OK for a short run. In a short run, cable capacitance and inductance impacts on the signal are small.
In theatrical lighting, the DMX512 standard specifies the need to terminate the data cable into it's impedance which is near 120 ohm. Many manufactures mention the termination is not needed for short runs. This is in violation of the spec, but they have found it still funtions for runs of less than about 30 feet. Longer runs must be terminated because data errors will cause problems. DMX512 operates at 250K Baud. The 6Mhz SPDIF signal runs at 24X that rate. Cable problems will show up at shorter distances on the higher frequency applications.
some like to defeat copy protection
Many years ago, I had cable TV. Being a technical type, I dinked with it to see what I could do. Later they changed the law so if you get caught, they can charge you for everything, including PPV, even if you simply broke one channel.
They also raised the rate for basic cable to double what it was while dropping a couple good channels from basic.
I dropped cable TV like a hot potato. Now instead of having me as a basic subscriber, they don't have me as a subscriber at all.
This makes business sense how?
This is analagous to saying if someone who can't take care of a car, uses a different brand, they will have better luck. While true, the other brand may very well have fewer issues needing repair, it still will break down, and the person will still find a way to fubar it.
Some things are more idiot proof. Some things are easly broken without even trying.
I had a Ford mustang. It was a 5 speed. It had cruise control. Making the simple mistake of down shifting on a hill when you have been on cruise control is the simplest way to destroy the engine. When I bought it, it had a thrown rod. I had it rebuilt. I discovered the hard way what probably blew the engine the first time.
Why is there a switch to kick off the criuse control on the brakes but not on the clutch? Dumb design.
By contrast, my Prius, if I knock it into nutral and floor it.. Nothing happens. Good design.
On to operating systems.
My wife's XP Dell 2 months out of warranty has a failing hard drive. Followed the troubleshooter and sent the error report.. Yep failing hard drive. Started backing it up to a Windows 98 box. (is had spare HD space). One of the kids tried to use the 98 box since the XP box was bad. 98 didn't like a large high speed transfer and a local user at the same time. It locked up.
After a reboot, the windows 98 box is pretty badly toasted. Much of the system is corrupt. It now has a taskmanager list of only 5 items. Even the service for the mouse is corrupt. It boots with no mouse. All user passwords are blanked.
Needless to say a local user shouldn't have crashed the system halfway through a backup. Now I have to fix the backup machine to backup the failing system.
Since it's a dual boot box, I'm just going to configure SAMBA so I can finish the backup. I don't know how to fix windows. The taks isn't made easier having a bunch of services fail to load, including the mouse service.
Linux is built more like my Prius. Windows is built more like my old Ford. The Mustang was a popular domestic brand and lots of parts and support, but was fragile. The Toyota on the other hand isn't as much of a show car with lots of eye-candy, but it has a lot built in to enhance reliability and dependibility.
Regarding your sig..
;-)
I used to work on a farm also, but I moved on.
There is better money in chips than chickens.
if computer viruses were actually deadly
It reminded me of this from a few years ago regarding solid programming.
If houses were built like software, then the first woodpecker that came along would destroy civilization. They were not too far off.. There has been a lot of repairs and patches applied just to keep it standing a few days longer.
He also has some registered re-sellers. His complaint was the fake site was not a registered reseller.
The earliest game I really enjoyed was the original Adventure game. It is text based. It is included in most Linux distributions. How long does it take you to either get the rug out from under the dragon or get the gold chain that is locked to the wall. By the way, a bear is wearing the chain. Have fun.
You've spent some time in the game when you get to type BLAST and something happens.
Anybody read dwarfish? I need a translator for my copy of Spelunker Today.
Someone should create a FPS where you run around shooting the other kids with rubber bands,
Nerf Arena Blast came close to the rubber bands. It's fun without the gore.
Wow! I never expected a note from the page owner.. You are the page owner aren't you? ;-)
I work nights, so I'll have to check out the page in the morning and try for a screen capture of the famous airplane invasion shot. Thanks for the heads up.
I like to write for free samples. If they bite, send them to a non-existant address. Let them pay postage both ways.
The epilogue is great. The question arises about how the site being fake wasn't a hoax on the Wall Street Journal.
... but maybe it really was real, so the WSJ gets eggs on their face - I hadn't thought of that, but WOW, that would be quite the hoax. Good skepticism - we need more of that in the media! ... and another thing we did is I enabled the webcam dedicated to his IP address ... during the day! Needless to say, my house looked pretty dark on his computer screen despite it being 1:00 in the afternoon here. And then I did some stupid geek tricks like make tonsa cars drive by, lotsa people, have the garage door go crazy up/down, and have the entire United Airlines fleet show up in the sky over my house. While he got a good laugh out of all of it, I'm sure he independantly did some confirmation - yet another reason why I've been a WSJ subscriber for 20+ years - these guys do good news!
It's a hoot.
One "problem" when I talked to the Wall Street Journal is that Charles Forelle was concerned I was pulling a "double-dupe" - i.e. I claim to the world that there was a webcam, but to them, I said it was fake
So then the issue was how can I PROVE to Charles that it really is fake since he is on the East Coast. I suggested he have a trusted person come by the house some night, and (while Charles was on the Internet watching the lights flash on and off), his friend could park in my driveway - not only would the car not be visible on the web, but the lights would not be changing. Charles said he would try "something" but would not tell me (again, good for him!)
I hope he puts some of the airplane overload photos on his site. I would also think it would be fun to leave the "webcam" up 24/7.
I questioned the website when there was no explination of how the video got cross the street.
Most webcams don't do Christmas light very well. I know, I've tried. Most webcams don't do dark very well (high video noise). His shots were low noise and long exposure (evidance by streak of car headlight and tail lights). From the beginning the webcam photos were questionable to me. They were just too good for the conditions. They were not NTSC over a wireless link. An X10 cam does not do long exposures in low light.
Generaly only a Digital cam can produce the photos as displayed by the site, not a webcam.
You bet I would quit speeding if this was the case.
When you hit your first speed trap, you would quit driving..
I was lost upstate New York. The area was brushy with lots of tall hedges. I needed an intersection. I slowed down (55Mph zone) and found a 35mph sign. I'd never have seen it if I wasn't looking for a street sign in the overgrowth. Behind the next billboard was the cop with a radar gun. If I didn't need to take a corner, I'd have been nailed.
Just opening your browser and visiting a website that has an embeded MIDI backbround file can get you just like that. You cache the file.. Boom you have pirated the songwriters IP.
Just deciding not to speed or not copy copyrighted material is not that simple. Anytime you go down a strange road, you are at risk.
They are starting with FTP and P-P. Where will it end?
Will it end when your browser can't visit any site (because there are not any) that has any content not fully endorsed by Clear Channel?
A debt you can never repay is what bankruptcy helpfully ends in 8 years or less.
And how many crimes of survival will you have in those 8 years. Homeless starving kids without a clean set of clothes do not make good imprssions at interviews. When their take home pay does not get them home, then they tend to borrow things to get by. If permission is not obtained first it can lead to a longer criminal record.
Methlabs make quick tax free money...
Remember, they are looking for money they can use for themselves, not give it all away to feed some monster debt. They are looking for food, shelter, transportation... A regular job does not provide it with the huge judgement over their head. All their money and more is due someone else.
They need money that isn't taken away the instant it's earned. If I had a full time job, and all my income was taken away leaving me none, I would soon stop showing up for work. I would be looking for shelter, food, clothing, and transportation instead.
So if I get a speeding ticket, I deal with it like a big boy.
Would you feel the same way if they downloaded your car's computer and didn't ticket you for the once they caught you but instead ticked you for each and every time in the last 10 years you went at least one mile over the limit?
Are you ready to get hit with a half million dollar speeding ticket?
Monitoring someone who regularly speeds and holding all the tickets for several months, then nailing them for each and every offence is kind of a nuke impact ticket. That's what these folks are facing.
If my car could be downloaded and every time I had some infraction no matter how small (over the speed, rolling stop, stopping into the crosswalk, light out, seatbelt off to get billfold for drive up teller, etc) then I probably wouldn't drive. The probable loss of livelyhood by getting nailed once is way too risky.
For the suits at the **AA, I don't buy music, share music, burn music, etc. It's too risky. I don't have Cable TV or Satelite TV for the same reason. I just listen to the radio once in a while. Hopefully they won't bust me when I go to the bathroom during a station break.
In many instances the widespread warezing of their software actually helps Adobe, since in a couple of years those 12-year-olds are going to enter their professional lives trained on Adobe's product, not their competitors'.
I know that's my case. I could not afford Photoshop. I started on ArcSoft which came with my camera. Then I graduated to the Gimp. I have no idea how to use Photoshop. I've never used it. I would try it if it wasn't so expensive.
It's like the software for doing DMX512 lighting. Several packages are $500 to $1700 in price. I use FreeStyler instead. It's free like Firefox.
Sometimes when you don't need the best, second best will save you a bundle of your best income.