I always thought by going IPv6 and having each person their own IP that is traceable, (1.1.1.1.1.1 = bob smith or acme inc.) it would make it easier to trace spammers as well.
Everyone gets really freaky about privacy on the web, and I understand their desire to be private, but I don't see it in the constitution either.
The concept of privacy obviously extends to your home, including your inside your computer, but once you 'leave' your home via the internet, its kinda of silly to expect any more privacy than when in your car to go to the store. This doesn't mean the govt. should track you without a warrant, but you shouldnt expect to remain totally anonymous. Some confuse the right to free speech (which doesn't mean anonymous free speech or exclude it, read the damn constitution, its neutral to that point) with privacy. They are different concepts completely. You seem to get this point. others dont.
I have no problems with Vivendi, or the emusic offering. I'm also sure the signup etc will be as secure as they can make it.
HOWEVER I do have a problem when service providers absolve themselves of ANY responsibility for fraud by contracting that any bad behaviour is the customer's fault, and the customer agrees that it cannot have been caused by either internal fraud/misuse or a security lapse. Remember phantom debit card withdrawals? Clearly Emusics's lawyers have fear and uncertainty about these issues, or the contract would not be worded so.
Ok, fair enough. They state:
YOU, AND NOT EMUSIC, ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR PAYING ANY AMOUNTS BILLED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD BY A THIRD PARTY, WHICH WERE NOT AUTHORIZED BY YOU.
They also state in their privacy policy:
When you purchase products or services from EMusic, we will use your Personal Information to fulfill your order and for customer service. Many online customers are particularly concerned about their credit card information, which we will share only as required by companies involved in your transaction (e.g., fulfillment, billing, mailing, storage or delivery services). We will not share your credit card information with any other Vivendi Universal company or third party unless that company needs the number for the fulfillment or delivery of your order. We do not rent, sell or share credit card information with promotional partners or other third parties.
So I would take their absolving themselves of responsibility in as generic a fashion as possible. (general cya) They probably are not responsible if you download "Suicide Solution" to listen to and then kill yourself (only slight humor meant).
I may not LIKE that kind of term, and its a valid reason to NOT use their service to some people, perhaps, but its quite common, and doesnt mean much considering the privacy policy clearly excludes them from sharing. Yes, they can change the privacy policy, as they can ANY policy, so that doesn't hold much weight with me.
I have had to be involved with writting Warranties and Exclusions for products with potential liabilities, and I can tell you, I have put in more general, and probably more scary looking exclusions, NOT to try to screw someone, but just to cover my ass in every way possible.
Remember, the reason hairdryers say "don't use in the shower" is there was probably someone stupid enough to do it, sue, and win. There are reasons why companies write them this way. Most of the time, its not an attempt to set themselves up to rip you off, especially from larger companies that can be held to task. Its almost always a simple case of having paranoid lawyers, which from an management point of view, is a good thing.
This 2nd message sounds very different than your first, where you said "the login procedure isn't secure. Similarly your CC transactions. " which is not true. Being concerned about the text of the policies is perfectly valid, as you state in your 2nd message.
Personally, their policies are not exactly pro-consumer and somewhat vague in one respect, but tolorable in my point of view. YMMV.
Has anyone looked at the prices from the story? I could not find a $25 FC drive anywhere. Cheapest was $120. So, yah, $240 for 2 drives, that kinda blows the under $250 out of the water.
Yea, the $40.99 host is actually $858, pushing the whole project into the 'well over a grand' territory. I will blow 250 to enjoy working with a cool technology, even if i dont have an immediate need, but for a grand i can buy several nice u160 drives and stripe them since i dont 'need' FC.
I found the whole article pretty over simplified (and really bad blinking/flashing ads) Quoteth the comic book guy: Worst article. Ever.
I did. CC transactions ARE secure. The login is also secure. This is 100% FUD. Try getting your facts straight before you use the submit button. Any fool, including you, can go to the login page and see for yourself. You quote the terms and privacy to try to look like you have researched it, then lie to spread your agenda.
If you just hate Vivendi, fine. Just say you don't want to do business with them instead of spreading this FUD.
No. The real problem is you can't protect against one without restricting the other. Record companies don't really care about backup copies. They're more concerned with downloading 100 songs from Kazaa and burning them, rather than buying the music.
But they are willing to take away your right to backup in order to keep you from using Kazaa. Thats the problem. No matter what they spend, they can not stop it. If they make it impossible to record from disk, then people will make very high quality analog verisons, then digitize. It will still be good enough. But now you have pissed off your customers, who will delight in sticking it to you.
Another problem: Much of the new music coming out on major labels is not much better than private label stuff out of some home studios, and freely available. They can't control that either.
Until they realize that they can't put the toothpaste back into the tube and change their business model, they will have this problem. Someone here pointed me to emusic.com, which has a great model IMHO. Just not the absolute newest stuff. $10 a month for unlimited music.
After all, we would rail against a bill requiring MS products to be considered.
Good moding and question. I think the primary difference is that OSS isn't 'a' company, nor is it perceived that way. It means different things to different people. To bean counters it means free as in beer. To politicians, it means they can spend the money on something else (they would never just spend less). To the management of the agencies, it means "getting that new software everyone is talking about." To the end user it means "crap, learning something news, i don't get paid for this. To the IT department, it means more money and some education.
If you could get 'windows' from many different vendors, free,or not, then it would be a different story. Govt.s have such specialized needs in so many depts, that linux SHOULD be a viable alternative. If it takes a bill to make all the decision makers within the govt. feel its ok to look at this 'new operating system', then I think its ok to pass the law, although i agree it should not really be needed.
Now, if they passed a bill to look at "redhat linux" or a VENDOR/BRAND in particular, then I think the comparison would be more direct.
So, you you're saying that it isn't beachballs in space?
Actually THEY are saying that is SEEMS TO BE beachballs in space. But they need more evidence. And need to test it more. But it looks like beachballs in space. But they can't rule out other stuff yet.
That is very different than "it IS beachballs in space". Its a matter of degrees of confidence.
How many of us spent years studying difficult topics in technical fields and learned how to do things because of the "coolness" of some things that we saw as children? I'm guessing that there are a lot of us for whom that was a big motivation for sticking with it when things got hard.
with all due respect, pulsars (and more) are pretty damn cool as they are. I am not sure how them being the size of a beachball raises their 'cool' level. I agree that 'cool' helps, and get people to go forward at times, but the size just doesn't push it from "almost cool" to "cool enough" for me. I dunno.
Although it is premature to discount all other possibilities, Kern told UPI, "for now it looks as though the mechanism we propose is probably correct."
"The interpretation here looks appealing," he told UPI, "although further predictions and tests will have to be made for it to carry the day."
It article seems a bit more reserved than the editor posting it. An interesting read tho.
Vendorwise I mean. Dell won't touch AMD flakiness with a 10 foot pole
I don't know, they have used AMD off and on, and any look at TV shows that Dell is going for the server market with a vengence. I could possibly see only using AMD for servers and not the regular athlons. I own several dell servers, they are aggressive as hell on price and marketing, and frankly, make a good entry to entry/midlevel server, IMHO.
So you're going to build your datacenter around Gateway? MOO.
Yea, thats not gonna happen here. I have had the worst luck with their products, regardless of cpu. Then again, there are lots of lesser known makers that don't have the mindshare of the big guys, but could snag some of the marketshare.
No, I ma not making a joke. Yesterday, Friday March 15 2003 I bought my new Soyo KT400 Dragon motherboard and a AMD 2600 Athlon with 333 bus. I have been cutting edge for 24 hours.
Even then (as was the case with Radio Shack before they changed their info gathering techniques) some companies will refuse to proceed with a sale unless you provide them with this information.
Back when Radio Shack 'forced' you to give info, I would just say 'no. either put in your own info or refuse to take my money and I will just order the parts'. it freaked out many a sales rep, but I never gave the info, and they never refused to sell to me.
And since I am here (OT): What is the deal with 3/4s of Radio Shack salesmen and personal hygene? Is it just here in NC? Is a comb that hard to learn to use? Have soap prices jumped in recent years? Sorry, I just didn't know if it was a corporate policy or something....:)
Yea, doing this from remote would be a little harder.....
RING RING, "Hi, um my name is 'Bob', Im from 'The Internet Company'. We think there is a problem and we need you to help us here. Um, we need you to set your computer next to your microwave for a minute. Oh, no can do?...ok, um, you got like a 50 watt lamp you can stick next to your computer case? Ok, good, yea, do that. Oh yea, and go to this java web site.....yea, I can wait..."
I GUESS you could do some social engineering to get someone to comply. Seems like it would easier to sent out a couple hundred "I make this game, its my first. Hope you like." emails with BO in them to get one to bite.
I had a whole bunch of cockroaches in my monitor once. The folks in the next cubicles thought it was very funny.
actually, its so common its sickning. I ran several pawn shops that dealt mainly in electronics when I lived in TX. omg. we saw roaches in TVs, stereos, VCR's. One TV had a hole in the casing at the top. it appears they used it to put chicken bones (I swear to living God). Had a few chickens worth, and a huge nest of very happy roaches.
On a funnier note, you would be surprised how many people bring in a VCR to borrow money, and when you hook it up to test it, it has porn in it. Thats not the funny part. The funny part is how they try to act like they don't know how that got in there. Everytime.
That said, I'm really drooling over a couple really nice guitar amps with tubes. They just sound classier.;)
I was about to say! I own a Fender Hotrod Deluxe and a Laney LC50 stack(both tube) as well as a Fender Sidekick 65 and a Laney GC80 (solid state)....um, no comparison.
Its not about 'reproducing the source perfectly'. Its about the natural compressed sound that only tubes (and a tube rectifier, none of this post-amp only is tube shit) can give. Tube have different characteristics, not just sound. They allow a mild distortion to be constant accross the entire spectrum, unlike solid state. Also, my 40 watt Deluxe will blow the shit out of any 100 watt solid state amp (it blows the doors off the 50 watt tube Laney too). So tubes are actually MORE EFFECIENT, sound per rated watt. They are also very nice for keeping the studio warm during the winter.;)
OT, but I recommend the Fender Hotrod deluxe. Plenty of preamp tubes plus 2 powertubes, ran cooled out to 40 watts, single 12, small, loud as hell, and cheap (for what you get) at less than $600 shipped new, or around $400-$450 used and clean. I have gigged with dozens of amps (really). its got the best bang for the buck. I keep mine parked in a angled amp stand while onstage. (old fart blues/rock/country band)
I would think that the most likely scenario for extraterrestrial intelligence would be either insectoid or reptillian. After all, it was only dumb luck that our planet got hit with that rock a few million years ago... Wasn't it?
I see your point, even tho I think you have your tongue in cheek. The question would be, however, would an insect or reptile, even a warm blooded reptile, evolve into a self aware, intellegent species. Our ancestor from that period (a shrew) survived and developed, but was it because it was possible, or probable?
Another thing to consider is the "accident" of being hit with a rock. Once again, the answer could be "if we were not hit with big rocks every now and then, we would not be here" which is true, and perhaps being hit by a big rock periodically is necessary to thin the herd, and for intellegent life to exist. I would imagine, just understanding what little I do about the cosmos (and its billions and billions of stars.....) that the vast majority of planetoids in the vast majority of systems get hit with big rocks on a regular basis, since thats what planets are made of, so it may be moot.
My thoughts, regarding the possibility of insect or reptiles becoming intellegent, is that it is less likely for a few reasons. (not impossible, just not probable):
1. From our experience, the more intellegent species tend to be predators. It appears it requires more thinking than grazing, and requires a high degree of flexibility and evolution. Some insects and reptiles may be preditors, but not to the degree as a warm blooded mammal.
2. Most, but not all, reptiles are cold blooded. This does not lend well to developing intellegence for a multitude of reasons.
3. Mammals tend to take care of their young for longer periods of time. I think there is a valid arguement that the longer the 'childhood' of a species, the higher the probability that the individual is guided more by knowledge and experience rather than instict. One of the differences between man and the animals is his ability to store his knowledge externally, in books, in schools, on CDs. This makes sharing it easier. This is key. Man didn't not jump in relative intellegence until language, writing and this ability to store information externally developed. The longer the childhood, the longer the learning period, the more information that can be passed on before the child assumes the roll of an adult.
And finally, perhaps an animal could start out as a reptile, then become warmblooded (like t-rex), then get smaller, get useful arms, harbor its children longer, develop speech, etc., but by that time, it would almost be a mammal, short of breast milk. Or perhaps it would only be after it developed into a mammal that it gained intellegence. So we get the same result, just a different path to it.
Then again, I am a layman that simply reads too much, so I could be completely wrong, and we could be the only species with intellegence that isnt insect based. but i doubt it:)
In a universe this vast, it seems impossible to me that we could be the only life. One thing which I expect we'll find if we explore the universe in greater detail is that it's full of weird things. The weirdness of life doesn't come across when we sit at home in ultra-introspective mode, categorizing the minute differences between insects as though they're legendary incredible differences. The weirdness will come across when we're confronted by complex interrelated chemical and physical processes on other worlds, and our biologists won't want to call it life, while the rest of us will (or vice versa).
Purely as a layman: It seems the more I look at human biology, and the potential alternative lifeforms, I begin to conclude that while there MAY BE lifeforms based on something besides carbon, or that are carbon based but look very different than us, I would image most lifeforms in a similar state of intellegence (or lack thereof)DO look similar to us in many ways. I have to image that two eyes (stereoscopic vision) bipedal, and two of most everything is universally desirable. While 3 or more may be better, the benefits are not worth the evolutionary cost.
Paraphrasing Carl Sagan, maybe things look this way because if they were any other way, we wouldnt be here to look at them. Maybe most intellegent life will only form on planet that are.75 to 1.5x the size of earth to maintain the proper atmosphere, with a temperature that is within 30C of earth, etc. Maybe our kind of life only happen in non-binary systems, on planets that have an axis that is offset to the plane of their rotation, creating regular seasons (or maybe not). Not that Earth IS the standard, it just falls WITHIN the standard, so we are here to ask. Maybe life MUST be carbon based, maybe. Maybe we are not quite so unique, and its that all or most intellegent life looks disctictly similar to us in many ways outlined herein.
The irony is, if we found 12 different 'species' that were more or less at the same intellegence level (10000BC to 10000AD our perspective) they may actually look similar to the races on Star Trek. Biped, different features enhanced (Ferrangi with big ears, Vulcans with a logic based society, Klingon's with a warrior based society, etc). I don't mean LITERALLY we meet Klingons, but real species may be as similar simply because evolution works toward a similar model anywhere: Biped, two of everything, about 60 to 100KG in size, internal skeleton, and the variations are due to the variations of that planet. We would probably be just in the middle of this evolution. Maybe Grays are more toward completion of this evolution, if they exist.
Another case of life imitating art. However, unlike Star Trek, I am pretty sure they won't all speak American English.;-)
The one's crying we are going to 'run out of energy'. Its a common theme on/., sorry you missed it.
Who is we?
The human race in general, the geologists in particular.
Who are the tree huggers and what do they put out?
Not touching that one...
I grew up in a oil and gas family. I built a solar powered car. I love forrests. I love hardwood floors. I got an education from the gas my family exploited. It matters very little what you know, or what your agenda is... its the tangible contribution you make to improve the world that matters. Your self proclaimed knowledge of how much oil is left sounds ludicrous. Oil consuption is bad. The discovery and extraction of more oil is bad. In your own words, you sound like an average person that knows little about energy.
You manage to miss the entire point, but I will bite. "Tree Huggers" in my world, is a term for people who love trees more than humans (do i really have to simplify this for you, or are you TRYING to misunderstand?)
I know we use too much oil. I know it causes pollution. Oil needs to be replaced with alternatives as soon as it is possible. But we are not going to run out anytime soon. Period. This isn't based on my "average person" understanding, its bases upon my experiences with geologists, wireline, and our better methods of extracting oil from areas we once considered unobtainable. There is many times more oil than we thought there was just 25 years ago.
My family didn't "exploit" the oil (whatever that means). They mapped it, drilled it, pumped it and sold it. They are devout conservationists. At 70 and 66, they still spend most of their time fishing and in the woods. Not everyone in oil wants to ruin the land. Most people in the oil business ARE outdoor types who care about the land. I bet your parents are too.
BUT WE STILL ARE NOT GOING TO RUN OUT OF OIL SOON. That is the point. The whole point. The doomsayers spread FUD about running out of oil to use that to push solar, hydrogen, etc. instead of letting each stand alone baseed up the merits of each technology. One problem of these technologies is they cost more than oil, and will not be readily used soon because of this.
But we are not going to run out of oil any time soon. (you getting the point yet?)
"The Truth" is a generic term, meaning "things that are true". When people spread FUD about running out of oil, just to push and agenda about an alternative energy source, they are distorting the truth. The people I refer to are NOT the people within those industries, its the peons on/. who think they are spreading 'the word'. Do a freaking search, I'm not going to search and link something that is so easy to find here.
But we are not going to run out of oil anytime soon. Period.
Hm, the sun will eventually explode, too, so we'd better not bother to try and use solar power either. Or hydro or wind, since those are indirectly powered by the sun as well, which is clearly a finite resource.
Dumbass.
I dont' want to get into an arguement, so Im replying to your comment instead;) In spite of what people say, every year, we discover more and more oil. We used to think we only had 100 years worth at current consumption in the 70s. Now we know there are many times that amount. I grew up in an oil family. Its amazing how little the average person actually knows about energy. Whats more amazing is the FUD that tree huggers put out, even knowing better. The truth doesn't matter to these people: Only their agenda does.
Fat and lazy people will be overjoyed that they do not acually have to push the petals.....
Don't worry, someone will put a starter on it for the lazy people, adding to the wieght, so you need a bigger gas tank, adding to the weight, and since its so heavy, you need a heavier frame. oh shit, we just invented the moped.
Reminds me: Every time I pass someone on a moped, I just want to yell out the window of my truck "Sorry about your drinking problem!".
don't mean to sound redundant here or anything, but you know how people use DES 3 times and called it 3DES? Why not use ROT-13+ 3 times and call it 3ROT-13?
ROT-13 CUBED sounds more L337. I was gonna do a super script 3, but/. wont let me. That would be more L337.
Slashdot Mirror
I always thought by going IPv6 and having each person their own IP that is traceable, (1.1.1.1.1.1 = bob smith or acme inc.) it would make it easier to trace spammers as well.
Everyone gets really freaky about privacy on the web, and I understand their desire to be private, but I don't see it in the constitution either.
The concept of privacy obviously extends to your home, including your inside your computer, but once you 'leave' your home via the internet, its kinda of silly to expect any more privacy than when in your car to go to the store. This doesn't mean the govt. should track you without a warrant, but you shouldnt expect to remain totally anonymous. Some confuse the right to free speech (which doesn't mean anonymous free speech or exclude it, read the damn constitution, its neutral to that point) with privacy. They are different concepts completely. You seem to get this point. others dont.
HOWEVER I do have a problem when service providers absolve themselves of ANY responsibility for fraud by contracting that any bad behaviour is the customer's fault, and the customer agrees that it cannot have been caused by either internal fraud/misuse or a security lapse. Remember phantom debit card withdrawals? Clearly Emusics's lawyers have fear and uncertainty about these issues, or the contract would not be worded so.
Ok, fair enough. They state:
They also state in their privacy policy:
So I would take their absolving themselves of responsibility in as generic a fashion as possible. (general cya) They probably are not responsible if you download "Suicide Solution" to listen to and then kill yourself (only slight humor meant).
I may not LIKE that kind of term, and its a valid reason to NOT use their service to some people, perhaps, but its quite common, and doesnt mean much considering the privacy policy clearly excludes them from sharing. Yes, they can change the privacy policy, as they can ANY policy, so that doesn't hold much weight with me.
I have had to be involved with writting Warranties and Exclusions for products with potential liabilities, and I can tell you, I have put in more general, and probably more scary looking exclusions, NOT to try to screw someone, but just to cover my ass in every way possible.
Remember, the reason hairdryers say "don't use in the shower" is there was probably someone stupid enough to do it, sue, and win. There are reasons why companies write them this way. Most of the time, its not an attempt to set themselves up to rip you off, especially from larger companies that can be held to task. Its almost always a simple case of having paranoid lawyers, which from an management point of view, is a good thing.
This 2nd message sounds very different than your first, where you said "the login procedure isn't secure. Similarly your CC transactions. " which is not true. Being concerned about the text of the policies is perfectly valid, as you state in your 2nd message.
Personally, their policies are not exactly pro-consumer and somewhat vague in one respect, but tolorable in my point of view. YMMV.
Has anyone looked at the prices from the story? I could not find a $25 FC drive anywhere. Cheapest was $120. So, yah, $240 for 2 drives, that kinda blows the under $250 out of the water.
Yea, the $40.99 host is actually $858, pushing the whole project into the 'well over a grand' territory. I will blow 250 to enjoy working with a cool technology, even if i dont have an immediate need, but for a grand i can buy several nice u160 drives and stripe them since i dont 'need' FC.
I found the whole article pretty over simplified (and really bad blinking/flashing ads) Quoteth the comic book guy: Worst article. Ever.
Ok, not that bad, but not that good either.
See www.emusic.com/bem/new_signup/terms.html
I did. CC transactions ARE secure. The login is also secure. This is 100% FUD. Try getting your facts straight before you use the submit button. Any fool, including you, can go to the login page and see for yourself. You quote the terms and privacy to try to look like you have researched it, then lie to spread your agenda.
If you just hate Vivendi, fine. Just say you don't want to do business with them instead of spreading this FUD.
No. The real problem is you can't protect against one without restricting the other. Record companies don't really care about backup copies. They're more concerned with downloading 100 songs from Kazaa and burning them, rather than buying the music.
But they are willing to take away your right to backup in order to keep you from using Kazaa. Thats the problem. No matter what they spend, they can not stop it. If they make it impossible to record from disk, then people will make very high quality analog verisons, then digitize. It will still be good enough. But now you have pissed off your customers, who will delight in sticking it to you.
Another problem: Much of the new music coming out on major labels is not much better than private label stuff out of some home studios, and freely available. They can't control that either.
Until they realize that they can't put the toothpaste back into the tube and change their business model, they will have this problem. Someone here pointed me to emusic.com, which has a great model IMHO. Just not the absolute newest stuff. $10 a month for unlimited music.
After all, we would rail against a bill requiring MS products to be considered.
Good moding and question. I think the primary difference is that OSS isn't 'a' company, nor is it perceived that way. It means different things to different people. To bean counters it means free as in beer. To politicians, it means they can spend the money on something else (they would never just spend less). To the management of the agencies, it means "getting that new software everyone is talking about." To the end user it means "crap, learning something news, i don't get paid for this. To the IT department, it means more money and some education.
If you could get 'windows' from many different vendors, free,or not, then it would be a different story. Govt.s have such specialized needs in so many depts, that linux SHOULD be a viable alternative. If it takes a bill to make all the decision makers within the govt. feel its ok to look at this 'new operating system', then I think its ok to pass the law, although i agree it should not really be needed.
Now, if they passed a bill to look at "redhat linux" or a VENDOR/BRAND in particular, then I think the comparison would be more direct.
Dell used to sell AMD chips in their systems, at two different periods, so it certainly is possible.
So, you you're saying that it isn't beachballs in space?
Actually THEY are saying that is SEEMS TO BE beachballs in space. But they need more evidence. And need to test it more. But it looks like beachballs in space. But they can't rule out other stuff yet.
That is very different than "it IS beachballs in space". Its a matter of degrees of confidence.
How many of us spent years studying difficult topics in technical fields and learned how to do things because of the "coolness" of some things that we saw as children? I'm guessing that there are a lot of us for whom that was a big motivation for sticking with it when things got hard.
with all due respect, pulsars (and more) are pretty damn cool as they are. I am not sure how them being the size of a beachball raises their 'cool' level. I agree that 'cool' helps, and get people to go forward at times, but the size just doesn't push it from "almost cool" to "cool enough" for me. I dunno.
The article clearly states:
Although it is premature to discount all other possibilities, Kern told UPI, "for now it looks as though the mechanism we propose is probably correct."
"The interpretation here looks appealing," he told UPI, "although further predictions and tests will have to be made for it to carry the day."
It article seems a bit more reserved than the editor posting it. An interesting read tho.
Vendorwise I mean. Dell won't touch AMD flakiness with a 10 foot pole
I don't know, they have used AMD off and on, and any look at TV shows that Dell is going for the server market with a vengence. I could possibly see only using AMD for servers and not the regular athlons. I own several dell servers, they are aggressive as hell on price and marketing, and frankly, make a good entry to entry/midlevel server, IMHO.
So you're going to build your datacenter around Gateway? MOO.
Yea, thats not gonna happen here. I have had the worst luck with their products, regardless of cpu. Then again, there are lots of lesser known makers that don't have the mindshare of the big guys, but could snag some of the marketshare.
No, I ma not making a joke. Yesterday, Friday March 15 2003 I bought my new Soyo KT400 Dragon motherboard and a AMD 2600 Athlon with 333 bus. I have been cutting edge for 24 hours.
Um, I hate to break this to you, but you should have read the . You weren't cutting edge for even a day. Close, but no cigar.
I never will win.
Yea, that pretty well sums it up if you want state of the art.
Even then (as was the case with Radio Shack before they changed their info gathering techniques) some companies will refuse to proceed with a sale unless you provide them with this information.
Back when Radio Shack 'forced' you to give info, I would just say 'no. either put in your own info or refuse to take my money and I will just order the parts'. it freaked out many a sales rep, but I never gave the info, and they never refused to sell to me.
And since I am here (OT): What is the deal with 3/4s of Radio Shack salesmen and personal hygene? Is it just here in NC? Is a comb that hard to learn to use? Have soap prices jumped in recent years? Sorry, I just didn't know if it was a corporate policy or something....:)
Yea, doing this from remote would be a little harder.....
RING RING, "Hi, um my name is 'Bob', Im from 'The Internet Company'. We think there is a problem and we need you to help us here. Um, we need you to set your computer next to your microwave for a minute. Oh, no can do?...ok, um, you got like a 50 watt lamp you can stick next to your computer case? Ok, good, yea, do that. Oh yea, and go to this java web site.....yea, I can wait..."
I GUESS you could do some social engineering to get someone to comply. Seems like it would easier to sent out a couple hundred "I make this game, its my first. Hope you like." emails with BO in them to get one to bite.
Then go for the colon!
I had a whole bunch of cockroaches in my monitor once. The folks in the next cubicles thought it was very funny.
actually, its so common its sickning. I ran several pawn shops that dealt mainly in electronics when I lived in TX. omg. we saw roaches in TVs, stereos, VCR's. One TV had a hole in the casing at the top. it appears they used it to put chicken bones (I swear to living God). Had a few chickens worth, and a huge nest of very happy roaches.
On a funnier note, you would be surprised how many people bring in a VCR to borrow money, and when you hook it up to test it, it has porn in it. Thats not the funny part. The funny part is how they try to act like they don't know how that got in there. Everytime.
That said, I'm really drooling over a couple really nice guitar amps with tubes. They just sound classier. ;)
;)
I was about to say! I own a Fender Hotrod Deluxe and a Laney LC50 stack(both tube) as well as a Fender Sidekick 65 and a Laney GC80 (solid state)....um, no comparison.
Its not about 'reproducing the source perfectly'. Its about the natural compressed sound that only tubes (and a tube rectifier, none of this post-amp only is tube shit) can give. Tube have different characteristics, not just sound. They allow a mild distortion to be constant accross the entire spectrum, unlike solid state. Also, my 40 watt Deluxe will blow the shit out of any 100 watt solid state amp (it blows the doors off the 50 watt tube Laney too). So tubes are actually MORE EFFECIENT, sound per rated watt. They are also very nice for keeping the studio warm during the winter.
OT, but I recommend the Fender Hotrod deluxe. Plenty of preamp tubes plus 2 powertubes, ran cooled out to 40 watts, single 12, small, loud as hell, and cheap (for what you get) at less than $600 shipped new, or around $400-$450 used and clean. I have gigged with dozens of amps (really). its got the best bang for the buck. I keep mine parked in a angled amp stand while onstage. (old fart blues/rock/country band)
I would think that the most likely scenario for extraterrestrial intelligence would be either insectoid or reptillian. After all, it was only dumb luck that our planet got hit with that rock a few million years ago... Wasn't it?
I see your point, even tho I think you have your tongue in cheek. The question would be, however, would an insect or reptile, even a warm blooded reptile, evolve into a self aware, intellegent species. Our ancestor from that period (a shrew) survived and developed, but was it because it was possible, or probable?
Another thing to consider is the "accident" of being hit with a rock. Once again, the answer could be "if we were not hit with big rocks every now and then, we would not be here" which is true, and perhaps being hit by a big rock periodically is necessary to thin the herd, and for intellegent life to exist. I would imagine, just understanding what little I do about the cosmos (and its billions and billions of stars.....) that the vast majority of planetoids in the vast majority of systems get hit with big rocks on a regular basis, since thats what planets are made of, so it may be moot.
My thoughts, regarding the possibility of insect or reptiles becoming intellegent, is that it is less likely for a few reasons. (not impossible, just not probable):
1. From our experience, the more intellegent species tend to be predators. It appears it requires more thinking than grazing, and requires a high degree of flexibility and evolution. Some insects and reptiles may be preditors, but not to the degree as a warm blooded mammal.
2. Most, but not all, reptiles are cold blooded. This does not lend well to developing intellegence for a multitude of reasons.
3. Mammals tend to take care of their young for longer periods of time. I think there is a valid arguement that the longer the 'childhood' of a species, the higher the probability that the individual is guided more by knowledge and experience rather than instict. One of the differences between man and the animals is his ability to store his knowledge externally, in books, in schools, on CDs. This makes sharing it easier. This is key. Man didn't not jump in relative intellegence until language, writing and this ability to store information externally developed. The longer the childhood, the longer the learning period, the more information that can be passed on before the child assumes the roll of an adult.
And finally, perhaps an animal could start out as a reptile, then become warmblooded (like t-rex), then get smaller, get useful arms, harbor its children longer, develop speech, etc., but by that time, it would almost be a mammal, short of breast milk. Or perhaps it would only be after it developed into a mammal that it gained intellegence. So we get the same result, just a different path to it.
Then again, I am a layman that simply reads too much, so I could be completely wrong, and we could be the only species with intellegence that isnt insect based. but i doubt it:)
Naah, you just have to be skimming and not reading carefully.
:p
Oh, ok, my bad
In a universe this vast, it seems impossible to me that we could be the only life. One thing which I expect we'll find if we explore the universe in greater detail is that it's full of weird things. The weirdness of life doesn't come across when we sit at home in ultra-introspective mode, categorizing the minute differences between insects as though they're legendary incredible differences. The weirdness will come across when we're confronted by complex interrelated chemical and physical processes on other worlds, and our biologists won't want to call it life, while the rest of us will (or vice versa).
.75 to 1.5x the size of earth to maintain the proper atmosphere, with a temperature that is within 30C of earth, etc. Maybe our kind of life only happen in non-binary systems, on planets that have an axis that is offset to the plane of their rotation, creating regular seasons (or maybe not). Not that Earth IS the standard, it just falls WITHIN the standard, so we are here to ask. Maybe life MUST be carbon based, maybe. Maybe we are not quite so unique, and its that all or most intellegent life looks disctictly similar to us in many ways outlined herein.
;-)
Purely as a layman: It seems the more I look at human biology, and the potential alternative lifeforms, I begin to conclude that while there MAY BE lifeforms based on something besides carbon, or that are carbon based but look very different than us, I would image most lifeforms in a similar state of intellegence (or lack thereof)DO look similar to us in many ways. I have to image that two eyes (stereoscopic vision) bipedal, and two of most everything is universally desirable. While 3 or more may be better, the benefits are not worth the evolutionary cost.
Paraphrasing Carl Sagan, maybe things look this way because if they were any other way, we wouldnt be here to look at them. Maybe most intellegent life will only form on planet that are
The irony is, if we found 12 different 'species' that were more or less at the same intellegence level (10000BC to 10000AD our perspective) they may actually look similar to the races on Star Trek. Biped, different features enhanced (Ferrangi with big ears, Vulcans with a logic based society, Klingon's with a warrior based society, etc). I don't mean LITERALLY we meet Klingons, but real species may be as similar simply because evolution works toward a similar model anywhere: Biped, two of everything, about 60 to 100KG in size, internal skeleton, and the variations are due to the variations of that planet. We would probably be just in the middle of this evolution. Maybe Grays are more toward completion of this evolution, if they exist.
Another case of life imitating art. However, unlike Star Trek, I am pretty sure they won't all speak American English.
Who are people?
/., sorry you missed it.
/. who think they are spreading 'the word'. Do a freaking search, I'm not going to search and link something that is so easy to find here.
The one's crying we are going to 'run out of energy'. Its a common theme on
Who is we?
The human race in general, the geologists in particular.
Who are the tree huggers and what do they put out?
Not touching that one...
I grew up in a oil and gas family. I built a solar powered car. I love forrests. I love hardwood floors. I got an education from the gas my family exploited. It matters very little what you know, or what your agenda is... its the tangible contribution you make to improve the world that matters. Your self proclaimed knowledge of how much oil is left sounds ludicrous. Oil consuption is bad. The discovery and extraction of more oil is bad. In your own words, you sound like an average person that knows little about energy.
You manage to miss the entire point, but I will bite. "Tree Huggers" in my world, is a term for people who love trees more than humans (do i really have to simplify this for you, or are you TRYING to misunderstand?)
I know we use too much oil. I know it causes pollution. Oil needs to be replaced with alternatives as soon as it is possible. But we are not going to run out anytime soon. Period. This isn't based on my "average person" understanding, its bases upon my experiences with geologists, wireline, and our better methods of extracting oil from areas we once considered unobtainable. There is many times more oil than we thought there was just 25 years ago.
My family didn't "exploit" the oil (whatever that means). They mapped it, drilled it, pumped it and sold it. They are devout conservationists. At 70 and 66, they still spend most of their time fishing and in the woods. Not everyone in oil wants to ruin the land. Most people in the oil business ARE outdoor types who care about the land. I bet your parents are too.
BUT WE STILL ARE NOT GOING TO RUN OUT OF OIL SOON. That is the point. The whole point. The doomsayers spread FUD about running out of oil to use that to push solar, hydrogen, etc. instead of letting each stand alone baseed up the merits of each technology. One problem of these technologies is they cost more than oil, and will not be readily used soon because of this.
But we are not going to run out of oil any time soon. (you getting the point yet?)
"The Truth" is a generic term, meaning "things that are true". When people spread FUD about running out of oil, just to push and agenda about an alternative energy source, they are distorting the truth. The people I refer to are NOT the people within those industries, its the peons on
But we are not going to run out of oil anytime soon. Period.
RTFA. You can't start the motor until you're riding the bike.
Oh, Im sorry, i thought you would GET the humor. Jebus Christ....any fucking reason to start an arguement.
If you don't get the joke, just move along, move along......
Hm, the sun will eventually explode, too, so we'd better not bother to try and use solar power either. Or hydro or wind, since those are indirectly powered by the sun as well, which is clearly a finite resource.
;) In spite of what people say, every year, we discover more and more oil. We used to think we only had 100 years worth at current consumption in the 70s. Now we know there are many times that amount. I grew up in an oil family. Its amazing how little the average person actually knows about energy. Whats more amazing is the FUD that tree huggers put out, even knowing better. The truth doesn't matter to these people: Only their agenda does.
Dumbass.
I dont' want to get into an arguement, so Im replying to your comment instead
Fat and lazy people will be overjoyed that they do not acually have to push the petals.....
Don't worry, someone will put a starter on it for the lazy people, adding to the wieght, so you need a bigger gas tank, adding to the weight, and since its so heavy, you need a heavier frame. oh shit, we just invented the moped.
Reminds me: Every time I pass someone on a moped, I just want to yell out the window of my truck "Sorry about your drinking problem!".
don't mean to sound redundant here or anything, but you know how people use DES 3 times and called it 3DES? Why not use ROT-13+ 3 times and call it 3ROT-13?
/. wont let me. That would be more L337.
ROT-13 CUBED sounds more L337. I was gonna do a super script 3, but