Saw something the other day on TV about how Amtrak can only carry passengers legally, which means that all the real money being made by railroads is being made by the privately owned ones that can carry mail and freight.
There is very little money to be made in long-distance passenger rail service in the U.S., and this has been the case since at least the 60s.
The US railroads would have liked to eliminate passenger service entirely, but there were laws that said that they had to carry passengers.
(This situation came about because the U.S. government had given so much land to the railroads back in the 19th century. In return for this favor, the railroads would have to carry passenger traffic whether it was profitable or not).
Amtrak was created to take some of the burden of passenger service off of the frieght railroads. Railroads were given a choice: either continue to run passenger trains, or allow Amtrak to do so on their tracks. Some of the jumped at this opportinity right away, others waited a few years.
They (the US railroad companies) still have to support passenger service, by letting Amtrak trains use their tracks and other facilities. It ties up their systems and slows down the money-making freight trains.
The situation is slightly different in the Northeast, where Amtrak actually owns the electrified corridor. I believe that this was split off from Conrail and given (or sold) to Amtrak when Conrail ceased to be part of the government.
Amtrak has traditionally been banned from carrying freight, because doing so would be seen as competition against the freight railroads that support it. In the last few years there have been some exceptions made, and these have been somewhat controversial.
Since Amtrack is not a law enforcement agency (even though it may or may not be an arm of the federal government) what you tell it is not protected by Miranda. Consequently, what you say can be used against you in a court of law.
Miranda prevents what you say to the police from being used against you in court? I thought it only gave you the right to "remain silent".
Of course, like most Americans, most of what I know about our justice systems comes from TV; so I could be wrong.
Perhaps it's time to release a completely closed-source version of Linux. One that doesn't let hackers find holes like these. One that'll protect our vital national secrets from the eyes of those who would steal them.
Who modded this up? How can people fail to see this as the troll that it is? ---
Zelda was fun, but I doubt it could hold your interest now. No matter how fond your memories of the old games are, playing them now reveals them to be shallow and tedious.
Not for me!
I don't own any console system, and haven't since the 8-bit NES and the original non-color Gameboy.
My PC is also several years old, and incapable of playing most of the games sold today.
Thus my technological growth as a gamer has been stunted
somewhere in the mid-to-late-90s.
However, my tastes have not been spoiled by recent games. I can still appreciate older games as if they were the coolest things I've ever played, because they really are.
I'm not sure if you should envy me or pity me.
---
Services and protocols that are normally not accessible via the Internet because they aren't routeable (Netbios, for one) are available to everyone in your neighborhood.
NetBEUI may not be routeable, but NetBIOS most certainly is. How do you think programs like Winnuke work over the internet? Or Windows file sharing on an Intranet that has more than one subnet ? ---
I believe it was SP4 that the only thing anyone can tell (where I work anyway) that it did was break Lotus Notes connectivity so you could not run a notes server with that pack installed. Calling MS brought a 'You need to purchase a Server license for that machine.'
I was in IT at the time and I seem to recall that my company did a mass-upgrade of all our servers and workstations to SP4 for "Y2K" readiness purposes. Caused more BSOD's than anything I've ever seen.
---
The RIAA is trying, (very shadily i might add) to enforce an unnatural price scheme which is merely a legacy of the days when CD's were actually that expensive
I doubt that CDs were ever as expensive to make as their retail price would suggest, even in 1983. ---
H-B were notorious for churning out truly lousy animation, cutting corners wherever possible. (OK, not as bad as the infamous Clutch Cargo, but certainly in comparison with WB or Disney.)
Apples to oranges.
The Warner Brothers and Disney cartoons you are comparing HB against (presumably you mean Bugs Bunny, Mickey Mouse, etc) were of course theatrical shorts, which came from a different world of higher production values than TV shows like the Flinstones and Yogi Bear.
The only Hanna-Barbera cartoons you can fairly compare to classic Bugs Bunny would be Tom and Jerry. It is well known that MGM (and Disney as well) often spent as much money on the animation for one cartoon as WB spent in a whole year. The production values of Tom and Jerry are lavish compared to the average Bugs or Daffy.
Of course, most people think that WB had funnier writing. Which was usually true. Also, most people agree that WB's artists were more creative. But you can't call HB cheap!
Extreme cheapness and herky-jerky animation was the rule for all made-for-tv cartoons for most of television's history. It's not limited to Hanna-Barbera. In fact, most of the others were much worse!
Look at Bullwinkle or Underdog. In comparison, the Flinstones looks pretty good, and the Jetsons looks state-of-the-art. Of course, I personally think that Bullwinkle was funnier than anything HB ever did, but that's another matter.
---
My guess would be that the phone companies are going be ready to put fiber in your house, but are going to keep selling DSL until there is something else to compete with fiber.
My understanding was that if the phone lines in your neighborhood have been replaced by fiber, then you must use IFITL instead of DSL. And of course the phone company are the people who will provide IFITL.
---
Run an internal slashcode (or similar) system to allow your newbie employees to ask the experienced ones for help. Theoretically, those who prove the most helpful should gain Karma in this system. Use this Karma as this basis for raises, promotions, etc.
Watch out for people who spend time karma-whoring instead of doing their real jobs, tho. ---
I once made a bet that I could program my functional unit in a style where every function (in C) had only _one line_ and that had to be a return statement
Someone ws actually foolish enough to bet money that you could not do this? No fair betting on technical issues with PHB's...
---
Yeah, we used to laugh at the people who predicted the death of USENET.
And then it died.
I use it all the time. Many of comp.* groups are still frequented by some of the most formidable experts in their fields. I haven't read many non-technical newsgroups in so long that I have no idea what they're like these days.
---
The assumption of "one file, one program" means that each program has to be able to do everything that you would ever want to do on that file, leading to hideous bloat.
This, but this is the fundamental underlying concept of the 1980s/1990s "GUI" systems. To go beyond it requires a complete rethinking of how a system should work.
Hopefully, somebody somewhere is working on this, but I'm too lazy to go find out.
---
So when I click on a ".c" file, will Windows magically know what I want to do with it this time? Edit it? (With which editor?) Compile it? Print it? Mail it to a colleague? Check it in to RCS/CVS/whatever? Check out the latest version? Pass it through the C beautifier? Or any one of a dozen other things that I regularly do with ".c" files.
Yes, because in Windows you do all of this with Visual Studio... no need to fool with multiple programs to do different things!
---
Anyhow, it's worth remembering that for every Frasier, there are a dozen AfterMASHes, Michael Richards Shows and other doomed-before-they-started drek.
What is The Michael Richards Show supposed to be a spinoff from? Seinfeld?
By that same logic, T. J. Hooker was a spinoff of ST:TOS. ---
I can't tell you how many resumes I've seen that had lines reading like: "ASP, JSP, XML, DTD, ADO, COM, JDBC,..." and it goes on and on.
Many job-seekers assume that the pool of resumes will be grep'ed for the relevant TLAs before even being read by a human being. This is what I've always heard.
---
The National Guard is controlled by the Governors of the states in which they are located.
The President of the U.S. is able to take control of the National Guard from a governor. I'm not sure what part of the constitution allows this, but it has happened before.
The only instance I can think is when Kennedy took the Alabama National Guard from George Wallce. ---
The New American Way(TM) - stand on the shoulders of someone else, strong-arm the competition if you have the monopoly power (or litigate them if you don't) and feed consumers substandard products while spreading FUD to keep them complacent.
Actually, this was more or less the American way for the entire 20th century. The software industry didn't invent FUD, you know.
---
A singular should not refer to a plural. Perhaps English isn't your primary language. Since MS has created confusion with this acronym, in the future we'll call it Win32(s) to avoid confusion.
I guess it all comes down to whether your pronounce it win-thirty-two-ess or win-thirty-tooz. ---
Slashdot Mirror
There is very little money to be made in long-distance passenger rail service in the U.S., and this has been the case since at least the 60s.
The US railroads would have liked to eliminate passenger service entirely, but there were laws that said that they had to carry passengers.
(This situation came about because the U.S. government had given so much land to the railroads back in the 19th century. In return for this favor, the railroads would have to carry passenger traffic whether it was profitable or not).
Amtrak was created to take some of the burden of passenger service off of the frieght railroads. Railroads were given a choice: either continue to run passenger trains, or allow Amtrak to do so on their tracks. Some of the jumped at this opportinity right away, others waited a few years.
They (the US railroad companies) still have to support passenger service, by letting Amtrak trains use their tracks and other facilities. It ties up their systems and slows down the money-making freight trains.
The situation is slightly different in the Northeast, where Amtrak actually owns the electrified corridor. I believe that this was split off from Conrail and given (or sold) to Amtrak when Conrail ceased to be part of the government.
Amtrak has traditionally been banned from carrying freight, because doing so would be seen as competition against the freight railroads that support it. In the last few years there have been some exceptions made, and these have been somewhat controversial.
Miranda prevents what you say to the police from being used against you in court? I thought it only gave you the right to "remain silent".
Of course, like most Americans, most of what I know about our justice systems comes from TV; so I could be wrong.
Who modded this up? How can people fail to see this as the troll that it is?
---
Not for me!
I don't own any console system, and haven't since the 8-bit NES and the original non-color Gameboy.
My PC is also several years old, and incapable of playing most of the games sold today.
Thus my technological growth as a gamer has been stunted somewhere in the mid-to-late-90s.
However, my tastes have not been spoiled by recent games. I can still appreciate older games as if they were the coolest things I've ever played, because they really are.
I'm not sure if you should envy me or pity me.
---
NetBEUI may not be routeable, but NetBIOS most certainly is. How do you think programs like Winnuke work over the internet? Or Windows file sharing on an Intranet that has more than one subnet ?
---
I was in IT at the time and I seem to recall that my company did a mass-upgrade of all our servers and workstations to SP4 for "Y2K" readiness purposes. Caused more BSOD's than anything I've ever seen.
---
If an unsigned band can become a success just by putting their music online, then how does the recording industry continue to exist?
---
I doubt that CDs were ever as expensive to make as their retail price would suggest, even in 1983.
---
Apples to oranges.
The Warner Brothers and Disney cartoons you are comparing HB against (presumably you mean Bugs Bunny, Mickey Mouse, etc) were of course theatrical shorts, which came from a different world of higher production values than TV shows like the Flinstones and Yogi Bear.
The only Hanna-Barbera cartoons you can fairly compare to classic Bugs Bunny would be Tom and Jerry. It is well known that MGM (and Disney as well) often spent as much money on the animation for one cartoon as WB spent in a whole year. The production values of Tom and Jerry are lavish compared to the average Bugs or Daffy.
Of course, most people think that WB had funnier writing. Which was usually true. Also, most people agree that WB's artists were more creative. But you can't call HB cheap!
Extreme cheapness and herky-jerky animation was the rule for all made-for-tv cartoons for most of television's history. It's not limited to Hanna-Barbera. In fact, most of the others were much worse!
Look at Bullwinkle or Underdog. In comparison, the Flinstones looks pretty good, and the Jetsons looks state-of-the-art. Of course, I personally think that Bullwinkle was funnier than anything HB ever did, but that's another matter.
---
My understanding was that if the phone lines in your neighborhood have been replaced by fiber, then you must use IFITL instead of DSL. And of course the phone company are the people who will provide IFITL.
---
Run an internal slashcode (or similar) system to allow your newbie employees to ask the experienced ones for help. Theoretically, those who prove the most helpful should gain Karma in this system. Use this Karma as this basis for raises, promotions, etc.
Watch out for people who spend time karma-whoring instead of doing their real jobs, tho.
---
Someone ws actually foolish enough to bet money that you could not do this? No fair betting on technical issues with PHB's...
---
You mean the number of bugs they fix, or the number of bugs they cause ?
---
I use it all the time. Many of comp.* groups are still frequented by some of the most formidable experts in their fields. I haven't read many non-technical newsgroups in so long that I have no idea what they're like these days.
---
This, but this is the fundamental underlying concept of the 1980s/1990s "GUI" systems. To go beyond it requires a complete rethinking of how a system should work.
Hopefully, somebody somewhere is working on this, but I'm too lazy to go find out.
---
Who said you were limited to three characters?
---
Yes, because in Windows you do all of this with Visual Studio... no need to fool with multiple programs to do different things!
---
What is The Michael Richards Show supposed to be a spinoff from? Seinfeld?
By that same logic, T. J. Hooker was a spinoff of ST:TOS.
---
Many job-seekers assume that the pool of resumes will be grep'ed for the relevant TLAs before even being read by a human being. This is what I've always heard.
---
http://www.computerhalloffame.org.
Beware! It's very flash-intensive.
---
The President of the U.S. is able to take control of the National Guard from a governor. I'm not sure what part of the constitution allows this, but it has happened before.
The only instance I can think is when Kennedy took the Alabama National Guard from George Wallce.
---
Uhh... define "free".
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Students are in college for at least 4 years. Four years at the same company is a long time in the IT world, at least so far as I have seen.
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Actually, this was more or less the American way for the entire 20th century. The software industry didn't invent FUD, you know.
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I guess it all comes down to whether your pronounce it win-thirty-two-ess or win-thirty-tooz.
---