It sounds like you and I could go on talking about HP for a long while. I worked for HP right out of high school and had always bought HP equipment, from calculators to o-scopes. Yes, their quaility was legendary -- military grade, even. But, you are right, their quality has suffered tremendously over the past few years. It seems like they went downhill right about the time they bought the tape drive maker, Colorado. I used to recommend HP without batting an eye -- now, I have to actually check out the product of interested before I can recommend anything. More and more, I find myself not being able to recommend the HP product.
I really liked the old HP calcs. I had an 87, 41c, 41cvx, and a 15c. They tried some handheld computers which were kinda cool too. I had an HP55c and HP51c with all the HPIL stuff like tape drive, printers, even an HPIP-HPIL bridge. Those were the days.
Last month I finally pitched my HP86A computer with green-screen and all. It got me through high school and college. It was my first CP/M machine. It was my first computer with UPPER and lower case. It was my first computer with graphics. It was my first computer! And, it had a floppy instead of cassettte. It was even my first cool hack, defeating the two character passwords on the file system.
As a bachelor, I kept it as it served as a really cool analog display alarm-clock. I had the voice synth module and programmed it to say "You should wake up now, Trent" for the first alarm, and then for each time I hit snooze (anykey) it would say ruder things. It also served as a dart score keeping gadget.
But alas, after 11 years of marriage, my wife got fed up and asked me to clear out its space so she coule use it for her computer. So I set about saying goodbye. I got really high first so that when my wife asked if I was crying, I could say, "Don't be silly -- I'm just really high". It was a sad moment. I will miss the green glow and the absolute silence of my old HP86A.
Derviative!! Gah! I know its only two characters transposed, but it sounds so messed up. Remember, always, no wait, never.... no, always click on the Preview button first (especially editors)
Imagine after a long night coding, you say outloud, "I think I'm gonna crash". And, your Windows box replies, "I know just what you mean" as your screen glows blue.
I have heard uban legends about getting out of traffic problems in Mexico by paying a 'fine' directly to the officer.
This is a fact. In the early 1980's, I helped a friend bring his wedding presents from Mexico City to Austin, TX. We were in a pick-up truck with a shell cover on the bed loaded with packages. On the long way out of Mexico city (his family lived in the South of the city) we were stopped by the police. My friend was told to pay a fine for transporting so many packages without a permit -- total bullshit. My friend asked what additional fine he could pay so that the policeman would escort us out of the city (so that we would not be stopped again and have to pay another made-up penalty). After paying the equivalent of $40US, we were escorted to the Northern city limit without any more troubles. I was a bit upset over the ordeal, but I was told by my native friend that this was better than having to deal with the legal system directly.
So, this is not an urban legend. I experienced it first-hand.
while I am still sober enough to type (like that really matters on/.) let me say these three things:
1) When I was younger (I AM NOT OLD!) I couldn't seem to get projects independently. I got the cubicle contract jobs. 2) The past two years I have been independent and have worked from home. I believe that age and perception of responsibility have allowed this. 3) Oh shit, I'm drunk already.
I stand corrected -- by posts, and a mental bitch-slap from my wife. It does indeed vary by locale. However, here in St. Louis, MO, lawyers don't serve jury duty. Rereading my post showed that I missed making a point: Does the fact that I'm married to a lawyer have anything to do with the fact that I haven't been summoned in over 8 years? Or, am I just lucky? Or, is this normal?
I don't understand the jury selection process at all.
Before my wife passed the Bar, I would get the occasional notification for jury duty. I have not been called once in eight years since she passed the Bar and started practicing law. For those that don't know, lawyers are exempt from jury duty (although their spouses are not)
Back when I did get called for jury duty, I would go show up and answer their questions. Each time, when the selection process was happening, they changed my occupation from "systems admin" or "database admin", or whatever I put down, to "white-collar-worker" and then I would be summarily dismissed -- and, a bit worried about being mugged on my way to my car. Maybe its just Saint Louis, Missouri, but it seemed to me that they wanted uneducated housewives or factory workers.
But, like I said, I don't understand the jury selection process at all. Neither does my wife who practices in federal courts without juries.
Re:Now to get back at the millionare spammer
on
AOL Wins Anti-Spam Case
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· Score: 5, Interesting
...flood him with real junk mail...
Can anybody dig up Jay Nelson's home address? Imagine if every spammer that makes his name in any headlines gets slammed with junk snail-mail. It might just raise the cost of spamming to a level that would be prohibitive.
- It was available before cable was (4 years ago).
- When the trash truck goes down my alley, it knocks down cable lines about every other month. The phone lines, being lighter I guess, are higher up and are not bothered.
- Technical reasons (no shared line, dedicated speed)
- I dumped cable tv in favor of satellite.
Living in St. Louis, Missouri, I have a plethora of options available for DSL. I keep a second phone line for fax and ppp dialin and have my DSL running on that line. I found a provider in Saint Louis (valuenet.net) that gives me a static ip and no fussing about what I do with it. Zoneedit.com does a fine job of primary and secondary dns for free.
I've decided to give myself the next year off, and the year after that, and the following one too. I hate being interrupted when I'm doing absolutely nothing.
Re:Alcohol and Cigarettes and harmful
on
Google vs. Evil
·
· Score: 5, Funny
When I was a little kid in the late 60's, my dad gave me a big stack of Playboy magazines. It turned out that my mom had made him get rid of the them. He got in serious trouble when my mom found out that I had the collection. I wish I still had them -- they'd be worth a lot of money (they were all clean).
I've used the Ahanix Iceberg I water cooler system. The submersible pump is indeed almost silent. However, the fans that blow air through the radiator are not silent. The noise level was the same with my big heatsink/fan as with the reservoir/pump/heatsink/radiator/fan. That is... until the radiator sprung a leak (see my other post)
I am in the process of getting satisfaction from a vendor concerning a failed water cooler system. If you don't want to hear a rant, stop reading now.
I put an Iceberg I in my kids' Athlon XP 1900+ in the first part of September. It worked great for almost three months and then the heat exchanger (radiator) sprung a leak and fried my GeForce3 video card. I wrote that off since I was planning on upgrading it soon anyway. I also considered myself to be extremely lucky to have only lost something so easily replaced.
However, what burns me is the response I have received (or, lack thereof) from exoticpc.com (where I bought the fscking thing). BTW, their website is not working for me in Mozilla right now, but Konqeror seems to work.
I originally emailed them telling them about the radiator leak and asked for a refund. They did reply the next day saying that they would not return my money. But, I was told that they would give me a new reservoir since I had apparently screwed mine in too tightly and ruined it -- which is not the case, the reservoir is not leaking.
They apparently didn't bother to even read my complaint. I made it clear that the problem was with the radiator, not the reservoir. Here is my original message:
I purchased this item on 09/03/2002 and installed it as soon as I got it. It has been running great until now. The radiator unit sprung a leak. Fortunately, all I lost was a video card which was due for upgrade anyway. I would like to return the entire product for a refund since I will not be using it again. I do not trust a replacement to be any better. It was cool while it lasted:)
and, their reply:
Hi Trent,
Sorry to hear what happened to you. This is actually a rare occurence. This problem only seems to occur when someone screws in the screws too tight and the cracks form over time. Also, try to make sure the lid is screwed in evenly so the top is level and not at an odd angle. This may also cause cracks to form. Another precaution would be to use a regular screwdriver instead of a power drill. We could send out a new reservoir to you, but after 30 days there's no refund. Just let me know and I'll send a replacement reservoir out to you, Trent.
At any rate, I then replied to their mail asking for a replacement heat exchanger or radiator or whatever you call it. It has been ten days since I replied to their mail and I have not received any response. I just sent off another email to exoticpc.com hoping that it will elicit a response. (in case this post doesn't;) )
I'd like to see just how much money Universal / USA Network / SciFi Channel have put in to promoting Mr. Spielberg's upcoming 20 hour mini-series. So far I've seen: 1. Bombardment of ads for the show. 2. Ads for freedomofinfo.org (checkout the whois) 3. The Abduction Diaries ??? 4. A Geraldo style show about Roswell 5. And now, paying off the Brits to unleash their hype^H^H^H^Hinfo.
My kids' school has a deal where we buy cards with values of $10, $25, and $100 amounts to be used at a particular grocery store. I use them at the grocery until the balance goes to zero and then throw them away.
Why use them? The school gets money for me using the card instead of paying with cash.
Since the card is not linked to any of my personal information aside from my fingerprints being all over the thing, I'm not worried about privacy issues.
You get only 3% of your product promotion emails from Asia? We are very sorry. Aparently, you are not listed in our database. We are proud of the many great products that we offer to the world. It is an unfortunate mistake that your email address is not listed in our systems. Please send email to add2list@spam.com and we will correct this error.
Regards, joe
P.S. Add your friends to the list also! You don't want them missing out too, do you?
Slashdot Mirror
It sounds like you and I could go on talking about HP for a long while. I worked for HP right out of high school and had always bought HP equipment, from calculators to o-scopes. Yes, their quaility was legendary -- military grade, even. But, you are right, their quality has suffered tremendously over the past few years. It seems like they went downhill right about the time they bought the tape drive maker, Colorado. I used to recommend HP without batting an eye -- now, I have to actually check out the product of interested before I can recommend anything. More and more, I find myself not being able to recommend the HP product.
I really liked the old HP calcs. I had an 87, 41c, 41cvx, and a 15c. They tried some handheld computers which were kinda cool too. I had an HP55c and HP51c with all the HPIL stuff like tape drive, printers, even an HPIP-HPIL bridge. Those were the days.
That picture brought tears to my eyes. Those disk drives were damn near indestructible.
As a bachelor, I kept it as it served as a really cool analog display alarm-clock. I had the voice synth module and programmed it to say "You should wake up now, Trent" for the first alarm, and then for each time I hit snooze (anykey) it would say ruder things. It also served as a dart score keeping gadget.
But alas, after 11 years of marriage, my wife got fed up and asked me to clear out its space so she coule use it for her computer. So I set about saying goodbye. I got really high first so that when my wife asked if I was crying, I could say, "Don't be silly -- I'm just really high". It was a sad moment. I will miss the green glow and the absolute silence of my old HP86A.
Derviative!! Gah! I know its only two characters transposed, but it sounds so messed up. Remember, always, no wait, never.... no, always click on the Preview button first (especially editors)
Bob Dole says, "Blowjobs are good". Down boy...
Imagine after a long night coding, you say outloud, "I think I'm gonna crash". And, your Windows box replies, "I know just what you mean" as your screen glows blue.
This is a fact. In the early 1980's, I helped a friend bring his wedding presents from Mexico City to Austin, TX. We were in a pick-up truck with a shell cover on the bed loaded with packages. On the long way out of Mexico city (his family lived in the South of the city) we were stopped by the police. My friend was told to pay a fine for transporting so many packages without a permit -- total bullshit. My friend asked what additional fine he could pay so that the policeman would escort us out of the city (so that we would not be stopped again and have to pay another made-up penalty). After paying the equivalent of $40US, we were escorted to the Northern city limit without any more troubles. I was a bit upset over the ordeal, but I was told by my native friend that this was better than having to deal with the legal system directly.
So, this is not an urban legend. I experienced it first-hand.
1) When I was younger (I AM NOT OLD!) I couldn't seem to get projects independently. I got the cubicle contract jobs.
2) The past two years I have been independent and have worked from home. I believe that age and perception of responsibility have allowed this.
3) Oh shit, I'm drunk already.
I stand corrected -- by posts, and a mental bitch-slap from my wife. It does indeed vary by locale. However, here in St. Louis, MO, lawyers don't serve jury duty. Rereading my post showed that I missed making a point: Does the fact that I'm married to a lawyer have anything to do with the fact that I haven't been summoned in over 8 years? Or, am I just lucky? Or, is this normal?
You have given new meaning to the term "boredom". Time to go update the entry on everything2...
Before my wife passed the Bar, I would get the occasional notification for jury duty. I have not been called once in eight years since she passed the Bar and started practicing law. For those that don't know, lawyers are exempt from jury duty (although their spouses are not)
Back when I did get called for jury duty, I would go show up and answer their questions. Each time, when the selection process was happening, they changed my occupation from "systems admin" or "database admin", or whatever I put down, to "white-collar-worker" and then I would be summarily dismissed -- and, a bit worried about being mugged on my way to my car. Maybe its just Saint Louis, Missouri, but it seemed to me that they wanted uneducated housewives or factory workers.
But, like I said, I don't understand the jury selection process at all. Neither does my wife who practices in federal courts without juries.
Can anybody dig up Jay Nelson's home address? Imagine if every spammer that makes his name in any headlines gets slammed with junk snail-mail. It might just raise the cost of spamming to a level that would be prohibitive.
Living in St. Louis, Missouri, I have a plethora of options available for DSL. I keep a second phone line for fax and ppp dialin and have my DSL running on that line. I found a provider in Saint Louis (valuenet.net) that gives me a static ip and no fussing about what I do with it. Zoneedit.com does a fine job of primary and secondary dns for free.
Send $5,000 to paypal@foleyhome.com and I'll be glad to let you in on my money making ideas.
I've decided to give myself the next year off, and the year after that, and the following one too. I hate being interrupted when I'm doing absolutely nothing.
Am I screwed up? Yes, but not because of porn.
I've used the Ahanix Iceberg I water cooler system. The submersible pump is indeed almost silent. However, the fans that blow air through the radiator are not silent. The noise level was the same with my big heatsink/fan as with the reservoir/pump/heatsink/radiator/fan. That is... until the radiator sprung a leak (see my other post)
I put an Iceberg I in my kids' Athlon XP 1900+ in the first part of September. It worked great for almost three months and then the heat exchanger (radiator) sprung a leak and fried my GeForce3 video card. I wrote that off since I was planning on upgrading it soon anyway. I also considered myself to be extremely lucky to have only lost something so easily replaced.
However, what burns me is the response I have received (or, lack thereof) from exoticpc.com (where I bought the fscking thing). BTW, their website is not working for me in Mozilla right now, but Konqeror seems to work.
I originally emailed them telling them about the radiator leak and asked for a refund. They did reply the next day saying that they would not return my money. But, I was told that they would give me a new reservoir since I had apparently screwed mine in too tightly and ruined it -- which is not the case, the reservoir is not leaking.
They apparently didn't bother to even read my complaint. I made it clear that the problem was with the radiator, not the reservoir. Here is my original message:
and, their reply:At any rate, I then replied to their mail asking for a replacement heat exchanger or radiator or whatever you call it. It has been ten days since I replied to their mail and I have not received any response. I just sent off another email to exoticpc.com hoping that it will elicit a response. (in case this post doesn'tThanks for reading. I feel a little better now.
...when you pry my qwerty keyboard from my cold, dead, carpal-tunneled hands.
It just hit me when I looked at that picture. If the earth keeps getting wider, it will eventually become flat! Thats just not right.
Earlier, I had read a cnn blurb about global warming which contained no useful information. Finally, the whole global warming thing is explained:
Natural variability may be behind the changes, but human activity might also be to blame, scientists said.
That's what I call "pinning it down"!
I'd like to see just how much money Universal / USA Network / SciFi Channel have put in to promoting Mr. Spielberg's upcoming 20 hour mini-series. So far I've seen:
1. Bombardment of ads for the show.
2. Ads for freedomofinfo.org (checkout the whois)
3. The Abduction Diaries ???
4. A Geraldo style show about Roswell
5. And now, paying off the Brits to unleash their hype^H^H^H^Hinfo.
It all seems pretty expensive to me.
Why use them? The school gets money for me using the card instead of paying with cash.
Since the card is not linked to any of my personal information aside from my fingerprints being all over the thing, I'm not worried about privacy issues.
Remember, Capone was busted for tax evasion -- not for his worst crimes. Get 'em any way you can.
Regards,
joe
P.S. Add your friends to the list also! You don't want them missing out too, do you?