I fundamentally agree with this perspective, expressing ones viewpoint is sacrosanct. Where I start to have a problem is when one promotes or encourages harmful action based on that viewpoint. It's ok even to try to convince another that your viewpoint is valid, but to suggest, recommend, or demand that one take harmful, illegal action based on that viewpoint is wrong.
You're free to say that you hate some person or group. You're free to try to provide evidence of the reasons behind your feeling or opinion. (Since most hate is unreasoned and emotional, it's unlikely such evidence will be convincing or hold up to scrutiny. Unfortunately, many people are either not capable of or choose not to apply reason.) This is part of seeking the truth and normal dialogue. It's also guaranteed by the first amendment to the United States Constitution.
But to suggest that the targets of your hate should be harmed as a result of their person or status is improper. For me, that's where the line should be drawn. Of course there are already laws in place that prohibit the harmful action itself. The grey area is in what constitutes promotion of that action.
The right to say "I hate blue people and here is why." is sacrosanct. (No offense intended toward the Blue Man Group, in fact I love them.) To kill blue people because you hate them is clearly illegal. To say "You should kill blue people because I hate them and you should hate them too." is that grey area. Personally, I think that, though this is a form of speech, it is wrong. My internal jury is still out on whether this should be illegal, but I am leaning toward it's prohibition.
This is exactly the situation on the anti-abortion choice sites that promote the killing of doctors who perform abortions. How's that for a delicious irony? One of the commandments that these people purport to believe and is a fundmental tenet of their religion is "Thou shalt not Kill." This seems pretty clear. Yet they think it's ok to kill a doctor who performs abortions. One of the bumper stickers that I have seen says "Why do we kill people who kill people to show that killing people is wrong?" It has broader implications, but certainly applies here. (Disclaimer: please do not infer from this that I consider a fetus a person, although there are those that do. Personally, I disagree.)
I absolutely agree that the solution is education. I believe that education is the process of improving onesself and the world and does not involve the promotion of or harming others. One of my favorite quotes is "Prejudice rarely survives experience." -- Eve Zibart, Washington Post.
Yes, without New Jersey we wouldn't have...uhhh...hmmm...
A place to put our toxic waste?
But seriously folks...
Jon Bon Jovi? Paul Simon? Allen Ginsburg? Jack Nicholson? Joe Piscopo? Kevin Spacey? Frank Sinatra? Meryl Streep? Ray Liotta? Michael Douglas? John Travolta? Elizabeth Shue (hubba hubba)? Jerry Lewis (ok, we could do without him...)
Thomas Edison? Irving Langmuir (Incandescent lamp)? Edmund Germer (Flourescent Lamp)? Lloyd Conover (Tetracycline)? James Hillier (Electron Microscope)? Donald Fletcher Holmes (Polyurethane)? Roy Plunkett (Teflon)? Lewis Sarett (Cortisone)? Vladimir Kosma Zworykin (Cathode-Ray Tube)?
First college football game (Rutger v. Princeton, 1869)? First organized baseball game? First pro basketball game?
Campbell's soup? Cranberry Sauce? Salt water taffy?
Electric guitar (Les Paul, 1940)? First submarine (1878)? First ferry (between Hoboken and Manhattan, 1811)? First brewery (Hoboken, 1642)?
No, I am not a Jerseyite. I live in Arizona and have never been to New Jersey. (Ain't the web wonderful? It's always good to learn new things - especially at my advanced age.) Of course, none of these things is enough to motivate me to vist.:)
Who on earth is running a browser earlier than 4.x?
Me. Lynx anyone? Not anyone around here who uses a shell is there? Also, old Macs - SE, SE30, etc - can dialup, and there are ethernet adapters for them. They make good, cheap, space-saving machines for simple access. Use Nifty Telnet for shell access, older versions of Fetch and Netscape 2.0.
But the important messge here is that:
The web is about content, not format.
Remember this. The whole point to html is that it's a *markup* language, not a *forced formatting* language. The browser takes the content and displays it in the manner of the user's choosing. This seems to have been lost in the corporatization and control of the 'net.
Remember the good old days? When the web was about content and not about spam and marketing? That's where I live. I don't want to see blinking and flashing and animated ads and popups. If I can't see your content on lynx or with a 4.x or pre 4.x browser, you have lost my eyeballs and any potential to recieve my money. No popups on lynx.
The same goes for html formatted mail (there is a special place in hell reserved for people who send html formatted mail.) If I can't read it in pine, I don't even care what it says. Send me text if you want me to read it. (No web bugs and stuff that way too.)
In short, the goal is to get your content to other people, stop being such control freaks about how it is displayed. Write to the lowest common denominator, be creative with what is available there and you save much time, aggravation and money. -- And I'll be able to see your content.
You're not talking about buying stocks with your own money are you? Surely you're talking about handling other peoples stock purchases for a brokerage fee.
Or should this read:
Ok, stop laughing. Faced with exactly the same quandry, I chose online gambling. You can do it from anywhere, the hours are great, and my tech skills haved all been expanded well beyond the limited horizons that a mere bank job can offer....
Or maybe:
Ok, stop laughing. Faced with exactly the same quandry, I chose hacking bank software. You can do it from anywhere, the hours are great, and my tech skills haved all been expanded well beyond the limited horizons that a mere bank job with a gun can offer....
Contrary to your first line, this post was supposed to be modded up as funny, right?
Time to deal with this little piece of bum information again.
At the time of the negotiations between Apple and MS, the following things happenend:
1. Apple had US$1B (yes, billion) cash in the bank
2. MS purchased US$150M in non-voting Apple stock that they could not sell for 5 years.
3. MS told Apple to kill Quicktime - Apple said no.
4. Apple agreed to use IE as the default browser, but did not agree to remove Netscape as an optional browser.
5. MS agreed to continue development of Office for the Mac for a minimum of 5 years, and to release new, equivalent versions for Mac at the same time or earlier than for Windows.
6. Details have not been released on this item, but most insider reports I have read say that Apple found out that MS used 1000's of lines of code from Quicktime - character for character - in Windows Media Player and Apple could prove it. To avoid an ugly court battle (which Apple would win), MS licensed the code (after the fact) by paying a large lump sum payment - reports say somewhere between US$600 - 750M. There was no public release of this information.
The amount in item 1. above was cash on hand, not including physical plant, product, other assetts, etc. From even just this item, I have to believe that Apple wasn't hurting for money.
I bought my Palm IIIx so long ago, I don't even remember. I think it was at Thanksgiving three years ago. I believe I paid about US$200. About six months later, I dropped it and it stopped working. With a single phone call, Palm advance shipped me a replacement under warranty in one day. Ah, those were the days.
Sometime later, when the TRGPro was being discontinued in favor of the new Handera, they were on sale at Sam's Club for about US$225 and I bought one. (For those that don't know, the TRGPro is the Palm IIIxe where the TRG folks added a CF slot and better speaker.)
My employer bought exactly the same model TRG for each of us seven admins. In all the time since, none of my peers have ever had any problems with the TRGs.
My IIIx is still in use by a girlfriend and she has had no problems. The only problem I have had with my TRG is some small scratches on the screen from the horizontal stiffening members in the flip-down lid. This was from the unit being bumped against things while in my pants pocket.
Sync has never been a problem - and I sync with NT and 2000 on desktops and laptops at work and with Macs at home. I have also successfully synced with my Red Hat box.
In short, I haven't had any significant problems. Of course I have older units. My next PDA will likely be the Handera 330 based on the track record I have seen with my TRGs.
the damm shuttle can run on a couple (3 actually I think) 8086
Actually, the shuttle flight computer systems are 5 times redundant. All 5 systems must agree or an error is generated. If 1 of the 5 parallel systems doesn't agree, they get concerned but will launch if the mission is important. If 2 of the 5 disagree, no launch.
Well, that's at least one of the approaches I would use.
In managing a college computer lab, I hired many of these guys for lab aides. I learned more from them than I did most of my classes. They were very smart and very creative. Note, these are not the script kiddies, but young, fresh thinking, CS students not with larceny in their hearts, but a desire to outwit 'the system', just for fun. I had very good luck with them not crossing the line.
Who better than them? After all, who are you attempting to be secure from?
These guys might be a good checksum after having the big professional folks come in and do their audit and you performing the fixes they recommend.
So video games are not a protected form of speech, but junk faxes and spam are?
Specifically this post where the poster found nothing out in the public realm about which judge had ruled in favor of the faxers/spammers, but did find it on LEXIS/NEXIS.
I don't know if this person is related to Rush Limbaugh or not, but considering his rulings (in these two cases anyway - favoring big business over individual rights and to 'protect the children' by stomping on the first amendment) he could at least be a dittohead.
This judge bears watching, god knows how many other wacko rulings he may emit.
The saving grace may be in the last sentence of the article; "St. Louis County modeled its ordinance after one in Indianapolis. That ordinance has been invalidated by a federal appeals court in Chicago."
(Rant on) What if I don't want to "fully experience the Sharp USA site"? What if I just want some damn information? And I can read... imagine that, you don't have to put up all kinds of pretty little pictures so I know what you're trying to say. Yeah, yeah, I know, use lynx. Actually I often do. (Ok, rant off)
The product looks pretty slick. I'd want some hands-on time (would that be "thumbs-on time"?) before I gave up TRGPro. My next PDA with probably be the Handera anyway. I don't need color or to be able to play MP3s. It's a PDA, not a laptop.
That being said, I do like the option of the thumboard for input, but I can live without it.
If history, business practices, justice department negotiations and consent decrees are any example, it went like this:
Microsoft: You will now adhere to *our* rules or we will buy your company or simply copy your product and "integrate" it into our next version of windows.
Sony: But we're here to talk about a compromise!
Microsoft: You will now adhere to our rules or we will buy your company...
Sony: But, but, but...
Microsoft: (writing check) Now see what you made me go and do? I'm very disappointed in you...
From the Washington Post article: Microsoft will assert that under the law, antitrust sanctions should not be punitive, nor should they be designed to help competitors.
Hmm... IANAL, but I sure thought that was *exactly* the point to the antitrust law. The violater should be stripped of it's illegal gains and the competitors are supposed to benefit by a leveled playing field. Duh...
If I'm wrong, can someone please correct me.
When I read that line I blew Code Red out my nose. Is there no depth to which these bastards won't reach? No lie that they won't tell? I guess all those jocks are really getting theirs for calling little Billy G a wimp back in high school. Microsoft - Bill Gates ego made manifest in the form of the most powerful lying, cheating, stealing marketing corporation.
And further in the Washington Post: the company would be forced to pull its latestWindows computeroperating systems off the market and be unable to develop new systems.
Go ahead Bill, take your marbles and go home, won't hurt my feelings a bit. Besides, you know this is a PR spin tactic. You have no plans to do this, your ego wouldn't allow it. And, you have shareholders who would never permit it. In addition, it would open you up to even more litigation. Don't make bluffs that it's not possible to follow through on.
If our legal system buys this BS, it's *really* time to pack it up and go live on that island in the South Pacific.
It seems we have forgotten all about fax machines and the law that they prompted.
Let's see. There is a law against sending unsolicited ads to your fax machine. This came about because it cost the recipient to recieve this unwanted crap - in paper, toner, etc.
Our legislators, in their wisdom, determined that we shouldn't have to be subject to crap we don't want, especially when we had to pay for it.
Ok, now to cut to the chase. Even if my Internet service is billed on a flat fee instead of by bandwith or connect time (in the US), it still costs me a cash outlay (some divided portion of my monthly ISP fee), to recieve spam. Not to mention the value of my time dealing with it. I know this has been mentioned many times before, but the message doesn't seem to be getting through to the lawmakers.
-- Rant On -- If this starts happening on my cell phone where I do pay by the minute or the message, I'm gonna become hell on wheels. Anyone up for a class action suit? Not against the spammers, but against our so-called representatives for not protecting our interests. Ok, well maybe against the spammers too. Considering the intent of the fax law, doesn't this cover this eventuality already?
If I have to go to law school myself, that's fine. My needs are minimal and I'm not averse to living like a pauper to give all my time to pro bono work.
If I recieve ads for some business 50 feet away. They're gonna hear from me. I'm gonna collect the cost of that spam message recieved on my phone. It might be only be a penny or a dime, but I'll tell them I want it in a check not cash. If they won't pay me, I'll whip out my sandwich board and picket the damn place, or make myself as annoying as possible. Or maybe I should do all of the above...
This crap has to stop. If it takes law or civil disobedience, I don't care. It has to stop. -- Rant Off --
Of course the upside to this is that my old analog Motorola TAC II phones and my Audiovox bag phone will become very valuable.
Looks like I'll be watching VHS on my 19" Sony well into the 20-teens.
I'm not touching DVD's until the decss and region encoding issues are resolved (putting my money where my mouth is and voting with my wallett), and the way they have screwed up HDTV since it's original version 10 - 12 years ago is disgusting. This is absolute proof of entropy.
Someday I may replace my cassettes with CD's, but I'm waiting for the technology to prove itself...:)
If the source is already in the universities through the "shared source" (or whatever it's called) program and it isn't yet in the wild, what makes you think it will be leaked from people associated with the various attorney's general offices?
If it comes to pass that it gets into the wild, and MS makes the assertion that it was because of access by the attorney's general review, this fact could certainly be thrown back up to them.
And to imply that various state's attorney's general are less trustworthy than university faculty can't be a good PR move.
They'll say no for a myriad of reasons, prime among them is the desire to drag out the proceeding and limit the time that the dissenting states have to look at the code. Time is on their side.
Other reasons would be the desire to avoid embarrasment, and most importantly, Bill Gates arrogance and ego.
From the article:
"...anyone smart enough to figure out how to find the prior art will know enough about the industry to go straight to the players -- law firms, companies -- and sell the prior art directly, cutting out the BountyQuest middlemen."
So, let me see if I understand this. It is possible that if one discovers prior art, one could contact law firms and companies directly to sell this knowledge? One might even contact the company which is the patent-holder in question to see what it would be worth to keep this information a secret, or sell the information to the patent-holder themselves so that they may bury it.
This sounds like quite the little cottage industry and much like the many designs for 100+ mpg carburetors which have been purchased by the car companies and shelved.
I know that it is possible that some other person may find information regarding the same prior art, but the gamble might be worth it from the companies perspective based on how many or how few people might be looking at a particular patent and the value of that patent.
It wouldn't surprise me that this is taking place. Another possible example of capitalism at it's finest.
If the movie houses don't make money off of their movies, you can expect the quantity and quality to go way down.
They seem to be making plenty of money, the quantity is up, and the quality is crap for 95% of the offerings. Hmmm... how can it get much worse?
Will Rogers said, "People get the government they deserve." I guess the same goes for entertainment. If we keep paying them to go see crap, they will produce more crap....and don't even get me started about appointed presidents and the poor quality of government. Will Rogers must be chuckling somewhere.
"Go on, take the money Enron."
-- Steve Miller Band (with a little help from current events.)
I saw the first HDTV at the NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) convention more than 10 years ago. Then it looked truly wonderful. This was before all the standards wars and the Japanese manufacturers had some truly great looking pictures and frame rates.
All of the compromises to achieve the current 'standard' have resulted in a significantly worse looking picture than the first ones I saw which were amazingly lifelike.
But more importantly, the Nazi tactics of the MPAA and the studios to reduce and/or eliminate my my rights will keep me away. I'm already voting with my wallet by the fact that I do not and will not own any DVD's or a DVD player until the DMCA and DeCSS issues are resolved to be in line with the Constitution and the laws of the United States.
My next purchase will be a Tivo and that should take care of me for a long time to come.
This reminds of that little app that has been floating around for years, the mouse odometer.
I would display on screen the number of miles your mouse has rolled. Maybe he could piggyback this functionality... since the whole thing is pretty pointless anyway. (Except for the RSI/take a break after so many keystrokes function.)
Actually it would be an interesting analysis to compare keyboard use to mouse use, per user, especially if it could be compared across platforms.
And get this: Evolution had left five logic cells unconnected to the rest of the circuit, in a position where they should not have been able to influence its workings. Yet if Thompson disconnected them, the circuit failed.
Addiction: A pathological relationship with any substance, person, event or experience that has life damaging consequences
Yes, you can be addicted to people, emotions (worry, rumination, etc.), events (gaming, coding, etc), as well as substances. The key is that the relationship with the addictive target is unhealthy (pathological) and that it causes harm in your life. I interpret this quite broadly. If the addictive experience causes me to have an unbalanced life, that's pathological. If the experience causes me to be out of touch with myself and my feelings, that's life damaging.
In attempting to recover from my addictive processes, I had a simple test. Am I engaging in this activity to avoid some other feeling that I really need to feel and/or resolve? If so, the process has the capacity to be or become and addictive process.
Addiction is usually about trying to avoid painful or unpleasant feelings (mostly from childhood - anyone identify here?) rather than to experience them, grieve them, release them and move on to a healthier life. It's about trying to find some process that reliably produces a good feeling (food was always reliable for me), unlike real life experiences which have ups and downs.
Gaming can certainly be a reliable method of avoiding other things. It sure can be an addictive process. I have lost myself in that world many times.
I guess the ironic part of healing from addiction is that one works toward having a more balanced life and developing and nurturing healthy relationships with other human beings -- things that, stereotypically, are not the strong suit of the computer geek. (No flames please, I said 'stereotypically':)
All those admonishments to go out into the big room undernearth the blue ceiling and to get a more balanced life really do have their value.
I still spend waaayyy too much time in front of this here glowing box, so I'm not trying to put myself above anyone else, but I do try to spend as much time as I can IRL. There really are some good things, people and experiences out in that big scary world.:)
Nurture and maintain your F2F relationships, experience some variety and come join me, here's your permission slip.
Slashdot Mirror
I fundamentally agree with this perspective, expressing ones viewpoint is sacrosanct. Where I start to have a problem is when one promotes or encourages harmful action based on that viewpoint. It's ok even to try to convince another that your viewpoint is valid, but to suggest, recommend, or demand that one take harmful, illegal action based on that viewpoint is wrong.
You're free to say that you hate some person or group. You're free to try to provide evidence of the reasons behind your feeling or opinion. (Since most hate is unreasoned and emotional, it's unlikely such evidence will be convincing or hold up to scrutiny. Unfortunately, many people are either not capable of or choose not to apply reason.) This is part of seeking the truth and normal dialogue. It's also guaranteed by the first amendment to the United States Constitution.
But to suggest that the targets of your hate should be harmed as a result of their person or status is improper. For me, that's where the line should be drawn. Of course there are already laws in place that prohibit the harmful action itself. The grey area is in what constitutes promotion of that action.
The right to say "I hate blue people and here is why." is sacrosanct. (No offense intended toward the Blue Man Group, in fact I love them.) To kill blue people because you hate them is clearly illegal. To say "You should kill blue people because I hate them and you should hate them too." is that grey area. Personally, I think that, though this is a form of speech, it is wrong. My internal jury is still out on whether this should be illegal, but I am leaning toward it's prohibition.
This is exactly the situation on the anti-abortion choice sites that promote the killing of doctors who perform abortions. How's that for a delicious irony? One of the commandments that these people purport to believe and is a fundmental tenet of their religion is "Thou shalt not Kill." This seems pretty clear. Yet they think it's ok to kill a doctor who performs abortions. One of the bumper stickers that I have seen says "Why do we kill people who kill people to show that killing people is wrong?" It has broader implications, but certainly applies here. (Disclaimer: please do not infer from this that I consider a fetus a person, although there are those that do. Personally, I disagree.)
I absolutely agree that the solution is education. I believe that education is the process of improving onesself and the world and does not involve the promotion of or harming others. One of my favorite quotes is "Prejudice rarely survives experience." -- Eve Zibart, Washington Post.
So, I guess that means I was a git and now that I'm educated as to it's meaning I am no longer a git... ok, at least on this subject. :)
;)
:(
BTW, how are things at the accountancy practice?
They don't add up nowadays. It seems my pension fund is empty...
Yes, without New Jersey we wouldn't have...uhhh...hmmm...
:)
A place to put our toxic waste?
But seriously folks...
Jon Bon Jovi? Paul Simon? Allen Ginsburg? Jack Nicholson? Joe Piscopo? Kevin Spacey? Frank Sinatra? Meryl Streep? Ray Liotta? Michael Douglas? John Travolta? Elizabeth Shue (hubba hubba)? Jerry Lewis (ok, we could do without him...)
Thomas Edison? Irving Langmuir (Incandescent lamp)? Edmund Germer (Flourescent Lamp)? Lloyd Conover (Tetracycline)? James Hillier (Electron Microscope)? Donald Fletcher Holmes (Polyurethane)? Roy Plunkett (Teflon)? Lewis Sarett (Cortisone)? Vladimir Kosma Zworykin (Cathode-Ray Tube)?
First college football game (Rutger v. Princeton, 1869)? First organized baseball game? First pro basketball game?
Campbell's soup? Cranberry Sauce? Salt water taffy?
Electric guitar (Les Paul, 1940)? First submarine (1878)? First ferry (between Hoboken and Manhattan, 1811)? First brewery (Hoboken, 1642)?
No, I am not a Jerseyite. I live in Arizona and have never been to New Jersey. (Ain't the web wonderful? It's always good to learn new things - especially at my advanced age.) Of course, none of these things is enough to motivate me to vist.
You know how us Americans are... :)
Who on earth is running a browser earlier than 4.x?
Me. Lynx anyone? Not anyone around here who uses a shell is there? Also, old Macs - SE, SE30, etc - can dialup, and there are ethernet adapters for them. They make good, cheap, space-saving machines for simple access. Use Nifty Telnet for shell access, older versions of Fetch and Netscape 2.0.
But the important messge here is that:
The web is about content, not format.
Remember this. The whole point to html is that it's a *markup* language, not a *forced formatting* language. The browser takes the content and displays it in the manner of the user's choosing.
This seems to have been lost in the corporatization and control of the 'net.
Remember the good old days? When the web was about content and not about spam and marketing? That's where I live. I don't want to see blinking and flashing and animated ads and popups. If I can't see your content on lynx or with a 4.x or pre 4.x browser, you have lost my eyeballs and any potential to recieve my money. No popups on lynx.
The same goes for html formatted mail (there is a special place in hell reserved for people who send html formatted mail.) If I can't read it in pine, I don't even care what it says. Send me text if you want me to read it. (No web bugs and stuff that way too.)
In short, the goal is to get your content to other people, stop being such control freaks about how it is displayed. Write to the lowest common denominator, be creative with what is available there and you save much time, aggravation and money. -- And I'll be able to see your content.
NEVER FORGET --
The web is about content, not format.
Join the Any Browser Campaign and make your pages 'content enhanced'.
You're not talking about buying stocks with your own money are you? Surely you're talking about handling other peoples stock purchases for a brokerage fee. ...
...
Or should this read:
Ok, stop laughing. Faced with exactly the same quandry, I chose online gambling. You can do it from anywhere, the hours are great, and my tech skills haved all been expanded well beyond the limited horizons that a mere bank job can offer.
Or maybe:
Ok, stop laughing. Faced with exactly the same quandry, I chose hacking bank software. You can do it from anywhere, the hours are great, and my tech skills haved all been expanded well beyond the limited horizons that a mere bank job with a gun can offer.
Contrary to your first line, this post was supposed to be modded up as funny, right?
Apple had no money to compete with the others.
Time to deal with this little piece of bum information again.
At the time of the negotiations between Apple and MS, the following things happenend:
1. Apple had US$1B (yes, billion) cash in the bank
2. MS purchased US$150M in non-voting Apple stock that they could not sell for 5 years.
3. MS told Apple to kill Quicktime - Apple said no.
4. Apple agreed to use IE as the default browser, but did not agree to remove Netscape as an optional browser.
5. MS agreed to continue development of Office for the Mac for a minimum of 5 years, and to release new, equivalent versions for Mac at the same time or earlier than for Windows.
6. Details have not been released on this item, but most insider reports I have read say that Apple found out that MS used 1000's of lines of code from Quicktime - character for character - in Windows Media Player and Apple could prove it. To avoid an ugly court battle (which Apple would win), MS licensed the code (after the fact) by paying a large lump sum payment - reports say somewhere between US$600 - 750M. There was no public release of this information.
The amount in item 1. above was cash on hand, not including physical plant, product, other assetts, etc. From even just this item, I have to believe that Apple wasn't hurting for money.
They will 'own my computer' when they pry it out of my cold, dead hands.
And they will prevent me from keeping my own data when my neurons no longer fire (see 'cold, dead hands' reference above).
I bought my Palm IIIx so long ago, I don't even remember. I think it was at Thanksgiving three years ago. I believe I paid about US$200. About six months later, I dropped it and it stopped working. With a single phone call, Palm advance shipped me a replacement under warranty in one day. Ah, those were the days.
Sometime later, when the TRGPro was being discontinued in favor of the new Handera, they were on sale at Sam's Club for about US$225 and I bought one. (For those that don't know, the TRGPro is the Palm IIIxe where the TRG folks added a CF slot and better speaker.)
My employer bought exactly the same model TRG for each of us seven admins. In all the time since, none of my peers have ever had any problems with the TRGs.
My IIIx is still in use by a girlfriend and she has had no problems. The only problem I have had with my TRG is some small scratches on the screen from the horizontal stiffening members in the flip-down lid. This was from the unit being bumped against things while in my pants pocket.
Sync has never been a problem - and I sync with NT and 2000 on desktops and laptops at work and with Macs at home. I have also successfully synced with my Red Hat box.
In short, I haven't had any significant problems. Of course I have older units. My next PDA will likely be the Handera 330 based on the track record I have seen with my TRGs.
the damm shuttle can run on a couple (3 actually I think) 8086
Actually, the shuttle flight computer systems are 5 times redundant. All 5 systems must agree or an error is generated. If 1 of the 5 parallel systems doesn't agree, they get concerned but will launch if the mission is important. If 2 of the 5 disagree, no launch.
Well, that's at least one of the approaches I would use.
In managing a college computer lab, I hired many of these guys for lab aides. I learned more from them than I did most of my classes. They were very smart and very creative. Note, these are not the script kiddies, but young, fresh thinking, CS students not with larceny in their hearts, but a desire to outwit 'the system', just for fun. I had very good luck with them not crossing the line.
Who better than them? After all, who are you attempting to be secure from?
These guys might be a good checksum after having the big professional folks come in and do their audit and you performing the fixes they recommend.
I knew I had seen this judges name recently.
So video games are not a protected form of speech, but junk faxes and spam are?
Specifically this post where the poster found nothing out in the public realm about which judge had ruled in favor of the faxers/spammers, but did find it on LEXIS/NEXIS.
I don't know if this person is related to Rush Limbaugh or not, but considering his rulings (in these two cases anyway - favoring big business over individual rights and to 'protect the children' by stomping on the first amendment) he could at least be a dittohead.
This judge bears watching, god knows how many other wacko rulings he may emit.
The saving grace may be in the last sentence of the article; "St. Louis County modeled its ordinance after one in Indianapolis. That ordinance has been invalidated by a federal appeals court in Chicago."
... reporting itself as MSIE 5.0.
(Rant on) What if I don't want to "fully experience the Sharp USA site"? What if I just want some damn information? And I can read... imagine that, you don't have to put up all kinds of pretty little pictures so I know what you're trying to say. Yeah, yeah, I know, use lynx. Actually I often do. (Ok, rant off)
The product looks pretty slick. I'd want some hands-on time (would that be "thumbs-on time"?) before I gave up TRGPro. My next PDA with probably be the Handera anyway. I don't need color or to be able to play MP3s. It's a PDA, not a laptop.
That being said, I do like the option of the thumboard for input, but I can live without it.
If history, business practices, justice department negotiations and consent decrees are any example, it went like this:
Microsoft: You will now adhere to *our* rules or we will buy your company or simply copy your product and "integrate" it into our next version of windows.
Sony: But we're here to talk about a compromise!
Microsoft: You will now adhere to our rules or we will buy your company...
Sony: But, but, but...
Microsoft: (writing check) Now see what you made me go and do? I'm very disappointed in you...
From the Washington Post article:
Microsoft will assert that under the law, antitrust sanctions should not be punitive, nor should they be designed to help competitors.
Hmm... IANAL, but I sure thought that was *exactly* the point to the antitrust law. The violater should be stripped of it's illegal gains and the competitors are supposed to benefit by a leveled playing field. Duh...
If I'm wrong, can someone please correct me.
When I read that line I blew Code Red out my nose. Is there no depth to which these bastards won't reach? No lie that they won't tell? I guess all those jocks are really getting theirs for calling little Billy G a wimp back in high school. Microsoft - Bill Gates ego made manifest in the form of the most powerful lying, cheating, stealing marketing corporation.
And further in the Washington Post:
the company would be forced to pull its latestWindows computeroperating systems off the market and be unable to develop new systems.
Go ahead Bill, take your marbles and go home, won't hurt my feelings a bit. Besides, you know this is a PR spin tactic. You have no plans to do this, your ego wouldn't allow it. And, you have shareholders who would never permit it. In addition, it would open you up to even more litigation. Don't make bluffs that it's not possible to follow through on.
If our legal system buys this BS, it's *really* time to pack it up and go live on that island in the South Pacific.
Feh!
It seems we have forgotten all about fax machines and the law that they prompted.
Let's see. There is a law against sending unsolicited ads to your fax machine. This came about because it cost the recipient to recieve this unwanted crap - in paper, toner, etc.
Our legislators, in their wisdom, determined that we shouldn't have to be subject to crap we don't want, especially when we had to pay for it.
Ok, now to cut to the chase. Even if my Internet service is billed on a flat fee instead of by bandwith or connect time (in the US), it still costs me a cash outlay (some divided portion of my monthly ISP fee), to recieve spam. Not to mention the value of my time dealing with it. I know this has been mentioned many times before, but the message doesn't seem to be getting through to the lawmakers.
-- Rant On --
If this starts happening on my cell phone where I do pay by the minute or the message, I'm gonna become hell on wheels. Anyone up for a class action suit? Not against the spammers, but against our so-called representatives for not protecting our interests. Ok, well maybe against the spammers too. Considering the intent of the fax law, doesn't this cover this eventuality already?
If I have to go to law school myself, that's fine. My needs are minimal and I'm not averse to living like a pauper to give all my time to pro bono work.
If I recieve ads for some business 50 feet away. They're gonna hear from me. I'm gonna collect the cost of that spam message recieved on my phone. It might be only be a penny or a dime, but I'll tell them I want it in a check not cash. If they won't pay me, I'll whip out my sandwich board and picket the damn place, or make myself as annoying as possible. Or maybe I should do all of the above...
This crap has to stop. If it takes law or civil disobedience, I don't care. It has to stop.
-- Rant Off --
Of course the upside to this is that my old analog Motorola TAC II phones and my Audiovox bag phone will become very valuable.
Looks like I'll be watching VHS on my 19" Sony well into the 20-teens.
:)
I'm not touching DVD's until the decss and region encoding issues are resolved (putting my money where my mouth is and voting with my wallett), and the way they have screwed up HDTV since it's original version 10 - 12 years ago is disgusting. This is absolute proof of entropy.
Someday I may replace my cassettes with CD's, but I'm waiting for the technology to prove itself...
If the source is already in the universities through the "shared source" (or whatever it's called) program and it isn't yet in the wild, what makes you think it will be leaked from people associated with the various attorney's general offices?
If it comes to pass that it gets into the wild, and MS makes the assertion that it was because of access by the attorney's general review, this fact could certainly be thrown back up to them.
And to imply that various state's attorney's general are less trustworthy than university faculty can't be a good PR move.
They'll say no for a myriad of reasons, prime among them is the desire to drag out the proceeding and limit the time that the dissenting states have to look at the code. Time is on their side.
Other reasons would be the desire to avoid embarrasment, and most importantly, Bill Gates arrogance and ego.
From the article: ...anyone smart enough to figure out how to find the prior art will know enough about the industry to go straight to the players -- law firms, companies -- and sell the prior art directly, cutting out the BountyQuest middlemen."
"
So, let me see if I understand this. It is possible that if one discovers prior art, one could contact law firms and companies directly to sell this knowledge? One might even contact the company which is the patent-holder in question to see what it would be worth to keep this information a secret, or sell the information to the patent-holder themselves so that they may bury it.
This sounds like quite the little cottage industry and much like the many designs for 100+ mpg carburetors which have been purchased by the car companies and shelved.
I know that it is possible that some other person may find information regarding the same prior art, but the gamble might be worth it from the companies perspective based on how many or how few people might be looking at a particular patent and the value of that patent.
It wouldn't surprise me that this is taking place. Another possible example of capitalism at it's finest.
I guess greed may still rule...
If the movie houses don't make money off of their movies, you can expect the quantity and quality to go way down.
...and don't even get me started about appointed presidents and the poor quality of government. Will Rogers must be chuckling somewhere.
They seem to be making plenty of money, the quantity is up, and the quality is crap for 95% of the offerings. Hmmm... how can it get much worse?
Will Rogers said, "People get the government they deserve." I guess the same goes for entertainment. If we keep paying them to go see crap, they will produce more crap.
"Go on, take the money Enron."
-- Steve Miller Band (with a little help from current events.)
current TV resolutions and VHS are fine with me.
I saw the first HDTV at the NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) convention more than 10 years ago. Then it looked truly wonderful. This was before all the standards wars and the Japanese manufacturers had some truly great looking pictures and frame rates.
All of the compromises to achieve the current 'standard' have resulted in a significantly worse looking picture than the first ones I saw which were amazingly lifelike.
But more importantly, the Nazi tactics of the MPAA and the studios to reduce and/or eliminate my my rights will keep me away. I'm already voting with my wallet by the fact that I do not and will not own any DVD's or a DVD player until the DMCA and DeCSS issues are resolved to be in line with the Constitution and the laws of the United States.
My next purchase will be a Tivo and that should take care of me for a long time to come.
This reminds of that little app that has been floating around for years, the mouse odometer.
I would display on screen the number of miles your mouse has rolled. Maybe he could piggyback this functionality... since the whole thing is pretty pointless anyway. (Except for the RSI/take a break after so many keystrokes function.)
Actually it would be an interesting analysis to compare keyboard use to mouse use, per user, especially if it could be compared across platforms.
And get this: Evolution had left five logic cells unconnected to the rest of the circuit, in a position where they should not have been able to influence its workings. Yet if Thompson disconnected them, the circuit failed.
:: More Magic
I only have one thing to say:
Magic
For those unfamiliar with the story.
Addiction: A pathological relationship with any substance, person, event or experience that has life damaging consequences
:)
:)
Yes, you can be addicted to people, emotions (worry, rumination, etc.), events (gaming, coding, etc), as well as substances. The key is that the relationship with the addictive target is unhealthy (pathological) and that it causes harm in your life. I interpret this quite broadly. If the addictive experience causes me to have an unbalanced life, that's pathological. If the experience causes me to be out of touch with myself and my feelings, that's life damaging.
In attempting to recover from my addictive processes, I had a simple test. Am I engaging in this activity to avoid some other feeling that I really need to feel and/or resolve? If so, the process has the capacity to be or become and addictive process.
Addiction is usually about trying to avoid painful or unpleasant feelings (mostly from childhood - anyone identify here?) rather than to experience them, grieve them, release them and move on to a healthier life. It's about trying to find some process that reliably produces a good feeling (food was always reliable for me), unlike real life experiences which have ups and downs.
Gaming can certainly be a reliable method of avoiding other things. It sure can be an addictive process. I have lost myself in that world many times.
I guess the ironic part of healing from addiction is that one works toward having a more balanced life and developing and nurturing healthy relationships with other human beings -- things that, stereotypically, are not the strong suit of the computer geek. (No flames please, I said 'stereotypically'
All those admonishments to go out into the big room undernearth the blue ceiling and to get a more balanced life really do have their value.
I still spend waaayyy too much time in front of this here glowing box, so I'm not trying to put myself above anyone else, but I do try to spend as much time as I can IRL. There really are some good things, people and experiences out in that big scary world.
Nurture and maintain your F2F relationships, experience some variety and come join me, here's your
permission slip.
Enjoy yourself, your friends and your life.