Why can't text based communication just be text based(information based)? That's why I liked irc before mIRC decided to allow color codes.
Buddy icons, emoti-icons ok I'll grant you are twitish features. But imbedded graphics in text messages can be most useful in the fact that we live on a planet and many people speak diffrent languages, and an icon can be understood by more people then a word at times. A picture of an iron, a gas tank, and a cup of coffee communicate information.
I can't honestly remember if the avatars were 2d, it claimed that you could design them in ms paint. I remember experimenting with it when the MSN chat site switched to pretty much pay only, and was trying to be helpful and exploring easy to use irc clients. MS v-chat 2.0 was basicly a chat room, a virtual room that you can wonder around with your avatar and explore. While this was cool-beans, this wasn't really practical because it was too much work to just chat.
MS comic chat, unlike v-chat 2.0, I believe came with earlier versions of explorer, moving win95/98 users to a true blue irc server was as simple as tossing them a mic:// link. Ok, it really wasn't "that" simple, they could get there, but most didn't like it due to the fact it was diffrent and didn't support fonts. All and all I feel Microsoft did a good job in not only making IRC accessable to the masses, but incorperating the cool twitish features such as sounds events and comic expressions in order for users to communicate their state of mind.
I see you've never tried to play a LP or SLP tape on one of those very old VCRs that only support SP (2 hour mode). Fortunatly for most Slashdotters, they were still in diapers when this was a problem.
Strangly enough... the only time I ever saw a VCR that didn't support LP/SLP were those old beasties with mechanical buttons, or many an 80s camcorder. If we are talking home movies your comment is moot as these were typicaly shot in SP mode anyway, either because the camcorder wouldn't do LP/SLP, or the filmer didn't want to shoot in low quality.
I still own a portable VCR / Camera set, techncialy I could shoot home movies in LP/SLP, but that would be foolish. The quality would be piss poor.
Most all systems can read from either of them, and has long as you have a +/- drive you can write to either of them.
Systems are not that big a deal. Sure some people gotta update their DVD's firmware, but this is trivial. I must admit that I had to buy a new drive to do DVD -/+R for my old Samsung just refused to take it, but again this was $30 and trivial. The real problem is standalone players. My Magnavox for example refuses to play +R media. It's 5 disk surround sound deal with a replacement cost between $100-$200 or so. That's slightly less trivial. People don't want to buy a new DVD player every 1.5 years just because we can't agree on one format.
Part of the reason people buy into DVD burners is so they can burn videos and share them. In the 20th century, this wasn't a problem. If you wanted to share your home movies you just made a copy onto VHS with 100% assurance that it would be playable. While it's cool to burn a DVD in well under 1/2 the time it takes to play it, it's not cool when the best you can assure people is, "It might work."
i have personally set up hundreds of such systems, as i used to work for a computer store and that's how we built our machines. very, very seldom did we have any problems at all, unless someone set com1 and com3 to the same base port address, or just put both devices on com1.
And I've seen many systems direct from the computer store with the same configeration. In the 386/486 age, sharing an IRQ wasn't so big a deal because people didn't typicaly multitask. You wouldn't print and modem nessicarly at the same time, you wouldn't modem and use the sound card, or modem and network, just for example. I strongly suspect you never noticed an issue because dos terminal programs (telex/procomm/communique) were likely still in vogue which didn't use the mouse.
I know the time period well as I talked to many a computer store who configured their systems in that way. They didn't really give a shit about the mouse and modem sharing an IRQ because so few people would ever notice. I understand because those who did choose a non-standard irq for their internal modem ran the risk of AOL or the users terminal software not working.
This was the major issue that caused me to screw the PC and go Amiga for a time.
Why do I have this mental image of a Disney webproxy that when you surf to porn sites you get tame MickeyMouse stuff instead. Like "hotmale.com" for example, rather then gay porn popups from hell you get Disney(tm) popups from hell.
Classic hyper-correction. What do you want to bet that the poster speaks a dialect that drops the R's after vowels. Such speakers tend to stick random "silent R's" in words, because they can't figure out the rhyme or reason behind which words have R's in them and which words don't.
Actually, I have to take issue with your statement here. You can easily set up a mouse on com1, irq 4. then you can set up an internal modem on com3, irq 4. Then you can happily use both at the same time forever with no problems (assuming you don't introduce any)
You can now perhaps... but I was talking about the days of old. 386/486 class systems to be specific. Many people didn't notice a problem with a mouse / modem sharing an IRQ until they started using windows.
I can think of many a system that came from the maker configured in this way, a pair of com ports, and an internal modem that shared an IRQ port with either com1 or com2. My cheepo resolution was to take the user's mouse and put it on a diffrent com port. Fine for your average joe who only needed one com port, but it seemed annoying to me that systems shipped with a conflict, a conflict that you only noticed if you tried to use the modem and the mouse at the same time.
Not a very big Dr. Whoi fan if you can't even spell "dalek" correctly.
Well, not a big *dalek* fan, and too lazy to break out a video tape and see how Terry Nation spelt it in the 50s. Besides, Darl-eks & intellectual property? "Exterminate the Penquin!"
8 slots, everything set to IRQ 5. Common problem. Who needs to use their modem, tapedrive, scsi card, etc...etc.. at the same time anyway.
Com1/Com2 default IRQ4/3 respectivly Internal modem com3/com4 default irq4/3 Mouse not working when you go online, well who needs it anyway. AOL not working because your internal modem set to a diffrent IRQ, not their fault!
And not to speak of pre vesa video cards. Either you were fortunate enough to get 8bit color in a game, or you were screwed if your chipset wasn't supported.
While there are those days I'd like a good old dos application to do some tedius tasks... for the most part the good old days were pretty horrible.
Some of the story lines were pretty interesting, but overall I could never get into the show. Hopefully that will change with the new one.
I love Doctor Who, but I can understand where you are comming from. The format is that of a vintage 50s cliff hanger. It's something that I didn't understand watching it in the states as PBS typicaly showed an entire story at a time. If you don't like old classic science fiction then Doctor Who is difficult to get into.
The only way I could get no fans even to watch it is by showing them the credits with names like "Douglas Adams" or "Terry Nation".
As a Dr. Who fan, I get frustrated with intellectual property over the damned Darleks(tm). While I appricated the Terry Nation's vision, I can not see how even the BBC could ruin the commercial value of any spin off project that future non Doctro Who Darleks might have for they are nothing more then a B movie stereotypical evil villain.
If you are doing 60 in a 30 and have an accident, I have no problems with the insurance companies jacking up your rates.
What about people like me who in the past have refused to do 60 in a 30mph zone, and get rear ended? There are times when going the posted limit is *UNSAFE*. A blackbox is going to only record the facts, like your speed. It won't record a valued judgement the driver makes based on conditions, like a 18 wheeler on your arse.
But like your self I'm actually for a short term log provided it can only be accessed by a subpoena, owners permission, or upon the death of the driver.
It had a plot. It was the struggle of a timid woman facing the harsh reality of the cooperate world, a reality that men are openly bastards and women are more subtle but are better at it. It's the age all tale of girl meets boy, girl goes to meet boss, girl discovers bosses wife's evil plot, boss's wife shoves girl down the drain, girl becomes cat, girl gets fired, cat gets framed, girl gets boy, boy becomes cop, girl meets bosses wife, bosses wife plays innocent, bosses wife kills husband and frames cat, boy discovers cat is girl, girl escapes from jail, girl vindicates her self, girl kills bosses wife, girl gets boy again, but girl discovers her own independence, and boy loses girl. It's a classic classic tale.
This account has been permanently locked with a $0.00 USD balance. All information associated with this account has been blocked from the PayPal system and cannot be registered with another account.
No links to account info, no links anywhere, so no clue when I signed up for it.
There's no one alive so desperate for entertainment that they need an in-dash DVD player. The US Department of Justice (or whoever's in charge of this - I'm not sure) needs to underscore the fact that your own personal gratification needs to get put on hold when you're in control of a vehicle that can quite easily take lives.
I disagree. I've priced MP3 players for my car, and I've priced DVD players that support MP3. I have to say that the DVD players offer more bang for the buck except most offer on screen menus. Otherwise, the cost would about equal. In fact, if it wasn't for the need for a screen to operate the DVD player, i'd buy the DVD in a heart beat. After all, you can load up a DVD+/-r with a heck of alot more MP3s than CD-r, and i'd argue would be safer then having the urge to swap disks.
Otherwise, i'd agree that only a fool would even think of watching a movie while driving.
Perhaps this is because their drives are more reliable?
Or perhaps they know that a 5 year old drive is not going to be useful enough to pay the postage to get it replaced. I just replaced one of my old 80gig drives. It was a 2 year old unit, postage UPS was about $10.00. It was worth it to me because it's a decent size, and I payed 80% less then new value.
I have some older drives still in service between 20-40gig. On the new front, I could get them replaced for $30 or so. While postage would save me 66% of new value, I could easily hit the used market and pick one up for about the cost of postage.
And, most importantly, how many systems are actually going to still be in service in 5 years? Most people typicaly replace rather then upgrade.
I'd agree strongly on this point. The idea that Linux is behind in the GUI department (sounds rather dirty, but hey) is false, in my opinion.
Copy & paste is something that seems non-standarized in the X world. There seem to be multiable clipboards none of which are compatable with each other. This is one aspect that makes Windows and the Mac more useable. Not that I'm trying to flame linux or anything, it's just one of many issues that are a direct result of having too many choices.
While the copyright has expired on classical music, it has not nessicarly expired on the recording. Now if you were to take some sheet music and make some midi files from that, it's yours to do with as you please.
Would this allow you to play music publicly without getting a license to do so? You'd have to check with your local laws on the subject, but chances are not. It shouldn't be a problem if you have good solid evidence that you have the permision of the copyright holder, or if you are the copyright holder, but when I was looking into the subject, it seemed that a license would be required to play all forms of recorded music regardless of ownership of the copyright. After all, someone might accidently put in their own CD and *boom* public peformance.
Divine intervention? A discussion about reality adn physics, backed up by good talks, and suddenly someone comes along and tosses in human make-believe. Truly, the largest lack in the human species is religion.
Actually, the largest lack in the human species is the idea that one set of ideals are better than another set of ideals. For example, science is right religion is wrong. Whether or not the antecedent is physical or metaphysical, it's all human make-believe until such time we are able to prove it. The idea of something divine or otherwise creating life is a valid hypothesis, no more or less valid then the idea of life being the result of random chance.
The quest for life other than earth is important to all camps of science, religion, and philosophy because of the common lack in our species. Everyone wants to say "I'm right and you're wrong."
Radio communication =! intelligence. If you've listened to the radio recently you know what I mean. It's not like the average man understands radio above and beyond turning the knob, something that I'm sure a monkey can do.
The most unique thing about humans is that we were so ill-equipped to deal with our environment we had to develop things like fire and tools to survive. While this makes us a smart bunch, I would not say this makes us more or less intelligent than other animals we share the planet with who just so happen to not need the things we do to survive. You could say hardship can lead to a species developing new skills, and this would make it difficult for us to discover life on other planets from afar.
You also have language, something some consider to be the apex of human development. But there are those who belive many a sea mammal have such skills.
While I can't dismiss divine intervention as far as development of life in the universe, I can not believe that one would create something as huge as a galaxy let alone many galaxies and only populate one planet.
It's a BIOS. What good would making it GNU/BIOS do?
For one thing it may lower costs for some, others who just pirate the firmware could just be legit. I don't know what the current fee is for an Award/AMI/Phoenix bios but it's gotta be a good percent of the retail cost of a motherboard.
From an end user perspective it may be easier to add features that are absent, or update EOL boards. One thing that come to mind from ages past was NCR/Symbios boot support. Present in some, absent in others. How many geeks have too many PCs and wouldn't mind using a console port rather then having to drag a monitor in just to change a few bios settings. Just to name a couple,
I wouldn't give them (FORD) any ideas -- I'm sure they would like to... and I wouldn't be surprised if it became illegal to do so one day...
Why the hell would Ford want to do that? Such mods are very likely to void your warrenty, and are often not exactly street legal. But what you do off road and on the track are a diffrent story, and any reasonable auto company including Ford is more then happy to accomidate anything that makes the cars look good because they are in the business of selling cars. Sony, the seller of the PS2 is in the business of selling software more so than PS2s. Modchips in theory affect the sale of games, so they wouldn't want that.
Now whether or not it will become illegal to peform such mods on your rod is a diffrent story. But it would likely be a safty or enviromental group rather than the automakers them selves.
Could it be that the first ones with numbers had only 1-9 and people were to use O as 0 and that when the 0 was added they placed it at the end so that the numbers would not be shifted over?
You are correct, and actually early typewriters had no one either. Lowercase "L" was used in place of 1. My invoice for my 1966 ford f-250 shows evidence of both L and o for 1 and 0 for all the prices, with errors XXXXed out when the typer accidently used an upercase L.
Needless to say, the prior generation needed to adapt to the fact that a computer cared about the fact that 0O and l1 were indeed diffrent letters, where in years past it didn't make a flipping bit of diffrence. The current generation is lost on that typewriter as it's missing numbers.
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Why can't text based communication just be text based(information based)? That's why I liked irc before mIRC decided to allow color codes.
Buddy icons, emoti-icons ok I'll grant you are twitish features. But imbedded graphics in text messages can be most useful in the fact that we live on a planet and many people speak diffrent languages, and an icon can be understood by more people then a word at times. A picture of an iron, a gas tank, and a cup of coffee communicate information.
I think the last version was v-chat 2.0.
I can't honestly remember if the avatars were 2d, it claimed that you could design them in ms paint. I remember experimenting with it when the MSN chat site switched to pretty much pay only, and was trying to be helpful and exploring easy to use irc clients. MS v-chat 2.0 was basicly a chat room, a virtual room that you can wonder around with your avatar and explore. While this was cool-beans, this wasn't really practical because it was too much work to just chat.
MS comic chat, unlike v-chat 2.0, I believe came with earlier versions of explorer, moving win95/98 users to a true blue irc server was as simple as tossing them a mic:// link. Ok, it really wasn't "that" simple, they could get there, but most didn't like it due to the fact it was diffrent and didn't support fonts. All and all I feel Microsoft did a good job in not only making IRC accessable to the masses, but incorperating the cool twitish features such as sounds events and comic expressions in order for users to communicate their state of mind.
I see you've never tried to play a LP or SLP tape on one of those very old VCRs that only support SP (2 hour mode). Fortunatly for most Slashdotters, they were still in diapers when this was a problem.
Strangly enough... the only time I ever saw a VCR that didn't support LP/SLP were those old beasties with mechanical buttons, or many an 80s camcorder. If we are talking home movies your comment is moot as these were typicaly shot in SP mode anyway, either because the camcorder wouldn't do LP/SLP, or the filmer didn't want to shoot in low quality.
I still own a portable VCR / Camera set, techncialy I could shoot home movies in LP/SLP, but that would be foolish. The quality would be piss poor.
Most all systems can read from either of them, and has long as you have a +/- drive you can write to either of them.
Systems are not that big a deal. Sure some people gotta update their DVD's firmware, but this is trivial. I must admit that I had to buy a new drive to do DVD -/+R for my old Samsung just refused to take it, but again this was $30 and trivial. The real problem is standalone players. My Magnavox for example refuses to play +R media. It's 5 disk surround sound deal with a replacement cost between $100-$200 or so. That's slightly less trivial. People don't want to buy a new DVD player every 1.5 years just because we can't agree on one format.
Part of the reason people buy into DVD burners is so they can burn videos and share them. In the 20th century, this wasn't a problem. If you wanted to share your home movies you just made a copy onto VHS with 100% assurance that it would be playable. While it's cool to burn a DVD in well under 1/2 the time it takes to play it, it's not cool when the best you can assure people is, "It might work."
i have personally set up hundreds of such systems, as i used to work for a computer store and that's how we built our machines. very, very seldom did we have any problems at all, unless someone set com1 and com3 to the same base port address, or just put both devices on com1.
And I've seen many systems direct from the computer store with the same configeration. In the 386/486 age, sharing an IRQ wasn't so big a deal because people didn't typicaly multitask. You wouldn't print and modem nessicarly at the same time, you wouldn't modem and use the sound card, or modem and network, just for example. I strongly suspect you never noticed an issue because dos terminal programs (telex/procomm/communique) were likely still in vogue which didn't use the mouse.
I know the time period well as I talked to many a computer store who configured their systems in that way. They didn't really give a shit about the mouse and modem sharing an IRQ because so few people would ever notice. I understand because those who did choose a non-standard irq for their internal modem ran the risk of AOL or the users terminal software not working.
This was the major issue that caused me to screw the PC and go Amiga for a time.
Why do I have this mental image of a Disney webproxy that when you surf to porn sites you get tame MickeyMouse stuff instead. Like "hotmale.com" for example, rather then gay porn popups from hell you get Disney(tm) popups from hell.
Classic hyper-correction. What do you want to bet that the poster speaks a dialect that drops the R's after vowels. Such speakers tend to stick random "silent R's" in words, because they can't figure out the rhyme or reason behind which words have R's in them and which words don't.
Or perhaps the poster, ME, tends to see both spellings.
Actually, I have to take issue with your statement here. You can easily set up a mouse on com1, irq 4. then you can set up an internal modem on com3, irq 4. Then you can happily use both at the same time forever with no problems (assuming you don't introduce any)
You can now perhaps... but I was talking about the days of old. 386/486 class systems to be specific. Many people didn't notice a problem with a mouse / modem sharing an IRQ until they started using windows.
I can think of many a system that came from the maker configured in this way, a pair of com ports, and an internal modem that shared an IRQ port with either com1 or com2. My cheepo resolution was to take the user's mouse and put it on a diffrent com port. Fine for your average joe who only needed one com port, but it seemed annoying to me that systems shipped with a conflict, a conflict that you only noticed if you tried to use the modem and the mouse at the same time.
Not a very big Dr. Whoi fan if you can't even spell "dalek" correctly.
Well, not a big *dalek* fan, and too lazy to break out a video tape and see how Terry Nation spelt it in the 50s. Besides, Darl-eks & intellectual property? "Exterminate the Penquin!"
Later on sound cards (like the first sound blaster) would randomly crash your system if things weren't setup just right (IRQs, memory addresses).
Tell me about it.
2nd printer port, defult address IRQ 5
sound card, prefered address IRQ 5
SCSI card, default address IRQ 5
Network adapter, default address IRQ 5
QIC02 adapter, Default address IRQ 5
8 slots, everything set to IRQ 5. Common problem. Who needs to use their modem, tapedrive, scsi card, etc...etc.. at the same time anyway.
Com1/Com2 default IRQ4/3 respectivly
Internal modem com3/com4 default irq4/3
Mouse not working when you go online, well who needs it anyway. AOL not working because your internal modem set to a diffrent IRQ, not their fault!
And not to speak of pre vesa video cards. Either you were fortunate enough to get 8bit color in a game, or you were screwed if your chipset wasn't supported.
While there are those days I'd like a good old dos application to do some tedius tasks... for the most part the good old days were pretty horrible.
Some of the story lines were pretty interesting, but overall I could never get into the show. Hopefully that will change with the new one.
I love Doctor Who, but I can understand where you are comming from. The format is that of a vintage 50s cliff hanger. It's something that I didn't understand watching it in the states as PBS typicaly showed an entire story at a time. If you don't like old classic science fiction then Doctor Who is difficult to get into.
The only way I could get no fans even to watch it is by showing them the credits with names like "Douglas Adams" or "Terry Nation".
As a Dr. Who fan, I get frustrated with intellectual property over the damned Darleks(tm). While I appricated the Terry Nation's vision, I can not see how even the BBC could ruin the commercial value of any spin off project that future non Doctro Who Darleks might have for they are nothing more then a B movie stereotypical evil villain.
If you are doing 60 in a 30 and have an accident, I have no problems with the insurance companies jacking up your rates.
What about people like me who in the past have refused to do 60 in a 30mph zone, and get rear ended? There are times when going the posted limit is *UNSAFE*. A blackbox is going to only record the facts, like your speed. It won't record a valued judgement the driver makes based on conditions, like a 18 wheeler on your arse.
But like your self I'm actually for a short term log provided it can only be accessed by a subpoena, owners permission, or upon the death of the driver.
how on earth did they forget to add a plot?
It had a plot. It was the struggle of a timid woman facing the harsh reality of the cooperate world, a reality that men are openly bastards and women are more subtle but are better at it. It's the age all tale of girl meets boy, girl goes to meet boss, girl discovers bosses wife's evil plot, boss's wife shoves girl down the drain, girl becomes cat, girl gets fired, cat gets framed, girl gets boy, boy becomes cop, girl meets bosses wife, bosses wife plays innocent, bosses wife kills husband and frames cat, boy discovers cat is girl, girl escapes from jail, girl vindicates her self, girl kills bosses wife, girl gets boy again, but girl discovers her own independence, and boy loses girl. It's a classic classic tale.
No links to account info, no links anywhere, so no clue when I signed up for it.
There's no one alive so desperate for entertainment that they need an in-dash DVD player. The US Department of Justice (or whoever's in charge of this - I'm not sure) needs to underscore the fact that your own personal gratification needs to get put on hold when you're in control of a vehicle that can quite easily take lives.
I disagree. I've priced MP3 players for my car, and I've priced DVD players that support MP3. I have to say that the DVD players offer more bang for the buck except most offer on screen menus. Otherwise, the cost would about equal. In fact, if it wasn't for the need for a screen to operate the DVD player, i'd buy the DVD in a heart beat. After all, you can load up a DVD+/-r with a heck of alot more MP3s than CD-r, and i'd argue would be safer then having the urge to swap disks.
Otherwise, i'd agree that only a fool would even think of watching a movie while driving.
Perhaps this is because their drives are more reliable?
Or perhaps they know that a 5 year old drive is not going to be useful enough to pay the postage to get it replaced. I just replaced one of my old 80gig drives. It was a 2 year old unit, postage UPS was about $10.00. It was worth it to me because it's a decent size, and I payed 80% less then new value.
I have some older drives still in service between 20-40gig. On the new front, I could get them replaced for $30 or so. While postage would save me 66% of new value, I could easily hit the used market and pick one up for about the cost of postage.
And, most importantly, how many systems are actually going to still be in service in 5 years? Most people typicaly replace rather then upgrade.
I'd agree strongly on this point. The idea that Linux is behind in the GUI department (sounds rather dirty, but hey) is false, in my opinion.
Copy & paste is something that seems non-standarized in the X world. There seem to be multiable clipboards none of which are compatable with each other. This is one aspect that makes Windows and the Mac more useable. Not that I'm trying to flame linux or anything, it's just one of many issues that are a direct result of having too many choices.
While the copyright has expired on classical music, it has not nessicarly expired on the recording. Now if you were to take some sheet music and make some midi files from that, it's yours to do with as you please.
Would this allow you to play music publicly without getting a license to do so? You'd have to check with your local laws on the subject, but chances are not. It shouldn't be a problem if you have good solid evidence that you have the permision of the copyright holder, or if you are the copyright holder, but when I was looking into the subject, it seemed that a license would be required to play all forms of recorded music regardless of ownership of the copyright. After all, someone might accidently put in their own CD and *boom* public peformance.
Divine intervention? A discussion about reality adn physics, backed up by good talks, and suddenly someone comes along and tosses in human make-believe. Truly, the largest lack in the human species is religion.
Actually, the largest lack in the human species is the idea that one set of ideals are better than another set of ideals. For example, science is right religion is wrong. Whether or not the antecedent is physical or metaphysical, it's all human make-believe until such time we are able to prove it. The idea of something divine or otherwise creating life is a valid hypothesis, no more or less valid then the idea of life being the result of random chance.
The quest for life other than earth is important to all camps of science, religion, and philosophy because of the common lack in our species. Everyone wants to say "I'm right and you're wrong."
Radio communication =! intelligence. If you've listened to the radio recently you know what I mean. It's not like the average man understands radio above and beyond turning the knob, something that I'm sure a monkey can do.
The most unique thing about humans is that we were so ill-equipped to deal with our environment we had to develop things like fire and tools to survive. While this makes us a smart bunch, I would not say this makes us more or less intelligent than other animals we share the planet with who just so happen to not need the things we do to survive. You could say hardship can lead to a species developing new skills, and this would make it difficult for us to discover life on other planets from afar.
You also have language, something some consider to be the apex of human development. But there are those who belive many a sea mammal have such skills.
While I can't dismiss divine intervention as far as development of life in the universe, I can not believe that one would create something as huge as a galaxy let alone many galaxies and only populate one planet.
It's a BIOS. What good would making it GNU/BIOS do?
For one thing it may lower costs for some, others who just pirate the firmware could just be legit. I don't know what the current fee is for an Award/AMI/Phoenix bios but it's gotta be a good percent of the retail cost of a motherboard.
From an end user perspective it may be easier to add features that are absent, or update EOL boards. One thing that come to mind from ages past was NCR/Symbios boot support. Present in some, absent in others. How many geeks have too many PCs and wouldn't mind using a console port rather then having to drag a monitor in just to change a few bios settings. Just to name a couple,
Planning to commit a crime is considered a crime in some cases.
Hell, according one site site It is illegal to enter some community in Washington with criminal intent without phoning the chief of police.
site
I wouldn't give them (FORD) any ideas -- I'm sure they would like to... and I wouldn't be surprised if it became illegal to do so one day...
Why the hell would Ford want to do that? Such mods are very likely to void your warrenty, and are often not exactly street legal. But what you do off road and on the track are a diffrent story, and any reasonable auto company including Ford is more then happy to accomidate anything that makes the cars look good because they are in the business of selling cars. Sony, the seller of the PS2 is in the business of selling software more so than PS2s. Modchips in theory affect the sale of games, so they wouldn't want that.
Now whether or not it will become illegal to peform such mods on your rod is a diffrent story. But it would likely be a safty or enviromental group rather than the automakers them selves.
Could it be that the first ones with numbers had only 1-9 and people were to use O as 0 and that when the 0 was added they placed it at the end so that the numbers would not be shifted over?
You are correct, and actually early typewriters had no one either. Lowercase "L" was used in place of 1. My invoice for my 1966 ford f-250 shows evidence of both L and o for 1 and 0 for all the prices, with errors XXXXed out when the typer accidently used an upercase L.
see here
Needless to say, the prior generation needed to adapt to the fact that a computer cared about the fact that 0O and l1 were indeed diffrent letters, where in years past it didn't make a flipping bit of diffrence. The current generation is lost on that typewriter as it's missing numbers.