"And in the meantime, the enemy's already thought of an alternative name: enhanced CD."
The name "enhanced CD" has been used for a long time now, at least since 1996, to describe CD-Extra discs. This is a standard format which contains 2 sessions: The first session is regular CD Audio and the second is data, containing artist info, music videos, artwork, etc.
For example, the soundtrack for Star Trek First Contact is an enhanced CD. No DRM, perfectly rippable, and contains a bunch of interview quicktime movies with the movie's production crew on the data session.
If they are using "enhanced CD" to describe DRM'd discs, then it is doublespeak, but not a new name.
"DivX version 4 and above is a legal, written-from-scratch MPEG4 implementation."
Actually, although version 4 and higher of DivX are not rips, they are not actually compliant MPEG-4 implementations either. If you want the benefits of compliance like proper synch, responsive seeks and all that, then check out 3ivx or XviD. The latter is open source and fragmented and thus there are often compatibility problems, while the former is very unified but not open source.
"I've had 3 Seagate 18Gb Ultra SCSI drives die in the last 6 months."
I doubt all the drives were of poor quality or defective.
1. Check your power supply. If the 5V rail in particular is erratic or just too weak (say 10% too low) then that is likely the problem. Most people don't think about this, but it can kill most computer components.
2. Use S.M.A.R.T. capibility to determine the drive's temperature and see if it is getting too hot and needs cooling. This can also kill a drive.
" I was always a fan of having one or more local copies and redundant network backups on my roommate's computer. If his computer happened to be off at the time, I settled for a floppy.
It did end up saving my ass at least once."
Good idea. I periodically copy my 'work' directory to CD-Rw for short term backup purposes. (I also us CD-R for long term backups.) This has saved me at least once as well.
" Wow, people manage to get to their 4th year (of anything that requires even incidental use of Windows) without developing an I - must - press - Ctrl-S - every - 15 - seconds reflex?"
From years of using MS Word 97, I have developed a strong alt+f , s reflex after I hit period. (alt+f = file menu, s = save, period = end of sentence.) Word actually tracks the number of saves and minutes editing the document. In most of mine, I typically have something like 210 minutes editing, 281 saves.
Even though win2k is very stable compared to 98se, and even though I use OS X more often now, that reflex is still there.
"When we went shopping for one I asked her what specs was she looking for, g3?, 500 Mhz?, ram?, dvd drive? She just looked around pointed and said, "I want the blue one." I swear, I'm not kidding!"
Apple understands the thought patterns of the non-technical. They know that most people think that a computer is an appliance. This is *exactly* what they were expecting.
At the time of the iMac, apple made it so that if you wanted a mac, you basically had three decisions to make;
1. Desktop or Laptop?
2. Professional or general-use?
3. Colour?
This is much simpler than the 52^347 choices you have when making a PC. Heck, I want to have all those choices, choose my preferred thermal grease for CPU cooling, rounded cables, custom fans, etc. But Apple knows that 99% of the computer-buying market doesn't know what the heck all those choices are. Therefore they simplified it to choices that everyone understands. And it worked!
One time, I installed a Lian Li removable HDD bay into my machine. It was physically quite excellent, except that it made the hard drive inside it act like it was doing acid. Every file on the drive that was accessed when the drive was in that drive bay was corrupted, including my PGP private keyring (which fortunately I had saved to a ZIP disk.)
It also messed up that entire IDE channel. The DVD drive on the slave setting was messed up. The BIOS detected it with a garbled name.
After taking that bay out and replacing it with my old HDD bay, everything was back to normal.
I think that IM in the office is an excellent alternative to phones when not used excessively. You don't annoy other people with the noise of your conversation, you can cut&paste, etc.
But I work at a datacentre for a major bank and they are extremely touchy about software and (network stability and all that) so we don't get IMs at all. This morning I solved that problem by 'coding' and instant messenger that included history tracking using nothing but batch files, built-in-windows executables, using the windows "NET SEND" command. It works quite nicely and already saved me a bunch of time today getting information.
So if you want the efficiency of IMs but none of the software, I suggest you use NET SEND. It caught on like today with a bunch of other people in my area.
(Please, spare the jokes about using windows on a network when stability is critical. They're only dumb terminals used to launch xterms to access the mighty solaris server.)
" Well you could head over to mozdev.org and see for yourself. To say that once something is mature you can't innovate with new features has been proven wrong over and over with any number of software projects."
"I might be a bit of a Linux advocate, but Microsoft mice and trackballs are *wonderful.* In fact, I mostly use the Intellimouse Optical Trackball (I find I have fewer hand problems with a trackball than a mouse). Microsoft makes killer pointing devices:^)"
Just stay away from the "MS Optical Mouse Blue." It's wireless, optical, looks and feels good, inexpensive and it DOESN'T WORK! Do some research if you want one of these. Unlike most MS Optical mice, this one should be avoided at all costs.
"If that's the case, go buy an IntelliMouse Explorer. One with two thumb buttons on the left side (in addtion to the two buttons + mouse wheel on top). You can use the two thumb buttons to go back and forth with one click. Plus, the explorer is an awesome mouse to begin with... no cleaning out gunk on the wheels."
Or you could get a Logitech MX700 which has all this and more. It's much better built, is wireless, optical, has none of that 'optical lag' that bothered us in early optical mice, and won't jump all around when you move it quickly. I love this mouse. The only downside is that it's expensive and only for right-handers.
"I hate mobile phones. I get a sharp headache after using one for only 2 or 3 minutes. One of my sister's friend's nose started bleeding uncontrollably (also accompanied by a sharp headache) after using one for a few minutes."
I think that this depends on the phone. My parents used to have this old, honkin' big Sony Ericcson mobile phone, the first one ever offered by Clearnet in Canada. On that thing, I would instantly get a headache after only 5-10 seconds of use. But the newer ones do not bother me. But most other newer phones do not bother me at all.
Nowadays, though, I almost never have the phone next to my head because I use an earpiece so that I have two hands free.
" contact the credit bureaus - there's 3 major ones - Equifax, Trans Union and Experian. tell them what happened, they can flag your acct so you have to contacted at your home phone before any acct is opened in your name."
Of course if you do this, it is bloody difficult to legitimately get a credit card, a loan, etc. You can't just walk into best buy and use one of those payment plans that involves a credit check. A better option is to put a BLOCK on your file, which means that if someone tries to get credit in your name (including you) then you are contacted before any credit is granted. You still can't walk into Best Buy and use that payment plan, but it is more secure than allowing the use of a non-blocked credit bureau file.
"hen I buy a book from my campus bookstore, it comes with a damn credit card application stuffed in it. The credit card companies decided, I guess, that it is profitable enough to make credit incredibly easy to obtain that they don't mind eating the cost of occasional fraud. Unfortunately, this hurts those whose identities have been stolen, as they have to take the time and effort to clear their credit rating."
Actually, they throw credit card applications at you left and right because students are a very profitable demographic for the credit card industry. (I work in the credit card division of a major bank.) Student credit card applications are often pushed to the front of the processing queue so they can get you your card ASAP. This is because, more often than not, students want to charge their card up to the maximum limit in one day. Of course they won't pay it off instantaneously which means big time payoffs for the bank because the card probably has a 17.9% interest rate.
" He's not talking about the US. In many countries you can not apply for credit via mail. The fact that you can do it in the US surprises many non-americans."
This surprises me as well, and I am from Canada. I have actually never applied for a credit card in person. I've done it by internet and by mail. Sometimes you have to pick it up at the bank branch, other times it comes in the mail to your home.
I actually work in the Credit Card division (VISA or Mastercard, but I won't tell you which;-) of one of North America's 10 largest banks and I can tell you that this 'not in person' system DOES have its problems. Fraud is the curent biggest monetary loss for the bank. I won't post some of the methods the crooks use to take advantage of this mail and internet system (because I don't want to help budding fraudsters,) but it is truly nefarious. Fraud of credit cards is actually incredibly easy in Canada and the US, and it's going to get worse before it gets better. One big problem is that you don't need a PIN for the cc's and it is very rare that a merchant actually looks at the signature on the card. You could sign any old name and get away with it.
Now in Canada the system with SIN (social insurance numbers) is better than the US because by law, they can only be used for purposes related to paying taxes to the government. My SIN number is only used when starting a new job, opening a bank account that earns taxable interest, applying to university, paying taxes, and that's about it.
"It may surprise some of you but in the rest of the world you actually need to show some real identity document, like a passport or drivers license, to get anyone to actually trust your identity."
One problem is that, by and large, a change in the way 'The System' works is, to Americans, an admission of defeat. But the US of A never loses at anything because it is the best. I mean, if a conversion to metric was ever implemented, the terrorists will have won!
A benefit of this SHOULD be that paid subscribers should be able to mark a story as a dupe before it goes live, giving the editors time to take it down.
Slashdot Mirror
I was actually taken in by this.
Actually that was on Thinkgeek's april fool's special front page last year, or perhaps the year before.
The name "enhanced CD" has been used for a long time now, at least since 1996, to describe CD-Extra discs. This is a standard format which contains 2 sessions: The first session is regular CD Audio and the second is data, containing artist info, music videos, artwork, etc.
For example, the soundtrack for Star Trek First Contact is an enhanced CD. No DRM, perfectly rippable, and contains a bunch of interview quicktime movies with the movie's production crew on the data session.
If they are using "enhanced CD" to describe DRM'd discs, then it is doublespeak, but not a new name.
Actually, although version 4 and higher of DivX are not rips, they are not actually compliant MPEG-4 implementations either. If you want the benefits of compliance like proper synch, responsive seeks and all that, then check out 3ivx or XviD. The latter is open source and fragmented and thus there are often compatibility problems, while the former is very unified but not open source.
I doubt all the drives were of poor quality or defective.
1. Check your power supply. If the 5V rail in particular is erratic or just too weak (say 10% too low) then that is likely the problem. Most people don't think about this, but it can kill most computer components.
2. Use S.M.A.R.T. capibility to determine the drive's temperature and see if it is getting too hot and needs cooling. This can also kill a drive.
Good idea. I periodically copy my 'work' directory to CD-Rw for short term backup purposes. (I also us CD-R for long term backups.) This has saved me at least once as well.
From years of using MS Word 97, I have developed a strong alt+f , s reflex after I hit period. (alt+f = file menu, s = save, period = end of sentence.) Word actually tracks the number of saves and minutes editing the document. In most of mine, I typically have something like 210 minutes editing, 281 saves.
Even though win2k is very stable compared to 98se, and even though I use OS X more often now, that reflex is still there.
Apple understands the thought patterns of the non-technical. They know that most people think that a computer is an appliance. This is *exactly* what they were expecting.
At the time of the iMac, apple made it so that if you wanted a mac, you basically had three decisions to make;
1. Desktop or Laptop?
2. Professional or general-use?
3. Colour?
This is much simpler than the 52^347 choices you have when making a PC. Heck, I want to have all those choices, choose my preferred thermal grease for CPU cooling, rounded cables, custom fans, etc. But Apple knows that 99% of the computer-buying market doesn't know what the heck all those choices are. Therefore they simplified it to choices that everyone understands. And it worked!
Why two?
I came across a motherboard that did a similar thing to CPUs. Every CPU that was put in it got cooked. Not fun.
It also messed up that entire IDE channel. The DVD drive on the slave setting was messed up. The BIOS detected it with a garbled name.
After taking that bay out and replacing it with my old HDD bay, everything was back to normal.
But I work at a datacentre for a major bank and they are extremely touchy about software and (network stability and all that) so we don't get IMs at all. This morning I solved that problem by 'coding' and instant messenger that included history tracking using nothing but batch files, built-in-windows executables, using the windows "NET SEND" command. It works quite nicely and already saved me a bunch of time today getting information.
So if you want the efficiency of IMs but none of the software, I suggest you use NET SEND. It caught on like today with a bunch of other people in my area.
(Please, spare the jokes about using windows on a network when stability is critical. They're only dumb terminals used to launch xterms to access the mighty solaris server.)
You have not heard about ghostzilla. ;-) It will revolutionize your stealth pr0n viewing, taking it to a whole new level.
Agreed. To me, mozilla is useless without optimoz and multizilla.
Just stay away from the "MS Optical Mouse Blue." It's wireless, optical, looks and feels good, inexpensive and it DOESN'T WORK! Do some research if you want one of these. Unlike most MS Optical mice, this one should be avoided at all costs.
Or you could get a Logitech MX700 which has all this and more. It's much better built, is wireless, optical, has none of that 'optical lag' that bothered us in early optical mice, and won't jump all around when you move it quickly. I love this mouse. The only downside is that it's expensive and only for right-handers.
I think that this depends on the phone. My parents used to have this old, honkin' big Sony Ericcson mobile phone, the first one ever offered by Clearnet in Canada. On that thing, I would instantly get a headache after only 5-10 seconds of use. But the newer ones do not bother me. But most other newer phones do not bother me at all.
Nowadays, though, I almost never have the phone next to my head because I use an earpiece so that I have two hands free.
All they have to do is create a 'dupes' category that we all can block. When a dupe is detected, it is moved to this category.
Of course if you do this, it is bloody difficult to legitimately get a credit card, a loan, etc. You can't just walk into best buy and use one of those payment plans that involves a credit check. A better option is to put a BLOCK on your file, which means that if someone tries to get credit in your name (including you) then you are contacted before any credit is granted. You still can't walk into Best Buy and use that payment plan, but it is more secure than allowing the use of a non-blocked credit bureau file.
Actually, they throw credit card applications at you left and right because students are a very profitable demographic for the credit card industry. (I work in the credit card division of a major bank.) Student credit card applications are often pushed to the front of the processing queue so they can get you your card ASAP. This is because, more often than not, students want to charge their card up to the maximum limit in one day. Of course they won't pay it off instantaneously which means big time payoffs for the bank because the card probably has a 17.9% interest rate.
This surprises me as well, and I am from Canada. I have actually never applied for a credit card in person. I've done it by internet and by mail. Sometimes you have to pick it up at the bank branch, other times it comes in the mail to your home.
I actually work in the Credit Card division (VISA or Mastercard, but I won't tell you which ;-) of one of North America's 10 largest banks and I can tell you that this 'not in person' system DOES have its problems. Fraud is the curent biggest monetary loss for the bank. I won't post some of the methods the crooks use to take advantage of this mail and internet system (because I don't want to help budding fraudsters,) but it is truly nefarious. Fraud of credit cards is actually incredibly easy in Canada and the US, and it's going to get worse before it gets better. One big problem is that you don't need a PIN for the cc's and it is very rare that a merchant actually looks at the signature on the card. You could sign any old name and get away with it.
Now in Canada the system with SIN (social insurance numbers) is better than the US because by law, they can only be used for purposes related to paying taxes to the government. My SIN number is only used when starting a new job, opening a bank account that earns taxable interest, applying to university, paying taxes, and that's about it.
One problem is that, by and large, a change in the way 'The System' works is, to Americans, an admission of defeat. But the US of A never loses at anything because it is the best. I mean, if a conversion to metric was ever implemented, the terrorists will have won!
A benefit of this SHOULD be that paid subscribers should be able to mark a story as a dupe before it goes live, giving the editors time to take it down.
That's what this is for!
There's no jump key!