You may call call it a conspiracy theory but I believe there are artificail barriers in place across almost all carriers. Number portability got rid of one of them. There is a major issue with carrier specific phones which affects the consumers has nmany negatives for the consumers. Think about this.. You HAVE to buy a phone from the specific carrier which leads to: 1) It makes the original price of the phone higher because of many more different models required to be made to support the different carriers. 2) It forces the phone makers to make phones that may be artificially limited to protect the specific carriers profit margins (forcing to pay to get pictures off the phone, force them to not allow transferring your downloads to another phone, many others..) 3) Less incentive for phone makers to come out with new features and functions. The carrier determines what they want and fits into their profit center nicely. 4) You can not take your phone to a different carrier and use it because of the MSL codes and the fact that even if the phone is unlocked, the new carrier will not activate it regardless 5) Limits the resale ability of your phone. You are limited to selling it to someone that has that specific carrier.
I'm sure there are many more negatives as well and not all carriers have all of these restrictions but I think you get my point. These are all artificial barriers.
This method allows them to ethically clear unused inventory and provide additional value to the customer
I know vocal Apple users have a hard time really understanding that what is good for Apple might not be good for youself but I'll post this anyway and take the hit.
A lot of people attempt to keep up or do a little asking around and research before buying a product. In fact, it is really not hard for a lot of products because companies and sales folks will advertise up and coming products days, weeks, and maybe even months ahead of time. I would be not be the happiest person in the world or get a good feeling about buying a $500 product and find out 2 days later a new version was on the market. Add to the fact that the company is doing everything within its power to prevent me from knowing a better one was just around the corner and about to be released, including the very unusal step of keeping it quite after the fact and packaging the product in the old box. I know this is only a step upgrade and not a platform change like the difference between a Sony PS2 and a PS3 but it is not a small trivial change either.
Mod as you wish but no one needs waste time explaining Apples position on why they did this. It is a simple to understand reason and already mentioned many times in other threads. My point is, there are two ways to introduce a new or improved product. As a person like many others who is actually buying the products, Apples method is not in my best interest and probably not in many others.
Mac addresses can be faked and credit cards (and random number generators!) can be stolen.
Security in layers.. Spyware and keyloggers on my computer installed at random by a hole in IE is completely different from having that same spyware AND someone getting into my house and stealing my key generator (random number generator). I have incoming SSH allowed from outside, but only from 2 source ip addresses. I also force the use of existing authorized keys and passphrase only. Each of these is not fool proof but combined, it is magnatudes harder to hack into then running plain old telnet or SSH with no restrictions. Yes, if I was singled out and someone specifically wanted to hack into my specific computer, chances are they would find a way. Phishing attempts are exactly the opposite though, broadcasting out looking for the people that will bite the hook, not elaborate targetting of specific people. I am guessing here but I'd say bank account phishing successes would be 99.99% less with nothing more then a key fob number generator used as part of the password. I think the MAC would be useless for security as that can be taken from the same computer that the keylogger or phishing attempt originated from.
Thus, I disagree whole-heartedly. Law is the best safe-gaurd against criminals. What world do you live in? Do you leave the keys in your car? Put the windows up? Leave the porch light on? Have an alarm in the car? Use a club? Shove your cds or cell phone under the seat? That is the same thing, security in layers. It is already illegal for someone to steal your car and the police already have the laws and power to catch criminals.
Everything you buy is eventually thrown away. You already pay for the land fills with your city/county/state tax or through your garbage hauler. Your point is "insightful" at a first glance but think about implementing that program you suggest. Who determines what is considered disposible and what is not? How about a daily newspaper or monthly magazine, BIC lighter or matches, garbage bags, lottery ticket, soda bottle, paper towels, a candy bar, an oil filter, ink jet cartridges, a bottle of shampoo, a pencil or pen. What about a refillable lead pencil or pen? Should you pay a tax on the lead or ink tube and not the pencil or pen itself? What about the wrapper the pencil or pen came in? Would I have to clean my ears with the same Q-Tips or cotton swabs multiple times to avoid paying a one use tax?
Where I live, there is a 7-11 store about every mile. In fact, there is one intersection where you can visually sight 3 different 7-11s in different directions. I buy Slurpees quite often and I know which stores are better managed then others. This means, a nicer cleaner machine and less of a chance of a specific flavor not being ready. On that note, if you frequent 7-11 often, I suggest getting your own large insulated cup. I bought mine at 7-11 for under $4 and it came with the first fill free. It is a nice large insulated 52oz cup and you can refill it any time for $0.79-0.89 (different stores charge different prices). You do not actually need to have a 7-11 branded cup to get a refill though as they will allow you use to anything really. I've seen construction workers filling up 64oz coolers many times. A Slurpee will stay frozen for roughly 6-12 hours in the one I have but you do have to tap it down quite often to remove the air pockets.
The very existance of that map may be an invasion of the privacy of the cellphone users in the area.
Looking at that map, can you give my any single piece of information about any single person in that area based on what is contained in that map? Do you think anyone else could?
Some of your examples of how privacy is already breached by the existance of that map are not because of the map but what others could do with this mapping technology. The same could be claimed about any video camera or tape recorder that could be placed in those same fields and camp areas as well. The technolgy and this map are not to blame IMHO.
To be honest, I have not had time to fully think this out and determine for myself if I think this really is a privacy issue at its current state or not but what I stated above is a already causing me to lean towards probably not but it could be but that is a different issue apart from the technolgy itself.
Basically.... what he said would have been my reply as well.
The second school, Nuclear Power School, was a bitch for me for the exact reason Aglassis said. The memorization portion of this part of the nuclear pipeline is easy for some people and hard for others. It took me a while to learn how to learn and I could not stay awake at all because of the excessive hours I had to study. The earliest I EVER left after class (7am-4pm) in the entire 6 months of that school was 10:45PM but I typcially stayed until 11:30PM. I also put an average of 15-20 extra hours in on the weekend. I was floating on the "2.5 to stay alive" line with my GPA until about 6 weeks left when everything started to click. My GPA went up from there and I finished the NPS final with a 3.6. Many were not so lucky. "A" school and the prototype training were relatively easy. Long hours but much easier. Overall, "nukes" make rate/rank very fast. It is not uncommon to see an E6 with only 6 years in. Seems a little odd but you can be an E5/E6 at the ripe age of 21-24 and be responsible for the maintenance and operation of a running and shutdown reactor and propulsion plant. Someday you too may be adjusting that MG voltage regulator on the electrical panel to prevent overloading and losing shore power.
Only two things prevent a navy ship tied to a pier from powering the grid. Procedure and an automatic reverse power trip on the shore power supply breakers. Both are in place to protect the ships own electrical bus and generation equipment. The reactor is not normally running in port and the backup power to shore power consists of diesel engine(s) and the battery. These are very limited and designed only to supply enough to power the ships vital equipment. A simple turn 1/4 turn of a single rheostat on the electical plant control panel is all it takes to change the ships load on shore power from positive to negative but the shore power reverse trips are on a delay to prevent tripping during transients.
I don't think the navy would exactly jump at the chance to power the grid with the nuclear plant running either though. Not having complete control of the load or being kept informed of expected load changes would probably freak people out. We've all heard of the network and system administrators from hell, through training and experience, many navy nuclear operators are the same.
Very informative post but I do want to comment about two points..
Those tests have very little to do with what you hear.
Agreed but there are two ways to look at that before you can completely ignore those tests. The test measurement method takes speakers out of the equation. Any changes in the output waveform from the original at the output stage will only be made worse by the concepts you described that apply to the speakers. Basically the concept of stack tolerances. If you record a 5 Khz square wave and then analyze the recording and there is anything but a square wave, that difference will be carried through the rest of the audio path and made worse or added on to at each additional stage by the concepts you described until it gets to your ears. Maybe not the weakest link in the chain but an additional change from the original that is changing the final product that reaches your ears.
Is the transient that hits you chest on hear a snare drum a pressure increase or a decrease?
Big picture on this one. I understand what you are trying to say. Breaking that down a little more though. Assuming a snare drum hit starts at 500hz (no idea really), your speakers will vibrate in and out at 500hz as well. As long as both of your speakers are in phase with each other, the speakers will orginally move backwards the first half of the first wave instead of forward? You can feel that difference? Your ears are hearing the same thing but only a half wavelenth later which is only relative to the other sounds in the recording that would also be 1/2 wavelength behind as well. I think of AC (audio) as relative, does the start of a sound always have to be going positive? Wouldn't the stricking of the drum cause a pressure decrease as the drum is initially pressed inward with the drum stick? What about this situation. I start playing a continuous tone before you enter the room. You would hear the same exact tone when you enter regardless of the absolute phase because it is already started and continuous. It's not like if you entered during a negative portion of the wave instead of the positive portion of the wave would matter at all. I don't know, too deep for me and do not waste your time even responding because I lost my complete train of thought.
Maybe it's a thong or something really cool that I don't even know about. I don't know where I was going with that.
I've never heard of that implementation. How does the portable "know" what you have it plugged into it (headphone or rca jack into a stereo) and how is the impedance variable? Seriously, I am not discounting your comment at all, just I've never heard of that concept before or how or why something like that would even be incorporated into a portable player. I would venture a guess and say most players actually have only a headphone jack which happens to also work as a line out jack because it works "good enough" but has the disadvantages that I described above. I actually looked at several brand portable player web sites and oddly enough, no one has ANY real technical specs that I could find. Not even output power capability.
I can not speak for the iPod in general but typically, line out jacks provide at least 150mv and should be in the 47kohm range for impedance matching to other standard stereo components. A headphone jack typically runs much lower in the 32 ohm range. To follow the "standard", a piece of equipment should have different output stages to achieve the difference in impedance between the two different jacks. An impedance mismatch will result in distorted waveforms at different frequencies as will any encoding (I assume your testing square wave playback file was from a non lossy compressed or raw wav format audio clip) . Just my $.02
Your logic is seriously flawed. First of all, FEMA is a COORDINATOR of emergency services. This includes coordination at all levels from first aid and plucking from roof tops to getting people the information and help they need to get longer term assistance and aid across different agencies. FEMA is not providing helicopters, money or food directly. Again, they are cordinating emergency responders. Not every one of the million or so people effected by the storm in the area is at the same point or condition. You can not wait and devote every resource (including your contracted web developer like you suggest) until every single person is out of the city before you start working with the people that are already out. The emergency response is a parallel effort, not serial. Many people are at the next level and need to apply for assistance now. There is an artifical barrier in place that may make the application harder or more difficult for some people. I agree that FEMA is all jacked right now though.
Caution with AntiVir. I have not tried it in about two years so things may have changed but the free version will not scan files on network drives, not even real time when they are opened and accessed from a network drive. If you are using AntiVir, you can test this with the Eicar test file stored on a share. This may not be a problem for some but a word of caution if this may apply to you. That is the only reason I switched to AVG from AntiVir for my home use.
I do not know either way myself but your Google searches pull up mostly blogs and gaming sites and although I did not look through every link, I would say those people are just repeating what other people have said as well. Look at some of the posts just in this/. story. Some people say huge loss, some say break even or slight loss and others are saying never a loss. I could link you to those and they would be similar caliber evidence to refute your links. I hear the same exact difference of opinion with the iPod, iTMS, and the mini Mac and many other products ans services as well. Just because enough people claim something is true, does not mean it is.
What I get out of this article and your specific comment is: Situation normal, adapt, change and only the strong will survive. Basically, the principle concept behind the theory of evolution. This parasite you are refering too only survives and is passed on because of what effects it has on the rat. It is not modifying the rat so it can survive. There were probably 100 million other different types of parasites in the past 1000 years present in cat feces but they all died off because they did not have a reliable method to spread and continue on. This specific adaption or mutation of a previous parasite had what it took for the environment it was present in at the time it mutated to continue on so far. Remove the cats from the equation and this parasite will die as well, of course unless a few mutations can infect dogs or cats.
A quick skim of the Yahoo music site show at least the following are compatible with its service:
Creative Labs Zen Micro Dell DJ 20GB (Gen 2) Dell DJ 30GB Dell Pocket DJ RCA Lyra RD2762 RCA Lyra RD2765 Audiovox SMT 5600 Smartphone Creative Labs Zen Portable Media Center iRiver H10 iRiver H320 iRiver H340 iRiver Portable Media Center-120 Samsung YH-999 Portable Media Center Creative Labs NOMAD MuVo series Creative Labs NOMAD MuVo series Creative Zen Touch irock 800 series RCA Lyra 1021/1071 RCA Lyra 2010/2011/2012 Rio Cali series Rio Carbon series Rio Forge series Samsung YP-MT6 series Samsung YH-820 Samsung YH-925 SanDisk 256MB/512MB/1GB
You can head over to the WMA compatibility list at MS and find a list of at least over 250 portable devices plus another 100 or so other devices that can play WMA.
I would estimate from the MS site referenced alone, there is about 100x more devices on the market that can play various WMA files then can play something from iTMS. Many of the above players will play music bought from just about any music service as well (Yahoo, Rhapsody, Wal-Mart etc) with the exception of iTMS.
There are a large percentage of people who do have iPods and I guess technically you may be correct in your statement about a majority being excluded. They are NOT excluded by the lack of other units and services though, only the fact that they decided to stick with the single choice of iTMS and an iPod. Each person is capable of making a decision on which route to take. I still use cd audio disks and plain old data cds of mp3s in an old $40 portable cd player. At my computer I use Rhapsody (no individual track buying though, just unlimited streaming). If I was making the jump to a music service and wanted portable support, I believe the choice of players and services of the other offerings would far outweight the "stlye" and "hipness" of an iPod and iTMS any day. YMMV
I do not find your current insightful mod insightful at all. It has some catchy phrases and an attempt to make a general comparison but it is way to general to really mean anything. You assume the same "we" is "us" under all circumstances which is not the case at all. I am sorry if you can not comprehend the difference between my own blocking at will and desire compared to someone deciding to block things for me. You may own a Ford vehicle and be happy with it but I doubt you would like if the some level of government forced you to buy a Ford. See the difference now? This specific "blocking China" article caught my eye because at least 90% of what my firewall blocks appears to be from China. Maybe it is open proxies, maybe it is a person actually on that source IP but either way, I do not care. My home network has NO need to be directly connected to from a computer in China. My firewall is only blocking based on ports now but adding specific source net blocks sounds like a really good idea.
Here is what my home firewall blocked in a random 45 minute period (01:30-02:15 EST) today. Not on the list below but during that same 45 minute period was a computer from Japan and one from Comcast space.
61.235.154.92 (Reverse lookup failed) 61.235.154.103 (Reverse lookup failed) CHINA RAILWAY TELECOMMUNICATIONS CENTER
222.141.102.11 (Reverse lookup failed) 221.5.251.216 (Reverse lookup failed) 221.208.208.195 (Reverse lookup failed) China Network Communications Group Corporation
primary motivation for a kid writing a virus was to see his name in the lights or to learn something about technology.
The person under question could have got all the same things you mentioned, except he had the potential to get paid as well. The learning experience was still there unless he just whipped the virus up in a few minutes and it worked first time.
There was a show on the Discovery channel about some dude and his wife making countfeit replicas of casino coins. He was a hacker at heart as noted by the trouble and work he went though to get the coins just right. Of course the motivation and end result was money, but dude picked up a lot of metallurgical knowledge and machining and fabrication skills along the way pretty much all on his own by trial and error and reading. If he did not have the true desire to take himself to that skill level, he would not have gone through with it. Giving the final product away for free or spending them himself makes little difference in the matter IMHO.
Your post will be completely ignored and another 50 people that do not agree with the lawsuit just out of principle because it is against Apple, will continue to post over and over again, one of two lines
"It's a battery, it is supposed to do that get over it."
or
"My iPod lasts 10 hours as expected and has for years, everyone else is full of crap."
These two general statements make up over 80% of every reply so far and I have yet to see a reply to a post like your acknowledging that it actually happens. People either have blinders on or are using a defense mechanism like reaction formation coupled with denial to handle the situation in the best way they know how.
The problem with your theory is you have no idea when you are going to get caught. It is easier to look back after the fact and suggest you should have walked away one day prior to getting busted. Of course, even stopping the illegal activity 6 months prior to actually getting captured may not be enough. Investigations take a while. When the criminal feels the "heat", it is already way to late for them. The investigation from the past crimes alone could lead to the capture and any further crimes just add to the potential evidence and the punishment. A serial rapist could rape 10 people over a year period before getting caught. It is not always the 10th person that actually leads to the arrest, it could have been the evidence from the first or the second crime. Stopping after the second person would not have helped the rapist escape being caught. In fact, the serial rapist may fine tune his skills and leave even less evidence with each crime, of course he could get complacent and over confident as well.
And it is economics that was suggested years ago and really just common sense. Those 1800 numbers you call can be directed anywhere in the world. As other countries build up and "get connected", they can take their turn and become the newer cheaper outsourcing location. This concept has been noted and brought up since outsourcing became popular amoung the tech industry. Of course the tech industry itself made the moving around of outsourcing companies even easier and cheaper.
I think it is because the products are cheaper. Costs have come down and continue to come down. Dell is all about economy in large scale. Look at memory prices for an example, they have dropped like a rock and there is very little manufactor support required for them so the savings was not from cutting support costs. Getting off topic here to your post but along the lines of the article. I personally think the bottom level support systems of any large company are completely useless. They might as well have no support structure at the lower tiers. They would serve the customer at the same level and not have to pay for something that is useless. A recent example with HP. To start off. I had a dead IP Console switch (16 port IP KVM). It was completely dead and the power led was not even on. When I finally got to the right department, the first level tech refused to acknowledge there was no power. He wanted me to upgrade the firmware and call back. I repeated that the device does not even power up at all, no fan, no power led and it is impossible to upgrade the firmware. He asked what firmware was currently on the device. When I said I did not know has asked me to connect a server to it, power it on and read the firmware to him from some menu after the device was done booting. I repeated that it does not power on at all. He finally understood after I described what the product actually does and what it was for, hello, it is a KVM and it is DEAD. Okay, new one on the way... HP like many other companies has a system in place to send you emails about the status of existing open support tickets. I recieved one about the replacement KVM I was to recieve but it was noted to be on backorder. In the email I was given a link to inquire about the new shipping date. The link took me to the HP self serve web site. I filled out the form with all of the case information and asked when my part was going to be shipped. The result of the web request was another email asking me to call the 800 number to inquire about my shipping date. What the hell was the purpose of that exercise? I called the number (1800-HPINVEN(T)), and the voice system had absolutely no options for IP Console Switch, KVM or anything I could possible use to describe the product. It said I could use "OTHER" but it only actually understood the word "OTHER" after saying it at least 5 different times. I was transferred to bottom level support to describe my problem. I supplied the case number and the person asked what product I was talking about. I asked her to pull up the case number and see. She does not have access to case numbers so I had to describe to her what the product was. She had no options for IP Console switch or KVM and I finally asked for the server group. Finally, after 12 minutes I was at level 2 in the server side, an english speaking person (unknown location but at least sounded like he was a native english speaker with a southern accent). Regardless of where he was, he pulled up the case number, knew what the product was, had some in stock and I recieved the new one via overnight morning delivery. I know everyone has their own tech support nightmare stories but my point with this one is why even have a tier one or general support line at all? More often then not, it is 100% completely useless and gets you nothing. I guess the status quo keeps them there but they could save even more money getting rid of them entirely.
Slashdot Mirror
You may call call it a conspiracy theory but I believe there are artificail barriers in place across almost all carriers. Number portability got rid of one of them.
There is a major issue with carrier specific phones which affects the consumers has nmany negatives for the consumers. Think about this.. You HAVE to buy a phone from the specific carrier which leads to:
1) It makes the original price of the phone higher because of many more different models required to be made to support the different carriers.
2) It forces the phone makers to make phones that may be artificially limited to protect the specific carriers profit margins (forcing to pay to get pictures off the phone, force them to not allow transferring your downloads to another phone, many others..)
3) Less incentive for phone makers to come out with new features and functions. The carrier determines what they want and fits into their profit center nicely.
4) You can not take your phone to a different carrier and use it because of the MSL codes and the fact that even if the phone is unlocked, the new carrier will not activate it regardless
5) Limits the resale ability of your phone. You are limited to selling it to someone that has that specific carrier.
I'm sure there are many more negatives as well and not all carriers have all of these restrictions but I think you get my point. These are all artificial barriers.
This method allows them to ethically clear unused inventory and provide additional value to the customer
I know vocal Apple users have a hard time really understanding that what is good for Apple might not be good for youself but I'll post this anyway and take the hit.
A lot of people attempt to keep up or do a little asking around and research before buying a product. In fact, it is really not hard for a lot of products because companies and sales folks will advertise up and coming products days, weeks, and maybe even months ahead of time. I would be not be the happiest person in the world or get a good feeling about buying a $500 product and find out 2 days later a new version was on the market. Add to the fact that the company is doing everything within its power to prevent me from knowing a better one was just around the corner and about to be released, including the very unusal step of keeping it quite after the fact and packaging the product in the old box. I know this is only a step upgrade and not a platform change like the difference between a Sony PS2 and a PS3 but it is not a small trivial change either.
Mod as you wish but no one needs waste time explaining Apples position on why they did this. It is a simple to understand reason and already mentioned many times in other threads. My point is, there are two ways to introduce a new or improved product. As a person like many others who is actually buying the products, Apples method is not in my best interest and probably not in many others.
Almost any employer can do that, contract worker or not. I'd image there are variations from state to state though.
Mac addresses can be faked and credit cards (and random number generators!) can be stolen.
Security in layers.. Spyware and keyloggers on my computer installed at random by a hole in IE is completely different from having that same spyware AND someone getting into my house and stealing my key generator (random number generator). I have incoming SSH allowed from outside, but only from 2 source ip addresses. I also force the use of existing authorized keys and passphrase only. Each of these is not fool proof but combined, it is magnatudes harder to hack into then running plain old telnet or SSH with no restrictions. Yes, if I was singled out and someone specifically wanted to hack into my specific computer, chances are they would find a way. Phishing attempts are exactly the opposite though, broadcasting out looking for the people that will bite the hook, not elaborate targetting of specific people. I am guessing here but I'd say bank account phishing successes would be 99.99% less with nothing more then a key fob number generator used as part of the password. I think the MAC would be useless for security as that can be taken from the same computer that the keylogger or phishing attempt originated from.
Thus, I disagree whole-heartedly. Law is the best safe-gaurd against criminals.
What world do you live in? Do you leave the keys in your car? Put the windows up? Leave the porch light on? Have an alarm in the car? Use a club? Shove your cds or cell phone under the seat? That is the same thing, security in layers. It is already illegal for someone to steal your car and the police already have the laws and power to catch criminals.
Everything you buy is eventually thrown away. You already pay for the land fills with your city/county/state tax or through your garbage hauler. Your point is "insightful" at a first glance but think about implementing that program you suggest.
Who determines what is considered disposible and what is not? How about a daily newspaper or monthly magazine, BIC lighter or matches, garbage bags, lottery ticket, soda bottle, paper towels, a candy bar, an oil filter, ink jet cartridges, a bottle of shampoo, a pencil or pen. What about a refillable lead pencil or pen? Should you pay a tax on the lead or ink tube and not the pencil or pen itself? What about the wrapper the pencil or pen came in?
Would I have to clean my ears with the same Q-Tips or cotton swabs multiple times to avoid paying a one use tax?
Where I live, there is a 7-11 store about every mile. In fact, there is one intersection where you can visually sight 3 different 7-11s in different directions. I buy Slurpees quite often and I know which stores are better managed then others. This means, a nicer cleaner machine and less of a chance of a specific flavor not being ready. On that note, if you frequent 7-11 often, I suggest getting your own large insulated cup. I bought mine at 7-11 for under $4 and it came with the first fill free. It is a nice large insulated 52oz cup and you can refill it any time for $0.79-0.89 (different stores charge different prices). You do not actually need to have a 7-11 branded cup to get a refill though as they will allow you use to anything really. I've seen construction workers filling up 64oz coolers many times. A Slurpee will stay frozen for roughly 6-12 hours in the one I have but you do have to tap it down quite often to remove the air pockets.
The very existance of that map may be an invasion of the privacy of the cellphone users in the area.
Looking at that map, can you give my any single piece of information about any single person in that area based on what is contained in that map? Do you think anyone else could?
Some of your examples of how privacy is already breached by the existance of that map are not because of the map but what others could do with this mapping technology. The same could be claimed about any video camera or tape recorder that could be placed in those same fields and camp areas as well. The technolgy and this map are not to blame IMHO.
To be honest, I have not had time to fully think this out and determine for myself if I think this really is a privacy issue at its current state or not but what I stated above is a already causing me to lean towards probably not but it could be but that is a different issue apart from the technolgy itself.
Basically.... what he said would have been my reply as well.
The second school, Nuclear Power School, was a bitch for me for the exact reason Aglassis said. The memorization portion of this part of the nuclear pipeline is easy for some people and hard for others.
It took me a while to learn how to learn and I could not stay awake at all because of the excessive hours I had to study. The earliest I EVER left after class (7am-4pm) in the entire 6 months of that school was 10:45PM but I typcially stayed until 11:30PM. I also put an average of 15-20 extra hours in on the weekend. I was floating on the "2.5 to stay alive" line with my GPA until about 6 weeks left when everything started to click. My GPA went up from there and I finished the NPS final with a 3.6. Many were not so lucky. "A" school and the prototype training were relatively easy. Long hours but much easier.
Overall, "nukes" make rate/rank very fast. It is not uncommon to see an E6 with only 6 years in. Seems a little odd but you can be an E5/E6 at the ripe age of 21-24 and be responsible for the maintenance and operation of a running and shutdown reactor and propulsion plant. Someday you too may be adjusting that MG voltage regulator on the electrical panel to prevent overloading and losing shore power.
Only two things prevent a navy ship tied to a pier from powering the grid. Procedure and an automatic reverse power trip on the shore power supply breakers. Both are in place to protect the ships own electrical bus and generation equipment. The reactor is not normally running in port and the backup power to shore power consists of diesel engine(s) and the battery. These are very limited and designed only to supply enough to power the ships vital equipment.
A simple turn 1/4 turn of a single rheostat on the electical plant control panel is all it takes to change the ships load on shore power from positive to negative but the shore power reverse trips are on a delay to prevent tripping during transients.
I don't think the navy would exactly jump at the chance to power the grid with the nuclear plant running either though. Not having complete control of the load or being kept informed of expected load changes would probably freak people out. We've all heard of the network and system administrators from hell, through training and experience, many navy nuclear operators are the same.
Very informative post but I do want to comment about two points..
Those tests have very little to do with what you hear.
Agreed but there are two ways to look at that before you can completely ignore those tests. The test measurement method takes speakers out of the equation. Any changes in the output waveform from the original at the output stage will only be made worse by the concepts you described that apply to the speakers. Basically the concept of stack tolerances. If you record a 5 Khz square wave and then analyze the recording and there is anything but a square wave, that difference will be carried through the rest of the audio path and made worse or added on to at each additional stage by the concepts you described until it gets to your ears. Maybe not the weakest link in the chain but an additional change from the original that is changing the final product that reaches your ears.
Is the transient that hits you chest on hear a snare drum a pressure increase or a decrease?
Big picture on this one. I understand what you are trying to say. Breaking that down a little more though. Assuming a snare drum hit starts at 500hz (no idea really), your speakers will vibrate in and out at 500hz as well. As long as both of your speakers are in phase with each other, the speakers will orginally move backwards the first half of the first wave instead of forward? You can feel that difference? Your ears are hearing the same thing but only a half wavelenth later which is only relative to the other sounds in the recording that would also be 1/2 wavelength behind as well. I think of AC (audio) as relative, does the start of a sound always have to be going positive? Wouldn't the stricking of the drum cause a pressure decrease as the drum is initially pressed inward with the drum stick? What about this situation. I start playing a continuous tone before you enter the room. You would hear the same exact tone when you enter regardless of the absolute phase because it is already started and continuous. It's not like if you entered during a negative portion of the wave instead of the positive portion of the wave would matter at all. I don't know, too deep for me and do not waste your time even responding because I lost my complete train of thought.
Maybe it's a thong or something really cool that I don't even know about. I don't know where I was going with that.
You had a very good post though.
I've never heard of that implementation. How does the portable "know" what you have it plugged into it (headphone or rca jack into a stereo) and how is the impedance variable? Seriously, I am not discounting your comment at all, just I've never heard of that concept before or how or why something like that would even be incorporated into a portable player.
I would venture a guess and say most players actually have only a headphone jack which happens to also work as a line out jack because it works "good enough" but has the disadvantages that I described above. I actually looked at several brand portable player web sites and oddly enough, no one has ANY real technical specs that I could find. Not even output power capability.
I can not speak for the iPod in general but typically, line out jacks provide at least 150mv and should be in the 47kohm range for impedance matching to other standard stereo components. A headphone jack typically runs much lower in the 32 ohm range.
To follow the "standard", a piece of equipment should have different output stages to achieve the difference in impedance between the two different jacks. An impedance mismatch will result in distorted waveforms at different frequencies as will any encoding (I assume your testing square wave playback file was from a non lossy compressed or raw wav format audio clip) . Just my $.02
Your logic is seriously flawed. First of all, FEMA is a COORDINATOR of emergency services. This includes coordination at all levels from first aid and plucking from roof tops to getting people the information and help they need to get longer term assistance and aid across different agencies. FEMA is not providing helicopters, money or food directly. Again, they are cordinating emergency responders. Not every one of the million or so people effected by the storm in the area is at the same point or condition. You can not wait and devote every resource (including your contracted web developer like you suggest) until every single person is out of the city before you start working with the people that are already out. The emergency response is a parallel effort, not serial. Many people are at the next level and need to apply for assistance now. There is an artifical barrier in place that may make the application harder or more difficult for some people. I agree that FEMA is all jacked right now though.
Caution with AntiVir. I have not tried it in about two years so things may have changed but the free version will not scan files on network drives, not even real time when they are opened and accessed from a network drive. If you are using AntiVir, you can test this with the Eicar test file stored on a share. This may not be a problem for some but a word of caution if this may apply to you. That is the only reason I switched to AVG from AntiVir for my home use.
I do not know either way myself but your Google searches pull up mostly blogs and gaming sites and although I did not look through every link, I would say those people are just repeating what other people have said as well. Look at some of the posts just in this /. story. Some people say huge loss, some say break even or slight loss and others are saying never a loss. I could link you to those and they would be similar caliber evidence to refute your links. I hear the same exact difference of opinion with the iPod, iTMS, and the mini Mac and many other products ans services as well.
Just because enough people claim something is true, does not mean it is.
Moths are suicidal as well. At night, they fly right into the path of my moving car.
What I get out of this article and your specific comment is:
Situation normal, adapt, change and only the strong will survive. Basically, the principle concept behind the theory of evolution. This parasite you are refering too only survives and is passed on because of what effects it has on the rat. It is not modifying the rat so it can survive. There were probably 100 million other different types of parasites in the past 1000 years present in cat feces but they all died off because they did not have a reliable method to spread and continue on. This specific adaption or mutation of a previous parasite had what it took for the environment it was present in at the time it mutated to continue on so far. Remove the cats from the equation and this parasite will die as well, of course unless a few mutations can infect dogs or cats.
A quick skim of the Yahoo music site show at least the following are compatible with its service:
Creative Labs Zen Micro
Dell DJ 20GB (Gen 2)
Dell DJ 30GB
Dell Pocket DJ
RCA Lyra RD2762
RCA Lyra RD2765
Audiovox SMT 5600 Smartphone
Creative Labs Zen Portable Media Center
iRiver H10
iRiver H320
iRiver H340
iRiver Portable Media Center-120
Samsung YH-999 Portable Media Center
Creative Labs NOMAD MuVo series
Creative Labs NOMAD MuVo series
Creative Zen Touch
irock 800 series
RCA Lyra 1021/1071
RCA Lyra 2010/2011/2012
Rio Cali series
Rio Carbon series
Rio Forge series
Samsung YP-MT6 series
Samsung YH-820
Samsung YH-925
SanDisk 256MB/512MB/1GB
You can head over to the WMA compatibility list at MS and find a list of at least over 250 portable devices plus another 100 or so other devices that can play WMA.
I would estimate from the MS site referenced alone, there is about 100x more devices on the market that can play various WMA files then can play something from iTMS. Many of the above players will play music bought from just about any music service as well (Yahoo, Rhapsody, Wal-Mart etc) with the exception of iTMS.
There are a large percentage of people who do have iPods and I guess technically you may be correct in your statement about a majority being excluded. They are NOT excluded by the lack of other units and services though, only the fact that they decided to stick with the single choice of iTMS and an iPod. Each person is capable of making a decision on which route to take. I still use cd audio disks and plain old data cds of mp3s in an old $40 portable cd player. At my computer I use Rhapsody (no individual track buying though, just unlimited streaming). If I was making the jump to a music service and wanted portable support, I believe the choice of players and services of the other offerings would far outweight the "stlye" and "hipness" of an iPod and iTMS any day. YMMV
I do not find your current insightful mod insightful at all. It has some catchy phrases and an attempt to make a general comparison but it is way to general to really mean anything. You assume the same "we" is "us" under all circumstances which is not the case at all. I am sorry if you can not comprehend the difference between my own blocking at will and desire compared to someone deciding to block things for me. You may own a Ford vehicle and be happy with it but I doubt you would like if the some level of government forced you to buy a Ford. See the difference now?
This specific "blocking China" article caught my eye because at least 90% of what my firewall blocks appears to be from China. Maybe it is open proxies, maybe it is a person actually on that source IP but either way, I do not care. My home network has NO need to be directly connected to from a computer in China. My firewall is only blocking based on ports now but adding specific source net blocks sounds like a really good idea.
Here is what my home firewall blocked in a random 45 minute period (01:30-02:15 EST) today. Not on the list below but during that same 45 minute period was a computer from Japan and one from Comcast space.
61.235.154.92 (Reverse lookup failed)
61.235.154.103 (Reverse lookup failed)
CHINA RAILWAY TELECOMMUNICATIONS CENTER
222.141.102.11 (Reverse lookup failed)
221.5.251.216 (Reverse lookup failed)
221.208.208.195 (Reverse lookup failed)
China Network Communications Group Corporation
61.137.117.133 (Reverse lookup failed)
222.136.188.49 (Reverse lookup failed)
CHINANET Hunan province network
61.152.160.63 (Reverse lookup failed)
Shanghai Global Network Co., Ltd.
218.66.104.140 (Reverse lookup failed)
CHINANET Fujian province network
221.10.226.62 (Reverse lookup failed)
CNC Group SiChuan province network
61.138.137.9 (Reverse lookup failed)
CNCGROUP Jilin province network
219.148.126.148 (Reverse lookup failed)
CHINANET hebei province network
primary motivation for a kid writing a virus was to see his name in the lights or to learn something about technology.
The person under question could have got all the same things you mentioned, except he had the potential to get paid as well. The learning experience was still there unless he just whipped the virus up in a few minutes and it worked first time.
There was a show on the Discovery channel about some dude and his wife making countfeit replicas of casino coins. He was a hacker at heart as noted by the trouble and work he went though to get the coins just right. Of course the motivation and end result was money, but dude picked up a lot of metallurgical knowledge and machining and fabrication skills along the way pretty much all on his own by trial and error and reading. If he did not have the true desire to take himself to that skill level, he would not have gone through with it. Giving the final product away for free or spending them himself makes little difference in the matter IMHO.
"It's a battery, it is supposed to do that get over it."
or
"My iPod lasts 10 hours as expected and has for years, everyone else is full of crap."
These two general statements make up over 80% of every reply so far and I have yet to see a reply to a post like your acknowledging that it actually happens. People either have blinders on or are using a defense mechanism like reaction formation coupled with denial to handle the situation in the best way they know how.
So, fella, please re-think your call for eliminating Tier 1 support. You're only following their plan to stop supporting their products for you.
Point taken.
The problem with your theory is you have no idea when you are going to get caught. It is easier to look back after the fact and suggest you should have walked away one day prior to getting busted. Of course, even stopping the illegal activity 6 months prior to actually getting captured may not be enough. Investigations take a while. When the criminal feels the "heat", it is already way to late for them. The investigation from the past crimes alone could lead to the capture and any further crimes just add to the potential evidence and the punishment. A serial rapist could rape 10 people over a year period before getting caught. It is not always the 10th person that actually leads to the arrest, it could have been the evidence from the first or the second crime. Stopping after the second person would not have helped the rapist escape being caught.
In fact, the serial rapist may fine tune his skills and leave even less evidence with each crime, of course he could get complacent and over confident as well.
And it is economics that was suggested years ago and really just common sense.
Those 1800 numbers you call can be directed anywhere in the world. As other countries build up and "get connected", they can take their turn and become the newer cheaper outsourcing location. This concept has been noted and brought up since outsourcing became popular amoung the tech industry. Of course the tech industry itself made the moving around of outsourcing companies even easier and cheaper.
I think it is because the products are cheaper. Costs have come down and continue to come down. Dell is all about economy in large scale. Look at memory prices for an example, they have dropped like a rock and there is very little manufactor support required for them so the savings was not from cutting support costs.
Getting off topic here to your post but along the lines of the article.
I personally think the bottom level support systems of any large company are completely useless. They might as well have no support structure at the lower tiers. They would serve the customer at the same level and not have to pay for something that is useless.
A recent example with HP.
To start off. I had a dead IP Console switch (16 port IP KVM). It was completely dead and the power led was not even on. When I finally got to the right department, the first level tech refused to acknowledge there was no power. He wanted me to upgrade the firmware and call back. I repeated that the device does not even power up at all, no fan, no power led and it is impossible to upgrade the firmware. He asked what firmware was currently on the device. When I said I did not know has asked me to connect a server to it, power it on and read the firmware to him from some menu after the device was done booting. I repeated that it does not power on at all. He finally understood after I described what the product actually does and what it was for, hello, it is a KVM and it is DEAD. Okay, new one on the way...
HP like many other companies has a system in place to send you emails about the status of existing open support tickets. I recieved one about the replacement KVM I was to recieve but it was noted to be on backorder. In the email I was given a link to inquire about the new shipping date. The link took me to the HP self serve web site. I filled out the form with all of the case information and asked when my part was going to be shipped. The result of the web request was another email asking me to call the 800 number to inquire about my shipping date. What the hell was the purpose of that exercise? I called the number (1800-HPINVEN(T)), and the voice system had absolutely no options for IP Console Switch, KVM or anything I could possible use to describe the product. It said I could use "OTHER" but it only actually understood the word "OTHER" after saying it at least 5 different times. I was transferred to bottom level support to describe my problem. I supplied the case number and the person asked what product I was talking about. I asked her to pull up the case number and see. She does not have access to case numbers so I had to describe to her what the product was. She had no options for IP Console switch or KVM and I finally asked for the server group. Finally, after 12 minutes I was at level 2 in the server side, an english speaking person (unknown location but at least sounded like he was a native english speaker with a southern accent). Regardless of where he was, he pulled up the case number, knew what the product was, had some in stock and I recieved the new one via overnight morning delivery.
I know everyone has their own tech support nightmare stories but my point with this one is why even have a tier one or general support line at all? More often then not, it is 100% completely useless and gets you nothing. I guess the status quo keeps them there but they could save even more money getting rid of them entirely.