He isn't on any particular software yet. He just fiddles with the keyboard and the mouse to see if anything happens. I created a limited user account for him to prevent damage to anything beyond the UI hardware (We had to change 2 keyboards already).
I am still browsing for pre-kindergarten software. Care to keep in touch so we can share our discoveries?
The reality is that the mega patent holders. IBM Sun and even Microsoft tend not to run out and file patent lawsuits to stop innovation but rather as a defensive measure to protect their business from litigious none innovative parasites.
NetApp isn't the worst of the bunch since they still have viable products on the market. Unfortunately they are so panicked over the possibility that we may use PC Servers with huge piles of massive SATA drives at a total cost way below the stuff they are selling.
If only they were able to come up with new products when someone else innovates enough to make what they are selling today a commodity.
So no offence to Sun but hey we should be able to make fun of our friends too.
Your honour this little fly-by-night company has dared to file a lawsuite against the glory that is Sun.
As a minimum response we want them bitch-slapped raked over the coals and then chopped up into little pieces and dumped at sea.
And just in case you don't think Sun is grand enough to make this happen, we are soliciting help from those people who want to reform the freakishly complicated patent system.
He had to invade Iraq to drive oil prices to a new record high. This while his family is in the oil business.
That dose NOT look stupid to me. Callus and selfish perhaps but not stupid. Don't let his speech dysfunction fool you. For all we know that is a well rehearsed act to stop people from looking to carefully at his self serving "dumb" decisions.
That happens. Sometimes you look at a disparity and ask "why doesn't the misfit follow suite" Other times you ask "Why doesn't everyone else follow the misfit."
Probably true. The people I know who went to MIT got in on academic scholarships. It's a LOT harder to qualify for those and the difficulty goes up when dealing with top end schools
Our economy sucks (GDP per Capita ~$4,700 US, compared to $43,500 for USA) so almost nobody can actually afford MIT.
Sorry I wasn't clear. By "not have to pay" I was talking about sport related scholarships not financial aid. Those scholarships are the prime motivator for Jamaican High school athletes at the Pen relays. That's why you see results like this. Short version top 6 places in the 4x100 relay for high school boys. Winning time 39.96
Why should the SAT scores of Foreign students count at all?
I ask because I know several people who graduated Jamaican high schools then enrolled in American universities, including MIT (There is a rumour going around that MIT is a good school).
Thing is many of those Jamaicans never did SAT at all. They either did the CXC (Caribbean Examination Council) exams or the British "O" Level and "A" Level exams.
Many US Universities (Including MIT) are happy with grades from those exams. So happy that you are not asked to pay school fees if you can run or jump.
The formula used to calculate BMI breaks down once the subject is very tall. The most breathtaking example was when someone punched in Michael Jordan's stats and was told he was overweight. Patrick Ewing (At 7'1" 350 Lbs) was listed as Obese.
1
Don't lie. If the first level are making requests or their job bookings are going through a QA department, they may well catch inconsistence diagnostics which may result in jobs being delayed as the first level is required to make call backs. It truly offends me each time I have to do this but sometimes tech support just insists on dragging out the diagnostics way beyond anything reasonable. I'm really glad my new job has no desktop support at all. The Hail Marys and self flagulation was getting to me.
4
To some extent I agree. There are poor tech support out there, and if you call more than once you might not get the same person. For the particular problem you had, I, when I was doing first level support, would normally ask the person why they thought they had a particular component failure, why they thought so. If it checked out, excellent, I could check out there reasoning but if it was fine send an engineer or part out. If not, go through normal diagnostics. Hope that first hand experience helps what to expect in normal retail support. Some problems have very limited number of possible causes. I.e. There is no command you can send to a properly functioning PV110T (SDLT 320 version if you want to check) that will cause it to rip a perfectly good tape. Erase your data perhaps or even write an invalid header that causes strange errors but not ripping the tape. For that your tapes must be bad or the mechanical components in the drive are in need of repair.
The 2nd tech wanted to verify the condition of the tapes I was using. Once I convinced him that these were both new and used tapes that were properly stored he went to the only other likely culprit. The PV110T is a full unit FRU (Meaning you are not supposed to open it, although I had to on another occasion to remove a stuck tape with confidential data)
A few tips on calling Dell tech support if you are a competent engineer who diagnosed the problem before reporting it.
1. For a home PC the techs are so incompetent that it's easier to just lie about the nature of the problem. I.e. If your hard drive is on the fritz, making rattly sounds and loosing data just say "The drive is completely dead. When I connect it the BIOS doesn't even admit that it's there".
2. Gold support is better than economy or even silver, but not for the reasons on dell.com. It's better because they connect you to the most competent support guys almost immediately when you call the gold support line. Competent engineers know when they are speaking to an equal and will dispatch the required parts immediately. They also send out "just-in-case parts".
3. Call late at night if your warranty allows it. The brightest tech support guys in Texas know that the graveyard shift is the best time to work. Less traffic on the commute, more pay and more time available for none work related tasks. Your shortest and most fruitful calls will be at 2:00 AM.
4. Don't be afraid to hang up. I once had an external tape drive (PV 110T) that was bursting tapes whenever I initiated a backup. The tech support guy insisted that I must reboot the server so I could see if the drive shows up in the BIOS before he could go any further. I hung up, called back latter and got a brighter support guy who dispatched a replacement drive in around 5 minutes.
This is amazing. What is the bitrate on these files?
I can't imagine RMS talking for 20 hours straight (OK, I can imagine it but I would rather not), which is how long 600 MB of decent quality speech in a compressed audio format should run.
Stolen elections remove your moral authority to govern.
See if you can get a few of the numerous paramilitary forces in the US and the millions of armed civilians to help you overthrow the "Bush regime" and install a government that has the support of the people.
What? Not getting that support? Could it be that the sitting government and it's actions do not stray that far from the will of the people?
Slashdot Mirror
He isn't on any particular software yet. He just fiddles with the keyboard and the mouse to see if anything happens. I created a limited user account for him to prevent damage to anything beyond the UI hardware (We had to change 2 keyboards already).
I am still browsing for pre-kindergarten software. Care to keep in touch so we can share our discoveries?
After following it's development from concept through revised designs and explanation of the rational for it's features.
Frankly I feel like it's already part mine. Baring unavailability or some weird sales structure, I plan to get one. Or a few.
What choice do I have when my 15 Month old is monopolizing the main desktop at home?
Nope. I just don't like the flavour of monkey-meat.
Actually I was just trying to be funny.
The reality is that the mega patent holders. IBM Sun and even Microsoft tend not to run out and file patent lawsuits to stop innovation but rather as a defensive measure to protect their business from litigious none innovative parasites.
NetApp isn't the worst of the bunch since they still have viable products on the market. Unfortunately they are so panicked over the possibility that we may use PC Servers with huge piles of massive SATA drives at a total cost way below the stuff they are selling.
If only they were able to come up with new products when someone else innovates enough to make what they are selling today a commodity.
So no offence to Sun but hey we should be able to make fun of our friends too.
Your honour this little fly-by-night company has dared to file a lawsuite against the glory that is Sun.
As a minimum response we want them bitch-slapped raked over the coals and then chopped up into little pieces and dumped at sea.
And just in case you don't think Sun is grand enough to make this happen, we are soliciting help from those people who want to reform the freakishly complicated patent system.
Thank you.
Stop picking on Bush.
He had to invade Iraq to drive oil prices to a new record high. This while his family is in the oil business.
That dose NOT look stupid to me. Callus and selfish perhaps but not stupid. Don't let his speech dysfunction fool you. For all we know that is a well rehearsed act to stop people from looking to carefully at his self serving "dumb" decisions.
rotflol
True.
That happens. Sometimes you look at a disparity and ask "why doesn't the misfit follow suite" Other times you ask "Why doesn't everyone else follow the misfit."
Probably true. The people I know who went to MIT got in on academic scholarships. It's a LOT harder to qualify for those and the difficulty goes up when dealing with top end schools
Our economy sucks (GDP per Capita ~$4,700 US, compared to $43,500 for USA) so almost nobody can actually afford MIT.
Some US schools think an exam which works for 15 of America's weaker allies is standard enough.
Why should the SAT scores of Foreign students count at all?
I ask because I know several people who graduated Jamaican high schools then enrolled in American universities, including MIT (There is a rumour going around that MIT is a good school).
Thing is many of those Jamaicans never did SAT at all. They either did the CXC (Caribbean Examination Council) exams or the British "O" Level and "A" Level exams.
Many US Universities (Including MIT) are happy with grades from those exams. So happy that you are not asked to pay school fees if you can run or jump.
Not quite. AC actually had a UID in the early days.
Can't remember exactly what it was but it was single digit. Something between 0 and 5.
AC = 0
Taco = 1
Hemos = 2
But that's just a guess. After all these years my memory went with my hair.
Us old timers have more free time on our hands now that we can delegate to you youngsters.
Although I do miss some of them.
"An Ominous Cow Herd" and "The Glorious Meept" for instance.
Well my 4 Digit UID says he doesn't.
When labour is divided into Agriculture, Industry and Service: where do you put the Government burocracy? The Military? etc...
:)
Services.
Now we have services, as the largest employer. Translation: More tax collectors and tax spenders worldwide
PS: Yes. I know the whole Slashdot crew is in the services sector. Stop nitpicking.
The formula used to calculate BMI breaks down once the subject is very tall. The most breathtaking example was when someone punched in Michael Jordan's stats and was told he was overweight. Patrick Ewing (At 7'1" 350 Lbs) was listed as Obese.
Not possible. Only the British use "stone" as a measurement.
Thanks for the correction.
It must really suck to only be known by your Borg designation.
Picard was never as promiscuous as Kirk. Riker on the other hand.
Or if you are into Voyager, one of those guys had a thing with a member of species 839.
You *SAID* "flux capacitor"?
4 To some extent I agree. There are poor tech support out there, and if you call more than once you might not get the same person. For the particular problem you had, I, when I was doing first level support, would normally ask the person why they thought they had a particular component failure, why they thought so. If it checked out, excellent, I could check out there reasoning but if it was fine send an engineer or part out. If not, go through normal diagnostics. Hope that first hand experience helps what to expect in normal retail support. Some problems have very limited number of possible causes. I.e. There is no command you can send to a properly functioning PV110T (SDLT 320 version if you want to check) that will cause it to rip a perfectly good tape. Erase your data perhaps or even write an invalid header that causes strange errors but not ripping the tape. For that your tapes must be bad or the mechanical components in the drive are in need of repair.
The 2nd tech wanted to verify the condition of the tapes I was using. Once I convinced him that these were both new and used tapes that were properly stored he went to the only other likely culprit. The PV110T is a full unit FRU (Meaning you are not supposed to open it, although I had to on another occasion to remove a stuck tape with confidential data)
Close.
A few tips on calling Dell tech support if you are a competent engineer who diagnosed the problem before reporting it.
1. For a home PC the techs are so incompetent that it's easier to just lie about the nature of the problem. I.e. If your hard drive is on the fritz, making rattly sounds and loosing data just say "The drive is completely dead. When I connect it the BIOS doesn't even admit that it's there".
2. Gold support is better than economy or even silver, but not for the reasons on dell.com. It's better because they connect you to the most competent support guys almost immediately when you call the gold support line. Competent engineers know when they are speaking to an equal and will dispatch the required parts immediately. They also send out "just-in-case parts".
3. Call late at night if your warranty allows it. The brightest tech support guys in Texas know that the graveyard shift is the best time to work. Less traffic on the commute, more pay and more time available for none work related tasks. Your shortest and most fruitful calls will be at 2:00 AM.
4. Don't be afraid to hang up. I once had an external tape drive (PV 110T) that was bursting tapes whenever I initiated a backup. The tech support guy insisted that I must reboot the server so I could see if the drive shows up in the BIOS before he could go any further. I hung up, called back latter and got a brighter support guy who dispatched a replacement drive in around 5 minutes.
This is all great but can they compete with Bit Torrent?
I know it's shocking but BT is NOT just for grabbing the latest Fedora Core ISO.
This is amazing. What is the bitrate on these files?
I can't imagine RMS talking for 20 hours straight (OK, I can imagine it but I would rather not), which is how long 600 MB of decent quality speech in a compressed audio format should run.
At last a rational counter argument.
Stolen elections remove your moral authority to govern.
See if you can get a few of the numerous paramilitary forces in the US and the millions of armed civilians to help you overthrow the "Bush regime" and install a government that has the support of the people.
What? Not getting that support? Could it be that the sitting government and it's actions do not stray that far from the will of the people?