Make sure any printer you buy talks Postscript-Level-II and some variant of PCL and it should work without loading any extra drivers. This has been the case since the 90s.
I found a 1320n at Salvation Army a couple years ago and it has been great. I believe it only does postscript level II and PCL4, but it does have a 100base-t network connection.
Two caveats on the 1320n though:
It's firmwares are not updatable (neither internal jetdirect nor printer)
If you print something with a lot of black it will ghost.
I have access to really nice printers for stuff that HAS to look perfect or have color, so I use my 1320n for stuff I don't care too much about. It's really nice to have a reliable printer that you don't have to think much about(besides adding paper every now and then).
I don't know of any games using hardware locks before 2000. Steam was released in 2003 and seems to use Uniloc for some of it's games http://store.steampowered.com/app/10560/
Using JMOL for these cases involving a megacorp and a little company is troubling. JMOL is supposed to be used to limit excessive penalties, it can only be used to overturn guilty findings, not acquittals. The problem is that little companies normally have one shot. When a judge overturns the verdict, the company is probably going bankrupt.
Subdivision (b) was amended, effective March 1, 2008, to allow a party to renew a motion for judgment as a matter of law post-verdict without first renewing the motion at the close of the evidence. Under the amended language, a party who makes a motion that complies with subdivision (a) is allowed to renew the motion after the verdict. A 15-day time limit for renewing a motion addressing a jury issue not decided by the verdict was also added to subdivision (b).
They not only add the.Net plugin to Firefox without asking you, they change the useragent string for Firefox... oh and the.Net plugin doesn't have a built-in uninstaller like every other plugin.
It's a great argument against Silverlight from a consumer's point of view. You have to load extra software which won't effect 99.9% of the pages you might visit.You aren't really adding any security, since the old crap is still there.
From a web developers point of view this could be HUGE. Most customers wouldn't have a problem installing a Google-based plugin, and after we get them to install the plugin WE NEVER NEED TO CODE FOR IE AGAIN!!!!! Really, IE8 isn't a terrible browser, but IE7 and IE6 are unforgivably bad. This takes care of all the IE6, IE7, and IE8 incompatible crap and lets you override their engines by adding one tag to your page.
The later controllers are fine, although I may still prefer the PS2/PS3 style. They shrank the XBox1 controllers a short while after introducing the XBox.
So, Microsoft is staffed by a bunch of giant mutant freaks... are you trying to get us to tear our hair out so that it's easier for you to eat our brains?
The only advantage of a fixed menubar is that people are used it, well i for one welcome the menubutton revolution that will force people to get used to menu buttons and make this point moot.
Maybe if there was any consistency to what the menubutton looked like or where it was placed... but I don't see the anti-menubar crowd agreeing on any standards anytime soon.
Ribbons don't put "features in front of the user", they flatten the tree so that it's under a couple tab, then uses enough strips so that the one you need is off the side of the screen... well actually, the option you need is really accessed by clicking on the little arrow thingy on the bottom corner of one of the vaguely related options that may or may not be currently displayed because you don't have a screen that is wide enough...
There are other ways to interface to iTunes. The only advantage to the way Palm tried to integrate with iTunes is that you don't have to load extra software alongside iTunes. The biggest problem with Palm's setup is that iTunes will happily send DRMed songs to your Pre which it can't play. I wonder how many tech support incidents Apple is getting about Pre/iTunes problems.
For members. Can they prevent non-members from doing whatever they want? Not really... there's no legal authority for them to do so.
The problem for Palm is that they were/are a member and now they can't claim any clean-room development. For example, It's likely that Palm used the sample drivers obtained by being a member to write their device drivers for the Palm(and other devices). If severing ties with the USB-IF means starting from scratch on new device drivers, then it could be very painful.
Actually, the worst would be that the USB-IF decides to make an example of Palm. Palm is in breach of contract, so the USB-IF might be able to confiscate or get an injunction against anything developed using documentation obtained under the contract. At the very least Palm would need to strip all the USB logos from all of their products.
It's hard to say what all licenses/contracts Palm has violated. The USB-IF membership only has one big clause: "Unauthorized use of assigned or unassigned USB Vendor ID Numbers and associated Product ID Numbers are strictly prohibited." The advantages of being a member are getting access to technology(other licenses/contracts) and branding.
http://www.usb.org/developers/USBIF_Member_Agreement_03122009.pdf
It really depends on how the USB-IF felt about Palm preemptively filing a grievance against Apple.
If you step outside the MS ecosystem there are significant programs (games and important business software) you cannot run and significant pieces of hardware you cannot use or cannot use fully.
Maybe, but unless you care about one of these pieces, it doesn't matter. Most business software does run on OSX (i.e. SAP GUI, most Oracle tools, MSOffice, and Firefox).
the consumer makes potential sacrifices to stay away from MS, but suffers no pain staying away from Apple.
Except having to scavenge for their music/podcasts/lectures and pay higher prices... The iTunes store is extremely convenient and cheap.
The rules are their so companies can identify their products and load drivers. Palm isn't emulating an iPhone perfectly, which creates compatibility problems for Apple. I wonder how many calls Apple has gotten complaining that their Palm-Pre doesn't play the DRMed songs they downloaded from iTunes.
Emulating another device to provide compatibility is perfectly acceptable
Except when you have signed a contract saying you wouldn't. The problem is that Palm decided to use Apple's USB Vendor-ID to identify the Palm-Pre, which is something Palm promised not to do in their contract with the USB-IF (Who hands out USB Vendor IDs). Palm violated existing contracts while attempting to emulate Apple's devices and Apple called them on it.
I don't think there is any reasonable argument for forcing Apple to let the Palm-Pre use their software.
Yep, when they have 60year LED bulbs that use 7W(equivalent to 60W) for a couple bucks, we will all grab them. Until that time, focus on something that can actually make a difference.
Except that the power company puts PF correction in far sooner than the power plant, and while it doubles the amps for wire resistance calculations(until it hits the power company's correction equipment), it actually doesn't double the wattage used. More like 5-10%.
The actual loss depends on how much wire is between the bulb and wherever the power company has a filterbank. A 0.5PF rating likely has an efficiency lower than 90%, possibly lower than 50% for rural customers.
They build PFC in pretty much as standard on high quality high efficiency computer power supplies, why would you think the power company couldn't do the same? And there are better bulbs out there with active PFC.
The EU, China, and Japan require that any switching power supply above 75W provides PFC. Bulbs are not held to the same standard even though a lighting fixture might use more power. Correcting PF at the source is generally easier because you know what you are correcting for(i.e. harmonic problem or inductive load). Mains PFC is expensive and far less efficient.
HPF CFLs exist(with passive PFC, no active PFC that I know of), but aren't normally in stores.
Dimming florescent lighting isn't easily, and normally you can't dim them much, if you cut much power the tube will just go out. Dimming CFLs just isn't really worth it.
Dimming LEDs is trivial, and the LED bulbs I've seen for sale are dimmable. You could make a LED bulb that dimmed just like a incandescent without much trouble.
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Make sure any printer you buy talks Postscript-Level-II and some variant of PCL and it should work without loading any extra drivers. This has been the case since the 90s.
Two caveats on the 1320n though:
I have access to really nice printers for stuff that HAS to look perfect or have color, so I use my 1320n for stuff I don't care too much about. It's really nice to have a reliable printer that you don't have to think much about(besides adding paper every now and then).
The patent was filed in 1993. In 2000 Uniloc was actively courting the gaming industry. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2000_Nov_10/ai_66803777/
I don't know of any games using hardware locks before 2000. Steam was released in 2003 and seems to use Uniloc for some of it's games http://store.steampowered.com/app/10560/
Also interesting, JMOL was revised on March 1, 2008. http://www.ndcourts.com/Court/rules/civil/Rule50.htm
Yep, exactly like games have been using http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2000_Nov_10/ai_66803777/
And you quoted the abstract, which is always pretty boring. Read the claims to really figure out what was novel... http://news.google.com/patents/about?id=K7MoAAAAEBAJ
Suprisingly, this doesn't seem like a patent troll.
They not only add the .Net plugin to Firefox without asking you, they change the useragent string for Firefox... oh and the .Net plugin doesn't have a built-in uninstaller like every other plugin.
I thought I had a virus the first time I noticed it. http://voices.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2009/05/microsoft_update_quietly_insta.html
It's a great argument against Silverlight from a consumer's point of view. You have to load extra software which won't effect 99.9% of the pages you might visit.You aren't really adding any security, since the old crap is still there.
From a web developers point of view this could be HUGE. Most customers wouldn't have a problem installing a Google-based plugin, and after we get them to install the plugin WE NEVER NEED TO CODE FOR IE AGAIN!!!!! Really, IE8 isn't a terrible browser, but IE7 and IE6 are unforgivably bad. This takes care of all the IE6, IE7, and IE8 incompatible crap and lets you override their engines by adding one tag to your page.
The later controllers are fine, although I may still prefer the PS2/PS3 style. They shrank the XBox1 controllers a short while after introducing the XBox.
http://technabob.com/blog/2007/09/18/xbox-controller-swallows-xbox-360-controller/
So, Microsoft is staffed by a bunch of giant mutant freaks... are you trying to get us to tear our hair out so that it's easier for you to eat our brains?
I kid... I kid
The only advantage of a fixed menubar is that people are used it, well i for one welcome the menubutton revolution that will force people to get used to menu buttons and make this point moot.
Maybe if there was any consistency to what the menubutton looked like or where it was placed... but I don't see the anti-menubar crowd agreeing on any standards anytime soon.
You forgot the original XBox controller... I wonder where Microsoft gets it's research subjects...
Ribbons don't put "features in front of the user", they flatten the tree so that it's under a couple tab, then uses enough strips so that the one you need is off the side of the screen... well actually, the option you need is really accessed by clicking on the little arrow thingy on the bottom corner of one of the vaguely related options that may or may not be currently displayed because you don't have a screen that is wide enough...
There are other ways to interface to iTunes. The only advantage to the way Palm tried to integrate with iTunes is that you don't have to load extra software alongside iTunes. The biggest problem with Palm's setup is that iTunes will happily send DRMed songs to your Pre which it can't play. I wonder how many tech support incidents Apple is getting about Pre/iTunes problems.
Blackberry has much more logical iTunes integration
http://na.blackberry.com/eng/services/media/mediasync.jsp
The Pre, Blackberry, and WinCE phones are second-class citizens when used with iTunes, but I don't think that amounts to anticompetitive behavior.
For members. Can they prevent non-members from doing whatever they want? Not really... there's no legal authority for them to do so.
The problem for Palm is that they were/are a member and now they can't claim any clean-room development. For example, It's likely that Palm used the sample drivers obtained by being a member to write their device drivers for the Palm(and other devices). If severing ties with the USB-IF means starting from scratch on new device drivers, then it could be very painful.
Actually, the worst would be that the USB-IF decides to make an example of Palm. Palm is in breach of contract, so the USB-IF might be able to confiscate or get an injunction against anything developed using documentation obtained under the contract. At the very least Palm would need to strip all the USB logos from all of their products.
It's hard to say what all licenses/contracts Palm has violated. The USB-IF membership only has one big clause: "Unauthorized use of assigned or unassigned USB Vendor ID Numbers and associated Product ID Numbers are strictly prohibited." The advantages of being a member are getting access to technology(other licenses/contracts) and branding. http://www.usb.org/developers/USBIF_Member_Agreement_03122009.pdf
It really depends on how the USB-IF felt about Palm preemptively filing a grievance against Apple.
If you step outside the MS ecosystem there are significant programs (games and important business software) you cannot run and significant pieces of hardware you cannot use or cannot use fully.
Maybe, but unless you care about one of these pieces, it doesn't matter. Most business software does run on OSX (i.e. SAP GUI, most Oracle tools, MSOffice, and Firefox).
the consumer makes potential sacrifices to stay away from MS, but suffers no pain staying away from Apple.
Except having to scavenge for their music/podcasts/lectures and pay higher prices... The iTunes store is extremely convenient and cheap.
The rules are their so companies can identify their products and load drivers. Palm isn't emulating an iPhone perfectly, which creates compatibility problems for Apple. I wonder how many calls Apple has gotten complaining that their Palm-Pre doesn't play the DRMed songs they downloaded from iTunes.
Palm should have taken the route that Blackberry took. http://na.blackberry.com/eng/services/media/mediasync.jsp
Emulating another device to provide compatibility is perfectly acceptable
Except when you have signed a contract saying you wouldn't. The problem is that Palm decided to use Apple's USB Vendor-ID to identify the Palm-Pre, which is something Palm promised not to do in their contract with the USB-IF (Who hands out USB Vendor IDs). Palm violated existing contracts while attempting to emulate Apple's devices and Apple called them on it.
I don't think there is any reasonable argument for forcing Apple to let the Palm-Pre use their software.
Yep, when they have 60year LED bulbs that use 7W(equivalent to 60W) for a couple bucks, we will all grab them. Until that time, focus on something that can actually make a difference.
There is some research that may lead to 60year LED bulbs for a couple bucks in a couple years! http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/News/2009/January/30010901.asp
Hopefully you didn't literally throw the bulbs away. $100 would buy a lot of mercury containing CFLs.
Except that the power company puts PF correction in far sooner than the power plant, and while it doubles the amps for wire resistance calculations(until it hits the power company's correction equipment), it actually doesn't double the wattage used. More like 5-10%.
The actual loss depends on how much wire is between the bulb and wherever the power company has a filterbank. A 0.5PF rating likely has an efficiency lower than 90%, possibly lower than 50% for rural customers.
They build PFC in pretty much as standard on high quality high efficiency computer power supplies, why would you think the power company couldn't do the same? And there are better bulbs out there with active PFC.
The EU, China, and Japan require that any switching power supply above 75W provides PFC. Bulbs are not held to the same standard even though a lighting fixture might use more power. Correcting PF at the source is generally easier because you know what you are correcting for(i.e. harmonic problem or inductive load). Mains PFC is expensive and far less efficient.
HPF CFLs exist(with passive PFC, no active PFC that I know of), but aren't normally in stores.
Microsoft's does appear to be much better, but hardly perfect...
The pwn2own article mentions the Win7/IE8 ASLR/DEP vulnerability that was patched before the final version of IE8 was released http://dvlabs.tippingpoint.com/blog/2009/03/27/pwn2own-ie8-exploit-foiled-is-the-browser-finally-secure . Evidently the hack still works if launched from an intranet.
The bulb in the picture says 6.9W
The cost of LED bulbs is still plummeting, so in a couple years they will be a no-brainer.
Dimming florescent lighting isn't easily, and normally you can't dim them much, if you cut much power the tube will just go out. Dimming CFLs just isn't really worth it.
Dimming LEDs is trivial, and the LED bulbs I've seen for sale are dimmable. You could make a LED bulb that dimmed just like a incandescent without much trouble.