I've used Online Banking for 2 years, issues are..
on
On Paying Bills Online
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· Score: 1
I've used Wells Fargo banking for 2 years and have been generally pleased.
Pros: 1) Anytime banking - set up payments, do transfers, all on your schedule 2) Schedule repeat payments - you can set up automatic payment for recurring bills. They makes paying loans easy and eliminates forgetting them. 3) Secure - 128 bit encryption eliminates the casual snoop 4) When I have had problems (lost checks sent by Checkfree) the bank resolves them without acting like complete idiots and writes letters explaining that I did pay on time and that it was their fault for late payment. The bank then credited me the late payment fees.
Cons: 1) Many bills are paid electronically, but some are still simply sent a check via a third party like Checkfree. They deduct the amount from your account and then send a check. If the check gets lost or has a problem, your record shows 'PAID'. When you call to find out what's going on, your bank has to call Checkfree (or whoever) and gets the status. This can take a week or two. 2) Account is resolved until Tuesday morning. Since banks are still mainly 5 day a week businesses, you can't see changes online of payments/charges that occur from Friday night all the way to Monday night. Your balance updates, but you can't see the specific itmes that changed your account. This will only change when banks go to a 7 day/wk operation.
In general, I am very happy with online bill pay. With online bill pay and a debit card, you almsot don't need checks anymore. -----
They tempt us with occasional unsupported releases of a linux client. To actaully have a linux client, even unsupported is good, but wiht out support, everytime they patch up, I have to return to the Windows box.
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Re:Just put it into babelfish
on
Author Unknown
·
· Score: 2
I don't know why this was modded down.
I had the same idea about how the method descibed in the book could be cicumvented by machine translation. -----
Yes, the technology exists to use DTH for HDTV. But are the recievers available to the public?
How many HDTV signals will be broadcast with Echostar's plan to broadcast local NTSC stations in the top 30 markets still moving forward? There's only so much transponder space.
I am a professional television broadcaster. I run engineering for one of the major channels on almost all cable systems. HDTV is almost surely doomed to failure.
First and foremost, the majority of Americans watch TV via cable or direct-to-home satellite. There is currently no way for consumers to get HDTV programming this way. There is no benefit to cable companies to send HDTV to cable customers. HDTV uses up much bandwidth and there is no way for cable headeds to insert their own commercials. The VSB vs. CODFM debate is small potatoes compared to the fact that no HDTV is available via cable system.
Second, there are *no* standards for broadcasting HDTV besides transsmission. Broadcasters are free to choose any systems that fits into the VSB transmission system. There is not even agreement on making the system progressive (what computers use) or interlaced (what analog TVs use). This has led to a bad situation for the television set makers. They have to make a choice on the 'native display format' for they televisions. That means that if Sony make a 720 Progressive tube set, all broadcasts not in 720P must be deinterlaced or upconverted to that format. That conversion leads to even more picture degredation
Remember, the base HDTV signal used in post-production is 1.5 GHz and that is squeezed down to 19.4 Mbit/s for transmission. Compression can only go so far.
Lastly, while the VSB vs. CODFM indeed does rage, that is nothing compared to the simple fact that there is no business reason to broadcast HDTV. The only reason broadcasters are doing it is because the FCC is forcing them to do it. No one has been able to demonstrate any revenue plan for HDTV yet.
BTW, what people have in Europe is digital television, it is not High Definition TV. All of the direct-to-home satellite services in America are basically the same as DTV in Europe. I think that Dish Network even uses the DVB (European) format for transmission. Currently, Europe has no HDTV.
Now understand that I am not a vaunted IS 'professional', I run engineering for a large multi-national entertainment company. So you'll pardon (or minimally flame) any linux newbie comments.
What I was looking for:
1) Video post-production software 2) file servers speaking NFS, NT, & Netware 3) simple webservers that would slip under IS radar (read RAS)
Well, I was both impressed and disappointed. Items 2 and 3 were there in abundance, but 1 was nowhere to be found. I guess we need to convince Adobe to put Premire and such on linux.
Basically, it seemed that the hardware, coding tools, and office-type software were well represented. The high end database stuff from Oracle, Sun, etc. were all there too. Too bad I don't care about RDBS (whatever that is). The guys at Oracle and IBM love it. We actually spent more time in IBM's booth looking at the large flat screen displays than listen to the sales pitch.
While GIMP is sweet, it cannot be substituted for highend production graphics and video tools that exist in Mac & NT. I'm sure they will be there eventually (considering SGI's promises..) but they don't seem to be there yet.
Same thing when looking for a linux version of Autocad. This type of 'industrial strength' software that cost upwards of three grand a copy doesn't seem to exist in linux yet. Once that happens, guys like me can start signing the purchase orders and get the money flowing to linux friendly companies.
The power of the Linux community is the ability to mobilize and focus on problems in a way a traditional company can't.
These results will simply focus the Linux development effort to remove these issues.
If anything, Microsoft should be running scared of the next compairison. The Linux coders were just shown the plan on how to beat NT in the next round. All the Redmond folk can do is hope to stay ahead.
I work in television engineering and we deal with EMF issues on occasion. There are actually several issues to consider.
First, there is low frequency EMF, this is basically magnetic fields. The funny colors on your monitor that clear when you degauss are the result of low freq EMF. Put a speaker or magnet near your monitor and you can see the effect.
Second, there hum EMF, typically seen when a monitor is near a source of EMF at a nearby frequency. You may have seen this if you place a 60Hz monitor next to a 75Hz monitor. You will see hum bar rolling through the monitor.
Thirdly, there is high frequency EMF, not typically seen unless dealing with sensitive electronics with low signal to noise ratios.
For the absolute best shielding use mu-metal. It is specifically designed to block EMF. There isn't much better than mu-metal. Be prepared, mu-metal is expensive. See www.mushield.com (best) or Cutting Edge (okay).
If you can't afford that, the copper will probably work OK. Try to leave as few gaps as possible. Make absolutely sure you tie any shielding to ground. Other simple tips are making sure the power cords are plugged into grounded sockets (get a $5 circuit tester), use a good surge protector, and put those little ferrite clamp-ons on your I/O cables. Check out the EMF Do's and Don'ts here.
I think the thing to worry most about shield ing is your monitor. It is the most EMF susceptible thing you are likely to have. If the built in shielding is good, you will probably be OK.
But in all reality, you might try running with out the shield at first and see how it goes. If you don't see hum in your monitors, your speakers don't buzz, and the dog doesn't have his paws over his ears, you might be OK without it.
In the earlier days of the net, it was quite common to see.sig files that looked somethign like this:
------ Chet Blodack, Yoyodyne University | argyle@mindspring.com | "You are in a maze of twisty tunnnels" | libya soviet nuclear encryption Reagan warhead money secret israel china | oil submarine NSA CIA FBI KGB MI6 IRA Basque communist russia |
The idea was that if everyone put Echelon keywords in their email, the Echeleon system would flag way too many emails and make the system unworkable. Now that the vast majority of people on the net have no idea what a.sig file is, the tradition has fallen to the wayside.
Anyone else remember doing this? Any other good sig files?
Slashdot Mirror
I've used Wells Fargo banking for 2 years and have been generally pleased.
Pros:
1) Anytime banking - set up payments, do transfers, all on your schedule
2) Schedule repeat payments - you can set up automatic payment for recurring bills. They makes paying loans easy and eliminates forgetting them.
3) Secure - 128 bit encryption eliminates the casual snoop
4) When I have had problems (lost checks sent by Checkfree) the bank resolves them without acting like complete idiots and writes letters explaining that I did pay on time and that it was their fault for late payment. The bank then credited me the late payment fees.
Cons:
1) Many bills are paid electronically, but some are still simply sent a check via a third party like Checkfree. They deduct the amount from your account and then send a check. If the check gets lost or has a problem, your record shows 'PAID'. When you call to find out what's going on, your bank has to call Checkfree (or whoever) and gets the status. This can take a week or two.
2) Account is resolved until Tuesday morning. Since banks are still mainly 5 day a week businesses, you can't see changes online of payments/charges that occur from Friday night all the way to Monday night. Your balance updates, but you can't see the specific itmes that changed your account. This will only change when banks go to a 7 day/wk operation.
In general, I am very happy with online bill pay. With online bill pay and a debit card, you almsot don't need checks anymore.
-----
MULE is the greatest graphic game ever.
Zork is the greastest game ever.
-----
They tempt us with occasional unsupported releases of a linux client. To actaully have a linux client, even unsupported is good, but wiht out support, everytime they patch up, I have to return to the Windows box.
-----
I don't know why this was modded down.
I had the same idea about how the method descibed in the book could be cicumvented by machine translation.
-----
An extremely invaluable tool...
Yes, the technology exists to use DTH for HDTV. But are the recievers available to the public?
How many HDTV signals will be broadcast with Echostar's plan to broadcast local NTSC stations in the top 30 markets still moving forward? There's only so much transponder space.
I am a professional television broadcaster. I run engineering for one of the major channels on almost all cable systems. HDTV is almost surely doomed to failure.
First and foremost, the majority of Americans watch TV via cable or direct-to-home satellite. There is currently no way for consumers to get HDTV programming this way. There is no benefit to cable companies to send HDTV to cable customers. HDTV uses up much bandwidth and there is no way for cable headeds to insert their own commercials. The VSB vs. CODFM debate is small potatoes compared to the fact that no HDTV is available via cable system.
Second, there are *no* standards for broadcasting HDTV besides transsmission. Broadcasters are free to choose any systems that fits into the VSB transmission system. There is not even agreement on making the system progressive (what computers use) or interlaced (what analog TVs use). This has led to a bad situation for the television set makers. They have to make a choice on the 'native display format' for they televisions. That means that if Sony make a 720 Progressive tube set, all broadcasts not in 720P must be deinterlaced or upconverted to that format. That conversion leads to even more picture degredation
Remember, the base HDTV signal used in post-production is 1.5 GHz and that is squeezed down to 19.4 Mbit/s for transmission. Compression can only go so far.
Lastly, while the VSB vs. CODFM indeed does rage, that is nothing compared to the simple fact that there is no business reason to broadcast HDTV. The only reason broadcasters are doing it is because the FCC is forcing them to do it. No one has been able to demonstrate any revenue plan for HDTV yet.
BTW, what people have in Europe is digital television, it is not High Definition TV. All of the direct-to-home satellite services in America are basically the same as DTV in Europe. I think that Dish Network even uses the DVB (European) format for transmission. Currently, Europe has no HDTV.
You must be a ditto head if you think Reagan helped this country.
He put the country into huge debt to spend money on planes, ships, and other weapons that we never used.
Fix the economy? No way, we'll be paying off his mistakes for 20 more years.
I headed up to SJ looking for a few things at LW.
Now understand that I am not a vaunted IS 'professional', I run engineering for a large multi-national entertainment company. So you'll pardon (or minimally flame) any linux newbie comments.
What I was looking for:
1) Video post-production software
2) file servers speaking NFS, NT, & Netware
3) simple webservers that would slip under IS radar (read RAS)
Well, I was both impressed and disappointed. Items 2 and 3 were there in abundance, but 1 was nowhere to be found. I guess we need to convince Adobe to put Premire and such on linux.
Basically, it seemed that the hardware, coding tools, and office-type software were well represented. The high end database stuff from Oracle, Sun, etc. were all there too. Too bad I don't care about RDBS (whatever that is). The guys at Oracle and IBM love it. We actually spent more time in IBM's booth looking at the large flat screen displays than listen to the sales pitch.
While GIMP is sweet, it cannot be substituted for highend production graphics and video tools that exist in Mac & NT. I'm sure they will be there eventually (considering SGI's promises..) but they don't seem to be there yet.
Same thing when looking for a linux version of Autocad. This type of 'industrial strength' software that cost upwards of three grand a copy doesn't seem to exist in linux yet. Once that happens, guys like me can start signing the purchase orders and get the money flowing to linux friendly companies.
Comments? Flames?
The power of the Linux community is the ability to mobilize and focus on problems in a way a traditional company can't.
These results will simply focus the Linux development effort to remove these issues.
If anything, Microsoft should be running scared of the next compairison. The Linux coders were just shown the plan on how to beat NT in the next round. All the Redmond folk can do is hope to stay ahead.
I work in television engineering and we deal with EMF issues on occasion. There are actually several issues to consider.
First, there is low frequency EMF, this is basically magnetic fields. The funny colors on your monitor that clear when you degauss are the result of low freq EMF. Put a speaker or magnet near your monitor and you can see the effect.
Second, there hum EMF, typically seen when a monitor is near a source of EMF at a nearby frequency. You may have seen this if you place a 60Hz monitor next to a 75Hz monitor. You will see hum bar rolling through the monitor.
Thirdly, there is high frequency EMF, not typically seen unless dealing with sensitive electronics with low signal to noise ratios.
For the absolute best shielding use mu-metal. It is specifically designed to block EMF. There isn't much better than mu-metal. Be prepared, mu-metal is expensive. See www.mushield.com (best) or Cutting Edge (okay).
If you can't afford that, the copper will probably work OK. Try to leave as few gaps as possible. Make absolutely sure you tie any shielding to ground. Other simple tips are making sure the power cords are plugged into grounded sockets (get a $5 circuit tester), use a good surge protector, and put those little ferrite clamp-ons on your I/O cables. Check out the EMF Do's and Don'ts here.
I think the thing to worry most about shield ing is your monitor. It is the most EMF susceptible thing you are likely to have. If the built in shielding is good, you will probably be OK.
But in all reality, you might try running with out the shield at first and see how it goes. If you don't see hum in your monitors, your speakers don't buzz, and the dog doesn't have his paws over his ears, you might be OK without it.
Good luck.
In the earlier days of the net, it was quite common to see .sig files that looked somethign like this:
.sig file is, the tradition has fallen to the wayside.
------
Chet Blodack, Yoyodyne University |
argyle@mindspring.com |
"You are in a maze of twisty tunnnels" |
libya soviet nuclear encryption Reagan warhead money secret israel china |
oil submarine NSA CIA FBI KGB MI6 IRA Basque communist russia |
The idea was that if everyone put Echelon keywords in their email, the Echeleon system would flag way too many emails and make the system unworkable. Now that the vast majority of people on the net have no idea what a
Anyone else remember doing this? Any other good sig files?