I don't think it's a much of stretch to say that selling music without DRM will probably destroy Microsoft.
I don't think I'd go that far but it would certainly hurt MS. I actually think it would be pretty funny if, after spending millions (maybe billions), trying to corner the market on DRM MS were told by the various media producers... err.... never mind.
And I'm sure if the search failed they'd probably think cnn was gone. There's absolutely no chance that they'd think of typing it into the address bar directly.
Pretty much. You'd be surprised at just how many people don't have any idea what the address bar is for.
So does anyone know if Vista is compatable with the current version of VMware or maybe Xen? I don't have a dedicated Windows machine but I do like to keep images of various OSs around for support/testing purposes.
Agreed about using a NAS instead of a PC but I don't think I'd want it integrated into a dsl modem/router or anything else that is directly connected to the internet with a public IP address.
FWIW I've used the Buffalo and Infrant ReadyNAS units. Both support up to 4 drives. The Infrant units were more expensive but much faster and generally seemed better designed and built. You could also use something like the Linksys NUSL2 which you plug external USB drives into instead of installing them inside a server. The only problems with this approach is that it fosters a rats nest of wires (seperate power and usb cables for each USB drive) and I have yet to see an external USB drive case that was really appropriate for 24/7 operation. They mainly come in 2 flavors, plastic + a cheap fan guaranteed to die within a year or 2, or Aluminum with no fan but they still tend to run pretty warm. I've been thinking of building a small wooden rack that I could slide these USB drives into, mount a fan on the reer, usb hub inside, and then buy/build a power supply that could feed all 4 (or however many) drives.
The way to use it then would be to find the depth where the temperature is constantly in the middle of daily temperature extremes above ground, so that there is no need to "store" and "retrieve" heat, provided such "middle temperature point" exists in the ground, that is.
It's possible but I'd think it would be pretty expensive to drill down that far and lay collection pipes etc. In practice what people do is only go down a few feet and use a heat pump. How well that works depends a lot on what the ground in your area is made of though. In general moist soil is good, rock is bad.
But I have yet to find a solar solution that is not priced at break even amounts of money.
Normally when people are looking into this what they want to know is "How long is it going to take for this investment to break even?". The underlying assumption is that after break even you'll continue to generate a positive return even after maintence costs etc.
What just about everyone who seriously considers solar electricity finds out is that the initial cost to supply their current usage requirements is so high that break even is likely to occur sometime after their dead. At that point they either give up the idea or they realize that if they could reduce their consumption by something like 25-50% then the numbers look a lot better. It's not just about the cost of solar cells but also about the cost of more batteries, larger capacity inverters etc that really drives up the cost. The first year or two after deciding to pull the trigger on a solar electric arn't going to be spent buying/installing your system but rather trying to reduce your consumption to the point where a reasonably priced solar system can supply your needs. You may even find that reducing your consumption alone is easier, cheaper, and offers a better return than installing a solar electric system.
But even a friend's mom who is a registered nurse got on his case one time when he got plastered from a combination of wine and spirits, claiming that, "Mixing those types of alcohol together is incredibly dangerous!"
Hmm, my roommate in school had a saying:
"Beer before liquor, never been sicker. Beer before liquor...."
wind farms take energy directly out of a very complex self-regulating system.
1. We're talking about a fairly small percentage of the total available wind energy here. Wind power is unlikely to ever be more than 10-30% of our total power usage due to our need for power when the wind isn't blowing so the percent of available wind energy that is captured will remain low. How is this worse than bridges, buildings, trees (or lack of them) etc? I'd be willing to bet that the impact of a blacktop parking lot has more impact on the wind than a windmill due to the updrafts created by rising hot air. Also, we're not taking energy out of the system, but just shifting it around since all of the energy generated will ultimately end up as heat.
As I have repeated said, energy efficiency is the only soultion to our energy problems.
Effeciency is certainly important but, like wind power it's only one small piece of the solution. Even if the world suddenly became 20% more effecient tommorow that would only buy us a few years before growth used up the savings. Sure we could continue to get more effecient for a while but there are limits to effeciency.
So running a server off of a battery backup UPS plugged into a generator from Lowes for 2 hours is going to kill the server?
You're gonna have to sell me on that...
I don't think he's on target with the 3 phase vs 2 phase stuff however I do know that many UPSs won't work properly when run off of cheap construction type generators. Inverter based generators generally work better for electronics but usually cost more and are a bit harder to get (at least around here). That said, if you manage to get the computers running you're still going to need to do something about cooling...
The only, ONLY thing holding AOL still together are people who are less internet savvy and those who cling to AOL email addresses for their lives (certain professionals, businesspeople, et al).
Agreed, and they seem to be working hard to alienate those users as fast as possible. I was recently helping an older woman get her computer feet back under her after a couple of years off. She was already familiar with AOL and wanted to keep using it. The problem was that the home page must have had 200 different links/buttons/pictures on it. Just finding her email or favorites etc was like some sick version of "Where's Waldo". It certainly wasn't easy. Add to that the fact that they seem to have moved all their support people over to India and I don't see any reason why even a beginner would want to use their service.
There are at least 5 pay telephones within a minute's walk of here.
I think you just made the parent posters point. You see, there used to be this thing called a phone booth. It was fully enclosed and... Well you've seen Superman right?
I think your example supports the parent's position more than your own. If we lived in a world with sane copyright laws such as a term of maybe 5 - 10 years then anyone on the planet who had that album could legally and openly give you a copy. P2P networks would be 1000X bigger and more comprehensive than they are today. Libraries could put most of their collections up on line. There would be hundereds of music sites with huge collections competing for your $ based on their ability to help you find what you want effeciently. If you had to you could just ask on pretty much any music fan site/newsgroup/forum and someone would just send you a copy. In short, your odds of success would be much greater than they are today, not worse.
In a few month, the cost of the Linksys box will be recouped on the electric bill.
I seriously doubt that. With the screen off and the battery already charged (or removed) a laptop is probably only using maybe 20W or so and the Linksys box on the shelf next to me uses something like 5-10W. You'd have to wait many years to get your $50-$100 investment back at that rate.
The company has done a pi since the primary" has a much better sound to it.
Ironically, it was Indiana that proposed (but thankfully never passed) a law redefining pi to be 3.2 back in 1897. http://www.answers.com/topic/indiana-pi-bill. I guess it's no surprise that they're still having some trouble with the concept.
The company has done a pi since the primary" has a much better sound to it.
Ironically, it was Indiana that proposed (but thankfully never passed) a law redefining pi to be 3.2 back in 1897. http://www.answers.com/topic/indiana-pi-bill. I guess it's no surprise that they're still having some trouble with the concept.
I know this is a little OT but does anyone know of a decent OSS package/project to use to provide this type of service to others? It seems that something like this would be useful for goups of people (non-geeks so cvs may be over their heads) colaborating on projects etc over the net.
My last few Motorolas (and I suspect most other brands) have had a dedicated "record" button. It's pretty useless though because.
1. It takes forever to kick in and actually start recording. 2. The beep that it generates (to inform the other party their being recorded?) causes most voice response systems to think I've pushed a button and drops or otherwise screws up the call.
Only sellers should receive feedback ratings, not buyers.
I disagree. One of the things I look at when evaluating a seller's negative feedback items is the rating of the buyer who posted it. I think a "blind" feedback system as others have suggested would solve the problem of reprisals without removing useful information.
I agree with most of your post but not this part. Although I've had some poor experiences on Ebay in the past, the one and only time I've been outright scammed was on Amazon. Although I did eventually get my money back it was frustrating that Amazon wouldn't even begin to do anything for something like 30 days even though me and several other victims of this same seller had provided plenty of evidence of what had happened. This particular seller had pulled the classic "drive up your rating by selling a bunch of $1 items and then switch to expensive items that you don't even have". On Ebay I would have cought this because you can actually see what item the previous feedbacks are refering to but not on Amazon (at least back then). Maybe they've gotten better but I'll probably never feel comfortable with them again.
It must be kept on at all times or an auxiliary heat-source like a light bulb must be provided when the drive is powered down.
A decent heat source would be "heat tape". It's normally used to keep pipes from freezing. It's basically a long strip that works like an electric blanket with a thermostat that turns it on at temperatures around 40f.
but I do know that a cold environment with a warm source - or vice versa - will result in a great deal of condensation, frost, and potential hardware problems.
Well, a cold device in a warm enviornment will cause condensation (think glass of ice water on a warm summer day) but the other way around isn't a problem.
Slashdot Mirror
I don't think it's a much of stretch to say that selling music without DRM will probably destroy Microsoft.
... err.... never mind.
I don't think I'd go that far but it would certainly hurt MS. I actually think it would be pretty funny if, after spending millions (maybe billions), trying to corner the market on DRM MS were told by the various media producers
And I'm sure if the search failed they'd probably think cnn was gone. There's absolutely no chance that they'd think of typing it into the address bar directly.
Pretty much. You'd be surprised at just how many people don't have any idea what the address bar is for.
So does anyone know if Vista is compatable with the current version of VMware or maybe Xen? I don't have a dedicated Windows machine but I do like to keep images of various OSs around for support/testing purposes.
Agreed about using a NAS instead of a PC but I don't think I'd want it integrated into a dsl modem/router or anything else that is directly connected to the internet with a public IP address.
FWIW I've used the Buffalo and Infrant ReadyNAS units. Both support up to 4 drives. The Infrant units were more expensive but much faster and generally seemed better designed and built. You could also use something like the Linksys NUSL2 which you plug external USB drives into instead of installing them inside a server. The only problems with this approach is that it fosters a rats nest of wires (seperate power and usb cables for each USB drive) and I have yet to see an external USB drive case that was really appropriate for 24/7 operation. They mainly come in 2 flavors, plastic + a cheap fan guaranteed to die within a year or 2, or Aluminum with no fan but they still tend to run pretty warm. I've been thinking of building a small wooden rack that I could slide these USB drives into, mount a fan on the reer, usb hub inside, and then buy/build a power supply that could feed all 4 (or however many) drives.
the question on everyones mind is whether these even-more-overclocked PCs will be able to run Windows Vista?
Well maybe not "run" but it should at least "walk" now.
The way to use it then would be to find the depth where the temperature is constantly in the middle of daily temperature extremes above ground, so that there is no need to "store" and "retrieve" heat, provided such "middle temperature point" exists in the ground, that is.
It's possible but I'd think it would be pretty expensive to drill down that far and lay collection pipes etc. In practice what people do is only go down a few feet and use a heat pump. How well that works depends a lot on what the ground in your area is made of though. In general moist soil is good, rock is bad.
But I have yet to find a solar solution that is not priced at break even amounts of money.
Normally when people are looking into this what they want to know is "How long is it going to take for this investment to break even?". The underlying assumption is that after break even you'll continue to generate a positive return even after maintence costs etc.
What just about everyone who seriously considers solar electricity finds out is that the initial cost to supply their current usage requirements is so high that break even is likely to occur sometime after their dead. At that point they either give up the idea or they realize that if they could reduce their consumption by something like 25-50% then the numbers look a lot better. It's not just about the cost of solar cells but also about the cost of more batteries, larger capacity inverters etc that really drives up the cost. The first year or two after deciding to pull the trigger on a solar electric arn't going to be spent buying/installing your system but rather trying to reduce your consumption to the point where a reasonably priced solar system can supply your needs. You may even find that reducing your consumption alone is easier, cheaper, and offers a better return than installing a solar electric system.
But even a friend's mom who is a registered nurse got on his case one time when he got plastered from a combination of wine and spirits, claiming that, "Mixing those types of alcohol together is incredibly dangerous!"
...."
:)
Hmm, my roommate in school had a saying:
"Beer before liquor, never been sicker. Beer before liquor
I'm not sure how the rest went
wind farms take energy directly out of a very complex self-regulating system.
1. We're talking about a fairly small percentage of the total available wind energy here. Wind power is unlikely to ever be more than 10-30% of our total power usage due to our need for power when the wind isn't blowing so the percent of available wind energy that is captured will remain low. How is this worse than bridges, buildings, trees (or lack of them) etc? I'd be willing to bet that the impact of a blacktop parking lot has more impact on the wind than a windmill due to the updrafts created by rising hot air. Also, we're not taking energy out of the system, but just shifting it around since all of the energy generated will ultimately end up as heat.
As I have repeated said, energy efficiency is the only soultion to our energy problems.
Effeciency is certainly important but, like wind power it's only one small piece of the solution. Even if the world suddenly became 20% more effecient tommorow that would only buy us a few years before growth used up the savings. Sure we could continue to get more effecient for a while but there are limits to effeciency.
So running a server off of a battery backup UPS plugged into a generator from Lowes for 2 hours is going to kill the server?
You're gonna have to sell me on that...
I don't think he's on target with the 3 phase vs 2 phase stuff however I do know that many UPSs won't work properly when run off of cheap construction type generators. Inverter based generators generally work better for electronics but usually cost more and are a bit harder to get (at least around here). That said, if you manage to get the computers running you're still going to need to do something about cooling...
The only, ONLY thing holding AOL still together are people who are less internet savvy and those who cling to AOL email addresses for their lives (certain professionals, businesspeople, et al).
Agreed, and they seem to be working hard to alienate those users as fast as possible. I was recently helping an older woman get her computer feet back under her after a couple of years off. She was already familiar with AOL and wanted to keep using it. The problem was that the home page must have had 200 different links/buttons/pictures on it. Just finding her email or favorites etc was like some sick version of "Where's Waldo". It certainly wasn't easy. Add to that the fact that they seem to have moved all their support people over to India and I don't see any reason why even a beginner would want to use their service.
There are at least 5 pay telephones within a minute's walk of here.
... Well you've seen Superman right?
I think you just made the parent posters point. You see, there used to be this thing called a phone booth. It was fully enclosed and
I think your example supports the parent's position more than your own. If we lived in a world with sane copyright laws such as a term of maybe 5 - 10 years then anyone on the planet who had that album could legally and openly give you a copy. P2P networks would be 1000X bigger and more comprehensive than they are today. Libraries could put most of their collections up on line. There would be hundereds of music sites with huge collections competing for your $ based on their ability to help you find what you want effeciently. If you had to you could just ask on pretty much any music fan site/newsgroup/forum and someone would just send you a copy. In short, your odds of success would be much greater than they are today, not worse.
Anybody have anything constructive to add to this?
Maybe they're planning on inviting them all out to Washington for a little hunting with Dick Cheney?
In a few month, the cost of the Linksys box will be recouped on the electric bill.
I seriously doubt that. With the screen off and the battery already charged (or removed) a laptop is probably only using maybe 20W or so and the Linksys box on the shelf next to me uses something like 5-10W. You'd have to wait many years to get your $50-$100 investment back at that rate.
He means that they've "done a complete 360"
Ironically, it was Indiana that proposed (but thankfully never passed) a law redefining pi to be 3.2 back in 1897. http://www.answers.com/topic/indiana-pi-bill. I guess it's no surprise that they're still having some trouble with the concept.
Ironically, it was Indiana that proposed (but thankfully never passed) a law redefining pi to be 3.2 back in 1897. http://www.answers.com/topic/indiana-pi-bill. I guess it's no surprise that they're still having some trouble with the concept.
I know this is a little OT but does anyone know of a decent OSS package/project to use to provide this type of service to others? It seems that something like this would be useful for goups of people (non-geeks so cvs may be over their heads) colaborating on projects etc over the net.
Didn't phone # portability start kicking in around the end of 2005 for the cell providers?
My last few Motorolas (and I suspect most other brands) have had a dedicated "record" button. It's pretty useless though because.
1. It takes forever to kick in and actually start recording.
2. The beep that it generates (to inform the other party their being recorded?) causes most voice response systems to think I've pushed a button and drops or otherwise screws up the call.
--
Ray
Only sellers should receive feedback ratings, not buyers.
I disagree. One of the things I look at when evaluating a seller's negative feedback items is the rating of the buyer who posted it. I think a "blind" feedback system as others have suggested would solve the problem of reprisals without removing useful information.
Amazon is much better.
I agree with most of your post but not this part. Although I've had some poor experiences on Ebay in the past, the one and only time I've been outright scammed was on Amazon. Although I did eventually get my money back it was frustrating that Amazon wouldn't even begin to do anything for something like 30 days even though me and several other victims of this same seller had provided plenty of evidence of what had happened. This particular seller had pulled the classic "drive up your rating by selling a bunch of $1 items and then switch to expensive items that you don't even have". On Ebay I would have cought this because you can actually see what item the previous feedbacks are refering to but not on Amazon (at least back then). Maybe they've gotten better but I'll probably never feel comfortable with them again.
It must be kept on at all times or an auxiliary heat-source like a light bulb must be provided when the drive is powered down.
A decent heat source would be "heat tape". It's normally used to keep pipes from freezing. It's basically a long strip that works like an electric blanket with a thermostat that turns it on at temperatures around 40f.
but I do know that a cold environment with a warm source - or vice versa - will result in a great deal of condensation, frost, and potential hardware problems.
Well, a cold device in a warm enviornment will cause condensation (think glass of ice water on a warm summer day) but the other way around isn't a problem.