Lowepro CompuDaypack does not have enough pockets for stuff. It's also phenomenally uncomfortable to wear. I feel like they designed it to suck a lot just so they could put a bigger price tag on their nicer bags.
I also have a Ground Bass Pack (http://www.groundwear.com/showprod.php?idnum=30000205255) which is pretty awesome as a backpack/laptop bag. But it doesn't have the DSLR pockets. It is, however, big enough that you can buy a small camera back and nest it inside.
It's nearly impossible to determine if a work failed (financially) due to piracy. You have to make some assumption about the percentage of pirates who would have paid for the product if they had not obtained it for free. Some subset of the pirates don't cost the IP owner anything, because they wouldn't have purchased it anyway. Actually, they may create additional revenue for the poduct by turning friends on to the product. If those friends choose to pay for it, the pirates are additional marketing. There are too many variables. The RIAA, MPAA, BSA, etc. just need to learn to make good/better products.
I was surprised that they let Lala exist as long as they did - I thought they'd shut it down as quick as MySpace shut down Imeem. But I held out hope that they'd announce some similar functionalities with itunes (friends, followers, cheaper purchase options, etc.) when they announced the demise of Lala. Because, really, if their plan was to shut it down, why run it for an extra 5 months?
I've found the best way to meet people is expand on your own interests. Join groups that do things you like to do. It's not all tech-gadgetry, but you can find a lot of geeky stuff through Make: - including local groups, events, etc.
Harassing the disabled would not be acceptable on YouTube even if their faces were blurred out or voices modulated for the sake of anonymity. Anonymizing the e-mails provides some privacy for the senders, but it still allows the possibility of undue humiliation.
That said, there's no solid evidence that these people are anything less than your normal, everyday, stoned college student.
Except for the third guy; and I just feel bad for him.
I think this is more to the point than saying, "it sucks to be an engineering student." It sucks to be an engineering student at the wrong school. If my classes had been like this, I might have pursued engineering after I graduated.
What about a five-year copyright with a dynamic enactment clause? Individuals and corporations alike could create and copyright original content, but the copyright must be "activated" before the advantages and protection of the copyright could be used. This would enable corporations with mega-marketing departments to activate the copyright immediately upon release of the work, whereas an individual could choose to wait until their work gains some momentum before activating the copyright. There would have to be a grace-period and notification system for copyright-enactment, but this should effectively level the playing field for individual creators while putting American copyright law under a single umbrella.
I work at a mid-size aerospace company where we're faced with similar problems. Management doesn't grasp the size of the test images/video/etc. that are coming off our satellites, so our budgets generally fall somewhere short of adequate.
In the past, our management splurged and bought a Network Appliance. Two, actually; we have an F880 and an F740. The 740 is pretty much defunct right now; it's only got about 300GB of disk and we use it to house static application installs. The 880 is more robust and therefore more efficiently used, but only has 2.2TB of (insanely reliable) disk. Disk that costs about $20,000 per additional TB.
Last year, we learned that Xyratex (the company that makes the disk shelves for NetApp) has started selling SATA-based disk arrays. Right now, I believe they only support 400GB SATA drives in a 16-drive chassis, but support for 500GB drives is supposedly right around the corner. A fully-populated chassis with 400GB drives will yield about 4.8TB of usable space. We have purchased five head units (about $20,000 full of disk) and one shelf (about $15,000 full of disk). Each unit is expandable to 7 shelves (including the head), which yields over 32TB of usable disk. I don't know what your budget is, but $110,000 is pretty reasonable for over 32TB. Admittedly, you could buy 32 stripped-down Dell Dimension 4700's (to get SATA) with two 500GB hard drives; install a slim OS and you could get approximately the same amount of usable space. But the reliability of the Xyratex has been far greater than the reliability of the Dell machines we've purchased in recent years.
It's ironic that you brought up the NeoPath File Director. We're going through the trials and tribulations of installing a clustered pair of them right now. We've had some difficulty in getting them set up, but it seems like they'll do the trick when we get them going. The MSRP on the cluster is kind of high, but talk to their sales guys if you're interested - we got almost 1/3 off the listed price. We plan on using the File Director to migrate old files from the NetApps to our Xyratex, thereby expanding our storage at $3,300 per TB instead of $20,000 per TB. I can see it working well, though, for aggregating a large number of file servers into a single virtual server.
I don't know how the File Director will interface with your operating systems. We use Veritas's Storage Foundation (~$500 per license - you should only need one) on our systems because we're primarily limited to Windows and Solaris, which have difficulty with large filesystems. Storage Foundation breaks the size limitations as well as enabling easier management of your volumes.
I don't believe the FCC was responsible for the region codes on DVD's and in DVD players. (See FAQ here.) That was a decision by the movie industry to take copy pretection into their own hands, and they managed to pressure most hardware manufacturers into making DVD players with embedded regions. With the FCC's help or not, there's a good chance the MPAA et. al. will manage the same thing here. If the industry can influence the production of DVD players, the industry can influence the production of TV's. If the MPAA blocks their movies from broadcast on any station that transmits a digital signal without a broadcast flag, it won't take long for all digital channels (think HDNet Movies) to adopt the broadcast flag.
GameStop had a deal on the N-Gage where you'd get 3 games with the unit for $199. That was a great deal, but I wanted a new cell phone - not just a game system. The only cellular plan available for the N-Gage in my area was 80 minutes/month for $23. I think Nokia needs to decide whether they're selling a game system or a phone. Right now it's a game system. If they want it to be a phone (which, I think, would appeal to many more people) then get some backing from a cellular provider so the unit is actually functional in both arenas.
There seem to be a lot of people on/. with plenty of spare time to type. If you can spare a few minutes of your time to direct some of that towards a cause, check out the Internet Dissidents page at Human Rights Watch.
Huang Qi is in a Chinese prison because he offered a blog-type service in which he allowed people to freely speak their opinions and helped them find missing relatives.
Nguyen Khac Toan is in prison for helping people reclaim confiscated property from the government.
Pham Hong Son is imprisoned for translating and redistributing a "What is Democracy" acticle published by the American Embassy in Vietnam.
Le Chi Quang was arrested in Vietnam for intending to send e-mail overseas.
I was at a concert Saturday night where the performer stated, "maybe we can incite the world to democracy by actually practicing it." As an American, I would like to personally thank any of you that take the time to help people in opressive countries. The fact that most of us can post on/. with no worry about repurcussions is a really good thing. We should share it.
I've seen a lot of arguments against this machine in this small thread, but the prominent two seem to be A) foosball doesn't require strategy (like chess) and B) it will be easy to beat.
As an avid foosball player, I first want to refute the "lack of strategy" argument for foosball. I play frequently with Tom Spear and Robbie Mares, two of the greatest foosball players in the world. (I don't know about elsewhere in the world, but in America they are known as "Pro Masters," not "grandmasters.") Either one of those guys will tell you that foosball is like a game of chess on speed. The amount of skill you posess for the game will only take you so far. At a certain point, the game becomes almost entirely mental.
Players reach a skill level where they can, physically, do whatever they want to do with the ball. For a pass or a shot, they choose their hole before they even start to move the ball. Trying to defend the pass or the shot is a matter of being able to predict your opponent's maneuver; if you try to play a straightforward defense and watch to see where they're going, then race them to the opening...you'll lose every time.
That said, I think that a machine could be a very worthy competitor. With a fine-tuned history-based decision-making algorithm for baiting and blocking shots, I'm sure it could play great defense if it's fast enough. As far as offense, I'm sure the machine could hit all sorts of angles and speed shots with deadly precision. It will just take time to teach it how to play.
If you're at all interested in more foosball stuff, check out the Valley International Foosball Association and the United States Table Soccer Association. If you like to play, you should check out some local tournaments. For Colorado, we've got our own site and you might have one for your area, too. Speaking on behalf of tournament players everywhere, we'd love for you to come play our tournaments.
I submit a second vote for this site. I'm 23, but the animated pictures really assist my visual learning style and make it easy to read a story/article through to the end. Also, I'm amazed by the amount of content on the site.
Slashdot Mirror
Lowepro CompuDaypack does not have enough pockets for stuff. It's also phenomenally uncomfortable to wear. I feel like they designed it to suck a lot just so they could put a bigger price tag on their nicer bags.
I also have a Ground Bass Pack (http://www.groundwear.com/showprod.php?idnum=30000205255) which is pretty awesome as a backpack/laptop bag. But it doesn't have the DSLR pockets. It is, however, big enough that you can buy a small camera back and nest it inside.
It's nearly impossible to determine if a work failed (financially) due to piracy. You have to make some assumption about the percentage of pirates who would have paid for the product if they had not obtained it for free. Some subset of the pirates don't cost the IP owner anything, because they wouldn't have purchased it anyway. Actually, they may create additional revenue for the poduct by turning friends on to the product. If those friends choose to pay for it, the pirates are additional marketing. There are too many variables. The RIAA, MPAA, BSA, etc. just need to learn to make good/better products.
I was surprised that they let Lala exist as long as they did - I thought they'd shut it down as quick as MySpace shut down Imeem. But I held out hope that they'd announce some similar functionalities with itunes (friends, followers, cheaper purchase options, etc.) when they announced the demise of Lala. Because, really, if their plan was to shut it down, why run it for an extra 5 months?
I've found the best way to meet people is expand on your own interests. Join groups that do things you like to do. It's not all tech-gadgetry, but you can find a lot of geeky stuff through Make: - including local groups, events, etc.
Harassing the disabled would not be acceptable on YouTube even if their faces were blurred out or voices modulated for the sake of anonymity. Anonymizing the e-mails provides some privacy for the senders, but it still allows the possibility of undue humiliation.
That said, there's no solid evidence that these people are anything less than your normal, everyday, stoned college student.
Except for the third guy; and I just feel bad for him.
I think this is more to the point than saying, "it sucks to be an engineering student." It sucks to be an engineering student at the wrong school. If my classes had been like this, I might have pursued engineering after I graduated.
I'll scribe!
What about a five-year copyright with a dynamic enactment clause? Individuals and corporations alike could create and copyright original content, but the copyright must be "activated" before the advantages and protection of the copyright could be used. This would enable corporations with mega-marketing departments to activate the copyright immediately upon release of the work, whereas an individual could choose to wait until their work gains some momentum before activating the copyright. There would have to be a grace-period and notification system for copyright-enactment, but this should effectively level the playing field for individual creators while putting American copyright law under a single umbrella.
it's art?
In the past, our management splurged and bought a Network Appliance. Two, actually; we have an F880 and an F740. The 740 is pretty much defunct right now; it's only got about 300GB of disk and we use it to house static application installs. The 880 is more robust and therefore more efficiently used, but only has 2.2TB of (insanely reliable) disk. Disk that costs about $20,000 per additional TB.
Last year, we learned that Xyratex (the company that makes the disk shelves for NetApp) has started selling SATA-based disk arrays. Right now, I believe they only support 400GB SATA drives in a 16-drive chassis, but support for 500GB drives is supposedly right around the corner. A fully-populated chassis with 400GB drives will yield about 4.8TB of usable space. We have purchased five head units (about $20,000 full of disk) and one shelf (about $15,000 full of disk). Each unit is expandable to 7 shelves (including the head), which yields over 32TB of usable disk. I don't know what your budget is, but $110,000 is pretty reasonable for over 32TB. Admittedly, you could buy 32 stripped-down Dell Dimension 4700's (to get SATA) with two 500GB hard drives; install a slim OS and you could get approximately the same amount of usable space. But the reliability of the Xyratex has been far greater than the reliability of the Dell machines we've purchased in recent years.
It's ironic that you brought up the NeoPath File Director. We're going through the trials and tribulations of installing a clustered pair of them right now. We've had some difficulty in getting them set up, but it seems like they'll do the trick when we get them going. The MSRP on the cluster is kind of high, but talk to their sales guys if you're interested - we got almost 1/3 off the listed price. We plan on using the File Director to migrate old files from the NetApps to our Xyratex, thereby expanding our storage at $3,300 per TB instead of $20,000 per TB. I can see it working well, though, for aggregating a large number of file servers into a single virtual server.
I don't know how the File Director will interface with your operating systems. We use Veritas's Storage Foundation (~$500 per license - you should only need one) on our systems because we're primarily limited to Windows and Solaris, which have difficulty with large filesystems. Storage Foundation breaks the size limitations as well as enabling easier management of your volumes.
I hope this helps. Good luck.
I was in Bangkok about two weeks ago and they were selling the Xenn XM-5, which bears a striking resemblance to the mobiBLUE DAH-1500.
There was a related NPR report not too long ago about the way birds learn to string notes together. Listen here.
I don't believe the FCC was responsible for the region codes on DVD's and in DVD players. (See FAQ here.) That was a decision by the movie industry to take copy pretection into their own hands, and they managed to pressure most hardware manufacturers into making DVD players with embedded regions. With the FCC's help or not, there's a good chance the MPAA et. al. will manage the same thing here. If the industry can influence the production of DVD players, the industry can influence the production of TV's. If the MPAA blocks their movies from broadcast on any station that transmits a digital signal without a broadcast flag, it won't take long for all digital channels (think HDNet Movies) to adopt the broadcast flag.
Those are some fantastic ideas, but I still don't know what to do with a Compaq-gone-HP Presario 1694 with a fried motherboard. Doorstop? Bookend?
There are several new stories today about Bobby Fischer winning a deportation injunction in Japan.
Yeah. This guy has definitely watched that flick one too many times.
GameStop had a deal on the N-Gage where you'd get 3 games with the unit for $199. That was a great deal, but I wanted a new cell phone - not just a game system. The only cellular plan available for the N-Gage in my area was 80 minutes/month for $23. I think Nokia needs to decide whether they're selling a game system or a phone. Right now it's a game system. If they want it to be a phone (which, I think, would appeal to many more people) then get some backing from a cellular provider so the unit is actually functional in both arenas.
Just be absolutely sure that none of your invitees are members of the RIAA/MPAA/etc.
Huang Qi is in a Chinese prison because he offered a blog-type service in which he allowed people to freely speak their opinions and helped them find missing relatives.
Nguyen Khac Toan is in prison for helping people reclaim confiscated property from the government.
Pham Hong Son is imprisoned for translating and redistributing a "What is Democracy" acticle published by the American Embassy in Vietnam.
Le Chi Quang was arrested in Vietnam for intending to send e-mail overseas.
I was at a concert Saturday night where the performer stated, "maybe we can incite the world to democracy by actually practicing it." As an American, I would like to personally thank any of you that take the time to help people in opressive countries. The fact that most of us can post on /. with no worry about repurcussions is a really good thing. We should share it.
How big can one man's penis get?
...good guys: 2, Spammers 1,943,238,345,753,261 (today alone)
I work at Ball Aerospace... I thought some of you might like to see the BATC stuff.
...Here
As an avid foosball player, I first want to refute the "lack of strategy" argument for foosball. I play frequently with Tom Spear and Robbie Mares, two of the greatest foosball players in the world. (I don't know about elsewhere in the world, but in America they are known as "Pro Masters," not "grandmasters.") Either one of those guys will tell you that foosball is like a game of chess on speed. The amount of skill you posess for the game will only take you so far. At a certain point, the game becomes almost entirely mental.
Players reach a skill level where they can, physically, do whatever they want to do with the ball. For a pass or a shot, they choose their hole before they even start to move the ball. Trying to defend the pass or the shot is a matter of being able to predict your opponent's maneuver; if you try to play a straightforward defense and watch to see where they're going, then race them to the opening...you'll lose every time.
That said, I think that a machine could be a very worthy competitor. With a fine-tuned history-based decision-making algorithm for baiting and blocking shots, I'm sure it could play great defense if it's fast enough. As far as offense, I'm sure the machine could hit all sorts of angles and speed shots with deadly precision. It will just take time to teach it how to play.
If you're at all interested in more foosball stuff, check out the Valley International Foosball Association and the United States Table Soccer Association. If you like to play, you should check out some local tournaments. For Colorado, we've got our own site and you might have one for your area, too. Speaking on behalf of tournament players everywhere, we'd love for you to come play our tournaments.
I submit a second vote for this site. I'm 23, but the animated pictures really assist my visual learning style and make it easy to read a story/article through to the end. Also, I'm amazed by the amount of content on the site.