Most of the dying technologies identified in the article and its sidebar are obvious (dot matrix printing? Zip drives?) but I did find one item intriguing: it's suggested that color laser printing is replacing color inkjet.
Almost everyone I know has bought a color inkjet printer (even if they didn't really want it: "it came free with a 4-pack of nine volt batteries"). Can anyone report on *home* use of a color laser printer?
Vonage and Packet 8 provide similar services. There is a lot of commentary in the comp.dcom.voice-over-ip Usenet group about it. I personally have Vonage, which I liked because in my cases they could transfer my existing phone number from the local telco, but perhaps other companies have similar capability. The connection is very good and I've only had a few startup problems. (Most important: work with the VoIP provider to make sure your router is configured optimally.)
The agenda of both policical parties is to get power and to hold onto it. It's that simple. The policies (e.g., tax the rich vs. give to the poor, less government vs. more programs) are only a means to an end.
Even if that's true, shouldn't the fact that the policies are different make some difference to how you vote? Even if a baker and a blacksmith are just at work to make some cash, it matters which one you go to depending on whether you want pie or horseshoes.
... Word simply doesn't have the fine-grained control capability needed to do good page layout work. Unfortunately this also translates to an inability to apply fine control in ordinary documents, too (such as placement of stuff like logo graphics relative to other elements, split justification within a single line as one might wish for a letterhead, etc.)
To do split justification within a single line: Set a center-aligned tab at the middle of the line. Set a right-aligned tab at the end of the line.
(Other than to convey that nugget of information, what is the point of this story? Answer: most modern word-processing programs provide an awful lot of fine-grained control, but how to exercise that control is not always obvious, and if you are using an unfamiliar program you may need to look at a reference or ask someone for help. This is not a fault of any particular word processing program; it's just how things are. It would be nice if even the most complex features of a program were wholly "intuitive," but things just don't work that way. Whether you prefer one program's way of doing things to another's will probably be a matter of taste. I was a longtime WordPerfect user but have recently started using Word consistently, because I feel that somehow it "does what I want," or comes closer to that ideal, but others may differ.)
I am using it for residential, so I won't need the fax. Incidentally, the whole "Fax on top of Voice on top of IP" seems a little odd to me, wouldn't you be better served using a more direct method (i.e.a web gateway or fax application on your computer)?
Agreed that it is a little silly from a bandwidth point of view, but if you have to send a handwritten document (e.g., a form you've filled out) to someone with a fax machine, just being able to throw it into the fax machine (as opposed to logging on, scanning the document and sending it through a fax gateway service) is a lot easier.
Incidentally, I cannot recommend enough having an outgoing fax at home -- it cuts out a lot of waiting on hold for to deal with customer service reps. Have a question about a bill? Scribble your question on the bill, circle the item at issue, and fax it to the company. Didn't get something you ordered? Fax them a copy of your invoice with a handwritten note. Need to pay a bill payable by credit card? Fax them your charge authorization. For some reason, I get much better response from companies when I do this. Fax machines are cheap; if you have the desk space and a hundred bucks they are a great timesaver.
I think your gasoline bill should list all the taxes too. They now comprise, what, 60% of the price of gas at the pump?
Federal taxes are $0.184/gallon and state taxes average $0.1929/gallon. (See here.) So the figure's more like 20-25%, unless you are getting your gas for $0.63/gallon.
Along the same lines, I also think the government should send you an income tax bill once a month, and everyone should be writing a big check equivalent to 3-4 months salary to pay it.
Well, your federal income tax does appear on your (weekly, biweekly, monthly) pay stub. So it's not like it's a state secret.
You broke the rule, man. "pnlaityrseo" doesn't work. It should be something like, "presnotilay".
Good point. I used the scrambling script some good person put up as a PHP page. That word is followed by a comma; to hazard a guess, perhaps the script doesn't properly process punctuation at the end of words.
But I liked the way the word "incomprehensible" really did turn out incomprehensible.
And I, for one, weclome our new imbsnohceilpenre oevdorrls. I'd like to remnid tehm taht as a tursted Salhsdot pnlaityrseo, I can be helfupl in rudniong up oherts to toil in tehir ugudrronned voewl cvaes.
Here is the "background" section from U.S. Patent No. 6,016,038, which suggests why the inventors think their invention is novel:
The present invention relates to providing light of a selectable color using LEDs. More particularly, the present invention is a method and apparatus for providing multicolored illumination. More particularly still, the present invention is an apparatus for providing a computer controlled multicolored illumination network capable of high performance and rapid color selection and change.
It is well known that combining the projected light of one color with the projected light of another color will result in the creation of a third color. It is also well known that the three most commonly used primary colors--red, blue and green--can be combined in different proportions to generate almost any color in the visible spectrum. The present invention takes advantage of these effects by combining the projected light from at least two light emitting diodes (LEDs) of different primary colors.
Computer lighting networks are not new. U.S. Pat. No. 5,420,482, issued to Phares, describes one such network that uses different colored LEDs to generate a selectable color. Phares is primarily for use as a display apparatus. However, the apparatus has several disadvantages and limitations. First, each of the three color LEDs in Phares is powered through a transistor biasing scheme in which the transistor base is coupled to a respective latch register through biasing resistors. The three latches are all simultaneously connected to the same data lines on the data bus. This means it is impossible in Phares to change all three LED transistor biases independently and simultaneously. Also, biasing of the transistors is inefficient because power delivered to the LEDs is smaller than that dissipated in the biasing network. This makes the device poorly suited for efficient illumination applications. The transistor biasing used by Phares also makes it difficult, if not impossible, to interchange groups of LEDs having different power ratings, and hence different intensity levels.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,845,481, issued to Havel, is directed to a multicolored display device. Havel addresses some, but not all of the switching problems associated with Phares. Havel uses a pulse width modulated signal to provide current to respective LEDs at a particular duty cycle. However, no provision is made for precise and rapid control over the colors emitted. As a stand alone unit, the apparatus in Havel suggests away from network lighting, and therefore lacks any teaching as to how to implement a pulse width modulated computer lighting network. Further, Havel does not appreciate the use of LEDs beyond mere displays, such as for illumination.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,184,114, issued to Brown, shows an LED display system. But Brown lacks any suggestion to use LEDs for illumination, or to use LEDs in a configurable computer network environment. U.S. Pat. No. 5,134,387, issued to Smith et al., directed to an LED matrix display, contains similar problems. Its rudimentary current control scheme severely limits the possible range of colors that can be displayed.
It is an object of the present invention to overcome the limitations of the prior art by providing a high performance computer controlled multicolored LED lighting network.
Whether this is really novel I leave as an exercise for the reader.
Point taken, although perhaps they have patented a particular method of doing that which is not obvious, and don't purport to claim the entire field. Someone would have to look at the patent to know for sure.
[Y]ou shouldn't be able to patent something if you do not have a working prototype.
You pretty much can't. It's called the "enablement" requirement. A provision of the patent law (35 USC 112) requires that a patent explain how a person of ordinary skill in the field could implement the invention claimed by the patent "without undue experimentation" on the date the patent was filed. Google on enablement and "In re Wright" (a key case on the requirement) for more information.
I wonder whether some of the Color Kinetics patents aren't overly broad, like one that covers the mixing of different color LEDs to create millions of colors, using a technique called pulse-width modulation. It's somewhat akin to my holding a patent that you'd have to license every time you wanted to use a wooden palette to mix different colors of paint.
This does not seem like a fair comparison: blending paint colors is obvious. Whether or not blending LED colors with "pulse-width modulation" is obvious (at least to someone with knowledge of the field) is not clear.
Additionally, you can't go wrong with nuclear power...
That might be overstating the case just a tad.
... the amount of energy that goes into making a [solar panel] tile is far more than you'll ever get out of it...
I might agree that over the life of a solar panel, the per-kWh cost of energy generated by the panel net of the energy consumed in the panel's construction is considerably higher than other energy sources, but I would need to see documentation of a claim that it is always a net loser.
Unclear to me how this constitutes patent abuse. If someone is investing major resources in R&D and coming up with nonobvious inventions, it seems entirely proper for that person to seek patent protection.
I've been thinking about this a lot lately. As in, "Should I be learning Mandarin Chinese?" China is rapidly becoming a high-tech nation.
I've had the same thought, but wonder if it should be Cantonese -- the south (near HK) speaks Cantonese and is at the forefront of Chinese high tech and economic development.
The problem is that even if you can show that... the failure to supervise then CAUSED (very important word) some quantifiable harm to the company/organization, it's hard for me to understand the dollar amounts attached to these lawsuits.
Good point, but if you were to pick a not unreasonable number (say, $1,000, representing some estimate of downloads times damage per download) and ask for an injunction as well, it seems that a court might grant that kind of relief. The dollar figure is sort of the opening to a negotiation.
There is no general criminal negligence doctrine. There are some specific laws against negligent behavior (e.g., negligent behavior) but no general rule that you can be charged with a crime yourself for negligently permitting someone else to commit a crime. Otherwise, not locking your car door could be a crime.
True as a general matter, but there are a couple of states that impose a duty to assist strangers in certain situations. (The scope of the duty to assist non-strangers, such as your infant child, depends very much on the facts.)
No, they have evidence that the gun killed the cashier, that's it. While it is more likely that you did it than the other 6 billion people on the planet, this isn't enough evidence to arrest, much less convict.
The standard for arrest is probable cause, not proof beyond a reasonable doubt. "More likely that you did it than the other 6 billion people on the planet" is an acceptable working definition of probable cause.
For instance I don't understand a thing about certain cooking terms, like basting or searing, but that's okay because I'm not a chef, so it doesn't affect me.
Random recommendation: Le Cordon Bleu's Complete Cooking Techniques. If all other cookbooks confuse you (excepting the Perl Cookbook and Numerical Recipes In C), this is the book you should read first. Several hundred pages in full color explaining in copious detail what the other cookbooks are talking about when they say that you should baste, poach, sear, etc. some piece of food. It also explains how to choose meat, fish, fruits and vegetables, and how to make all the basic things that experienced cooks just seem to know how to make (pancakes, roast chicken, beef stock). Having read it, you will roam the aisles of your local high-end supermarket like it was MicroCenter or Fry's. Well worth the $30 or so. You'll wonder how you ever lived without it.
(Actually, this would be a good Ask Slashdot question: what books explain very comprehensibly to the intelligent but utterly uninitiated an entire field of study? I'm trying to think if I know any other book like this.)
Practicles are emitted by masses with a high capacity for enabling useful work, such as your standard office PC. The so-called "CmdrTaco" effect has been exploited to permit electronic distribution of antipracticles over a worldwide communications network. When an ordinary office PC is subjected to the CmdrTaco effect, the practicles generated by the PC collide with the electronically distributed antiparticles, and are annihilated, releasing a small burst of energy and a banner ad. These small bursts of energy keep your coffee warm while you read Slashdot.
Slashdot Mirror
Almost everyone I know has bought a color inkjet printer (even if they didn't really want it: "it came free with a 4-pack of nine volt batteries"). Can anyone report on *home* use of a color laser printer?
Vonage and Packet 8 provide similar services. There is a lot of commentary in the comp.dcom.voice-over-ip Usenet group about it. I personally have Vonage, which I liked because in my cases they could transfer my existing phone number from the local telco, but perhaps other companies have similar capability. The connection is very good and I've only had a few startup problems. (Most important: work with the VoIP provider to make sure your router is configured optimally.)
Even if that's true, shouldn't the fact that the policies are different make some difference to how you vote? Even if a baker and a blacksmith are just at work to make some cash, it matters which one you go to depending on whether you want pie or horseshoes.
To do split justification within a single line: Set a center-aligned tab at the middle of the line. Set a right-aligned tab at the end of the line.
(Other than to convey that nugget of information, what is the point of this story? Answer: most modern word-processing programs provide an awful lot of fine-grained control, but how to exercise that control is not always obvious, and if you are using an unfamiliar program you may need to look at a reference or ask someone for help. This is not a fault of any particular word processing program; it's just how things are. It would be nice if even the most complex features of a program were wholly "intuitive," but things just don't work that way. Whether you prefer one program's way of doing things to another's will probably be a matter of taste. I was a longtime WordPerfect user but have recently started using Word consistently, because I feel that somehow it "does what I want," or comes closer to that ideal, but others may differ.)
Agreed that it is a little silly from a bandwidth point of view, but if you have to send a handwritten document (e.g., a form you've filled out) to someone with a fax machine, just being able to throw it into the fax machine (as opposed to logging on, scanning the document and sending it through a fax gateway service) is a lot easier.
Incidentally, I cannot recommend enough having an outgoing fax at home -- it cuts out a lot of waiting on hold for to deal with customer service reps. Have a question about a bill? Scribble your question on the bill, circle the item at issue, and fax it to the company. Didn't get something you ordered? Fax them a copy of your invoice with a handwritten note. Need to pay a bill payable by credit card? Fax them your charge authorization. For some reason, I get much better response from companies when I do this. Fax machines are cheap; if you have the desk space and a hundred bucks they are a great timesaver.
Federal taxes are $0.184/gallon and state taxes average $0.1929/gallon. (See here.) So the figure's more like 20-25%, unless you are getting your gas for $0.63/gallon.
Along the same lines, I also think the government should send you an income tax bill once a month, and everyone should be writing a big check equivalent to 3-4 months salary to pay it.
Well, your federal income tax does appear on your (weekly, biweekly, monthly) pay stub. So it's not like it's a state secret.
Good point. I used the scrambling script some good person put up as a PHP page. That word is followed by a comma; to hazard a guess, perhaps the script doesn't properly process punctuation at the end of words.
But I liked the way the word "incomprehensible" really did turn out incomprehensible.
And I, for one, weclome our new imbsnohceilpenre oevdorrls. I'd like to remnid tehm taht as a tursted Salhsdot pnlaityrseo, I can be helfupl in rudniong up oherts to toil in tehir ugudrronned voewl cvaes.
For prior art, see the entire length of the Jersey Turnpike.
Point taken, although perhaps they have patented a particular method of doing that which is not obvious, and don't purport to claim the entire field. Someone would have to look at the patent to know for sure.
You pretty much can't. It's called the "enablement" requirement. A provision of the patent law (35 USC 112) requires that a patent explain how a person of ordinary skill in the field could implement the invention claimed by the patent "without undue experimentation" on the date the patent was filed. Google on enablement and "In re Wright" (a key case on the requirement) for more information.
I wonder whether some of the Color Kinetics patents aren't overly broad, like one that covers the mixing of different color LEDs to create millions of colors, using a technique called pulse-width modulation. It's somewhat akin to my holding a patent that you'd have to license every time you wanted to use a wooden palette to mix different colors of paint.
This does not seem like a fair comparison: blending paint colors is obvious. Whether or not blending LED colors with "pulse-width modulation" is obvious (at least to someone with knowledge of the field) is not clear.
That might be overstating the case just a tad.
I might agree that over the life of a solar panel, the per-kWh cost of energy generated by the panel net of the energy consumed in the panel's construction is considerably higher than other energy sources, but I would need to see documentation of a claim that it is always a net loser.
Unclear to me how this constitutes patent abuse. If someone is investing major resources in R&D and coming up with nonobvious inventions, it seems entirely proper for that person to seek patent protection.
I've had the same thought, but wonder if it should be Cantonese -- the south (near HK) speaks Cantonese and is at the forefront of Chinese high tech and economic development.
Should read "e.g., negligent homicide". My apologies.
Good point, but if you were to pick a not unreasonable number (say, $1,000, representing some estimate of downloads times damage per download) and ask for an injunction as well, it seems that a court might grant that kind of relief. The dollar figure is sort of the opening to a negotiation.
There is no general criminal negligence doctrine. There are some specific laws against negligent behavior (e.g., negligent behavior) but no general rule that you can be charged with a crime yourself for negligently permitting someone else to commit a crime. Otherwise, not locking your car door could be a crime.
True as a general matter, but there are a couple of states that impose a duty to assist strangers in certain situations. (The scope of the duty to assist non-strangers, such as your infant child, depends very much on the facts.)
The standard for arrest is probable cause, not proof beyond a reasonable doubt. "More likely that you did it than the other 6 billion people on the planet" is an acceptable working definition of probable cause.
Random recommendation: Le Cordon Bleu's Complete Cooking Techniques. If all other cookbooks confuse you (excepting the Perl Cookbook and Numerical Recipes In C), this is the book you should read first. Several hundred pages in full color explaining in copious detail what the other cookbooks are talking about when they say that you should baste, poach, sear, etc. some piece of food. It also explains how to choose meat, fish, fruits and vegetables, and how to make all the basic things that experienced cooks just seem to know how to make (pancakes, roast chicken, beef stock). Having read it, you will roam the aisles of your local high-end supermarket like it was MicroCenter or Fry's. Well worth the $30 or so. You'll wonder how you ever lived without it.
(Actually, this would be a good Ask Slashdot question: what books explain very comprehensibly to the intelligent but utterly uninitiated an entire field of study? I'm trying to think if I know any other book like this.)
I am advised that it is because the electrons flow through solid material (as opposed to a vacuum tube) and there are no moving parts.
Slashdot is just now reporting on it?
No, actually, it was reported then, too. I'm afraid this story is yet another duplicate.
[ A long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away ...
-1.4E08 11:23:45 Holy crap! Our star is exploding! (articles,science) (rejected) ]
Practicles are emitted by masses with a high capacity for enabling useful work, such as your standard office PC. The so-called "CmdrTaco" effect has been exploited to permit electronic distribution of antipracticles over a worldwide communications network. When an ordinary office PC is subjected to the CmdrTaco effect, the practicles generated by the PC collide with the electronically distributed antiparticles, and are annihilated, releasing a small burst of energy and a banner ad. These small bursts of energy keep your coffee warm while you read Slashdot.