Well, Mr. Madnick wrote this classic* book about operating systems, for example. Nevermind that it's probably written on parchment and the computers were still running on steam in 1974 as far as I know, he's undoubtedly an expert when it comes to present-day operating systems.
>Of course, the problem many of us will have with our PCs is a Frankenstein system as we have a beige case with black CD/floppy drives (or vice versa) as we upgrade.
The manufacturers are catching up to the trend; the PlexWriter 20/10/40-12A is advertised as being "now also available with black front bezel" on Plextor's main page.
I think he meant that on Star Trek, they regularly have sex with attractive aliens, whereas geeks on this planet usually do not have sex with any living being.:-P
And if I had the money, I'd buy one of these babies. No carrying handle, but fanless (heat pipe cooling), sort of cool looking, yum.
Problems with time travel
on
Time Travel
·
· Score: 1
One of the major problems encountered in time travel is not that of becoming your own father or mother. There is no problem in becoming your own father or mother that a broad-minded and well-adjusted family can't cope with. There is no problem with changing the course of history - the course of history does not change because it all fits together like a jigsaw. All the important changes have happened before the things they were supposed to change and it all sorts itself out in the end.
The major problem is quite simply one of grammar, and the main work to consult in this matter is Dr. Dan Streetmentioner's Time Traveler's Handbook of 1001 Tense Formations. It will tell you, for instance, how to describe something that was about to happen to you in the past before you avoided it by time-jumping forward two days in order to avoid it. The event will be descibed differently according to whether you are talking about it from the standpoint of your own natural time, from a time in the further future, or a time in the further past and is further complicated by the possibility of conducting conversations while you are actually traveling from one time to another with the intention of becoming your own mother or father.
Most readers get as far as the Future Semiconditionally Modified Subinverted Plagal Past Subjunctive Intentional before giving up; and in fact in later additions of the book all pages beyond this point have been left blank to save on printing costs.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy skips lightly over this tangle of academic abstraction, pausing only to note that the term "Future Perfect" has been abandoned since it was discovered not to be.
Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, chapter 15
>change the reply address to the congressperson's address (instead of the spammers), add a note at the top saying, "Here is another spam that I got. Please pass a law outlawing spamm."
Uh - given the clue level of the average politician, this is likely to put Hormel Corp. into deep doo-doo. Even if they later realized that they banned the wrong kind of thing, they probably wouldn't admit they made a mistake, thereby putting Hormel right out of business:P
> Further, there are many countries that don't even belong to the U.N. [...]
According to the Swiss government (see this link) the UN used to have two non-members, Switzerland and the Holy See, until recently. As the Swiss finally agreed to join the UN on March 3 this year, this leaves the Vatican as the only non-member worldwide.
Call me an optimist if you want, but I don't expect to receive too many of those "bigger [d*ck | t*ts] / herbal viagra / h*rny coeds" spams from the Pope if worldwide legislation against spam were ever put into effect.
Let me make clear that modding XP chips to work as MPs is a bad idea and will most likely result in one or two cooked CPUs within a month.
I have yet to see a CPU overheating problem that cannot be solved with gratuitious amounts of copper and a few pet-inhaling fans, or liquid nitrogen if it comes to that.
If you're trolling, you still have a lot to learn. If you really worked at AMD R&D, you have a lot to explain.
The i-Buddie is a joke, primarily considering the target prices.
I agree, that's why I wrote "lower price (at least in theory)". The idea is interesting, though: rechargeable batteries are bulky, heavy and expensive (ever tried to buy a replacement battery for an old laptop?). Price is only one factor, you can build a lighter system and/or one with and additional spindle.
The simple solution is to buy the quieter, cheaper, and more reliable 5'400 RPM drives, but for some reason everyone seems dead set on 7200 RPM drives.
Of course you're right. Of course, when I recently upgraded my home box, I chose a 7200 RPM drive...
The good news is that the additional noise from the drive cooler doesn't bug me. The bad news is that this is only so because it's drowned by the thundering noise of the other fans (2 in PSU, 1 on the processor, 1 on the chipset, 1 on the graphics card, 1 case fan). Luckily, I found a good way to make all that noise bearable, namely the same time-proven technique I use when my car starts to make funny noises: turn up the stereo real loud.
what other gadgets from CeBIT are worth talking about this year?
Here's a collection of neat CeBIT gadgets from the c't newsticker. All articles are in German, but there are pictures and links to the manufacturer's webpages:
It won't fit into my wallet yet because it's 11.3mm thick, but the small size is intriguing to me. This is a gadget which I would carry around in my daypack regularly, something I don't do with my SLR or my digicam because they're too bulky and heavy.
The downsides (for me):
1. The price would have to come down quite a bit (an article in c't magazine mentions a price "under 500 EUR"), but even 400 EUR is a little much for my taste.
2. SD cards: thanks, but no thanks. Don't know about MMC, is this any good?
Tip: Check if the drive temperature is not exceeding the specified limits with something like this tool. Many case designs do not provide sufficient ventilation for 7'200 RPM drives, especially if they're mounted closely together. Use a HD cooler if the disks get too warm, it's still less expensive than reconstructing data and/or reinstalling.
Irony: big ad from IBM on my page of the "IBM 120GXP Revisited" article, saying "Time to update your critical systems security!". Yes, indeed 8-)
Ok, I realize the that last example has not yet been used in an office setup, but I'm confident that, given enough bored guys and industrial quantities of beer, it will happen one day.
Just imagine the look of your PHB when you point this baby at him after he's pestered you about your daily status report. Hmmmm, maybe this is a good thing.
This dates back to at least 1993 (link), I don't remember if video recorders had even been invented back then;-)
I've never ran across a video of this ACB episode, so the whole thing could be just a rec.humor.funny joke. But as they say in Italy, "Se non è vero è ben trovato" (it might not be true, but it's good anyway).
By the way, at least one guy at Microsoft seems to have a sense of humor: see this page. Here's another good one I found there:
From: johnny99@sydney.dialix.oz.au Two computer people discussing those old stories about Bill Gates' name adding up to 666 in ASCII:
``I hear that if you play the NT 4.0 CD backwards, you get a satanic message.''
``--That's nothing. If you play it forward, it installs NT 4.0!''
We use the eBeams since March last year in our staff training center and for brainstorming meetings which are held in hotels.
The users are satisfied, and the eBeams are cheaper than those whiteboard/printer combinations which were always broken for one reason or another (and difficult to transport).
I recently noticed that some of the staff trainers have started using their digital cameras instead of the eBeams because those are even easier to set up and use, although they're lacking some of the additional features of the eBeam system.
Thank you for answering. I took the original poster's paraphrased quote to mean "Windows doesn't _need_ IE in any way, contrary to what Microsoft says", so in my view stating that the combination of the two is _still_ an ugly contraption wasn't as trite as you interpreted it, but I can live with that. Let's move on to more interesting stuff...
You haven't yet answered my request to explain to me why you insulted me by calling me a dummy in the parent post, but from your user page I can see you're active on Slashdot. Let me phrase my concern again, this time more exhaustively and politely.
When I said that "Windows _with_ IE... is like a fish with a bicycle", i wanted to conjure the mental image of a fish riding a bicycle - very obviously a combination which is ridicolous and clumsy in the extreme. I thought the analogy to Windows/IE was pretty clear, but apparently I was wrong.
I think you had several choices at this point:
1. Disagree with my view that Windows and IE are an awful contraption - which would have been fine with me
2. Write a short note asking for clarification if you were not sure what I meant - I would have answered
3. Say that the analogy was ridiculous and give an explanation stating why you think it is so - I could have defended myself
I cannot see what could have offended you so much in my post to warrant the reply you gave me, so here's my polite request: Please tell me why you think I have made an idiot out of myself, or excuse yourself for going overboard with your reply, and no offense will be taken.
> Check the Flash Usability Contest at the link http://www.webword.com/flashusability.html
Interesting link, thank you.
> Surprisingly enough, there WAS a winner.
Ironically enough, the winner's page will turn up blank in my browser. Although they're supposed to have a non-Flash representation of the site, they forgot to check if JavaScript is enabled - and if it isn't, well: YHL, HAND.
Did anybody check out this [enteryourinformation.com] sample page of a online registration for a hotel? The article is not about those idiotic Flash 5 pop-ups and such, but using Flash in a meaningful way. Click on something, the corresponding information is displayed, but, the whole page does not reload! It gives a website the capability of being intuitive, hence productive.
Actually, I think the site you're referencing is a very bad example of web commercial web site design. If a design agency came to me with an equivalent design study, I'd show them the door and tell them to come back when they have a clue. Some of the potential clients will visit the site exactly once and never come back. Can you figure out why?
Slashdot Mirror
>This guy's an expert in what sense, exactly?
Well, Mr. Madnick wrote this classic* book about operating systems, for example. Nevermind that it's probably written on parchment and the computers were still running on steam in 1974 as far as I know, he's undoubtedly an expert when it comes to present-day operating systems.
*as in "hilariously outdated"
>Of course, the problem many of us will have with our PCs is a Frankenstein system as we have a beige case with black CD/floppy drives (or vice versa) as we upgrade.
The manufacturers are catching up to the trend; the PlexWriter 20/10/40-12A is advertised as being "now also available with black front bezel" on Plextor's main page.
> Aren't they always being shot at on Star Trek?
:-P
I think he meant that on Star Trek, they regularly have sex with attractive aliens, whereas geeks on this planet usually do not have sex with any living being.
And if I had the money, I'd buy one of these babies. No carrying handle, but fanless (heat pipe cooling), sort of cool looking, yum.
One of the major problems encountered in time travel is not that of becoming your own father or mother. There is no problem in becoming your own father or mother that a broad-minded and well-adjusted family can't cope with. There is no problem with changing the course of history - the course of history does not change because it all fits together like a jigsaw. All the important changes have happened before the things they were supposed to change and it all sorts itself out in the end.
The major problem is quite simply one of grammar, and the main work to consult in this matter is Dr. Dan Streetmentioner's Time Traveler's Handbook of 1001 Tense Formations. It will tell you, for instance, how to describe something that was about to happen to you in the past before you avoided it by time-jumping forward two days in order to avoid it. The event will be descibed differently according to whether you are talking about it from the standpoint of your own natural time, from a time in the further future, or a time in the further past and is further complicated by the possibility of conducting conversations while you are actually traveling from one time to another with the intention of becoming your own mother or father.
Most readers get as far as the Future Semiconditionally Modified Subinverted Plagal Past Subjunctive Intentional before giving up; and in fact in later additions of the book all pages beyond this point have been left blank to save on printing costs.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy skips lightly over this tangle of academic abstraction, pausing only to note that the term "Future Perfect" has been abandoned since it was discovered not to be.
Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, chapter 15
100 Time Travel Links
>change the reply address to the congressperson's address (instead of the spammers), add a note at the top saying, "Here is another spam that I got. Please pass a law outlawing spamm."
:P
Uh - given the clue level of the average politician, this is likely to put Hormel Corp. into deep doo-doo. Even if they later realized that they banned the wrong kind of thing, they probably wouldn't admit they made a mistake, thereby putting Hormel right out of business
> Further, there are many countries that don't even belong to the U.N. [...]
According to the Swiss government (see this link) the UN used to have two non-members, Switzerland and the Holy See, until recently. As the Swiss finally agreed to join the UN on March 3 this year, this leaves the Vatican as the only non-member worldwide.
Call me an optimist if you want, but I don't expect to receive too many of those "bigger [d*ck | t*ts] / herbal viagra / h*rny coeds" spams from the Pope if worldwide legislation against spam were ever put into effect.
Greetings from Switzerland,
Raymond
Let me make clear that modding XP chips to work as MPs is a bad idea and will most likely result in one or two cooked CPUs within a month.
I have yet to see a CPU overheating problem that cannot be solved with gratuitious amounts of copper and a few pet-inhaling fans, or liquid nitrogen if it comes to that.
If you're trolling, you still have a lot to learn. If you really worked at AMD R&D, you have a lot to explain.
The i-Buddie is a joke, primarily considering the target prices.
I agree, that's why I wrote "lower price (at least in theory)". The idea is interesting, though: rechargeable batteries are bulky, heavy and expensive (ever tried to buy a replacement battery for an old laptop?). Price is only one factor, you can build a lighter system and/or one with and additional spindle.
The simple solution is to buy the quieter, cheaper, and more reliable 5'400 RPM drives, but for some reason everyone seems dead set on 7200 RPM drives.
Of course you're right. Of course, when I recently upgraded my home box, I chose a 7200 RPM drive...
The good news is that the additional noise from the drive cooler doesn't bug me. The bad news is that this is only so because it's drowned by the thundering noise of the other fans (2 in PSU, 1 on the processor, 1 on the chipset, 1 on the graphics card, 1 case fan). Luckily, I found a good way to make all that noise bearable, namely the same time-proven technique I use when my car starts to make funny noises: turn up the stereo real loud.
Here's a collection of neat CeBIT gadgets from the c't newsticker. All articles are in German, but there are pictures and links to the manufacturer's webpages:
... and lots of other cool stuff, like the new nForce 615-D and 620-D chipsets, IP (as in address) enabled cars, server blades,
This seemed interesting to me:
The Casio Exilim EX-S1
It won't fit into my wallet yet because it's 11.3mm thick, but the small size is intriguing to me. This is a gadget which I would carry around in my daypack regularly, something I don't do with my SLR or my digicam because they're too bulky and heavy.
The downsides (for me):
1. The price would have to come down quite a bit (an article in c't magazine mentions a price "under 500 EUR"), but even 400 EUR is a little much for my taste.
2. SD cards: thanks, but no thanks. Don't know about MMC, is this any good?
Tip: Check if the drive temperature is not exceeding the specified limits with something like this tool. Many case designs do not provide sufficient ventilation for 7'200 RPM drives, especially if they're mounted closely together. Use a HD cooler if the disks get too warm, it's still less expensive than reconstructing data and/or reinstalling.
Irony: big ad from IBM on my page of the "IBM 120GXP Revisited" article, saying "Time to update your critical systems security!". Yes, indeed 8-)
First, it's rubber bands and potato plug guns with a range up to 100 ft (btw, those are fun!).
Then it starts to escalate, as the potato plug guns are replaced by hand held laser-guided bolt-action aluminum SP9004 potato rifles.
In the end, you have seven inch air cannons shooting frozen chicken carcasses around the office at 391 mph.
Ok, I realize the that last example has not yet been used in an office setup, but I'm confident that, given enough bored guys and industrial quantities of beer, it will happen one day.
Just imagine the look of your PHB when you point this baby at him after he's pestered you about your daily status report. Hmmmm, maybe this is a good thing.
I've already painted my walls and made a tinfoil hat for my computer
Now wait a minute. You mean the tinfoil hat is supposed to go on the computer? Dang.
This dates back to at least 1993 (link), I don't remember if video recorders had even been invented back then ;-)
I've never ran across a video of this ACB episode, so the whole thing could be just a rec.humor.funny joke. But as they say in Italy, "Se non è vero è ben trovato" (it might not be true, but it's good anyway).
By the way, at least one guy at Microsoft seems to have a sense of humor: see this page. Here's another good one I found there:
From: johnny99@sydney.dialix.oz.au
Two computer people discussing those old stories about Bill Gates' name adding up to 666 in ASCII:
``I hear that if you play the NT 4.0 CD backwards, you get a satanic message.''
``--That's nothing. If you play it forward, it installs NT 4.0!''
Every time I hear about the IOCCC I'm reminded of this old anecdote:
The highlight of the annual Computer Bowl occurred when Bill Gates, who was a judge, posed the following question to the contestants:
"What contest, held via Usenet, is dedicated to examples of weird, obscure, bizarre, and really bad programming?"
After a moment of silence, Jean-Louis Gassee (ex-honcho at Apple) hit his buzzer and answered "Windows."
Mr. Bill's expression was, in the words of one who was there, "classic."
(source)
We use the eBeams since March last year in our staff training center and for brainstorming meetings which are held in hotels.
The users are satisfied, and the eBeams are cheaper than those whiteboard/printer combinations which were always broken for one reason or another (and difficult to transport).
I recently noticed that some of the staff trainers have started using their digital cameras instead of the eBeams because those are even easier to set up and use, although they're lacking some of the additional features of the eBeam system.
Thank you for answering. I took the original poster's paraphrased quote to mean "Windows doesn't _need_ IE in any way, contrary to what Microsoft says", so in my view stating that the combination of the two is _still_ an ugly contraption wasn't as trite as you interpreted it, but I can live with that. Let's move on to more interesting stuff...
You haven't yet answered my request to explain to me why you insulted me by calling me a dummy in the parent post, but from your user page I can see you're active on Slashdot. Let me phrase my concern again, this time more exhaustively and politely.
When I said that "Windows _with_ IE... is like a fish with a bicycle", i wanted to conjure the mental image of a fish riding a bicycle - very obviously a combination which is ridicolous and clumsy in the extreme. I thought the analogy to Windows/IE was pretty clear, but apparently I was wrong.
I think you had several choices at this point:
1. Disagree with my view that Windows and IE are an awful contraption - which would have been fine with me
2. Write a short note asking for clarification if you were not sure what I meant - I would have answered
3. Say that the analogy was ridiculous and give an explanation stating why you think it is so - I could have defended myself
I cannot see what could have offended you so much in my post to warrant the reply you gave me, so here's my polite request: Please tell me why you think I have made an idiot out of myself, or excuse yourself for going overboard with your reply, and no offense will be taken.
Thank you.
> Well DUH, dummy.
Care to explain your reply?
...is like a fish with a bicycle
Those boxen looked cool, had blinkenlights on the front, and most importantly, the GeekPort! I'll miss them.
Farewell, Be!
> Check the Flash Usability Contest at the link http://www.webword.com/flashusability.html
Interesting link, thank you.
> Surprisingly enough, there WAS a winner.
Ironically enough, the winner's page will turn up blank in my browser. Although they're supposed to have a non-Flash representation of the site, they forgot to check if JavaScript is enabled - and if it isn't, well: YHL, HAND.
Did anybody check out this [enteryourinformation.com] sample page of a online registration for a hotel? The article is not about those idiotic Flash 5 pop-ups and such, but using Flash in a meaningful way. Click on something, the corresponding information is displayed, but, the whole page does not reload! It gives a website the capability of being intuitive, hence productive.
Actually, I think the site you're referencing is a very bad example of web commercial web site design. If a design agency came to me with an equivalent design study, I'd show them the door and tell them to come back when they have a clue. Some of the potential clients will visit the site exactly once and never come back. Can you figure out why?