"free" is a very relative term. Sure, you can download it for free and install it for free. Just in case you didn't get it the first time, what about support? Sure, you're capable of supporting the box yourself, just as I'm able to run my company's Linux/Apache/Tomcat setup, but what if the company has no Linux talent on staff?
If we don't have talent on staff, and we don't want to train or retrain employees, we buy support. We have support contracts with Microsoft (Premier Support), Sun (big iron database and web servers under Solaris) and IBM (MVS and Linux), just to name the big ones. Even our management, clueless as they are sometimes, knows that running a complex distributed IT with more than 35'000 clients and 600 servers is going to cost money, regardless of the operating system used. The question which is the most viable one in a business setting will be answered, I believe, in a darwinian way: the companies who take the most efficient route will have an advantage against the competition and thus will be able to outperform the others. As long as the market is allowed to function, it will mercylessly select the most efficient path. Which one will it be? Time will tell.
You made it sound like Windows is the only OS that suffers this "hassle".
That wasn't my intention, and I know that better than anyone else on this planet because I wrote the original post myself. Yes, I didn't mention that Linux or BSD aren't exactly a breeze to install and configure (nor did I claim the opposite), but I corrected that in my follow-up post, clearly and unambiguously: "This is one area where Windows still outdoes the Free alternatives in my opinion". Do you want to continue to harp on my initial omission, or can we call that case settled?
Ever installed an RPM that totally fscked up some other application? Who do you turn to for support?
To the designated person or company who is responsible for keeping that component productive according to (ideally) well defined SLAs, of course. This may be an internal developer or a company that we have a support contract with (in the case of Linux, IBM). Large accounts don't rely on Usenet for fixes - if an important application crashes, the losses can outweigh the cost of support contracts in a very short time.
Risks? What risks? There are thousands of companies across the nation (and millions worldwide) that are running outdated, unsupported OS's all over the place.
Suppose we still run NT4 in 2004 and one beautiful morning we find that 4000 of our client PCs have gone belly-up, and we don't know why. Now, whom do we turn to? Inspect the source? No way, we don't have it. I'm sure that our support reps from Microsoft will do everything they can to help us out of that rut, but finding people who know NT4 well enough within Microsoft will be increasingly difficult for them, and reaction times will suffer accordingly.
And just for fun, try asking the big league hardware vendors how long they plan to support NT4 on their hardware (excluding x86 servers, which are supported through 2004) and provide device drivers and such stuff. The survey I did on this last year was under NDA, so I can't give you details - but a little rummaging around on the websites of HP, Dell and IBM might convince even the greatest skeptic that running NT4 on clients for the next few years might not be such a hot idea.
For some perspective, consider the 2.0 Linux kernel, which has been on life support only for quite a while.
Not a good example if you ask me. My "stable" Linux server is running 2.2, and I still get patches and security updates for it. USB has been backported to the 2.x series AFAIK, and it's nice to know I could use USB if I needed it on that box (Fried the keyboard controller? Just plug in an USB mouse and keyboard). In contrast, NT4 has never had, and never will have, USB support.
Call it what it is -- a licensing fee. It's not some evil document requiring you to sig
Which, I'll point out, is the highest possible price you could pay. Even a token amount of effort would reveal that you can get WinXP Pro for under $100, and WinXP Home for under $75.
That's why I added "(list)" in my original post. $199 is what I pay if I order online from Microsoft for a full version of Windows XP Home. I'm aware that I can get better deals than that, but even $75 is still $75. There's no way I can legally get it for free, like I can with a Linux or BSD distro. The best price I've found locally is around $100 where I live, btw - importing from the US is about as expensive because of taxes and overseas shipping.
You're completely bypassing the fact that you have to do the exact same damned thing with Linux if the drivers aren't on the CD.
I think everyone who has ever done a Linux/BSD installation is very aware of that. This is one area where Windows still outdoes the Free alternatives in my opinion. But it doesn't change the fact that if I want to install Windows on my main system I have to spring up cash, free space on my disk, install the OS and configure it to a usable state in order to use the viewer.
First off, the "Microsoft Tax" is propaganda at its worst.
Here I disagree. I'm in the business long enough to remember when it was impossible to buy a PC from any of the major vendors without paying for a Microsoft operating system license. This is not the case anymore, thanks to the antitrust cases.
Sorry, it doesn't wash. Updates are free.
I meant upgrades, my mistake.
[...] upgrades should cost you something if useful features are added.
Sure, no problem with it. Whenever I feel that some commercial software I own has an upgrade that's worth its money, I pay for it. I still can't remember when apt-get has ever asked me to pay for new versions of packages (with useful features), though.
MS isn't holding a gun to anyone's head forcing them to upgrade
That's true. The company I work for can continue to use Windows NT 4.0 for as long as they like. The catch is that Microsoft is retiring the OS, so there will be no updates, no support and no security patches if we choose to go that route. Since we can't take the associated risks, we're practically forced to upgrade to Windows XP, and this in an economic climate where we make huge losses and have to fire employees. In all fairness I have to add that Microsoft has rethought their lifecycle policy and made it more acceptable for large accounts like ours, but that doesn't help us much in our current situation.
Since I've shot down most of your prior arguments, the rest of your post kind of falls flat, so I won't bother addressing the rather poor analogies you've put forward. Suffice to say that it appears you're quite anti-MS in your stances, so much so that you don't bother finding out much in the way of truth before you make your pronouncements.
My argument was that the "free" viewers from Microsoft aren't really free, since I have to pay for and install a Microsoft operating system in order to use them. It wasn't meant as a general attack against Microsoft in any way.
I still think the analogy with the "free" Grappa is solid - try asking the owner of the restaurant if you can have a Grappa without eating dinner at his place. Try asking Microsoft if you can have a free copy of Windows in order to use the "free" viewers. Both will decline, both don't want to go out of business, and that's ok in my book. You're welcome to disagree, but saying "you're quite anti-MS in your stances, so much so that you don't bother finding out much in the way of truth before you make your pronouncements" wasn't justified in view of what I've written. Yes, I happen to like Free software more than you do, but I won't call you stupid or dumb just because you use non-free software. You use whatever works best for you, I'm not in a position to judge that.
> Honestly, I read 'Grappa' and thought, "What, yet another slang term for sex?"
I wouldn't have accepted any kind of sex from the balding maître d's, even if he'd offered it to me for free, but the Grappa (as in the Italian spirit) - a very fine Nonino by the way - was indeed a welcome way to help me cough up the dough:-)
> You could also just download the free MS Word viewer that Microsoft provides here [microsoft.com]
For those not running Windows, the Word viewer comes "free" with a $199.- (list price) version of Windows, a good sized chunk of your system disk (not that it really matters much given today's HD prices and capacities) and the usual installation hassles, like drivers for equipment which isn't included on the CD etc. Even if you got Windows "free" with your PC from the manufacturer, you just paid the Microsoft tax up front, and will continue to pay if you want to keep your system up to date.
That's like saying the Grappa I got offered after shelling out $150.- for dinner with a date last Saturday was "free". Sure, I didn't pay for it, but you can't get it without buying dinner first.
Yes, I know there are solutions for reading MS Office documents on Linux. But I always cringe when people tell me to use the "free" readers - they're not free in any sense of the word in my book.
I have read "Darwin's Black Box", I even have the book before me as I write this, and I would be interested as to which of Mr. Behe's arguments are supposed to be testable - I, for one, haven't found any.
Behe is argumenting from ignorance throughout the whole book, saying that since we cannot figure out how a complex system could have evolved through natural selection, it must be the work of a supreme being. This sort of reasoning can be called many things, science it is not.
Even his (in)famous mousetrap example doesn't hold water (DBB, Chapter 2, section "Irreducible Complexity and the Nature of Mutation"), see for example this, this or this link.
Judging from the uncensored live query (formerly - and aptly - named "voyeur query") by the German fireball.de search engine, the percentage of porn-related queries is around 10 %, except late on weekend nights. Right now (8.30 pm on a Friday night), I counted 9 porn related queries in 100.
Of course, the results from "regular" queries are somewhat less likely to generate high-volume traffic in divx or jpeg format, and the traffic volume generated by the porn-related queries is probably higher than the average. And the true aficionados will probably have their favorite sites bookmarked (or use eDonkey/eMule anyway), so they won't need to use a search engine.
The fireball.de live query is fun even if you don't speak German, by the way - many words will be instantly familiar... "Seite" means page (I always wonder about the people who work themselves through to page 45 on a "+pantyhose +houvewives" or similar query). And, as usual, the percentage of misspelled queries is truly amazing - many people can't spell worth a dam (har!).
> Hmmm, seem's as if their regexps need some fine-tuning...
Regexps? Given the clue level they generally display, I'd guess the code would be more along the lines of
IF InStr(A$, "Office") <> 0 AND InStr(A$, "MS") <> 0 THEN GOTO Send_Mail_To_Sucker
Disclaimer: I don't know how to code in basic. I only write programs in C++, perl and shell scripting language. I had to ask a 9-year old slightly retarded kid in the neighborhood to code the above for me.
Well, I would tell him to put even more pressure on the despicable criminals that distribute commercial software illegally, and indeed encourage him to lobby for draconian laws against software piracy.
No, I'm not trolling. I am convinced that the BSA and their ilk, and Microsoft's mandatory registration procedures, are Open Source's biggest friends. Think about it: as long as Windows and Office were essentially free (the price of 2 downloads from a warez site and 2 blank CD-Rs), there was little incentive to use alternatives just because they were free (as in speech). By making it harder to obtain and install Windows and Office illegally without risking a visit from the police, people may begin to see the advantages of Open Source.
Furthermore, the sinking prices of computer hardware make it increasingly hard for Microsoft to justify their outrageous prices - it's hard to compete with the price of free (as in beer) software. At the very least the competition will get us lower prices and maybe (I'm quite the optimist, you know) better quality from Microsoft.
So, let the BSA raid corporations and fine them to bankruptcy. Let them pursue warez site operators and even individuals who use illegal copies and keygens. Spread the word that using illegal copies may put you into jail. But most importantly, spread the word that there are legal, free alternatives. Along with the corresponding installation CDs filled with Free software, of course.
> It seems like the USPO is pretty lenient when it comes to awarding software patents.
That's apparently true for any kind of patent, see this or this link (gathered from this excellent article by James Gleick).
I guess my patent application for "Achieving sexual stimulation in males by applying a repeated vertical up/down motion to the male reproductive organ using either the left or the right hand" has a real chance to be approved, then. Unless anyone here wants to step forward and claim prior "art" (ahem), of course.
> [...] no one wants to buy a saab. Great car, nice turbo engine, but horrible resale.
...and thus I got an excellent deal when I bought my Saab second-hand. Much better value IMO than an equivalent model from BMW or Audi, and that turbo engine really kicks butt.
> so when you make or take a call from your Bluetooth-enabled mobile phone, the stereo automatically mutes itself for the duration of the call
Third-party "Hands-Free" GSM car kits such as the one I have in my 9-3 are seamlessly integrated into the car stereo system and offer this feature already. In most European countries it is illegal to use a mobile phone without one of these kits, and the fines if you get caught using your mobile while driving can be substantial. Still, Bluetooth support would be a welcome addition because it reduces the amount of wiring needed and could serve to eliminate the need for proprietary (and expensive) audio equipment.
The constants in the script are probably in need of revision, since running it on my puny 350 MHz Linux box (SCSI and over 450 days uptime) rates me at a respectable 22 cm, but I'm not complaining:-). (Note: if you have one of those 3+ GHz screamers, I don't want to know the results, ok?)
Conversion to imperial units is left as an exercise to the reader.
How can a deterministic computer create anything more then pseudorandom? By using lava lamps, of course.
...or by placing a source of nuclear radiation in your basement and measuring its decay, as this link shows. Quoting from the page: "Rummaging around in the well-endowed Fourmilab junk box turned up a 60 microcurie Jordan Nuclear Krypton-85 (85Kr) source capsule, model BB-0005.". Whoa. Here's the projects main page.
Plastic bodywork on cars has been around for quite some time. I'm no car buff, but the Renault Espace (available since 1984, and really more a Matra than a Renault) immediately comes to mind. The 2003 model, AFAIK, comes with steel bodywork, though. The Trabant, a shining example of GDR car engineering, consisted mainly of plastic. A popular joke in the GDR said that when you got into a crash with a Trabant, you didn't call the tow car but just scooped the remains together with a broom and a shovel (the plastic was very brittle).
Whenever you hear "TCO study", think "FUD". I'm in IT in a large corp and regularly have to dissect some inane TCO "study" which supposedly proves that $VENDOR_A's product has a much lower TCO than $VENDOR_B's.
I have never, ever, seen a TCO "study" that is worth the paper it's printed on, or that even remotely applies to the particular circumstances in our company. Every single one was, to paraphrase from this interesting article, every bit as accurate as Enron's books.
Basically, TCO studies are marketing intruments: You pay a hefty sum to a "neutral" consulting firm and, in return, get a paper that says your product has better TCO than the competition's.
The problem is that the management layer with its skewed perception of reality is only too willing to grasp for those numbers and quote them as if they were hard facts. Once, when a PHB wanted to use the Gartner NT TCO figures in a presentation, I kindly reminded him that these figures were based on a company which had nothing whatsoever to do with ours, that they left out important but hard-to-assess TCO-relevant factors, and that they came from Gartner Group, who once predicted that OS/2 would rule the world. I got my point across.
Re:Welcome to 1982
on
Advergames
·
· Score: 2, Informative
Pushover, a 1992 release for the IBM PC was full of advertising for a potato chip brand. I remember paying full retail price for the game based on a positive review in a computer magazine (they didn't mention the ads) and soon ditching the game because of the obnoxious advertising. I never bought a game from that publisher again.
> My guide is a zalman heatsink, a zalman powersupply, athlon 1.2, seagate 40 Gig HD, ATi radeon 9000(whitout fan) and a good motherboard without fan on the chipset.
Good advice, but all this will be futile if the system case doesn't reduce the noise that is generated by the internal components (or even amplifies it because of vibrations). Watch out for expensive aluminum cases which look cool but have no provisions against noise. Acoustically well-designed cases, such as this one from silentmaxx use several types of dampening materials with different noise absorption properties.
Here you can find everything (or more) than you ever wanted to know about the genetic foundations of the feline fur color, including the tortoiseshell variation. The text requires a basic understanding of genetics lingo (homzygous, allele, recessive and the like).
HTML version of the same from Google's cache for those who don't like the.doc format.
Slashdot Mirror
One can be found on his official website.
And here's the other one (younger slashdot readers may not know about Reagan's infamous microphone test which probably inspired this strip).
"free" is a very relative term. Sure, you can download it for free and install it for free. Just in case you didn't get it the first time, what about support? Sure, you're capable of supporting the box yourself, just as I'm able to run my company's Linux/Apache/Tomcat setup, but what if the company has no Linux talent on staff?
If we don't have talent on staff, and we don't want to train or retrain employees, we buy support. We have support contracts with Microsoft (Premier Support), Sun (big iron database and web servers under Solaris) and IBM (MVS and Linux), just to name the big ones. Even our management, clueless as they are sometimes, knows that running a complex distributed IT with more than 35'000 clients and 600 servers is going to cost money, regardless of the operating system used. The question which is the most viable one in a business setting will be answered, I believe, in a darwinian way: the companies who take the most efficient route will have an advantage against the competition and thus will be able to outperform the others. As long as the market is allowed to function, it will mercylessly select the most efficient path. Which one will it be? Time will tell.
You made it sound like Windows is the only OS that suffers this "hassle".
That wasn't my intention, and I know that better than anyone else on this planet because I wrote the original post myself. Yes, I didn't mention that Linux or BSD aren't exactly a breeze to install and configure (nor did I claim the opposite), but I corrected that in my follow-up post, clearly and unambiguously: "This is one area where Windows still outdoes the Free alternatives in my opinion". Do you want to continue to harp on my initial omission, or can we call that case settled?
Ever installed an RPM that totally fscked up some other application? Who do you turn to for support?
To the designated person or company who is responsible for keeping that component productive according to (ideally) well defined SLAs, of course. This may be an internal developer or a company that we have a support contract with (in the case of Linux, IBM). Large accounts don't rely on Usenet for fixes - if an important application crashes, the losses can outweigh the cost of support contracts in a very short time.
Risks? What risks? There are thousands of companies across the nation (and millions worldwide) that are running outdated, unsupported OS's all over the place.
Suppose we still run NT4 in 2004 and one beautiful morning we find that 4000 of our client PCs have gone belly-up, and we don't know why. Now, whom do we turn to? Inspect the source? No way, we don't have it. I'm sure that our support reps from Microsoft will do everything they can to help us out of that rut, but finding people who know NT4 well enough within Microsoft will be increasingly difficult for them, and reaction times will suffer accordingly.
And just for fun, try asking the big league hardware vendors how long they plan to support NT4 on their hardware (excluding x86 servers, which are supported through 2004) and provide device drivers and such stuff. The survey I did on this last year was under NDA, so I can't give you details - but a little rummaging around on the websites of HP, Dell and IBM might convince even the greatest skeptic that running NT4 on clients for the next few years might not be such a hot idea.
For some perspective, consider the 2.0 Linux kernel, which has been on life support only for quite a while.
Not a good example if you ask me. My "stable" Linux server is running 2.2, and I still get patches and security updates for it. USB has been backported to the 2.x series AFAIK, and it's nice to know I could use USB if I needed it on that box (Fried the keyboard controller? Just plug in an USB mouse and keyboard). In contrast, NT4 has never had, and never will have, USB support.
Call it what it is -- a licensing fee. It's not some evil document requiring you to sig
Which, I'll point out, is the highest possible price you could pay. Even a token amount of effort would reveal that you can get WinXP Pro for under $100, and WinXP Home for under $75.
That's why I added "(list)" in my original post. $199 is what I pay if I order online from Microsoft for a full version of Windows XP Home. I'm aware that I can get better deals than that, but even $75 is still $75. There's no way I can legally get it for free, like I can with a Linux or BSD distro. The best price I've found locally is around $100 where I live, btw - importing from the US is about as expensive because of taxes and overseas shipping.
You're completely bypassing the fact that you have to do the exact same damned thing with Linux if the drivers aren't on the CD.
I think everyone who has ever done a Linux/BSD installation is very aware of that. This is one area where Windows still outdoes the Free alternatives in my opinion. But it doesn't change the fact that if I want to install Windows on my main system I have to spring up cash, free space on my disk, install the OS and configure it to a usable state in order to use the viewer.
First off, the "Microsoft Tax" is propaganda at its worst.
Here I disagree. I'm in the business long enough to remember when it was impossible to buy a PC from any of the major vendors without paying for a Microsoft operating system license. This is not the case anymore, thanks to the antitrust cases.
Sorry, it doesn't wash. Updates are free.
I meant upgrades, my mistake.
[...] upgrades should cost you something if useful features are added.
Sure, no problem with it. Whenever I feel that some commercial software I own has an upgrade that's worth its money, I pay for it. I still can't remember when apt-get has ever asked me to pay for new versions of packages (with useful features), though.
MS isn't holding a gun to anyone's head forcing them to upgrade
That's true. The company I work for can continue to use Windows NT 4.0 for as long as they like. The catch is that Microsoft is retiring the OS, so there will be no updates, no support and no security patches if we choose to go that route. Since we can't take the associated risks, we're practically forced to upgrade to Windows XP, and this in an economic climate where we make huge losses and have to fire employees. In all fairness I have to add that Microsoft has rethought their lifecycle policy and made it more acceptable for large accounts like ours, but that doesn't help us much in our current situation.
Since I've shot down most of your prior arguments, the rest of your post kind of falls flat, so I won't bother addressing the rather poor analogies you've put forward. Suffice to say that it appears you're quite anti-MS in your stances, so much so that you don't bother finding out much in the way of truth before you make your pronouncements.
My argument was that the "free" viewers from Microsoft aren't really free, since I have to pay for and install a Microsoft operating system in order to use them. It wasn't meant as a general attack against Microsoft in any way.
I still think the analogy with the "free" Grappa is solid - try asking the owner of the restaurant if you can have a Grappa without eating dinner at his place. Try asking Microsoft if you can have a free copy of Windows in order to use the "free" viewers. Both will decline, both don't want to go out of business, and that's ok in my book. You're welcome to disagree, but saying "you're quite anti-MS in your stances, so much so that you don't bother finding out much in the way of truth before you make your pronouncements" wasn't justified in view of what I've written. Yes, I happen to like Free software more than you do, but I won't call you stupid or dumb just because you use non-free software. You use whatever works best for you, I'm not in a position to judge that.
Raymond
> Honestly, I read 'Grappa' and thought, "What, yet another slang term for sex?"
:-)
I wouldn't have accepted any kind of sex from the balding maître d's, even if he'd offered it to me for free, but the Grappa (as in the Italian spirit) - a very fine Nonino by the way - was indeed a welcome way to help me cough up the dough
> You could also just download the free MS Word viewer that Microsoft provides here [microsoft.com]
For those not running Windows, the Word viewer comes "free" with a $199.- (list price) version of Windows, a good sized chunk of your system disk (not that it really matters much given today's HD prices and capacities) and the usual installation hassles, like drivers for equipment which isn't included on the CD etc. Even if you got Windows "free" with your PC from the manufacturer, you just paid the Microsoft tax up front, and will continue to pay if you want to keep your system up to date.
That's like saying the Grappa I got offered after shelling out $150.- for dinner with a date last Saturday was "free". Sure, I didn't pay for it, but you can't get it without buying dinner first.
Yes, I know there are solutions for reading MS Office documents on Linux. But I always cringe when people tell me to use the "free" readers - they're not free in any sense of the word in my book.
> I must not have been clear enough in my prior posting that I favor the idea of evolution and the idea of scientific argument.
You were clear enough, the blame's on me. My apologies.
I have read "Darwin's Black Box", I even have the book before me as I write this, and I would be interested as to which of Mr. Behe's arguments are supposed to be testable - I, for one, haven't found any.
Behe is argumenting from ignorance throughout the whole book, saying that since we cannot figure out how a complex system could have evolved through natural selection, it must be the work of a supreme being. This sort of reasoning can be called many things, science it is not.
Even his (in)famous mousetrap example doesn't hold water (DBB, Chapter 2, section "Irreducible Complexity and the Nature of Mutation"), see for example this, this or this link.
Judging from the uncensored live query (formerly - and aptly - named "voyeur query") by the German fireball.de search engine, the percentage of porn-related queries is around 10 %, except late on weekend nights. Right now (8.30 pm on a Friday night), I counted 9 porn related queries in 100.
Of course, the results from "regular" queries are somewhat less likely to generate high-volume traffic in divx or jpeg format, and the traffic volume generated by the porn-related queries is probably higher than the average. And the true aficionados will probably have their favorite sites bookmarked (or use eDonkey/eMule anyway), so they won't need to use a search engine.
The fireball.de live query is fun even if you don't speak German, by the way - many words will be instantly familiar... "Seite" means page (I always wonder about the people who work themselves through to page 45 on a "+pantyhose +houvewives" or similar query). And, as usual, the percentage of misspelled queries is truly amazing - many people can't spell worth a dam (har!).
Waiter! There's an Apache 2.0.44 server in my Musca Domestica!
(or Drosophila Melanogaster, or whatever they used for the "case modding").
This is slashdot, home of the Nerds, after all.
Regexps? Given the clue level they generally display, I'd guess the code would be more along the lines ofDisclaimer: I don't know how to code in basic. I only write programs in C++, perl and shell scripting language. I had to ask a 9-year old slightly retarded kid in the neighborhood to code the above for me.
>What would you put to him, in that position?
Well, I would tell him to put even more pressure on the despicable criminals that distribute commercial software illegally, and indeed encourage him to lobby for draconian laws against software piracy.
No, I'm not trolling. I am convinced that the BSA and their ilk, and Microsoft's mandatory registration procedures, are Open Source's biggest friends. Think about it: as long as Windows and Office were essentially free (the price of 2 downloads from a warez site and 2 blank CD-Rs), there was little incentive to use alternatives just because they were free (as in speech). By making it harder to obtain and install Windows and Office illegally without risking a visit from the police, people may begin to see the advantages of Open Source.
Furthermore, the sinking prices of computer hardware make it increasingly hard for Microsoft to justify their outrageous prices - it's hard to compete with the price of free (as in beer) software. At the very least the competition will get us lower prices and maybe (I'm quite the optimist, you know) better quality from Microsoft.
So, let the BSA raid corporations and fine them to bankruptcy. Let them pursue warez site operators and even individuals who use illegal copies and keygens. Spread the word that using illegal copies may put you into jail. But most importantly, spread the word that there are legal, free alternatives. Along with the corresponding installation CDs filled with Free software, of course.
> It seems like the USPO is pretty lenient when it comes to awarding software patents.
That's apparently true for any kind of patent, see this or this link (gathered from this excellent article by James Gleick).
I guess my patent application for "Achieving sexual stimulation in males by applying a repeated vertical up/down motion to the male reproductive organ using either the left or the right hand" has a real chance to be approved, then. Unless anyone here wants to step forward and claim prior "art" (ahem), of course.
> so when you make or take a call from your Bluetooth-enabled mobile phone, the stereo automatically mutes itself for the duration of the call
Third-party "Hands-Free" GSM car kits such as the one I have in my 9-3 are seamlessly integrated into the car stereo system and offer this feature already. In most European countries it is illegal to use a mobile phone without one of these kits, and the fines if you get caught using your mobile while driving can be substantial. Still, Bluetooth support would be a welcome addition because it reduces the amount of wiring needed and could serve to eliminate the need for proprietary (and expensive) audio equipment.
> next on slashdot - tasteless food!
Since when is airline "food" supposed to be "News for Nerds. Stuff that matters."?
Try this script (stolen from someones Usenet signature):The constants in the script are probably in need of revision, since running it on my puny 350 MHz Linux box (SCSI and over 450 days uptime) rates me at a respectable 22 cm, but I'm not complaining
Conversion to imperial units is left as an exercise to the reader.
...or by placing a source of nuclear radiation in your basement and measuring its decay, as this link shows. Quoting from the page: "Rummaging around in the well-endowed Fourmilab junk box turned up a 60 microcurie Jordan Nuclear Krypton-85 (85Kr) source capsule, model BB-0005.". Whoa. Here's the projects main page.
> the goatse.cx guy
And people have the nerve to say romance is dead...
Plastic bodywork on cars has been around for quite some time. I'm no car buff, but the Renault Espace (available since 1984, and really more a Matra than a Renault) immediately comes to mind. The 2003 model, AFAIK, comes with steel bodywork, though. The Trabant, a shining example of GDR car engineering, consisted mainly of plastic. A popular joke in the GDR said that when you got into a crash with a Trabant, you didn't call the tow car but just scooped the remains together with a broom and a shovel (the plastic was very brittle).
Whenever you hear "TCO study", think "FUD". I'm in IT in a large corp and regularly have to dissect some inane TCO "study" which supposedly proves that $VENDOR_A's product has a much lower TCO than $VENDOR_B's.
I have never, ever, seen a TCO "study" that is worth the paper it's printed on, or that even remotely applies to the particular circumstances in our company. Every single one was, to paraphrase from this interesting article, every bit as accurate as Enron's books.
Basically, TCO studies are marketing intruments: You pay a hefty sum to a "neutral" consulting firm and, in return, get a paper that says your product has better TCO than the competition's.
The problem is that the management layer with its skewed perception of reality is only too willing to grasp for those numbers and quote them as if they were hard facts. Once, when a PHB wanted to use the Gartner NT TCO figures in a presentation, I kindly reminded him that these figures were based on a company which had nothing whatsoever to do with ours, that they left out important but hard-to-assess TCO-relevant factors, and that they came from Gartner Group, who once predicted that OS/2 would rule the world. I got my point across.
Pushover, a 1992 release for the IBM PC was full of advertising for a potato chip brand. I remember paying full retail price for the game based on a positive review in a computer magazine (they didn't mention the ads) and soon ditching the game because of the obnoxious advertising. I never bought a game from that publisher again.
> My guide is a zalman heatsink, a zalman powersupply, athlon 1.2, seagate 40 Gig HD, ATi radeon 9000(whitout fan) and a good motherboard without fan on the chipset.
Good advice, but all this will be futile if the system case doesn't reduce the noise that is generated by the internal components (or even amplifies it because of vibrations). Watch out for expensive aluminum cases which look cool but have no provisions against noise. Acoustically well-designed cases, such as this one from silentmaxx use several types of dampening materials with different noise absorption properties.
>Still, that's going to make for some fun dialog boxes:
"Searching for newly installed hardware- Found, AEGIS Ballistic Missile Defense System."
Thank God they don't have Bluetooth as well...
> The code escapes on floppies and CD-Rs. Developers are always swiping copies of good code to take home.
If Palladium* makes it onto the developers' PCs by order of the PHBs, these will be fond remembrances. Good for IP, bad for freedom and progress.
Raymond
*or whatever it's called today - a turd by any other name is still a turd
Here you can find everything (or more) than you ever wanted to know about the genetic foundations of the feline fur color, including the tortoiseshell variation. The text requires a basic understanding of genetics lingo (homzygous, allele, recessive and the like).
HTML version of the same from Google's cache for those who don't like the