Seeing as Canada has one of the smallest militaries (per capita) of any modern country, I guess our incredible infrastructure will soon be blessing the world with such things as 60TB solid state hard drives, and dogs that can teach children how to perform quantum-mechanical miracles using only baking soda.
What? Military spending and research have more often than not HELPED the progress of science and technology? Hogwash. Look at Poland c1939. They rode horses, while their citizens took weekly trips to the moon!
Amazing how such unoriginal anti-American flamebait consistently gets modded UP. And I'm a Canuck, to boot.
One of the aspects of XP is that all coding is done in pairs, know as pair programming. This type of programming creates better code in about haft the time
No wonder the OfficeXP warez that I snagged was 3 fscking cd's!. Oh wait, he said 'better', not 'more':)
The box is their property: they loaned it to you for you to use while you had a contract with them. Now that the contract has been terminated they have a right to get it back. I don't think that this has to be spelled out explicitly in the contract
Umm... sorry, but it DOES have to be spelled out, very explicitly, that the box remains theirs. Many services come with free goodies/hardware/whatever, and the consumer does not by default have to assume that everything sent to them belongs to the service provider. That's kinda what the contract is for in the first place - to itemize who owns what.
Yeah, the company that's paying for our DSL connection and our router (long story) did this. Now, whenever the connection seems to die, I can't bloody well ping ANYTHING. Great way to test connectivity.
Installing a hub and a very low end *nix box solved that problem rather nicely, however to this day they still claim it's a huge 'security risk'.
Amazing how, when it applies to Slashdot articles, we suddenly want some technical feat performed in order to stop us from using our greatest tool: OUR BRAIN. Takes what, 3 seconds to scan the 4 or 5 sentences in a/. article?
I guess it IS true... the 'average user' doesn't think for themselves:)
Those that forget history are doomed to repeat it
on
IBM's First Computer
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· Score: 2
Think about this the next time you want to go on yet another 'Microsoft and their monopoly sucks' rant.
when you get repaired, they implant water storage units just below the eyes, so that in case you enter an infinitely recursive 'drek' loop, your program will at least let your user know what's going on.
Actually, I just saw something on TV the other day (TLC, Discovery, Fox?) about a guy well before the creation of computers, who used to create incredibly intricate ASCII art using only a keyboard. Needless to say, one mistake and the whole thing was ruined. Anyone have some handy URL's? This guy's work was downright amazing!
I mean, really. What the hell else do people do with their multi-gig mp3 collections but LISTEN to them?:)
Also, I'm not a geek enough yet to keep my computer in my bedroom. Sheesh.
Mission to Mars syndrome, anyone?
on
Review: A.I.
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· Score: 2
I'm amazed as hell that noone on/. has pointed this out yet. Basically, take a near-future, hard sci-fi concept, begin to seriously analyze it, and about 3/4 of the way into the movie, abandon everything and go off on a ridiculous tangent that basically invalidates the whole point of the movie.
I'm a huge movie buff, and I can find redeeming qualities in just about any movie, however for the first time in my life I was tempted to ask for my money back. 45 minutes of tear-jerking drama that would make the folks who produce Dawson's Creek proud is NOT good art. Spielberg has made some really good movies in the past; this, unfortunately isn't even close. Unless there's a director's cut released, which either eliminates the entire ending, or at least the insanely contrived dialog, I'll never watch this tripe again.
I'd go so far as to say that intense media focus on certain people exaggerates just what they mean to us, and just how we perceive the celebrity death-march, but I'd just get modded down as flamebait and no one would hear a different opinion:(
For those that don't remember, Sausage software made one of the earlier WYSIWYG html editors (maybe they still do, I'm all about Notepad these days). It was pretty nice at the time, especially for those of us just learning html. However, their trial version, like so much shareware at the time, disabled itself after 30 days. What brings this into context, is that Hot Dog is the first product that I remember not being able to defeat the time-limit on the demo. Uninstalling didn't work, changing the date didn't work, hacking the hell out of the registry didn't work (admittedly, in early 1996 I wasn't *quite* the expert at this:).
Funny to think of Hot Dog, which was to me the first piece of software to blatantly install pretty much un-removable code from my system, in the midst of a round of MS-bashing:)
The Learning Channel was where I first experienced this. At first, it sounded like the Micro Machines (tm) guy talking. Speeding up audio without 'chipmunking' (aside: my girlfriend has a vastly different definition of THAT term, but I digress..:) can be very difficult - but it's getting better all the time. Nextthingyouknowwe'llhaveslashdotpostslikethis.
They've been claiming '99 billion served' for several years now. Either they have a Y2Kish problem with their signs, or they're about to unleash the biggest wave of advertising the world has ever seen.
One Hundred Billion Served!. Could become as common as that evil Castaway DVD commercial that's repeated at least 50 times a night on TV.
Doesn't seem to work for me up here in Canada, although my name does come up with some interesting stuff that I've never seen online before:)
As for not having your phone number/address on the internet... that's why the phone companies are required by law to allow you to de-list. Without the internet, it takes me all of 5 minutes to drive to my local library, where they have phone books from around the world for the taking. Oh yes, and the white pages here only list first initial anyway:)
Just had to make sure this gets said, as every time an eclipse happens, the same bull is repeated. The radiation from the sun cannot get any stronger during an eclipse than it is normally. It is perfectly safe to glance up directly at the sun for a brief moment, just don't stare at the damn thing! During an eclipse (even without totality), it is even more safe, as more and more of the radiation gets blocked by the moon.
Yes, I'm still very bitter about missing my (probably) one and only full eclipse in 1979, as my luddite parents were CONVINCED that looking directly at an eclipse would burn your eyes out. The trick is to look away BEFORE the sun re-emerges, so that the sudden glare doesn't blind you!
While I may agree to one degree or another with this comment, it's sad to see that there are so many moderators from Alabama and Mississippi in the audience tonight:(
You missed my point. Of course you don't have to pay interestif you pay the balance off. But why should you in the first place? In Canada, there is no comparable acceptance (online or by phone anyway) to those funky Mastercard/Visa debit cards. Why should I have to incur debt just to order off of a website, as opposed to spending MY OWN MONEY?
No one will ever need more than 640k of ram. 640k is enough to run word processing, play games, use a spreadsheet, and handle all your daily computing needs.
Sometimes, the need isn't there until the product/service allows for it. Downloading DVDs may seem like a pipe dream today, but it sure would save those long trips to the rental store!:)
Credit cards, while some people seem to not be able to live without them, just aren't the solution to a universal currency. Why, you ask? Well, the 2-5% merchant fee, for one thing. With profit margins sometimes hovering close to that, it doesn't make much sense for a retailer to even transact the sale, especially for a transaction that would cost a bank all of 10 cents to process.
There is of couse the issue of credit itself. Some people (like me) have real problems living on borrowed money. I'd much prefer to be able to spend MY OWN money, thanks. Especially as I don't have to worry about over-extending myself, as once the money's gone, I can't incur interest.
Please don't make me quote statistics on how many university grads declare bankruptcy, in no small part due to the $5,000.00 credit cards issued upon graduation...
For some of us, credit just isn't the answer.
(Note: I'm Canadian, and maybe the financial world is just skewed here.)
Slashdot Mirror
What? Military spending and research have more often than not HELPED the progress of science and technology? Hogwash. Look at Poland c1939. They rode horses, while their citizens took weekly trips to the moon!
Amazing how such unoriginal anti-American flamebait consistently gets modded UP. And I'm a Canuck, to boot.
No wonder the OfficeXP warez that I snagged was 3 fscking cd's!. Oh wait, he said 'better', not 'more' :)
Umm... sorry, but it DOES have to be spelled out, very explicitly, that the box remains theirs. Many services come with free goodies/hardware/whatever, and the consumer does not by default have to assume that everything sent to them belongs to the service provider. That's kinda what the contract is for in the first place - to itemize who owns what.
Installing a hub and a very low end *nix box solved that problem rather nicely, however to this day they still claim it's a huge 'security risk'.
I guess it IS true... the 'average user' doesn't think for themselves :)
Also, I'm not a geek enough yet to keep my computer in my bedroom. Sheesh.
I'm a huge movie buff, and I can find redeeming qualities in just about any movie, however for the first time in my life I was tempted to ask for my money back. 45 minutes of tear-jerking drama that would make the folks who produce Dawson's Creek proud is NOT good art. Spielberg has made some really good movies in the past; this, unfortunately isn't even close. Unless there's a director's cut released, which either eliminates the entire ending, or at least the insanely contrived dialog, I'll never watch this tripe again.
This movie would turn Mother Teresa into a cynic.
hmm.. you sure they're not talking about AI? Damn, but I can't WAIT to see a review of that here :)
Funny to think of Hot Dog, which was to me the first piece of software to blatantly install pretty much un-removable code from my system, in the midst of a round of MS-bashing :)
Sometimes, it IS all in the timing ;)
One Hundred Billion Served!. Could become as common as that evil Castaway DVD commercial that's repeated at least 50 times a night on TV.
As for not having your phone number/address on the internet... that's why the phone companies are required by law to allow you to de-list. Without the internet, it takes me all of 5 minutes to drive to my local library, where they have phone books from around the world for the taking. Oh yes, and the white pages here only list first initial anyway :)
Yes, I'm still very bitter about missing my (probably) one and only full eclipse in 1979, as my luddite parents were CONVINCED that looking directly at an eclipse would burn your eyes out. The trick is to look away BEFORE the sun re-emerges, so that the sudden glare doesn't blind you!
Sometimes, the need isn't there until the product/service allows for it. Downloading DVDs may seem like a pipe dream today, but it sure would save those long trips to the rental store! :)
There is of couse the issue of credit itself. Some people (like me) have real problems living on borrowed money. I'd much prefer to be able to spend MY OWN money, thanks. Especially as I don't have to worry about over-extending myself, as once the money's gone, I can't incur interest.
Please don't make me quote statistics on how many university grads declare bankruptcy, in no small part due to the $5,000.00 credit cards issued upon graduation...
For some of us, credit just isn't the answer.
(Note: I'm Canadian, and maybe the financial world is just skewed here.)