I solved that problem by telling everyone that I only work with mainframes:-)
Which is at least partially true, since I know nothing about desktops, my job for the last 8 years requiring me to know everything about servers and only servers. And I had that idea after I met people that worked with mainframes only and wouldn't know what is a URL if their lives depended on it. I know, I know, it's not the rule, but that was my experience when working with mainframe people.
In that respect, I always tell my secretary that she knows more about computers than I do, since she's pretty good with Excel and Word (soon to be replaced by their OpenOffice equivalents).
Most comments here are discussing the lack of quality professional sound apps for Linux.
Well fuck that. I just want to be able to listen to my MP3s and still be able to know when I get an e-mail or IM like I did when I was in Win2k.
OK, I CAN do that right now, using ESD, but it's a kludge that I'd like to see going away.
I'm looking forward to see the kind of sound quality we'll have at kernel level on 2.6.
Yes, I'm a happy user of a desktop Linux, after years using it on servers. But boy did I have lots of trouble trying to get the same desktop experience I had with Win2k...
during the latest dreamcast/ps2 wars, sega again had first mover advantage, and the DC did do well initially. i think what screwed it was that ps2 was LIGHT YEARS ahead of DC tech-wise - the first-mover advantage was simply negated this time (as opposed to the smaller difference of degree between the genesis and snes).
Your PS2 is obviously VERY different from mine.
Seriously, I also wouldn't believe when friends claimed that the PS2 was not much more powerful than the DC and some games looked worse, but then I got a PS2 and some games... Ok, it is more powerful than the DC, but not by much. The help the PS2 had at the time to kill the DC was pure, unaldultered HYPE. Remember how Sony said the PS2 could cook, sew and walk the dog? I bet they'll do the same with the PS3.
Of course, since I'm a gamer, I'm also a sucker and I'll probably end up buying all the competing next generation consoles again, as I did when the current consoles were released... Man, it's hard on my pocket to keep going where the games are!
... we all couldn't imagine a videogame market without a SEGA home console and, who could have seen it before, releasing games for Sony and Nintendo consoles!
This is not intended as flamebait for the SEGA lovers, since I was a fervent DC evangelist since the day it was released in Japan.
So, a market without Nintendo hardware is possible, just as a market without SEGA hardware is now. We still get their great games, but not on their hardware.
VERY impressive. Shows what you can do with flash if you are determined enough. I heard something about a flash version of Street Fighter Alpha but was unable to find any info on it.
I am in Austria and can go to google France, Germany or Belgium. But if I try to go to google.com I am automatically sent to google.at. And this can not be circumvented by changing the Language settings of your browser.
I had the same problem, here in Brazil. What I did was to set my language preferences on Google to English.
"Of course there were some guys who were puting fuel on beverages illegally ( because it is cheaper ) and had their clients killed;-)"
Er, wrong. In those cases it was found out that he methanol was accidentaly mixed due to the type of containers they were using to store the beverages.
One interesting note is that the treatment for methanol poisoning is ethanol, the chemists among us can quickly infer that this meant that the pacients were treated with fine spirits...:-)
"1. Before anyone votes in a voting booth, they have have proof of identity, preferably a picture ID."
Check.
"2. Require that during election time the voter can ONLY vote in one voting jurisdiction, no exceptions allowed. That way, people who live part of the time in one part of the country and part of the time in another part of the country cannot vote in both jurisdictions, which is a great way to cause voter fraud."
Check.
"3. Use a ballot that all the choices are marked off by a small ink stamp. With an ink stamped ballot, the ballot can be read by both hand and machine counts easily."
Check. Besides the electronic vote, a ballot is printed at voting time with the choices made, the voter can check if those are ok and next it's stored INSIDE the machine (voter never gets to touch it). So, in case of suspected fraud, the interested party can order a ballot recount.
It has happened, at least here in.br. A singer/writer called Lobao (that's "Big Wolf", for the Portuguese-challenged among you) started his own label, Universo Paralelo (Parallel Universe), he is distributing his and other artists' CDs on freaking NEWSTANDS, for less than $5 and besides the CD you also get a magazine with information on the artist, album "making of" and other stuff.
Of course, he never gets any airplay. But then again, when was the last time you heard anything good on radio?
Same feelings here. Having worked for HP in the past, when I read the original story I couldn't help thinking "who's this guy manager? MY manager would never allow me to do that..."
WARNING: Im not defending this practice, Im just try to explain why, at least here, this makes business sense.
We dont have as many screens as in the US. Thus, in order to make the most money out of the big hollywood movies, they get released here in "small doses". So, two weeks after the US premiere of Spider-man we had our premiere, and AOTC is going to be relasead by Jun 15, I believe. It makes sense; I went to see Spider-man yesterday and half the screens in a 16 screens theater had it; the place was crowded. Imagine having this AND AOTC at the same time. So, they wait two or three more weeks to release it, so that the spidey-mania has died down.
Then there are the weird occasions when we get a movie MONTHS before the US (It happened with Jason X) or years later (Scream 2 took two years to be released here).
The problem here is not MS releasing or not a patch, it's the FREQUENCY of release.
I subscribe to the MS Security mailing list, and I got the message about this patch yesterday night. HOWEVER, the day before yesterday I had just reinstalled my Win2k box with all the patches (took me four or five reboots to install SP2, DX 8.1, IE6, IE6 patches, additional Win2k security patches, media player) and now I must update my browser again. This is the 4th security update this month alone (counting Win2k and IE security patches).
On the other hand, maybe all the pressure done by the security experts who went full disclosure before MS released a patch is working. Don't know. Maybe they are patching FASTER now.
Etherpeg or Driftnet are not hacking your privacy, in the strict sense: they're hacking your expected privacy, which is a different thing.
You'd expect people to see what you are browsing by looking over your shoulder, not by sniffing your packets. Is it rude? Yes. Unethical? Maybe. I wouldn't do it.
That is NOT different from, say, a sysadmin checking the proxy cache dir for pics/sites the users might be visiting. As a sysadmin, I believe I had the right to look at that data only when needed, say, if I need to find a file which is fscking my cache. Otherwise, it's hands off for me. My users EXPECT me not to follow what they are doing.
Also, what these tools do is nothing new. I saw a demo of a Computer Associates product (sorry, can't remember the name) which goes even further, reconstructing the entire web page a given user is viewing.
Weird. I've been using Linux/GNU/Linux/whatever for all this years without a UI (I only use the server features of Linux, last time I installed a Xsomething was in 99), so I guess I'm NOT using a OS.
It's actually in the R4 version released in Brazil (and possibly in Australia as well), I found it to be mostly useless, unless you have a dumb roommate. Which I don't.
Well, someone else has already commented on the possible cloning of Aibo by studying the tools made available by AiboPet, but there's another aspect that you need to think about when viewing Sony's hatred towards non-Sony software for the Aibo: they may someday decide to change the Aibo sales model to that of a videogame system, which is - lose money on the main product (Aibo/PS2) and make money selling software (Sony's wares for the Aibo/PS2 games).
Badwidth is a bitch, even for small sites
on
Adcritic Shuts Down
·
· Score: 1
Today I saw that happen to a small Brazilian classic gaming site (www.atari.com.br), the website owner is a friend, he had a 2GB download per month account, and since he was serving a somewhat heavy content (.bin files for Atari games) he had no option but to run a script that stops serving the content as soon as the limit is over.
The bottom line is: he got too succesful too fast...
Up until now he could maintain the site with small ads, but there is no way he can go to the $75/month rate for more bandwidth with that.
What may have happened is: in the old internet days, when ads were actually valuable, the ISPs got used to (and thus created a pricey structure for) serving sites with large bandwidth. The ad model has "failed" (not: it was being charged on astronomical rates due to a misconception) and the ISPs still have to adjust to the "new" internet.
Hmm, I'll have to disagree about that being an american problem. I live in Brazil, a country where we SHOULD be listening to some great music all the time on the radio, due to the incredible amount of great composers/singers/whatever here, but most of the time the FM radio stations are playing the same drek you get to listen in the US, only six months later (due to the release schedule of records here, the label probably WON'T allow radios stations to play the lastest US crappy corporate-sponsored-modeled-produced music before they release the albums here).
So when it comes to radio, my solution was to simply give up a few years ago. When I HAVE to listen the radio (i.e: borrowed car with no CD player) I usually stick to the newscast-only radio stations, which are not that bad.
When it cames to TV, at least we produce our own trash...
Slashdot Mirror
Heh.
:-)
I solved that problem by telling everyone that I only work with mainframes
Which is at least partially true, since I know nothing about desktops, my job for the last 8 years requiring me to know everything about servers and only servers. And I had that idea after I met people that worked with mainframes only and wouldn't know what is a URL if their lives depended on it. I know, I know, it's not the rule, but that was my experience when working with mainframe people.
In that respect, I always tell my secretary that she knows more about computers than I do, since she's pretty good with Excel and Word (soon to be replaced by their OpenOffice equivalents).
Most comments here are discussing the lack of quality professional sound apps for Linux.
Well fuck that. I just want to be able to listen to my MP3s and still be able to know when I get an e-mail or IM like I did when I was in Win2k.
OK, I CAN do that right now, using ESD, but it's a kludge that I'd like to see going away.
I'm looking forward to see the kind of sound quality we'll have at kernel level on 2.6.
Yes, I'm a happy user of a desktop Linux, after years using it on servers. But boy did I have lots of trouble trying to get the same desktop experience I had with Win2k...
a Jorb Well Done?
Your PS2 is obviously VERY different from mine.
Seriously, I also wouldn't believe when friends claimed that the PS2 was not much more powerful than the DC and some games looked worse, but then I got a PS2 and some games... Ok, it is more powerful than the DC, but not by much. The help the PS2 had at the time to kill the DC was pure, unaldultered HYPE. Remember how Sony said the PS2 could cook, sew and walk the dog? I bet they'll do the same with the PS3.
Of course, since I'm a gamer, I'm also a sucker and I'll probably end up buying all the competing next generation consoles again, as I did when the current consoles were released... Man, it's hard on my pocket to keep going where the games are!
... we all couldn't imagine a videogame market without a SEGA home console and, who could have seen it before, releasing games for Sony and Nintendo consoles!
This is not intended as flamebait for the SEGA lovers, since I was a fervent DC evangelist since the day it was released in Japan.
So, a market without Nintendo hardware is possible, just as a market without SEGA hardware is now. We still get their great games, but not on their hardware.
Just wait until Microsoft releases its next OS :-)
My government takes 55% of my income EVERY year. Compared to that, Nintendo isn't even a minor concern.
Lucky bastard. My goverment takes 47% of my income every year, then Nintendo comes along and takes the rest!
Damn you Nintendo, damn you to hell!
Flash KoF
VERY impressive. Shows what you can do with flash if you are determined enough. I heard something about a flash version of Street Fighter Alpha but was unable to find any info on it.
I had the same problem, here in Brazil. What I did was to set my language preferences on Google to English.
Er, wrong. In those cases it was found out that he methanol was accidentaly mixed due to the type of containers they were using to store the beverages.
One interesting note is that the treatment for methanol poisoning is ethanol, the chemists among us can quickly infer that this meant that the pacients were treated with fine spirits...
Regarding the voting system in place here in
"1. Before anyone votes in a voting booth, they have have proof of identity, preferably a picture ID."
Check.
"2. Require that during election time the voter can ONLY vote in one voting jurisdiction, no exceptions allowed. That way, people who live part of the time in one part of the country and part of the time in another part of the country cannot vote in both jurisdictions, which is a great way to cause voter fraud."
Check.
"3. Use a ballot that all the choices are marked off by a small ink stamp. With an ink stamped ballot, the ballot can be read by both hand and machine counts easily."
Check. Besides the electronic vote, a ballot is printed at voting time with the choices made, the voter can check if those are ok and next it's stored INSIDE the machine (voter never gets to touch it). So, in case of suspected fraud, the interested party can order a ballot recount.
And we DON'T like it.
The vote requirement is the tool that politicians over here use to get the uninformed to vot for them.
And I can't hosnetly see how this could make it easier to setup a electronic voting system.
It has happened, at least here in .br. A singer/writer called Lobao (that's "Big Wolf", for the Portuguese-challenged among you) started his own label, Universo Paralelo (Parallel Universe), he is distributing his and other artists' CDs on freaking NEWSTANDS, for less than $5 and besides the CD you also get a magazine with information on the artist, album "making of" and other stuff.
Of course, he never gets any airplay. But then again, when was the last time you heard anything good on radio?
Same feelings here. Having worked for HP in the past, when I read the original story I couldn't help thinking "who's this guy manager? MY manager would never allow me to do that..."
... a reason for that.
.br
At least here in
WARNING: Im not defending this practice, Im just try to explain why, at least here, this makes business sense.
We dont have as many screens as in the US. Thus, in order to make the most money out of the big hollywood movies, they get released here in "small doses". So, two weeks after the US premiere of Spider-man we had our premiere, and AOTC is going to be relasead by Jun 15, I believe. It makes sense; I went to see Spider-man yesterday and half the screens in a 16 screens theater had it; the place was crowded. Imagine having this AND AOTC at the same time. So, they wait two or three more weeks to release it, so that the spidey-mania has died down.
Then there are the weird occasions when we get a movie MONTHS before the US (It happened with Jason X) or years later (Scream 2 took two years to be released here).
Er...
The problem here is not MS releasing or not a patch, it's the FREQUENCY of release.
I subscribe to the MS Security mailing list, and I got the message about this patch yesterday night. HOWEVER, the day before yesterday I had just reinstalled my Win2k box with all the patches (took me four or five reboots to install SP2, DX 8.1, IE6, IE6 patches, additional Win2k security patches, media player) and now I must update my browser again. This is the 4th security update this month alone (counting Win2k and IE security patches).
On the other hand, maybe all the pressure done by the security experts who went full disclosure before MS released a patch is working. Don't know. Maybe they are patching FASTER now.
Etherpeg or Driftnet are not hacking your privacy, in the strict sense: they're hacking your expected privacy, which is a different thing.
You'd expect people to see what you are browsing by looking over your shoulder, not by sniffing your packets. Is it rude? Yes. Unethical? Maybe. I wouldn't do it.
That is NOT different from, say, a sysadmin checking the proxy cache dir for pics/sites the users might be visiting. As a sysadmin, I believe I had the right to look at that data only when needed, say, if I need to find a file which is fscking my cache. Otherwise, it's hands off for me. My users EXPECT me not to follow what they are doing.
Also, what these tools do is nothing new. I saw a demo of a Computer Associates product (sorry, can't remember the name) which goes even further, reconstructing the entire web page a given user is viewing.
Weird. I've been using Linux/GNU/Linux/whatever for all this years without a UI (I only use the server features of Linux, last time I installed a Xsomething was in 99), so I guess I'm NOT using a OS.
Someday I might try this Desktop Linux thingie...
It's actually in the R4 version released in Brazil (and possibly in Australia as well), I found it to be mostly useless, unless you have a dumb roommate. Which I don't.
Best... proposal... ever...
Really, this was cool. No, I'm NOT a karma whore!
Well, someone else has already commented on the possible cloning of Aibo by studying the tools made available by AiboPet, but there's another aspect that you need to think about when viewing Sony's hatred towards non-Sony software for the Aibo: they may someday decide to change the Aibo sales model to that of a videogame system, which is - lose money on the main product (Aibo/PS2) and make money selling software (Sony's wares for the Aibo/PS2 games).
Today I saw that happen to a small Brazilian classic gaming site (www.atari.com.br), the website owner is a friend, he had a 2GB download per month account, and since he was serving a somewhat heavy content (.bin files for Atari games) he had no option but to run a script that stops serving the content as soon as the limit is over.
The bottom line is: he got too succesful too fast...
Up until now he could maintain the site with small ads, but there is no way he can go to the $75/month rate for more bandwidth with that.
What may have happened is: in the old internet days, when ads were actually valuable, the ISPs got used to (and thus created a pricey structure for) serving sites with large bandwidth. The ad model has "failed" (not: it was being charged on astronomical rates due to a misconception) and the ISPs still have to adjust to the "new" internet.
"Did the company base their drug on any previous works done by public organizations?"
Good point. To counteract this, academic researchers could GPL their research work, so that any drug based on that "code" has to have an open source.
How about it? Or am I just stupid?
So when it comes to radio, my solution was to simply give up a few years ago. When I HAVE to listen the radio (i.e: borrowed car with no CD player) I usually stick to the newscast-only radio stations, which are not that bad. When it cames to TV, at least we produce our own trash...