2. Greatly discourages others from using your computer.
I achieved that by switching to the Dvorak layout - although the keyboard is physically the same, everyone pisses and moans about having to reset my "screwed up keyboard" every time they try to use one of my computers. It's almost as effective as having ungodly messy handwriting was at preventing people from borrowing my notes when I was in school.
I like playing "spot the userID numbers" when a story like this about some old tech comes along... The contrast of "Holy crap! I'd forgotten all about that stuff!" from the low-number userIDs versus "WTF? O1d junx 1s teh sux0r!!" from the high-number userIDs cracks me up every time:-)
Have you ever had the misfortune of being around hockey equipment after a game? Strange creatures infecting hard-to-reach places isn't exactly out of the ordinary...
Am I the only one who finds it blackly humorous and more than a little creepy that one of the few buildings remaining standing in the first picture is the California Casket Company??
BitTorrent doesn't really exist. It's just one of those self-perpetuating internet rumours. Now if you'll just look at the top of this shiny little device I have in my hand... Hold on while I put on my sunglasses...
I don't see it on the front page either (I'm in Toronto - and I checked both google.ca and google.com). I will say though that the addition of Google Scholar is yet another reason why Google is the _Greatest Invention Ever!_... Fire, the wheel, sliced bread - they've got nothing on Google.
I'm a little confused as to the seemingly excessive level of news coverage that XP SP2 is getting. As I type this, there's 3 stories involving XP SP2 on/.'s front page, all of which are linked to different sources. Why all the chatter for this particular release? I don't recall XP SP1 or SP's for Win2K getting nearly this much media attention... Just a thought...
It would be nice to see schools concurrently teach Dvorak and QWERTY in the same course. Most people coming into high school (where I learned QWERTY touch-typing) these days probably already have a basic-to-moderate grasp of typing. An entire course just on QWERTY touch-typing is likely a little out-of-date now. I re-mapped the keyboard and re-trained my brain to Dvorak a few years ago now. As with many others, I find it much faster overall with less wrist pain.
Up here in the land of Tim Horton's, Ron James (a stand-up comic) jokes that he "likes to go to a Starbucks once in a while to see what the world would be like if the Nazis had won the war." Might this music distribution idea further their aims?? Hail Mermaid!
I've run into the same inconsistancies with ends: had major probs accidentally trying to use stranded ends on solid core (didn't even know there was a difference the first time I wired a house). Friends of mine also didn't know there was a difference, but had never had probs. Moral I guess is to use the appropriate ends for each type of cable.
I have the same arrangement with an old roommate of mine - we both keep our pr0n in a specific directory of the same name and location. In the unfortunate event that one of us passes away, the other is to delete that directory before family members get ahold of the computer (or, more likely, make a backup copy for themselves, then delete:) )...
The idea behind tracks, instead of tires, is that tracks reduce soil compaction by spreading the weight load over a greater surface area (in the same way a heavy snowmobile floats along over deep snow while a comparatively lighter human sinks to their hips). Bonus side effects of the greater contact area include a greater overall production of pulling power (ie. it's easier to cut through tough ground with a plow or other implement) and less tendency for the tractor to "power hop" when digging deeply, which is common with standard tires (a bouncing effect produced as the drive wheels cycle through breaking free and then digging in). Rubber-tracked tractors are generally only used in the early stages of standard tillage when a field is being turned over (ie. with a plow) or broken up (ie. with a set of discs or toothed cultivators). The headlands of the field are torn up more with tracks when you turn, but at that point in the season it doesn't matter much. When you're done working the field, you just finish off the headlands as best you can and move on. When it comes time to plant, fertilize/spray, and then harvest, you go back to standard tires. This being said, tracked tractors are only really used in areas where soil compaction is a big issue, like wet/low-lying areas or areas where the land is really heavy. I've never seen anyone around our part of the country (Southern-Central Ontario) using a tracked tractor.
Hmm - and here I was thinking of going to Australia for grad school (at UNSW in Sydney)... If I can't easily download pr0n in the lab while waiting for a gel to run, I may have to reconsider...
Of course... Any advantage to maintain a monopoly... Plus think of all the spam they can send out as the corporate empire expands: more half-baked OSs, more software, more PC hardware, more home entertainment systems, PDAs, tablet PCs, MS-approved network-enabled appliances ("Great - I wanted a bagel but my toaster just went BSOD!"), mortgages from the First National Bank of Microsoft, MS-backed credit cards (to enable everyone to more easily purchase MS products), vacations booked through MS travel services, etc., etc., ad nauseum...
I'm sure many of us here regularly avoid the MS tax on desktops by rolling our own, but that's not really an option with laptops (Is it? I haven't the faintest idea how to go about getting the parts and building a laptop, and I've been building desktops for years...)... eBay seems to have a great selection of used machines - I've been trolling there for a little while now looking for a top-notch used laptop for essentially the same reason as the original poster (and the cost factor too)...
In addition, although we may want to make a political statement by avoiding the MS tax, how many of us implicitly support MS by using their products because we have to (even if we don't pay for the products)?? I'm viewing this page with IE while working on a PowerPoint presentation and writing a manuscript in Word right now because MS Office is mandated by my workplace... I'm dual booting at home because, if I want to do work related stuff, there's less hassles if I just use Office... I don't like it, but I'm sure there's lots of others here stuck in the same position...
Sure: Here in Canada, the education system differs a little from province to province. In all of them, you can graduate with your high school diploma after 4 years (end of grade 12)... In Ontario, we have a 5th year of high school called OAC (Ontario Academic Courses (or Credits? I can't remember)) that is supposed to prepare you for university... If you're going to go to college or to the workforce, you finish grade 12 with your diploma and go; if you're going to go to university, you come back and take a minimum of 6 OAC courses, then go to university... The other provinces have different systems to prep for university - Alberta has some sort of a college-level prep program for a year (I think), Québec has the CEGEP (Collège d'enseignement général et professionel) 2-year pre-university system...
The deal with this "double-cohort" thing is that a few years ago, the Ontario government decided, showing both their infinite wisdom and their respect for the public education system (yes, that was sarcasm), that we didn't need OAC anymore... They decided to phase it out and not bring in anything to replace it... So now, this coming Sept (2003), we will have double the number of students leaving high school for university (one group from the last ever OAC year and a second group from the first-time new 4-year-only system)... It adds up to a total of about 80,000 students graduating from high school this coming Sept... It's been a big worry because the capacity of the colleges and the universities here was already stretched, and now they have to deal with this one-time land slide of new kids...
I personally think the whole thing has been a little overblown because it is really a one-time event...
And I think the original poster meant to say "spots"...
I don't know that I'd be calling Western a "high-end" school anymore... It's more like a live-action Abercrombie & Fitch catalog...
Seriously though, my impression from the info (or the Ontario Government advertising, as it really is), is that the UOIT project is a kind of flip-side to the moves that the colleges have been making... Over the past few years, the colleges have been forging ties with the universities, offering diploma/degree articulation arrangements and even 4-year Bachelor's degrees on site ( http://www.guelphhumber.ca/ )... The idea seems to be to try and combine the applicability and up-to-datedness of college with the theory and higher-level learning of university... University curriculum has had a disturbing tendency to get outdated and mouldy while the colleges have been more forward... This UOIT thing seems to be taking that college-to-university idea back the other way by creating a fully chartered university whose curriculum is supposed to be up-to-date and actually "useful"...
That said, it also makes it appear that the Eves government is doing something to put actual money into post-secondary education in this province... Instead of this bloated PR exercise, the money would have been better spent on other post-secondary projects like new buildings or capital improvements to infrastructure at the existing schools... Some of these old buildings are getting pretty run down... or OHIP, the environment, fixing the mess of Hydro, etc...
Games is one thing... I've gotten Q3A to run better under with X and Linux (Mandrake 9.0 currently) than it does under Windows... But, the newest bestest coolest games always come out for Windows first and then, if the developers feel like it, are available for Linux... Aggravating...
But by far the biggest thing keeping on Windows is one app - EndNote... My work is all scientific writing (journal articles and manuscripts, research correspondence, grants, etc.), all of which require significant quantities of references... EndNote absolutely rawks for this stuff (if you've never used it, it functions kind of like a plug-in for Word and is for managing all references and citations within a document) but it doesn't work properly under WINE yet (I've tried) and I haven't found anything for Linux/BSD that's even similar let alone remotely comparable... If I could code, I'd work on something that would do the job, but I only know DNA and amino acid code - not software;)...
"Hm, well, ask the UN" - yes, ask the UN who continually rate Canada as one of the best countries in the world in which to live... Yes, we have a reprehensible history on treatment of our Native Peoples, but I don't see the US, or any other "new world" democracies doing much better... At least we're trying, as in the creation of Nunavut Territory... Canada is not, by definition, a socialist state - it is one of the world's oldest parliamentary democracies... Our society and governance do have a slight socialist leaning... Now, if that means being a just society of people that actually care for the well-being of each other, who make an effort to respect one anothers' unique ethnic heritage, and who have access to universal health care, well then, sign me up... And by the way, most Canadians are as embarassed about the Mulroney years as the Americans are about the Nixon years...
This was true until they took over the Snap Lake mine last year:
http://www.debeerscanada.com/files_new/mining.ht ml
At least it's only one mine so far... If you have the opportunity (and MUST buy a diamond), I suppose you could trace the source back to a non-DeBeers Canadian (or Australian) mine... DeBeers seems sort of like the Borg - ubiquitous, relentless, and futile to resist forever...
Getting DNA by mail certainly is standard practice these days... Some of the suppliers I've dealt with in the past include IDT [http://www.idtdna.com], Oligos Etc. [http://www.oligosetc.com/], and Operon (a subsidiary of Qiagen) [http://www.operon.com/]... Orders are accepted by phone, fax, or email - have your credit card ready (I'm being totally serious)... Plus there's usually even locally owned and operated "Mom-and-Pop" style oligo shops around where there's a market...
In fact, it's now gotten to the point that it's way more economical for small and medium sized labs to order out, rather than doing their own synthesis...
Agreed - balanced, real, and unsensationalized news coverage is available, you just have to go looking for it...
Not to sound anti-capitalist, but it seems to me that the corporitization and concentration of media outlets into large "news and entertainment" conglomerates has led to the dumbing down of the daily news... Here in Canada, the CBC (a semi-private corporation which both generates revenue through advertising and receives government funding) provides us with pretty decent real news (how can you not trust what Peter Mansbridge tells you?)... More recently, I've also discovered the BBC World News service, which I find even more balanced and "real" than the venerable CBC... Not that the slide is by any means an American phenomenon - the recent growth of CanWest Global (and the accompanying corporate censorship shenanigans) has shown us some of the ugly sides of media concentration...
Another difficulty, I think, is a lack of desire for "real" news - many people I've debated the topic with can't stand to sit through news broadcasts that spend upwards of 3 to 5 minutes covering the angles on a story... They want short, sharp soundbites of news interspersed with "info-tainment" puff pieces on who their favourite Hollywood celebrity has been tooling lately...
It's hard to feed people the truth about what's going on in the world outside their own lives when they don't care...
Slashdot Mirror
2. Greatly discourages others from using your computer.
I achieved that by switching to the Dvorak layout - although the keyboard is physically the same, everyone pisses and moans about having to reset my "screwed up keyboard" every time they try to use one of my computers. It's almost as effective as having ungodly messy handwriting was at preventing people from borrowing my notes when I was in school.
I like playing "spot the userID numbers" when a story like this about some old tech comes along ... The contrast of "Holy crap! I'd forgotten all about that stuff!" from the low-number userIDs versus "WTF? O1d junx 1s teh sux0r!!" from the high-number userIDs cracks me up every time :-)
Have you ever had the misfortune of being around hockey equipment after a game? ...
Strange creatures infecting hard-to-reach places isn't exactly out of the ordinary
Am I the only one who finds it blackly humorous and more than a little creepy that one of the few buildings remaining standing in the first picture is the California Casket Company??
BitTorrent doesn't really exist. It's just one of those self-perpetuating internet rumours. ... Hold on while I put on my sunglasses ...
Now if you'll just look at the top of this shiny little device I have in my hand
I don't see it on the front page either (I'm in Toronto - and I checked both google.ca and google.com). ... Fire, the wheel, sliced bread - they've got nothing on Google.
I will say though that the addition of Google Scholar is yet another reason why Google is the _Greatest Invention Ever!_
I'm a little confused as to the seemingly excessive level of news coverage that XP SP2 is getting. As I type this, there's 3 stories involving XP SP2 on /.'s front page, all of which are linked to different sources. Why all the chatter for this particular release? ... ...
I don't recall XP SP1 or SP's for Win2K getting nearly this much media attention
Just a thought
It would be nice to see schools concurrently teach Dvorak and QWERTY in the same course. Most people coming into high school (where I learned QWERTY touch-typing) these days probably already have a basic-to-moderate grasp of typing. An entire course just on QWERTY touch-typing is likely a little out-of-date now.
I re-mapped the keyboard and re-trained my brain to Dvorak a few years ago now. As with many others, I find it much faster overall with less wrist pain.
... and in other news, the sun rose in the east this morning.
Scientists predict that it may in fact set in the west sometime this evening.
Up here in the land of Tim Horton's, Ron James (a stand-up comic) jokes that he "likes to go to a Starbucks once in a while to see what the world would be like if the Nazis had won the war."
Might this music distribution idea further their aims??
Hail Mermaid!
I've run into the same inconsistancies with ends: had major probs accidentally trying to use stranded ends on solid core (didn't even know there was a difference the first time I wired a house). Friends of mine also didn't know there was a difference, but had never had probs.
Moral I guess is to use the appropriate ends for each type of cable.
I have the same arrangement with an old roommate of mine - we both keep our pr0n in a specific directory of the same name and location. In the unfortunate event that one of us passes away, the other is to delete that directory before family members get ahold of the computer (or, more likely, make a backup copy for themselves, then delete :) ) ...
The idea behind tracks, instead of tires, is that tracks reduce soil compaction by spreading the weight load over a greater surface area (in the same way a heavy snowmobile floats along over deep snow while a comparatively lighter human sinks to their hips). Bonus side effects of the greater contact area include a greater overall production of pulling power (ie. it's easier to cut through tough ground with a plow or other implement) and less tendency for the tractor to "power hop" when digging deeply, which is common with standard tires (a bouncing effect produced as the drive wheels cycle through breaking free and then digging in).
Rubber-tracked tractors are generally only used in the early stages of standard tillage when a field is being turned over (ie. with a plow) or broken up (ie. with a set of discs or toothed cultivators). The headlands of the field are torn up more with tracks when you turn, but at that point in the season it doesn't matter much. When you're done working the field, you just finish off the headlands as best you can and move on. When it comes time to plant, fertilize/spray, and then harvest, you go back to standard tires.
This being said, tracked tractors are only really used in areas where soil compaction is a big issue, like wet/low-lying areas or areas where the land is really heavy. I've never seen anyone around our part of the country (Southern-Central Ontario) using a tracked tractor.
We research scientists get so little action that the mere thought of seeing boobies is usually enough ...
How about "Flaming Sheep"? ...
Livestock certainly has it tough in the UK
Hmm - and here I was thinking of going to Australia for grad school (at UNSW in Sydney) ... If I can't easily download pr0n in the lab while waiting for a gel to run, I may have to reconsider ...
Of course ... Any advantage to maintain a monopoly ... ...
Plus think of all the spam they can send out as the corporate empire expands: more half-baked OSs, more software, more PC hardware, more home entertainment systems, PDAs, tablet PCs, MS-approved network-enabled appliances ("Great - I wanted a bagel but my toaster just went BSOD!"), mortgages from the First National Bank of Microsoft, MS-backed credit cards (to enable everyone to more easily purchase MS products), vacations booked through MS travel services, etc., etc., ad nauseum
Used looks to me to be the only way to do it ...
...) ... eBay seems to have a great selection of used machines - I've been trolling there for a little while now looking for a top-notch used laptop for essentially the same reason as the original poster (and the cost factor too) ...
... I'm dual booting at home because, if I want to do work related stuff, there's less hassles if I just use Office ... I don't like it, but I'm sure there's lots of others here stuck in the same position ...
I'm sure many of us here regularly avoid the MS tax on desktops by rolling our own, but that's not really an option with laptops (Is it? I haven't the faintest idea how to go about getting the parts and building a laptop, and I've been building desktops for years
In addition, although we may want to make a political statement by avoiding the MS tax, how many of us implicitly support MS by using their products because we have to (even if we don't pay for the products)?? I'm viewing this page with IE while working on a PowerPoint presentation and writing a manuscript in Word right now because MS Office is mandated by my workplace
Sure: ... In Ontario, we have a 5th year of high school called OAC (Ontario Academic Courses (or Credits? I can't remember)) that is supposed to prepare you for university ... If you're going to go to college or to the workforce, you finish grade 12 with your diploma and go; if you're going to go to university, you come back and take a minimum of 6 OAC courses, then go to university ... The other provinces have different systems to prep for university - Alberta has some sort of a college-level prep program for a year (I think), Québec has the CEGEP (Collège d'enseignement général et professionel) 2-year pre-university system ...
... They decided to phase it out and not bring in anything to replace it ... So now, this coming Sept (2003), we will have double the number of students leaving high school for university (one group from the last ever OAC year and a second group from the first-time new 4-year-only system) ... It adds up to a total of about 80,000 students graduating from high school this coming Sept ... It's been a big worry because the capacity of the colleges and the universities here was already stretched, and now they have to deal with this one-time land slide of new kids ...
...
...
Here in Canada, the education system differs a little from province to province. In all of them, you can graduate with your high school diploma after 4 years (end of grade 12)
The deal with this "double-cohort" thing is that a few years ago, the Ontario government decided, showing both their infinite wisdom and their respect for the public education system (yes, that was sarcasm), that we didn't need OAC anymore
I personally think the whole thing has been a little overblown because it is really a one-time event
And I think the original poster meant to say "spots"
I don't know that I'd be calling Western a "high-end" school anymore ... It's more like a live-action Abercrombie & Fitch catalog ...
... Over the past few years, the colleges have been forging ties with the universities, offering diploma/degree articulation arrangements and even 4-year Bachelor's degrees on site ( http://www.guelphhumber.ca/ ) ... The idea seems to be to try and combine the applicability and up-to-datedness of college with the theory and higher-level learning of university ... University curriculum has had a disturbing tendency to get outdated and mouldy while the colleges have been more forward ... This UOIT thing seems to be taking that college-to-university idea back the other way by creating a fully chartered university whose curriculum is supposed to be up-to-date and actually "useful" ...
... Instead of this bloated PR exercise, the money would have been better spent on other post-secondary projects like new buildings or capital improvements to infrastructure at the existing schools ... Some of these old buildings are getting pretty run down ... or OHIP, the environment, fixing the mess of Hydro, etc ...
Seriously though, my impression from the info (or the Ontario Government advertising, as it really is), is that the UOIT project is a kind of flip-side to the moves that the colleges have been making
That said, it also makes it appear that the Eves government is doing something to put actual money into post-secondary education in this province
Games is one thing ... I've gotten Q3A to run better under with X and Linux (Mandrake 9.0 currently) than it does under Windows ... But, the newest bestest coolest games always come out for Windows first and then, if the developers feel like it, are available for Linux ... Aggravating ...
... My work is all scientific writing (journal articles and manuscripts, research correspondence, grants, etc.), all of which require significant quantities of references ... EndNote absolutely rawks for this stuff (if you've never used it, it functions kind of like a plug-in for Word and is for managing all references and citations within a document) but it doesn't work properly under WINE yet (I've tried) and I haven't found anything for Linux/BSD that's even similar let alone remotely comparable ... If I could code, I'd work on something that would do the job, but I only know DNA and amino acid code - not software ;) ...
But by far the biggest thing keeping on Windows is one app - EndNote
"Hm, well, ask the UN" - yes, ask the UN who continually rate Canada as one of the best countries in the world in which to live ... ... At least we're trying, as in the creation of Nunavut Territory ... ... Our society and governance do have a slight socialist leaning ... Now, if that means being a just society of people that actually care for the well-being of each other, who make an effort to respect one anothers' unique ethnic heritage, and who have access to universal health care, well then, sign me up ... ...
Yes, we have a reprehensible history on treatment of our Native Peoples, but I don't see the US, or any other "new world" democracies doing much better
Canada is not, by definition, a socialist state - it is one of the world's oldest parliamentary democracies
And by the way, most Canadians are as embarassed about the Mulroney years as the Americans are about the Nixon years
This was true until they took over the Snap Lake mine last year:
t ml
... If you have the opportunity (and MUST buy a diamond), I suppose you could trace the source back to a non-DeBeers Canadian (or Australian) mine ... ...
http://www.debeerscanada.com/files_new/mining.h
At least it's only one mine so far
DeBeers seems sort of like the Borg - ubiquitous, relentless, and futile to resist forever
Getting DNA by mail certainly is standard practice these days ... Some of the suppliers I've dealt with in the past include IDT [http://www.idtdna.com], Oligos Etc. [http://www.oligosetc.com/], and Operon (a subsidiary of Qiagen) [http://www.operon.com/] ... Orders are accepted by phone, fax, or email - have your credit card ready (I'm being totally serious) ... Plus there's usually even locally owned and operated "Mom-and-Pop" style oligo shops around where there's a market ...
...
In fact, it's now gotten to the point that it's way more economical for small and medium sized labs to order out, rather than doing their own synthesis
Agreed - balanced, real, and unsensationalized news coverage is available, you just have to go looking for it ...
... Here in Canada, the CBC (a semi-private corporation which both generates revenue through advertising and receives government funding) provides us with pretty decent real news (how can you not trust what Peter Mansbridge tells you?) ... More recently, I've also discovered the BBC World News service, which I find even more balanced and "real" than the venerable CBC ... Not that the slide is by any means an American phenomenon - the recent growth of CanWest Global (and the accompanying corporate censorship shenanigans) has shown us some of the ugly sides of media concentration ...
... They want short, sharp soundbites of news interspersed with "info-tainment" puff pieces on who their favourite Hollywood celebrity has been tooling lately ...
...
Not to sound anti-capitalist, but it seems to me that the corporitization and concentration of media outlets into large "news and entertainment" conglomerates has led to the dumbing down of the daily news
Another difficulty, I think, is a lack of desire for "real" news - many people I've debated the topic with can't stand to sit through news broadcasts that spend upwards of 3 to 5 minutes covering the angles on a story
It's hard to feed people the truth about what's going on in the world outside their own lives when they don't care