> Having a 20 GB HD on everybody's desk allows them to save their data locally intead of on network > shares where it is easier to back up. HD failures are much easier to abstract when their is a RAID > system running in the back room instead of a HD on every desk.
Great. Now you've got to abstract the network reliability and performance problems. Abstract the lack of privacy, too, while you're at it.
I think these 'magical solutions' try to avoid the appearance of trade-offs. They give the false impression that whatever is the method used is going to be perfect. And local storage vs remote storage is a good example. Assume a magical datacenter management tool gave me an option between the two. How would it abstract the weakness of one vs the weakness of the other?
Glad you mentioned it. Yes, this is just Mark pushing his own product (Datacenter management tools). In fact, he already has a few big customers. And this is the same direction Sun, for example, is going with N1. But it is going to have problems.
You can't abstract away problems. And software is designed to be customized more than plug-in and exchange like lego blocks. Further, the 'leaky metaphor' problem hits these kind of systems big. (An example from a previous article, "UDP does not guarantee data delivery, and certainly not in the correct order, but TCP/IP does." So where is that guarantee if I cut a 1 foot break in the ethernet cable?)
Software is going to have to get a lot more dumb for this sort of thing to work.
Christmas Stuff?
on
Hardware Bits
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
I guess not many people clicked on the "Christmas Stuff", huh? For one, I'm glad to find a source for the LED christmas lights. That's a really big plus. I haven't shopped at Albertson's for a while because of the prices.
But come on, someone has to mention something about overclocking the Christmas Lights. Going from a mild 30hz to a blazing 60hz! Imagine a Beowulf chain of those... *
* - These lights cannot be chained, from what I've read.
DirecTV DSL. Think about it. A satellite communications provider, who is... uh... borrowing land-line cables from the local telephone company to provide DSL access, the same that everyone else does, straight to your house, with very little distinguishing characteristics. DirecTV didn't seem to have any special advantage in this market. In fact, it really didn't have a whole lot to do with them. (Sure, there was a tangent relationship to their DirectPC or DirecWay service.)
If the Internet boom had continued for much longer, maybe they would have integrated it into a land-line video distribution service or something. But that would have taken an even bigger Internet bubble to happen (and an even bigger bubble to prevent that from failing when the bubble popped).
I've surfed all the Score: 3+ comments. I really am not seeing people express what was is such an obvious pattern to me.
First, these reviews may be getting five stars, but in the majority of cases, only a minority of people are finding them useful. If they're not useful, they're trash. How can you write hundreds of honest reviews and not write things that people find helpful?
The *majority* of the product reviews (not book reviews) follow a painfully obvious format:
"Spider veins on my legs have been the bane of my existence for some time now, but when those little blue lines appeared on my chin it was too much." --- Some small personal reference to the product in a sentence.
"I'd been hiding the veins on my legs with a concealer, which was an okay solution. Then someone recommended this product from Joey New York." --- What I had been doing, and the switch.
"After a few weeks the veins on my chin are no longer visible, and the veins on my legs have greatly diminished." --- A positive testimonial.
"Thanks to my friend and Joey!" --- A compliment back to the product.
Frankly, this format can be easily used to write positive reviews about any product you can come up with. Go ahead. Try it yourself. Use, say, Linux. Or a bath soap.
These are NOT reviews. These are advertising copy that gives absolutely no information about the product other than, "I was doing something else but then I did this and it was all better."
Remember: "This isn't just a clock - it's a total experience!"
I got it from the doctor because of carpal tunnel like problems. (Insurance paid for a paid, even.) It has two velcro straps (which are tied to the glove kind of like shoelaces) which hold it on the arm. When I wear the glove, zero pain or problem whatsoever.
If I wear the glove for a few months time, all my problems disappear. But they'll eventually come back if I stop wearing them. So, now adays, I wear it as a preventative measure, and it really works great.
HINT: You might want to wash it on a regular basis, and you might want to have a backup pair for while it is being washed. Or two to switch between on a regular basis.
FWIW... Circuit City just sent me a renewal notice on an Extended Service Policy. What a bargin! I can get my ultra-cheap Apex AD-600A DVD player covered for three years for only $219.99. For that price, I could get a new DVD player every year!
I wonder what role, if any, those play into this? Would manufacturers, as a whole, be more inclined to produce lower quality goods with the justification that consumer protection plans are out there? Or would retailers balk at this... or push up the price on those... or use quality as a major selling point for these plans?
I think though, in almost all goods, there is the perception that older is more reliable. This isn't anything new, but is it really becoming true right now?
The Mafia and other organizations may be interested in this technology if it also obliterates DNA in the process. How good is this? (Or maybe if you mix with a chemical, it could do the job.) Nice tech!:0
You are an idiot. You're entire argument comes down to "he does it, so we can too".
Actually, I'm not. My entire argument comes down to, "spamming is ultimately self-defeating and is not a long-term credible activity in its current form". Its all in the numbers. Just like the profit from spamming is.
You ignore the fact that you are doing something illegal while he is not...
I am doing something illegal? I thought you were interested in making a rational argument. I haven't done anything, so I'm a little confused here why you're striking out at me here? Help me understand.
I directed my comments at rational people. You are not one. And to the mod who labelled this a troll post, remember that even nerds can sometimes disagree without being disagreeable.
You mean disagree without being agreeable, yes?
If you don't agree with what I had to say, then argue with me, but don't just label me a troll because you don't like what I said.
But I thought you just got through calling me an idiot and saying I was not a rational person? You're not making much sense here, but I'm trying to give you the benefit of the doubt.
Listen, the case I am making is this. They've found a new form of marketing. This form of marketing is unique in that the cost per person is extremely low. However, both due to its content (in trying to impersonate "real" email) and its overwhelming volume (because the cost per person is so low), it is also unique in that it is significantly more irratating to the average person.
Say, for example, a car goes down a neighborhood street and spews commercial offers from a bullhorn. "Free speech! Perfectly legal!", one would say. (For the sake of argument, let's say that it IS perfectly legal.) That, in itself, is annoying. However, if it is only one car, in one city, and it isn't covering the same stretch of road over and over, they're likely to be able to continue their behavior.
Actually, in my city, we've got this freak on a bicycle who does this (by pulling a large advertisement banner behind him) and ties up traffic. His behavior is annoying.
Now, what is this mobile car with an audio bullhorn actually turned out to be really cheap and really fast? All the sudden, they're swarming the entire city. People are constantly being bombarded by these marketing messages, all perfectly legal. Why, a common stretch of road would get about twenty of these a day. Some would get more, some would get less.
As this activity, resentment builds. People may find their own 'creative solutions' to dealing with the problem. And considering the size of the city being bombarded, let's say a million people, you're going to find some people who are creative with their solutions. Sure, some quite illegal.
My personal belief is that, after some period of time, either people are going to make it so terribly uncomfortable for these roving spammers, or the government is going to step in and do something. The reason is that this behavior is not credible in the long-term. The model simply doesn't work.
So, what you are seeing here, a counter-spam, is only a natural progression of a non-credible system working itself out. Quite logical and predictable. Illegal? Depends on what they are doing, I suppose. Some legal, some certainly not, I'd hazard to guess.
But utterly predictable and obvious behavior. I would imagine that it would intensify from here.
It is a disproportionate response. Because you have to delete some emails each day that takes you all of a few minutes, the appropriate response is to totally shut down one particular spammer's ability to read his own relevant physical mail by ensuring he must sift through thousands of pieces each day? That is absurd.
You're right! Millions of people having the utility of their email diminished and having to go through the trouble of finding out which messages are real (and which ones are really trying to look "real") is in no way balanced by a person who is responsible for the misery having to go through some extra physical mail himself. He should, in fact, be receiving millions of letters, phone calls, and knocks on the door each day for the response to be much more proportionate to the damage he causes.
I'm sure he is receiving several orders of magnitude less than what he is dishing out. And you know what? If a federal law was created that required spammers to list their primary business address and phone number as part of their advertisements, you can bet that this whole spam problem would take care of itself very quickly.
In short, spammers play a very stupid game. What is it, they expect 9 out of every million emails sent to actually result in a sale? Now, what are the chances, after emailing just one million people, that you find a lunatic who really really hates this behavior? And what are the chances, after mail bombing the same millions of people over and over and over and over, without stop, that a sizable portion of them would grow resentful? Would want to take action? Its just a matter of time.
If the game is 9 one-time sells in a million annoyances which build over time, it is a scorched-earth approach that is credible in the long-term.
2. It is in fact illegal. Impersonating someone else in order to sign them up to receive mail is mail fraud.
Now what kind of behavior could enrage and motivate a large number of people to commit mail fraud, without so much as a second thought? Right. The scorched earth marketing approach, isn't it?
1. It is environmentally irresponsible in the extreme. All that paper is being wasted because you don't like clicking a mouse 20 more times a day? Seems more than a little selfish.
Two responses. All that paper is being wasted because millions of people don't like clicking a mouse 20 more times a day? Yup. Sounds like a bargin, actually.
The other response would be that the scorched earth policy has so enraged these people, it superceedes their environmental beliefs. Amazing how a continual pissing-off campaign against consumers will do that, huh?
Why should the reverse spammers have the right to use companies' resources and the resources of the public postal service to further their own agenda? Isn't this just what you accuse Ralsky of doing when he "steals bandwidth"?
I think that is the point. He does it. He gets away with it. The people say, "this really is the best way to express ourselves." It contrasts, interestingly, with one man using computers to send unwanted messages to millions. Instead, you have an approach where a number of people use computers to send a number of unwanted messages to one person.
5. It is totally ineffective. If you have a complaint about receiving spam, take it up with your elected officials. THEY are the ones to stop it. So long as money can be made in this entirely legal business, no matter how annoying it is, there will always be someone who spams. If not Ralsky, then someone else.
Spamming is totally ineffective too, isn't it? I mean, what is accomplished by pissing off millions of people in order to get at the gullible 9?
Really, I think this will be a self-correcting behavior in the long term. The resentment they create in these one-time sells will build and build. The number of people affected by this spam will build. As the pressure increases, the number of people who are pushed 'over the border' will increase. (Remember, we are talking about MILLIONS of people here. Just like you have 9 who'll buy, you'll have 100 who are resentful.) If those 100 people go away, they will be replaced by another 100. And 200. And 300. And far more.
Spam is just not credible in the long-term. Really, this entire episode has given me a lot of empathy for the anti-spam groups. I realize that, in the long term, they've got credibility. That, and the story is entertaining.
It is an ongoing story about blocking popups. I'll get a message from one person. Then another. Then another. Then one from the original person saying it is from the other person's desk. The from the other person saying (in the subject line it is from the first person's desk).
Its like they have some damn narrotive going on and they refer to each other over and over and over again. It drives me crazy that I'm not just being spammed a lot of times at random, but deliberately, over and over, by the same spammer.
I'm sure this, too, will be Alan's justification. "I'd don't single out an email and send to one person over and over and over. But that is what you're doing!" And so he'll use that to justify the differences between what he does and what is done with him.
He thinks its okay when you're spammed at random. He thinks it isn't okay when you're singled out for a barrage of spamming. Well, I get both in my mailbox now, and they're both damn annoying and from the same damn people.
And damn. I probably gave Alan a new spamming tactic. (sigh)
What I don't get are the Coke and Pepsi sales that happen throughout the year. Right now, Wal-Mart and a number of the retail stores have Coke 2-liters on sale for $.78, which is the best price you'll see all year. Coke is running about $1. In a week or two, it'll be mostly reversed. Then for another week or two, both will be at $1. I've always wondered what was going on with those two manufacturers and their logic of alternating price shifting of 25% or so.
Not so much "makes me think about social/political issues here on earth", but more "makes me think about unusual circumstances or science". It used to be those damn temporal paradoxes, but I think I've started to get those figured out. Just kind of the strange puzzles and situations. Maybe the Sienfield theory of science fiction. The plot isn't the main interest, but the quirky circumstances and interactions within the story.
Play the preview. And the end, when the video part is over, you'll hear the techs who are recording it. Evidently, they didn't do a direct audio transfer. They actually recorded the sound with a microphone.
FWIW, I'm in an environment that uses Autosys for intelligent scheduling. Seems to work pretty well. I really like the dependancies and all that you can set it. Of course, the only thing similar I used was cron, and this is light years better than cron when it comes to all the factors that were described in the article.
I struggled a bit with this during the first few months that I had a TiVo. "Oh! You like the news!" "Oh! You like old sitcoms!" "Oh! You like children's cartoons!"
How I responded was to thumbs-down any recorded suggestion that I didn't like. And after a while, TiVo learned. A little too well.
In fact, now, it hardly records any recommendations at all. And they are usually some bland program that is completely unnoteworthy. Frankly, I wish my TiVo had some balls.
I'd like for it to try suggestion some new programs that hit the air each season. Or something a little daring. But it is too timid and weak to come close. I'm afraid that I've broken its spirit.
There are some small LCD displays made to connect to game consoles. I think the Playstation is one. Allows you to have a light, small, low power display for your games when you are on the go. They're pretty cheap, too. Hook it up to your computer, and plug in a video card that does a decent svideo out. (My simple Radeon VE does the trick nicely, and automatically handles scaling all the graphics modes in the hardware so even the BIOS stuff comes across.)
So, don't go for a computer LCD. Go for a small game LCD made for NTSC video.
I went to the MUD Connector and found my favorite MUD from college days... ROM (Rivers of Mud). Still very much like I remembered it. Played a few tricks, too...
> emote has his hands in your pockets. Your purse feels lighter!
It was a great blast from the past ('93? '94?). But I quickly ended it because I don't want that addiction back. I had the lowest GPA in the dorms that sememster (0.0 gpa) but I managed to survive without even getting on academic probation... and graduating.
Ahhh... chain smoking, muds, partying. It was fun.
Actually, I'm glad they used PDF. It looks a whole lot more professional. The pages are bright and happy. But a UK focus on video consoles probably isn't my thing. But it looks nice, IMHO.
So they said they changed their serial number *and* MAC address to get back on. This is interesting and points back to something someone said in a previous thread. All you need to do is to make a program to burn through serial number space and get them marked invalid, and you've got a DoS of entertaining proportions.
I want a NOISY keyboard that has a good tactile feedback and mechanical click response as you press a key. I find that I get much better WPMs out of those types of keyboards. But they are darn hard to find nowadays, and I have to go to surplus/vintage computer stores to get them.
Slashdot Mirror
You're right. Search and replace "privacy" with "security".
> Having a 20 GB HD on everybody's desk allows them to save their data locally intead of on network
> shares where it is easier to back up. HD failures are much easier to abstract when their is a RAID
> system running in the back room instead of a HD on every desk.
Great. Now you've got to abstract the network reliability and performance problems. Abstract the lack of privacy, too, while you're at it.
I think these 'magical solutions' try to avoid the appearance of trade-offs. They give the false impression that whatever is the method used is going to be perfect. And local storage vs remote storage is a good example. Assume a magical datacenter management tool gave me an option between the two. How would it abstract the weakness of one vs the weakness of the other?
Glad you mentioned it. Yes, this is just Mark pushing his own product (Datacenter management tools). In fact, he already has a few big customers. And this is the same direction Sun, for example, is going with N1. But it is going to have problems.
You can't abstract away problems. And software is designed to be customized more than plug-in and exchange like lego blocks. Further, the 'leaky metaphor' problem hits these kind of systems big. (An example from a previous article, "UDP does not guarantee data delivery, and certainly not in the correct order, but TCP/IP does." So where is that guarantee if I cut a 1 foot break in the ethernet cable?)
Software is going to have to get a lot more dumb for this sort of thing to work.
I guess not many people clicked on the "Christmas Stuff", huh? For one, I'm glad to find a source for the LED christmas lights. That's a really big plus. I haven't shopped at Albertson's for a while because of the prices.
But come on, someone has to mention something about overclocking the Christmas Lights. Going from a mild 30hz to a blazing 60hz! Imagine a Beowulf chain of those... *
* - These lights cannot be chained, from what I've read.
DirecTV DSL. Think about it. A satellite communications provider, who is... uh... borrowing land-line cables from the local telephone company to provide DSL access, the same that everyone else does, straight to your house, with very little distinguishing characteristics. DirecTV didn't seem to have any special advantage in this market. In fact, it really didn't have a whole lot to do with them. (Sure, there was a tangent relationship to their DirectPC or DirecWay service.)
If the Internet boom had continued for much longer, maybe they would have integrated it into a land-line video distribution service or something. But that would have taken an even bigger Internet bubble to happen (and an even bigger bubble to prevent that from failing when the bubble popped).
I've surfed all the Score: 3+ comments. I really am not seeing people express what was is such an obvious pattern to me.
First, these reviews may be getting five stars, but in the majority of cases, only a minority of people are finding them useful. If they're not useful, they're trash. How can you write hundreds of honest reviews and not write things that people find helpful?
The *majority* of the product reviews (not book reviews) follow a painfully obvious format:
"Spider veins on my legs have been the bane of my existence for some time now, but when those little blue lines appeared on my chin it was too much." --- Some small personal reference to the product in a sentence.
"I'd been hiding the veins on my legs with a concealer, which was an okay solution. Then someone recommended this product from Joey New York." --- What I had been doing, and the switch.
"After a few weeks the veins on my chin are no longer visible, and the veins on my legs have greatly diminished." --- A positive testimonial.
"Thanks to my friend and Joey!" --- A compliment back to the product.
Frankly, this format can be easily used to write positive reviews about any product you can come up with. Go ahead. Try it yourself. Use, say, Linux. Or a bath soap.
These are NOT reviews. These are advertising copy that gives absolutely no information about the product other than, "I was doing something else but then I did this and it was all better."
Remember: "This isn't just a clock - it's a total experience!"
I got it from the doctor because of carpal tunnel like problems. (Insurance paid for a paid, even.) It has two velcro straps (which are tied to the glove kind of like shoelaces) which hold it on the arm. When I wear the glove, zero pain or problem whatsoever.
If I wear the glove for a few months time, all my problems disappear. But they'll eventually come back if I stop wearing them. So, now adays, I wear it as a preventative measure, and it really works great.
HINT: You might want to wash it on a regular basis, and you might want to have a backup pair for while it is being washed. Or two to switch between on a regular basis.
FWIW... Circuit City just sent me a renewal notice on an Extended Service Policy. What a bargin! I can get my ultra-cheap Apex AD-600A DVD player covered for three years for only $219.99. For that price, I could get a new DVD player every year!
I wonder what role, if any, those play into this? Would manufacturers, as a whole, be more inclined to produce lower quality goods with the justification that consumer protection plans are out there? Or would retailers balk at this... or push up the price on those... or use quality as a major selling point for these plans?
I think though, in almost all goods, there is the perception that older is more reliable. This isn't anything new, but is it really becoming true right now?
The Mafia and other organizations may be interested in this technology if it also obliterates DNA in the process. How good is this? (Or maybe if you mix with a chemical, it could do the job.) Nice tech! :0
How scrumtrulescent! I find myself embiggened by your vocabulary.
You are an idiot. You're entire argument comes down to "he does it, so we can too".
Actually, I'm not. My entire argument comes down to, "spamming is ultimately self-defeating and is not a long-term credible activity in its current form". Its all in the numbers. Just like the profit from spamming is.
You ignore the fact that you are doing something illegal while he is not...
I am doing something illegal? I thought you were interested in making a rational argument. I haven't done anything, so I'm a little confused here why you're striking out at me here? Help me understand.
I directed my comments at rational people. You are not one. And to the mod who labelled this a troll post, remember that even nerds can sometimes disagree without being disagreeable.
You mean disagree without being agreeable, yes?
If you don't agree with what I had to say, then argue with me, but don't just label me a troll because you don't like what I said.
But I thought you just got through calling me an idiot and saying I was not a rational person? You're not making much sense here, but I'm trying to give you the benefit of the doubt.
Listen, the case I am making is this. They've found a new form of marketing. This form of marketing is unique in that the cost per person is extremely low. However, both due to its content (in trying to impersonate "real" email) and its overwhelming volume (because the cost per person is so low), it is also unique in that it is significantly more irratating to the average person.
Say, for example, a car goes down a neighborhood street and spews commercial offers from a bullhorn. "Free speech! Perfectly legal!", one would say. (For the sake of argument, let's say that it IS perfectly legal.) That, in itself, is annoying. However, if it is only one car, in one city, and it isn't covering the same stretch of road over and over, they're likely to be able to continue their behavior.
Actually, in my city, we've got this freak on a bicycle who does this (by pulling a large advertisement banner behind him) and ties up traffic. His behavior is annoying.
Now, what is this mobile car with an audio bullhorn actually turned out to be really cheap and really fast? All the sudden, they're swarming the entire city. People are constantly being bombarded by these marketing messages, all perfectly legal. Why, a common stretch of road would get about twenty of these a day. Some would get more, some would get less.
As this activity, resentment builds. People may find their own 'creative solutions' to dealing with the problem. And considering the size of the city being bombarded, let's say a million people, you're going to find some people who are creative with their solutions. Sure, some quite illegal.
My personal belief is that, after some period of time, either people are going to make it so terribly uncomfortable for these roving spammers, or the government is going to step in and do something. The reason is that this behavior is not credible in the long-term. The model simply doesn't work.
So, what you are seeing here, a counter-spam, is only a natural progression of a non-credible system working itself out. Quite logical and predictable. Illegal? Depends on what they are doing, I suppose. Some legal, some certainly not, I'd hazard to guess.
But utterly predictable and obvious behavior. I would imagine that it would intensify from here.
It is a disproportionate response. Because you have to delete some emails each day that takes you all of a few minutes, the appropriate response is to totally shut down one particular spammer's ability to read his own relevant physical mail by ensuring he must sift through thousands of pieces each day? That is absurd.
You're right! Millions of people having the utility of their email diminished and having to go through the trouble of finding out which messages are real (and which ones are really trying to look "real") is in no way balanced by a person who is responsible for the misery having to go through some extra physical mail himself. He should, in fact, be receiving millions of letters, phone calls, and knocks on the door each day for the response to be much more proportionate to the damage he causes.
I'm sure he is receiving several orders of magnitude less than what he is dishing out. And you know what? If a federal law was created that required spammers to list their primary business address and phone number as part of their advertisements, you can bet that this whole spam problem would take care of itself very quickly.
In short, spammers play a very stupid game. What is it, they expect 9 out of every million emails sent to actually result in a sale? Now, what are the chances, after emailing just one million people, that you find a lunatic who really really hates this behavior? And what are the chances, after mail bombing the same millions of people over and over and over and over, without stop, that a sizable portion of them would grow resentful? Would want to take action? Its just a matter of time.
If the game is 9 one-time sells in a million annoyances which build over time, it is a scorched-earth approach that is credible in the long-term.
2. It is in fact illegal. Impersonating someone else in order to sign them up to receive mail is mail fraud.
Now what kind of behavior could enrage and motivate a large number of people to commit mail fraud, without so much as a second thought? Right. The scorched earth marketing approach, isn't it?
1. It is environmentally irresponsible in the extreme. All that paper is being wasted because you don't like clicking a mouse 20 more times a day? Seems more than a little selfish.
Two responses. All that paper is being wasted because millions of people don't like clicking a mouse 20 more times a day? Yup. Sounds like a bargin, actually.
The other response would be that the scorched earth policy has so enraged these people, it superceedes their environmental beliefs. Amazing how a continual pissing-off campaign against consumers will do that, huh?
Why should the reverse spammers have the right to use companies' resources and the resources of the public postal service to further their own agenda? Isn't this just what you accuse Ralsky of doing when he "steals bandwidth"?
I think that is the point. He does it. He gets away with it. The people say, "this really is the best way to express ourselves." It contrasts, interestingly, with one man using computers to send unwanted messages to millions. Instead, you have an approach where a number of people use computers to send a number of unwanted messages to one person.
5. It is totally ineffective. If you have a complaint about receiving spam, take it up with your elected officials. THEY are the ones to stop it. So long as money can be made in this entirely legal business, no matter how annoying it is, there will always be someone who spams. If not Ralsky, then someone else.
Spamming is totally ineffective too, isn't it? I mean, what is accomplished by pissing off millions of people in order to get at the gullible 9?
Really, I think this will be a self-correcting behavior in the long term. The resentment they create in these one-time sells will build and build. The number of people affected by this spam will build. As the pressure increases, the number of people who are pushed 'over the border' will increase. (Remember, we are talking about MILLIONS of people here. Just like you have 9 who'll buy, you'll have 100 who are resentful.) If those 100 people go away, they will be replaced by another 100. And 200. And 300. And far more.
Spam is just not credible in the long-term. Really, this entire episode has given me a lot of empathy for the anti-spam groups. I realize that, in the long term, they've got credibility. That, and the story is entertaining.
It is an ongoing story about blocking popups. I'll get a message from one person. Then another. Then another. Then one from the original person saying it is from the other person's desk. The from the other person saying (in the subject line it is from the first person's desk).
Its like they have some damn narrotive going on and they refer to each other over and over and over again. It drives me crazy that I'm not just being spammed a lot of times at random, but deliberately, over and over, by the same spammer.
I'm sure this, too, will be Alan's justification. "I'd don't single out an email and send to one person over and over and over. But that is what you're doing!" And so he'll use that to justify the differences between what he does and what is done with him.
He thinks its okay when you're spammed at random. He thinks it isn't okay when you're singled out for a barrage of spamming. Well, I get both in my mailbox now, and they're both damn annoying and from the same damn people.
And damn. I probably gave Alan a new spamming tactic. (sigh)
What I don't get are the Coke and Pepsi sales that happen throughout the year. Right now, Wal-Mart and a number of the retail stores have Coke 2-liters on sale for $.78, which is the best price you'll see all year. Coke is running about $1. In a week or two, it'll be mostly reversed. Then for another week or two, both will be at $1. I've always wondered what was going on with those two manufacturers and their logic of alternating price shifting of 25% or so.
Not so much "makes me think about social/political issues here on earth", but more "makes me think about unusual circumstances or science". It used to be those damn temporal paradoxes, but I think I've started to get those figured out. Just kind of the strange puzzles and situations. Maybe the Sienfield theory of science fiction. The plot isn't the main interest, but the quirky circumstances and interactions within the story.
Play the preview. And the end, when the video part is over, you'll hear the techs who are recording it. Evidently, they didn't do a direct audio transfer. They actually recorded the sound with a microphone.
FWIW, I'm in an environment that uses Autosys for intelligent scheduling. Seems to work pretty well. I really like the dependancies and all that you can set it. Of course, the only thing similar I used was cron, and this is light years better than cron when it comes to all the factors that were described in the article.
I struggled a bit with this during the first few months that I had a TiVo. "Oh! You like the news!" "Oh! You like old sitcoms!" "Oh! You like children's cartoons!"
How I responded was to thumbs-down any recorded suggestion that I didn't like. And after a while, TiVo learned. A little too well.
In fact, now, it hardly records any recommendations at all. And they are usually some bland program that is completely unnoteworthy. Frankly, I wish my TiVo had some balls.
I'd like for it to try suggestion some new programs that hit the air each season. Or something a little daring. But it is too timid and weak to come close. I'm afraid that I've broken its spirit.
There are some small LCD displays made to connect to game consoles. I think the Playstation is one. Allows you to have a light, small, low power display for your games when you are on the go. They're pretty cheap, too. Hook it up to your computer, and plug in a video card that does a decent svideo out. (My simple Radeon VE does the trick nicely, and automatically handles scaling all the graphics modes in the hardware so even the BIOS stuff comes across.)
So, don't go for a computer LCD. Go for a small game LCD made for NTSC video.
I went to the MUD Connector and found my favorite MUD from college days... ROM (Rivers of Mud). Still very much like I remembered it. Played a few tricks, too...
> emote has his hands in your pockets. Your purse feels lighter!
It was a great blast from the past ('93? '94?). But I quickly ended it because I don't want that addiction back. I had the lowest GPA in the dorms that sememster (0.0 gpa) but I managed to survive without even getting on academic probation... and graduating.
Ahhh... chain smoking, muds, partying. It was fun.
Actually, I'm glad they used PDF. It looks a whole lot more professional. The pages are bright and happy. But a UK focus on video consoles probably isn't my thing. But it looks nice, IMHO.
Right-O! Then this next story is obviously for you! ;)
So they said they changed their serial number *and* MAC address to get back on. This is interesting and points back to something someone said in a previous thread. All you need to do is to make a program to burn through serial number space and get them marked invalid, and you've got a DoS of entertaining proportions.
I want a NOISY keyboard that has a good tactile feedback and mechanical click response as you press a key. I find that I get much better WPMs out of those types of keyboards. But they are darn hard to find nowadays, and I have to go to surplus/vintage computer stores to get them.