Cool. I might give this a try. If it doesn't work out for me gaming or keyboard-wise it can either join a box of joysticks in my closet or (more likely, if I don't dig it) find its way to ebay.
And since we just recently had a story about typing recently, I'll suggest these folks update their web site and scrape away the BS. To wit:
>>And even those who do touch type do
>>so with a letter layout that was
>>specifically designed to slow down typing
>>so the first mechanical typewriter keys wouldn't
>>jam.
I think the DVD subscription model (and downloads via torrent, but I want a physical disc) is great; no reason you can't *also* do broadcast TV. This is a great idea and one I though would be great for FireFly. I hope that interest is renewed once Serenity hits theatres; I'll certainly pony up the cash for FireFly. There are a couple of other shows I'd be interested in subscribing to.
There's little more than crap on TV. If I can subscribe to shows I'd like to see then who cares if Fox executives don't like it or it ticks off some group of bluehairs? Subscription will mean better quality - shows won't have to cater to the lowest common denominator. Even 1 million subscribers is probably enough to cover the production costs for a good scifi show. TV syndication will probably be where you get the profit.
As for Trek, I gave up. Compared to FireFly, Enterprise just doesn't cut it. There was something interesting now and then and lots of eye candy, but overall I consider the quality of Enterprise to be poor.
Your mileage may vary, batteries not included, etc.
When I was a kid it was D&D that was going to warp our minds and make us go postal. A friend's mom convinced him that he, me, and my friends were going to Hell and was going to turn us into rampaging murderers, so he stole my D&D books, 2 years of adventuring notes, characters, and our collectively built world. They had a good old fashioned book burning at their church.
Other times the terrible mind warping stuff was books, movies, or music. Now it's videogames.
Doom, GTA, neck snapping in Price of Persia 2, and virtually storming the beaches at Normandy in Day of Defeat isn't going to turn kids into rampaging pairs of Harris & Klebold any more than D&D turned me and my friends into throat slashing demonically possessed murderers.
This is *stupid* and so are the legislators pushing it and the people who support it.
120wpm QWERTY & Dvorak Experience
on
New Standard Keyboard
·
· Score: 2, Informative
During the period when I was working on my undergrad thesis I had my my typing speed tested via both software and good ole fasioned professor with a stopwatch. My speed averaged 120wpm on QWERTY, pretty blazing.
I've slowed down since and now average about 80wpm and have learned not to strike the keys quite so hard. My hands don't ache as much and I've considered going with one of those whiz-bang carpal-friendly keyboards before I come down with CTS. Coding can be tough on the hands.
Anyway, one semester my room-mate and I believed the Dvorak myth and decided to try out switching. We bought new keyboards that supported both standards and came with two sets of keycaps, then made the switch.
It took us about a month to re-learn touch typing and it was a bitch. Neither one of us caught up to our previous speeds - we even played typing games to help - we got to maybe 2/3-3/4 of our previous typing speeds.
While we were okay on our computers we both found it very frustrating to use others. Being geeks, we frequently needed to work on other machines and lugging a keyboard around wasn't really a solution. We decided to abandon Dvorak and went back to QWERTY. In a week or two we were back to ballpark of our old typing speeds, though it was a frustrating transition.
The moral of the story is an old one: if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
OK, the site was having problems and couldn't take your order? Then use the PHONE. I called and punched a couple of numbers, then was *immediately* put in touch with a live person. This is about 30 minutes after the keynote ended and I had reviewed, then decided what Mac mini configuration I wanted. I even got a small discount.
With a SuperDrive, Bluetooth 2.0 + Airport Extreme, 512MB RAM (will probably crack open and put in a 1GB module), an 80GB drive, and.Mac (for antivirus and etc.) it came to $999.98. I was *expecting* it to be around $1k and I think the price is right.
This will be the first Mac I've owned. I've been looking at the platform since OS X and recently evaluated the new iMac and 17" PowerBook. The Mac mini is exactly what I was looking for - a low cost entry-level system. All the Unix goodness with a nice interface. If the platform works for me (for development), then I'll pop for a 17" G5 PowerBook when they roll out.
The most important thing you can have is good people. Firstly, good staff. Secondly, a good vendor.
Since about 1998, I've been dealing with MultiWave for parts at home and work. Prior to that I used multiple vendors. Always had an excellent experience with Multiwave. I picked out the hardware and had my staff assemble our workstations and servers and except for a bad Adaptec RAID card (which we RMAed), had zero problems with server hardware.
Had some problems with the Shuttle SV24 and SV25 boxes - mostly power supplies and overheating. But Shuttle made good on the warranties and we switched to another standard for all new workstations.
I've found that it's best to develop a relationship with a single decently priced vendor that's not going to give you shit when you need to RMA something or get a batch of bad drives. I've found MultiWave to be that vendor for me. I don't work for 'em and don't earn a dime from 'em. I've spent about a half million dollars with them over the years and have been happy.
I've also found that roll your own is best. Every major vendor I've dealt with has been shitty. Do some due diligence - put together 3-4 different workstations (different mixes of reliable whitebox hardware) and test the hell out of them. Run them through the wringer, pick out the best of the lot and buy a zillion of them. It doesn't really matter what you standardize on as long as you standardize and it's reliable.
The limbless veterans are the ones doing the contemplating, not the brass.
A soldier usually has the option; however, given the shortage and stop loss situation I wouldn't be surprised to see amputees being involuntarily put back in the mix, perhaps in a support role rather than combat arms. It wouldn't be the most f***ed up thing the Army has ever done, but it would be close.
Believe it or not, some people actually think they are doing the right thing being over there, and could feasibly want to continue doing it with a fake leg.
I never said otherwise. Some troops feel it's the right thing, some troops feel that the whole thing is FUBAR. Most soliders I know fall into the second category. Regardless of that, you want to be with your unit and your buddies. You do your duty. Even though you'd rather everyone be home.
As the saying goes: opinions are like a**holes, everybody's got one. I think this whole Iraq mess was FUBAR from the get go.
Even so, if I could I would go so my brother or some other guy with kids wouldn't have to do another tour. But I can't - my knees and hips are screwed up and I was bounced out twice on a medical. The day I turned in my TA-50 and finished outprocessing was one of the most disappointing days of my life.
That's nothing compared to what these guys are going through - I can walk and I have all my limbs. BTW, getting banged up was a combination of bad luck compounded by my own stupidity and wasn't the Army's fault.
From the article: These improvements allow amputees improved mobility over the Vietnam era, with many limbless veterans already contemplating running, skiing, and even a return to combat, according to veterans officials.
You get your leg amputated after your second tour, get an artifical leg, do rehab, then...get sent back to Iraq for tour #3?
Hopefully soldiers returning to combat after amputation have volunteered to do so. Imagine getting sent back again involunarily after losing a leg.
These soldiers deserve the best gear and care we can give them. Tragically they're not getting it, especially critical after-care, follow-ups, meds, counseling, etc. Clinics and a few hospitals are closing, and new soliders are having many medical benefits phased out because their incomes are judged to be "too high." We're not talking Generals here, we're talking folks that make under $40k a year.
>>5. The ACS, instead of trying to compete
>>on merits, or evolve their product, is
>>pretty much admitting that they're behind
>>the tech curve by doing a slap suit.
Yup - when you can't compete, sue.
This ticks me off so much because it's completely without merit. No company has the right to profit or the right to their market. If I want to give something away that someone else pays for (assuming I have the rights) then boo-fucking-hoo. I'm not arguing for price-dumping, which is how the big boys run the little guy out of business.
What irritates me is that XYZ process becomes unprofitable because of a technological shift or competition or whatever and XYZ company decides that it's going to have its existence legislatively mandated, tax its customers (blank CD 'royalty'), and/or that it's going to crapshoot by suing competitor ABC for bullcrap reasons.
Note: By looking at the moon(tm), using it as a source of nocturnal illumination, or using its gravitational field for any purpose (e.g. use of tides and tidal forces) then you agree to the terms in the EULA.
I have no problem with folks making money off their inventions and their labour; however, I take great exception to software patents and am fed up with the patent system in general. It desperately needs to be reformed - and not by the lobbyists representing the growing "IP Industry".
Now, on to the ballpark on-topic Coca-Cola question -
0% goes back to the US as royalties. It goes to Coca-Cola's offshore IP (intellectual property) entity which is not taxed because it's not a US corporation.
Even those companies which originally formed in the US of A only need to re-form offshore and presto-changeo - they're an offshore company with subsidiaries located in the United States...and don't have to pay all those pesky taxes.
Taxes are for those who are too poor to dodge them.
There's this convoluted relationship between Coca-Cola, the IP (intellectual property) entity, Coca-Cola the syrup producers, and Coca-Cola the bottlers. When one entity gets sued, the other is theoretically blameless.
Example: Coca Cola's Death Squads. You see they "don't own or operate the [bottling] plants..." after all.
I was sysadmin, programmer, web developer...and developed+supported our web inventory system plus the 7 other companies that bought it. *gasp*
Now I'm on 40 hours a week plus consulting on the side. 8 hours on the clock, 8 hours of blissful sleep, 5 minute commute...less than 10 hours a week consulting for good $...heaven...
Stress down, weight down, can't wipe the smile off my face with an axe.
Still do miss some things - but not family time, weekends, friends time, birthday parties, holidays, vacation time...
I've run an IT department in a large company in the "real world" for several years; I've hired, fired, and managed folks. Never would I have publicly humiliated a former employee like this.
If installing SETI@Home is all he did wrong, I wouldn't have fired him either. I would most certainly have disciplined him and reviewed his permissions/other boxes he's touched. However, I would not have fired him for just that. He made a mistake; point it out to him, admonish him for it, and move on. If he did it again, then I'd send him packing.
Treat those who work for you with respect, especially when you're disciplining them, and yes - even when you're firing them. They're people, goddamn it - treat them like you'd like to be treated.
Proponents claim it would help law enforcement determine that you are who you claim to be and would make forgeries less common.
Yeah? It would make it easier for me to know who you are too. One enterprising geek on the subway could snag everyone's identities. You thought cell phone cloning was a problem? Hoo buddy.
Joe Geek might not be able to forge an ID, but he doesn't have to in order to snag someone's identity.
Not sure about the whole third-world idea, though. All I can say is, it's better than letting them build their own reactors. At least with these, we'll 100% KNOW if plutonium is missing.
"...better than letting them" What arrogance. Why, pray tell, should the United States and the current nuclear club be the only countries to develop nuclear power? Or - yes - even nuclear weapons. Who made the United States the ruler of world affairs?
You want to stop nuclear proliferation? How about starting with the United States, Israel, England, France, India...
I don't have a problem with copyrights or paying for software, music, movies, etc. However, software patents (BS) and ever-expanding copyright times means that stuff that should end up in the public domain doesn't. Culture, creativity, and science are stifled as a result.
The brewing war against open source software via software patents will damage the economic futures of the children to whom Greedy McEvil will be speaking. Theft is wrong, whether it's some guy cracking Microsoft's software activation or some company keeping you from using their patented loop
for x=0 to 100
response.write x+1 & " patent lawyers against the wall.<br>"
next 'x
in your application.
So let's vote for Greedy McEvil, the toothy copyright ferret.
On a side note, I had a friend with a couple of ferrets. His daughter was introducing me to them:
Me (petting a ferret): "This one's really soft, what's its name?"
Her: "That's Cotton."
Me (reaching for the other ferret): "What's his name?"
Her: "Bitey."
Lesson: Wait for a proper introduction before petting someone's ferret. Bite-y was aptly named.
Seriously, though. Demopublicans, Republicrats, same same. Both parties are feeding at the corporate trough. I'm hopeful that under Kerry we'll have Evil Lite rather than Double Evil with Cheese and Curly Fries.
I like Nader and his take on things - I've been a fan for a long time. But I don't think he has a shot - he's not going to be on the ballot in many states, some of them key states like California.
It would be nice if one day we can have a third party candidate who (a) had a hope in hell, (b) wasn't a nutball, and (c) had the stones to be a progressive rather than a "me too" corporate slave.
Slashdot Mirror
And since we just recently had a story about typing recently, I'll suggest these folks update their web site and scrape away the BS. To wit:
>>And even those who do touch type do
>>so with a letter layout that was
>>specifically designed to slow down typing
>>so the first mechanical typewriter keys wouldn't
>>jam.
*sigh* No, no it wasn't.
>>The Dvorak lets you type faster
*sigh* No, no it doesn't.
>>Let me ask you, when someone comes up to
>>you and says "I work at Microsoft" , what
>>is your first reaction?
Laughter.
The article is all fluff; everything dies. To borrow from Bill Shatner's "You'll have time":
Live life
Live life
Like you're gonna die
Because you're gonna
I hate to be
The bearer of bad news
But you're gonna die
Maybe not today or even next year
But before you know it
You'll be saying:
Is this all there was?
What was all the fuss?
Why did I bother?
Now
Maybe you won't suffer
Maybe it's quick
But you'll have time to think
Why did I waste it?
Why didn't I taste it?
You'll have time
'Cause you're gonna die
There's little more than crap on TV. If I can subscribe to shows I'd like to see then who cares if Fox executives don't like it or it ticks off some group of bluehairs? Subscription will mean better quality - shows won't have to cater to the lowest common denominator. Even 1 million subscribers is probably enough to cover the production costs for a good scifi show. TV syndication will probably be where you get the profit.
As for Trek, I gave up. Compared to FireFly, Enterprise just doesn't cut it. There was something interesting now and then and lots of eye candy, but overall I consider the quality of Enterprise to be poor.
Your mileage may vary, batteries not included, etc.
Other times the terrible mind warping stuff was books, movies, or music. Now it's videogames.
Doom, GTA, neck snapping in Price of Persia 2, and virtually storming the beaches at Normandy in Day of Defeat isn't going to turn kids into rampaging pairs of Harris & Klebold any more than D&D turned me and my friends into throat slashing demonically possessed murderers.
This is *stupid* and so are the legislators pushing it and the people who support it.
I've slowed down since and now average about 80wpm and have learned not to strike the keys quite so hard. My hands don't ache as much and I've considered going with one of those whiz-bang carpal-friendly keyboards before I come down with CTS. Coding can be tough on the hands.
Anyway, one semester my room-mate and I believed the Dvorak myth and decided to try out switching. We bought new keyboards that supported both standards and came with two sets of keycaps, then made the switch.
It took us about a month to re-learn touch typing and it was a bitch. Neither one of us caught up to our previous speeds - we even played typing games to help - we got to maybe 2/3-3/4 of our previous typing speeds.
While we were okay on our computers we both found it very frustrating to use others. Being geeks, we frequently needed to work on other machines and lugging a keyboard around wasn't really a solution. We decided to abandon Dvorak and went back to QWERTY. In a week or two we were back to ballpark of our old typing speeds, though it was a frustrating transition.
The moral of the story is an old one: if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
With a SuperDrive, Bluetooth 2.0 + Airport Extreme, 512MB RAM (will probably crack open and put in a 1GB module), an 80GB drive, and .Mac (for antivirus and etc.) it came to $999.98. I was *expecting* it to be around $1k and I think the price is right.
This will be the first Mac I've owned. I've been looking at the platform since OS X and recently evaluated the new iMac and 17" PowerBook. The Mac mini is exactly what I was looking for - a low cost entry-level system. All the Unix goodness with a nice interface. If the platform works for me (for development), then I'll pop for a 17" G5 PowerBook when they roll out.
Since about 1998, I've been dealing with MultiWave for parts at home and work. Prior to that I used multiple vendors. Always had an excellent experience with Multiwave. I picked out the hardware and had my staff assemble our workstations and servers and except for a bad Adaptec RAID card (which we RMAed), had zero problems with server hardware.
Had some problems with the Shuttle SV24 and SV25 boxes - mostly power supplies and overheating. But Shuttle made good on the warranties and we switched to another standard for all new workstations.
I've found that it's best to develop a relationship with a single decently priced vendor that's not going to give you shit when you need to RMA something or get a batch of bad drives. I've found MultiWave to be that vendor for me. I don't work for 'em and don't earn a dime from 'em. I've spent about a half million dollars with them over the years and have been happy.
I've also found that roll your own is best. Every major vendor I've dealt with has been shitty. Do some due diligence - put together 3-4 different workstations (different mixes of reliable whitebox hardware) and test the hell out of them. Run them through the wringer, pick out the best of the lot and buy a zillion of them. It doesn't really matter what you standardize on as long as you standardize and it's reliable.
Anyway, it's worked for me.
A soldier usually has the option; however, given the shortage and stop loss situation I wouldn't be surprised to see amputees being involuntarily put back in the mix, perhaps in a support role rather than combat arms. It wouldn't be the most f***ed up thing the Army has ever done, but it would be close.
Believe it or not, some people actually think they are doing the right thing being over there, and could feasibly want to continue doing it with a fake leg.
I never said otherwise. Some troops feel it's the right thing, some troops feel that the whole thing is FUBAR. Most soliders I know fall into the second category. Regardless of that, you want to be with your unit and your buddies. You do your duty. Even though you'd rather everyone be home.
As the saying goes: opinions are like a**holes, everybody's got one. I think this whole Iraq mess was FUBAR from the get go.
Even so, if I could I would go so my brother or some other guy with kids wouldn't have to do another tour. But I can't - my knees and hips are screwed up and I was bounced out twice on a medical. The day I turned in my TA-50 and finished outprocessing was one of the most disappointing days of my life.
That's nothing compared to what these guys are going through - I can walk and I have all my limbs. BTW, getting banged up was a combination of bad luck compounded by my own stupidity and wasn't the Army's fault.
You get your leg amputated after your second tour, get an artifical leg, do rehab, then...get sent back to Iraq for tour #3?
Hopefully soldiers returning to combat after amputation have volunteered to do so. Imagine getting sent back again involunarily after losing a leg.
These soldiers deserve the best gear and care we can give them. Tragically they're not getting it, especially critical after-care, follow-ups, meds, counseling, etc. Clinics and a few hospitals are closing, and new soliders are having many medical benefits phased out because their incomes are judged to be "too high." We're not talking Generals here, we're talking folks that make under $40k a year.
Take a look at the unclassified stats for WIAs (pdf).
>>on merits, or evolve their product, is
>>pretty much admitting that they're behind
>>the tech curve by doing a slap suit.
Yup - when you can't compete, sue.
This ticks me off so much because it's completely without merit. No company has the right to profit or the right to their market. If I want to give something away that someone else pays for (assuming I have the rights) then boo-fucking-hoo. I'm not arguing for price-dumping, which is how the big boys run the little guy out of business.
What irritates me is that XYZ process becomes unprofitable because of a technological shift or competition or whatever and XYZ company decides that it's going to have its existence legislatively mandated, tax its customers (blank CD 'royalty'), and/or that it's going to crapshoot by suing competitor ABC for bullcrap reasons.
Screw the ACS.
Any volunteers?
OT? Good grief, know what a sense of humour is?
Father Mahoney, is that you?
Now if you'd like to license it, here are the terms (pdf).
Note: By looking at the moon(tm), using it as a source of nocturnal illumination, or using its gravitational field for any purpose (e.g. use of tides and tidal forces) then you agree to the terms in the EULA.
All your decency are belong to me.
Seriously, though, WTF? This is a huge stretch beyond their authority. I'm talking Reed Richards here.
Now, on to the ballpark on-topic Coca-Cola question -
0% goes back to the US as royalties. It goes to Coca-Cola's offshore IP (intellectual property) entity which is not taxed because it's not a US corporation.
Even those companies which originally formed in the US of A only need to re-form offshore and presto-changeo - they're an offshore company with subsidiaries located in the United States...and don't have to pay all those pesky taxes.
Taxes are for those who are too poor to dodge them.
There's this convoluted relationship between Coca-Cola, the IP (intellectual property) entity, Coca-Cola the syrup producers, and Coca-Cola the bottlers. When one entity gets sued, the other is theoretically blameless.
Example: Coca Cola's Death Squads. You see they "don't own or operate the [bottling] plants..." after all.
How is criticizing the Administration being anti-American?
Now I'm on 40 hours a week plus consulting on the side. 8 hours on the clock, 8 hours of blissful sleep, 5 minute commute...less than 10 hours a week consulting for good $...heaven...
Stress down, weight down, can't wipe the smile off my face with an axe.
Still do miss some things - but not family time, weekends, friends time, birthday parties, holidays, vacation time...
If installing SETI@Home is all he did wrong, I wouldn't have fired him either. I would most certainly have disciplined him and reviewed his permissions/other boxes he's touched. However, I would not have fired him for just that. He made a mistake; point it out to him, admonish him for it, and move on. If he did it again, then I'd send him packing.
Treat those who work for you with respect, especially when you're disciplining them, and yes - even when you're firing them. They're people, goddamn it - treat them like you'd like to be treated.
FUD time...
Proponents claim it would help law enforcement determine that you are who you claim to be and would make forgeries less common.
Yeah? It would make it easier for me to know who you are too. One enterprising geek on the subway could snag everyone's identities. You thought cell phone cloning was a problem? Hoo buddy.
Joe Geek might not be able to forge an ID, but he doesn't have to in order to snag someone's identity.
Might want to tin-foil coat that wallet...
"...better than letting them" What arrogance. Why, pray tell, should the United States and the current nuclear club be the only countries to develop nuclear power? Or - yes - even nuclear weapons. Who made the United States the ruler of world affairs?
You want to stop nuclear proliferation? How about starting with the United States, Israel, England, France, India...
A buddy of mine had to go back to using his umbilical cord mouse after getting the MX700 because of short battery life issues.
It looks pretty on the desk, but doesn't really do anything. Kind of like a model hired for ComDex.
They've ditched the whole currency scheme - now it'll cost 10 shares of Google stock per CPU.
I don't have a problem with copyrights or paying for software, music, movies, etc. However, software patents (BS) and ever-expanding copyright times means that stuff that should end up in the public domain doesn't. Culture, creativity, and science are stifled as a result.
The brewing war against open source software via software patents will damage the economic futures of the children to whom Greedy McEvil will be speaking. Theft is wrong, whether it's some guy cracking Microsoft's software activation or some company keeping you from using their patented loop
for x=0 to 100
response.write x+1 & " patent lawyers against the wall.<br>"
next 'x
in your application.
So let's vote for Greedy McEvil, the toothy copyright ferret.
On a side note, I had a friend with a couple of ferrets. His daughter was introducing me to them:
Me (petting a ferret): "This one's really soft, what's its name?"
Her: "That's Cotton."
Me (reaching for the other ferret): "What's his name?"
Her: "Bitey."
Lesson: Wait for a proper introduction before petting someone's ferret. Bite-y was aptly named.
Seriously, though. Demopublicans, Republicrats, same same. Both parties are feeding at the corporate trough. I'm hopeful that under Kerry we'll have Evil Lite rather than Double Evil with Cheese and Curly Fries.
I like Nader and his take on things - I've been a fan for a long time. But I don't think he has a shot - he's not going to be on the ballot in many states, some of them key states like California.
It would be nice if one day we can have a third party candidate who (a) had a hope in hell, (b) wasn't a nutball, and (c) had the stones to be a progressive rather than a "me too" corporate slave.
Kang: Go ahead, throw your vote away.