*Shudder* Their software has been responsible for more screwed up computers in my (university student-serving) helpdesk then virtually any other piece of crapware. I like the idea of getting rid of ICANN, but New.Net is infinately worse.
That's hardly true any more. Any modern game will allow you to set AI difficulty/AI CPU time, sometimes seperately. For instance, Battlefield (any variant) allows you to set "Overall bot difficulty" and "CPU time given to AI" (5~25%). I'm not entirely sure, but I believe Unreal Tournament 2004 has a similar setting.
I don't know about you but I never got a good grade from a professor I argued constantly with.
Get better professors, then. Any professor who isn't open to learning, who thinks he knows everything there is to know about a field and that it will never change, doesn't deserve to be in a teaching position for long. Every field changes, where it's computer science or economics -- arguments with students can bring out new ideas.
Now, if a student argues every point for the sake of arguing, yeah, you can fail him. But arguing about politics when you make a definitive statement that could be considered opinion is morally wrong, and stupid to boot.
You can see it because it actually happens. I work a tier 1 helpdesk for a top 20 university. You'd think that the people here would be smarter then your average person simply because of the strict admissions requirements. However, I've had no fewer then four cases in the past four months where someone has bought a new machine because they're old box was running slowly due to spyware/adware. They'll bring the old machine in and either try to sell it or have us clean it up for a gift to a relative or something similar.
And those are just four where I happen to have found out about them. I can't imagine all the cases where I don't find out...
... and just because some Linux code also appears in SCO's Unix doesn't mean that the lines were copied there illegally by IBM or anyone else. But that hasn't stopped Darl from proclaiming it so, has it? Does anyone think SCO will _not_ claim this was written by overzelous Linux hax0r types?
It may have seemed like stealing, but I don't think it was. It was just useful ideas for a science fiction series to tackle. Read JMS's notes on B5, and note the number of times where he says DS9 or Trek. Most of the time, he's talking about B5 "stealing" a Trek plot (by developing it independently, not actual thievery). Remember, production cycles can be different, so it doesn't matter which is aired first.
I've never understood the people who liked Babylon 5 and not DS9 or vice-versa. The shows are very similar. I pesonally like DS9 about a hair's breadth more then Bab5 (oddly enough, due to the history provided by the Trek universe, continuous or not), but the fact that so many different plots that were developed independantly on both shows were so similar should be a hint.
Um, ST:E has the strongest unified storyline of any Trek save DS9. At the risk of going against the Established Geek Doctrine (TM), I rather enjoy Enterprise. It's the first show I've seen that comes at Time Travel from the point of those affected rather then those doing the traveling. Granted, it has stepped on a lot of Trek continuity toes (compare "Carbon Creek" with DS9's "Little Green Men", or the entire storyline with DS9's "Trials and Tribble-ations") Yes, the characters are a little weak. UPN doesn't have the money for a Patrick Stewart or Avery Brooks. Given their resources, Enterprise is just about the best show possible. I, for one, want it to stay.
Well, I might agree with you, except a friend of mine just sat on his laptop, broke the screen, and the guy replaced it no questions asked. I work for the ITS department, and as far as I know, this rep has _never_ turned down a repair.
I should mention the unique situation I have. I work for a top-20 university as a student employee in the ITS department. We deal with software, but everyone always calls us for hardware too. Every engineering student at this school is forced to buy a $2800 laptop with a four year completecare warranty. Dell is _very_ good about their service, seeing as they don't want to lose a seven million dollar per year contract.
Dell CompleteCare. Covers accidents, and well just about everything. Perhaps it's just my local rep, but he said we could basically toss the laptop out the window and get a replacement, as long as we said it wasn't 'intentional'.
and it's generally accepted that 22khZ is the most we can hear.
Perhaps that is true, but AFAICT that per instrument, at least for me. I can most certain tell the difference between regular CD audio and DVD-A/SACD audio with my Sennheisers. It's especially noticable in the high trebles, like the upper portions of a symbol crash. Which leads to a question -- is the FLAC format easily extendable for more channels/higher sampling rates? That would be incredibly useful.
Honestly, I've never understood why people find this message stupid/pointless. Virtually every time I see it, I reach down, plug in my keyboard, and hit F1; works like a charm. And it's an easy way to make sure the problem is actually fixed.
Well, I'd wager that's a 2.6Ghz Celeron machine. Give me a 1.6Ghz Duron anyday -- it's half the price, 133% of the performance (even on OLD boards!), and it gives me more money for things that matter (like, say, RAM and video card).
I can't believe OEMs are still selling Celeron machines. People must really believe the "MHz Myth", because you can get a Barton 2500+ for the price of a Celeron 2.6Ghz that simply makes the Celeron go and hide in shame for its utter lack of competency. Pair it with an older KT400A board (<$50), and you've got a hell of a system (RAM+motherboard+processor) for under $200. Check out this review over at Anandtech to see what I mean.
Real estate is really that expensive in TX? Seems like with all that space, people wouldn't be so crowded. Where I grew up (Johnson City, TN), an 80'x20' house (that's 1600 sq. ft) runs us $500/mo, including water. ($.3125/sq. ft) Of course, that is in a so-called "bad neighborhood" and with an active train track 50 ft from the house. But single-parent households like mine can't really afford to be choosy.
(There is a positive side to growing up that close to a train track: now that I'm in college dorms, I sleep peacefully every night while my hallmates complain of all the noise. Ahh, blissful sleep;-)
This is AOL's warning shot across Microsoft's bow. They are saying "Don't fuck with us." Think about this -- if AOL can disable random services, they sure as hell can uninstall random software on the users machine. they can disable MSN messeneger by default -- or even REPLACE it with AOL software. They can remove all links to Internet Explorer and replace it with their own browser. They're telling Microsoft that is MS makes it hard on AOL, AOL is going to make it hard on MS.
Even if this had no ulterior motive, it is still a Good Idea. Your typical AOL subscriber leaves their computer wide open. Normally, that would be their problem, but with root level bugs that require no user intervention, such as the RPC DCOM exploits, it becomes EVERYONEs problem. When my Internet connection is slowed because of the idiots who run cable connections with AOL broadband, it is imperitive that someone step in and patch those machines. You think AOL wants to spend the bandwidth and processor power required to send and/or reject all those packets?
I am a member of a IT department that supplies a medium-large college with internet access. While we don't actually automatically patch users machines, we do block access to the network for simply being unpatched (by MAC address). Many people would be outraged, but the fact remains that our network is infinitely more secure now then it was 8 weeks ago. Border security is no security at all. I personally welcome AOL's choice in this matter.
Well, excuse me, but it's a long way from a V2 rocket to a Mercury capsule. Yeah, the Germans (van Braun in particular) had lots of good *theory*, but obviously they never launched a man into space. The Russian Soyez capsule has been going to space for a long, long time, so we're in a bit of a different situation.
Maybe I'm not reading the article right, but it looks to me like it just blocks you if you try to share files. Use Kazaa Lite, disable sharing. Problem solved. That is what my ITS department recommends. We don't actually block them if they insist on sharing, but the RIAA lodges a complaint fast enough. Then their connection goes away. If they do it twice, we just hand the RIAA their name to persue legal action.
We also scan computers for vulnerabilities. If a computer is vulnerable to $worm_of_the_week, we disable their connection by MAC Address until they get it fixed. Sorry, but we DON'T want to be a part of spreading the next RPC DCOM virus. We certainly don't want to see our SMTP servers (yes, multiple) backed up over 10 hours because of a Swen like virus, so we insist that everyone install our virus scanner, too (advanced users are excepted from this, but they get a stern talking to and a disconnection if they are owned). Why is this a bad thing? Our network, our rules. Don't like it? Get other Internet access. Fixed-point wireless is available here....
Well, I don't know about _your_ telco, but maybe you weren't asking the right questions.
I had a second phone line in my house for Internet only. It took me all of 2 minutes to set up with Sprint. "I want the following services, only: local service, tone dialing. I want no local toll carrier, and no long distance carrier. Yes, I want to lock these choices in. No, I don't give you premission to contact me with special long distance offers. No, I'll do the installation myself, thanks. Yes, good-bye. Click"
24 hours later, I'm online. No questions asked. Now, the fact that Tennessee charged me a 'luxury tax' on my 2nd phone line wasn't their fault...
Two years later, I leave the house, and cancel the phone line (not moving, btw, just canceling it). This took me THREE minutes, because I had to wait on hold.
Verisign installs a mailsink on this new catch-all domain. Spammer sends to a fake address using a fake address. Verisign bounces with a 550 -- to themselves, which bounces -- to themselves, which bounces...
Sometimes you can't opt out. Most of the cases where ports are blocked are this way. E-mail filtering isn't always opt-out-able either. For instance, two of my accounts cannot recieve the full disclosure list because there is no way to turn off e-mail virus scanning on a per-account basis (luckily the other ones can).
Slashdot Mirror
The Vanderbilt Hustler reports that nine "notifications of intent to subpoena" were submitted there, as well.
*Shudder* Their software has been responsible for more screwed up computers in my (university student-serving) helpdesk then virtually any other piece of crapware. I like the idea of getting rid of ICANN, but New.Net is infinately worse.
That's hardly true any more. Any modern game will allow you to set AI difficulty/AI CPU time, sometimes seperately. For instance, Battlefield (any variant) allows you to set "Overall bot difficulty" and "CPU time given to AI" (5~25%). I'm not entirely sure, but I believe Unreal Tournament 2004 has a similar setting.
Mobility Radeon 9700. 'Nuff Said.
Get better professors, then. Any professor who isn't open to learning, who thinks he knows everything there is to know about a field and that it will never change, doesn't deserve to be in a teaching position for long. Every field changes, where it's computer science or economics -- arguments with students can bring out new ideas.
Now, if a student argues every point for the sake of arguing, yeah, you can fail him. But arguing about politics when you make a definitive statement that could be considered opinion is morally wrong, and stupid to boot.
You can see it because it actually happens. I work a tier 1 helpdesk for a top 20 university. You'd think that the people here would be smarter then your average person simply because of the strict admissions requirements. However, I've had no fewer then four cases in the past four months where someone has bought a new machine because they're old box was running slowly due to spyware/adware. They'll bring the old machine in and either try to sell it or have us clean it up for a gift to a relative or something similar.
And those are just four where I happen to have found out about them. I can't imagine all the cases where I don't find out...
... and just because some Linux code also appears in SCO's Unix doesn't mean that the lines were copied there illegally by IBM or anyone else. But that hasn't stopped Darl from proclaiming it so, has it? Does anyone think SCO will _not_ claim this was written by overzelous Linux hax0r types?
I didn't think so.
It may have seemed like stealing, but I don't think it was. It was just useful ideas for a science fiction series to tackle. Read JMS's notes on B5, and note the number of times where he says DS9 or Trek. Most of the time, he's talking about B5 "stealing" a Trek plot (by developing it independently, not actual thievery). Remember, production cycles can be different, so it doesn't matter which is aired first.
I've never understood the people who liked Babylon 5 and not DS9 or vice-versa. The shows are very similar. I pesonally like DS9 about a hair's breadth more then Bab5 (oddly enough, due to the history provided by the Trek universe, continuous or not), but the fact that so many different plots that were developed independantly on both shows were so similar should be a hint.
Um, ST:E has the strongest unified storyline of any Trek save DS9. At the risk of going against the Established Geek Doctrine (TM), I rather enjoy Enterprise. It's the first show I've seen that comes at Time Travel from the point of those affected rather then those doing the traveling. Granted, it has stepped on a lot of Trek continuity toes (compare "Carbon Creek" with DS9's "Little Green Men", or the entire storyline with DS9's "Trials and Tribble-ations") Yes, the characters are a little weak. UPN doesn't have the money for a Patrick Stewart or Avery Brooks. Given their resources, Enterprise is just about the best show possible. I, for one, want it to stay.
Well, I might agree with you, except a friend of mine just sat on his laptop, broke the screen, and the guy replaced it no questions asked. I work for the ITS department, and as far as I know, this rep has _never_ turned down a repair.
I should mention the unique situation I have. I work for a top-20 university as a student employee in the ITS department. We deal with software, but everyone always calls us for hardware too. Every engineering student at this school is forced to buy a $2800 laptop with a four year completecare warranty. Dell is _very_ good about their service, seeing as they don't want to lose a seven million dollar per year contract.
Dell CompleteCare. Covers accidents, and well just about everything. Perhaps it's just my local rep, but he said we could basically toss the laptop out the window and get a replacement, as long as we said it wasn't 'intentional'.
Perhaps that is true, but AFAICT that per instrument, at least for me. I can most certain tell the difference between regular CD audio and DVD-A/SACD audio with my Sennheisers. It's especially noticable in the high trebles, like the upper portions of a symbol crash. Which leads to a question -- is the FLAC format easily extendable for more channels/higher sampling rates? That would be incredibly useful.
Honestly, I've never understood why people find this message stupid/pointless. Virtually every time I see it, I reach down, plug in my keyboard, and hit F1; works like a charm. And it's an easy way to make sure the problem is actually fixed.
Well, I'd wager that's a 2.6Ghz Celeron machine. Give me a 1.6Ghz Duron anyday -- it's half the price, 133% of the performance (even on OLD boards!), and it gives me more money for things that matter (like, say, RAM and video card).
I can't believe OEMs are still selling Celeron machines. People must really believe the "MHz Myth", because you can get a Barton 2500+ for the price of a Celeron 2.6Ghz that simply makes the Celeron go and hide in shame for its utter lack of competency. Pair it with an older KT400A board (<$50), and you've got a hell of a system (RAM+motherboard+processor) for under $200. Check out this review over at Anandtech to see what I mean.
Real estate is really that expensive in TX? Seems like with all that space, people wouldn't be so crowded. Where I grew up (Johnson City, TN), an 80'x20' house (that's 1600 sq. ft) runs us $500/mo, including water. ($.3125/sq. ft) Of course, that is in a so-called "bad neighborhood" and with an active train track 50 ft from the house. But single-parent households like mine can't really afford to be choosy.
;-)
(There is a positive side to growing up that close to a train track: now that I'm in college dorms, I sleep peacefully every night while my hallmates complain of all the noise. Ahh, blissful sleep
I'm a tier 1 tech support guy and it only took me three tries to figure out how to answer the phone! cut us some slack!
(This is true, btw. The phones here are completely counter-intuitive on how you answer them in headset mode)
Um, dude, that was the joke. ATM Machine == Automated Teller Machine Machine. PIN Number == Personal Identification Number Number.
I know that the whole 'reading' thing must be hard for you, but please, try it next time...
This is AOL's warning shot across Microsoft's bow. They are saying "Don't fuck with us." Think about this -- if AOL can disable random services, they sure as hell can uninstall random software on the users machine. they can disable MSN messeneger by default -- or even REPLACE it with AOL software. They can remove all links to Internet Explorer and replace it with their own browser. They're telling Microsoft that is MS makes it hard on AOL, AOL is going to make it hard on MS.
Even if this had no ulterior motive, it is still a Good Idea. Your typical AOL subscriber leaves their computer wide open. Normally, that would be their problem, but with root level bugs that require no user intervention, such as the RPC DCOM exploits, it becomes EVERYONEs problem. When my Internet connection is slowed because of the idiots who run cable connections with AOL broadband, it is imperitive that someone step in and patch those machines. You think AOL wants to spend the bandwidth and processor power required to send and/or reject all those packets?
I am a member of a IT department that supplies a medium-large college with internet access. While we don't actually automatically patch users machines, we do block access to the network for simply being unpatched (by MAC address). Many people would be outraged, but the fact remains that our network is infinitely more secure now then it was 8 weeks ago. Border security is no security at all. I personally welcome AOL's choice in this matter.
Well, excuse me, but it's a long way from a V2 rocket to a Mercury capsule. Yeah, the Germans (van Braun in particular) had lots of good *theory*, but obviously they never launched a man into space. The Russian Soyez capsule has been going to space for a long, long time, so we're in a bit of a different situation.
Maybe I'm not reading the article right, but it looks to me like it just blocks you if you try to share files. Use Kazaa Lite, disable sharing. Problem solved. That is what my ITS department recommends. We don't actually block them if they insist on sharing, but the RIAA lodges a complaint fast enough. Then their connection goes away. If they do it twice, we just hand the RIAA their name to persue legal action.
We also scan computers for vulnerabilities. If a computer is vulnerable to $worm_of_the_week, we disable their connection by MAC Address until they get it fixed. Sorry, but we DON'T want to be a part of spreading the next RPC DCOM virus. We certainly don't want to see our SMTP servers (yes, multiple) backed up over 10 hours because of a Swen like virus, so we insist that everyone install our virus scanner, too (advanced users are excepted from this, but they get a stern talking to and a disconnection if they are owned). Why is this a bad thing? Our network, our rules. Don't like it? Get other Internet access. Fixed-point wireless is available here....
Well, I don't know about _your_ telco, but maybe you weren't asking the right questions.
I had a second phone line in my house for Internet only. It took me all of 2 minutes to set up with Sprint. "I want the following services, only: local service, tone dialing. I want no local toll carrier, and no long distance carrier. Yes, I want to lock these choices in. No, I don't give you premission to contact me with special long distance offers. No, I'll do the installation myself, thanks. Yes, good-bye. Click"
24 hours later, I'm online. No questions asked. Now, the fact that Tennessee charged me a 'luxury tax' on my 2nd phone line wasn't their fault...
Two years later, I leave the house, and cancel the phone line (not moving, btw, just canceling it). This took me THREE minutes, because I had to wait on hold.
Maybe you need to look for CLECs in your area?
Verisign installs a mailsink on this new catch-all domain. Spammer sends to a fake address using a fake address. Verisign bounces with a 550 -- to themselves, which bounces -- to themselves, which bounces...
I think you see the picture. Am I right?
Sometimes you can't opt out. Most of the cases where ports are blocked are this way. E-mail filtering isn't always opt-out-able either. For instance, two of my accounts cannot recieve the full disclosure list because there is no way to turn off e-mail virus scanning on a per-account basis (luckily the other ones can).
PING galileo.nasa.gov (127.0.0.1) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from galileo.nasa.gov (127.0.0.1): icmp_seq=1 ttl=50 time=0.030 ms
64 bytes from galileo.nasa.gov (127.0.0.1): icmp_seq=2 ttl=50 time=0.018 ms
64 bytes from galileo.nasa.gov (127.0.0.1): icmp_seq=3 ttl=50 time=0.022 ms
64 bytes from galileo.nasa.gov (127.0.0.1): icmp_seq=4 ttl=50 time=0.025 ms
--- galileo.nasa.gov ping statistics ---
4 packets transmitted, 4 received, 0% packet loss, time 2997ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.018/0.023/0.030/0.007 ms
Damn! I knew those NASA spooks were hiding their FTL travel machines! Probably can't figure out the units...