Thank you. I could not agree more. At risk of being labelled a "troll", I also do not understand why this is being reported on Slashdot.
And in response to the reader who said that nerds are interested in this sort of thing, I whole-heartedly disagree. Perhaps I run with a different class of "nerds", but none that I know would care at all about this story.
About 6 months ago, my broadband provider had a router problem (packets were being routed in a loop). I essentially had no connectivity. I called and explained what was happening. It was obvious they support guy had no clue what I was talking about, and when I explained I had used traceroute and found this problem he thought I was some sort of "hacker" [sic]. Anyway, he began trying to troubleshoot the problem and began with, "Is your cable modem plugged into a power strip"? I said yes. He directed me to plug it directly into my outlet instead of the power strip. I was confounded. I basically scoffed at him, which made him mad, and he said, "Do you want me to help or not?". I said, "No thanks".
You know those women who wear way too much perfume? Often times that are approximately 50 years old and their copious amounts of perfume is accompanied by too much makeup?
Well I work with a lady like that. I can smell her coming down the hall long before I ever see her! Then the scent of her bad perfume lingers in the air for like 10 minutes after she leaves.
Pretty much the same thing. I call it her "advanced aromatic scent projection subsystem", which emits her chosen scent (perfume) in a 100 meter radius.
The server linked to was slashdotted, so I found this via Google. Not all that impressive...
No, I don't have algorithm to generate winning numbers. (I would have to assume that they are randomly generated anyways) But, after my 5th winning pepsi top in a row, I'm pretty confident in my ability to pick a winner by examining the bottle. Assuming that the intial bottles really are only 1 in 3 winners and are evenly distributed (which isn't a given) then 5 in a row is good, but not conclusive.
Anyways, on the bottles I've seen, you can actually see under the cap you down the kneck of the bottle. If the lighting is sufficient, you'll be able to make out at least a couple of letters. If you see a number then you have a winner. You'll look like a fool staring down bottles to find a surefire winner, but being a cheapskate isn't glamorous work.
I don't know any method to win with the 7-11 Big Gulp cups where the code is on the rim of the winning cup. I've gotten 2 of 3 winners using my patented "pick the first cup" algorithm. The only strategy I've heard of to increase your odds is the "double cup". Some people claim that the stores don't mind if you do it, but to me it's crossing over from legitimate "selection optimization" to "theft".
I've mentioned this before, but I'd sure like to know how other *nix variants (FreeBSD, OpenBSD, etc.) rate in terms of percent growth, not just market share. Example: if FreeBSD was found on 750 servers, and then n month later 1000 were found... 33% increase.
That is more interesting to me than market share, and I'd expect the BSD variants to be growing more raidly.
I have othing against Linux. I'm just an old Linux user (since 1994) who was recently won over by BSD.
How do you decompose in space?
on
Space Burial
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
It will be very interesting to follow this and see who was responsible for the leak, if that is even possible. I'm guessing that Microsoft will blame someone rather than remain silent.
Could it be someone who had access to the code under NDA?
for years people have been predicting that tape backups would die... but its still here, and i don't think it is going away anytime soon!
despite advances in disk-based storage and optical disks as a means to backup data, tape is still predominant. optical disk is nice for very fast restore, but they are very slow in terms of backup. since users tend to backup data regularly and (hopefully) never have to restore, optical disk seems to be lacking. disk-based storage (for whatever reason) is not yet widely accepted.
many in the data protection industry joke that tape will never die!
I am switching to DirectTV this week. I did a lot of research. Here is what I discovered.
I currently have Comcast cable/internet. I will get jammed another $10-$15 per month if I have internet without cable TV. This was initially what stopped me from switching, but I'm so fed up with Comcast that it doesn't matter anymore. In the end, I will pay about the same as what I pay now. However, I will get 1) more channels, 2) a DVR, 3) a receiver for 3 rooms/TVs. Try getting that from your cable provider.
So my buddy just switched, and he loves his satellite. I just saw the who thing (DirectTV, DVR, the works) in action as his place this weekend. I was impressed. I asked about how the weather effects his signal, and despite having some heavy snow storms this past week, he has had no problems. For the record, even with cable TV I occasionally lose my signal or get "noise". (This is digital cable I have, and it can be ugly at times). So as far as I can tell, cable is just as likely to experience signal problems as satellite.
As far as the DVR goes, I recently read an article about the options consumers have these days. You can buy a unit yourself or get one through your cable/satellite provider. Over a 2-3 period, getting your DVR through your satellite provider was the least expensive. I believe the monthly cost is $5 for the Tivo feature. I can do that.
I am currently investigating wether customers can upgrade their DVRs at a later time. It sounds to me like in the near future these will include an interface (USB?) such that you can save your recorded shows to PC. Nice. I want that capability!
I've been and Linux user since 1993, and most of that time was spent using Redhat. When Redhat recently spun-off Fedora, I thought it might be time to give other distros a chance.
I tried Debian. I had many problems. I did become quite comfortable with the installer, but despite my repeated attempts to install and configure X and a few other key things I needed, I was never successul. I think Debian has some very attractive parts to it (apt, for one), but in the end I abandoned it. I eventually went with FreeBSD and am very happy with it.
This leads me to my question. It seems this report suggests that Debian is the fastest growing *Linux* distro. But how does it compare to the growth of FreeBSD? Seems to me like FreeBSD is growing rapidly, perhaps more rapidly that Debian or any Linux distro. Seems to me like many hard-core *nix users are moving to FreeBSD. I could very well be wrong, but I'd love to know how FreeBSD compares to (in terms of growth).
I am sick of her reviews. Sorry. I can't believe Slashdot links to them.
Seriously, what sort of "review" mentions that the user/reviewer forgot where bash was? Are you kidding me? There are several comments in this review that are ridiculous. If I recall, one of her last reviews contained a few complaints about how she had to edit a file in order to configure something (don't remember what it was). What a joke.
Well, anyway... I laughed hysterically when I read that someone else had the same feelings about Eugenia's incompetent reviews.
I may have to go back and read some of her other reviews and post some of my favorite Eugenia comments in her lame OS reviews.
OK, I don't really have it all that bad, but I read something about office temperatute and had to chime in.
I heard a report (NPR, if I recall) that 80% of all thermostats in the office are phony. Rather, they control nothing.... probably don't even have any wires connected to them.
I live/work in the Minneapolis area... and it gets pretty cold in my office in the winter. I wish my computers generated more heat!
Perhaps I am too simple-minded, and I'm not seeing the "big picture" here, but this is how I've always summed up the whole pop-up add thing:
Obviously, internet users are annoyed. Hell, I find it downright disgusting how many pop-up ads are out there. Well, somebody is *paying* for that pop-up ad. So that must mean it is effective. That doesn't add up for me. I mean, what business wants to make contact with potential customers by repeatedly annoying them? You can extend this argument to spammers, telemarketers, etc. We all complain about how damn annoying they are, but they are still around, and people are willing to pay for them, so they must be effective! (?) What gives?
I guess it is a "customer awareness" thing. Example: company who advertiese with pop-up ads may annoy, but you can't say you haven't heard of them now! And maybe they next time you need the good/services that company provides, you will remember them. Now you are "aware" of them. It sucks. Annoying millions for the sake of benefiting from the small percentage who may take the bait. Same thing as spam.
OK, so nothing new so far.
But I've always believe that eventually (hopefully sooner than later) the backlash would be so great that it would no longer prove to be worthwhile to employ such annoying advertising methods. Easier said than done. For me, the simple (perhap over simplified) truth is that annoying millions of potential customers is not a good way to drum-up business. I guess when you play to numbers game, a small percentage of a large number.... well, you get the idea. Still, I am waiting for an independent study to reveal that customers are finally PISSED OFF.
Even some well-known companies have resorted to pop-ads. This shocks me because they probably already have the recognition that most pop-up advertisters are looking for. Seems like this can only result in bad public relations (of you ask me, but as I said before, I'm probably being naive). Anyway, you can bet that big-internet-travel-company who loves to annoy me with pop-up ads will never see a penny of my money, let alone my web traffic.
Any thoughts on if/when we will hit the point where the effects of using such annoying advertising techniques will lose its effectiveness?
I had almost the exact same thing happen to me. I needed to replace a part of the laptop screen about 9 months ago on an older laptop. The cost would be well over $600. I found that to be ridiculous. Not only that, but I could not just buy the part I needed -- I had to buy a half-dozen other parts as well -- because they don't sell that replacement part outside of a "kit". Ridiculous.
I said "no thanks" (they computer wasn't worth it anyway... as I mentioned, this laptop was about 2 years old). For not much more than it would have cost me to replace the part(s), I got a new laptop. Oh... but I did *not* buy from that manufacturer who was trying to jam me on replacement parts, and I informed them of this and the reasons behind it!
Seems that (unfortuntately) laptops are "disposable" in a sense. If you are unfortunate enough to break one, you might as well just throw it away. Replacement parts are so costly that a new laptop is usually a better buy (at least in my situation). Now I have a somewhat broken laptop in my closet.... just a replacement part away from being good as gold.
I used to have DSL, and was quite happy here in the Twin Cities. Then I bought a house and moved to a location where cable was my only option.
My broadband connection (via cable) works just fine. In the past 12 months I have had one major technical problem which lasted 24 hours. I get steady download rates, so I'd say it is "quality", if quality means you get what you should come to expect. I mean, that is the way things are *supposed* to work, so I'm not going to say it is "great quality" just because it works. (I thought I would interject this rant because the question of price in terms of quality has been mentioned more than once).
Now my real rant... I have a cable provider from whom I get television and broadband from. This gets me a a "discount" applied to my internet cost. I use the term "discount" loosely. I suspect many of you also have this "discount". Without the discount, my broadband would cost me upwards of $60 (USD) per month! We could have a glass-half-full vs. glass-half-empty debate, but to me it seems like instead of getting a $15 discount for having both cable AND broadband, its more like paying a $15 penalty if I decide I don't want cable TV. Seems like I am getting screwed, especially since (as far as I know) most people don't have a choice of cable providers. So I'm stuck... sorta.
I'd like to get satellite TV, but I would miss the $15 "discount". I have a friend who finally was TV but kept broadband (paying a higher rate now). The icing on the cake was that the charged him a "downgrade fee". What a load of sh*t.
If money is the root of all evil, then the cable companies are trying to collect as much evil as they can.
I've never messed around with this stuff, but a close friend of mine has. I've learned enough from his experience to have a few thoughts on this topic.
From what I have heard, MythTV is pretty nice. Lets assume you plan to run that or something similiar on a Linux box, and that you aren't will to spend a lot.
Obviously you wiil need plenty of disk space. Seems like RAID 0 would be nice, since there will be plenty of disk I/O while recording.
Other things to think about:
You can do this with one of the cheap (~$50) TV cards from Hauppage and it works well from what I have heard. I don't know much about the high-end cards and what they can do, but you said "cheap", so I'll go with that. So in this case all the encoding of audio/video takes place on your CPU. Don't underestimate the importance of processing power in this case. My friend had an older machine (~1.2 GHz) which he figured would make a good PVR box. Well, it had a really hard time keeping up, especially when he wanted to watch a show while recording it.
Are you going to be using this machine for other tasks, or is it a dedicated PVR box? From what I hear, if your machine in under-powered you won't be able to do much else.
Maybe someone else can comment on experience with these less-expenisve TV cards and the amount of processing power required???
After my friend upgraded to a fairly fast, new processes/mainbord/etc, he had much more success. The moral of my story is not waste your time trying to turn your "old" box into a PVR with a cheap TV card. Seems like you are either going to have to have a newer system with plenty of power or a more advanced TV card which can encode the video for you.
Slashdot Mirror
Thank you. I could not agree more. At risk of being labelled a "troll", I also do not understand why this is being reported on Slashdot.
And in response to the reader who said that nerds are interested in this sort of thing, I whole-heartedly disagree. Perhaps I run with a different class of "nerds", but none that I know would care at all about this story.
My 2 cents.
About 6 months ago, my broadband provider had a router problem (packets were being routed in a loop). I essentially had no connectivity. I called and explained what was happening. It was obvious they support guy had no clue what I was talking about, and when I explained I had used traceroute and found this problem he thought I was some sort of "hacker" [sic]. Anyway, he began trying to troubleshoot the problem and began with, "Is your cable modem plugged into a power strip"? I said yes. He directed me to plug it directly into my outlet instead of the power strip. I was confounded. I basically scoffed at him, which made him mad, and he said, "Do you want me to help or not?". I said, "No thanks".
What a moron.
I hope this means he won't be smashing my beautiful SimCity anymore!
[anybody else remember when Godzilla would randomly wreak havoc in SimCity?]
That is a pretty good wishlist.
I'm hoping for a tow-truck so that we can do repo-man missions.
Whatever you decide to do, be sure to invite me over to you place as soon as you have it up and running!
You know those women who wear way too much perfume? Often times that are approximately 50 years old and their copious amounts of perfume is accompanied by too much makeup?
Well I work with a lady like that. I can smell her coming down the hall long before I ever see her! Then the scent of her bad perfume lingers in the air for like 10 minutes after she leaves.
Pretty much the same thing. I call it her "advanced aromatic scent projection subsystem", which emits her chosen scent (perfume) in a 100 meter radius.
I hate to mention SCO since many /. readers are tired of hearing about it, but...
To quote a web source, a "racket is an act based on the blackmail, the intimidation and the fear, to get the money or the goods of others".
Sounds like SCO to me. Maybe someone will countersue SCO for racketeering?
Just a thought. I'm no expert on these sorts of things, but it seems (on the surface) to be applicable.
No, I don't have algorithm to generate winning numbers. (I would have to assume that they are randomly generated anyways) But, after my 5th winning pepsi top in a row, I'm pretty confident in my ability to pick a winner by examining the bottle. Assuming that the intial bottles really are only 1 in 3 winners and are evenly distributed (which isn't a given) then 5 in a row is good, but not conclusive.
Anyways, on the bottles I've seen, you can actually see under the cap you down the kneck of the bottle. If the lighting is sufficient, you'll be able to make out at least a couple of letters. If you see a number then you have a winner. You'll look like a fool staring down bottles to find a surefire winner, but being a cheapskate isn't glamorous work.
I don't know any method to win with the 7-11 Big Gulp cups where the code is on the rim of the winning cup. I've gotten 2 of 3 winners using my patented "pick the first cup" algorithm. The only strategy I've heard of to increase your odds is the "double cup". Some people claim that the stores don't mind if you do it, but to me it's crossing over from legitimate "selection optimization" to "theft".
What that black hole did to that star was just plain wrong!
Did you see that? That star rolled-up on that black hole, but that black hole wasn't messing aroung. It straight-up punked that star!
Let this be a lesson to stars everywhere: you better think twice before rolling up on some black hole's turf. Word.
Frankly, I'm just curious.
You are correct that it doesn't matter how many people use a given OS. What works for me is all I need, right? Agreed.
Like I said... I am just curious. Can't a guy be curious anymore? Sheesh.
I've mentioned this before, but I'd sure like to know how other *nix variants (FreeBSD, OpenBSD, etc.) rate in terms of percent growth, not just market share. Example: if FreeBSD was found on 750 servers, and then n month later 1000 were found... 33% increase.
That is more interesting to me than market share, and I'd expect the BSD variants to be growing more raidly.
I have othing against Linux. I'm just an old Linux user (since 1994) who was recently won over by BSD.
Anybody know how the human body decays in space?
Sorry for the gruesome question, but I'm curious.
It will be very interesting to follow this and see who was responsible for the leak, if that is even possible. I'm guessing that Microsoft will blame someone rather than remain silent.
Could it be someone who had access to the code under NDA?
Thoughts?
for years people have been predicting that tape backups would die... but its still here, and i don't think it is going away anytime soon!
despite advances in disk-based storage and optical disks as a means to backup data, tape is still predominant. optical disk is nice for very fast restore, but they are very slow in terms of backup. since users tend to backup data regularly and (hopefully) never have to restore, optical disk seems to be lacking. disk-based storage (for whatever reason) is not yet widely accepted.
many in the data protection industry joke that tape will never die!
I am switching to DirectTV this week. I did a lot of research. Here is what I discovered.
I currently have Comcast cable/internet. I will get jammed another $10-$15 per month if I have internet without cable TV. This was initially what stopped me from switching, but I'm so fed up with Comcast that it doesn't matter anymore. In the end, I will pay about the same as what I pay now. However, I will get 1) more channels, 2) a DVR, 3) a receiver for 3 rooms/TVs. Try getting that from your cable provider.
So my buddy just switched, and he loves his satellite. I just saw the who thing (DirectTV, DVR, the works) in action as his place this weekend. I was impressed. I asked about how the weather effects his signal, and despite having some heavy snow storms this past week, he has had no problems. For the record, even with cable TV I occasionally lose my signal or get "noise". (This is digital cable I have, and it can be ugly at times). So as far as I can tell, cable is just as likely to experience signal problems as satellite.
As far as the DVR goes, I recently read an article about the options consumers have these days. You can buy a unit yourself or get one through your cable/satellite provider. Over a 2-3 period, getting your DVR through your satellite provider was the least expensive. I believe the monthly cost is $5 for the Tivo feature. I can do that.
I am currently investigating wether customers can upgrade their DVRs at a later time. It sounds to me like in the near future these will include an interface (USB?) such that you can save your recorded shows to PC. Nice. I want that capability!
Does this mean we will get another "review" from Eugenia over at osnews.com?
$99 is an attractive price, but lets not forget that to play games online with the Xbox, you must pay a fee ($6/month or $50/year).
As long as PS is free to play online, I'll stick with it.
I am in the same situation.
I've been and Linux user since 1993, and most of that time was spent using Redhat. When Redhat recently spun-off Fedora, I thought it might be time to give other distros a chance.
I tried Debian. I had many problems. I did become quite comfortable with the installer, but despite my repeated attempts to install and configure X and a few other key things I needed, I was never successul. I think Debian has some very attractive parts to it (apt, for one), but in the end I abandoned it. I eventually went with FreeBSD and am very happy with it.
This leads me to my question. It seems this report suggests that Debian is the fastest growing *Linux* distro. But how does it compare to the growth of FreeBSD? Seems to me like FreeBSD is growing rapidly, perhaps more rapidly that Debian or any Linux distro. Seems to me like many hard-core *nix users are moving to FreeBSD. I could very well be wrong, but I'd love to know how FreeBSD compares to (in terms of growth).
Amen to that.
I am sick of her reviews. Sorry. I can't believe Slashdot links to them.
Seriously, what sort of "review" mentions that the user/reviewer forgot where bash was? Are you kidding me? There are several comments in this review that are ridiculous. If I recall, one of her last reviews contained a few complaints about how she had to edit a file in order to configure something (don't remember what it was). What a joke.
Well, anyway... I laughed hysterically when I read that someone else had the same feelings about Eugenia's incompetent reviews.
I may have to go back and read some of her other reviews and post some of my favorite Eugenia comments in her lame OS reviews.
Agreed.
I think I'll head over to justsportsusa.com right now and buy something. Anyone who stands up to the SCO bullies like that deserves my business!
OK, I don't really have it all that bad, but I read something about office temperatute and had to chime in.
I heard a report (NPR, if I recall) that 80% of all thermostats in the office are phony. Rather, they control nothing.... probably don't even have any wires connected to them.
I live/work in the Minneapolis area... and it gets pretty cold in my office in the winter. I wish my computers generated more heat!
Perhaps I am too simple-minded, and I'm not seeing the "big picture" here, but this is how I've always summed up the whole pop-up add thing:
Obviously, internet users are annoyed. Hell, I find it downright disgusting how many pop-up ads are out there. Well, somebody is *paying* for that pop-up ad. So that must mean it is effective. That doesn't add up for me. I mean, what business wants to make contact with potential customers by repeatedly annoying them? You can extend this argument to spammers, telemarketers, etc. We all complain about how damn annoying they are, but they are still around, and people are willing to pay for them, so they must be effective! (?) What gives?
I guess it is a "customer awareness" thing. Example: company who advertiese with pop-up ads may annoy, but you can't say you haven't heard of them now! And maybe they next time you need the good/services that company provides, you will remember them. Now you are "aware" of them. It sucks. Annoying millions for the sake of benefiting from the small percentage who may take the bait. Same thing as spam.
OK, so nothing new so far.
But I've always believe that eventually (hopefully sooner than later) the backlash would be so great that it would no longer prove to be worthwhile to employ such annoying advertising methods. Easier said than done. For me, the simple (perhap over simplified) truth is that annoying millions of potential customers is not a good way to drum-up business. I guess when you play to numbers game, a small percentage of a large number.... well, you get the idea. Still, I am waiting for an independent study to reveal that customers are finally PISSED OFF.
Even some well-known companies have resorted to pop-ads. This shocks me because they probably already have the recognition that most pop-up advertisters are looking for. Seems like this can only result in bad public relations (of you ask me, but as I said before, I'm probably being naive). Anyway, you can bet that big-internet-travel-company who loves to annoy me with pop-up ads will never see a penny of my money, let alone my web traffic.
Any thoughts on if/when we will hit the point where the effects of using such annoying advertising techniques will lose its effectiveness?
I had almost the exact same thing happen to me. I needed to replace a part of the laptop screen about 9 months ago on an older laptop. The cost would be well over $600. I found that to be ridiculous. Not only that, but I could not just buy the part I needed -- I had to buy a half-dozen other parts as well -- because they don't sell that replacement part outside of a "kit". Ridiculous.
I said "no thanks" (they computer wasn't worth it anyway... as I mentioned, this laptop was about 2 years old). For not much more than it would have cost me to replace the part(s), I got a new laptop. Oh... but I did *not* buy from that manufacturer who was trying to jam me on replacement parts, and I informed them of this and the reasons behind it!
Seems that (unfortuntately) laptops are "disposable" in a sense. If you are unfortunate enough to break one, you might as well just throw it away. Replacement parts are so costly that a new laptop is usually a better buy (at least in my situation). Now I have a somewhat broken laptop in my closet.... just a replacement part away from being good as gold.
I used to have DSL, and was quite happy here in the Twin Cities. Then I bought a house and moved to a location where cable was my only option.
:]
My broadband connection (via cable) works just fine. In the past 12 months I have had one major technical problem which lasted 24 hours. I get steady download rates, so I'd say it is "quality", if quality means you get what you should come to expect. I mean, that is the way things are *supposed* to work, so I'm not going to say it is "great quality" just because it works. (I thought I would interject this rant because the question of price in terms of quality has been mentioned more than once).
Now my real rant... I have a cable provider from whom I get television and broadband from. This gets me a a "discount" applied to my internet cost. I use the term "discount" loosely. I suspect many of you also have this "discount". Without the discount, my broadband would cost me upwards of $60 (USD) per month! We could have a glass-half-full vs. glass-half-empty debate, but to me it seems like instead of getting a $15 discount for having both cable AND broadband, its more like paying a $15 penalty if I decide I don't want cable TV. Seems like I am getting screwed, especially since (as far as I know) most people don't have a choice of cable providers. So I'm stuck... sorta.
I'd like to get satellite TV, but I would miss the $15 "discount". I have a friend who finally was TV but kept broadband (paying a higher rate now). The icing on the cake was that the charged him a "downgrade fee". What a load of sh*t.
If money is the root of all evil, then the cable companies are trying to collect as much evil as they can.
Thanks for listening to my rant.
I've never messed around with this stuff, but a close friend of mine has. I've learned enough from his experience to have a few thoughts on this topic.
From what I have heard, MythTV is pretty nice. Lets assume you plan to run that or something similiar on a Linux box, and that you aren't will to spend a lot.
Obviously you wiil need plenty of disk space. Seems like RAID 0 would be nice, since there will be plenty of disk I/O while recording.
Other things to think about:
You can do this with one of the cheap (~$50) TV cards from Hauppage and it works well from what I have heard. I don't know much about the high-end cards and what they can do, but you said "cheap", so I'll go with that. So in this case all the encoding of audio/video takes place on your CPU. Don't underestimate the importance of processing power in this case. My friend had an older machine (~1.2 GHz) which he figured would make a good PVR box. Well, it had a really hard time keeping up, especially when he wanted to watch a show while recording it.
Are you going to be using this machine for other tasks, or is it a dedicated PVR box? From what I hear, if your machine in under-powered you won't be able to do much else.
Maybe someone else can comment on experience with these less-expenisve TV cards and the amount of processing power required???
After my friend upgraded to a fairly fast, new processes/mainbord/etc, he had much more success. The moral of my story is not waste your time trying to turn your "old" box into a PVR with a cheap TV card. Seems like you are either going to have to have a newer system with plenty of power or a more advanced TV card which can encode the video for you.