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User: JawzX

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  1. Re:this is kind of cool but ... on Rio Carbon MP3 Has A 5G CF To Be Cannibalized · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The Kingston drive is cool kit and nicely priced, but its PCMCIA not CFII.

  2. Re:JVC did it first... on Sony's HDV 1080i Consumer Camcorder · · Score: 1

    I concede that the Sony offers higher resolution and some other nice features (3 CCDs) but the JVC was still first, and that was the point of my post.

  3. Re:JVC did it first... on Sony's HDV 1080i Consumer Camcorder · · Score: 1

    Just to clarify: The JVC offers 720p recording and lists for $3,499.

  4. JVC did it first... on Sony's HDV 1080i Consumer Camcorder · · Score: 4, Informative

    I beleive the JVC GR-HD1US has been avialble for more than a year now, and at a slightly lower price than the Sony. Sony seems to have been spending a lot of (well considered) money on the PlayStation 2&3 platform and ignoring the "consumer electronics" feild for a while now. They just aren't up to snuff compared to Panasonic, JVC, Zenith and the other giants.

  5. Re:req'd hypertasking as a management technique on The Downside of 'Hypertasking' · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I agree, managers take ruthless advantage of anyone who "shows potential" by further burdening them with additional tasks. This is not a new idea, thechnology has just made it easier to pile the work in front of the hardest workers. Used to be you had to actualy physicaly put something in front of the hard workers, now you can just click "send" and take advantage of the people who either enjoy or take actual pride in getting things done. It's social manipulation, pure and simple. On the down side of this managers now rarely get to SEE how hard someone is working and the ones who don't have all the work piled in front of them get promoted becuase they have TIME to suck up to management.

  6. Re:Many more SSH login attempts on Internet Meltdown Predicted for Tomorrow · · Score: 1

    it appears they brute-forced the router password...She had complained of slow connections and a look back at the security log showed endless "Administrator login attempted, Failed: Invalid Password" events.

  7. Re:Result of Free Markets on Broadband Envy: Fixing American Broadband · · Score: 1

    I've been on the waiting list for EVERY major and minor ISP serving the state of Vermont for OVER 4 YEARS. Sure the major cities (*cough* all three of them) in this State are served by Verizon, Adelphia and the other giants, but I'm less than 30 miles from one of these and the options are: 1) Dialup. unlimited 56k v.92, 15.95/mo 2)ISDN. $500 setup fee, $110/mo for single, $150/mo dual, must purchase own equipment. 4) AT&T managed Fractional T1. about the same price as ISDN, but much faster, requires 12mo contract. 3) Nothing.

    On average this state is pretty well off and there are lots of people willing and able to pay for high-speed, but does anyone offer DSL or Cable outside of the population centers? No. I can get Cable TV, I can see the freaken' Verizon switch-shed from my front window..."Verizon will notify you as soon as DSL becomes available in your area..." And when might that be? I (and 70% of my neighbors) have been on that list for ATLEAST a year. A Local ISP is setting up WaveRider wireless service in the next town over, so maybe within the year I'll actualy HAVE AN option I can afford, but this has taken FAR too long... If this is what happens in a free market, I wouldn't mind some gov't control.

    P.S. Since I rent in an appartment building Satellite is not an option. plus I Install the damn things (both Direcway and Starband), I know what kind of "performance" they offer for your monetary investment... I'll get a second, or third phone line and set up a modem bank before I pay for Satellite Internet.

  8. Deja Vu? on A Flying Leap for Cars? · · Score: 1

    Wasn't the "10 year" thing what they said in the 60s when the Flymobile came out?

  9. Re:Many more SSH login attempts on Internet Meltdown Predicted for Tomorrow · · Score: 3, Interesting

    As a matter of fact a customer of mine was recently probed and her dsl (verizon) router was temp. seized by an IP originating in China... First time I've ever seen that. Changed her password, stealthed all ports, updated firmware, no problems since, but stange nontheless.

  10. Who? on Television On Your Cell Phone · · Score: 2, Funny

    I can understand that someone, somewhere actualy WANTS this functionality on thier cell phone, but not me, or anyone I know personaly. So WHO? Where? lets take a little mini survey; Who are you? Where are you? Why do you want/need TV functionality on your cell phone? I consider "becuase it's cool" to be an invalid reason and all replys using that excuse will be smacked with a large, fresh, very cold Trout, or ignored, whichever comes first.

  11. Just what we need... on Gene Therapy Turns Slackers Into Workaholics · · Score: 1

    Hey! Porductivity is down again, I think we need to hire some more gene-modified workers. I know, we should just fire all the normals and set up shop with half the number of modifieds! This'll save the customer lots of money be decreasing our cost of operation!

    Oh wait, we'll put half the workforce out of a job and then we'll only sell half as much stuff...No mater, we'll still make the same profit and we'll reduce overhead due to space requirements! lets do it!

    Just what we need.

    What we really need is more vacation time and a livable wage!

  12. Two Best I've Seen... on Laptops with the Longest Battery Life? · · Score: 1

    The TRS-80 model 100 I picked up a yard sale for $5, (and later sold to a colector for $65) ran for the whole 2 months I had it in my posession on a single set of 4 Energizer AA's.

    When it was new my significant other's Gen-2 300Mhz G3 iBook (Bondi) would extract about 6.5-7 hours from a battery when used lightly and the screen dimmed. It would also get nearly 4 hours of The Sims! Of course the machine is 4 years old now and the original battery only lasts about 1 hour. We keep meaning to buy a new battery, but then we think about just spending the money on a new 17" PowerBook...Then reality hits and we go buy groceries.

  13. Re:Apple.com has a great accelerator on Windows Accelerators - Do They Really Work? · · Score: 1

    Glad someone brought this up! Win requires far to much maintainance that the average user has NO CLUE how to perform to keep running well.

    BTW: Win2Kpro, best OS M$ has made yet.

  14. Re:Hershey bar and the macintosh amp on Abused, But Working Hardware Stories? · · Score: 1

    it's McIntosh... and they do make some fantastic amps with fantastic protection circuits. A recent review in Sterophile magazine included this little jem from the McIntosh tech guys...
    I paraphrase...

    "The Power Guard protection circuit constantly monitors the input and output waveform and matches them to each other before output to the speaker terminals. This allows the amp to safely run at "several times" it rated power (500 watts) for long periods of time without damage. Incidentaly, the output sections are rated to provide 500 amps of instantanious power and 100 amps continuous power"

    hot-damn, that's what we call over-engineered.

  15. Early Power Macs... on Abused, But Working Hardware Stories? · · Score: 1

    A guy I know was one of the first 100 or so people to actualy GET a powermac 6100 when they first came out. The machine he got had an absurdly low serial number. After about 6 months it started crashing badly and regularly. He figured it was an OS problem and did a clean install, then he re-formated the HD, then he replaced the HD, etc etc etc... Finaly he got a letter from Apple "we are recalling PowerMac 6100's serial #s xxxxxxx through xxxxxxx due to faulty heat-sink glue on the processors." He thought "huh, I've got some heat-sink glue, no need to send it back to Apple, I'll just fix it myself"... So he opened up the case, sure enough the heat-sink was slid off the processor and laying ontop of a few other chips, (He had just shut the machine down) then poked the CPU, pulled his hand back and said "ouch! that's Hot!" upon further inspection he discoverd that the CPU had actualy partialy de-soldered itself from the mother-board due to the temperature it was running! He re-installed the heat-sink, touched up some solder joints and the thing worked fine for years to come.

  16. Re:A good use for RFID? on Marian The Robot Librarian · · Score: 1

    how about those nifty 2-D bar codes? Maybe a little less scary than RFID, but just as effective...

  17. Re:This might help. on Building Your Own Extra-Large Keyboard · · Score: 1

    looks like a nice board, I might have to try one...

  18. Re:How about small keyboards? on Building Your Own Extra-Large Keyboard · · Score: 1

    I know I know, it's ADB, but have you looked at the old Apple Adjustable Keyboard? Small, flexible angle adjustment, remote number pad, and still has nice key action...I still wouldn't give up my Apple Pro KB II for one, but it's a nice piece as far as mini-keyboards go.

  19. Re:Modern crappy keyboards on Building Your Own Extra-Large Keyboard · · Score: 1

    I agree! I have a USB to ADB adapter on my G4 for the sole reason that I *WILL NOT* trade my Apple Pro Keyboard II for one of the new USB keyboards (despite the presence of an eject button). The Pro II just has better key action, bigger keys, a caps lock key that *gasp* LOCKS DOWN, and more angle adjustment than modern keyboards. I do use a Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer though...

  20. Re:Still no better mousetrap on 486 Turns 15 Years Old · · Score: 1

    Who says you have to buy the newset OS? I still use Win 2K and MacOS 9.2 (atleast on my older machines)

  21. Re:Look, folks. Do it now, nicely, or be blindside on Labor Department Downplays Offshoring · · Score: 1

    I don't get insurance.

  22. Re:Never heard of the 80/20 rule? on Labor Department Downplays Offshoring · · Score: 1

    As the manager of an independent electronics retailer I can attest to this fact better than many. We sell quality brands at competetive prices (for those brands) but what do people do? They head to Walmart and buy a Fung-gua-dang-crap DVD player that has crappy build quality, crappier interface, and WILL break in a year. Why? 'cuz it only costs $35. The 80/20 rule is a killer. And if you think the "rich" provide a market for quality goods, think again, my store is located in Stowe Vermont (a VERY rich town for those who aren't familure with it) and the number of Chang-Junk TVs and Crap-Fu VCRs that you fing in 10 million dollar homes is truely unbelievable.

  23. Re:Look, folks. Do it now, nicely, or be blindside on Labor Department Downplays Offshoring · · Score: 1

    Thats true, but I'm not talking about the price of consumer goods, I'm talking about the cost of "just getting by". What i mean by that is:

    a) Having enough food that you aren't starving
    b) Having a (heated) roof over your head when you sleep
    c) Affording to get to and from your place of employment.

    This is completely setting aside "luxuries" like owning your own car, going out to eat, owning a TV or computer, or watching a movie every once in a while.

  24. Re:Look, folks. Do it now, nicely, or be blindside on Labor Department Downplays Offshoring · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I think one of our fellow Slashdoters has a sig line that says the following:

    "If They have access to our jobs, I want access to thier cost of living"

    This my friends is the crux of the matter. One thing we must understand is that the cost of living in the United States is so high that we literaly CAN'T AFFORD (monitarily speaking) to compete with off-shore jobs. One of the main reasons an Indian tech support company can pay thier workers the equivalent of $2 an hour is that the cost of living in India is so low that $2 an hour is actualy a COMPETEIVE WAGE! Maybe if healthcare, housing (especialy housing), education, and food were cheaper in the US we could compete, but the fact is you're lucky if you can even find a nearly condemned hole in the wall to live in for $320 a month, let alone pay for food, transportation and medical costs.

    Unfortunately we really have no one to blame but our selves, the American economy has driven these costs up. Perhaps when half the US is unemployed due to out-sourcing prices will drop and then we'll be competetive again. Until then it's gonna be rough, and I don't fault anyone for complaining.

  25. Business prectices, and appreciation of the unique on What Keeps You Off of Windows? · · Score: 1

    I don't like windows a whole lot, and becuase it is the largest installed base there are cetainly more viruses and hacks written for it than any other OS. This is partly M$ fault for producing mediocre code, and partly the world's faulf for letting them get away with it. If windows is kept in a nice secure box and not fucked with on a regular basis it's an annoying, obfuscated but perfectly usable OS. Mac OS X is certainly more user friendly and reliable under the kinds of mistakes average users make, and Linux is flexible, fast and free, but what really drives me away from Windows are M$ underhanded business tactics and my like of esoteric things in general. I drive an Alfa Roemo and just bough an MZ motorcycle, why? Becuase they are differnt, unique, interesting, AND well built. I like technology that forces me to learn about it, sure Windows forces you to learn about new worms and new ad-ware every week, but there are 1,000,000s of people out there who know about that. How many people know how to re-wire the thermal fan switch in a '92 Alfa 164-S? I like being the guy who know about stuff no one else does, and using other OSs turns me into that guy. I guess it's largely selfish. That, and although I understand WHY people write viruses for Windows I wish they'd just cut it the fuck out.