I imagine also, that a quick websearch might lead you to handicapped access software and hardware thatcould be useful to your grandmother. After all, she needs to type for more than just forms and this would help her out if she wants to write email or write anything else for that matter.
I'd also take a serious look at the type of mouse/or trackball she is using. These devices usually force the hand into an artificially cramped position that is painful for arthritis sufferers.
We'll all grow old eventually and helping the elderly deall with problems like this now means that better solutions will exist when we face these problems.
If you find anything interesting in your research, please share it, via Slashdot or your own website.
So I fooled around a little more with the code and found that images got displayed without the body tags if there was plain text above the image tags, but not if text was below the image tags. This explains why some images on citizenchris still appear, but only after some text.
I'm just curious what's going on with the browser itself so that it behaves this way. It wants a body tags but does without them if there is some text somewhere before, but not afterwards. Is this a bug or a feature? If it is a feature, trying to adjust to deficiently coded documents, then why not display the images without any text? And why is the browser picky with images but not other tags, like ?
We know that the browser doesn't like some invalid documents, but why does it like some but not others? And what purpose does it serve the browser not to be lax and just display the doc as ie 6 does?
I'm using mozilla 1.2 in Windows '98. why won't this page or this other one display all of their images properly, but rather show a broken image link placeholder? Works fine in ie 6.0.
How about a career change, or government work? If you are a halfway competent computer guy, most civil service exams should be a snap. Try the Post Office. They're often hiring, at least on a temporary basis.
I'm not a biologist, but even counting the quick breeding cycle of frogs (1/year?, could speciation occur in such a small amount of time/generations?
And what nuke tests are you taslking about. France hasn't had any colonial possessions near Sri Lanka for some 200 years or so. And I thought they did all their testing by their Pacific Island possessions and perhaps their North African ones.
But it still is much more "novice-user" friendly than RH, and RH is pretty user-friendly for a Linux distro.
As was also pointed out in the interview, another of RH's shortcomings is hardware support. This is not really RH's fault. Microsoft gets hardware support for free for Windows because hardware vendors generally write the drivers themselves, because of the need to support the ubiquitous Windows user base.
Apple has a nice Unix-based OS, but really only one small core set of hardware to support. Even Apple users must be sometimes frustrated with not being able to use some hardware because of lack of Apple drivers.
RH, and by inference Linux, still isn't ready to challenge Windows with "Joe and Jane User". The UI seems to be moving towards that goal. I wonder if the hardware-support ever will. It's a chicken and egg type of dilemma - vendors don't support Linux until it gets more users and most users avoid Linux because of lack of hardware support.
And it will be too bad if Linux, or OSS in general, doesn't get more of a foothold on more desktops, because Microsoft really is an evil empire more attuned to its own megalomanical business needs than the need of end-users.
It's notable that the interviewees admitted that RH is still not ready as a consumer desktop.
Rather, RH is meant to be used by non-technical users on a carefully controlled system, installed by a knowledgeable systems administrator.
A lot of the PR I've read on 8.0 are breathless in proclaiming 8.0 as a Windows replacement, but as RH's own developpers point out, this is not the case.
Re:"Benefits" of killing the Alpha and PA-RISC...
on
Itanium Problems
·
· Score: 2
This is another case of intellectual property ownership having the perverse effect of stifling innovation and the general welfare.
HP kills the technology of these two worthy chips by choosing a third option. In doing so, they effectively reduce the aggregate technical knowledge available for use by our society for their own gain.
As a society, we protect intellectual property so that the creators can use it, not so that they can lock it away. This is a case of current law perversely hampering the general welfare.
Intellectual property should only be protected when it is used by its owners.
Use it or lose it. If HP doesn't want to use Alpha or PA-RISC technology, then others should be allowed to do so.
I would say that the extra degree is worth it, especially if you decide to go onto graduate school in the future.
More importantly, the extra math credential is a great signal to others as to your qualifications in the subject. If you ever need a position that requires math credentials, that degree is many of orders of magnitude more important than just bullshitting about how many math courses you took.
I see the allure of taking it easy before you graduate, but I would recommend that you buckle down and get the extra qualifications and then maybe take off a little time after you graduate.
Generally, academic credentials are overrated, but for the minimum amount of extra work that you need for this one, I would go for it. The extra price you pay now, in terms of time and effort, may really pay off in the future.
Remember, employers generally don't look at your grades, so you don't need to excel in those final courses.
Just think of the extra hoops you'll need to jump through if you ever decide you want that math degree later on. Get it now and never worry about it again.
Also, having a CS and Math degree shows that you are more than just a code monkey. It shows that you can think abstractly on subjects and have an intellectual grounding in the fundamentals of computing, as well as a practical ability.
And once you graduate, go on a summer-long bender.
And for goodness' sake, don't ask for important advice from complete strangers online : )
A little historical perspective on time management of subordinates.
This is from "My Three Years with Eisenhower" (pp. 247-248) by Captain Harry C. Butcher, USNR, Eisenhower's personal aide and diarist during WWII. It begins with a quote from General Marshall, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff during WWII, regarding Dwight D. Eisenhower during his stint as C-in-C for the North African campaign. This was told to Eisenhower's personal aide:
<citation>
[General Marshall said,] "When I brought him [Eisenhower] to head the Operations Division after Pearl Harbor, I put him in the place of a good officer who had been in that job two years. I felt he [the previous officer] was growing stale from overwork and I don't like to keep any man on a job so long that his ideas and forethoughts go no further than mine. When I find an officer isn't fresh, he doesn't add much to my fund of knowledge, and, worst of all, doesn't contribute to the the ideas and enterprising push that are so essential to winning the war. General Eisenhower had a refreshing approach to problems. He was most helpful. But he began to work sixteen or eighteen hours a day and before he left, I was beginning to worry about him, just as I did his predecessor. You must keep him refreshed, but knowing him as we do, it will take ingenuity. It is your job in the war to make him take care of his health and keep that alert brain from overworking, particularly on things his staff can do for him. You must get a masseur. That will give him exercise and, most of all, relaxation"
So today I [Butcher, the aide] have found a masseur of four years' experience, whom I am taking to the house tonight, only Ike doesn't know it.
Have just told Ike it's time to go home - 5:15 - that the masseur is waiting to accompany him.
"Holy smoke," he said, "a masseur?"
"Yes, sir, my orders from your superior, sir, General Marshall."
"Well," said Ike, "send a message to McCarthy for the Big Boss [meaning Marshall] that the masseur has been obtained by you as per instructions and is already at work.
</citation>
I guess it just goes to show that not all management, especially the successful ones, are slave-driving buffoons.
If I recall, the head of Bush's computer security team said not too long ago that he believed government should take a less belligerent tone with white-hat hackers who crack systems without malice.
While maybe these guys should have approached this exploit differently, the fact is that they meant no harm in their actions and in fact have probably done us all a service by exposing, without exploiting (except perhaps for some cheap publicity), somebody else's fuckup in the US ARMY.
Does anyone really believe that any greater good is served by pursuing criminal sanctions against these guys?
It should be noted that Mrs. Torvalds is a karate champion (a fact he frequently trumpets in his autobiography). This may be more than just idle talk from Mr. Torvalds.
I don't see why it's not OK to call a company with this sort of question. It certainly would be expected if you are publishing a story about them, especially one this important.
OK. I'll try it, calling 1 (800) 726-9695 as listed on their website(I know it's an 800 number but I got the same answering machine earlier on the toll number)...
Still waiting on hold... Heh, heh, it's probably a bunch of slashdotters clogging up the lines...
OK, it's been over a minute now, I'll try the toll # 1 (847) 360-7500... Hmmm... still on hold... And it's the same message as the toll #, so I'll hang up and try the toll-free number again (no reason to run up my phone bill).
So after waiting on hold another few minutes I give up. Guess I'm no responsible journalist
Why I hate Slashdot
on
VisionTek Folds
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
And why I hate OCP for that matter.
This seems like a big enough story that I'm surprised that it's scooped in a dopey source like HardOCP. What really bothers me is that they didn't even bother getting any reply from Visontek. I tried calling their HQ but it's before start of business.
I wander if some PR flack will soon be looking for a job.
Unless the story is true, but I doubt that it is. My guess is there is a germ of truth to this story, but no more. There may be a reorganisation in the works, but I dount it is more than that. Even if there is, it is pretty irresponsible journalism to publish such a big story with no verification.
For all you amateur lawyers stating Verizon has no case in blocking the site from deseminating its information, might I point out that the sight has taken the info offline.
Verizon's lawyers' letter had the desired effect, even if just temporarily.
Big companies can successfully bully you into shutting up, just like any mafia thug.
My biggest regret about college was that I didn't plan ahead for the real world.
I don't mean that I regret meeting girls, hanging out with friends, occasionally forgoing my studies. That was all fine and if anything I regret not doing more of all three. I regret not being more physically active and losing touch with friends and family back home. I regret not being involved in more extracurriculars.
College is different than High School in that nobody is forcing you to do all these things. Parents and Teachers are not breathing down your neck and telling you what to do all the time. But this added freedom requires self-discipline to take advantage of it.
And remember the world outside of College. Plan ahead, think about whaty you'll want to be doing 2, 5, 10, 40 years down the road. Will you want to pursue a profession, start a family, get involved in changing the world, amass money and power, do some great thing?
Start thinking about it now. Don't wake up thirty like yours truly and realize you've wasted a lot of your life.
And don't watch so much tv or play so many video games.
And form study groups. They're a good way to make friends, and you learn a lot more.
A lot of human illnesses stem from our close proximity to animals. If I recall, the flu virus is supposed to have originally affected horses (or is it pigs? it doesn't matter for the example), and then the virus eventually evolved to affect humans, because we were always around the horses, and presented an opportunity for the virus to adapt to a new enviroment (us).
Your mentioning the feline "HIV" makes me wonder if maybe the AIDS shouldn't be blamed on monkeys, but on cats.
On an unrelated note, I've often wondered if there are any viruses out there that are good for us, sort of like the symbiotic bacteria in our stomaches that help us digest, and that help yogurt marketeers. Instead of making one sick, wouldn't it be cool if there was a virus you could catch that made you healthier.
And as a side note, I believe most people,myself included, are mischaracterizing the nature of viruses affect on evolution as explained by the researchers. It's not that the viruses cause any benign change per se, but that the body mutates to defend against them, thus increasing complexity of the organism.
Weird stuff when you consider that this is delving into the nature of life itself.
What am I, half French, half Russian, one quarter virus? (Yes that adds up to more than one, they're not mutually exclusive sets.)
And it's kind of interesting that people aren't talking about the ramifications of this idea regarding computer viruses.
Does the existance of computer viruses ultimately benefit us, by forcing the development (in this case entirely conscious, as opposed to biological evolution) of more complex computer systems.
I think this is their standard "Big-Rock-In-Space-Whacks-Earth" illustration. I've seen it before. I guess accuracy gives way to sensationalism even at the bbc.
Now if I wasn't such a lazy ass I'd email them to correct this misapplied illustration, but instead I'll just kvetch here : )
Slashdot Mirror
I'd second the voice recognition software.
I imagine also, that a quick websearch might lead you to handicapped access software and hardware thatcould be useful to your grandmother. After all, she needs to type for more than just forms and this would help her out if she wants to write email or write anything else for that matter.
I'd also take a serious look at the type of mouse/or trackball she is using. These devices usually force the hand into an artificially cramped position that is painful for arthritis sufferers.
We'll all grow old eventually and helping the elderly deall with problems like this now means that better solutions will exist when we face these problems.
If you find anything interesting in your research, please share it, via Slashdot or your own website.
Placing body tags does fix the problem.
So I fooled around a little more with the code and found that images got displayed without the body tags if there was plain text above the image tags, but not if text was below the image tags. This explains why some images on citizenchris still appear, but only after some text.
I'm just curious what's going on with the browser itself so that it behaves this way. It wants a body tags but does without them if there is some text somewhere before, but not afterwards. Is this a bug or a feature? If it is a feature, trying to adjust to deficiently coded documents, then why not display the images without any text? And why is the browser picky with images but not other tags, like ?
We know that the browser doesn't like some invalid documents, but why does it like some but not others? And what purpose does it serve the browser not to be lax and just display the doc as ie 6 does?
I'm using mozilla 1.2 in Windows '98. why won't this page or this other one display all of their images properly, but rather show a broken image link placeholder? Works fine in ie 6.0.
no. we're all fucked and doomed. You've described my life pretty well.
What does this have to do with the story, though? Except that now you'll have one less reason to leave the computer.
I suggest going cold turkey on the computer. Ask the wife to help you.
How about a career change, or government work? If you are a halfway competent computer guy, most civil service exams should be a snap. Try the Post Office. They're often hiring, at least on a temporary basis.
Maybe you should move out of Okenfenokee swamp.
Seriously, if the employment situation in your area is that bleak, consider a career change or look for work elsewhere.
This isn't offtopic, it's funny and pretty darn insightful too.
So when will this thing be ready?
One other huge complaint about Debian is it's lack of timeliness. Updating versions every couple of years is not novice-friendly.
And stow the complaints about the up-to-date-ness of testing and unstable. This initiative is supposed to simplify things.
So with these things in mind, I'm expecting to see this desktop Debian released in 2005, by which time noone will really care anymore.
I'd love to be proved wrong, but unless the people working on it release a schedule and try to stick with it, I don't have too much hope.
I'm not a biologist, but even counting the quick breeding cycle of frogs (1/year?, could speciation occur in such a small amount of time/generations?
And what nuke tests are you taslking about. France hasn't had any colonial possessions near Sri Lanka for some 200 years or so. And I thought they did all their testing by their Pacific Island possessions and perhaps their North African ones.
Fair enough. Windows has its own flaws.
But it still is much more "novice-user" friendly than RH, and RH is pretty user-friendly for a Linux distro.
As was also pointed out in the interview, another of RH's shortcomings is hardware support. This is not really RH's fault. Microsoft gets hardware support for free for Windows because hardware vendors generally write the drivers themselves, because of the need to support the ubiquitous Windows user base.
Apple has a nice Unix-based OS, but really only one small core set of hardware to support. Even Apple users must be sometimes frustrated with not being able to use some hardware because of lack of Apple drivers.
RH, and by inference Linux, still isn't ready to challenge Windows with "Joe and Jane User". The UI seems to be moving towards that goal. I wonder if the hardware-support ever will. It's a chicken and egg type of dilemma - vendors don't support Linux until it gets more users and most users avoid Linux because of lack of hardware support.
And it will be too bad if Linux, or OSS in general, doesn't get more of a foothold on more desktops, because Microsoft really is an evil empire more attuned to its own megalomanical business needs than the need of end-users.
It's notable that the interviewees admitted that RH is still not ready as a consumer desktop.
Rather, RH is meant to be used by non-technical users on a carefully controlled system, installed by a knowledgeable systems administrator.
A lot of the PR I've read on 8.0 are breathless in proclaiming 8.0 as a Windows replacement, but as RH's own developpers point out, this is not the case.
Can't a DSL provider monitor your traffic just as easily as a cable-based provider?
My mistake, and yours.
It looks like the Alpha is now owned by Samsung.
This is another case of intellectual property ownership having the perverse effect of stifling innovation and the general welfare.
HP kills the technology of these two worthy chips by choosing a third option. In doing so, they effectively reduce the aggregate technical knowledge available for use by our society for their own gain.
As a society, we protect intellectual property so that the creators can use it, not so that they can lock it away. This is a case of current law perversely hampering the general welfare.
Intellectual property should only be protected when it is used by its owners.
Use it or lose it. If HP doesn't want to use Alpha or PA-RISC technology, then others should be allowed to do so.
I would say that the extra degree is worth it, especially if you decide to go onto graduate school in the future.
More importantly, the extra math credential is a great signal to others as to your qualifications in the subject. If you ever need a position that requires math credentials, that degree is many of orders of magnitude more important than just bullshitting about how many math courses you took.
I see the allure of taking it easy before you graduate, but I would recommend that you buckle down and get the extra qualifications and then maybe take off a little time after you graduate.
Generally, academic credentials are overrated, but for the minimum amount of extra work that you need for this one, I would go for it. The extra price you pay now, in terms of time and effort, may really pay off in the future.
Remember, employers generally don't look at your grades, so you don't need to excel in those final courses.
Just think of the extra hoops you'll need to jump through if you ever decide you want that math degree later on. Get it now and never worry about it again.
Also, having a CS and Math degree shows that you are more than just a code monkey. It shows that you can think abstractly on subjects and have an intellectual grounding in the fundamentals of computing, as well as a practical ability.
And once you graduate, go on a summer-long bender.
And for goodness' sake, don't ask for important advice from complete strangers online : )
A little historical perspective on time management of subordinates.
This is from "My Three Years with Eisenhower" (pp. 247-248) by Captain Harry C. Butcher, USNR, Eisenhower's personal aide and diarist during WWII. It begins with a quote from General Marshall, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff during WWII, regarding Dwight D. Eisenhower during his stint as C-in-C for the North African campaign. This was told to Eisenhower's personal aide:
<citation>
[General Marshall said,] "When I brought him [Eisenhower] to head the Operations Division after Pearl Harbor, I put him in the place of a good officer who had been in that job two years. I felt he [the previous officer] was growing stale from overwork and I don't like to keep any man on a job so long that his ideas and forethoughts go no further than mine. When I find an officer isn't fresh, he doesn't add much to my fund of knowledge, and, worst of all, doesn't contribute to the the ideas and enterprising push that are so essential to winning the war. General Eisenhower had a refreshing approach to problems. He was most helpful. But he began to work sixteen or eighteen hours a day and before he left, I was beginning to worry about him, just as I did his predecessor. You must keep him refreshed, but knowing him as we do, it will take ingenuity. It is your job in the war to make him take care of his health and keep that alert brain from overworking, particularly on things his staff can do for him. You must get a masseur. That will give him exercise and, most of all, relaxation"
So today I [Butcher, the aide] have found a masseur of four years' experience, whom I am taking to the house tonight, only Ike doesn't know it.
Have just told Ike it's time to go home - 5:15 - that the masseur is waiting to accompany him.
"Holy smoke," he said, "a masseur?"
"Yes, sir, my orders from your superior, sir, General Marshall."
"Well," said Ike, "send a message to McCarthy for the Big Boss [meaning Marshall] that the masseur has been obtained by you as per instructions and is already at work.
</citation>
I guess it just goes to show that not all management, especially the successful ones, are slave-driving buffoons.
If I recall, the head of Bush's computer security team said not too long ago that he believed government should take a less belligerent tone with white-hat hackers who crack systems without malice.
While maybe these guys should have approached this exploit differently, the fact is that they meant no harm in their actions and in fact have probably done us all a service by exposing, without exploiting (except perhaps for some cheap publicity), somebody else's fuckup in the US ARMY.
Does anyone really believe that any greater good is served by pursuing criminal sanctions against these guys?
It should be noted that Mrs. Torvalds is a karate champion (a fact he frequently trumpets in his autobiography). This may be more than just idle talk from Mr. Torvalds.
I don't see why it's not OK to call a company with this sort of question. It certainly would be expected if you are publishing a story about them, especially one this important.
OK. I'll try it, calling 1 (800) 726-9695 as listed on their website(I know it's an 800 number but I got the same answering machine earlier on the toll number)...
Still waiting on hold... Heh, heh, it's probably a bunch of slashdotters clogging up the lines...
OK, it's been over a minute now, I'll try the toll # 1 (847) 360-7500... Hmmm... still on hold... And it's the same message as the toll #, so I'll hang up and try the toll-free number again (no reason to run up my phone bill).
So after waiting on hold another few minutes I give up. Guess I'm no responsible journalist
And why I hate OCP for that matter.
This seems like a big enough story that I'm surprised that it's scooped in a dopey source like HardOCP. What really bothers me is that they didn't even bother getting any reply from Visontek. I tried calling their HQ but it's before start of business.
I wander if some PR flack will soon be looking for a job.
Unless the story is true, but I doubt that it is. My guess is there is a germ of truth to this story, but no more. There may be a reorganisation in the works, but I dount it is more than that. Even if there is, it is pretty irresponsible journalism to publish such a big story with no verification.
For all you amateur lawyers stating Verizon has no case in blocking the site from deseminating its information, might I point out that the sight has taken the info offline.
Verizon's lawyers' letter had the desired effect, even if just temporarily.
Big companies can successfully bully you into shutting up, just like any mafia thug.
My biggest regret about college was that I didn't plan ahead for the real world.
I don't mean that I regret meeting girls, hanging out with friends, occasionally forgoing my studies. That was all fine and if anything I regret not doing more of all three. I regret not being more physically active and losing touch with friends and family back home. I regret not being involved in more extracurriculars.
College is different than High School in that nobody is forcing you to do all these things. Parents and Teachers are not breathing down your neck and telling you what to do all the time. But this added freedom requires self-discipline to take advantage of it.
And remember the world outside of College. Plan ahead, think about whaty you'll want to be doing 2, 5, 10, 40 years down the road. Will you want to pursue a profession, start a family, get involved in changing the world, amass money and power, do some great thing?
Start thinking about it now. Don't wake up thirty like yours truly and realize you've wasted a lot of your life.
And don't watch so much tv or play so many video games.
And form study groups. They're a good way to make friends, and you learn a lot more.
A lot of human illnesses stem from our close proximity to animals. If I recall, the flu virus is supposed to have originally affected horses (or is it pigs? it doesn't matter for the example), and then the virus eventually evolved to affect humans, because we were always around the horses, and presented an opportunity for the virus to adapt to a new enviroment (us).
,myself included, are mischaracterizing the nature of viruses affect on evolution as explained by the researchers. It's not that the viruses cause any benign change per se, but that the body mutates to defend against them, thus increasing complexity of the organism.
Your mentioning the feline "HIV" makes me wonder if maybe the AIDS shouldn't be blamed on monkeys, but on cats.
On an unrelated note, I've often wondered if there are any viruses out there that are good for us, sort of like the symbiotic bacteria in our stomaches that help us digest, and that help yogurt marketeers. Instead of making one sick, wouldn't it be cool if there was a virus you could catch that made you healthier.
And as a side note, I believe most people
Weird stuff when you consider that this is delving into the nature of life itself.
What am I, half French, half Russian, one quarter virus? (Yes that adds up to more than one, they're not mutually exclusive sets.)
And it's kind of interesting that people aren't talking about the ramifications of this idea regarding computer viruses.
Does the existance of computer viruses ultimately benefit us, by forcing the development (in this case entirely conscious, as opposed to biological evolution) of more complex computer systems.
So what do you pay when your usage goes over that GB limit, or does your service just get cut off?
I think this is their standard "Big-Rock-In-Space-Whacks-Earth" illustration. I've seen it before. I guess accuracy gives way to sensationalism even at the bbc.
Now if I wasn't such a lazy ass I'd email them to correct this misapplied illustration, but instead I'll just kvetch here : )