The one that I got gave a phone number and the address of the manufacturer (Yamakasi) in the back of the user manual, along with a map so you could drive up to the manufacturer and get a replacement.
In my case, it didn't even work out of the box, though. I sent it back to the Ebay seller, who claimed that it worked for him, but then stopped responding to my messages. I just filed a Ebay case, and got a full refund, but that same guy is still the main person selling these on Ebay.
Well, that's it! There's only one thing we can do... outlaw Arduinos
That's the beauty *cough* of the DMCA. They already are illegal! They will continue to be illegal until the Library of Congress makes an exemption.
I'm not completely sure if owning them is legal or not. The DMCA prevents "dissemination of technology, devices, or services intended to circumvent measures". Later provisions in the law cover cases where the device is not intended for circumvention, but is frequently used that way, such as open source DVD player software, which is not intended for copying the DVD, but can be used that way. Simply owning an Arduino would not qualify as "dissemination", but if you unknowingly sold or gave away your Arduino, I'm pretty sure you could be charged with breaking the DMCA. It's unlikely that you would be charged, unless the person that bought your Arduino proceeded to use it to break into a hotel room, but the point is that it's nearly impossible to avoid breaking this law!
I never understand how people can argue with trickle-down economics.
When talking about durable goods (ie. housing), that's always the way it works. All consumers, regardless of class, are buying housing from the same pool. So, when the wealthiest build new houses for themselves, it allows their previous holdings to trickle down through the rest of the market. This is why someone below the poverty line in 2012 has a bigger and nicer house than someone from the middle class in the 1800s.
There have been cases where we have tried to buck the natural order, such as NYCHA's plan to build nice houses for the poorest in NYC, allowing them to leap-frog the lower-middle class. In one such case, the brand new houses lasted for only 3 years before being bulldozed, due to the way that tenants treated "free houses".
"Rising tide lifts all boats" is a common phrase that seems to be less controversial. As an honest question... to those of you who refuse to accept trickle-down.... what do you think of "Rising tide lifts all boats"? It's nearly the same thing.
1) It's highly unlikely that anyone looking to buy a Windows laptop will accidentally type "Dell Linux Laptop" into Google. Prove to me that it can happen by accident.
2) That link only shows how to buy rack-based server hardware with linux. Even back in 2009, when Dell did sell consumer based machines with linux, they had a huge section of the website about linux, but it was all server-based information. You could spend an hour clicking link after link through the Dell linux site without finding the consumer products. Actually finding a link to configure a dell laptop or desktop model with linux pre-installed was nearly impossible. I know... I tried.
The hack was to Yahoo Voice, which hasn't been operated by Yahoo for 4 years now.
450,000 accounts on Yahoo Voice actually astonishes me. I've never met anyone who has ever used that service, including my friends that currently work at Yahoo.
Yahoo! itself is still relevant. People still use delicio.us, flickr, and Yahoo! groups a lot. Their sports pages are far less bloated than ESPN's, so I use them every day.
I rarely use ls without the -l option, so I haven't made an alias for it.
If I had known of Colemak when I switched away from qwerty, I would have used it, but I don't regret my choice to learn dvorak at all.
I am very glad, however, that I didn't learn vi until after I'd already made my keyboard layout change. I can still type qwerty when I need to, but if I have to use qwerty for command mode in vi, then I'm screwed.
Probably a lot more than that. I switched to Dvorak 13 years ago, and have never switched back. I've met a lot of other dvorak users, although I often have worked with someone for several months before we find out that we both use dvorak. It just doesn't come up in conversation very often.
Dvorak/Colemak are probably disproportionately common in CS, but I'm pretty sure that the market dominance is well above.01% and.1%. My guess would be around 0.5% - 1%.
A lot of people use keyboards 8 hours a day at work, and then go home and spend another 1-2 hours at home at a keyboard. It certainly seems to be worth the time it takes to switch.
I get a lot of the "Credit Card Services" calls, and usually report them to the FTC (using donotcall.gov).
Last week, I (for the first time ever) got a call from a number that I had previously reported (at least 3 months ago). I lost all faith in the FTC's website at that time.
The ball is in the court of the FTC. They have a reporting website, and people are using it. However, they have NEVER publicized how they handle the complaints, and it is beginning to be obvious that they pretty much do nothing with them.
I don't want to get too political here, but it's beginning to look a bit like Obama's Fast and Furious Operation, where assault rifles were given clean passage into Mexico in order to influence policy on gun control in the U.S. With the FTC, they always want more funding, so they need the robocalls to continue. The donotcall website makes it look like they are spending the money wisely, but they are surreptitiously making sure that the problem continues, so that more money is sent their way.
The company behind the "Credit Card Services" is JPM Accelerated services. The FTC filed a complaint against them in Sept. 2009, and it went to court. The BBB reports that the status of the complaint is still pending even though JPM did lose the court case. I'm convinced that it's still the same people operating the robocalls today. They may have paid some fine and dissolved their business, but immediately restarted afterwards.
I've been fascinated with the thunderbolts.info site for quite a while. They haven't yet convinced me that we need to throw out our conventional understanding of the universe, but they have some extremely fascinating theories, and I'm disappointed that I haven't seen any serious responses to their theories.
I know a friend that does this with Steam purchases. He has separate Steam accounts for every game he's ever bought, so that he can sell them individually if he wants, or trade the games with other family members.
He confessed to me last week that he's forgotten the passwords for many of the accounts(!)
The problem is with point #4. Ebay will not allow sales of software that violate the Terms of Use from the author. They are a private company, and have the right to do so.
But, if you live in the EU, you could sell the copy of Windows to your neighbor, or to some chick you met in a bar, and it would be totally legal. I know that's not quite as exciting, but... uh... chick in a bar!
If you are linux, turn on firewall logging, and check out the results. If you are on Windows, fire up Zone Alarm. You'll probably be hammered on port 445 with worms/viruses attempting to propagate through Windows sharing. As far as I can tell, Windows Firewall doesn't detect these attacks, but I'm not a Windows expert. It's sad that a product called "Windows Firewall" lacks the most important part of the title (the firewall).
After you see the repeating pattern (for example, new request every 40 seconds, or something similar), walk down to the front desk and try to report it. You'll probably be met with blank stares. Any way you attempt explain the issue will not work, unless you can include the key phrases "blinking light" or "reboot". Good luck with that.
I don't want to defend this hotel chain too much, but I don't expect this to change any time soon. All the things in your list probably fit into the generic definition of "industry standard practices." Actual security would be far above industry standards.:(
You can find lots of various computers on Craigslist. I will not argue that point. I will argue that they will not be identical, though, and building a beowulf cluster from such machines is all but impossible. Even the trouble of contacting hundreds of craigslist sellers and meeting them in person would push the cost well above $50 each (considering time as money).
But, I have to admit, I did not RTFA well enough. If you follow the trail of links, you finally arrive here I've removed the part of the URL that generated advertising revenue for the person making the article.
The Windows CE netbook in the article is available now, and is available in large quantity (1200+ have sold already). It does not have a hard drive, but still meets the criteria that I established in my post above. I guess I have to now eat my words.
Not very useful, if your plan is to make a Beowulf cluster.
It will be a while before a sub-$50 computer is truly available. When I say available, I mean that I can order 300 of them now, and they'll be shipped today.
The closest is the Raspberry Pi computers off Ebay. They go for about $80 (even though they are frequently referred to as $25 or $35 computers). Unfortunately, $80 is more than $50, and there are not 300+ of them available on Ebay.
1) People expect more from hearing aids today. When people assume that hearing aids should cost $300-400, you can usually ask them what features it should have, and then find a hearing aid for them with those features for that price. It will not be comfortable, though, and they'll probably hate it.
2) Anything that is made custom is expensive. Nearly all hearing aids sold today are customized. When you think about how much is in a hearing aid, and realize that it must be able to fit into an enclosure which will be customized to fit the exact human it is intended for, then the $3000 tag no longer seems that excessive.
This is a design patent. It does not need to be inventive. The slashdot summary that said it was a "broad" patent is completely false.
This prevents other companies from making knock-offs of this particular design. If the ornamentation on a knockoff is changed, for example, so that it no longer looks exactly like this Mac Book Air, then the knockoff is ok. It's only if it matches exactly what is in this design that it would be infringing.
The slashdot summary makes it sound as if wedge-shaped laptops are now all covered by this patent. Whether it's just written poorly or intentionally designed to cause FUD is anyone's guess. Maybe the submitter will respond.
One person creates the idea for software, 3 make the software, 2 make the art for it, and 2 market it. Let's say Watson takes over the 7 jobs that are lowest on the totem pole. Now, all 8 of us can create entire software packages by ourselves, with our minions of Watsons doing the menial work. You dream it, and it happens!
One person designs the house, 3 people mine the resources to build it, 2 build it, and 2 decorate it. Let's say Watson takes over the 7 jobs that are lowest on the totem pole. Now all 8 of us can create houses completely by ourselves, with our minions of Watsons doing the menial work. You dream it, and it happens!
Slashdot Mirror
1080p = 1920x1080. That's 4937 pixels per dollar.
This monitor is $310 for 2560x1440, and comes with free shipping from Korea. That's 11,891 pixels per dollar.
I'd say you were ripped off pretty badly.
The one that I got gave a phone number and the address of the manufacturer (Yamakasi) in the back of the user manual, along with a map so you could drive up to the manufacturer and get a replacement.
In my case, it didn't even work out of the box, though. I sent it back to the Ebay seller, who claimed that it worked for him, but then stopped responding to my messages. I just filed a Ebay case, and got a full refund, but that same guy is still the main person selling these on Ebay.
Well, that's it! There's only one thing we can do... outlaw Arduinos
That's the beauty *cough* of the DMCA. They already are illegal! They will continue to be illegal until the Library of Congress makes an exemption.
I'm not completely sure if owning them is legal or not. The DMCA prevents "dissemination of technology, devices, or services intended to circumvent measures". Later provisions in the law cover cases where the device is not intended for circumvention, but is frequently used that way, such as open source DVD player software, which is not intended for copying the DVD, but can be used that way. Simply owning an Arduino would not qualify as "dissemination", but if you unknowingly sold or gave away your Arduino, I'm pretty sure you could be charged with breaking the DMCA. It's unlikely that you would be charged, unless the person that bought your Arduino proceeded to use it to break into a hotel room, but the point is that it's nearly impossible to avoid breaking this law!
And for the 8 years before that, we had a republican that frequently gave in to the dems in the senate and house.
It's been a very long time since republican policies have really been given a fair test.
I never understand how people can argue with trickle-down economics.
When talking about durable goods (ie. housing), that's always the way it works. All consumers, regardless of class, are buying housing from the same pool. So, when the wealthiest build new houses for themselves, it allows their previous holdings to trickle down through the rest of the market. This is why someone below the poverty line in 2012 has a bigger and nicer house than someone from the middle class in the 1800s.
There have been cases where we have tried to buck the natural order, such as NYCHA's plan to build nice houses for the poorest in NYC, allowing them to leap-frog the lower-middle class. In one such case, the brand new houses lasted for only 3 years before being bulldozed, due to the way that tenants treated "free houses".
"Rising tide lifts all boats" is a common phrase that seems to be less controversial. As an honest question... to those of you who refuse to accept trickle-down.... what do you think of "Rising tide lifts all boats"? It's nearly the same thing.
1) It's highly unlikely that anyone looking to buy a Windows laptop will accidentally type "Dell Linux Laptop" into Google. Prove to me that it can happen by accident.
2) That link only shows how to buy rack-based server hardware with linux. Even back in 2009, when Dell did sell consumer based machines with linux, they had a huge section of the website about linux, but it was all server-based information. You could spend an hour clicking link after link through the Dell linux site without finding the consumer products. Actually finding a link to configure a dell laptop or desktop model with linux pre-installed was nearly impossible. I know... I tried.
The hack was to Yahoo Voice, which hasn't been operated by Yahoo for 4 years now.
450,000 accounts on Yahoo Voice actually astonishes me. I've never met anyone who has ever used that service, including my friends that currently work at Yahoo.
Yahoo! itself is still relevant. People still use delicio.us, flickr, and Yahoo! groups a lot. Their sports pages are far less bloated than ESPN's, so I use them every day.
To make it clear, it wasn't Yahoo! directly that was compromised.
The Yahoo property that was compromised was Yahoo Voice, which has been outsourced to another company (Jajah) for operation since 2008.
alias l='ls -l'
alias ll='ls -al'
I rarely use ls without the -l option, so I haven't made an alias for it.
If I had known of Colemak when I switched away from qwerty, I would have used it, but I don't regret my choice to learn dvorak at all.
I am very glad, however, that I didn't learn vi until after I'd already made my keyboard layout change. I can still type qwerty when I need to, but if I have to use qwerty for command mode in vi, then I'm screwed.
And how many keyboard users even care? .01%? .1%?
Probably a lot more than that. I switched to Dvorak 13 years ago, and have never switched back. I've met a lot of other dvorak users, although I often have worked with someone for several months before we find out that we both use dvorak. It just doesn't come up in conversation very often.
Dvorak/Colemak are probably disproportionately common in CS, but I'm pretty sure that the market dominance is well above .01% and .1%. My guess would be around 0.5% - 1%.
A lot of people use keyboards 8 hours a day at work, and then go home and spend another 1-2 hours at home at a keyboard. It certainly seems to be worth the time it takes to switch.
Control and Alt do not change for the Dvorak layouts. The symbol keys that are different are ;',.[]/= and their shifted counterparts.
Dvorak does make many unix commands easier, but there is one big exception: ls. I always alias it because it is just so hard to type on dvorak.
Or, it could be called the "5x5 abc layout", since other abc layouts have existed longer than even qwerty.
Or, it could be called the "layout that no one asked for, but got anyway".
Two English proverbs come to mind. More apt:
"It is better to remain silent, and be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt."
King Solomon was English?
I get a lot of the "Credit Card Services" calls, and usually report them to the FTC (using donotcall.gov).
Last week, I (for the first time ever) got a call from a number that I had previously reported (at least 3 months ago). I lost all faith in the FTC's website at that time.
The ball is in the court of the FTC. They have a reporting website, and people are using it. However, they have NEVER publicized how they handle the complaints, and it is beginning to be obvious that they pretty much do nothing with them.
I don't want to get too political here, but it's beginning to look a bit like Obama's Fast and Furious Operation, where assault rifles were given clean passage into Mexico in order to influence policy on gun control in the U.S. With the FTC, they always want more funding, so they need the robocalls to continue. The donotcall website makes it look like they are spending the money wisely, but they are surreptitiously making sure that the problem continues, so that more money is sent their way.
The company behind the "Credit Card Services" is JPM Accelerated services. The FTC filed a complaint against them in Sept. 2009, and it went to court. The BBB reports that the status of the complaint is still pending even though JPM did lose the court case. I'm convinced that it's still the same people operating the robocalls today. They may have paid some fine and dissolved their business, but immediately restarted afterwards.
The Electric Universe crackpots have always claimed that convection had nothing to do with it.
I've been fascinated with the thunderbolts.info site for quite a while. They haven't yet convinced me that we need to throw out our conventional understanding of the universe, but they have some extremely fascinating theories, and I'm disappointed that I haven't seen any serious responses to their theories.
I know a friend that does this with Steam purchases. He has separate Steam accounts for every game he's ever bought, so that he can sell them individually if he wants, or trade the games with other family members.
He confessed to me last week that he's forgotten the passwords for many of the accounts(!)
The problem is with point #4. Ebay will not allow sales of software that violate the Terms of Use from the author. They are a private company, and have the right to do so.
But, if you live in the EU, you could sell the copy of Windows to your neighbor, or to some chick you met in a bar, and it would be totally legal. I know that's not quite as exciting, but ... uh... chick in a bar!
I wonder if I'd ever be able to afford such a restaurant. Wait, I just found a penny.
Hotels are a well-known "wild west".
If you are linux, turn on firewall logging, and check out the results. If you are on Windows, fire up Zone Alarm. You'll probably be hammered on port 445 with worms/viruses attempting to propagate through Windows sharing. As far as I can tell, Windows Firewall doesn't detect these attacks, but I'm not a Windows expert. It's sad that a product called "Windows Firewall" lacks the most important part of the title (the firewall).
After you see the repeating pattern (for example, new request every 40 seconds, or something similar), walk down to the front desk and try to report it. You'll probably be met with blank stares. Any way you attempt explain the issue will not work, unless you can include the key phrases "blinking light" or "reboot". Good luck with that.
I don't want to defend this hotel chain too much, but I don't expect this to change any time soon. All the things in your list probably fit into the generic definition of "industry standard practices." Actual security would be far above industry standards. :(
The date is incorrect. The ebay auction referenced in the article was originally posted June 7, 2012.
You can find lots of various computers on Craigslist. I will not argue that point. I will argue that they will not be identical, though, and building a beowulf cluster from such machines is all but impossible. Even the trouble of contacting hundreds of craigslist sellers and meeting them in person would push the cost well above $50 each (considering time as money).
But, I have to admit, I did not RTFA well enough. If you follow the trail of links, you finally arrive here I've removed the part of the URL that generated advertising revenue for the person making the article.
The Windows CE netbook in the article is available now, and is available in large quantity (1200+ have sold already). It does not have a hard drive, but still meets the criteria that I established in my post above. I guess I have to now eat my words.
Not very useful, if your plan is to make a Beowulf cluster.
It will be a while before a sub-$50 computer is truly available. When I say available, I mean that I can order 300 of them now, and they'll be shipped today.
The closest is the Raspberry Pi computers off Ebay. They go for about $80 (even though they are frequently referred to as $25 or $35 computers). Unfortunately, $80 is more than $50, and there are not 300+ of them available on Ebay.
1) People expect more from hearing aids today. When people assume that hearing aids should cost $300-400, you can usually ask them what features it should have, and then find a hearing aid for them with those features for that price. It will not be comfortable, though, and they'll probably hate it.
2) Anything that is made custom is expensive. Nearly all hearing aids sold today are customized. When you think about how much is in a hearing aid, and realize that it must be able to fit into an enclosure which will be customized to fit the exact human it is intended for, then the $3000 tag no longer seems that excessive.
This is a design patent. It does not need to be inventive. The slashdot summary that said it was a "broad" patent is completely false.
This prevents other companies from making knock-offs of this particular design. If the ornamentation on a knockoff is changed, for example, so that it no longer looks exactly like this Mac Book Air, then the knockoff is ok. It's only if it matches exactly what is in this design that it would be infringing.
The slashdot summary makes it sound as if wedge-shaped laptops are now all covered by this patent. Whether it's just written poorly or intentionally designed to cause FUD is anyone's guess. Maybe the submitter will respond.
Will IBM's Watson Kill Your Career?
If only it was that easy :)
One person creates the idea for software, 3 make the software, 2 make the art for it, and 2 market it. Let's say Watson takes over the 7 jobs that are lowest on the totem pole. Now, all 8 of us can create entire software packages by ourselves, with our minions of Watsons doing the menial work. You dream it, and it happens!
One person designs the house, 3 people mine the resources to build it, 2 build it, and 2 decorate it. Let's say Watson takes over the 7 jobs that are lowest on the totem pole. Now all 8 of us can create houses completely by ourselves, with our minions of Watsons doing the menial work. You dream it, and it happens!
Et Cetera...