I watched that channel enough to notice the same thing... so when I bought my entertainment center, I made sure to have it custom sized so that it would be tall enough to hold the largest 4:3 (tube, no projector for me) I'll be able to afford in the next 5 years, but also have it a bit wider in case I wanted widescreen. There is a good amount of open room now with my current TV, but in about a year everything will look good.
Most of the lines that are being leased were paid for by the public by means of government subsidies to the Bell(s). Not only were they subsidized by the public, but they have been paid for many times over; so they aren't losing any money. And they are definitely NOT private property. Even so, the CLECs ARE paying for the use of the lines (and the lower cost is not any lower than what the ILECs pay).
Covad has an enormous network of hardware and cable, they are only needing the last mile of wire to the home. Now they can no longer lease that small segment of the line that's ALREADY there.
Now, there was some sort of provision for new networks that were deployed to newly developed communities, and I can see the Bells being a bit ticked off about that...
"The Bells also won't have to let rivals lease access to new fiber lines that they lay down to connect new housing developments or businesses. Even that decision, however, is bound to cause confusion in cases in which portions of the Bells' networks are composed of both copper and fiber." but that is only an issue with them selling their new network to phone carriers since Covad uses their own equipment and is just leasing a section of the line (as opposed to the CLECs phone guys who lease every bit of the line and the hardware that connects it).
Powell actually wanted full deregulation EXCEPT in the DSL market. What happened was the opposite. While this will help keep phone costs down, there's no reason at all that this will help lower DSL costs (it might, however, help DSL availability since the Bells have more incentive to offer it).
The other big issue is what is the point of having multiple phone lines going to the same building? Powell said ending the leasing of lines would encourage AT&T et.al. to run their own lines to offer competitive service. Does he realize how expensive AND wasteful that is?/reality off
OK, so I guess I wasn't clear... You CAN build a gaming machine for 3.5-4k, but you absolutely don't have to. Hell, even if you want to build the most ridiculously fast system that will be outdated in 2 years (instead of 1 year), the prices quoted by you are $50 higher on almost every component (and $100's higher on many components). Just check pricewatch and you can drop $1000 EASILY off your price.
Now, to specifically address some of your components. Do you really need 400 GB in hard drives for serious gaming? I mean, one of the newest games needs 2 GB at most (including the virtual memory to play it). So, if you are playing 10 different games at any given time on your pc, have 100 GB of music (that you can't listen to if you have 10 games to be playing... unless you don't have a job and don't go to school), and 10 GB of porn... you still only need at most 200 GB. I would say 100 GB is pretty good for gaming.
While I won't argue your opinion that 21" monitors are the minimum for gaming (definitely not my opinion), you can drop $400 off that price easily (while still having a 21" monitor).
You can also drop $300 by going AMD mobo and 2800+ proc. Another $100 by going from Audigy2 Platinum sound card to plain old Audigy (and $150 by going to generic 5.1 sound card). Yes, sound is important to serious gaming; but in GAMES (as opposed to sound editing and other audiophile uses) you don't need bleeding edge sound hardware.
The final point of my original post was that you can resist the urge to spend 300% more for 30% higher performance. You can easily drop $1300 from your system and only sacrifice 5% in performance.
The last point is that the system you configured won't make a difference in serious gaming NOW because the games aren't ready for the kind of system you designed. Yes, the games coming out in a year or two can take advantage of it (and will require it)... but why not save the $1000's of dollars and only buy when it is required?
As for the definition of serious gaming, that's up to the indidual. I think that serious gaming is how much you play and how well you play... and that depends more on the skill of the player. I have my patheticly useless gaming machine that cost $600, and I know that I regularly do better in online games than people with $1800 computers that play everyday and practice with clans. One person can do better at gaming (either online or local) than another person on the same computer.
If your definition of serious gaming is playing the bleeding edge games at 200 fps (which I'd say is indistinguishable from 60 fps), then go ahead and spend that money... it'll just drop the price on the low end I buy. Actually, I know that game developers and testers need that kind of system, but the gamer doesn't.
The original post even mentioned a "$2x10^3" cost point for "real gaming"
I just built a computer (19" monitor, case, hd, vidcard, mem, mobo, cpu, fans, sinks, etc), and spent around $600. I can play all the latest games at good framerates and resolutions. That would be the definition of "real gaming" to me. I could go get the newest/fastest mobo, cpu, and memory for another $400 and I'd still be at $1000. Adding the best vid card would add $300. $1.3k is a far cry from 2k, let alone 3.5-4k.
And if you already have a monitor (I did, but it died just after the upgrade after 7 years of service), that drops $200. A case already? $100. Hard drives? $100. One can easily upgrade their current machine to a top of the line gaming one for about $400.... or only $200 for middle of the line.
All you have to do is resist the urge to spend assloads for the new components that are 300% more expensive yet only give 30% more performance.
in bridge only mode, the 645 can't be telnetted into at all. so the bridge mode (which can be set on the router version) is safe regardless of passwords.
Firstly, I use Covad as my DSL provider and I have the CPE that is mentioned (645). The difference is that Covad was smart enough to ship the 645M which is hardwired as bridge only and not as a router. The 645R is the router version (not mentioned in the Wired article and not even denoted on the hardware itself). The router that Covad sends its business and SOHO customers is configured better and comes with better docs.
Secondly, Sprint didn't include documentation on how to change the password (or even tell you to change it). They sent out a router to ALL of their customers when a bridge is sufficient, AND they didn't include documentation to help those people for whom a full router is overkill.
I think they should be a little more interested in their customer by at least providing docs, if not actually understanding their customer's needs.
I was a herpetologist for awhile and I never knew of the term antivenin. All the sources I read used the word antivenom. A quick check of Dictionary.com has a lot of listings for antivenin, but none for antivenom (well, there's a reference to a med. journal, but no definitions).
So, since antivenom is the common knowledge word and I can't think of a single time I've heard antivenin even in herpetological circles, when does a non-word become a word?
Seriously, here's an idea: This stupid woman gave her real name and the city in which she lives to a national news company... Why doesn't someone rent a van and get a few friends to drive over to her house (where she operates a commercial entity, possibly against zoning regulations) and throw actual SPAM at her house? Maybe find some kids in that neighborhood to make fun of her kids... maybe take all of those AOL cd's we all microwaved and spell out "you = teh sucks" on her lawn.
if it can't set its own time, it can't record shows by the timer. you might be able to record live tv, but that's about it (how can you tell it to record the Simpsons at 8pm, when it doesn't know what time it is currently?)
Just as a reply to your statement about pirating music and relating that to not having 128MB of mp3s... You don't have to pirate music to have way more than a few gigs of music.
1) You can mp3 your CD collection legally and have way more than that 20gig.
2) Now, if you want to stay on the safe and conservative side of the law just in case congress outlaws the backup of our CD's, you can go to www.emusic.com and legally download all the music they have for a small fee. I've paid $30 and have downloaded 4gigs of mp3's... and I'm slow about downloading stuff from them. You can easily download over a gig per day. Not only is it legal, but it compensates the artist and the label and the creator of the website.
The last thing is that just because you have all of your CD collection on your portable player doesn't mean you have to "listen to it all at once." I always have my full collection with me so I always have a full choice of what I listen to. If I'm in the mood for something in particular, it's there.
yeah, I watched them (these vids)... they're pretty good, but nothing like what you'd have to be in order to score 470,000 in original NES tetris. There are some differences you have to watch for in the video: 1) pieces can be slid 2 or 3 spaces after they hit (at that speed, 1 is optimistic in the original) 2) pieces can be rotated 2 or 3 times after they hit (once at any speed is optimistic in the original) 3) pieces move right and left A LOT faster... in level 19, a long piece drops about 4 places for every move left or right; in this game, you can move the piece all the way to the wall by the time it drops 4 places
Don't get me wrong, that guy is insanely good, but the original is more difficult and I can easily comprehend what they're doing.
I've been playing Tetris seriously for a long time, and I've always put the hole on the right side... Because of the width of the board and where the long piece is initially placed, it takes one extra translation move to get it to the left side of the screen. I've tested putting the hole in the center and in various other locations, but I found it is much simpler to control one wide stack with various places for different blocks, instead on two stacks with only a small number of places for blocks. When you get up to level 19 and above, things are moving so fast that the controller doesn't handle moving back and forth very quickly... you need to move pieces in a general direction (like all of them to the right, then slowly building to the left). All of this is on the NES Nintendo brand of Tetris. I have played other versions, but none as extensively. I would love to know the optimal strategy, but I think each player chooses which one works best for them (so even though the center may be optimal, I like the left better). My best score was 470,000... The guys at TwinGalaxies have the top score at 999,999 which seems impossible to me.
yes, this is definitely for people that are lazy. I am too lazy to move my hand off my mouse after I just clicked a link to hit ctrl+- or backspace or whatever. Since my hand is already on the mouse for almost all of required web browsing, it is faster (and less effort intensive) to just keep it there.
as for learning equally confusing gestures... is moving the mouse back to go back confusing? or forward to go forward? what about tracing the letter 'b' for bookmark? now, some of them aren't intuitive (moving up to open a new tab), but how freakin hard is it to learn 'up'? the zig-zab movement to close a window isn't intuitive but it's fun to just shake the mouse violently to close a window you want to get rid of.
I've been using gestures with tabbed browsing for a month or so and it's definitely faster for me. I even mouse and gesture left handed just fine (I'm right handed and usually mouse with my right, but after awhile my wrist and shoulder like a break so I switch). If a righty can gesture and browse efficiently with his left hand, I would say this works pretty well.
I'm not so sure about that... I read somewhere (no link, sorry) that using a keyboard for shortcuts and stuff only SEEMS faster, but isn't. You also have to consider the type of application. For an old-school word perfect secretary, they are typing pretty much nonstop and keyboard shortcuts are right there where their hands are. For someone browsing the internet, they have one hand on the mouse most of the time and are clicking links, so it is faster to keep that hand there and do motions rather than moving the hand to the keyboard and then doing motions.
that is not true... You can just change the permissions on the chrome directory and all is solved... all users are able to install the program and have it work.
I was able to watch the launch live at my company in Los Angeles. It was successful and without incident. The onboard camera kept a live feed from the rocket to the ground... watching the first stage seperate in space was spectacular.
the wheels aren't on the trains, they are on the tracks. yes, putting heavy wheels on the train would increase stopping distances, but these are ground fixed and change the translational motion of the train to rotational motion. because of friction and other losses, the energy isn't completely transfered, but it's better than nothing. the way this will help braking is that the brakes won't have to work so hard on the trains themselves so it will help emergency braking (IF it is near one... there will only be a certain number of them spread throughout the grid).
Of course, I didn't read the article so I may be wrong... but I've read a lot of posts and this is what they are saying.
the scalar eqn is one that is in scalar format and not vector format (so no direction is taken into account).
the vector format:
F=G*m1*m2*r/||r||^3
if you don't care about the direction of the force and just the magnitude, the radius vector turns into a scalar and cancels one of the radii in the denomenator.
Well, it blocks me on Linux (using Konqueror, Mozilla), but it lets NS 4.77 in fine. I can't think of why outdated, old NS 4.77 can "render the page correctly" and the newer Mozilla and Konqueror can't. So, it isn't the OS that MSN is blocking, just specific browsers.
I don't get it either, my guess, though...
on
Nicotine Vaccine
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
I was thinking exactly the same thing. I even read the article in case I missed the point. I am not a biologist or medically knowledgable past basic science, so maybe I did miss something. Maybe there's some biochemical process in addiction that this is ACTUALLY referring to and not just stopping the nicotine from entering the brain. Perhaps there is a part of the brain that feeds off the nicotine and a part of the brain that continues the addiction. This vaccine might allow the nicotine to work into the blood system and to the addicted areas, but not into the section of the brain that actually "creates" the addiction.
This is all just pseudo-science and conjecture on my part, but it's the only way I can justify this vaccine. The other way is that maybe the physical addiction is in another part of the body to which the blood stream delivers the nicotine, but the CAUSE of that addiction is in the brain.
All you have to do is check over at EBay for "HDTV projector" and you'll see that you can pick one up for between $1000 for a bottom of the line to $15000 for top of the line. Sure, $1500 might not be the best HDTV projector out there, but it sure as hell beats spending twice as much for a similar TV that can only display 60" and is monolithic in size and weight.
That is why images.google.com gives complete credit to the site with links and all. Go and check it out sometime. They even show the full webpage when you click on the picture.
Slashdot Mirror
I watched that channel enough to notice the same thing... so when I bought my entertainment center, I made sure to have it custom sized so that it would be tall enough to hold the largest 4:3 (tube, no projector for me) I'll be able to afford in the next 5 years, but also have it a bit wider in case I wanted widescreen. There is a good amount of open room now with my current TV, but in about a year everything will look good.
Never trust a guy with his own pool cue.
/reality on
/reality off
Most of the lines that are being leased were paid for by the public by means of government subsidies to the Bell(s). Not only were they subsidized by the public, but they have been paid for many times over; so they aren't losing any money. And they are definitely NOT private property. Even so, the CLECs ARE paying for the use of the lines (and the lower cost is not any lower than what the ILECs pay).
Covad has an enormous network of hardware and cable, they are only needing the last mile of wire to the home. Now they can no longer lease that small segment of the line that's ALREADY there.
Now, there was some sort of provision for new networks that were deployed to newly developed communities, and I can see the Bells being a bit ticked off about that...
"The Bells also won't have to let rivals lease access to new fiber lines that they lay down to connect new housing developments or businesses. Even that decision, however, is bound to cause confusion in cases in which portions of the Bells' networks are composed of both copper and fiber."
but that is only an issue with them selling their new network to phone carriers since Covad uses their own equipment and is just leasing a section of the line (as opposed to the CLECs phone guys who lease every bit of the line and the hardware that connects it).
Powell actually wanted full deregulation EXCEPT in the DSL market. What happened was the opposite. While this will help keep phone costs down, there's no reason at all that this will help lower DSL costs (it might, however, help DSL availability since the Bells have more incentive to offer it).
The other big issue is what is the point of having multiple phone lines going to the same building? Powell said ending the leasing of lines would encourage AT&T et.al. to run their own lines to offer competitive service. Does he realize how expensive AND wasteful that is?
OK, so I guess I wasn't clear... You CAN build a gaming machine for 3.5-4k, but you absolutely don't have to. Hell, even if you want to build the most ridiculously fast system that will be outdated in 2 years (instead of 1 year), the prices quoted by you are $50 higher on almost every component (and $100's higher on many components). Just check pricewatch and you can drop $1000 EASILY off your price.
Now, to specifically address some of your components. Do you really need 400 GB in hard drives for serious gaming? I mean, one of the newest games needs 2 GB at most (including the virtual memory to play it). So, if you are playing 10 different games at any given time on your pc, have 100 GB of music (that you can't listen to if you have 10 games to be playing... unless you don't have a job and don't go to school), and 10 GB of porn... you still only need at most 200 GB. I would say 100 GB is pretty good for gaming.
While I won't argue your opinion that 21" monitors are the minimum for gaming (definitely not my opinion), you can drop $400 off that price easily (while still having a 21" monitor).
You can also drop $300 by going AMD mobo and 2800+ proc. Another $100 by going from Audigy2 Platinum sound card to plain old Audigy (and $150 by going to generic 5.1 sound card). Yes, sound is important to serious gaming; but in GAMES (as opposed to sound editing and other audiophile uses) you don't need bleeding edge sound hardware.
The final point of my original post was that you can resist the urge to spend 300% more for 30% higher performance. You can easily drop $1300 from your system and only sacrifice 5% in performance.
The last point is that the system you configured won't make a difference in serious gaming NOW because the games aren't ready for the kind of system you designed. Yes, the games coming out in a year or two can take advantage of it (and will require it)... but why not save the $1000's of dollars and only buy when it is required?
As for the definition of serious gaming, that's up to the indidual. I think that serious gaming is how much you play and how well you play... and that depends more on the skill of the player. I have my patheticly useless gaming machine that cost $600, and I know that I regularly do better in online games than people with $1800 computers that play everyday and practice with clans. One person can do better at gaming (either online or local) than another person on the same computer.
If your definition of serious gaming is playing the bleeding edge games at 200 fps (which I'd say is indistinguishable from 60 fps), then go ahead and spend that money... it'll just drop the price on the low end I buy. Actually, I know that game developers and testers need that kind of system, but the gamer doesn't.
"a good gaming rig runs 3.5-4k"
are you serious?
The original post even mentioned a "$2x10^3" cost point for "real gaming"
I just built a computer (19" monitor, case, hd, vidcard, mem, mobo, cpu, fans, sinks, etc), and spent around $600. I can play all the latest games at good framerates and resolutions. That would be the definition of "real gaming" to me. I could go get the newest/fastest mobo, cpu, and memory for another $400 and I'd still be at $1000. Adding the best vid card would add $300. $1.3k is a far cry from 2k, let alone 3.5-4k.
And if you already have a monitor (I did, but it died just after the upgrade after 7 years of service), that drops $200. A case already? $100. Hard drives? $100. One can easily upgrade their current machine to a top of the line gaming one for about $400.... or only $200 for middle of the line.
All you have to do is resist the urge to spend assloads for the new components that are 300% more expensive yet only give 30% more performance.
in bridge only mode, the 645 can't be telnetted into at all. so the bridge mode (which can be set on the router version) is safe regardless of passwords.
Firstly, I use Covad as my DSL provider and I have the CPE that is mentioned (645). The difference is that Covad was smart enough to ship the 645M which is hardwired as bridge only and not as a router. The 645R is the router version (not mentioned in the Wired article and not even denoted on the hardware itself). The router that Covad sends its business and SOHO customers is configured better and comes with better docs.
Secondly, Sprint didn't include documentation on how to change the password (or even tell you to change it). They sent out a router to ALL of their customers when a bridge is sufficient, AND they didn't include documentation to help those people for whom a full router is overkill.
I think they should be a little more interested in their customer by at least providing docs, if not actually understanding their customer's needs.
wow, you really do learn something everyday.
I was a herpetologist for awhile and I never knew of the term antivenin. All the sources I read used the word antivenom. A quick check of Dictionary.com has a lot of listings for antivenin, but none for antivenom (well, there's a reference to a med. journal, but no definitions).
So, since antivenom is the common knowledge word and I can't think of a single time I've heard antivenin even in herpetological circles, when does a non-word become a word?
Seriously, here's an idea:
This stupid woman gave her real name and the city in which she lives to a national news company... Why doesn't someone rent a van and get a few friends to drive over to her house (where she operates a commercial entity, possibly against zoning regulations) and throw actual SPAM at her house? Maybe find some kids in that neighborhood to make fun of her kids... maybe take all of those AOL cd's we all microwaved and spell out "you = teh sucks" on her lawn.
if it can't set its own time, it can't record shows by the timer. you might be able to record live tv, but that's about it (how can you tell it to record the Simpsons at 8pm, when it doesn't know what time it is currently?)
Just as a reply to your statement about pirating music and relating that to not having 128MB of mp3s... You don't have to pirate music to have way more than a few gigs of music.
1) You can mp3 your CD collection legally and have way more than that 20gig.
2) Now, if you want to stay on the safe and conservative side of the law just in case congress outlaws the backup of our CD's, you can go to www.emusic.com and legally download all the music they have for a small fee. I've paid $30 and have downloaded 4gigs of mp3's... and I'm slow about downloading stuff from them. You can easily download over a gig per day. Not only is it legal, but it compensates the artist and the label and the creator of the website.
The last thing is that just because you have all of your CD collection on your portable player doesn't mean you have to "listen to it all at once." I always have my full collection with me so I always have a full choice of what I listen to. If I'm in the mood for something in particular, it's there.
"and she then insisted that he buy the largest one available."
Phh! Typical woman. See, size DOES matter.
yeah, I watched them (these vids)... they're pretty good, but nothing like what you'd have to be in order to score 470,000 in original NES tetris. There are some differences you have to watch for in the video:
1) pieces can be slid 2 or 3 spaces after they hit (at that speed, 1 is optimistic in the original)
2) pieces can be rotated 2 or 3 times after they hit (once at any speed is optimistic in the original)
3) pieces move right and left A LOT faster... in level 19, a long piece drops about 4 places for every move left or right; in this game, you can move the piece all the way to the wall by the time it drops 4 places
Don't get me wrong, that guy is insanely good, but the original is more difficult and I can easily comprehend what they're doing.
I've been playing Tetris seriously for a long time, and I've always put the hole on the right side...
Because of the width of the board and where the long piece is initially placed, it takes one extra translation move to get it to the left side of the screen.
I've tested putting the hole in the center and in various other locations, but I found it is much simpler to control one wide stack with various places for different blocks, instead on two stacks with only a small number of places for blocks.
When you get up to level 19 and above, things are moving so fast that the controller doesn't handle moving back and forth very quickly... you need to move pieces in a general direction (like all of them to the right, then slowly building to the left).
All of this is on the NES Nintendo brand of Tetris. I have played other versions, but none as extensively. I would love to know the optimal strategy, but I think each player chooses which one works best for them (so even though the center may be optimal, I like the left better). My best score was 470,000... The guys at TwinGalaxies have the top score at 999,999 which seems impossible to me.
yes, this is definitely for people that are lazy. I am too lazy to move my hand off my mouse after I just clicked a link to hit ctrl+- or backspace or whatever. Since my hand is already on the mouse for almost all of required web browsing, it is faster (and less effort intensive) to just keep it there.
as for learning equally confusing gestures... is moving the mouse back to go back confusing? or forward to go forward? what about tracing the letter 'b' for bookmark? now, some of them aren't intuitive (moving up to open a new tab), but how freakin hard is it to learn 'up'? the zig-zab movement to close a window isn't intuitive but it's fun to just shake the mouse violently to close a window you want to get rid of.
I've been using gestures with tabbed browsing for a month or so and it's definitely faster for me. I even mouse and gesture left handed just fine (I'm right handed and usually mouse with my right, but after awhile my wrist and shoulder like a break so I switch). If a righty can gesture and browse efficiently with his left hand, I would say this works pretty well.
I'm not so sure about that...
I read somewhere (no link, sorry) that using a keyboard for shortcuts and stuff only SEEMS faster, but isn't. You also have to consider the type of application. For an old-school word perfect secretary, they are typing pretty much nonstop and keyboard shortcuts are right there where their hands are. For someone browsing the internet, they have one hand on the mouse most of the time and are clicking links, so it is faster to keep that hand there and do motions rather than moving the hand to the keyboard and then doing motions.
that is not true...
You can just change the permissions on the chrome directory and all is solved... all users are able to install the program and have it work.
I was able to watch the launch live at my company in
Los Angeles. It was successful and without incident.
The onboard camera kept a live feed from the rocket
to the ground... watching the first stage seperate in
space was spectacular.
the wheels aren't on the trains, they are on the tracks. yes, putting heavy wheels on the train would increase stopping distances, but these are ground fixed and change the translational motion of the train to rotational motion. because of friction and other losses, the energy isn't completely transfered, but it's better than nothing. the way this will help braking is that the brakes won't have to work so hard on the trains themselves so it will help emergency braking (IF it is near one... there will only be a certain number of them spread throughout the grid).
Of course, I didn't read the article so I may be wrong... but I've read a lot of posts and this is what they are saying.
I would like to take credit for being the idiot who
provided those equations...
I blindly looked at old homeworks and didn't bother
to take into account the context of the equations.
I blame it on the US education system and the fact
that I had to use M$ on my hw assignments (-;
and not vector format (so no direction is taken
into account).
the vector format:
F=G*m1*m2*r/||r||^3
if you don't care about the direction of the
force and just the magnitude, the radius vector
turns into a scalar and cancels one of the radii
in the denomenator.
Well, it blocks me on Linux (using Konqueror, Mozilla), but it lets NS 4.77 in fine. I can't think of why outdated, old NS 4.77 can "render the page correctly" and the newer Mozilla and Konqueror can't. So, it isn't the OS that MSN is blocking, just specific browsers.
This is all just pseudo-science and conjecture on my part, but it's the only way I can justify this vaccine. The other way is that maybe the physical addiction is in another part of the body to which the blood stream delivers the nicotine, but the CAUSE of that addiction is in the brain.
All you have to do is check over at EBay for "HDTV projector" and you'll see that you can pick one up for between $1000 for a bottom of the line to $15000 for top of the line. Sure, $1500 might not be the best HDTV projector out there, but it sure as hell beats spending twice as much for a similar TV that can only display 60" and is monolithic in size and weight.
That is why images.google.com gives complete credit to the site with links and all. Go and check it out sometime. They even show the full webpage when you click on the picture.