why is this only happening during the RNC, and why wasn't the same thing promoted during the DNC? The Democrats have all the "right" answers and the Republicans don't? Why not shut down http://www.votenader.org/ at the same time, just to make sure everyone understands what the "right" answer is?
Aren't the folks running http://phil.ist-backup.DE/ are a little removed from the situation, and not likely to personally contribute to a viable alternative? Would they promote "voter registration" efforts? Do they honor the outcome of the elections in the U.S. or the election system itself? Should voters in the U.S. use such means to effect the outcome of elections in other countries?
Why is the U.S. stuck in a political dichotomy, 2 parties fighting over the two sides of a dollar bill? If the election winner doesn't have the "right" answer (a 50% chance, with 2 parties?) for every situation, what real difference is there between the choice? Are American voters just rooting for their favorite governmental sports team? Are Americans, voters and non, so blinded by the game that they can't see a 3rd or 4th reasonable alternative for anything?
Sure, the eye candy helps, but it can't be just about that.
It has to be more than a windows manager or a file manager, it must also do programming. Imagine 'frames/windows/whatevers' with sides, as well as backs. Want the translation of a foreign website? Just put that on a different side, as well as the stickynotes 'side', and sides for covering "pipes" and environment variables. Every object has it's own 'control panel' site, where the # of sides are defined. It's probably where 'relative faces' would be defined, where an axis of a web browser's object can be defined to return each search result on a 'face' of the given axis. No need to resort to cubism when free-form objects can be defined.
Select a group of objects, and rotate the selected group to see their "pipes". "Pass-thru" programs that don't need any visual rendering space could just show up as a line, if viewed from one side, but have another side akin to a shell script. Directional flow lines between objects used for STDIO only show up in programming view.
Any 'frame/window/view' should be able to become the 'primary/foreground', and each view can contain any number of other objects or views, allowing for far more than "3d". With enough memory, you could store the whole stack as it changed through time.
Well, that's what such a beast would mean to me. It's more about walking through my filespace in a graphical MU*-like environment, it's more like picking up a strange shiney object in a room of such an environment...think of that Escher print of him drawing his reflection in the mirror/glass/metal(?)sphere...but if zoomed in on, will reveal that you're looking at is a view of the opposite of what you were looking at - MU* environment in a 'window' surrounded by desktop.
I don't recall him mentioning what color it gave off, but I realize it's an important detail. The blue/green nightlight you mention sounds about right. Another interresting detail to know would be whether it was 110VAC, 12VDC, low voltage high freq AC, or something else that powered it.
The radiocative glowing stuff would be difficult to control with a light switch. I'd imagine the stuff would get charged with an EM field just as it gets charged in sunlight.
My father still tells the tale of the paint he saw in the '50-'60's that would eliminate light bulbs. I believe it was low voltage, so you just paint a surface, attach an electode (probably paint-over an electrode or 2 already anchored to the wall) and get as much light as needed with different sized surfaces. This way, entire ceilings or small spots could be used as illuminating sources. Liquid LED?
I'm sure GE had something to do with the product never seeing the "light of day" (um...yeah).
Even if you don'tbuy anything, I'm sure "The Black Hole of Los Alamos" beats Fry's as far as geekdom goes. Among other things, they sell surplus equipment from LANL (Los Alamos National Labs)
Their site is at http://members.aol.com/blkholela/home/
The office looses it's coffee service (Oh, the PAIN!) due to bankruptcy. On the flip side, we got our coffee contract back, along with a new coffee maker.
It came back POSSESSED!!!
I've been making coffee for years, and have made the first pot around 6am lately. But this new machine is wacked! After waking the machine up (lower left warmer switch to 'on' for brewing and spigot) and giving it a "spin-up" wait period before punching the spring-loaded "brew" toggle. The "break closet" filled with sound of water surging into the metal innards of the caffeine dispenser, and I make an appearance at my cubicle.
After waiting for the normal breq period to expire, I go to fill my prepared 'Tux' extra-large Linux beverage mug. There's only about 25% in the globular coffee pot, a slow, lazy drip continuing through the still active brewing cycle.
Luckily, that's the best part of the brew cycle, else all would be lost. I compensated by restarting the brew cycle in an empty pot, after getting my cup. A coworker informs me a bit later about the mess in the "break closet".
My employment is tenuous, with the bankruptcy, layoffs, and all, and really don't need a possessed coffee machine getting me fired for trashing the "break closet".
All "adjustment" tips are appreciated. Methinks it's the service-supplied MJB we're using in it.
I still use my Casio fx-991N on a regular basis. I believe it will last forever.
As for diskettes, I remember the first box of 5.25" floppies I got were made by a company called "EMS" Elephant Memory Systems. Too bad I don't have any to test. Their motto was "Never Forgets", had a neat "Elephant" logo, and humorous "Do Not..." icons on the back of the sleeve. Anyone got any working ones?
Then, simply put, all you need is a cable and a dialup account.
My digital phone, using AT&T Wireless (mmode), has a "modem mode". My Palm Pilot (or tethered desktop/notebook) doesn't use the phone #, username, or password fields to get a connection, just an AT command (AT&WS46=4) before sending an ATD will start a PPP connection. No phone # involved. I haven't ever tried just sending it 'ATDT1234567', but will try.
If only the connection on the phone itself were of the same quality as the rest of the phone.
I have been using AT&T's, now 'mmode' service, for over 2 years now. The throughput itself is "just OK", bringing me back to the "1200 baud daze".
My main use, besides waking me up when work calls, is checking email and light surfing (or is that WAPping?). The "radio" part of the phone, both analog and digital, is impressive, beating my old Nokia handily. Coverage is as well as could be expected, with data coverage "mostly" following digital coverage (not during analog roaming).
I haven't done any real bandwidth tests mainly because the phone, a well-traveled Ericsson R280LX, has never had a solid cable solution. The connections it uses for serial and power are similar examples of bad engineering.
Nokia phones, I've noticed, have a "normal" power connector. This Ericsson uses a small, compressable plastic tab that fits into a square, tabbed hole in the bottom of the phone. The tabs provide sufficient "break-away" without damaging anything, but lack the holding power to keep tiny spring-loaded "pins" against the slivers of conductor on the phone-side. The serial connection uses 2 of the friction tabs, the same used by the separate power and headset connections.
I'm curious about the new Sony/Ericsson T68(?). I don't mind getting another tethering cable, but only if it's external connections are nicer. Then again, it has bluetooth and IR, lessening the need for cable connections.
Hope that helps someone.
Re:Well, for some (non-bubble) techies...
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Generation Wrecked
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· Score: 1
(turning out to be a rant) As a non-bubble tech, with a month and a half till I've been with the company for 5 years (and 3 months as a temp), reality has been with me the past 8 months of layoffs. The parent company, who bought us after I started, is officially "up for auction" today, presumably unable to make it's $30Mil bank payment by 1 Nov.
I saw the bubble rise, the creation of lots of "Instant Jobs", no rise in salary. No raise for the past 2 years. Wishing I was on unemployment. A highly specialized position in general (yes, help desk) taking 6 months for a good tech to figure out what's going on in general. I've managed to become the "specialist" with our 2 "bastard child" products (of 3: 1 current, 1 in development, 1 in end-of-life). I would have thought that the petroleum industry (POS side) would be a safe bet. Hell, I can fix cash registers AND gas pumps now! Oh, I suppose the SQL, DBase, serial
Renting cheap apartment, driving cheap car, military veteran with only my "Honorable Discharge" to hang on my wall. I haven't even bothered looking at what my 401k is worth since it was over $10k. Guess what...5k of that is "preferred stock".
The bubble gave me none of it's benefits, all of it's problems, and a nice view from the bottom of an outhouse. I suppose I still have a shovel, but at this point, I've switched to one that's comically ballooned.
(probably only paragraph suitble for comment) Oh, I'm soon to be 37, born in '66. I do not consider myself to be a GenX'er for one important reason. My parent's aren't "Baby Boomers". I don't think my brother, born in '69, is GenX either, but he's closer than I. I've always thought of GenX'ers as "Baby Boomer Spawn". So I also believe that GenX+1 (GenY) are "GenX Spawn".
(wrapup) My Dad is retired from a major airline, but he wasn't a pilot. Good company retirement, great healthcare, etc. Mom raised us kids, then became an LPN, but isn't employed now. The family is buying a goodly quantity (+100 acres) of resourceful land in a protected environment in a yet-to-be inflated East Coast state. That's a result of the property balloon just starting to reach most of "back east" (trends move west-east here in the US). My dad says "Land is a great investment because they aren't making any more of it". That doesn't include the 1000+ sqft of "air" some people "own" in a condo or some such.
Why are Union workers more "legit" than tech workers? Cert'-o-rama has been a joke I have refused to participate in all along (work hasn't paid for it).
When I first saw Zope, it was as a "collaborative development platform". After over 2 years of using it, I still only have half a clue.
Paid to be a "helpdesk analyst" for proprietory POS software and not to code, I've been learning Zope for over 2 years. In another year, I'll be ready to build a full python Product. Most of the lag is the free time issue, some is development process.
I'm glad I've read this review before seeing it on the shelf. I've bought _The Zope Book_ and _Zope Web Application Development Kit_ and have found both only partially helpful. The DTML reference in TZB, once helpful, is now older than the publishing process with ZPT/TAL seems to be "the way to go".
Stated elsewhere, I think my next Zope book will be by O Reilly. I'm beyond the basics, and am in need of a good reference book, not selected chapters/parts of several books.
All in all, Zope works well and provides a suitable collaborative development environment, and the price is right (GPL). It's also a great introduction/immersion into object oriented programming.
Re:Libertarian Politics Fails Here
on
Monsanto and PCBs
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· Score: 1
One example here in Colorado is at Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge.
http://www.stopextinction.org/ reported on Oct 2, 2001:
Included in the Fiscal 2002 defense authorization bill, S 1416, S. Rpt. 107-62, is the "Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge Act," a provision which would transfer the heavily contaminated Rocky Flats, Colorado DOE weapons site to the Interior
Department after it was cleaned up. According to language in the bill "Some areas of the site contain contamination and will require further remediation." The Fish and Wildlife Service opposes the transfer because of the high levels of plutonium at the site and because of the expected high costs of future cleanup and maintenance -- some areas are so heavily contaminated they will never be open to the public. The Rocky Flats site provides habitat for many wildlife species, including a number of threatened and endangered species, and is marked by the presence of rare and xeric tallgrass prairie plant communities.
Taxes paid for the "investments" first made there and taxes are going to pay for the clean-up. Consumers of products pay for their manufacturer's environmental damages, or default to tax-funded "SuperFund" sites (if they apply). The consumer always pays.
Governments and Corporations are not people and thus cannot be punished legally like them.
The only trend I see is the application of state-of-the-art tech being used in their design and manufacture.
Back in '87-'90, I drove a 1983 Ford Escort. My dad bought it new that year and gave it to me after driving it into a flooded road while driving to work (3:30am?). Because my dad commuted about 130 miles each day, he got possibly _the_ most fuel efficient vehicle at the time, getting 60 MPG.
Not in a typical Escort of the day...a 5-speed with a 2.3l diesel in it. I want to think it had a Mitsubishi engine in it, but it could have been a Suzuki. This engine, in comparison to the European Escorts of the time, just _looked_ more rugged. The European 1986 Diesel Escort engine looked like a sewing machine. Mine looked like a small Cummings from the side. I had to investigate parts, and found the difference in engine styles startling!
Not a turbo, but I'd thought about trying to do it when I was in Europe with the USAF, and had the car shipped there and back home. I can't remember how many miles it had on it, but the speedometer was pegged lots of the time.
So it needed a _serious_ valve job, so I traded it in for a Hyundai.:/
I now own a '93 Geo Metro with over 220k miles on it. Still gets over 40 mph, but not 55-60 when it was new.
Cleaner diesels, whether they burn bio-diesel or not, are a good choice, IMHO. I'd prefer a hybrid with a diesel over one with a gasoline engine, mostly for maintenance reasons.
Village Games is the first place I saw these. They are located in London, so if you're in Europe, it'd probably be a more convenient source.
I've been holding off for a while...perhaps it's the 'shipping shock'. They do look a little more artsy, IMHO, but I've been waiting for that MUG! Practical, yet impossible!;)
Ah, GBBS...thanks for shaking the memory of MACOS loose.:)
Spent many an hour working on my Apple ][gs (a whopping 1.8MB of drivespace!), but then came FIDONet and a 286 running Binkley/QBBS, then D'Bridge and SuperBBS. Those were the days. The things one could do with a 2400 baod modem and 128k of RAM:)
It would be a neat idea if such a thing didn't exist already. The problem is that the big chemical companies of the time (Monsanto included) pushed to make such a thing illegal in the early '30's. Probably because they couldn't patent it, but that's just IMHO.
It's called HEMP.
Rumor is Henry Ford built an entire vehicle, fueled it, and lubricated it from HEMP. Why do we need genetic tampering when we don't know how to use what we have already?
I'm not talking about the physical layer or the transmission method or MP3 compression. Most of the posts here deal with those issues in one way or another.
I'm talking about noise from the same email everyone who ordered the Firecracker kit gets on a daily basis, at least by default. Of course they're just trying to convince us that we need more stuff. But I've seen everything they have to offer when I visited their website to get my Firecracker kit. I have a fairly good memory of what there is available for X10 and am sure I'll place an order for what I need.
In the past, and even still now, local companies deliver consumables to people on a daily basis. Milkmen and fruit/vegetable vendors were more common during my parent's life, but this isn't something I need to think about on a daily basis. "Hmmm...do I need a new X10 outlet today?" doesn't cross my mind on a monthly basis, let alone daily.
I want to get emails from companies and organizations that have something NEW to say, such as a new or upgraded product. I would hate missing something important or interresting because I had the reflex of deleting them unread, as soon as it comes in.
So my rating of the whole thing: Too much noise, not enough signal.
X10 pieces make a good candidate for their own icon for the 'skip' toggle...this was posted as a music news item.
Well, they DID mention not having enough news on GIS.
Most companies can't afford to pay *nix admins. Any luser can pay $$$ and cram for the NT?? test, put in notice at their $8.00/hr cube/carpentry/lawnmowing job, and run a company's system. They deserve what they get and pay for.
As for the topic, I believe M$ knows-darn-well what Linux (and probably most every other OS and most major software packages) can and can't do, and actively exploit this info in any test it preforms against any competitors product. Open Source makes it that much easier. Bottomless pockets also help. That's what companies do to "compete".
I started out on an Apple ][ back in '79 or so. Linux brings me back to the Beagle Bros products that helped me explore more than what came shrink-wrapped. Linux calls to those who used to take things apart when they were kids (or still do) to figure out "how they worked". Alebit more fun back in the mechanical days, as VLSI and surface-mounted packages aren't that fun to look at (or pry off boards.)
Linux allows for people to really learn about computer technology at all levels without having to worry about licensing limitations, development software costs, or "The Software Police" (acronym escapes me.)
So where's the cost savings? Having technically adept and curious users that know how to explore their system to their want/need and adapt it to their own style of usage instead of expecting their OS to automagically give them what they need would help. I could get together with my friends and build a Beowulf cluster next weekend just for grins (and experience, of course) just because it can be done for exactly $0. Computer geeks do things like this as a hobby. Some get paid to do it. (sigh)
There's also a system called Highway, which is a POS system for gas stations (heavy on the serial i/o) made by/for Schlumberger that runs Red Hat.
Unfortunately, I was the one to come up with the 'procedure' to prepare the sites currently using this system for installation of a WinDos based POS system. I almost cried again today when I had to demonstrate the procedure (mostly involving unmentionable fdisk operations) on a perfectly running system.
I'm still tempted to come up with an alternate procedure of running this new POS software under DOSEMU. I'm afraid the intensive serial i/o would be too much for it, but I'm convinced there'd be a big jump in uptime if it worked at all. Then again, I'd have to be the one to come up with a procedure for conversion suitable for the average gas pump tech/store clerk.
The first thing I flashed on while reading all of this was "Revenge of the Nerds".
Isn't life exciting? The 'human condition' as we know it shows no bounds. Every entity classifiable as homo sapiens exhibit such an amazingly array of possibilities, only Funniest Home Video and the nightly news can even try to show so many variations on the theme.
As one such variation having been 'persecuted' during his HS years in the early 80's, I can say that time hasn't changed anything but the scale of things. Killing anywhere, by anyone, is punishable in accordance with local/regional law. A fact that hasn't changed in a while. I grew up with guns, how to shoot various rifles and handguns, hunters safety courses, Boy Scouts, and later did 4 years in the military under some very heavy-duty situations. I've never taken the live of a fellow human or other being with the exception of a couple of road kills, bugs, mice, etc.
I punched one 'bully' for tresspassing into my basement in the 5th or 6th grade. Then I switched schools at grade 7-11 and again for my senior year, and didn't hit or get hit, but got close. Once I had access to the computer room (there's a reason it wasn't plural) I ate lunch there and avoided the lunch room. Not that it was unplesant, but because it was very convenient. One 'jock' in particular comes into mind. I believe the problems ended when I struck him out in a softball game in gym class (I wasn't particularly athletic, but the archery was cool). But I could be blocking out repressed memories.
Gym class seemed to be focal point of much teen angst.
(I was a geek in school, got picked on for it, knew how to use a gun, but didn't. But those were simpler times...I mean...Apple ]['s before they had the 'basics' disk to deal with the change in FDD sectors...but I digress)
So, some students don't seem to appreciate their HS years like Al Bundy is portrayed to have had. Thousands (seem) to have attested to the fact that they didn't enjoy HS because they were picked on for one reason or another. Ignored would have been ok. It's the confrontation that destroys the self-esteem, even if idle threats.
Right, then.
This most recent, publicized example of school violence hits close to home. About 10 miles or so. The press' first mention of 'outcast' brought the memories back. While I'm saddened at the loss of life, and feel for the families and friends involved (and not), we are shown another example of "Yes, things like THIS can and do happen." To be shocked at out race's current lack of morals/values/evolution up to now is...human.
No magic pill comes with this reality check. The short-sighted, knee-jerk responses (taking away computers, games, internet sites getting pulled, banning black dress and trenchcoats) may have more of an effect on people than the actual deed.
But there's talk here about non-violent protests, especially to the American primary education system. I read examples of 'custom tailored' schooling being used in other countries, and start drooling. I doubt anything like this will ever happen anytime reasonable here in the good ole US of A. So I had this thought, and it's both non-violent and the spirit of 'custom tailored.'
But I could get a visit by law enforcement agencies if I were to corrupt the minds of our young. Oh well...consider this a fictional situation:
The thought went that a considerable drop-off in the average student score would get someone's notice, especially if grades are tied to funding in any way. Specialize in a class or 2, and slack-off the rest. Just sit there. Those few gems of knowledge they pass along will probably sink in if it's not old news already, just by sitting there.
How about those SAT's? Guess the first time and retake it when you leave the school, or take it privately so it isn't associated with the school.
A+'s are great (as long as they're not certification programs) in classes that are worth the effort. Show the system that people should have choices. Follow minimum guidelines. The rest of life is yours.
But I could be wrong...Individual results WILL vary, but there's a learning experience enclosed in every box.
Slashdot Mirror
why is this only happening during the RNC, and why wasn't the same thing promoted during the DNC? The Democrats have all the "right" answers and the Republicans don't? Why not shut down http://www.votenader.org/ at the same time, just to make sure everyone understands what the "right" answer is?
Aren't the folks running http://phil.ist-backup.DE/ are a little removed from the situation, and not likely to personally contribute to a viable alternative? Would they promote "voter registration" efforts? Do they honor the outcome of the elections in the U.S. or the election system itself? Should voters in the U.S. use such means to effect the outcome of elections in other countries?
Why is the U.S. stuck in a political dichotomy, 2 parties fighting over the two sides of a dollar bill? If the election winner doesn't have the "right" answer (a 50% chance, with 2 parties?) for every situation, what real difference is there between the choice? Are American voters just rooting for their favorite governmental sports team? Are Americans, voters and non, so blinded by the game that they can't see a 3rd or 4th reasonable alternative for anything?
Some things I just don't understand.
Sure, the eye candy helps, but it can't be just about that.
;)
It has to be more than a windows manager or a file manager, it must also do programming. Imagine 'frames/windows/whatevers' with sides, as well as backs. Want the translation of a foreign website? Just put that on a different side, as well as the stickynotes 'side', and sides for covering "pipes" and environment variables. Every object has it's own 'control panel' site, where the # of sides are defined. It's probably where 'relative faces' would be defined, where an axis of a web browser's object can be defined to return each search result on a 'face' of the given axis. No need to resort to cubism when free-form objects can be defined.
Select a group of objects, and rotate the selected group to see their "pipes". "Pass-thru" programs that don't need any visual rendering space could just show up as a line, if viewed from one side, but have another side akin to a shell script. Directional flow lines between objects used for STDIO only show up in programming view.
Any 'frame/window/view' should be able to become the 'primary/foreground', and each view can contain any number of other objects or views, allowing for far more than "3d". With enough memory, you could store the whole stack as it changed through time.
Well, that's what such a beast would mean to me. It's more about walking through my filespace in a graphical MU*-like environment, it's more like picking up a strange shiney object in a room of such an environment...think of that Escher print of him drawing his reflection in the mirror/glass/metal(?)sphere...but if zoomed in on, will reveal that you're looking at is a view of the opposite of what you were looking at - MU* environment in a 'window' surrounded by desktop.
I'll put the pipe down now
(These ideas are copyleft by the implementor)
I don't recall him mentioning what color it gave off, but I realize it's an important detail. The blue/green nightlight you mention sounds about right. Another interresting detail to know would be whether it was 110VAC, 12VDC, low voltage high freq AC, or something else that powered it.
The radiocative glowing stuff would be difficult to control with a light switch. I'd imagine the stuff would get charged with an EM field just as it gets charged in sunlight.
somewhat, but he was also an electronics technician (Certified Zenith TV repair), so kept up with such things.
My father still tells the tale of the paint he saw in the '50-'60's that would eliminate light bulbs. I believe it was low voltage, so you just paint a surface, attach an electode (probably paint-over an electrode or 2 already anchored to the wall) and get as much light as needed with different sized surfaces. This way, entire ceilings or small spots could be used as illuminating sources. Liquid LED?
I'm sure GE had something to do with the product never seeing the "light of day" (um...yeah).
Even if you don'tbuy anything, I'm sure "The Black Hole of Los Alamos" beats Fry's as far as geekdom goes. Among other things, they sell surplus equipment from LANL (Los Alamos National Labs)
Their site is at
http://members.aol.com/blkholela/home/
The story so far:
The office looses it's coffee service (Oh, the PAIN!) due to bankruptcy. On the flip side, we got our coffee contract back, along with a new coffee maker.
It came back POSSESSED!!!
I've been making coffee for years, and have made the first pot around 6am lately. But this new machine is wacked! After waking the machine up (lower left warmer switch to 'on' for brewing and spigot) and giving it a "spin-up" wait period before punching the spring-loaded "brew" toggle. The "break closet" filled with sound of water surging into the metal innards of the caffeine dispenser, and I make an appearance at my cubicle.
After waiting for the normal breq period to expire, I go to fill my prepared 'Tux' extra-large Linux beverage mug. There's only about 25% in the globular coffee pot, a slow, lazy drip continuing through the still active brewing cycle.
Luckily, that's the best part of the brew cycle, else all would be lost. I compensated by restarting the brew cycle in an empty pot, after getting my cup. A coworker informs me a bit later about the mess in the "break closet".
My employment is tenuous, with the bankruptcy, layoffs, and all, and really don't need a possessed coffee machine getting me fired for trashing the "break closet".
All "adjustment" tips are appreciated. Methinks it's the service-supplied MJB we're using in it.
Buckaroo Banzai
Across the 8th Dimension"
A movie with a bit of everything!
Runner-Up: "The Wizard of Speed and Time"
I still use my Casio fx-991N on a regular basis. I believe it will last forever.
As for diskettes, I remember the first box of 5.25" floppies I got were made by a company called "EMS" Elephant Memory Systems. Too bad I don't have any to test. Their motto was "Never Forgets", had a neat "Elephant" logo, and humorous "Do Not..." icons on the back of the sleeve. Anyone got any working ones?
A Spork(tm?) is the spoon/fork that comes with KFC(TM) meals. Spam(TM) probably came first.
Sounds like something her gang would be involved in.
Fnord
My digital phone, using AT&T Wireless (mmode), has a "modem mode". My Palm Pilot (or tethered desktop/notebook) doesn't use the phone #, username, or password fields to get a connection, just an AT command (AT&WS46=4) before sending an ATD will start a PPP connection. No phone # involved. I haven't ever tried just sending it 'ATDT1234567', but will try.
If only the connection on the phone itself were of the same quality as the rest of the phone.
I have been using AT&T's, now 'mmode' service, for over 2 years now. The throughput itself is "just OK", bringing me back to the "1200 baud daze".
My main use, besides waking me up when work calls, is checking email and light surfing (or is that WAPping?). The "radio" part of the phone, both analog and digital, is impressive, beating my old Nokia handily. Coverage is as well as could be expected, with data coverage "mostly" following digital coverage (not during analog roaming).
I haven't done any real bandwidth tests mainly because the phone, a well-traveled Ericsson R280LX, has never had a solid cable solution. The connections it uses for serial and power are similar examples of bad engineering.
Nokia phones, I've noticed, have a "normal" power connector. This Ericsson uses a small, compressable plastic tab that fits into a square, tabbed hole in the bottom of the phone. The tabs provide sufficient "break-away" without damaging anything, but lack the holding power to keep tiny spring-loaded "pins" against the slivers of conductor on the phone-side. The serial connection uses 2 of the friction tabs, the same used by the separate power and headset connections.
I'm curious about the new Sony/Ericsson T68(?). I don't mind getting another tethering cable, but only if it's external connections are nicer. Then again, it has bluetooth and IR, lessening the need for cable connections.
Hope that helps someone.
(turning out to be a rant)
As a non-bubble tech, with a month and a half till I've been with the company for 5 years (and 3 months as a temp), reality has been with me the past 8 months of layoffs. The parent company, who bought us after I started, is officially "up for auction" today, presumably unable to make it's $30Mil bank payment by 1 Nov.
I saw the bubble rise, the creation of lots of "Instant Jobs", no rise in salary. No raise for the past 2 years. Wishing I was on unemployment. A highly specialized position in general (yes, help desk) taking 6 months for a good tech to figure out what's going on in general. I've managed to become the "specialist" with our 2 "bastard child" products (of 3: 1 current, 1 in development, 1 in end-of-life). I would have thought that the petroleum industry (POS side) would be a safe bet. Hell, I can fix cash registers AND gas pumps now! Oh, I suppose the SQL, DBase, serial
Renting cheap apartment, driving cheap car, military veteran with only my "Honorable Discharge" to hang on my wall. I haven't even bothered looking at what my 401k is worth since it was over $10k. Guess what...5k of that is "preferred stock".
The bubble gave me none of it's benefits, all of it's problems, and a nice view from the bottom of an outhouse. I suppose I still have a shovel, but at this point, I've switched to one that's comically ballooned.
(probably only paragraph suitble for comment)
Oh, I'm soon to be 37, born in '66. I do not consider myself to be a GenX'er for one important reason. My parent's aren't "Baby Boomers". I don't think my brother, born in '69, is GenX either, but he's closer than I. I've always thought of GenX'ers as "Baby Boomer Spawn". So I also believe that GenX+1 (GenY) are "GenX Spawn".
(wrapup)
My Dad is retired from a major airline, but he wasn't a pilot. Good company retirement, great healthcare, etc. Mom raised us kids, then became an LPN, but isn't employed now. The family is buying a goodly quantity (+100 acres) of resourceful land in a protected environment in a yet-to-be inflated East Coast state. That's a result of the property balloon just starting to reach most of "back east" (trends move west-east here in the US). My dad says "Land is a great investment because they aren't making any more of it". That doesn't include the 1000+ sqft of "air" some people "own" in a condo or some such.
Why are Union workers more "legit" than tech workers? Cert'-o-rama has been a joke I have refused to participate in all along (work hasn't paid for it).
Just another needle in a 1400 post haystack
When I first saw Zope, it was as a "collaborative development platform". After over 2 years of using it, I still only have half a clue.
Paid to be a "helpdesk analyst" for proprietory POS software and not to code, I've been learning Zope for over 2 years. In another year, I'll be ready to build a full python Product. Most of the lag is the free time issue, some is development process.
I'm glad I've read this review before seeing it on the shelf. I've bought _The Zope Book_ and _Zope Web Application Development Kit_ and have found both only partially helpful. The DTML reference in TZB, once helpful, is now older than the publishing process with ZPT/TAL seems to be "the way to go".
Stated elsewhere, I think my next Zope book will be by O Reilly. I'm beyond the basics, and am in need of a good reference book, not selected chapters/parts of several books.
All in all, Zope works well and provides a suitable collaborative development environment, and the price is right (GPL). It's also a great introduction/immersion into object oriented programming.
One example here in Colorado is at Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge.
. ht ml)
http://www.stopextinction.org/ reported on Oct 2, 2001:
Included in the Fiscal 2002 defense authorization bill, S 1416, S. Rpt. 107-62, is the "Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge Act," a provision which would transfer the heavily contaminated Rocky Flats, Colorado DOE weapons site to the Interior
Department after it was cleaned up. According to language in the bill "Some areas of the site contain contamination and will require further remediation." The Fish and Wildlife Service opposes the transfer because of the high levels of plutonium at the site and because of the expected high costs of future cleanup and maintenance -- some areas are so heavily contaminated they will never be open to the public. The Rocky Flats site provides habitat for many wildlife species, including a number of threatened and endangered species, and is marked by the presence of rare and xeric tallgrass prairie plant communities.
(http://www.stopextinction.org/news/OTH10-02-01
Taxes paid for the "investments" first made there and taxes are going to pay for the clean-up. Consumers of products pay for their manufacturer's environmental damages, or default to tax-funded "SuperFund" sites (if they apply). The consumer always pays.
Governments and Corporations are not people and thus cannot be punished legally like them.
Back in '87-'90, I drove a 1983 Ford Escort. My dad bought it new that year and gave it to me after driving it into a flooded road while driving to work (3:30am?). Because my dad commuted about 130 miles each day, he got possibly _the_ most fuel efficient vehicle at the time, getting 60 MPG.
Not in a typical Escort of the day...a 5-speed with a 2.3l diesel in it. I want to think it had a Mitsubishi engine in it, but it could have been a Suzuki. This engine, in comparison to the European Escorts of the time, just _looked_ more rugged. The European 1986 Diesel Escort engine looked like a sewing machine. Mine looked like a small Cummings from the side. I had to investigate parts, and found the difference in engine styles startling!
Not a turbo, but I'd thought about trying to do it when I was in Europe with the USAF, and had the car shipped there and back home. I can't remember how many miles it had on it, but the speedometer was pegged lots of the time.
So it needed a _serious_ valve job, so I traded it in for a Hyundai. :/
I now own a '93 Geo Metro with over 220k miles on it. Still gets over 40 mph, but not 55-60 when it was new.
Cleaner diesels, whether they burn bio-diesel or not, are a good choice, IMHO. I'd prefer a hybrid with a diesel over one with a gasoline engine, mostly for maintenance reasons.
I've been holding off for a while...perhaps it's the 'shipping shock'. They do look a little more artsy, IMHO, but I've been waiting for that MUG! Practical, yet impossible! ;)
Spent many an hour working on my Apple ][gs (a whopping 1.8MB of drivespace!), but then came FIDONet and a 286 running Binkley/QBBS, then D'Bridge and SuperBBS. Those were the days. The things one could do with a 2400 baod modem and 128k of RAM :)
It's called HEMP.
Rumor is Henry Ford built an entire vehicle, fueled it, and lubricated it from HEMP. Why do we need genetic tampering when we don't know how to use what we have already?
Idiots.
I'm talking about noise from the same email everyone who ordered the Firecracker kit gets on a daily basis, at least by default. Of course they're just trying to convince us that we need more stuff. But I've seen everything they have to offer when I visited their website to get my Firecracker kit. I have a fairly good memory of what there is available for X10 and am sure I'll place an order for what I need.
In the past, and even still now, local companies deliver consumables to people on a daily basis. Milkmen and fruit/vegetable vendors were more common during my parent's life, but this isn't something I need to think about on a daily basis. "Hmmm...do I need a new X10 outlet today?" doesn't cross my mind on a monthly basis, let alone daily.
I want to get emails from companies and organizations that have something NEW to say, such as a new or upgraded product. I would hate missing something important or interresting because I had the reflex of deleting them unread, as soon as it comes in.
So my rating of the whole thing: Too much noise, not enough signal.
X10 pieces make a good candidate for their own icon for the 'skip' toggle...this was posted as a music news item.
Well, they DID mention not having enough news on GIS.
Electrical system by Lucas. Look at their cars to see how their computers would be made.
As for the topic, I believe M$ knows-darn-well what Linux (and probably most every other OS and most major software packages) can and can't do, and actively exploit this info in any test it preforms against any competitors product. Open Source makes it that much easier. Bottomless pockets also help. That's what companies do to "compete".
I started out on an Apple ][ back in '79 or so. Linux brings me back to the Beagle Bros products that helped me explore more than what came shrink-wrapped. Linux calls to those who used to take things apart when they were kids (or still do) to figure out "how they worked". Alebit more fun back in the mechanical days, as VLSI and surface-mounted packages aren't that fun to look at (or pry off boards.)
Linux allows for people to really learn about computer technology at all levels without having to worry about licensing limitations, development software costs, or "The Software Police" (acronym escapes me.)
So where's the cost savings? Having technically adept and curious users that know how to explore their system to their want/need and adapt it to their own style of usage instead of expecting their OS to automagically give them what they need would help. I could get together with my friends and build a Beowulf cluster next weekend just for grins (and experience, of course) just because it can be done for exactly $0. Computer geeks do things like this as a hobby. Some get paid to do it. (sigh)
Unfortunately, I was the one to come up with the 'procedure' to prepare the sites currently using this system for installation of a WinDos based POS system. I almost cried again today when I had to demonstrate the procedure (mostly involving unmentionable fdisk operations) on a perfectly running system.
I'm still tempted to come up with an alternate procedure of running this new POS software under DOSEMU. I'm afraid the intensive serial i/o would be too much for it, but I'm convinced there'd be a big jump in uptime if it worked at all. Then again, I'd have to be the one to come up with a procedure for conversion suitable for the average gas pump tech/store clerk.
Isn't life exciting? The 'human condition' as we know it shows no bounds. Every entity classifiable as homo sapiens exhibit such an amazingly array of possibilities, only Funniest Home Video and the nightly news can even try to show so many variations on the theme.
As one such variation having been 'persecuted' during his HS years in the early 80's, I can say that time hasn't changed anything but the scale of things. Killing anywhere, by anyone, is punishable in accordance with local/regional law. A fact that hasn't changed in a while. I grew up with guns, how to shoot various rifles and handguns, hunters safety courses, Boy Scouts, and later did 4 years in the military under some very heavy-duty situations. I've never taken the live of a fellow human or other being with the exception of a couple of road kills, bugs, mice, etc.
I punched one 'bully' for tresspassing into my basement in the 5th or 6th grade. Then I switched schools at grade 7-11 and again for my senior year, and didn't hit or get hit, but got close. Once I had access to the computer room (there's a reason it wasn't plural) I ate lunch there and avoided the lunch room. Not that it was unplesant, but because it was very convenient. One 'jock' in particular comes into mind. I believe the problems ended when I struck him out in a softball game in gym class (I wasn't particularly athletic, but the archery was cool). But I could be blocking out repressed memories.
Gym class seemed to be focal point of much teen angst.
(I was a geek in school, got picked on for it, knew how to use a gun, but didn't. But those were simpler times...I mean...Apple ]['s before they had the 'basics' disk to deal with the change in FDD sectors...but I digress)
So, some students don't seem to appreciate their HS years like Al Bundy is portrayed to have had. Thousands (seem) to have attested to the fact that they didn't enjoy HS because they were picked on for one reason or another. Ignored would have been ok. It's the confrontation that destroys the self-esteem, even if idle threats.
Right, then.
This most recent, publicized example of school violence hits close to home. About 10 miles or so. The press' first mention of 'outcast' brought the memories back. While I'm saddened at the loss of life, and feel for the families and friends involved (and not), we are shown another example of "Yes, things like THIS can and do happen." To be shocked at out race's current lack of morals/values/evolution up to now is...human.
No magic pill comes with this reality check. The short-sighted, knee-jerk responses (taking away computers, games, internet sites getting pulled, banning black dress and trenchcoats) may have more of an effect on people than the actual deed.
But there's talk here about non-violent protests, especially to the American primary education system. I read examples of 'custom tailored' schooling being used in other countries, and start drooling. I doubt anything like this will ever happen anytime reasonable here in the good ole US of A. So I had this thought, and it's both non-violent and the spirit of 'custom tailored.'
But I could get a visit by law enforcement agencies if I were to corrupt the minds of our young. Oh well...consider this a fictional situation:
The thought went that a considerable drop-off in the average student score would get someone's notice, especially if grades are tied to funding in any way. Specialize in a class or 2, and slack-off the rest. Just sit there. Those few gems of knowledge they pass along will probably sink in if it's not old news already, just by sitting there.
How about those SAT's? Guess the first time and retake it when you leave the school, or take it privately so it isn't associated with the school.
A+'s are great (as long as they're not certification programs) in classes that are worth the effort. Show the system that people should have choices. Follow minimum guidelines. The rest of life is yours.
But I could be wrong...Individual results WILL vary, but there's a learning experience enclosed in every box.
Who do I think I am anyway?