That's been my experience, too. When they upgraded to digital cable in my area, we had a lot of outages, but I don't think I've had an outage in the last year.
Yeah. I'm a professional statistician, and that really hurt.:(
It's sad to see what people have done to the industry. I think we get less trust than even lawyers. There are plenty of statisticians like myself that hate seeing statistics abused because of the damage it does to credibility of the well-researched and planned statistics...
I have an alarm clock with numbers that are about 3 inches high, because I can't see very well without my contacts or glasses (even the distance from my bed to the alarm clock, less than a foot, is too much to read a normal clock).
The makers of these clocks seem to think that because I'm blind, I'm also deaf. I have layers of black tape over the speaker in the back, and it's STILL quite loud. The first time I used it without black tape, my roommate and several neighbors were all trying to turn off their alarms.
It scares the heck out of my cat, too. He sometimes takes off running when the alarm goes off.
That's my suggestion.:)
--RJ
P.S. Or, get a cat, and get in the habit of feeding him/her when you get up. The cat will soon make the connection, and will then start waking you up. Mine, in particular, will jingle his collar, jump on the bed, put his nose in my face, chew wires, anything that gets a reaction out of me. This has been known to happen around 4:00 a.m. some days. (I've stopped feeding him in the morning in favor of more at night, but he hasn't gotten out of the habit yet.)
Oh, yeah, definitely. Business software usually worked fine, but games were sometimes a headache. Some of the games not written with the Jr in mind would crash the system. Maybe this should be considered another 'advance': games crashing the system because of the system design wasn't taken into account. Unfortunately, I can't think of any specific examples off the top of my head, but I know we had several.
Yeah, those adaptors were frustrating. $26 for a 2 inch cable that converted the serial port on the back of the computer to an RS-232 connection. I remember my dad being very unhappy about that.:)
Still, it did have connections for light pens and joysticks built in. Parallel port required a sidecar, though...even then manufacturers were trying to do away with it!
Hehe...160x100... More colors at a loss of resolution at a time when we valued every pixel!
I think the Jr was able to do a "high-res" (by then-standards) 16-color mode: I remember Imagic's Touchdown game looked pretty good. I'm sure there are other examples, but they're escaping me at the moment.
Ah, I didn't know that. I did know that the video RAM/system RAM link caused major headaches for us Jr users when programs didn't take that into account. Needless to say, I was somewhat suspicious of the newer motherboards that have the video RAM in system memory--but they seem to work flawlessly.
The PCjr was a flop, but it's interesting how many advances it had that other computers would start using:
4-voice sound when most IBM-compatibles could only produce one sound at a time 16-color graphics when CGA (4 color) was standard Video memory in system RAM - commonly used on many lower priced motherboards these days Infrared wireless keyboard
Yeah, it was expensive and limited. But it also had some interesting advances.
That's about what I pay Cox, but that includes a DVR rental and fee for service.
I don't think it's that much. The digital cable is something like $60/month and the internet service is $35; the remainder is the DVR rental and service fees, plus taxes, of course.
That about sums my experience, too. I'm used to compiling my own kernels, but when I wanted to upgrade a kernel on Mandrake, I found that they usually had included extra patches, like automounters that removed the need for mount/umount on CD drives. So, I wasn't able to get the kernel working exactly the way it was supposed to and the system never "felt right" afterwards.
Don't get me wrong--Mandrake is a beautiful distribution, very easy to configure and use, and I'd recommend it for anyone who wants an easy-to-install desktop.
They are selling something: religion. Sure, it's not money, but they ARE selling their brand of religion to you. And they do cold-calls, knocking on doors, regardless of how successful it is. That's what their "missions" are all about--knocking on doors to convert people.
I don't recall saying that "Flo Fox" or Ardie Brackett were Mormons...
Funny, my 2004 Chevrolet Impala doesn't have one...
Ohhhhhhh right, I didn't get the OnStar system option. Right. There's NO OnStar unit. I didn't just not activate the service, I didn't even get the hardware.
I've used that Minolta model.. "ton" is right--they're HEAVY. My Nikon body and lenses are much, much lighter. I know this isn't a primary concern for most people, but a lighter camera and lens makes it easier to carry around all day...
The Minolta I had had a quirk where it would hold the shutter open a little too long sometimes, or perhaps the mirror was taking it's time snapping back into position. You could hear it happening, and frequently those shots would be blurry. Not usually a problem--just take another shot, but when the shot is a once-in-a-lifetime, such as a friend crossing the finish line in first place in a race, it gets annoying.
Just because a person can't think of another solution doesn't make him/her incapable of analyzing this proposal.
Example: A friend's solution to overcrowding: "Have lots of children." If I can't think of a better solution to overcrowding, that doesn't mean that he automatically has a good idea.
She's moved back to Wisconsin since that story happened (I didn't want to clutter my point with irrelevant facts).:)
She never had a cell phone: her justification was that all of her friends had one that they'd let her use, so she didn't need one. She told me that while she was using my cell phone to check her messages.:)
Sadly, I was never able to convince her of the benefits of dating me...
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That's been my experience, too. When they upgraded to digital cable in my area, we had a lot of outages, but I don't think I've had an outage in the last year.
(Northern Virginia area)
--RJ
Reminds me of an electrician I knew that always worked on wires live. That way, he claimed, he was certain to be careful.
He was pretty old, too, so I guess it worked...
--RJ
Yeah. I'm a professional statistician, and that really hurt. :(
It's sad to see what people have done to the industry. I think we get less trust than even lawyers. There are plenty of statisticians like myself that hate seeing statistics abused because of the damage it does to credibility of the well-researched and planned statistics...
--RJ
I have an alarm clock with numbers that are about 3 inches high, because I can't see very well without my contacts or glasses (even the distance from my bed to the alarm clock, less than a foot, is too much to read a normal clock).
:)
The makers of these clocks seem to think that because I'm blind, I'm also deaf. I have layers of black tape over the speaker in the back, and it's STILL quite loud. The first time I used it without black tape, my roommate and several neighbors were all trying to turn off their alarms.
It scares the heck out of my cat, too. He sometimes takes off running when the alarm goes off.
That's my suggestion.
--RJ
P.S. Or, get a cat, and get in the habit of feeding him/her when you get up. The cat will soon make the connection, and will then start waking you up. Mine, in particular, will jingle his collar, jump on the bed, put his nose in my face, chew wires, anything that gets a reaction out of me. This has been known to happen around 4:00 a.m. some days. (I've stopped feeding him in the morning in favor of more at night, but he hasn't gotten out of the habit yet.)
I've never heard anyone consider the Amiga a flop. Commodore failed, of course, but the Amiga didn't flop.
--RJ
Oh, yeah, definitely. Business software usually worked fine, but games were sometimes a headache. Some of the games not written with the Jr in mind would crash the system. Maybe this should be considered another 'advance': games crashing the system because of the system design wasn't taken into account. Unfortunately, I can't think of any specific examples off the top of my head, but I know we had several.
:)
Yeah, those adaptors were frustrating. $26 for a 2 inch cable that converted the serial port on the back of the computer to an RS-232 connection. I remember my dad being very unhappy about that.
Still, it did have connections for light pens and joysticks built in. Parallel port required a sidecar, though...even then manufacturers were trying to do away with it!
--RJ
Funny. Were any memos written? It'd be hilarious to see those posted to the web!
--RJ
Hehe...160x100... More colors at a loss of resolution at a time when we valued every pixel!
I think the Jr was able to do a "high-res" (by then-standards) 16-color mode: I remember Imagic's Touchdown game looked pretty good. I'm sure there are other examples, but they're escaping me at the moment.
--RJ
Ah, I didn't know that. I did know that the video RAM/system RAM link caused major headaches for us Jr users when programs didn't take that into account. Needless to say, I was somewhat suspicious of the newer motherboards that have the video RAM in system memory--but they seem to work flawlessly.
--RJ
The PCjr was a flop, but it's interesting how many advances it had that other computers would start using:
4-voice sound when most IBM-compatibles could only produce one sound at a time
16-color graphics when CGA (4 color) was standard
Video memory in system RAM - commonly used on many lower priced motherboards these days
Infrared wireless keyboard
Yeah, it was expensive and limited. But it also had some interesting advances.
--RJ
"My God, it's worse than I thought!"
(Actually, it was Shatner's character talking about Striker's album-"400 Polka Favorites", I think-but the quote fits.)
--RJ
On my system, the older drivers always locked up the system or caused it to randomly reboot.
I installed the 4496 drivers the other day, and so far so good, but one time it took a week before the first reboot happened.
That's what's so hard about getting them to work.
--RJ
I'm going to quote an old /. post that I don't have a link to:
"Can I play on that slippery slope when you're done with it?"
--RJ
Laugh all the way to the bank?
--RJ
That's about what I pay Cox, but that includes a DVR rental and fee for service.
I don't think it's that much. The digital cable is something like $60/month and the internet service is $35; the remainder is the DVR rental and service fees, plus taxes, of course.
--RJ
Imagine that a product called X Windows requires windows.
Oh wait...
--RJ
Thanks. I really needed that laugh, since I was having a rough morning. :)
--RJ
That about sums my experience, too. I'm used to compiling my own kernels, but when I wanted to upgrade a kernel on Mandrake, I found that they usually had included extra patches, like automounters that removed the need for mount/umount on CD drives. So, I wasn't able to get the kernel working exactly the way it was supposed to and the system never "felt right" afterwards.
Don't get me wrong--Mandrake is a beautiful distribution, very easy to configure and use, and I'd recommend it for anyone who wants an easy-to-install desktop.
But Slack is still my favorite.
--RJ
They are selling something: religion. Sure, it's not money, but they ARE selling their brand of religion to you. And they do cold-calls, knocking on doors, regardless of how successful it is. That's what their "missions" are all about--knocking on doors to convert people.
I don't recall saying that "Flo Fox" or Ardie Brackett were Mormons...
--RJ
A Mormon friend of mine told me she once worked for a telemarketer and so didn't add herself to the "Do Not Call" list.
Imagine my lack of surprise at a Mormon bothering people at home trying to sell them something. Yes, nothing like putting old skills to new use...
--RJ
Funny, my 2004 Chevrolet Impala doesn't have one...
Ohhhhhhh right, I didn't get the OnStar system option. Right. There's NO OnStar unit. I didn't just not activate the service, I didn't even get the hardware.
FUD indeed.
--RJ
I've used that Minolta model.. "ton" is right--they're HEAVY. My Nikon body and lenses are much, much lighter. I know this isn't a primary concern for most people, but a lighter camera and lens makes it easier to carry around all day...
The Minolta I had had a quirk where it would hold the shutter open a little too long sometimes, or perhaps the mirror was taking it's time snapping back into position. You could hear it happening, and frequently those shots would be blurry. Not usually a problem--just take another shot, but when the shot is a once-in-a-lifetime, such as a friend crossing the finish line in first place in a race, it gets annoying.
--RJ
Just because a person can't think of another solution doesn't make him/her incapable of analyzing this proposal.
Example: A friend's solution to overcrowding: "Have lots of children." If I can't think of a better solution to overcrowding, that doesn't mean that he automatically has a good idea.
--RJ
My experience is that the more drunk someone is, the less they care about the drink they're having.
It's the only explanation I can think of as to why someone would keep drinking beer.
--RJ
She's moved back to Wisconsin since that story happened (I didn't want to clutter my point with irrelevant facts). :)
:)
She never had a cell phone: her justification was that all of her friends had one that they'd let her use, so she didn't need one. She told me that while she was using my cell phone to check her messages.
Sadly, I was never able to convince her of the benefits of dating me...
--RJ