They were clearing out 250gig external drives at Future Shop last week for $109.00 Canadian. I almost bought one, but its USB. I'd rather just slap an ordinary hard drive in the box and copy the files across, then remove the drive.
I was going to post that as a follow-up, but my bagel had already gotten my fingers too slippery (I tend to load them up with butter and cream cheese when I toast them).
Since its all client-side javascript, I can see them addressing both bloat and functionality by having users custom configure what functions they need the spreadhseet to have, and having only those javascript libraries loaded by default.
This would also open it up to 3rd-party developers, who could submit their scripts as add-ins.
Want your spreadsheet to automatically text message you when a certain field hits a critical value? Want your spreadsheet to email a diff when Joe Luser saves it? Wnat yur spreadsheet to look up stuff in an external database based on a crc64 of the values in other fields? No problemo.
tacky and childish. Not exactly professional. Hopefully, if this really did happen, someone will have the decency to at least go (*mumble mumble nice-sounding words about not official policy mumble mumble we apologize mumble mumble*).
Good point. You have to reinstall your image, then install the updates, then reimage. Use a spare partition for that, and copy betwen the partitions. then you're good to go, plus you have the second partition to show that this is your normal procedure (you shuld be doing this anyway if you're running windows).
"r systems and methods to facilitate self regulation of social networks through trading and gift exchange, which classify users as good or bad and call for network bandwidth to be reduced for those deemed 'less desirable.'"
Sounds a lot like how bittorrent does bandwidth throttling - give away a lot of chunks, you get back a lot of chunks; be miserly in your upload rate, and get bit-slapped (no, that's not a type - its a pun:-)
The problem isn't the docs, its the apps, and various system files, registry settings, etc. You need to image your drive right after your initial install (using dd if=/dev/hda of=winxp.img, if hda is the windows partition).
Remembr, you're reading the raw partition, so the type of file system on it doesn't matter - all the bytes are getting copied. Heck, you can even mount the image via the loopback device and edit it.
"That's a stupid analogy. Science is public knowledge, and science advances when the knowledge is freely used and spread.
Art is an expression of an artists own life, views, beliefs, hopes, dreams etc. They have every right to protect their work, since it's uniquely theirs. They can choose who they want to view it (e.g. give it away for free, or give it only to people who pay). It's not automatically everybody's right to own it just because they're too cheap to pay for it.
Art isn't information that humanity deserves to know, it's art."
Since when is science "public knowledge" that's free for everyone to use. Last I heard, there were trade secrets, patentable IP,
etc.
Then there's the question of science as an art form. Ask any c or assembler programmer - there IS such a thing as elegant code. It IS just as much art as science, it IS a unique expression, and yet its also a good feeling to try to give it back to the community at large, to share it, etc..
Good science in any field is more of an art form than a lot of the crap out there that passes as "art."
Writing all zeroes makes it easier to find the "fossil traces" of how the bits were previously arranged, if they want to go to the expense of moving the platters to a special head/controller assembly.
Then say a virus ate it. It would be true - Microsoft has gone on record as saying Linux and the GPL are viral.
Why? Just your data transfer charges and disk storage space (those are billed extra by Amazon) are going to cost more than the electricity to run your box overnight (and you already have the box, so its not like you're spending extra for it). Plus it takes time to upload all that video data - time which your machine is running anyway, so you might as well just use it to encode it yourself.
cpu cycles have become so commoditized that there's no point in going to the hassle of "leasing" a small virtual cluster. Most people have several boxes already - cluster them and be done with it.
"($100*X/1), where X is the likelihood of apprehension in those circumstances. So if you have a 50% chance of evading punishment entirely, the fine needs to be over $200,"
Since X/1 is the same as X, your expression is really ($100*X). Now if the chance of getting caught is 50% (0.5), $100*0.5 becomes $50, not 200.
I think you meant ($100 * 1/ X), which becomes $100/X.
"The silly thing looked like an old set of TV rabbit ears, complete with the square panel antenna in the center, tht looked like the "UHF" portion of said rabbit ears."
I guess that's the "everything old is new again" meme kicking in.
Look at cell phones - black has been the new silver for the last 5 years, just as it was 2, 3 decades ago with computer furniture.
At this rate, maybe I'll be able to boot my next box off a plasticized version of punched tape.
If that's the case, why would I want to spend N times more money for "as good as"?
I'll probably switch to lcds sometime in the next couple of years, but only because I want to go from dual/triple 19" screens to something totally ridiculous, and the thinner bezels will make this possible.
Definitely, if yo saw it in Japan, its way ahead of what's available here in North America. Japanese get laptops with zero dead pixels - we get their refuse.
Even half-decent CRTs only flicker under flourescent light - and if you're using all-flourescent, your eyes are crapped out anyway. Flourescent lighting is nasty. Even a bit of natural light makes a big difference (though I'm sure you'll agree that the best natural lighting for working with an LCD is a laptop with a blanket spread under a tree, with a basket containing some goodies, and maybe something mildly alcoholic).
"you should know that a switch allows for mixed speed devices with no general speed drop (unlike the old hubs that used to exist)."
I'm well aware of it - I used to work for a switch manufacturer. A switch isn't going to fix the situation where one of the devices in the conversation is slower, so it doesn't matter if you stick a 1gig nic on your server - your 100mp client card is going to force the server to talk to it at 100mpbs.
And a lot of cat5 is marginal because of the way its installed - people stapling it to the wall every 6 inches, or lots of really tight bends,, running it along the flourescents etc.
The problem is, either you see the problems, or you don't. Most people don't. But for those of us who do, its glaringly obvious.
A lot of people are sold on the name - they really can't make a decent judgment on picture quality. Put 2 tvs side-by-side, and they'll be gushing over the one with the name brand they recognize. It took me almost an hour to convince a friend who was shopping for one to stop looking at the name plate, and just look at the picture.
If you're happy with your picture, then its not a problem. Just that I don't see the point in spending big bucks on something I *might* watch for two to three hours a month.
No, its because the tech really does suck. The dynamic range is poor compared to a crt. That's why you'll almost always see them demoing with animated movies,or scenes with large areas of similar colurs.
The same people who think LCD and plasma displays look great don't notice the annoying artifacts in satellite tv broadcasts either.
Well, gigabit ethernet is no longer "much more expensive." I saw a 5-port gigabit switch at a retailer yesterday for under $12/port. Cards are equally cheap. The problem is that for most users, they won't notice the difference, or they'd have to change the cabling fro cat5 to cat6, or they have one or more boxes that are still runing 100mb, so there is zero point in upgrading.
Sorry, but its only in Soviet Strip Clubs that you're allowed to pay for touching yourself!
I can see someone might want to substitute "pay-by-touch" in such situations, though:
An anglo from Toronto, a Quebecer, and a newfie from Newfoundland go to a strip club in Montreal (yes, this is a Kanuckistani joke)
The Quebecer gets a lap dance, and slips $10.00 in the strippers' panties.
The Torontonian gets a lap dance, and, not to be outdone, slips $20.00 in the strippers' panties.
The Newfie gets a lap dance, asks the girl to bend over, pulls down her panties, and slides his ATM bank card through her ass-crack.
Slashdot Mirror
They were clearing out 250gig external drives at Future Shop last week for $109.00 Canadian. I almost bought one, but its USB. I'd rather just slap an ordinary hard drive in the box and copy the files across, then remove the drive.
"I want a routine to simply write my selection to the DVD writer and spread it across however many discs are required"
A 250 gig hard disk is under $100.00. How long are you going to take to back up 250 gigs to dvds (It takes time. I did it once - never again).
I was going to post that as a follow-up, but my bagel had already gotten my fingers too slippery (I tend to load them up with butter and cream cheese when I toast them).
Since its all client-side javascript, I can see them addressing both bloat and functionality by having users custom configure what functions they need the spreadhseet to have, and having only those javascript libraries loaded by default.
This would also open it up to 3rd-party developers, who could submit their scripts as add-ins.
Want your spreadsheet to automatically text message you when a certain field hits a critical value? Want your spreadsheet to email a diff when Joe Luser saves it? Wnat yur spreadsheet to look up stuff in an external database based on a crc64 of the values in other fields? No problemo.
tacky and childish. Not exactly professional. Hopefully, if this really did happen, someone will have the decency to at least go (*mumble mumble nice-sounding words about not official policy mumble mumble we apologize mumble mumble*).
Good point. You have to reinstall your image, then install the updates, then reimage. Use a spare partition for that, and copy betwen the partitions. then you're good to go, plus you have the second partition to show that this is your normal procedure (you shuld be doing this anyway if you're running windows).
"r systems and methods to facilitate self regulation of social networks through trading and gift exchange, which classify users as good or bad and call for network bandwidth to be reduced for those deemed 'less desirable.'"
Sounds a lot like how bittorrent does bandwidth throttling - give away a lot of chunks, you get back a lot of chunks; be miserly in your upload rate, and get bit-slapped (no, that's not a type - its a pun :-)
The problem isn't the docs, its the apps, and various system files, registry settings, etc. You need to image your drive right after your initial install (using dd if=/dev/hda of=winxp.img, if hda is the windows partition).
Remembr, you're reading the raw partition, so the type of file system on it doesn't matter - all the bytes are getting copied. Heck, you can even mount the image via the loopback device and edit it.
"That's a stupid analogy. Science is public knowledge, and science advances when the knowledge is freely used and spread.
Art is an expression of an artists own life, views, beliefs, hopes, dreams etc. They have every right to protect their work, since it's uniquely theirs. They can choose who they want to view it (e.g. give it away for free, or give it only to people who pay). It's not automatically everybody's right to own it just because they're too cheap to pay for it.
Art isn't information that humanity deserves to know, it's art."
Since when is science "public knowledge" that's free for everyone to use. Last I heard, there were trade secrets, patentable IP, etc.
Then there's the question of science as an art form. Ask any c or assembler programmer - there IS such a thing as elegant code. It IS just as much art as science, it IS a unique expression, and yet its also a good feeling to try to give it back to the community at large, to share it, etc..
Good science in any field is more of an art form than a lot of the crap out there that passes as "art."
"Where I work we wipe hard disks with a drill press or a sledgehammer. Seriously."
Don't forget to save the magnets. They're super-powerful, and come in handy for the darnest things.
better to do dd if=/dev/random of=/dev/hda
Writing all zeroes makes it easier to find the "fossil traces" of how the bits were previously arranged, if they want to go to the expense of moving the platters to a special head/controller assembly.
Then say a virus ate it. It would be true - Microsoft has gone on record as saying Linux and the GPL are viral.
Why? Just your data transfer charges and disk storage space (those are billed extra by Amazon) are going to cost more than the electricity to run your box overnight (and you already have the box, so its not like you're spending extra for it). Plus it takes time to upload all that video data - time which your machine is running anyway, so you might as well just use it to encode it yourself.
cpu cycles have become so commoditized that there's no point in going to the hassle of "leasing" a small virtual cluster. Most people have several boxes already - cluster them and be done with it.
Your math is a bit off ... need more coffee?
"($100*X/1), where X is the likelihood of apprehension in those circumstances. So if you have a 50% chance of evading punishment entirely, the fine needs to be over $200,"
Since X/1 is the same as X, your expression is really ($100*X). Now if the chance of getting caught is 50% (0.5), $100*0.5 becomes $50, not 200.
I think you meant ($100 * 1/ X), which becomes $100/X.
If X is 0.5, then $100/X = $200.00
Good point. Let's patent it.
Here's one with a HUGE key space - and much more difficult to break.
"cat /dev/urandom > file_you_want_encrypted.doc"
And for the best effect, you can let this run all night. Ignore the "disk full" message. Its a feature, not a bug.
Pretty much guaranteed nobody else will be able to read your original contents when its finished.
"The silly thing looked like an old set of TV rabbit ears, complete with the square panel antenna in the center, tht looked like the "UHF" portion of said rabbit ears."
I guess that's the "everything old is new again" meme kicking in.
Look at cell phones - black has been the new silver for the last 5 years, just as it was 2, 3 decades ago with computer furniture.
At this rate, maybe I'll be able to boot my next box off a plasticized version of punched tape.
If that's the case, why would I want to spend N times more money for "as good as"?
I'll probably switch to lcds sometime in the next couple of years, but only because I want to go from dual/triple 19" screens to something totally ridiculous, and the thinner bezels will make this possible.
Definitely, if yo saw it in Japan, its way ahead of what's available here in North America. Japanese get laptops with zero dead pixels - we get their refuse.
Even half-decent CRTs only flicker under flourescent light - and if you're using all-flourescent, your eyes are crapped out anyway. Flourescent lighting is nasty. Even a bit of natural light makes a big difference (though I'm sure you'll agree that the best natural lighting for working with an LCD is a laptop with a blanket spread under a tree, with a basket containing some goodies, and maybe something mildly alcoholic).
"you should know that a switch allows for mixed speed devices with no general speed drop (unlike the old hubs that used to exist)."
I'm well aware of it - I used to work for a switch manufacturer. A switch isn't going to fix the situation where one of the devices in the conversation is slower, so it doesn't matter if you stick a 1gig nic on your server - your 100mp client card is going to force the server to talk to it at 100mpbs.
And a lot of cat5 is marginal because of the way its installed - people stapling it to the wall every 6 inches, or lots of really tight bends,, running it along the flourescents etc.
The problem is, either you see the problems, or you don't. Most people don't. But for those of us who do, its glaringly obvious.
A lot of people are sold on the name - they really can't make a decent judgment on picture quality. Put 2 tvs side-by-side, and they'll be gushing over the one with the name brand they recognize. It took me almost an hour to convince a friend who was shopping for one to stop looking at the name plate, and just look at the picture.
If you're happy with your picture, then its not a problem. Just that I don't see the point in spending big bucks on something I *might* watch for two to three hours a month.
No, its because the tech really does suck. The dynamic range is poor compared to a crt. That's why you'll almost always see them demoing with animated movies,or scenes with large areas of similar colurs.
The same people who think LCD and plasma displays look great don't notice the annoying artifacts in satellite tv broadcasts either.
Well, gigabit ethernet is no longer "much more expensive." I saw a 5-port gigabit switch at a retailer yesterday for under $12/port. Cards are equally cheap. The problem is that for most users, they won't notice the difference, or they'd have to change the cabling fro cat5 to cat6, or they have one or more boxes that are still runing 100mb, so there is zero point in upgrading.
Give it 5 years ...
It should read "move on, nothing to see here ..." since you can't upgrade to something that isn't available yet.
Besides, why would you want to upgrade when nobody can use it? Wait until its been out a few years.
After all, gigbit ethernet has been out for a couple of years now, and look at how many people get along just fine with 100mb.
"What about strip clubs?"
Sorry, but its only in Soviet Strip Clubs that you're allowed to pay for touching yourself!
I can see someone might want to substitute "pay-by-touch" in such situations, though:
An anglo from Toronto, a Quebecer, and a newfie from Newfoundland go to a strip club in Montreal (yes, this is a Kanuckistani joke)
The Quebecer gets a lap dance, and slips $10.00 in the strippers' panties.
The Torontonian gets a lap dance, and, not to be outdone, slips $20.00 in the strippers' panties.
The Newfie gets a lap dance, asks the girl to bend over, pulls down her panties, and slides his ATM bank card through her ass-crack.
Then again, perhaps not.