There are 11 registered and 7427 anonymous users current bandwidth usage: 2012.05
I had the article open to look at the pictures, and the number of anonymous online users keep growing with each page refresh.
Assuming most of the anonymous users are from slashdot then there are 7000 thousand slashdot users looking at the pictures, or worse still reading the article!!!
I've got 24hrs in singapore this weekend and I want to pick one up cheap. Can anyone recommend a shop, mall, or market I should go to inorder to get a good deal??
Unfortunately due to "spam" I can't put my email address on the web without "email havesting programs" finding my email address and sending me unsolicited email. However you can probably work out what my email address is...
I own the domain frazer.co.uk
My first name is richard
It normal to have something like firstname@domain.co.uk as an email address
If you can guess what my email address is, feel free to email me. Most computer programs won't be clever enough to work it out, however I hope you are.
----
(names have been changed to protect the innocent/guilty)
Seems to work well, and keeps visitors to my site amused. But would not work so well on a large site.
For reference text and journals I have electronic subscriptions. For reference texts and journals you want to look up one specific bit of information. This is easier done via electronic texts/journals where you can serach the databases. Also you can generally get web acccess to the text. This is handy as I find I never know what detail I'm going to need until I need it at my finger tips.
On the other hand, I am studing for medical specialty board exams. For this I prefer getting paper textbooks. Its easier to "study" from books. For studing I'm likely to read the book for hours at a time and make notes in the margin etc. Portability and searchability are less important. Even though electronic forms are available for most, I still wouldn't consider using them for study. For courses at college I would still recommend getting paper books.
So I would suggest you decide what sort of texts you want... study vs. reference. Get paper books for the study books, and get web access for reference books. The only central search engine I've found for finding online text is google, there is no equivalent to amazon.com.
As someone who has travelled extensively through the "3rd world" and taken alot of photos I have some advice. I tend to take about 100-200 photos per week when travelling/backpacking. 10,000 in a year is alot (1 photo every 30 minutes of being awake) and I assume your friend is like as snap happy as me. (my photos are here)
The advise is simple. Don't use digital
Film gives you better photos, is easier to carry and the practicallities of using it while abroad are simplier. The cameras and the storage are more robust for film. Then, get the negatives scanned when you get home. I do have a digital, but its a fun camera, not for good photos. I don't bother taking it away with me.
You can now get some good digital cameras. (eg the Nikon D100) but I believe they are still a few years away from replacing film for most professional or keen amatures. The D100 does allow you to use a micro drive, so storage is less of an issue. This is one of the few cameras on the market that is close to a what cheap film SLR will give you in term of picture qaulity.
However... remember where you are going, how you are travelling, and what you'll be taking photos of.
Generally I've found that alot of photos I've taken have been of moving objects, dusk, or other difficult subjects. A good SLR is preferable, but a point'n'click for use in markets, train stations etc etc is also usefull. Your pushing the limits of the CCD in these conditions.
Drawbacks to digital are:
1) Theft: While most of the world has a lower crime rate than New York a 3000 USD camera can be more than a years income for your subject, hotel owner, or fellow hotel guest. Laptops are similar Don't be a target!!!
2) Repairs: Alot of the places I've taken pictures a have been deserts, montain tops, dusty streets. If your away for a few months who do you get to service you camera? With film cameras getting them serviced is easy in many remote locations. Mechanical stuff is easy to service/clean. I have a friend who dropped his camera in a river in Nepal. The guy at the local village could clean the lens, dissassemable and dry/relubricate the camera. It he had a digital it would likely to be more difficult.
3)Quality: Even the best digitals don't have the same speed as slow film. Often you want to take photos of moving objects, in low light, bright days. You need a camera/film comnb with a wide lattitude. Resolution and colour depth are also not as good on digital cameras as 35mm film.
4) Storage: There is no issue with carrying dozens of films with you in your back pack. They don't take up much space, and are reasonably robust. They also fit into plastic bag to prvent rain damage, something that is harder to do with a laptop. You can post film from most big cities via DHL etc. Internet connections are expensive, unreliable, and slow in most of the places I been to. Great for email, but not for hundreds of images (?1-2G) it not practicle.
My solutionis to take an SLR and a point'n'click and use film. When I get home I have the film scanned by the photo shop. Search around, there is a big range in quality of scanning.
I pay 5 USD for 36exp at 9megapixels with 8bits depth per colour. Thats almost the most you can get from 35mm film, and its far better than even a good digital camera. Film is easy to carry and available everywhere.
Despite being a geek I still recommend film for travelling.
I've got pleanty of friends in NZ who this would suit perfectly. All they want to do is web, email, mp3 and basic word processing. They have been asking me about linux PC for them for ages.
My cable modem install guy saw I was using linux and said that I had to configure it myself. He gave me the IP/mask/dns/gateway. After he had finished unpacking and plugging in the modem to the cable he asked if he could see how to config the linux system...
I pointed out that I had done it while he was pluging in the modem, and then took him over the process for a few mintues. He was quite interested and said that was trying to learn linux.
Quite typical for ISPs around here. They don't mind what you connect with, but they can only suport windows and apple.
Sorry to be so abnoxious, but this guy needs to get a life..if not see psychiatric services. He is not making a major decision!! There is no reason to "ask slashdot", Anxiety levels as high as his require seeking professional help. If he can't handle a decision such as how to pack, then this guy must be strugling with his activities of daily life..
>So what does the slashdot community think? As nike said.. "just do it!"
My sugestion is go somewhere very differenet from your home. It will give you a new perspective on the world, and probably make you more greateful for what you have.
Good choices in the world are currently:
India
Thailand
Vietnam
Cambodia
These are places where young toursist can easily cope. There is pleanty of tourist infrastructure to help you out, pleanty of like minded people, and an INCREADILBE amount of history you likely wouldn't even have thought of. India's definitely my pick of this bunch, I'll be returning again next year for a month, bringing my total to 8 months in the county. I first went as a student. My average daily cost of living was 6 USD. (but that was extremely cheap. 15 USD a day gets you reasonable accomodation, and good quality transport and food. you'll find pleanty of people to meet/travel with there.
These countries have huge varietiies of food to try, and are the locals are very friendly and comfortable with tourism.
As far as helping out. Travel as a tourist first. I've worked in rural thailand and Papua New Guinea. Working out what suits you, and what you think will be the most will benefit the local most from your skills takes time.
I've meet pleanty of peace corps volunteers in PNG, and volunteers with Mother T. in Calcutta. Most of these people where like kids on holiday. They where definitely committed and being useful, but often it was just like a holiday or an experience for them. Its hard to discribe, but they can be a bit condescending to the locals etc. Its like its just a summer camp with a twist for them. In PNG the peace corp all have breaks where they are piad to go to the fanciest resort in Madang. They do good, but they are a funny bunch.
Go and Look at the rest of the world before you decide to help them. Then you will get some idea of what is helpful. These people need the basics. Food, Water, Education, Health Care.
Go to somewhere like India for a holiday. You'll have a great time, and you will have some appreciation of what help you can offer if you choose to. don't start by joining the Peace Corps or equivalent. Do that after you know why it would suit you. There are litterally of thousands of NGO (non-governmental agencies) working around the world to help developing countries.
>I've always been surprised to see so littleactivity in the area of switchable kernels based on >the same overall operating system / distro. I suspect that the naming issue is actually partly to blame for this > - if you think of the whole system as "Linux", what are you actually running if you keep the whole >rest of the system the same but switch in a BSD or Hurd kernel?
Q: What system are you running if you change kernels, yet keep the same tools? A: Debian
>Oh please! >Maybe you think your microwave is spying on you too!
Sending all my missed typed URL to msn.com as a search request is spying. However its not as serious as searching my harddrive. Infact it is absolutely minimal spying, but I still object to the my lack on consent.
I would much rather trust the the mozilla crew than MS not to do stuff like this.
Elivs
MS-linux with obstificated source
on
Abusing the GPL?
·
· Score: 2, Funny
imagine in MS decided to release a version (for cost) of debian with MS-office, but all the source for the debian was obstificated. They could argue that for them the preferred form of source is the obstificated code. Judge: "Do your programmers make their modification to this gooble-de-gook?"
MS-lawyer: "Yes"
Judge: (looking incredulous) "How?
MS-lawyer: "For every programmer actively working to improove our source, we have ten others trying to work out what we did last week."
Judge: "So your programmers can't work out what other programmers working on the same code are doing?"
MS-lawyer: "That right!! No programmer can even work out what program they are working on. Its our preferred method of development"
Having visited Iran 18 months ago I can say that the locals will be very pleased. When we where there many people had rock videos made in the US and Europe. These were not simply western video but were made by Iranian bands living in exile. They sang in farsi. When I asked where people got these video from (as they where illegal) it seemed that usually they where copied from a friend. This meant that they where normally very poor quality, as they where analog video->video copies, that may have been through several people. The video you watched could easily have been a 4th generation copy.
The bands apparently put up there own money to make the video and record them, intendeing the result to be smuggled into iran. It made me think things like freenet really where valuble.
People need access to their own culture. They didn't want to see Britney spears, or read US paper (which are extremely biased anyway). They simply wanted a medium to communicate freely about things you and I take for granted.
I remember one teacher we meet proudly showing me a history book of the Shar (written the 1960s). This book contained very little "subversive" information and the teacher thought the Shar was a bad man anyway. However it was one of his most prized possetions because he loved history, and all history books regarding the Shar where illegal.
When you read stories like this remember that free speach is something beyond mp3 and warez trading. Projects like freenet are important to large parts of the world for access to information we take for granted. Given the clamp down on "Terrosism", free speach may even become an issue in the western world.
Dragoness Eclectic scribed:
>So how do we convince the rest of the world that >America isn't what they see on TV?
Thank you for your thoughtfull comment.
I agree with you that what the rest of the world sees of America is not neccessarily true. It also must be remembered that much of the influence of America is welcomed by many in the 3rd world. They choose to watch Hollywood movies and buy Cosmopolitan magzines for the pics of girls.
America has the oportunity to show itself as a good world leader. Not just a big bully who wants everything its own way.
As said, the response must show the world that American Justice is for the whole world. Anything else is simply reinforcing negative ideas.
I suspect that most Muslims in Pakistan, Iran, Afganistan are as appaled by this crime as any in Europe or America. If America declares general war on Afganistan then it is the same as the US declaring war on Timothy McVeigh's home state.
Giving in or surendering your freedom to a terrorist is not an option. Bin Laden and his followers must be punished. But the honest people in Afganistan and throughout the Middle East should not be blamed, and certainly not punished. Large "collateral damage" (ie 100,000 Afganees) is to commit the same atrocities as Bin Laden has done. Remeber Bin Laden declared war on the US years ago. To declare war on Afganistan simply puts Bin Laden crimes in the same category as Hisoshima, Nagasaki, Dressden, and Iraq.
Elivs
elivs@zdnetonebox.com
America should seek Justice, not Revenge.
on
More WTC News
·
· Score: 1
An amazing number of you miss the point. I have traveled extensively throughout the middle east and asia. I have also lived in the US, and in Europe. I have holidayed in Vietnam and Cambodia.
Bin Laden is a extremist in a religion that like christianity preaches "Love of Fellow man" above any other edict. To generalise from Bin Laden to Islam is the same as generalising from Hitler or the KKK to the average Christian person. It is prejudice and racism.
I believe that Bin Laden's hatred of the US is deep and complex. It is a sentiment shared to a lesser degree by much of the 3rd world and in particular the Middle East.
From what I have seen of the anti-US sentiment it revolves around a feeling that the US has been undertaking a form of cultural and economic imperialism. I don't think that a majority of Americans wish harm to anyone else. I even belive that most decisions the Americans have undertaken have mostly been well intentioned. Even if somtimes mis-guided.
However, if you go to a small village in Pakistan or Vietnam, Bangladesh, or Iran then you will see there is a sense that contact with the west has degraded their societiy's moral fibre. The images shown on MTV in Pakistan sadden many Pakistanis and the government even had it banned. While none I met ever felt that violent action could ever be justified they were saddened to see their society be changed by coke, pepsi and Nike. There was also a strong sense that they were being exploited.
My experience in Iran was of a repressed society that some locals described as being run by "Bad Muslims". The hospitality and kindness shown to me by the ordinary people put any I found elsewhere in the world to shame. People with nothing, would give everything to help a stranger. To many of these people America is seen as morally corrupt.
To many non-Americans there is a view that America applies its set of values and culture on other cultures. These "uncivilised countries" often have a stronger sense of family values, support for your own community, and respect for others than our own culture.
The Point:
1) If America reponds without proof of who did it, then hatred of the US will increase.
2) If the response is seen as revenge, rather than as Justice and Respect for other people, then this will further increase the sense that America is morally corrupt.
3) If the reponse if strong and fair, then America can show the world that it ranks Justice and Freedom for all humanity as high as Justice and Freedom for Americans. By this I mean targeted attacks on the murderers. Collateral damage of 200,000 civilians like in the Gulf War will merely further the image that American's view of Justice is only for Americans.
Justice for any crime can and should include all those who where in anyway involved in planning the crime, and those who harbour the criminals after the fact. Justice does not include punishing others of the same faith, race, or geographical localtion. Very few Muslims and Arabs would view these attacks as anything less than henious. Witness Yassar Arfats response and that of the Pakistani government.
This disaster should be viewed as an attack on civilized humanity by the most evil humans. Not as an attack on America by Arabs or Muslims. Evil like this exist in all countries and cultures, just like civilized, caring people exist everywhere.
I hope that Bush has the sense and skill to do bring these criminals to Justice, not just exact revenge. His father's example of accidentally shooting down an Iranian civilian internal flight, and then refusing to apologise is not good a precedence.
Elivs
elivs@zdnetonebox.com
(stated bias : I'm an aetheist New Zealander)
An amazing number of you miss the point. I have traveled extensively throughout the middle east and asia. I have also lived in the US, and in Europe. I have holidayed in Vietnam and Cambodia.
Bin Laden is a extremist in a religion that like christianity preaches "Love of Fellow man" above any other edict. To generalise from Bin Laden to Islam is the same as generalising from Hitler or the KKK to the average Christian person. It is prejudice and racism.
I believe that Bin Laden's hatred of the US is deep and complex. It is a sentiment shared to a lesser degree by much of the 3rd world and in particular the Middle East.
From what I have seen of the anti-US sentiment it revolves around a feeling that the US has been undertaking a form of cultural and economic imperialism. I don't think that a majority of Americans wish harm to anyone else. I even belive that most decisions the Americans have undertaken have mostly been well intentioned. Even if somtimes mis-guided.
However, if you go to a small village in Pakistan or Vietnam, Bangladesh, or Iran then you will see there is a sense that contact with the west has degraded their societiy's moral fibre. The images shown on MTV in Pakistan sadden many Pakistanis and the government even had it banned. While none I met ever felt that violent action could ever be justified they were saddened to see their society be changed by coke, pepsi and Nike. There was also a strong sense that they were being exploited.
My experience in Iran was of a repressed society that some locals described as being run by "Bad Muslims". The hospitality and kindness shown to me by the ordinary people put any I found elsewhere in the world to shame. People with nothing, would give everything to help a stranger. To many of these people America is seen as morally corrupt.
To many non-Americans there is a view that America applies its set of values and culture on other cultures. These "uncivilised countries" often have a stronger sense of family values, support for your own community, and respect for others than our own culture.
The Point:
1) If America reponds without proof of who did it, then hatred of the US will increase.
2) If the response is seen as revenge, rather than as Justice and Respect for other people, then this will further increase the sense that America is morally corrupt.
3) If the reponse if strong and fair, then America can show the world that it ranks Justice and Freedom for all humanity as high as Justice and Freedom for Americans. By this I mean targeted attacks on the murderers. Collateral damage of 200,000 civilians like in the Gulf War will merely further the image that American's view of Justice is only for Americans.
I hope that Bush has the sense and skill to do this. His father's example of accidentally shooting down an Iranian civilian internal flight, and then refusing to apologise is not good.
Elivs
elivs@zdnetonebox.com
(stated bias : I'm an aetheist New Zealander)
I work in a hospital and we use large monochrome LCD displays. They are expensive, but a cost effective solution for us.
Many hospital xray departments are going to PACS systems -ie digital xrays. No film used. The images are displayed on very highresolution monitores. A radilogist looks at the image on CRT screens. (mono, very large, hires upto 3000x3000, high contrast).
In operating theartes, emergency rooms, intensive care units etc, space and portability is a necisity. In these places we use mono LCDs. These are resonable resolution + brightness, but can be hung on an arm over the operating table so the surgeon can see while operating.
Given how much money is spent on health technology this could be a big market as more hospitals move to filmless systems.
I'm a doctor in a hospital and we have "crisis" simulations all the time. IT crises are the least of our problems.
Crises to plan for:
"Boeing events" - ?400 injured -can the ambulance/ER/OR cope? How many doctors/nurses can you get to the hospital in 30 minutes on fridays night? I've seen this simulated with 50 patients in a rural hospital. They employed actors to test this, and used the results in to extrapolate to other hospitals. It was great fun, they didn't tell us it was a simulation until we arrived (talk about crying wolf). The ER was overflowing with actors in bandages pretending to die while a surgeon suggested to the study co-ordinator that he could amputate with a hammer since no other equipment was available...:)
"Power cuts" Power goes and the backup generators fail. Not cool if your in theatre with someone's chest open. The aneathetic machines have good batteries, but the lights have only minutes of power to clamp/close important things.
IT problems are a joke. When the do snapshots ie declare "at 0935 today all computers/phones (which means all xrays,labs results, communications) go, then survey what might have happened" the number of predicted deaths is relatively small. Sure its a major distruption, but not too many people die.
Seriously these "crises" are real issue for places like a hospital. Disasters happen. People MUST plan for them. IT disaster just don't feature compared to earthquakes, big plan crashes, total power failure etc...
Its an almost funny AJF, but an interesting technical comparison...
I realise that many experts believe linux2.4 is a better SMP system than openBSD but can someone please send a link to a document explaing the differences of the two OSes, with pro and cons in both designs.
Some us are interesed (for personal learning) but don't get to play (and hence learn) with expensive hardware.
Thanks
Elivs
PS- I don't want a flame war, just a technical piece.
I was actually refering to how the whole open -source industry does better with the open code. I definitely feel for those that are losing their jobs.
But lets imagine that a great app called "super-pot" was written under a closed license by a company called "pots-RUS". This program was ideal for business who had lots of pot plants. When "pots-RUS" goes under the code dies:
-all the users get no more updates, this costs them to change.
-other support firms (VARS) have to retrain, or worse still lose customers to other VARs who guessed which firm would survive in the "potting mix planner" market.
-no other firm can come along and say, "you guys where miss managed, do it this way..." and then take over from where "pots-RUS" failed.
The open source licence protects the comunity (both business and others) who use or support the software.
If the software is good then the programers could open thier own VAR business and support the program themselves. Once the software has reached a certain level of functionality, complete rewrites are just not that usefull for the customer.
The only reason the GPL usefull in this situation compared with BSD is that people VARS can happily fix code for "pots-RUS", and know no other compaines is going to come along and release proprietry versions and hence make it harder for them to support.
With the stupid levels of development capital that was around the last few years many compaines (eg MS) got alot of money in the bank. Others grew, then lost it all.
Now that money has gone GNU also did well out of the boom.
We got lots of code under the GPL !!!
This is as good or better than a wad of cash in the bank. The shrinking and loss of these opensource firms is not so bad as it is for other groups. Normally when a frim shrinks or goes under the code stagnaties or dies. The GNU licence on the code is an asset for the community to weather the downturn and for other developers to use when times are lean.
Elivs
PS- I'd still like the open source firms to prosper, but with the GPL its no where near as important for the future of opensource.
It produced in fusion reactors. It is remarkably stable given its proton number. KGB physics developed it in the cold war in the hope of out developing the Western silicon chip. Only recently have they been able to produce it in crystals large enought to use in full comercial products.
Expect to see Russian Trn-451 PCs hitting the market this christmas.
We hate to be asked- What religion are you? What ethnic background are you?
Those of you who are slamming this miss understand the NZ psyche. Many americans and europeans don't know where NZ is let alone know how we think. In California I was asked in New Zealand is Florida. In London I was asked if we ever drive to Australia for the weekend (5hr plane flight away).
I live in NZ. Having been to about 35 countries. I went to school in the US for a year. I have worked in Italy and Thialand, travlled through the rest of north america (1yr), europe (5mnth), SE+S asia (9mtnhs). I feel I can comment a little on how NZers compare to these cultures.
We are a very liberal country and a mish mash of cultures. Our current and last prime ministers are/were women. Our last deputy PM was a Maori. We were the first country in the world to let women vote. We were one of the first to introduce state welfare. We are nuclear free and have almost no army ecxcept for peace keeping and civil emergencies. Certainly unlike America, you don't have to be white male and christian become the prime minister.
We are one of the most secular countries in the world.And the religions we have are wide and varied.
Our cultrual background is a mish mash of dozens of cultures. It started with the Maori who arrived around 1000 yrs ago. Then europeans came 250 yrs ago (dutch, english, french, scotish mostly). This was followed by a large influx of chinese around the gold rush days (150 yrs ago). The 1st half of the 20cent was east eurpoens (Dalmatians, Polish etc). The latter half has been from SE asia (Malaysia, Vietnam, Thialand, Cambodia) and the Pacific Islands. More recently we seemed to have more Africans (I live by a Somali family) and ongoing Pacific Island immigration.
Our country has a population of 3.6million. Last year we had 1.8million tourists. We are used to cultural and religious diversity.
People I went to school and varsity with in NZ come from a wider ethinic range than I have encountered in any country I visited in the world.
These people often considern themselves New Zealander first and original culture second. If your parent moved here from Malaysia 35yrs ago and you were born here you probably consider you self 100% New Zealander, with malaysian overtones. Compare this with some Amercians I've meet who are 4th gen American but call themselves Irish.
Most New Zealanders are non-practicing of thier partents religion. These people (like me) hate having to state what their cultrual background and religion is.
This is a good oportunity to "do the finger" to those who would like to classify us into groups we don't feel we belong to. On most forms where I have to specify ethnic background I've ticked [other] and then written New Zealander. Ofcourse this makes almost no difference as not enough people do it.
I and most of my friends intend to be JEDI this census. Hopefully at some stage in the future the religious question will be removed from our census forms.
Elvis (elivs@zdnetonebox.com)
PS - I'm not saying NZ does not have sexist, racist, Rednecks etc. It certainly does. However for those of us who hate to be grouped on religion its a great opporunity to protest as a group.
Slashdot Mirror
I had the article open to look at the pictures, and the number of anonymous online users keep growing with each page refresh.
Assuming most of the anonymous users are from slashdot then there are 7000 thousand slashdot users looking at the pictures, or worse still reading the article!!!
Elivs
Elivs
----
Emailing me...
Unfortunately due to "spam" I can't put my email address on the web without "email havesting programs" finding my email address and sending me unsolicited email. However you can probably work out what my email address is...
If you can guess what my email address is, feel free to email me. Most computer programs won't be clever enough to work it out, however I hope you are.
----
(names have been changed to protect the innocent/guilty)
Seems to work well, and keeps visitors to my site amused. But would not work so well on a large site.
Elivs
On the other hand, I am studing for medical specialty board exams. For this I prefer getting paper textbooks. Its easier to "study" from books. For studing I'm likely to read the book for hours at a time and make notes in the margin etc. Portability and searchability are less important. Even though electronic forms are available for most, I still wouldn't consider using them for study. For courses at college I would still recommend getting paper books.
So I would suggest you decide what sort of texts you want... study vs. reference. Get paper books for the study books, and get web access for reference books. The only central search engine I've found for finding online text is google, there is no equivalent to amazon.com.
Elivs
The advise is simple. Don't use digital
Film gives you better photos, is easier to carry and the practicallities of using it while abroad are simplier. The cameras and the storage are more robust for film. Then, get the negatives scanned when you get home. I do have a digital, but its a fun camera, not for good photos. I don't bother taking it away with me.
You can now get some good digital cameras. (eg the Nikon D100) but I believe they are still a few years away from replacing film for most professional or keen amatures. The D100 does allow you to use a micro drive, so storage is less of an issue. This is one of the few cameras on the market that is close to a what cheap film SLR will give you in term of picture qaulity.
However... remember where you are going, how you are travelling, and what you'll be taking photos of.
Generally I've found that alot of photos I've taken have been of moving objects, dusk, or other difficult subjects. A good SLR is preferable, but a point'n'click for use in markets, train stations etc etc is also usefull. Your pushing the limits of the CCD in these conditions.
Drawbacks to digital are:
1) Theft: While most of the world has a lower crime rate than New York a 3000 USD camera can be more than a years income for your subject, hotel owner, or fellow hotel guest. Laptops are similar Don't be a target!!!
2) Repairs: Alot of the places I've taken pictures a have been deserts, montain tops, dusty streets. If your away for a few months who do you get to service you camera? With film cameras getting them serviced is easy in many remote locations. Mechanical stuff is easy to service/clean. I have a friend who dropped his camera in a river in Nepal. The guy at the local village could clean the lens, dissassemable and dry/relubricate the camera. It he had a digital it would likely to be more difficult.
3)Quality: Even the best digitals don't have the same speed as slow film. Often you want to take photos of moving objects, in low light, bright days. You need a camera/film comnb with a wide lattitude. Resolution and colour depth are also not as good on digital cameras as 35mm film.
4) Storage: There is no issue with carrying dozens of films with you in your back pack. They don't take up much space, and are reasonably robust. They also fit into plastic bag to prvent rain damage, something that is harder to do with a laptop. You can post film from most big cities via DHL etc. Internet connections are expensive, unreliable, and slow in most of the places I been to. Great for email, but not for hundreds of images (?1-2G) it not practicle.
My solutionis to take an SLR and a point'n'click and use film. When I get home I have the film scanned by the photo shop. Search around, there is a big range in quality of scanning. I pay 5 USD for 36exp at 9megapixels with 8bits depth per colour. Thats almost the most you can get from 35mm film, and its far better than even a good digital camera. Film is easy to carry and available everywhere.
Despite being a geek I still recommend film for travelling.
Elivs.
BBC article
Not too technical, but alot of the world read/watch/listen to them.
Elivs
I've got pleanty of friends in NZ who this would suit perfectly. All they want to do is web, email, mp3 and basic word processing. They have been asking me about linux PC for them for ages.
Elivs
My cable modem install guy saw I was using linux and said that I had to configure it myself. He gave me the IP/mask/dns/gateway. After he had finished unpacking and plugging in the modem to the cable he asked if he could see how to config the linux system...
I pointed out that I had done it while he was pluging in the modem, and then took him over the process for a few mintues. He was quite interested and said that was trying to learn linux.
Quite typical for ISPs around here. They don't mind what you connect with, but they can only suport windows and apple.
Elivs
Sorry to be so abnoxious, but this guy needs to get a life..if not see psychiatric services. He is not making a major decision!! There is no reason to "ask slashdot", Anxiety levels as high as his require seeking professional help. If he can't handle a decision such as how to pack, then this guy must be strugling with his activities of daily life..
>So what does the slashdot community think?
As nike said.. "just do it!"
Elivs
I've been to many countries in 4 continents.
My sugestion is go somewhere very differenet from your home. It will give you a new perspective on the world, and probably make you more greateful for what you have.
Good choices in the world are currently:
India
Thailand
Vietnam
Cambodia
These are places where young toursist can easily cope. There is pleanty of tourist infrastructure to help you out, pleanty of like minded people, and an INCREADILBE amount of history you likely wouldn't even have thought of. India's definitely my pick of this bunch, I'll be returning again next year for a month, bringing my total to 8 months in the county. I first went as a student. My average daily cost of living was 6 USD. (but that was extremely cheap. 15 USD a day gets you reasonable accomodation, and good quality transport and food. you'll find pleanty of people to meet/travel with there.
These countries have huge varietiies of food to try, and are the locals are very friendly and comfortable with tourism.
As far as helping out. Travel as a tourist first. I've worked in rural thailand and Papua New Guinea. Working out what suits you, and what you think will be the most will benefit the local most from your skills takes time.
I've meet pleanty of peace corps volunteers in PNG, and volunteers with Mother T. in Calcutta. Most of these people where like kids on holiday. They where definitely committed and being useful, but often it was just like a holiday or an experience for them. Its hard to discribe, but they can be a bit condescending to the locals etc. Its like its just a summer camp with a twist for them. In PNG the peace corp all have breaks where they are piad to go to the fanciest resort in Madang. They do good, but they are a funny bunch.
Go and Look at the rest of the world before you decide to help them. Then you will get some idea of what is helpful. These people need the basics. Food, Water, Education, Health Care.
Go to somewhere like India for a holiday. You'll have a great time, and you will have some appreciation of what help you can offer if you choose to. don't start by joining the Peace Corps or equivalent. Do that after you know why it would suit you. There are litterally of thousands of NGO (non-governmental agencies) working around the world to help developing countries.
Elivs
>I've always been surprised to see so littleactivity in the area of switchable kernels based on
>the same overall operating system / distro. I suspect that the naming issue is actually partly to blame for this
> - if you think of the whole system as "Linux", what are you actually running if you keep the whole
>rest of the system the same but switch in a BSD or Hurd kernel?
Q: What system are you running if you change kernels, yet keep the same tools?
A: Debian
Elivs
>> Trust that the browser is not spying on me
>Oh please!
>Maybe you think your microwave is spying on you too!
Sending all my missed typed URL to msn.com as a search request is spying. However its not as serious as searching my harddrive. Infact it is absolutely minimal spying, but I still object to the my lack on consent.
I would much rather trust the the mozilla crew than MS not to do stuff like this.
Elivs
imagine in MS decided to release a version (for cost) of debian with MS-office, but all the source for the debian was obstificated. They could argue that for them the preferred form of source is the obstificated code.
Judge: "Do your programmers make their modification to this gooble-de-gook?"
MS-lawyer: "Yes"
Judge: (looking incredulous) "How?
MS-lawyer: "For every programmer actively working to improove our source, we have ten others trying to work out what we did last week."
Judge: "So your programmers can't work out what other programmers working on the same code are doing?"
MS-lawyer: "That right!! No programmer can even work out what program they are working on. Its our preferred method of development"
Maybe they are doing this already...
Elivs
Having visited Iran 18 months ago I can say that the locals will be very pleased. When we where there many people had rock videos made in the US and Europe. These were not simply western video but were made by Iranian bands living in exile. They sang in farsi. When I asked where people got these video from (as they where illegal) it seemed that usually they where copied from a friend. This meant that they where normally very poor quality, as they where analog video->video copies, that may have been through several people. The video you watched could easily have been a 4th generation copy.
The bands apparently put up there own money to make the video and record them, intendeing the result to be smuggled into iran. It made me think things like freenet really where valuble.
People need access to their own culture. They didn't want to see Britney spears, or read US paper (which are extremely biased anyway). They simply wanted a medium to communicate freely about things you and I take for granted.
I remember one teacher we meet proudly showing me a history book of the Shar (written the 1960s). This book contained very little "subversive" information and the teacher thought the Shar was a bad man anyway. However it was one of his most prized possetions because he loved history, and all history books regarding the Shar where illegal.
When you read stories like this remember that free speach is something beyond mp3 and warez trading. Projects like freenet are important to large parts of the world for access to information we take for granted. Given the clamp down on "Terrosism", free speach may even become an issue in the western world.
(my iranian pictures are at www.butler.co.nz)
Elivs
Dragoness Eclectic scribed:
>So how do we convince the rest of the world that >America isn't what they see on TV?
Thank you for your thoughtfull comment.
I agree with you that what the rest of the world sees of America is not neccessarily true. It also must be remembered that much of the influence of America is welcomed by many in the 3rd world. They choose to watch Hollywood movies and buy Cosmopolitan magzines for the pics of girls.
America has the oportunity to show itself as a good world leader. Not just a big bully who wants everything its own way.
As said, the response must show the world that American Justice is for the whole world. Anything else is simply reinforcing negative ideas.
I suspect that most Muslims in Pakistan, Iran, Afganistan are as appaled by this crime as any in Europe or America. If America declares general war on Afganistan then it is the same as the US declaring war on Timothy McVeigh's home state.
Giving in or surendering your freedom to a terrorist is not an option. Bin Laden and his followers must be punished. But the honest people in Afganistan and throughout the Middle East should not be blamed, and certainly not punished. Large "collateral damage" (ie 100,000 Afganees) is to commit the same atrocities as Bin Laden has done. Remeber Bin Laden declared war on the US years ago. To declare war on Afganistan simply puts Bin Laden crimes in the same category as Hisoshima, Nagasaki, Dressden, and Iraq.
Elivs
elivs@zdnetonebox.com
An amazing number of you miss the point. I have traveled extensively throughout the middle east and asia. I have also lived in the US, and in Europe. I have holidayed in Vietnam and Cambodia.
Bin Laden is a extremist in a religion that like christianity preaches "Love of Fellow man" above any other edict. To generalise from Bin Laden to Islam is the same as generalising from Hitler or the KKK to the average Christian person. It is prejudice and racism.
I believe that Bin Laden's hatred of the US is deep and complex. It is a sentiment shared to a lesser degree by much of the 3rd world and in particular the Middle East.
From what I have seen of the anti-US sentiment it revolves around a feeling that the US has been undertaking a form of cultural and economic imperialism. I don't think that a majority of Americans wish harm to anyone else. I even belive that most decisions the Americans have undertaken have mostly been well intentioned. Even if somtimes mis-guided.
However, if you go to a small village in Pakistan or Vietnam, Bangladesh, or Iran then you will see there is a sense that contact with the west has degraded their societiy's moral fibre. The images shown on MTV in Pakistan sadden many Pakistanis and the government even had it banned. While none I met ever felt that violent action could ever be justified they were saddened to see their society be changed by coke, pepsi and Nike. There was also a strong sense that they were being exploited.
My experience in Iran was of a repressed society that some locals described as being run by "Bad Muslims". The hospitality and kindness shown to me by the ordinary people put any I found elsewhere in the world to shame. People with nothing, would give everything to help a stranger. To many of these people America is seen as morally corrupt.
To many non-Americans there is a view that America applies its set of values and culture on other cultures. These "uncivilised countries" often have a stronger sense of family values, support for your own community, and respect for others than our own culture.
The Point:
1) If America reponds without proof of who did it, then hatred of the US will increase.
2) If the response is seen as revenge, rather than as Justice and Respect for other people, then this will further increase the sense that America is morally corrupt.
3) If the reponse if strong and fair, then America can show the world that it ranks Justice and Freedom for all humanity as high as Justice and Freedom for Americans. By this I mean targeted attacks on the murderers. Collateral damage of 200,000 civilians like in the Gulf War will merely further the image that American's view of Justice is only for Americans.
Justice for any crime can and should include all those who where in anyway involved in planning the crime, and those who harbour the criminals after the fact. Justice does not include punishing others of the same faith, race, or geographical localtion. Very few Muslims and Arabs would view these attacks as anything less than henious. Witness Yassar Arfats response and that of the Pakistani government.
This disaster should be viewed as an attack on civilized humanity by the most evil humans. Not as an attack on America by Arabs or Muslims. Evil like this exist in all countries and cultures, just like civilized, caring people exist everywhere.
I hope that Bush has the sense and skill to do bring these criminals to Justice, not just exact revenge. His father's example of accidentally shooting down an Iranian civilian internal flight, and then refusing to apologise is not good a precedence.
Elivs
elivs@zdnetonebox.com
(stated bias : I'm an aetheist New Zealander)
An amazing number of you miss the point. I have traveled extensively throughout the middle east and asia. I have also lived in the US, and in Europe. I have holidayed in Vietnam and Cambodia.
Bin Laden is a extremist in a religion that like christianity preaches "Love of Fellow man" above any other edict. To generalise from Bin Laden to Islam is the same as generalising from Hitler or the KKK to the average Christian person. It is prejudice and racism.
I believe that Bin Laden's hatred of the US is deep and complex. It is a sentiment shared to a lesser degree by much of the 3rd world and in particular the Middle East.
From what I have seen of the anti-US sentiment it revolves around a feeling that the US has been undertaking a form of cultural and economic imperialism. I don't think that a majority of Americans wish harm to anyone else. I even belive that most decisions the Americans have undertaken have mostly been well intentioned. Even if somtimes mis-guided.
However, if you go to a small village in Pakistan or Vietnam, Bangladesh, or Iran then you will see there is a sense that contact with the west has degraded their societiy's moral fibre. The images shown on MTV in Pakistan sadden many Pakistanis and the government even had it banned. While none I met ever felt that violent action could ever be justified they were saddened to see their society be changed by coke, pepsi and Nike. There was also a strong sense that they were being exploited.
My experience in Iran was of a repressed society that some locals described as being run by "Bad Muslims". The hospitality and kindness shown to me by the ordinary people put any I found elsewhere in the world to shame. People with nothing, would give everything to help a stranger. To many of these people America is seen as morally corrupt.
To many non-Americans there is a view that America applies its set of values and culture on other cultures. These "uncivilised countries" often have a stronger sense of family values, support for your own community, and respect for others than our own culture.
The Point:
1) If America reponds without proof of who did it, then hatred of the US will increase.
2) If the response is seen as revenge, rather than as Justice and Respect for other people, then this will further increase the sense that America is morally corrupt.
3) If the reponse if strong and fair, then America can show the world that it ranks Justice and Freedom for all humanity as high as Justice and Freedom for Americans. By this I mean targeted attacks on the murderers. Collateral damage of 200,000 civilians like in the Gulf War will merely further the image that American's view of Justice is only for Americans.
I hope that Bush has the sense and skill to do this. His father's example of accidentally shooting down an Iranian civilian internal flight, and then refusing to apologise is not good.
Elivs
elivs@zdnetonebox.com
(stated bias : I'm an aetheist New Zealander)
All the benefits you list for virtualisation could be realised by using the hurd.
ie multiple independent servers/users each with limited access to hardware, running in secure environments.
Elivs
I work in a hospital and we use large monochrome LCD displays. They are expensive, but a cost effective solution for us.
Many hospital xray departments are going to PACS systems -ie digital xrays. No film used. The images are displayed on very highresolution monitores. A radilogist looks at the image on CRT screens. (mono, very large, hires upto 3000x3000, high contrast).
In operating theartes, emergency rooms, intensive care units etc, space and portability is a necisity. In these places we use mono LCDs. These are resonable resolution + brightness, but can be hung on an arm over the operating table so the surgeon can see while operating.
Given how much money is spent on health technology this could be a big market as more hospitals move to filmless systems.
Elivs
I'm a doctor in a hospital and we have "crisis" simulations all the time. IT crises are the least of our problems.
:)
Crises to plan for:
"Boeing events" - ?400 injured -can the ambulance/ER/OR cope? How many doctors/nurses can you get to the hospital in 30 minutes on fridays night? I've seen this simulated with 50 patients in a rural hospital. They employed actors to test this, and used the results in to extrapolate to other hospitals. It was great fun, they didn't tell us it was a simulation until we arrived (talk about crying wolf). The ER was overflowing with actors in bandages pretending to die while a surgeon suggested to the study co-ordinator that he could amputate with a hammer since no other equipment was available...
"Power cuts" Power goes and the backup generators fail. Not cool if your in theatre with someone's chest open. The aneathetic machines have good batteries, but the lights have only minutes of power to clamp/close important things.
IT problems are a joke. When the do snapshots ie declare "at 0935 today all computers/phones (which means all xrays,labs results, communications) go, then survey what might have happened" the number of predicted deaths is relatively small. Sure its a major distruption, but not too many people die.
Seriously these "crises" are real issue for places like a hospital. Disasters happen. People MUST plan for them. IT disaster just don't feature compared to earthquakes, big plan crashes, total power failure etc...
Elvis
Its an almost funny AJF, but an interesting technical comparison...
I realise that many experts believe linux2.4 is a better SMP system than openBSD but can someone please send a link to a document explaing the differences of the two OSes, with pro and cons in both designs.
Some us are interesed (for personal learning) but don't get to play (and hence learn) with expensive hardware.
Thanks
Elivs
PS- I don't want a flame war, just a technical piece.
I was actually refering to how the whole open -source industry does better with the open code. I definitely feel for those that are losing their jobs.
But lets imagine that a great app called "super-pot" was written under a closed license by a company called "pots-RUS". This program was ideal for business who had lots of pot plants. When "pots-RUS" goes under the code dies:
-all the users get no more updates, this costs them to change.
-other support firms (VARS) have to retrain, or worse still lose customers to other VARs who guessed which firm would survive in the "potting mix planner" market.
-no other firm can come along and say, "you guys where miss managed, do it this way..." and then take over from where "pots-RUS" failed.
The open source licence protects the comunity (both business and others) who use or support the software.
If the software is good then the programers could open thier own VAR business and support the program themselves. Once the software has reached a certain level of functionality, complete rewrites are just not that usefull for the customer.
The only reason the GPL usefull in this situation compared with BSD is that people VARS can happily fix code for "pots-RUS", and know no other compaines is going to come along and release proprietry versions and hence make it harder for them to support.
Elivs
Now that money has gone GNU also did well out of the boom.
We got lots of code under the GPL !!!
This is as good or better than a wad of cash in the bank. The shrinking and loss of these opensource firms is not so bad as it is for other groups. Normally when a frim shrinks or goes under the code stagnaties or dies. The GNU licence on the code is an asset for the community to weather the downturn and for other developers to use when times are lean. Elivs PS- I'd still like the open source firms to prosper, but with the GPL its no where near as important for the future of opensource.
Transitium. Z=451
It produced in fusion reactors. It is remarkably stable given its proton number. KGB physics developed it in the cold war in the hope of out developing the Western silicon chip. Only recently have they been able to produce it in crystals large enought to use in full comercial products.
Expect to see Russian Trn-451 PCs hitting the market this christmas.
...as will most of my friends.
We hate to be asked- What religion are you? What ethnic background are you?
Those of you who are slamming this miss understand the NZ psyche. Many americans and europeans don't know where NZ is let alone know how we think. In California I was asked in New Zealand is Florida. In London I was asked if we ever drive to Australia for the weekend (5hr plane flight away).
I live in NZ. Having been to about 35 countries. I went to school in the US for a year. I have worked in Italy and Thialand, travlled through the rest of north america (1yr), europe (5mnth), SE+S asia (9mtnhs). I feel I can comment a little on how NZers compare to these cultures.
We are a very liberal country and a mish mash of cultures. Our current and last prime ministers are/were women. Our last deputy PM was a Maori. We were the first country in the world to let women vote. We were one of the first to introduce state welfare. We are nuclear free and have almost no army ecxcept for peace keeping and civil emergencies. Certainly unlike America, you don't have to be white male and christian become the prime minister.
We are one of the most secular countries in the world.And the religions we have are wide and varied.
Our cultrual background is a mish mash of dozens of cultures. It started with the Maori who arrived around 1000 yrs ago. Then europeans came 250 yrs ago (dutch, english, french, scotish mostly). This was followed by a large influx of chinese around the gold rush days (150 yrs ago). The 1st half of the 20cent was east eurpoens (Dalmatians, Polish etc). The latter half has been from SE asia (Malaysia, Vietnam, Thialand, Cambodia) and the Pacific Islands. More recently we seemed to have more Africans (I live by a Somali family) and ongoing Pacific Island immigration.
Our country has a population of 3.6million. Last year we had 1.8million tourists. We are used to cultural and religious diversity.
People I went to school and varsity with in NZ come from a wider ethinic range than I have encountered in any country I visited in the world.
These people often considern themselves New Zealander first and original culture second. If your parent moved here from Malaysia 35yrs ago and you were born here you probably consider you self 100% New Zealander, with malaysian overtones. Compare this with some Amercians I've meet who are 4th gen American but call themselves Irish.
Most New Zealanders are non-practicing of thier partents religion. These people (like me) hate having to state what their cultrual background and religion is.
This is a good oportunity to "do the finger" to those who would like to classify us into groups we don't feel we belong to. On most forms where I have to specify ethnic background I've ticked [other] and then written New Zealander. Ofcourse this makes almost no difference as not enough people do it.
I and most of my friends intend to be JEDI this census. Hopefully at some stage in the future the religious question will be removed from our census forms.
Elvis (elivs@zdnetonebox.com)
PS - I'm not saying NZ does not have sexist, racist, Rednecks etc. It certainly does. However for those of us who hate to be grouped on religion its a great opporunity to protest as a group.