I found an interesting BBC story on the upcoming launch. Apparently they will be testing pig sperm. The article also says that the astronauts will orbit the earth 5-6 times, not 5-6 days, which leaves me wondering which article is correct.
What's even more hilarious is that defence is a valid spelling.
Also, without wasting too much more time, I found this page that explains:
It is important to note that the pronoun "they" is in the processing of becoming singular as well as plural. For example, one might say:
A person called and they did not leave their name.
This construction allows the speaker to avoid identifying the gender of a person, and it has been common in speech for decades, if not for centuries. Be aware, however, that some people still consider it unacceptable for formal writing.
I suppose some people consider Slashdot to be a formal venue, but I personally think "his/her" is a little clumsy.
I worked in a bookstore for 2 years (while looking for a job after being laid off!), and I can say that as an employee it would be trivial to walk off with at least one copy, and management probably wouldn't find out until after midnight during the initial mad rush. Even if they did discover it earlier, I highly doubt they would report it. It would be far easier for them to wait until the next inventory rolled around and write it off as stolen, probably months after the fact.
It's always easier to claim ignorance. For that matter, it's always easier to be ignorant.
I'm not sure that the U.S. oil problem is caused so much by the huge 10 mpg SUVs as it is the people who choose to drive those vehicles. What is going to make someone who drives a Ford Excusion choose a hydrogen-powered car over a civic that's been available for decades? By the time gas prices in the US hit a point where people start reconsidering their SUVs, the economy and the whole country will be in a very bad place.
Dell, on the other hand, makes people jump through hoops when they call in with a problem (like a dead hard drive). This even happens on corporate accounts - the field techs at work have been known to spend 4 hours on the phone going through dell's script."
This is completely untrue. If you suspect the drive is bad on anything this side of a GX1 (PII machine), press CTRL-ALT-D and wait for the drive test to run. It will usually come back with an error code you can call in. If not, the techs will accept test results from 3rd party applications like Ontrack. Most of my calls to Dell last 10 minutes (including hold time and menu navigation). And yes, that is regular, non-premium Dell support.
HP, on the other hand, is a bit different. They read several pages of junk from their screen before they accept that your drive may be bad. It doesn't help that there is also a language barrier when talking to someone to whom Enlgish is not their native language.
As for Speakeasy, I agree entirely. Their techs are outstanding in both technical proficiency and patience/attitude toward the end user. It probably helps that a large percentage of their users are techs themselves, but they still stand out.
"...every time we use an ATM, an insurance company, a bank, a personal computer..."
This assumes the companies are passing the savings to the consumer, which is DEFINITELY not happening. My ATM fees have gone up over the last few years, as have most types of insurance (too many links, just google it), bank fees are out of control for both checking and credit cards, among others, and while low-end computer comonents have gradually gotten cheaper, the high-end ones are going up in price ($1000+ CPU anyone? How about a $500 video card?).
Try calling a major computer vendor's tech support some time, and enjoy the outstanding ineptitude of the Indian tech who can barely pronounce the words he's reading off his screen in English. This is not good return on the dollar.
The state of Texas definitely contacts the employer before the first check is paid. They also required me to attend a meeting/class where they had us sign some paperwork and gave job-search counseling. It wouldn't be hard to fake your way through that too, I guess, but it's not as simple as making a phone call to get the checks rolling in. I'd be suprised if Texas was the only state where this is the case.
I fail to see how this is anyone else's problem. If they want to label all my mail as junk, that's fine with me. Their users will probably not be too happy about it, and most will probably switch to another email service. If no one reacts to their demands, MS will be forced to abandon this line of action.
Ever wonder what Slashdot will look like in 2056? My guess is that it will look pretty much like it does today. In fact, given the increase in the number of reposts, it will probably look exactly like it does today:)
I hope you got the extended warranty on the cameras you have used in the past. I would think you could almost ignore the toughness of the hardware if you could get it replaced/repaired fast enough under the warranty coverage. You'd probably end up with a new camera every 12 months, but only pay for it every 3-4 years.
Hi Slashdot. Cleaning my room is the new project my mom assigned me. The mess is based upon food storage and lack of used food disposal, combined with pieces of computer hardware, toys, and my new wide-area storage method for Legos. So far I have to clean it up myself, but I need someone else to do it for me!
This category is otherwise known as "Ask Slashdot... to do your work."
Can you imagine a cubical farm made of those? Better yet, can you imagine the reaction of all the non-IT department drones when they saw their new cubes? Priceless.
I don't have to squint too hard before this honeymonkey project, "...which is little more than a network of virtual Windows XP boxes in various patch states", starts looking like the network I work on every day. Remove the word "virtual", call it the usermonkey project, and you're most of the way there.
What, exactly, does that mean? The total number of words published each day on the front page of Slashdot is relatively low. It really wouldn't take much work to have someone who knows English to check the posts for errors (and dups?) prior to publication.
Frankly, the amusing and sometimes insightful posts by Slashdot readers are the only real draw to this site at this point. The news is usually late and laden with grammatical and content errors, not to mention the frequent dups.
The article linked in the story actually goes to a slashdot-like gadget news site, which linked to an SMS/text messaging news site that had a link to the actual article.
The girl lost partly because she mistakenly added 4 extra words to the message, among other things.
Even better, they delivered it on an AIX server with full instructions on how to run the server, starting with, "To power up the system, press the power button on the front panel." I'm sure SCO was happy to see such thoroughness.
While the article is mostly pointless, I do find it funny that, with the exception of the enthusiast market, pretty much everyone has and continues to buy Intel chips no matter what the price/performance ratio beacuse the little sticker says "Intel Inside". Now that AMD has turned the tables and often has the faster chips and tries to charge a premium for them, everyone cries foul. Where have you people been the last 20 years?
They still fly that approach every day. Here's a picture taken this year from the same beach on St Maarten (SXM). That airport is famous for it's low approach. That's a nude beach, by the way, and there are many photos to prove it if you dig around airliners.net. From Wikipedia:
"The island is served by many major airlines that bring in large jets, including Boeing 747s, carrying tourists from across the world on a daily basis. This fuels the island's largest revenue source, tourism. The airport is famous for its short landing strip - only 2130 meters, which is barely enough for heavy jets. Because of this, the planes approach the island flying extremely low, right over the beach. Countless photos of large jets flying at 10-20 meters over relaxing tourists at the beach have been dismissed as photoshopped many times, but are nevertheless real."
This already happened a few years ago at The Motley Fool. They had great forums that were loaded with information about debt reduction, how to buy a house, and information on individual stocks. It was free, relied almost entirely on community input for its value, and was far more useful than any news site.
Then they started charging membership fees. Membership #'s dropped, and with the lack of members, the amount and quality of information and oppinions dropped as well. It became basically useless compared to what it once was. I don't know what it looks like nowdays, but I won't be going back there any time soon to find out.
Blockbuster has a deal with the USPS. When the video is put in the mail to be returned, it is scanned at the post office. This alerts Blockbuster that the movie is on its way back, and they ship the next movie in the queue.
With all of the rediculous trucks on the road in the US, you'd think NASA would have been inspired to build a montster truck version of the rover. Couldn't we just send a Hummer next time?
Slashdot Mirror
I found an interesting BBC story on the upcoming launch. Apparently they will be testing pig sperm. The article also says that the astronauts will orbit the earth 5-6 times, not 5-6 days, which leaves me wondering which article is correct.
Also, without wasting too much more time, I found this page that explains:
It is important to note that the pronoun "they" is in the processing of becoming singular as well as plural. For example, one might say:
A person called and they did not leave their name.
This construction allows the speaker to avoid identifying the gender of a person, and it has been common in speech for decades, if not for centuries. Be aware, however, that some people still consider it unacceptable for formal writing.
I suppose some people consider Slashdot to be a formal venue, but I personally think "his/her" is a little clumsy.
(sorry for the completey off-topic post)
It's always easier to claim ignorance. For that matter, it's always easier to be ignorant.
(In their defence, I assume English is not this person's first language.)
I'm not sure that the U.S. oil problem is caused so much by the huge 10 mpg SUVs as it is the people who choose to drive those vehicles. What is going to make someone who drives a Ford Excusion choose a hydrogen-powered car over a civic that's been available for decades? By the time gas prices in the US hit a point where people start reconsidering their SUVs, the economy and the whole country will be in a very bad place.
What is 1 MiB of L2 cache? 1 Million Bytes?
This is completely untrue. If you suspect the drive is bad on anything this side of a GX1 (PII machine), press CTRL-ALT-D and wait for the drive test to run. It will usually come back with an error code you can call in. If not, the techs will accept test results from 3rd party applications like Ontrack. Most of my calls to Dell last 10 minutes (including hold time and menu navigation). And yes, that is regular, non-premium Dell support.
HP, on the other hand, is a bit different. They read several pages of junk from their screen before they accept that your drive may be bad. It doesn't help that there is also a language barrier when talking to someone to whom Enlgish is not their native language.
As for Speakeasy, I agree entirely. Their techs are outstanding in both technical proficiency and patience/attitude toward the end user. It probably helps that a large percentage of their users are techs themselves, but they still stand out.
This assumes the companies are passing the savings to the consumer, which is DEFINITELY not happening. My ATM fees have gone up over the last few years, as have most types of insurance (too many links, just google it), bank fees are out of control for both checking and credit cards, among others, and while low-end computer comonents have gradually gotten cheaper, the high-end ones are going up in price ($1000+ CPU anyone? How about a $500 video card?).
Try calling a major computer vendor's tech support some time, and enjoy the outstanding ineptitude of the Indian tech who can barely pronounce the words he's reading off his screen in English. This is not good return on the dollar.
The state of Texas definitely contacts the employer before the first check is paid. They also required me to attend a meeting/class where they had us sign some paperwork and gave job-search counseling. It wouldn't be hard to fake your way through that too, I guess, but it's not as simple as making a phone call to get the checks rolling in. I'd be suprised if Texas was the only state where this is the case.
I fail to see how this is anyone else's problem. If they want to label all my mail as junk, that's fine with me. Their users will probably not be too happy about it, and most will probably switch to another email service. If no one reacts to their demands, MS will be forced to abandon this line of action.
Ever wonder what Slashdot will look like in 2056? My guess is that it will look pretty much like it does today. In fact, given the increase in the number of reposts, it will probably look exactly like it does today :)
I hope you got the extended warranty on the cameras you have used in the past. I would think you could almost ignore the toughness of the hardware if you could get it replaced/repaired fast enough under the warranty coverage. You'd probably end up with a new camera every 12 months, but only pay for it every 3-4 years.
This category is otherwise known as "Ask Slashdot... to do your work."
Can you imagine a cubical farm made of those? Better yet, can you imagine the reaction of all the non-IT department drones when they saw their new cubes? Priceless.
I don't have to squint too hard before this honeymonkey project, "...which is little more than a network of virtual Windows XP boxes in various patch states", starts looking like the network I work on every day. Remove the word "virtual", call it the usermonkey project, and you're most of the way there.
What, exactly, does that mean? The total number of words published each day on the front page of Slashdot is relatively low. It really wouldn't take much work to have someone who knows English to check the posts for errors (and dups?) prior to publication.
Frankly, the amusing and sometimes insightful posts by Slashdot readers are the only real draw to this site at this point. The news is usually late and laden with grammatical and content errors, not to mention the frequent dups.
The girl lost partly because she mistakenly added 4 extra words to the message, among other things.
"They delivered the goods on a server..."
Even better, they delivered it on an AIX server with full instructions on how to run the server, starting with, "To power up the system, press the power button on the front panel." I'm sure SCO was happy to see such thoroughness.
While the article is mostly pointless, I do find it funny that, with the exception of the enthusiast market, pretty much everyone has and continues to buy Intel chips no matter what the price/performance ratio beacuse the little sticker says "Intel Inside". Now that AMD has turned the tables and often has the faster chips and tries to charge a premium for them, everyone cries foul. Where have you people been the last 20 years?
"The island is served by many major airlines that bring in large jets, including Boeing 747s, carrying tourists from across the world on a daily basis. This fuels the island's largest revenue source, tourism. The airport is famous for its short landing strip - only 2130 meters, which is barely enough for heavy jets. Because of this, the planes approach the island flying extremely low, right over the beach. Countless photos of large jets flying at 10-20 meters over relaxing tourists at the beach have been dismissed as photoshopped many times, but are nevertheless real."
Isn't this a bit optimistic? It hasn't even left the ground yet.
Then they started charging membership fees. Membership #'s dropped, and with the lack of members, the amount and quality of information and oppinions dropped as well. It became basically useless compared to what it once was. I don't know what it looks like nowdays, but I won't be going back there any time soon to find out.
Blockbuster has a deal with the USPS. When the video is put in the mail to be returned, it is scanned at the post office. This alerts Blockbuster that the movie is on its way back, and they ship the next movie in the queue.
With all of the rediculous trucks on the road in the US, you'd think NASA would have been inspired to build a montster truck version of the rover. Couldn't we just send a Hummer next time?