Ahh, but you don't. The VCR is the one that's being retarded. There's no legal reason why the VCR should go tits-up from Macrovision when it isn't recording to tape.
1) It goes out of its way to screw you over by refusing to route video signal through a VCR, thus rendering it inoperable with most legacy TVs.
Just depends how smart your VCR is. My Sony doesn't handle Macrovision at all and you can't feed a DVD to it. But I have two current RCAs that are perfect video to RF modulators for DVD players as long as you don't try to record to tape. Much better than those crappy $30 RF modulators and not much more expensive.
Whatever. Do what my team lead used to do. Every time we paged him when he was on rotation, we'd realize the pager was in his desk drawer. Well, every time except the one time when he said "I'm too drunk to come in."
When I was in college, a certain vending machine area had signs that said "AREA UNDER VIDEO SURVEILLANCE". We never could see a camera anywhere. So we stole the sign.
I have a stack of Dell P2-266 laptops I got cheap at auction. Two of those running all the time is a lot less space, noise and heat than a single desktop. Still, they aren't silent and they do put out some heat.
The idea of batteries as a UPS is kind of a problem. You'll probably fry the expensive battery in less than a year. I only use batteries when I need to move the machines and run on a real UPS the rest of the time.
Memory on an older laptop can be a problem. The ones I have use EDO SO-DIMMs. Going from 2x64m to 2x128m would cost me $300-800. If I had picked laptops that used a pair of SDRAM sticks, I could probably get to 256m for $50.
One of my biggest problems with using these laptops as servers is that it feels like such a waste. I've got friends that could still squeeze a good bit of life out of them, especially on a wireless lan. In fact I've given away most of my stack and I'm down to just one busted-up spare.
Move your monitor so that there's something else in your line of sight that's at least 5 feet away. I have one of mine set so that anyone walking down the hall is in view. As a result, I lift my eyes and shift focus every few minutes. Helps a lot.
Classic Minsky vs. Brooks
on
AI Going Nowhere?
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· Score: 2, Insightful
Graduate students are wasting 3 years of their lives soldering and repairing robots, instead of making them smart.
This is a classic battle between Minsky and Brooks. Heck, we had the same battle in our labs (not MIT). I believe that the Brooks response is along the lines of "sure you'll take an extra year to graduate with me, but you'll have one hell of a demo tape." I agree with Brooks. I still show people videos of one of my robots years later. I've never shown anyone any of my simulated robot work afterwards.
Yawn. Let me know when they've actually switched. If you took a survey here two years ago we'd have been 75% Java soon. Yet here we are, two years later, and it's more like 5%.
It's all about college kids. Sun used to dominate computer science and engineering departments. All the kids coming out of school had used Suns. Now what have they used? Linux and Windows.
Just from the screenshots and comments, this seems like something my friend's 13 year old could crank out in VB in a week. Not something that I'd expect my 100-person company to adopt.
Get a good cordless phone with caller ID and keep it on you. Otherwise you'll miss calls walking out to the mailbox or sitting in the bathroom. They'll assume you're out goofing off. Always answer using that phone, even if a wired one is handy. You'll thank me when you can sneak off and take a leak in the middle of a hour long call. (Tip: don't flush until the call is over. Or get a phone with mute).
Get call forwarding (or only use a cell phone). Use it whenever you leave the house. The same reason as above. Any missed calls just lead to them thinking you're not working.
On the other hand, don't be afraid to not answer the phone. If you're in a crunch, just let your contact/boss know you're gonna be coding all morning and won't answer the phone. Tell them to email/IM you if it's important.
Train your boss. All those quick phone calls with little tasks? Ignore them. Make them email you crap like that to get it done. Less interruptions.
Get out of the house. If you can work offline, a table at the library, bookstore, coffee shop, park, etc. works wonders. Heck, I used to take a legal pad to McDonalds and work out problem designs or build task lists.
Find someone in the office that can relay stuff to you. This is hard if you don't know anyone coming in. I've had a friend in the office that made sure to let me know about the reorgs, occasional rumors, etc. Even better, when I just couldn't understand wtf someone was talking about, I'd ask him to go see them and translate it for me. Worked wonders.
Don't be afraid to take a break. I usually took a 2 hour lunch break a couple of times a week and got a ton of errands done then. For a while I arranged to take every Tuesday afternoon off and make up the hours. The result was great. I could go get things done with almost no crowds. Go shop. Take the kid to the zoo. Ride a bike. Anything.
Be very thankful. I'm back in the office now. Getting interrupted every 15 minutes. Sitting in meetings doodling on paper. Sitting in traffic. Rushing through lunch. Catching every new bug. Running errands on the way home with everyone else. It sucks.
I don't understand how Microsoft can call these people "contractors". They fail many of the IRS's 20 points. They do the same job as employees, are "hired" as induhviduals, sound like they work set hours and get paid by the hour, not by the project, work in MS's offices, get provided computers, phones, and email, etc.
Find a way to work from home, especially during the first year or two. Even if you have to quit or cut back to some part-time contracts.
Don't let your wife eat peanuts or other allergenic foods while pregnant or even while breastfeeding, especially if there is a history of food allergies.
Breastfeed. You'll have a healthier kid (go ahead and start the flamewars, but I believe it). Plus, daddy doesn't have to get up in the middle of the night to feed the kid.
75% of the crap you'll buy or get as gifts is unnecessary.
Buy diapers every chance you get.
Hide some diapers and a travel pack of wipes within reach of where you change the kid. Don't tell your wife where they are. Trust me. You'll thank me the first 5 times you discover you're out of diapers or wipes after you get the old diaper off.
Stash diapers and wipes in both cars.
Don't pick a popular name. Your kid will be the third Jarrod or Ashlyn in their class.
Hurry up and start on the next kid before this one reaches the terrible twos.
Slashdot Mirror
For what it's worth, I live and work almost within sight of Southeast Airlines and I've never heard of them.
Ahh, but you don't. The VCR is the one that's being retarded. There's no legal reason why the VCR should go tits-up from Macrovision when it isn't recording to tape.
Unless you have kids. My daughter "helped" mommy one day by shredding a stack of mail, including my paycheck.
The Sims. They could have little cars for your family.
Baldurs Gate.
1) It goes out of its way to screw you over by refusing to route video signal through a VCR, thus rendering it inoperable with most legacy TVs. Just depends how smart your VCR is. My Sony doesn't handle Macrovision at all and you can't feed a DVD to it. But I have two current RCAs that are perfect video to RF modulators for DVD players as long as you don't try to record to tape. Much better than those crappy $30 RF modulators and not much more expensive.
In this market? I know a number of guys out of work that'd take his spot.
Whatever. Do what my team lead used to do. Every time we paged him when he was on rotation, we'd realize the pager was in his desk drawer. Well, every time except the one time when he said "I'm too drunk to come in."
When I was in college, a certain vending machine area had signs that said "AREA UNDER VIDEO SURVEILLANCE". We never could see a camera anywhere. So we stole the sign.
The idea of batteries as a UPS is kind of a problem. You'll probably fry the expensive battery in less than a year. I only use batteries when I need to move the machines and run on a real UPS the rest of the time.
Memory on an older laptop can be a problem. The ones I have use EDO SO-DIMMs. Going from 2x64m to 2x128m would cost me $300-800. If I had picked laptops that used a pair of SDRAM sticks, I could probably get to 256m for $50.
One of my biggest problems with using these laptops as servers is that it feels like such a waste. I've got friends that could still squeeze a good bit of life out of them, especially on a wireless lan. In fact I've given away most of my stack and I'm down to just one busted-up spare.
When did time-limited demos and crippled products become "shareware?"
Move your monitor so that there's something else in your line of sight that's at least 5 feet away. I have one of mine set so that anyone walking down the hall is in view. As a result, I lift my eyes and shift focus every few minutes. Helps a lot.
This is a classic battle between Minsky and Brooks. Heck, we had the same battle in our labs (not MIT). I believe that the Brooks response is along the lines of "sure you'll take an extra year to graduate with me, but you'll have one hell of a demo tape." I agree with Brooks. I still show people videos of one of my robots years later. I've never shown anyone any of my simulated robot work afterwards.
I originally bought a Logitech Marble Mouse just to play MAME Marble Madness. Now I have 3 of them and use them everywhere.
This is so 1987.
Yawn. Let me know when they've actually switched. If you took a survey here two years ago we'd have been 75% Java soon. Yet here we are, two years later, and it's more like 5%.
The only thing Sun has is Java and IBM's kicking their butt there.
Now we're gonna have to call it Freedom Linux.
Go with the crowd and just name it Firebird.
Oh, sorry. Let me send it back.
Blame Canada
Just from the screenshots and comments, this seems like something my friend's 13 year old could crank out in VB in a week. Not something that I'd expect my 100-person company to adopt.