I've got to believe that the rapid increase in storage capacity for ATA/IDE drives is going to create drives which have to undergo a great deal more stress in daily operation. Manipulating 120 GB of data using the same footprint (or an even smaller one) as drives with a tenth of the capacity just a few years ago will create the need for higher quality components and tighter quality control.
At the same time, however, the price per gig has come down quite a bit and the manufacturers are going to have to squeeze something out in order to maintain profit margins. What has gotten squeezed out or reduced? It seems that durability is suffering, which drives warranty liability costs up. SCSI drives have largely maintained their price points, so I would think the quality of their components has remained high and therefore the warranties can remain as they are.
I also wonder how much the reduced length of product cycles is playing into this. It's harder to replace a product with an identical one two years after original purchase when four or five updates have come since, taking space on the shelves and in catalogues.
I expect that robots will take over the world, and openly hunt humans in a post apocolyptic landscape. This will occur in January. For the rest of the year, technology will take a vacation.
Technology doesn't take vacations. Considering the post-apololyptic conditions, I expect we'll discover stone and then bronze weapons, the making coats from animal skins, and the Atari 800.
If I need it there Sometime Later This Week, I have no problem using the USPS for anything. They've never lost a piece of mail I was waiting for or sent out, and I have done a lot of business with patient buyers on eBay that were happy with the ship times and the handling with USPS. In fact, recently I have read about more issues with sending delicate equipment UPS/FedEx than with USPS Priority, for example.
Broadband just isn't a reality/necessity for enough people yet, and the size of applications and media in digital format is growing and is already too great for the Average Joe who has an affinity the Internet but doesn't know how to download 4 GB worth of video successfully (or patiently, for that matter).
C'mon, get with the times here. How about you make me a jacket where I can groove to my LPs while I'm doing sixty on my face down the side of a mountain...
Once KDE has mono (and it will for months), it will become sluggish, weak, and completely addicted to bad daytime television. I advise staying away for a while, and don't share any of its apps.
I've tried to like this strip more, since I understand all of the material that makes this the kind of strip that needs to be online and not in the newspaper. Unfortunately, most of the time recognizing the industry humor is the only feeling I have coming away from it -- in other words, not much.
I grew up wanting to be a cartoonist and was a huge fan of strips like Peanuts, Bloom County, and even Doonesbury. I've laughed many times at those and others you'd find in the paper, and I find that I prefer humor with a broader appeal than stuff that's supposed to be funny only because it's an inside joke.
So given that intelligence almost never happens [...]
The rest of your post made some sense, but this statement made me really itchy. Yes, within the context of your post, this is a "given." But I don't think science at large would agree.
The universe has been around for quite some time, and during that time, stars and their host systems have formed and died already. In fact, IIRC, the galaxy and even the group we call home are nowhere near as old as the post-BB universe itself.
I agree that it is extraordinary that we, intelligent life (sometimes), exist. We beat all kinds of odds to simply exist, and those numbers are really unfathomable. However: the observable universe has been around for quite a while, and is a very big place. I think, based on the scale in terms of time and space, the odds are being beaten in quite a few places.
While this thing is rather ugly, it's inspired me to go out and get one of those old cocktail game tables (e.g. Ms. Pac Man), gut it, and mount the board in there somewhere, under the monitor.
Using a joystick to bang out code might get tiresome, though.......
You have to work for a company that will sponsor your getting a clearance. Here in the DeeCee area, there is a great shortage of folks with clearances for the open jobs that require them. The reason, in part, is that unlike a certificate, you can't run out and boot-camp and/or buy your way to a security clearance.
The process can be very expensive and time-consuming, depending on the level of clearance. And not everyone who gets sponsored ends up with a clearance, either.
I disagree. Conspiracy-based stories are difficult to televise for the average viewer that tends to wave off the idea that there is much going on behind the scenes of government. Chris Carter managed to do what every successful TV series has done. He combined
1) Great stories. The mytharc never dominated a season but was always there,
2) The right actors for the roles. Can you imagine a better Mulder, or a better Skinner? Hell, the "lone gunmen" were cast perfectly,
3) Terrific directing, which made the show visually appealing. This is what drew in a lot of the new audience in season two and helped spread the word that this was something to see.
I think this show jumped the shark when they axed the Cigarette-Smoking Man and then brought him back...
Slashdot Mirror
I've got to believe that the rapid increase in storage capacity for ATA/IDE drives is going to create drives which have to undergo a great deal more stress in daily operation. Manipulating 120 GB of data using the same footprint (or an even smaller one) as drives with a tenth of the capacity just a few years ago will create the need for higher quality components and tighter quality control.
At the same time, however, the price per gig has come down quite a bit and the manufacturers are going to have to squeeze something out in order to maintain profit margins. What has gotten squeezed out or reduced? It seems that durability is suffering, which drives warranty liability costs up. SCSI drives have largely maintained their price points, so I would think the quality of their components has remained high and therefore the warranties can remain as they are.
I also wonder how much the reduced length of product cycles is playing into this. It's harder to replace a product with an identical one two years after original purchase when four or five updates have come since, taking space on the shelves and in catalogues.
- DDT
Nuts. As an American, I now have to put Guinea on my "can not visit" list. Thanks, /.
-DDT
I expect that robots will take over the world, and openly hunt humans in a post apocolyptic landscape. This will occur in January. For the rest of the year, technology will take a vacation.
Technology doesn't take vacations. Considering the post-apololyptic conditions, I expect we'll discover stone and then bronze weapons, the making coats from animal skins, and the Atari 800.
- DDT
Are you kidding? Look at the kid next to you on the subway text-messaging with his cell phone and you see where we're headed as a society.
They h8 weblog it's 2 long. d00d.
-DDT
This movie will show up on WinMX et. al. commercial-free, weeks in advance. Get in the queue now!
- DDT
Do you shut your eyes when you drive through bad neighborhoods, too?
You don't know what you're missing.
-DDT
I didn't watch Futurama... please tell me shiny is spelled this way out of reverence to something in the show.
- DDT
If I need it there Sometime Later This Week, I have no problem using the USPS for anything. They've never lost a piece of mail I was waiting for or sent out, and I have done a lot of business with patient buyers on eBay that were happy with the ship times and the handling with USPS. In fact, recently I have read about more issues with sending delicate equipment UPS/FedEx than with USPS Priority, for example.
Broadband just isn't a reality/necessity for enough people yet, and the size of applications and media in digital format is growing and is already too great for the Average Joe who has an affinity the Internet but doesn't know how to download 4 GB worth of video successfully (or patiently, for that matter).
- DDT
I invented the Scroll Lock key. Maybe it's time I start looking for those royalties. And no, it doesn't matter that you don't use it!
- DDT
With 1200 hours available, I'll be all set to follow the next O.J. Simpson murder trial.
- DDT
Let's wait until we see the finished product before saying that. We just may be thankful Mr. Adams didn't have to suffer another Hollywood-ization.
- DDT
I heard that if you purchase Diet Rite they'll give you a ride on the marketing VP's Huffy. Choices, choices...
- DDT
C'mon, get with the times here. How about you make me a jacket where I can groove to my LPs while I'm doing sixty on my face down the side of a mountain...
Once KDE has mono (and it will for months), it will become sluggish, weak, and completely addicted to bad daytime television. I advise staying away for a while, and don't share any of its apps.
- DDT
I've tried to like this strip more, since I understand all of the material that makes this the kind of strip that needs to be online and not in the newspaper. Unfortunately, most of the time recognizing the industry humor is the only feeling I have coming away from it -- in other words, not much.
I grew up wanting to be a cartoonist and was a huge fan of strips like Peanuts, Bloom County, and even Doonesbury. I've laughed many times at those and others you'd find in the paper, and I find that I prefer humor with a broader appeal than stuff that's supposed to be funny only because it's an inside joke.
- DDT
Don't customers have to have their service provider actually changed (w/o authorization) for the practice to be considered slamming?
I mean, what's described here is disgusting, but I don't know that the terminology fits.
- DDT
... "Google" and "Jumps the Shark"?
- DDT
Are you one of those engineers who showers once a month and picks food out of his beard, using the "I don't want to weaken my immune system" excuse?
Whole strains of contagious diseases would be wiped out if you guys would just hose down now and again!
- DDT
So given that intelligence almost never happens [...]
The rest of your post made some sense, but this statement made me really itchy. Yes, within the context of your post, this is a "given." But I don't think science at large would agree.
The universe has been around for quite some time, and during that time, stars and their host systems have formed and died already. In fact, IIRC, the galaxy and even the group we call home are nowhere near as old as the post-BB universe itself.
I agree that it is extraordinary that we, intelligent life (sometimes), exist. We beat all kinds of odds to simply exist, and those numbers are really unfathomable. However: the observable universe has been around for quite a while, and is a very big place. I think, based on the scale in terms of time and space, the odds are being beaten in quite a few places.
- DDT
The world doesn't grind to a stop because it's the first of April.
April's Fool, right??! You had me going there for a second. Like /. gives you an all-encompassing view of the tech world.
I am stunned with how upset people are about the nonsense that made the front page today. Stop gnashing your teeth and turn on TechTV or something...
Whoa, davmoo
So now, for a dollar, I can not only make a 20 minute phone call with 10-10-220, but now I can watch Shrek on my 'puter.
Heh. Eat that, Terry Bradshaw.
While this thing is rather ugly, it's inspired me to go out and get one of those old cocktail game tables (e.g. Ms. Pac Man), gut it, and mount the board in there somewhere, under the monitor.
Using a joystick to bang out code might get tiresome, though.......
- DDT
You have to work for a company that will sponsor your getting a clearance. Here in the DeeCee area, there is a great shortage of folks with clearances for the open jobs that require them. The reason, in part, is that unlike a certificate, you can't run out and boot-camp and/or buy your way to a security clearance.
The process can be very expensive and time-consuming, depending on the level of clearance. And not everyone who gets sponsored ends up with a clearance, either.
- DDT
I disagree. Conspiracy-based stories are difficult to televise for the average viewer that tends to wave off the idea that there is much going on behind the scenes of government. Chris Carter managed to do what every successful TV series has done. He combined
1) Great stories. The mytharc never dominated a season but was always there,
2) The right actors for the roles. Can you imagine a better Mulder, or a better Skinner? Hell, the "lone gunmen" were cast perfectly,
3) Terrific directing, which made the show visually appealing. This is what drew in a lot of the new audience in season two and helped spread the word that this was something to see.
I think this show jumped the shark when they axed the Cigarette-Smoking Man and then brought him back...
- DDT