There are backups, failsafes, etc, etc. That, and the planes are checked and serviced all the time to ensure that all those systems are working as they should.
Funny you say this. On my last flight from Chicago to San Francisco about a month ago, we were delayed because of a warning indicator in the cockpit. 30 minutes later, the pilot says over the intercom "Folks, the reason for our delay is a failed backup system causing a warning light on our flight information system. The mechanics have disabled the backup system so we will be taxiing for takeoff shortly".
Myself and a few others gasped, and I said a quick prayer and went to sleep.
BTW- this was a United Airlines flight on a Boeing 777
And, as usual, we learn that countries such as Japan and Korea are far ahead of the US in terms of innovation and technological saturation.
Saturation...maybe, but the U.S. is behind in technological innovation?! Give me a break. Take a second and think about who innovated the technologies you are using right now to read this message. Yep, the Internet was a U.S. creation. So was the transistor, and the integrated circuit, and the microprocessor, and the web browser (i know, berners-lee wasn't U.S.), and the cell phone. Shall I go on? What else do we sit in front of for more than an hour a day? Television? Yep, another U.S. innovation. Automobile? Ok, the Germans invented the first auto but it became mainstream because of U.S. innovation. Ballpoint pen? CRT monitor? Microwave?
The U.S. still produces the most innovative ideas. Other countries, such as Japan, are more efficient and better at manufacturing but we still come up with new ideas and products more often than other countries. Sure, there are numerous exceptions...the Sony Walkman comes to mind. However, take an inventory of what products and technologies you use daily and do a little research as to who came up with them first.
How do you figure $15,000 a year minimum? The original poster stated that he has a collection of MP3s and wants a player/decoder to access them. Such a player/decoder would cost 75 cents.
I don't want to re-compress all my mp3s to Ogg because this will reduce quality. So I will still have mp3s around in several years (don't mention all those CDs I burned). So this is an issue, since I will need a player/decoder to access them.
Have you considered actually spending 75 cents for a MP3 decoder? Its what I pay for a can of Coke!
There is a lesser-known C++ GUI framework out there called the Windows Template Library that is based heavily on ATL. It is released on the Microsoft Platform SDK, but is officially unsupported. Search for it on google. It is what MFC should have been.
BTW- my 2 cents on the whole QT/wxWindows thing is don't bother unless you really need cross-platform. Knowing the Win32 API, which is very important when using MFC or WTL, is invaluable being that 95% of the machines on this planet run an operating system that uses Win32.
I also switched from Linux to Win2k for my home machine after using tux for a couple years. Win2k is a stable OS and is the best product that Microsoft has right now. I sit in front of a Linux machine all day at work using vim and a shell. I know Linux inside and out and have done kernel work. I really do appreciate Linux and think its a fine OS. However it is refreshing to come home to a consumer OS that was designed as a GUI-based OS from day one and has the polish and responsiveness that Gnome/KDE/etc lack. I get my techno-geek thrill of using Linux at work. My machine at home is an entertainment/productivity/information device and I don't need the power of a UNIX environment.
Plus I have recently become addicted to games (ones that cost millions to produce)!!! Even Mozilla on Win2k is just better...can't place why, it just is.
However my next machine may be an Apple running OS X as it combines the best of both worlds!
Scare tactics could be very effective. Just one random, not-for-profit, casual MP3 pirate being sued is enough incentive for me to stop using P2P programs.
They can pick random users from Gnutella, and do a little detective work to find out who they are based on your IP-address.
Current NVRAM, based on flash memory, has a limited amount of write cycles before the part fails. Therefore, it does not currently make a viable replacement for magnetic drives in which there are frequent stores and erases.
Pray tell me, what those other countries would be?
China. Korea. Japan. Ever been to any of them?
Ah ha! so you don't have the money. Well that explains it then, an average american is too poor to own a cell phone
If you really care to know, I went back to graduate school after spending many years as an electrical engineer. Yes, I have cut back on my expenses and try to limit my communications budget to less than $100/month until I re-enter the workforce. You must be a rich American, so excuse me.
1) U.S. is huge in terms of area. Nationwide digital, I mean real nationwide, can't be rolled out because of the cost. This is another reason why Europeans have one standard being GSM. GSM was initially rejected by U.S. operators because the cell size is so small. CDMA was promised to solve all of the problems that GSM didn't. CDMA, widely adopted in the U.S., can have larger cell sizes because it is not based on time division. If you make a GSM cell too large, it takes too long for the signal to travel thus messing up the frame of the next time slot. With CDMA, there is a tradeoff of cell size versus capacity versus quality (9.6kps or 14.4kbs). Cell sizes can be made much larger however the noise floor is raised thus reducing the capacity of that cell.
Also smaller cell sizes, as present in Japan, makes phones smaller because they don't need to output as much power thus requiring a smaller battery.
However looking back, it sure would be nice if we had a single unified digital standard like the Europeans, but does that really inhibit people here?? If I have a TDMA phone, that doesn't stop me from calling my buddy who has a GSM phone?
2) We already have an efficient land-based voice&data infrastructure that is cheap and omnipresent. Everybody, I mean everybody including your grandparents, already has land-based voice service. This isn't the case in other countries where land-based service is costly or unavailable.
3) We have the space, and the money, for computers in our households. Why surf the internet on a 2" screen when you have that Gateway sitting in your living room at home?
4) A multitude of other socio-economic/cultural reasons that are on the tip of my tongue but I don't feel like delving into. For example, I did away with my cellphone because I would rather spend my money on DSL at home. Even if my cellphone had the nifty Japanese features, I still would choose my PC at home with DSL. Some may not agree with me, but I believe that many do. If I had a little more money to spend, a cellphone with basic voice service would suffice.
I recently built a new system using a FIC AN11 Stealth motherboard. Since it was for a non-geek friend, I installed Windows XP.
When the machine is shut off, either through software or the "soft" power button, the motherboard still provides power to the PS/2 ports. Therefore, the optical mouse and the keyboard are still lit up!!
A quick search in Google Groups revealed to me that this was not a defective board and is a "feature" (I'm now told that FIC has since released a BIOS update to turn this "feature" off)
It is well known that ethernet has lousy latency. My favorite analogy is if you calculate the bandwidth of filling a freight train full of 80gb hard drives and steam it cross country. Great bandwidth, lousy latency.
This is why building a cluster using ethernet is not a great idea if the communication to computation ratio is very high. Some clusters I've seen use Myrinet, which offers high bandwidth and low latency at the cost of wire distance (and price).
That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. A good employer will do whatever it takes, within reasonable bounds, to hold onto good employees. You should accept that as a complement and stick with your current job if you are happy with it. Its risky changing jobs...you might end up with a lousy manager or the company culture may stink.
I went through engineering school and hardly used my calculator. Understanding the problem is the hard part. Doing the busy work to get a final answer is a waste of time unless the answer is truly needed.
Slashdot Mirror
You'll eventually cave and will buy an X-box game. Its like a little kid dipping into the cookie jar even though its naughty.
There are backups, failsafes, etc, etc. That, and the planes are checked and serviced all the time to ensure that all those systems are working as they should.
Funny you say this. On my last flight from Chicago to San Francisco about a month ago, we were delayed because of a warning indicator in the cockpit. 30 minutes later, the pilot says over the intercom "Folks, the reason for our delay is a failed backup system causing a warning light on our flight information system. The mechanics have disabled the backup system so we will be taxiing for takeoff shortly".
Myself and a few others gasped, and I said a quick prayer and went to sleep.
BTW- this was a United Airlines flight on a Boeing 777
And, as usual, we learn that countries such as Japan and Korea are far ahead of the US in terms of innovation and technological saturation.
Saturation...maybe, but the U.S. is behind in technological innovation?! Give me a break. Take a second and think about who innovated the technologies you are using right now to read this message. Yep, the Internet was a U.S. creation. So was the transistor, and the integrated circuit, and the microprocessor, and the web browser (i know, berners-lee wasn't U.S.), and the cell phone. Shall I go on? What else do we sit in front of for more than an hour a day? Television? Yep, another U.S. innovation. Automobile? Ok, the Germans invented the first auto but it became mainstream because of U.S. innovation. Ballpoint pen? CRT monitor? Microwave?
The U.S. still produces the most innovative ideas. Other countries, such as Japan, are more efficient and better at manufacturing but we still come up with new ideas and products more often than other countries. Sure, there are numerous exceptions...the Sony Walkman comes to mind. However, take an inventory of what products and technologies you use daily and do a little research as to who came up with them first.
Then download the source to mpg123 right now, and ignore them. Problem solved.
Either that, or purchase a commercial player when it comes out for Linux.
It isn't the end of the world.
How do you figure $15,000 a year minimum? The original poster stated that he has a collection of MP3s and wants a player/decoder to access them. Such a player/decoder would cost 75 cents.
I don't want to re-compress all my mp3s to Ogg because this will reduce quality. So I will still have mp3s around in several years (don't mention all those CDs I burned). So this is an issue, since I will need a player/decoder to access them.
Have you considered actually spending 75 cents for a MP3 decoder? Its what I pay for a can of Coke!
which means that you should be able to find a second-hand diamond somewhere. People die but diamonds don't.
If you are going to be a pretentious fuckhead and insult someone on Slashdot, at least use an actual account instead of AC.
I do hope that the moderator whom is labeling these posts as "trolls" has done his/her homework regarding the accuracy of this and following posts...
There is a lesser-known C++ GUI framework out there called the Windows Template Library that is based heavily on ATL. It is released on the Microsoft Platform SDK, but is officially unsupported. Search for it on google. It is what MFC should have been.
BTW- my 2 cents on the whole QT/wxWindows thing is don't bother unless you really need cross-platform. Knowing the Win32 API, which is very important when using MFC or WTL, is invaluable being that 95% of the machines on this planet run an operating system that uses Win32.
Yes, I was being sarcastic. Nice summary nonetheless.
Yup, you are right. There is no such thing as a scripting language in the land of Windows.
I also switched from Linux to Win2k for my home machine after using tux for a couple years. Win2k is a stable OS and is the best product that Microsoft has right now. I sit in front of a Linux machine all day at work using vim and a shell. I know Linux inside and out and have done kernel work. I really do appreciate Linux and think its a fine OS. However it is refreshing to come home to a consumer OS that was designed as a GUI-based OS from day one and has the polish and responsiveness that Gnome/KDE/etc lack. I get my techno-geek thrill of using Linux at work. My machine at home is an entertainment/productivity/information device and I don't need the power of a UNIX environment.
Plus I have recently become addicted to games (ones that cost millions to produce)!!! Even Mozilla on Win2k is just better...can't place why, it just is.
However my next machine may be an Apple running OS X as it combines the best of both worlds!
WinMX allows me to browse another user's archive. Unless I'm mistaken, I believe that WinMX is Gnutella based??
Scare tactics could be very effective. Just one random, not-for-profit, casual MP3 pirate being sued is enough incentive for me to stop using P2P programs.
They can pick random users from Gnutella, and do a little detective work to find out who they are based on your IP-address.
What OS are you using? I use Win2k, and I burn CD's while listening to MP3's and using Mozilla 1.0 (which is quite the dog!)
Current NVRAM, based on flash memory, has a limited amount of write cycles before the part fails. Therefore, it does not currently make a viable replacement for magnetic drives in which there are frequent stores and erases.
Pray tell me, what those other countries would be?
China. Korea. Japan. Ever been to any of them?
Ah ha! so you don't have the money. Well that explains it then, an average american is too poor to own a cell phone
If you really care to know, I went back to graduate school after spending many years as an electrical engineer. Yes, I have cut back on my expenses and try to limit my communications budget to less than $100/month until I re-enter the workforce. You must be a rich American, so excuse me.
1) U.S. is huge in terms of area. Nationwide digital, I mean real nationwide, can't be rolled out because of the cost. This is another reason why Europeans have one standard being GSM. GSM was initially rejected by U.S. operators because the cell size is so small. CDMA was promised to solve all of the problems that GSM didn't. CDMA, widely adopted in the U.S., can have larger cell sizes because it is not based on time division. If you make a GSM cell too large, it takes too long for the signal to travel thus messing up the frame of the next time slot. With CDMA, there is a tradeoff of cell size versus capacity versus quality (9.6kps or 14.4kbs). Cell sizes can be made much larger however the noise floor is raised thus reducing the capacity of that cell.
Also smaller cell sizes, as present in Japan, makes phones smaller because they don't need to output as much power thus requiring a smaller battery.
However looking back, it sure would be nice if we had a single unified digital standard like the Europeans, but does that really inhibit people here?? If I have a TDMA phone, that doesn't stop me from calling my buddy who has a GSM phone?
2) We already have an efficient land-based voice&data infrastructure that is cheap and omnipresent. Everybody, I mean everybody including your grandparents, already has land-based voice service. This isn't the case in other countries where land-based service is costly or unavailable.
3) We have the space, and the money, for computers in our households. Why surf the internet on a 2" screen when you have that Gateway sitting in your living room at home?
4) A multitude of other socio-economic/cultural reasons that are on the tip of my tongue but I don't feel like delving into. For example, I did away with my cellphone because I would rather spend my money on DSL at home. Even if my cellphone had the nifty Japanese features, I still would choose my PC at home with DSL. Some may not agree with me, but I believe that many do. If I had a little more money to spend, a cellphone with basic voice service would suffice.
I recently built a new system using a FIC AN11 Stealth motherboard. Since it was for a non-geek friend, I installed Windows XP.
When the machine is shut off, either through software or the "soft" power button, the motherboard still provides power to the PS/2 ports. Therefore, the optical mouse and the keyboard are still lit up!!
A quick search in Google Groups revealed to me that this was not a defective board and is a "feature" (I'm now told that FIC has since released a BIOS update to turn this "feature" off)
I went back for my M.S. degree 10 months ago, and have another year or two to go. Do you consider me "smart/lucky"?
You would think a modern web browser would be able to spell-check text written in a HTML Form!!
It is well known that ethernet has lousy latency. My favorite analogy is if you calculate the bandwidth of filling a freight train full of 80gb hard drives and steam it cross country. Great bandwidth, lousy latency.
This is why building a cluster using ethernet is not a great idea if the communication to computation ratio is very high. Some clusters I've seen use Myrinet, which offers high bandwidth and low latency at the cost of wire distance (and price).
That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. A good employer will do whatever it takes, within reasonable bounds, to hold onto good employees. You should accept that as a complement and stick with your current job if you are happy with it. Its risky changing jobs...you might end up with a lousy manager or the company culture may stink.
I went through engineering school and hardly used my calculator. Understanding the problem is the hard part. Doing the busy work to get a final answer is a waste of time unless the answer is truly needed.