Those parts that are up to snuff (e.g. negligible hardening and change in NDT) should be refurbed/reused. Those that are not could be melted down, including a process to remove activated isotopes in the process, and re-used to create new parts!
Smart folks flee the Pittsburgh Area
on
ILM's Datacenter
·
· Score: 1
While I'm by no means and engineer and my evidence is strictly anecdotal, I know of at least a few hundred bright people from that area (I hail from about 40 miles east) that headed to either coast in search of better/more abundant jobs.
More specifically, the Johnstown area, has suffered greatly from brain drain as there just isn't anything there (aside from family, which, thanks to technology, is much easier to keep in touch with these days) to keep young people from getting out at the first chance they get.
Believe me, I keep my eyes peeled, because it is such a nice area to live in with relatively low cost of living, but there just aren't as many opportunities these days as there were when our parents were entering the job market. I'd gladly move back there, and take up to a 10% pay cut, just to get away from the rat race and all the other crap associated with big market living.
No need to be pissed man, you shouldn't have been modded troll, but you're right, fanbois love that kinda slam. Was just trying to help you and any others that may have encountered similar problems.
1.)You're right, build's prior to.7 or 1.0 Alphas, didn't handle this as gracefully as they should have. But every thing I've used since 1.0 final has worked just fine, including restoring file associations.
2.)Again, see my original comment, default browser has NOTHING to do with file associations. In a perfect world, they'd be inextricably tied, same with any type of file association/default program pair, unfortunately thay are not. And yes, I've been bitten by that bug too, was just telling you that one has nothing to do with the other as far as windows is concerned. As far as IE not asking you to set itself as default, sounds like you have another issue. I tried it on both my work and home machines, and it worked fine. As well as then starting up FF and having it reset itself as default. Not sure what the issue is there, but it sounds IE related, not FF.
3.)Agreed. Don't listen to the asshats man.
Ok, I just had to respond after looking at the beating you've taken in this thread for voicing your opinions. And to be totally honest, until I read your last post, I was about to join in on the bashing.
See, like most folks on/. I've been a geek all my life. My first programming language was Commodore Basic on a C64 at the ripe old age of 5. I've always enjoyed it and picked all things computer related up at a very rapid pace. This caused great pains for me when going to college, as the ENTIRE curriculum was tied to attendance, for ALL classes (PSU Altoona if you're interested).
I was also very lucky in HS to have had excellent teachers in non CS related classes, that challenged me, leading to me being , IMHO, WAY over-prepared when I finally did get to college. The result being that I got the syllabi and for those classes I chose, would only show up to turn in work and take exams. This ended in me dropping my two programming courses fall semester of my freshman year and failing physics (I had 3 freaking years of it in high school and it started at 6:45 AM, 4 days a week!).
I vowed it wouldn't happen the next semester and tried to arrange in advance with all my professors in those subjects where I felt I had sufficient knowledge, to work out some sort of schedule that worked for both them and myself, but to no avail. Even though my calc prof agreed before hand, as well as my repeat physics professor (different one this time) to be more lenient on the attendance policy if I did well on exams, the university stepped in and failed me in both, regardless of the fact that I had a 4.0 in both classes.
Whew...long story. In any case, thanks for showing me that not all educators are this rigid and understand that sometimes people who ask to be taught something might really already know the subject, but just needs to prove to someone they know it for their degree/employer/whatever.
Check Program Access and Defaults(under Add/Remove software I believe) in Win2k/XP and you'll easily be able to set IE back to being your default. AFAIK, Firefox does EXACTLY what MS recommends as best practice for setting itself as your default browser. FYI, file associations have NOTHING to do with Program Access and Defaults.
In addition, I just verified in IE 5.5 and 6.0 that there's a checkbox under 'Tools\Internet Options\Programs' that will tell IE to check at startup whether or not it's the default and prompt you for the appropriate actions.
I've used the listview pretty extensively in both C# and VB and aside from update issues(flicker, etc.), or adding proper sorting (by columnheader click) I haven't had much of a problem. And both the issues I mention I was able to create code that handled any issues gracefully.
If you're more specific, and I can help in that area, I'd be more than willing to share.
I just recently purchased a Motorola L7 SLVR and must say it is VERY nice. When I first saw the ROKR, I was very disappointed and hoped for something a little more eye pleasing and with a better UI. With the SLVR, I get the sleek elegant looks of Moto's top end phones, with all the usual whiz-bang tech (blue-tooth, quad-band world phone, usual apps) in addition to some killer extra features (microSD card slot, 512 MB microSD card, stereo headphone adapter, mini USB stereo headphones with built-in mic, USB data cable) AND a smattering of my music thrown in to boot.
I nearly cried the first time someone called while I was listeng to music and the playback paused, showed the caller ID info (can't wait until it can read it to you...) and I was able to take the call (also had the option of sending straight to VM) and once I hung up, playback resumed automatically right where it left off.
There's only one shortcoming as I see it. Lack of affordable blue-tooth capable stereo headphones. Motorola has a single pair for around 130 bucks. Considering I just dropped almost 300 on the phone and requisite accessories, that's a bit much to swallow. If third-parties get in on this and sales remain as brisk as they seem now (took me almost 3 weeks to get one and I had to snipe it by calling local stores every day to see what they got in their shipments) they could sell something similar for half the price and STILL make a killing.
If I were to point out some things I don't like about the phone, it's that I can't use any of my music as ringtones, nor are my ringtones played back via the headphones, it comes out of the phones speaker. Not horrible issues mind you, but little things that would make the integration of cellphone/mp3 player that much more palatable for J6P.
This is EXACTLY the problem my parents have been having since they got Vonage installed. They can hear everyone else fine, but they're dropping packets big time the other direction. I've had several calls completely drop out from my end (meaning I heard nothing but silence on my end, yet they could still hear me fine).
Interestingly enough, their ISP (Adelphia) is in the process of being switched over to Comcast and they've been getting the emails already about Comcasts digital phone service. I've spent several hours on the phone both with the ISP and with Vonage and still no luck. The cable company even came out and rewired the whole house and installed a bidrectionial amplifier to make sure the signal to the router was up to spec. Vonage keeps saying it's the ISP and the ISP keeps saying it's Vonage.
My plan is to head there this weekend with my CPE (seperate cablemodem, Vonage adapter and router) and try my stuff there. If it's the same effect, we'll know it's ISP and not Vonage, as I've never had problems with Vonage on Verizon DSL or Comcast cablemodem
I'm not sure about this particular woman's case, but I know I am a Comcast subscriber and I OWN my equipment for that specific reason. Now, you could argue that because I connect with my equipment via their Head-end, that gives them the right, but (and this is a big but) I don't recall anywhere in the TOS/AUP that states they have the right to divulge my information (meaning the address where the equipment used for the alleged infringement is located) to anyone aside from a government/public agency going through the proper channels.
See here for more info. This is exactly what Howard was referring to, and he discussed it again this morning when he aired the interview again on his show.
Actually, they're chemical burns. Chemical burns are possible when living tissue is exposed to high concentrations of CO2. I forget the exact mechanism, but I know CO2 at high partial pressures exposed to water vapor forms carbonic acid. Which although a very weak (relatively speaking of course) acid, would be more than enough to cause the 'burns' seen in the areas surrounding the volcanic lakes in Cameroon. (Remember, the people showing these 'burns' were exposed overnight, so they could have been sweating as they were dying, which would explain the patchy or blotchy appearance of the burns)
This page has a bit more info on the 'phenomenon' surrounding exposure to the lethal gas clouds from the lakes in cameroon. Unfortunately, I can't find any of the pictures. If you ever watch the Discovery channel, they have a show regarding the lakes in Cameroon that shows extensive examples of what I'm talking about.
It's supposed to be that way. But the reality is much more harsh than what you'd think. If you want to go into any other field, you may as well not even tell them you were a nuke. Even if you interview with someone who knows what all that entails, they start to question why you didn't want to work in ionizing radiation.
Oh how I wish there were more people like you in hiring positions. I'm a self taught geek with half a CS degree, 6 years of Naval Nuke power experience and the best I can get job-wise is entry level/call center stuff.
That's just silly. A person who has a 1000 downloaded albums clearly loves music and would have VERY PROBABLY bought at least a few of them if that was the only way to get them. And when the users of P2P are calculated in millions, that amounts to a HUGE amount of albums, even if there are some who indeed wouldn't have bought any
Now that's just silly! I'm a music nut myself and have several thousand (read 3000+) albums in mp3/ogg format on my computer. I also had several thousand cd's and any album I owned, I ripped. Where the real rub comes in this whole brouhaha is that the average consumer feels that when they shell out their hard earned money for a CD/Tape/DVD/whatever they 'think' they're paying for the right to listen/watch that content at their leisure in their preferred arena/format.
What really happens is quite different. We only get the rights to the specific copy of the media we purchased. If it were up to the **AA, we couldn't even backup that one specific copy for protection of our investment. That's where "Fair Use" comes in and saves the day. It says if I payed for it, and I want a backup copy, or copy in another media (that part is still a bit flaky, and could use some bolstering legislation-wise) for a copyrighted work that I payed for, I can do so.
Now hears that rub I was telling you about. I have less than 10 albums that at some point in my life, I have not purchased on CD. Yet I physically own less than 3000+ albums. In the RIAA's eyes I'm already a pirate, even though I payed for all but a handful of the albums I now possess, I just own them in a different format. (And no, I didn't sell any of them. I may have given a few away, but most have deterioriated beyond playability and now are coasters.)
You don't see a difference between a degraded one-off versus hundreds of millions of 1:1 digital copies?
The problem is, not one mp3 EVER created is a 1:1 perfect digital copy. There is no way to argue this. The whole basis of an mp3 is that it uses psycho-acoustics to 'fill-in' the parts that are removed during clipping/compression of the 'perfect' copy.
320 kbps MP3's are completely acceptable, in my opinion.
I agree, it still doesn't mean it's a 'perfect' copy, which is the crux of the RIAA's argument. If it's legal to make mix tapes from cd's, it should then be legal to send your friends mp3's of songs from CD's you paid for.
Personally, All my prgrams keep a log and I just walk the use through the steps to get me the log. Usually email it to me.
If the user has to do something else, and it's possible, I go to their desk and get it myself.
My programs do as well, but unfortunately, most of the errors that occur on our systems are with 3rd party 'vendor' supported software. Which really means, we support it, but without any documentation or knowledge of how it was designed.
As far as logs, yes, all the code I have running logs any errors to it's own log file, or in the case of an XP/2k system, it's written to the event log. While that helps greatly, we've found it's just not enough to keep up with errors that occur somewhere between the keyboard and chair. While that is condescending, 95/100 users encounter problems that way, by not following basic principles of computer operation, that folks like us would. In this case, it's actually made a huge impact on how our helpdesk is perceived and also in our response time, as it makes both us (the helpdesk) and our facility managers much more efficient.
As far as when errors occur in my apps, yes I do have it automatically snag a screenshot for any run-time errors that are not handled by my internal error handlers, and whenever possible add the exception handling necessary to acommodate and overcome such errors.
You did give away one thing that makes a huge difference in the support we provide our customers. You said you go to their desk...well sometimes the desk I'd have to go to is over 1500 miles away, and even with pcAnywhere, RDesktop or VNC, there are still some things that just can't be accounted for purely via the network.
That's exactly why I don't give them the choice to ignore errors, if at all possible. I work on a help desk for a decent size petrol company and write several pieces of software for use by end lusers of the corporate network (mostly marketing/sales type stuff).
Wherever there's a high rate of failure, or probability that an error message may occur, I make it mandatory to take a screenshot (using another utility I wrote) of the software that's running on screen, which gives them an ID# for that pic. If they don't have an ID# that passes the hash, they don't get a ticket logged, it's required when they try to log them via Web, or when they call and ask us to open the ticket.
"No ID#, sorry sir/ma'am, you'll have to get that error again, this time click on the camera icon down by the clock on your Desktop, and it will give you an ID#, call us back when you have that!"
Saves 200+ calls a day, and ensures you KNOW what the issue is before wasting any time just trying to reproduce the 'problem' which normally would only require round-filing an ID-10-T form.
FYI, liquid nitrogen is SIGNIFICANTLY below 30-50C.
Quick run in the head is somewhere from 86F to 122F. Not sure how hot the body temperature of your average mouse is though.
This guy got it right by asking what exactly they need cooled, and for what ends?
It all depends on how you use your bandwidth. If you're strictly a gamer, then...well, like you said, your without. If you just want the high speeds, there are variants of DSL (I recall iDSL or cDSL being superlong capable with metered speeds based on distance from CO) or even Satellite that may work for you.
My parents are in a similar situation with Adelphia, due to the 'family' funding issues, where cable service was available on one side of the street for almost a year, but not on the other. They now have a 512/128 Satellite connection for 20 bucks a month. Typical lag is in the 300-400 range, but if you're not worried about realtime requirements, it's just fine. They browse the web, IM and send emails all at speeds at or near my 3.5MB/512KB on Comcast. Because lets face it, you never reach advertised speeds, if you could, they'd advertise a higher figure with the same real level of service, and charge more for it.
There's also a new trend to setup direct microwave links between remote areas (where possible, LOS issues prevail) and sharing T1 and the like for 'home-grown' solutions.
It's all about your pain (or more often cash) threshold. If you have the money and patience, anything is possible.
HTH.
GhostZilla is your friend.
I also recommend a secure anonymous proxy (your own, or a hosted one) to prevent your boss from sniffing what you're surfing.
I must say, I highly recommend Vonage. I've been using it exclusively for 2 months now and not one complaint. It was quick, easy, WAY cheaper! I get unlimited US calling with no additional per minute charges. One free virtual number for 3 months (4.95/mo after first 3), which is in my parents local calling directory, so they can call without paying too! I use forwarding for weekends when I'm on call and stop in the office, I just can't say enough good things about it.
Well..., I take that back. I still have to keep an 8/mo land line for those few times when Comcast drops out due to storm/wreck. If it weren't for that, I could be sure something like cingular's plugin adapter would work with a cellphone, I'd be completely free of Verizon too. I'd just go for the T1 and be my own ISP. Some DSL PTP modems and a few customers, and I could come close to breaking even!
Now about the Satellite thing. Lemme just say this, you COULD do it. But don't expect it to be anywhere near as cheap as cable/DSL. And high latency would kill any gaming and all but rule out Vonage. From what little time I've had with my Motorola Hybrid VoIP box, it doesn't seem to like high latency. For example, just the other night I was on the phone with my brother and talking about a logo we're working on in PSP for his new business. As I send the 8 MB I can audibly hear the delay and subsequen crosstalk. Once the graphic was complete it was fine. I'm sure they'd be able to crank the quality down and use sufficient error correction to all but eliminate this on satellite, but don't even think about Full-duplex conversations.
BTW, if you're still interested in satellite, try googling for SpaceNet. They have some pretty decent pro-sumer, medium sized business solutions. I can't say how much we pay as a coporation, but suffice to say, it ain't cheap. Just throw in some wi-fi hardware and farm out your connection to the neighbors, we do.
Oh well, back to VB coding...because my boss thinks DOS batch programs are too complicated for people to figure out.
Slashdot Mirror
Those parts that are up to snuff (e.g. negligible hardening and change in NDT) should be refurbed/reused. Those that are not could be melted down, including a process to remove activated isotopes in the process, and re-used to create new parts!
While I'm by no means and engineer and my evidence is strictly anecdotal, I know of at least a few hundred bright people from that area (I hail from about 40 miles east) that headed to either coast in search of better/more abundant jobs.
More specifically, the Johnstown area, has suffered greatly from brain drain as there just isn't anything there (aside from family, which, thanks to technology, is much easier to keep in touch with these days) to keep young people from getting out at the first chance they get.
Believe me, I keep my eyes peeled, because it is such a nice area to live in with relatively low cost of living, but there just aren't as many opportunities these days as there were when our parents were entering the job market. I'd gladly move back there, and take up to a 10% pay cut, just to get away from the rat race and all the other crap associated with big market living.
No need to be pissed man, you shouldn't have been modded troll, but you're right, fanbois love that kinda slam. Was just trying to help you and any others that may have encountered similar problems.
.7 or 1.0 Alphas, didn't handle this as gracefully as they should have. But every thing I've used since 1.0 final has worked just fine, including restoring file associations.
1.)You're right, build's prior to
2.)Again, see my original comment, default browser has NOTHING to do with file associations. In a perfect world, they'd be inextricably tied, same with any type of file association/default program pair, unfortunately thay are not. And yes, I've been bitten by that bug too, was just telling you that one has nothing to do with the other as far as windows is concerned. As far as IE not asking you to set itself as default, sounds like you have another issue. I tried it on both my work and home machines, and it worked fine. As well as then starting up FF and having it reset itself as default. Not sure what the issue is there, but it sounds IE related, not FF.
3.)Agreed. Don't listen to the asshats man.
HTH
Ok, I just had to respond after looking at the beating you've taken in this thread for voicing your opinions. And to be totally honest, until I read your last post, I was about to join in on the bashing.
/. I've been a geek all my life. My first programming language was Commodore Basic on a C64 at the ripe old age of 5. I've always enjoyed it and picked all things computer related up at a very rapid pace. This caused great pains for me when going to college, as the ENTIRE curriculum was tied to attendance, for ALL classes (PSU Altoona if you're interested).
See, like most folks on
I was also very lucky in HS to have had excellent teachers in non CS related classes, that challenged me, leading to me being , IMHO, WAY over-prepared when I finally did get to college. The result being that I got the syllabi and for those classes I chose, would only show up to turn in work and take exams. This ended in me dropping my two programming courses fall semester of my freshman year and failing physics (I had 3 freaking years of it in high school and it started at 6:45 AM, 4 days a week!).
I vowed it wouldn't happen the next semester and tried to arrange in advance with all my professors in those subjects where I felt I had sufficient knowledge, to work out some sort of schedule that worked for both them and myself, but to no avail. Even though my calc prof agreed before hand, as well as my repeat physics professor (different one this time) to be more lenient on the attendance policy if I did well on exams, the university stepped in and failed me in both, regardless of the fact that I had a 4.0 in both classes.
Whew...long story. In any case, thanks for showing me that not all educators are this rigid and understand that sometimes people who ask to be taught something might really already know the subject, but just needs to prove to someone they know it for their degree/employer/whatever.
Check Program Access and Defaults(under Add/Remove software I believe) in Win2k/XP and you'll easily be able to set IE back to being your default. AFAIK, Firefox does EXACTLY what MS recommends as best practice for setting itself as your default browser. FYI, file associations have NOTHING to do with Program Access and Defaults.
In addition, I just verified in IE 5.5 and 6.0 that there's a checkbox under 'Tools\Internet Options\Programs' that will tell IE to check at startup whether or not it's the default and prompt you for the appropriate actions.
HTH
I've used the listview pretty extensively in both C# and VB and aside from update issues(flicker, etc.), or adding proper sorting (by columnheader click) I haven't had much of a problem. And both the issues I mention I was able to create code that handled any issues gracefully.
If you're more specific, and I can help in that area, I'd be more than willing to share.
Let me know: nylyst(at)gmail(dot)com
I just recently purchased a Motorola L7 SLVR and must say it is VERY nice. When I first saw the ROKR, I was very disappointed and hoped for something a little more eye pleasing and with a better UI. With the SLVR, I get the sleek elegant looks of Moto's top end phones, with all the usual whiz-bang tech (blue-tooth, quad-band world phone, usual apps) in addition to some killer extra features (microSD card slot, 512 MB microSD card, stereo headphone adapter, mini USB stereo headphones with built-in mic, USB data cable) AND a smattering of my music thrown in to boot.
I nearly cried the first time someone called while I was listeng to music and the playback paused, showed the caller ID info (can't wait until it can read it to you...) and I was able to take the call (also had the option of sending straight to VM) and once I hung up, playback resumed automatically right where it left off.
There's only one shortcoming as I see it. Lack of affordable blue-tooth capable stereo headphones. Motorola has a single pair for around 130 bucks. Considering I just dropped almost 300 on the phone and requisite accessories, that's a bit much to swallow. If third-parties get in on this and sales remain as brisk as they seem now (took me almost 3 weeks to get one and I had to snipe it by calling local stores every day to see what they got in their shipments) they could sell something similar for half the price and STILL make a killing.
If I were to point out some things I don't like about the phone, it's that I can't use any of my music as ringtones, nor are my ringtones played back via the headphones, it comes out of the phones speaker. Not horrible issues mind you, but little things that would make the integration of cellphone/mp3 player that much more palatable for J6P.
This is EXACTLY the problem my parents have been having since they got Vonage installed. They can hear everyone else fine, but they're dropping packets big time the other direction. I've had several calls completely drop out from my end (meaning I heard nothing but silence on my end, yet they could still hear me fine).
Interestingly enough, their ISP (Adelphia) is in the process of being switched over to Comcast and they've been getting the emails already about Comcasts digital phone service. I've spent several hours on the phone both with the ISP and with Vonage and still no luck. The cable company even came out and rewired the whole house and installed a bidrectionial amplifier to make sure the signal to the router was up to spec. Vonage keeps saying it's the ISP and the ISP keeps saying it's Vonage.
My plan is to head there this weekend with my CPE (seperate cablemodem, Vonage adapter and router) and try my stuff there. If it's the same effect, we'll know it's ISP and not Vonage, as I've never had problems with Vonage on Verizon DSL or Comcast cablemodem
HTH anyone else having issues.
nef
Reminds me of my favorite quote :
"I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use."
I'm not sure about this particular woman's case, but I know I am a Comcast subscriber and I OWN my equipment for that specific reason. Now, you could argue that because I connect with my equipment via their Head-end, that gives them the right, but (and this is a big but) I don't recall anywhere in the TOS/AUP that states they have the right to divulge my information (meaning the address where the equipment used for the alleged infringement is located) to anyone aside from a government/public agency going through the proper channels.
See here for more info. This is exactly what Howard was referring to, and he discussed it again this morning when he aired the interview again on his show.
Actually, they're chemical burns. Chemical burns are possible when living tissue is exposed to high concentrations of CO2. I forget the exact mechanism, but I know CO2 at high partial pressures exposed to water vapor forms carbonic acid. Which although a very weak (relatively speaking of course) acid, would be more than enough to cause the 'burns' seen in the areas surrounding the volcanic lakes in Cameroon. (Remember, the people showing these 'burns' were exposed overnight, so they could have been sweating as they were dying, which would explain the patchy or blotchy appearance of the burns)
This page has a bit more info on the 'phenomenon' surrounding exposure to the lethal gas clouds from the lakes in cameroon. Unfortunately, I can't find any of the pictures. If you ever watch the Discovery channel, they have a show regarding the lakes in Cameroon that shows extensive examples of what I'm talking about.
Killer Lakes
You can google for more
It's supposed to be that way. But the reality is much more harsh than what you'd think. If you want to go into any other field, you may as well not even tell them you were a nuke. Even if you interview with someone who knows what all that entails, they start to question why you didn't want to work in ionizing radiation.
Oh how I wish there were more people like you in hiring positions. I'm a self taught geek with half a CS degree, 6 years of Naval Nuke power experience and the best I can get job-wise is entry level/call center stuff.
That's just silly. A person who has a 1000 downloaded albums clearly loves music and would have VERY PROBABLY bought at least a few of them if that was the only way to get them. And when the users of P2P are calculated in millions, that amounts to a HUGE amount of albums, even if there are some who indeed wouldn't have bought any
Now that's just silly! I'm a music nut myself and have several thousand (read 3000+) albums in mp3/ogg format on my computer. I also had several thousand cd's and any album I owned, I ripped. Where the real rub comes in this whole brouhaha is that the average consumer feels that when they shell out their hard earned money for a CD/Tape/DVD/whatever they 'think' they're paying for the right to listen/watch that content at their leisure in their preferred arena/format.
What really happens is quite different. We only get the rights to the specific copy of the media we purchased. If it were up to the **AA, we couldn't even backup that one specific copy for protection of our investment. That's where "Fair Use" comes in and saves the day. It says if I payed for it, and I want a backup copy, or copy in another media (that part is still a bit flaky, and could use some bolstering legislation-wise) for a copyrighted work that I payed for, I can do so.
Now hears that rub I was telling you about. I have less than 10 albums that at some point in my life, I have not purchased on CD. Yet I physically own less than 3000+ albums. In the RIAA's eyes I'm already a pirate, even though I payed for all but a handful of the albums I now possess, I just own them in a different format. (And no, I didn't sell any of them. I may have given a few away, but most have deterioriated beyond playability and now are coasters.)
You don't see a difference between a degraded one-off versus hundreds of millions of 1:1 digital copies?
The problem is, not one mp3 EVER created is a 1:1 perfect digital copy. There is no way to argue this. The whole basis of an mp3 is that it uses psycho-acoustics to 'fill-in' the parts that are removed during clipping/compression of the 'perfect' copy.
320 kbps MP3's are completely acceptable, in my opinion.
I agree, it still doesn't mean it's a 'perfect' copy, which is the crux of the RIAA's argument. If it's legal to make mix tapes from cd's, it should then be legal to send your friends mp3's of songs from CD's you paid for.
Man I wish I had mod points...IIRC that was the 'New' Newlyweds and the question was "What was the strangest place you've ever made whoopee?"
Personally, All my prgrams keep a log and I just walk the use through the steps to get me the log. Usually email it to me. If the user has to do something else, and it's possible, I go to their desk and get it myself.
My programs do as well, but unfortunately, most of the errors that occur on our systems are with 3rd party 'vendor' supported software. Which really means, we support it, but without any documentation or knowledge of how it was designed.
As far as logs, yes, all the code I have running logs any errors to it's own log file, or in the case of an XP/2k system, it's written to the event log. While that helps greatly, we've found it's just not enough to keep up with errors that occur somewhere between the keyboard and chair. While that is condescending, 95/100 users encounter problems that way, by not following basic principles of computer operation, that folks like us would. In this case, it's actually made a huge impact on how our helpdesk is perceived and also in our response time, as it makes both us (the helpdesk) and our facility managers much more efficient.
As far as when errors occur in my apps, yes I do have it automatically snag a screenshot for any run-time errors that are not handled by my internal error handlers, and whenever possible add the exception handling necessary to acommodate and overcome such errors.
You did give away one thing that makes a huge difference in the support we provide our customers. You said you go to their desk...well sometimes the desk I'd have to go to is over 1500 miles away, and even with pcAnywhere, RDesktop or VNC, there are still some things that just can't be accounted for purely via the network.
That's exactly why I don't give them the choice to ignore errors, if at all possible. I work on a help desk for a decent size petrol company and write several pieces of software for use by end lusers of the corporate network (mostly marketing/sales type stuff).
Wherever there's a high rate of failure, or probability that an error message may occur, I make it mandatory to take a screenshot (using another utility I wrote) of the software that's running on screen, which gives them an ID# for that pic. If they don't have an ID# that passes the hash, they don't get a ticket logged, it's required when they try to log them via Web, or when they call and ask us to open the ticket.
"No ID#, sorry sir/ma'am, you'll have to get that error again, this time click on the camera icon down by the clock on your Desktop, and it will give you an ID#, call us back when you have that!"
Saves 200+ calls a day, and ensures you KNOW what the issue is before wasting any time just trying to reproduce the 'problem' which normally would only require round-filing an ID-10-T form.
FYI, liquid nitrogen is SIGNIFICANTLY below 30-50C.
Quick run in the head is somewhere from 86F to 122F. Not sure how hot the body temperature of your average mouse is though.
This guy got it right by asking what exactly they need cooled, and for what ends?
It all depends on how you use your bandwidth. If you're strictly a gamer, then...well, like you said, your without. If you just want the high speeds, there are variants of DSL (I recall iDSL or cDSL being superlong capable with metered speeds based on distance from CO) or even Satellite that may work for you. My parents are in a similar situation with Adelphia, due to the 'family' funding issues, where cable service was available on one side of the street for almost a year, but not on the other. They now have a 512/128 Satellite connection for 20 bucks a month. Typical lag is in the 300-400 range, but if you're not worried about realtime requirements, it's just fine. They browse the web, IM and send emails all at speeds at or near my 3.5MB/512KB on Comcast. Because lets face it, you never reach advertised speeds, if you could, they'd advertise a higher figure with the same real level of service, and charge more for it. There's also a new trend to setup direct microwave links between remote areas (where possible, LOS issues prevail) and sharing T1 and the like for 'home-grown' solutions. It's all about your pain (or more often cash) threshold. If you have the money and patience, anything is possible. HTH.
GhostZilla is your friend. I also recommend a secure anonymous proxy (your own, or a hosted one) to prevent your boss from sniffing what you're surfing.
LHA wasn't the only out there compression standard I picked up, and still have, in my BBS days.
Here's a quick dir *.exe on E:\compression :11/11/1998 12:47 PM 203,781 ace2.exe
11/22/1998 08:44 PM 185,344 ACE32.EXE
03/13/1989 10:30 AM 65,339 ARC.EXE
10/03/1999 08:38 AM 138,538 arc602.exe
07/20/1993 03:48 PM 115,808 ARJ.EXE
07/22/1993 12:08 AM 223,856 arj241a.exe
10/03/1999 08:38 AM 351,938 arj260x.exe
08/19/1993 09:53 AM 39,910 GZIP.EXE
08/19/1993 09:52 AM 121,868 GZIP386.EXE
09/26/2002 12:20 PM 1,112,356 Jzip - setup.exe
11/24/1992 02:55 AM 35,924 LHA.EXE
11/24/1992 05:55 AM 70,656 lha255b.exe
11/24/1992 02:55 AM 35,762 LHA_E.EXE
03/06/1989 01:14 PM 18,831 MKSARC.EXE
02/01/1993 02:04 AM 29,378 PKUNZIP.EXE
02/01/1993 02:04 AM 42,166 PKZIP.EXE
02/01/1993 02:04 AM 7,687 PKZIPFIX.EXE
05/08/1996 01:21 AM 102,989 RAR.EXE
10/03/1999 08:38 AM 267,248 rar200.exe
04/21/1996 03:07 PM 18,574 RCVT.EXE
07/20/1993 03:48 PM 36,214 REARJ.EXE
07/20/1993 03:48 PM 9,998 REGISTER.EXE
04/20/1996 12:53 PM 31,906 UnRAR.exe
08/19/2002 05:41 AM 1,803,848 winzip81.exe
02/01/1993 02:04 AM 27,319 ZIP2EXE.EXE
10/03/1999 08:38 AM 55,721 zoo210.exe
26 File(s) 5,152,959 bytes
0 Dir(s) 80,748,052,480 bytes free
I'm pretty sure that somewhere I have an old copy of ICE Unpacker from my Doom .wad hacking which had it's own proprietary .ice format as well.
I'd bet your an artifact/land geek and may have even had mox/sliver decks at one point.
God I wish I had kept those damn cards!!!See here for my response.
Well..., I take that back. I still have to keep an 8/mo land line for those few times when Comcast drops out due to storm/wreck. If it weren't for that, I could be sure something like cingular's plugin adapter would work with a cellphone, I'd be completely free of Verizon too. I'd just go for the T1 and be my own ISP. Some DSL PTP modems and a few customers, and I could come close to breaking even!
Now about the Satellite thing. Lemme just say this, you COULD do it. But don't expect it to be anywhere near as cheap as cable/DSL. And high latency would kill any gaming and all but rule out Vonage. From what little time I've had with my Motorola Hybrid VoIP box, it doesn't seem to like high latency. For example, just the other night I was on the phone with my brother and talking about a logo we're working on in PSP for his new business. As I send the 8 MB I can audibly hear the delay and subsequen crosstalk. Once the graphic was complete it was fine. I'm sure they'd be able to crank the quality down and use sufficient error correction to all but eliminate this on satellite, but don't even think about Full-duplex conversations.
BTW, if you're still interested in satellite, try googling for SpaceNet. They have some pretty decent pro-sumer, medium sized business solutions. I can't say how much we pay as a coporation, but suffice to say, it ain't cheap. Just throw in some wi-fi hardware and farm out your connection to the neighbors, we do.
Oh well, back to VB coding...because my boss thinks DOS batch programs are too complicated for people to figure out.