I own 3 firearms, all unlicensed, all perfectly legal. Two are rifles and 1 is 44 Magnum pistol. Had to go through the waiting period for the pistol, however.
"... I generally view training and education as worthless most times..." "Am I the only one?"
No, you're not. At college, each course I took could could have been done in a month (expect advanced chem and possibly Calculus). In fact, if you count the time I actually spent studying and when I was not sleeping in class, each course probably did take a month or less. Way back in the '80s, Engineering freshmen at my college were required to take FORTRAN. I didn't know it and didn't want to. So I spent a long afternoon studying a book, and tested out of it (the test was made to show ComSci familarity in the context of FORTRAN, so it was easy).
The pace of most undergrad courses is so *excruciatingly* slow, I never could stick to it, so I haven't finished yet! That means I may be missing out on being "well-rounded" or some job oppurtunities, but I get by. I'm seriously looking into Phoenix or other remote teaching avenues that allow one's own pace.
My most successful studies have always been purely self-motivated. Getting MCP and CCNA certs was a matter of wanting to, getting the book(s), studying the books, plopping down the money and passing the exam.
I have also been "promoted" to a group leader position. I don't lead very well. I don't want to lead. If the other coders in my group can't turn out their code, I don't want'm around! And I NEVER want to attend another IDIOTIC COACHING seminar again!
OK, I think we'll all agree that the vast majority of servers that've been exploited and abused for a long period are in the hands of luser admins. Savvy admins get burned all too aften as well, but they usually catch it and patch their systems before too much time has elapsed.
Think about it... how many SMTP open relays are still running that have been spew points for years? How many Code Red hosts *still* probe your hosts, after all the hype and months gone by? How many hosts can you find that are listening on port 12378 (Gibe worm/trojan)?
The "admins" of these systems have *no clue* what's going on and LARTs fall on deaf ears at their luser ISPs!
So. My proposal is this: Include disabling timeouts on *all* net connected ware, enabled by default. Put a nice, little checkbox in an unassuming corner of a/the install screen (or a line in a conf file somewhere) that allows this "feature" to be disabled.
I figure all savvy admins will turn the feature off. Some of the luser admins will turn the feature off. A majority of the lusers won't even know it's there, and won't disable it. To bad for them, but they'll have a cluestick swingin' their way in a year or so.
I still don't think it'll fly (no one's going to build this feature in), but the above is my spin on how it might be made to work, after a fashion.
Wow, thought recognition would have its own difficulties. You know how with speech recog, you [usually] need to set a noise threshold? You know, the sound level beneath which the system ignores it? We'd really need some good "noise threshold" algorithms for thought recognition. Imagine your technician so equipped...
T: Hi, thanks for call WidgetSoft
J: I've got the Blue Screen of Death
T: Account # please
J: 1234
T: (to computer) _Com [who's this luser?] puter [Woo! hot bitc...], please pull [I wonder if she...] up account [shit, almost breakt...] number [I gotta piss, bad] 1234_
C: ???
J: I'm waiting...
T: Sorry, my computer's confused, it's picking up subvocalizations at the neo-cortex level again. Please call back after I recalibrate the "noise level"
J: ???
-
Re:Hello! It's the same historically as a mail cov
on
Carnivore Update
·
· Score: 1
Yep. Yesterday on NPR they were talking about that. The freaky thing about mail covers is that they don't need a warrant to do them. Let's say your cousin was on the lam, wanted by the fuzz. The feds tell the post office to put a mail cover on *you*, just in case your errant relative sends you a letter from Tahiti. My understanding is that it's all pretty automatic these days. Both sides of all your incoming and outgoing mail get scanned, stored and forwarded to the interested part. The folks interviewed on NPR are trying to get the USPS and/or others to reveal just how often mail covers are being used, but so far the info is sketchy.
Yup. I said yesterday, their site was hosted by Verio, and their IP address was 198.63.57.204.
Today some people get the IP address as 130.94.214.143, which belongs to Microsoft. At my location, DNS still resolves it to 198.63.57.204.
Try this in your browser for fun:
http://130.94.214.143
and then
http://198.63.57.204
Ain't it neat? Both hosts are up and the name servers haven't all caught up with late yesterday's switchy-changy!
Re:You've completely missed the point....
on
April Fools Wrap Up
·
· Score: 1
I tried it too. Looks like their index is small, compared to Google's. However, their "exact phrase" checkbox actually causes it to search for the exact phrase (unlike google, altavista, et al)!! That is unlike google, altavista, et al. The other search engines insist on providing hits that have the word order of your "exact phrase" mixed up.
Good, lord! I didn't expect the moderators to actually do it!
For future reference, Karma whoring is easiest on April 1. No, don't even think about it; my last statement was NOT informative!
Hmm, what are the chances I'll be severely down-modded tomorrow?
-
Re:A REAL, TRUE story - M$ anti-unix site runs BSD
on
CPAN Shifts Focus
·
· Score: 1
Yeah, and it's kinda sad...
It's fairly obvious (I think) what's happened there. Did you notice from the Netcraft report that the IP address is in Verio's netblock? Looks like they farmed it out to Verio for hosting and Verio uses Apache and FreeBSD.
Choosing Verio to host was probably a Bean-Counter-savvy move, but not techno-marketing-savvy. -
I've recently built 3 systems with Duron 950's... In each instance, there were stability problems. Lockups before, during, after POST. The motherboards were Abit KT7E's.
The solution was:
1) let it set with power off for a few minutes
2) power it up, start tapping the DEL key (for CMOS setup) immediately
3) In CMOS setup, go to SoftMenuIII (quickly, now!)
4) select User Settings for CPU core voltage
5) Increase core voltage by 0.1VDC or slight more
6) Save and Exit
I had to attempt the above several times before I was able to complete it. In the end, increasing the core voltage did the trick for all 3 systems. Since you've got a 550 working in the same MoBo, you may be able to tweak the core volts up before swapping CPU's. But be *careful* that you don't exceed the max core volts for the poor 550!
BTW, I got this suggestion from "Paul's Unofficial Motherboard FAQ"
Read up on the cancer research at United Devices [www.ud.com] or the Chemistry dept at Oxford University [www.chem.ox.ac.uk] who is running said research. It is being funded by donations and any breakthrough treatments that might arise from the research will likely be licensed to the pharmaceutical firms by Oxford, just like happens with any other successful university research.
One of the objectives of this approach to bio research is to *reduce* its cost. Reduced research cost should equate to reduced treatment costs. I don't think it's unreasonable for people/orgs to make money on this sort of thing, as long as it's not usary and the work is productive and benefits human-kind. I think the Intel/UD/Oxford project(s) will be just that.
I'm pretty sure you've encountered the "IS" mentality before, where what they say goes in regard to eqipment purchases. I know I've had my battles as well.
OTOH, especially in large organizations, it makes good productivity sense to have a single department be responsible for computer equipment, etc. Then they will choose the brands/warrantees/support that work best for _them_. While you and I may be perfectly capable of handling our own hardware/software issues, there are many others, in your organization and in mine, that aren't (though maybe they think they are) capable. "IS" can't afford to allow them to muck up the works, hence the strict "that's up to the IS/IT department" rules. In those cases, it makes sense to buy a "reputable" brand, probably *with* a support package, even if it does cost more. And, yes, no one will get fired for buying Dell/IBM/HP/etc.
-
All gov boxes should be connected to this...
on
Science Grid Genesis
·
· Score: 1
To be really effective, all existing and future US government computers oughta be networked to this or a similar system. I think it would be a real boon:
1) could reduce the future (taxpayer) costs for "supercomputer grade" applications.
2) could be applied to help solve socio-economic problems in addition to the 'hard' sciences
3) would get "bang for the taxpayer's buck" by utilizing the idle horsepower of publicly purchased computers
I do think, however, they should employ a commercially available distributed computing platform, such as that from www.ud.com I don't feel that tax dollars need be spent on duplicate research in that area.
The term you're looking for here is "On-line UPS". There are two basic varieties of UPS, switched and on-line. Both share the following common features: The AC (mains) power coming into the UPS is rectified (converted to DC, usually in the range of 24 to 48 VDC). The DC is used to charge the batteries which are the source for backup power when the mains fails. AC backup power is supplied to your equipment by an invertor (DC to AC convertor) in the UPS which takes the battery's DC juice and "builds" a 50 or 60 Hz AC sine or pseudo sine wave at the right voltage.
Switched UPS: When the AC mains is OK, your equipment is being powered by it. When the mains fails, the UPS literally switches to backup power from the invertor. This switching takes a measureable amount of time to complete and relies on your equipment's electronics to ride-through the loss of power until the switch to invertor power is complete. Advantage? Switched UPS's are generally less expensive.
Online UPS: Regardless of whether the mains power is OK or not, the UPS's invertor is already on and already supplying your equipment. When the AC mains does fail (momentary loss, glitch, blackout or brownout), it takes zero time to switch to UPS power, because your equipment was already on UPS power! Advantages? (1) Zero switching time, (2) the online UPS will feed a constant, glitch-free sine wave to your equipment at the right frequency, the right RMS voltage all the time .
Yes, the HDDs do have mag shielding... mostly it's just that inverse square of the distance thang, but it's also the mag shielding effects of strategically placed metals.
FWIW, the strongest magnets in your entire PC are in the HDD, an inch or less away from the platters themselves. Take apart an old hard drive, remove the rare earth magnets from the head servo. Play with them, then you'll know what I mean.
I wouldn't worry about the feeble little magnets in a cooling fan near an HDD at all.
Well, they could place the 160 mm DIMM slots diagonally in order to shrink the MoBo, but that would require thinking outside the box.
SO-DIMMs are almost universally the choice for PC/104 and PC/104 Plus SBCs. My main frustration with PC/104 SBCs is finding any that run over about 266 MHz.
I hear you. I think it is a technology that is *here* and *now*. It just needs to be put together and organized. I should have thought of the UN, they are almost certainly the organisation to get it done.
Not meaning to be too picky, but Nomadics is at nomadics.com, not nomadic.com. I'm really impressed that they've been able to make portable, sensitive explosives sniffers. It and it's like may be the missing link to clearing leftover landmines that cause harm to innocents every day.
I trash the CD's, but I miss the days when they were mailing out floppies! Back then I used floppies (and sneaker-net) a great deal and I *loved* AOL; never used their service, just their floppies.
I guess I stopped *using* AOL went their bloatware started shipping on CDs.
Incidently, they made a really smart business move when they started out; they capitalized the cost of all those mailouts. Years later, the IRS said, "Hey, you can't do that!" And AOL said, "Oh, sorry. We'll pay up (now that we've gotten established and have money!)"
Hmm, couple your idea of GPS equipped robots with the landmine detector(s) from nomadics.com, and we might well have something there.
The only problem is the high cost; both for the landmine detectors & the robotics and the personel and the tracking/database software. I'll bet only the US military would be will to pay for it, then only when US personel might be at risk.
'cept for all that, it sounds like a really neat idea.
Slashdot Mirror
"A code in the chip identifies each individual glass and could be used to signal..."
...the bartender when to cut me off!
Doh!
-
Bzzzt!
I own 3 firearms, all unlicensed, all perfectly legal. Two are rifles and 1 is 44 Magnum pistol. Had to go through the waiting period for the pistol, however.
-
"... I generally view training and education as worthless most times..."
"Am I the only one?"
No, you're not. At college, each course I took could could have been done in a month (expect advanced chem and possibly Calculus). In fact, if you count the time I actually spent studying and when I was not sleeping in class, each course probably did take a month or less. Way back in the '80s, Engineering freshmen at my college were required to take FORTRAN. I didn't know it and didn't want to. So I spent a long afternoon studying a book, and tested out of it (the test was made to show ComSci familarity in the context of FORTRAN, so it was easy).
The pace of most undergrad courses is so *excruciatingly* slow, I never could stick to it, so I haven't finished yet! That means I may be missing out on being "well-rounded" or some job oppurtunities, but I get by. I'm seriously looking into Phoenix or other remote teaching avenues that allow one's own pace.
My most successful studies have always been purely self-motivated. Getting MCP and CCNA certs was a matter of wanting to, getting the book(s), studying the books, plopping down the money and passing the exam.
I have also been "promoted" to a group leader position. I don't lead very well. I don't want to lead. If the other coders in my group can't turn out their code, I don't want'm around! And I NEVER want to attend another IDIOTIC COACHING seminar again!
Whewww!
-
OK, I think we'll all agree that the vast majority of servers that've been exploited and abused for a long period are in the hands of luser admins. Savvy admins get burned all too aften as well, but they usually catch it and patch their systems before too much time has elapsed.
Think about it... how many SMTP open relays are still running that have been spew points for years? How many Code Red hosts *still* probe your hosts, after all the hype and months gone by? How many hosts can you find that are listening on port 12378 (Gibe worm/trojan)?
The "admins" of these systems have *no clue* what's going on and LARTs fall on deaf ears at their luser ISPs!
So. My proposal is this: Include disabling timeouts on *all* net connected ware, enabled by default. Put a nice, little checkbox in an unassuming corner of a/the install screen (or a line in a conf file somewhere) that allows this "feature" to be disabled.
I figure all savvy admins will turn the feature off. Some of the luser admins will turn the feature off. A majority of the lusers won't even know it's there, and won't disable it. To bad for them, but they'll have a cluestick swingin' their way in a year or so.
I still don't think it'll fly (no one's going to build this feature in), but the above is my spin on how it might be made to work, after a fashion.
-
Wow, thought recognition would have its own difficulties. You know how with speech recog, you [usually] need to set a noise threshold? You know, the sound level beneath which the system ignores it? We'd really need some good "noise threshold" algorithms for thought recognition. Imagine your technician so equipped...
T: Hi, thanks for call WidgetSoft
J: I've got the Blue Screen of Death
T: Account # please
J: 1234
T: (to computer) _Com [who's this luser?] puter [Woo! hot bitc...], please pull [I wonder if she...] up account [shit, almost breakt...] number [I gotta piss, bad] 1234_
C: ???
J: I'm waiting...
T: Sorry, my computer's confused, it's picking up subvocalizations at the neo-cortex level again. Please call back after I recalibrate the "noise level"
J: ???
-
Yep. Yesterday on NPR they were talking about that. The freaky thing about mail covers is that they don't need a warrant to do them. Let's say your cousin was on the lam, wanted by the fuzz. The feds tell the post office to put a mail cover on *you*, just in case your errant relative sends you a letter from Tahiti. My understanding is that it's all pretty automatic these days. Both sides of all your incoming and outgoing mail get scanned, stored and forwarded to the interested part. The folks interviewed on NPR are trying to get the USPS and/or others to reveal just how often mail covers are being used, but so far the info is sketchy.
-
To quote myself... "IP address as 130.94.214.143, which belongs to Microsoft."
Oops, a little check with ARIN shows that the new addy also belongs to Verio. Different server farm, I reckon. Sorry about the confusion.
-
"... they probably just moved the domain..."
Yup. I said yesterday, their site was hosted by Verio, and their IP address was 198.63.57.204.
Today some people get the IP address as 130.94.214.143, which belongs to Microsoft. At my location, DNS still resolves it to 198.63.57.204.
Try this in your browser for fun:
http://130.94.214.143
and then
http://198.63.57.204
Ain't it neat? Both hosts are up and the name servers haven't all caught up with late yesterday's switchy-changy!
I tried it too. Looks like their index is small, compared to Google's. However, their "exact phrase" checkbox actually causes it to search for the exact phrase (unlike google, altavista, et al)!! That is unlike google, altavista, et al. The other search engines insist on providing hits that have the word order of your "exact phrase" mixed up.
I likes it.
-
Good, lord! I didn't expect the moderators to actually do it!
For future reference, Karma whoring is easiest on April 1. No, don't even think about it; my last statement was NOT informative!
Hmm, what are the chances I'll be severely down-modded tomorrow?
-
Yeah, and it's kinda sad...
It's fairly obvious (I think) what's happened there. Did you notice from the Netcraft report that the IP address is in Verio's netblock? Looks like they farmed it out to Verio for hosting and Verio uses Apache and FreeBSD.
Choosing Verio to host was probably a Bean-Counter-savvy move, but not techno-marketing-savvy.
-
I think the moderators are April fooling around also.
While yer fiddlin' n foolin', mod my post +1 Insightful! [or not]
-
I've recently built 3 systems with Duron 950's... In each instance, there were stability problems. Lockups before, during, after POST. The motherboards were Abit KT7E's.
The solution was:
1) let it set with power off for a few minutes
2) power it up, start tapping the DEL key (for CMOS setup) immediately
3) In CMOS setup, go to SoftMenuIII (quickly, now!)
4) select User Settings for CPU core voltage
5) Increase core voltage by 0.1VDC or slight more
6) Save and Exit
I had to attempt the above several times before I was able to complete it. In the end, increasing the core voltage did the trick for all 3 systems. Since you've got a 550 working in the same MoBo, you may be able to tweak the core volts up before swapping CPU's. But be *careful* that you don't exceed the max core volts for the poor 550!
BTW, I got this suggestion from "Paul's Unofficial Motherboard FAQ"
-
Read up on the cancer research at United Devices [www.ud.com] or the Chemistry dept at Oxford University [www.chem.ox.ac.uk] who is running said research. It is being funded by donations and any breakthrough treatments that might arise from the research will likely be licensed to the pharmaceutical firms by Oxford, just like happens with any other successful university research.
One of the objectives of this approach to bio research is to *reduce* its cost. Reduced research cost should equate to reduced treatment costs. I don't think it's unreasonable for people/orgs to make money on this sort of thing, as long as it's not usary and the work is productive and benefits human-kind. I think the Intel/UD/Oxford project(s) will be just that.
I'm pretty sure you've encountered the "IS" mentality before, where what they say goes in regard to eqipment purchases. I know I've had my battles as well.
OTOH, especially in large organizations, it makes good productivity sense to have a single department be responsible for computer equipment, etc. Then they will choose the brands/warrantees/support that work best for _them_. While you and I may be perfectly capable of handling our own hardware/software issues, there are many others, in your organization and in mine, that aren't (though maybe they think they are) capable. "IS" can't afford to allow them to muck up the works, hence the strict "that's up to the IS/IT department" rules. In those cases, it makes sense to buy a "reputable" brand, probably *with* a support package, even if it does cost more. And, yes, no one will get fired for buying Dell/IBM/HP/etc.
-
To be really effective, all existing and future US government computers oughta be networked to this or a similar system. I think it would be a real boon:
1) could reduce the future (taxpayer) costs for "supercomputer grade" applications.
2) could be applied to help solve socio-economic problems in addition to the 'hard' sciences
3) would get "bang for the taxpayer's buck" by utilizing the idle horsepower of publicly purchased computers
I do think, however, they should employ a commercially available distributed computing platform, such as that from www.ud.com
I don't feel that tax dollars need be spent on duplicate research in that area.
-
Search on the Gnutella network on the keywords "scientology" and "exposed" for some *very* interesting documents that were seen there!
-
"First, are you sure your UPS is a *TRUE* UPS?"
The term you're looking for here is "On-line UPS". There are two basic varieties of UPS, switched and on-line. Both share the following common features: The AC (mains) power coming into the UPS is rectified (converted to DC, usually in the range of 24 to 48 VDC). The DC is used to charge the batteries which are the source for backup power when the mains fails. AC backup power is supplied to your equipment by an invertor (DC to AC convertor) in the UPS which takes the battery's DC juice and "builds" a 50 or 60 Hz AC sine or pseudo sine wave at the right voltage.
Switched UPS: When the AC mains is OK, your equipment is being powered by it. When the mains fails, the UPS literally switches to backup power from the invertor. This switching takes a measureable amount of time to complete and relies on your equipment's electronics to ride-through the loss of power until the switch to invertor power is complete. Advantage? Switched UPS's are generally less expensive.
Online UPS: Regardless of whether the mains power is OK or not, the UPS's invertor is already on and already supplying your equipment. When the AC mains does fail (momentary loss, glitch, blackout or brownout), it takes zero time to switch to UPS power, because your equipment was already on UPS power! Advantages? (1) Zero switching time, (2) the online UPS will feed a constant, glitch-free sine wave to your equipment at the right frequency, the right RMS voltage all the time .
-
Yes, the HDDs do have mag shielding... mostly it's just that inverse square of the distance thang, but it's also the mag shielding effects of strategically placed metals.
FWIW, the strongest magnets in your entire PC are in the HDD, an inch or less away from the platters themselves. Take apart an old hard drive, remove the rare earth magnets from the head servo. Play with them, then you'll know what I mean.
I wouldn't worry about the feeble little magnets in a cooling fan near an HDD at all.
-
You're talking about DirecTV's H (and Hu) cards for their DBS system.
To my knowledge, DTV, NDS and Canal all use similar but different methods/cards in their systems.
Well, let's see...
Ahh, you mean slashdot.jp?
Which happens to be registered to VA Linux Systems Japan, whereas slashdot.org is registered to OSDN, who happens to own VA Linux Systems Japan?
You mean that link? You mean Slashdot Japan?
How ridiculous is that?
Well, they could place the 160 mm DIMM slots diagonally in order to shrink the MoBo, but that would require thinking outside the box.
SO-DIMMs are almost universally the choice for PC/104 and PC/104 Plus SBCs. My main frustration with PC/104 SBCs is finding any that run over about 266 MHz.
I hear you. I think it is a technology that is *here* and *now*. It just needs to be put together and organized. I should have thought of the UN, they are almost certainly the organisation to get it done.
Not meaning to be too picky, but Nomadics is at nomadics.com, not nomadic.com. I'm really impressed that they've been able to make portable, sensitive explosives sniffers. It and it's like may be the missing link to clearing leftover landmines that cause harm to innocents every day.
I trash the CD's, but I miss the days when they were mailing out floppies! Back then I used floppies (and sneaker-net) a great deal and I *loved* AOL; never used their service, just their floppies.
I guess I stopped *using* AOL went their bloatware started shipping on CDs.
Incidently, they made a really smart business move when they started out; they capitalized the cost of all those mailouts. Years later, the IRS said, "Hey, you can't do that!" And AOL said, "Oh, sorry. We'll pay up (now that we've gotten established and have money!)"
Hmm, couple your idea of GPS equipped robots with the landmine detector(s) from nomadics.com, and we might well have something there.
The only problem is the high cost; both for the landmine detectors & the robotics and the personel and the tracking/database software. I'll bet only the US military would be will to pay for it, then only when US personel might be at risk.
'cept for all that, it sounds like a really neat idea.
.