At least you HAVE a subway system. The closest thing to that that we have is a line running from the Minneapolis/St. Paul Internation Airport to the Mall of America, and that's not even completed yet. (It's also completely useless for all the rest of us.) The busing system (Metro Transit) is decent, but a far cry from any environmentally friendly excuse for a transit system. (I see an awful lot of buses running with only one or two passengers. That said, I don't go to downtown much.) The electric busing system they have in San Francisco would be a great thing to see, although it would probably be ending up run by coal power.:/
Well, hey, here's a solution: send power over the air to the phones. Sure, then there might be, err, static electricity everywhere and, err, there might be some validity to cell phones toasting brains, but, y'know, no more battery problem! Hell, most people don't have that much intelligent brain to begin with, so what's the big deal?
"Note: Unfortunately, it seems that Starpower, my internet service provider, is having difficult serving pdf files to some users. I suggest that you click the right button on your mouse when pointing to a link below, select "Save Target As" or "Save Link As", save the file to your disk, and then open the file up from your disk for viewing or printing. I regret the inconvience to you!"
Yes, it's the ISP's fault your browser doesn't correctly handle MIME types. From what I see, it's one of two things:
That's probably because most of those Mexican workers are child labourers, and nobody wants to think their, uh, stuff was made by child labourers...even though most of it is.
I've never, EVER gotten ANY fabricated virus alerts from Trend Micro. Ever. All their pattern files are usually updated within 12 hours of a virus alert. They don't force you to purchase new versions every year -- you can continue to update pattern files on your old copy of PC-cillin 98 even today, albeit the program isn't as advanced as PC-cillin 2002. And it's cheap! It's only $40 for unlimited pattern and program updates, and only $20 to upgrade from ANY old version. I'm surprised more people don't use it...but then again, I'm really not, since the only computer I've ever had it bundled with (granted, there are only two computers I've ever purchased and not built) was Alienware, and that was back when they were still an infant company. (I'm not sure if they still bundle PC-cillin or not.) In any case, call this a shameless plug, but for all intents and purposes, PC-cillin is the superior virus scanner. (It also includes POP3 scanning, so even those running Microsoft Outlook are safe from all but the bleeding-edge virii.)
About a really, really, really really really old technology that I read about in one of those stupid Junior Scholastic magazines when I was in fourth grade (or so, which was about 7 years ago)...didn't IBM make some technology that was the size of a quarter that could store, like, a terabyte of data? I could be completely off here, but I vaguely remember that.
Of course, after looking in the attic and seeing the old 200MB hard drive for my (now disassembled) 386 I realized that it could have just been the newer generation of hard drives.
Unfortunate as this is, I have noticed on numerous occasions the Mozilla process growing and growing and growing in size. Where's the memory cleanup? When you shut the program down, of course. But if you're like me, and have Quick Launch enabled, Mozilla doesn't get shut down very often, and this leave a rather large (128MB+) hole in my memory. I think something can be done to reduce the amount of memory Mozilla uses, like wipes at regular intervals...but there's not. As long as I'm responding, I was rather discouraged by the lack of several features I was hoping would show up by 1.0, including the ability to have all new windows open as tabs (I'm not talking using the MMB to click on links, I'm talking about anything that opens a window, period.) Also, though certainly not the development team's fault, WMP still has some major compatibility issues (namely, not working a lot of the time). Finally, there are some sites that, for whatever reason, just don't load in Mozilla. The sites probably just need a good old-fashioned webvangelism, but I would at least hope that there would be a "bug workarounds" section in the Preferences for things like this. And don't give me that "It'll be in the 1.0.1 branch" crap. 1.0 is supposed to be a well-rounded release, and, while it is excellent (and is better than any other browser out there, mind you) it still falls short of my expectations (especially after the years and years and years of slaving over it).
This variant of D-VHS, D-Theater, includes an encrpytion, to stop the pre-recorded movies from being copied (much like CSS was supposed to do with DVD's). That is the only restriction that this format has, which is a welcome change from all the other attempts to control HD content.
Err, yeah...except that in Europe you have PAL, in North American and Japan you have NTSC, and in Australasia (I believe) you have SECAM. Not to mention those HDTVs have their own nifty copy-protection pieces.
...for something to be idiotproof! Really, a system that has millions of lives in its very, err, algorithms should be made so impossible to mess up that it's tedious to do simple things. Sure, there'd be a lot more disgruntled air traffic controllers, but hey, that's what insane asylums are for, right? And, with the idiotproofness of the system, they couldn't tell a plane to go ram itself into the ground. Well, not without going even more insane and just mashing the console 'till it breaks. Now THAT'S what they need: consoles made out of inch-thick lead and bulletproof glass. It might be heavy, but at least the disgruntled controllers couldn't break it...now, err, what was I saying?...
As a jobless highschool sophomore, I must ask
on
Amazon.Heartbreak
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· Score: 1
IS it possible to find an enjoyable job that's profitable (to the extent one would consider "successful")? Myself, I love artsy stuff. You know, painting, literature, music. I know, or at least I've been told (most likely from corporate propaganda spreaders) that artists have really unsuccessful, poor, unhappy lives. Despite the fact that most of you are geeks, I would hope that many of you have had real-world experience and probably have some knowledge about this. Is the myth true? Do (real) artists live miserable lives? Is it possible to be happy with a job in IT?
I like lists, so let me put my questions in list form. I just hope (someone) will give this thread enough attention to respond.
- Is it possible to have a six-figure income and be happy doing what you do almost all the time? (Upper-management positions don't apply. I'm not a greedy scumbag, I wouldn't want that life.) - Do most artists live miserable, economically (or otherwise) failing lives? - Is it possible to be happy with a job in IT? (Yeah, well, you know, the stories!)
Pardon my bad, err, everything, I'm a bit tired. (Finals can really wipe you out.)
Re:Moving production to Asia?
on
IBM Spins Down
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· Score: 1
So, I wouldn't worry too much about it - with the speed that our economy is changing, we won't even notice the flux of 24,000 jobs.
Tell that to all those Enron employees, or all those Fingerhut employees -- I bet they'd sing a different tune. Still, I agree with you on all other aspects. I mean, hey, what a perfect euphanism: Deep Blue going over the Deep Blue.
Listening to that on one of those teenie Mac speakers, of COURSE it's not going to sound any different.;) While I can't entirely vouch for the quality of AAC, from what I've heard, it's really fitting to be alongside MPEG-4 video -- MPEG-4 video was designed for Internet viewing, and IIRC, AAC was designed for the same purpose.
Really, it comes down to this:
In the beginning, there was MPEG-1 and MPEG-1 Layer 1,2,3 audio. Big deal, koz they were all more-or-less firsts in semi-quality video compression. Then came (in no particular order) MPEG-2 and MPEG-4. MPEG-2 was a format designed for DVDs and other high-resolution media, and AC3, its companion, designed for high-quality audio. MPEG-4 was designed for Internet viewing, and, as I said, AAC was (is) its companion.
That said, there is a lot of crossing over within the formats. Personally, I encode DivX video with MPEG-1 Layer 3 audio (VBR, which is against the AVI standard, bad me, but oh well).
I don't mean to get off on a rant here, but the largest problem I see with MP3 is that people aren't using VBR. It's an EXCELLENT thing: take bits from places where they aren't needed and put them where more bandwidth is needed. You can have a "CD-quality" MP3 file using VBR -- at lower filesizes -- that you would need 320Kbps CBR to achieve. Well, that, and people are still using Xing. stopit! Use LAME + EAC to rip and encode your CDs. Honestly.
And now, the obligatory plug. For more information on MP3 encoding, visit r3mix.net. Of course, these are facts, not opinions; I couldn't be wrong.
And don't forget to purchase Priesthood 4.2, a great accessory to Vatican 2.0. Priesthood 4.2 offers great new features, including Child Molester 1.5, Priest Relocation 2.0 and the all new Condemned 1.0! (Condemned may cause massive hierarchal failure. This may be caused by outdated versions of Pope.)
Offer it in multiple different formats. Some Monkey's Audio for a lossless copy, some VBR MP3 encoded with LAME using the --r3mix tag, some Shorten lossless audio for those that prefer it, some OGG Vorbis for those that prefer the ultimate in open-source audio, and perhaps an AIFF. Makes sense to me.
This move has got to be high up on the idiot-o-meter. Now the pedophiles know exactly where to look -- and with the façade of safety, parents will let their guard down.
Except that this doesn't really work. I received a telemarketing call on my cell -- when it was off -- but it still left a message (it was an automated thing). Needless to say, I was pretty pissed off -- that shit costs me money!
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At least you HAVE a subway system. The closest thing to that that we have is a line running from the Minneapolis/St. Paul Internation Airport to the Mall of America, and that's not even completed yet. (It's also completely useless for all the rest of us.) The busing system (Metro Transit) is decent, but a far cry from any environmentally friendly excuse for a transit system. (I see an awful lot of buses running with only one or two passengers. That said, I don't go to downtown much.) The electric busing system they have in San Francisco would be a great thing to see, although it would probably be ending up run by coal power. :/
"I've sold monorails to Brockway, Augdenville, and North Haverbrook and by gum it put them on the map!"
Well, hey, here's a solution: send power over the air to the phones. Sure, then there might be, err, static electricity everywhere and, err, there might be some validity to cell phones toasting brains, but, y'know, no more battery problem! Hell, most people don't have that much intelligent brain to begin with, so what's the big deal?
"Note: Unfortunately, it seems that Starpower, my internet service provider, is having difficult serving pdf files to some users. I suggest that you click the right button on your mouse when pointing to a link below, select "Save Target As" or "Save Link As", save the file to your disk, and then open the file up from your disk for viewing or printing. I regret the inconvience to you!"
Yes, it's the ISP's fault your browser doesn't correctly handle MIME types. From what I see, it's one of two things:
People running IE
A poorly designed website
I'd put my money on either of those.
That's probably because most of those Mexican workers are child labourers, and nobody wants to think their, uh, stuff was made by child labourers...even though most of it is.
"Ignorance is Bliss."
I've never, EVER gotten ANY fabricated virus alerts from Trend Micro. Ever. All their pattern files are usually updated within 12 hours of a virus alert. They don't force you to purchase new versions every year -- you can continue to update pattern files on your old copy of PC-cillin 98 even today, albeit the program isn't as advanced as PC-cillin 2002. And it's cheap! It's only $40 for unlimited pattern and program updates, and only $20 to upgrade from ANY old version. I'm surprised more people don't use it...but then again, I'm really not, since the only computer I've ever had it bundled with (granted, there are only two computers I've ever purchased and not built) was Alienware, and that was back when they were still an infant company. (I'm not sure if they still bundle PC-cillin or not.) In any case, call this a shameless plug, but for all intents and purposes, PC-cillin is the superior virus scanner. (It also includes POP3 scanning, so even those running Microsoft Outlook are safe from all but the bleeding-edge virii.)
About a really, really, really really really old technology that I read about in one of those stupid Junior Scholastic magazines when I was in fourth grade (or so, which was about 7 years ago)...didn't IBM make some technology that was the size of a quarter that could store, like, a terabyte of data? I could be completely off here, but I vaguely remember that.
Of course, after looking in the attic and seeing the old 200MB hard drive for my (now disassembled) 386 I realized that it could have just been the newer generation of hard drives.
Well, uh, they have OTHER organs that they could use...
In that case, the real question is "should you shed tears when your 1024-bit PGP key is cracked by distributed.net?"
Unfortunate as this is, I have noticed on numerous occasions the Mozilla process growing and growing and growing in size. Where's the memory cleanup? When you shut the program down, of course. But if you're like me, and have Quick Launch enabled, Mozilla doesn't get shut down very often, and this leave a rather large (128MB+) hole in my memory. I think something can be done to reduce the amount of memory Mozilla uses, like wipes at regular intervals...but there's not.
As long as I'm responding, I was rather discouraged by the lack of several features I was hoping would show up by 1.0, including the ability to have all new windows open as tabs (I'm not talking using the MMB to click on links, I'm talking about anything that opens a window, period.) Also, though certainly not the development team's fault, WMP still has some major compatibility issues (namely, not working a lot of the time). Finally, there are some sites that, for whatever reason, just don't load in Mozilla. The sites probably just need a good old-fashioned webvangelism, but I would at least hope that there would be a "bug workarounds" section in the Preferences for things like this.
And don't give me that "It'll be in the 1.0.1 branch" crap. 1.0 is supposed to be a well-rounded release, and, while it is excellent (and is better than any other browser out there, mind you) it still falls short of my expectations (especially after the years and years and years of slaving over it).
Err, yeah...except that in Europe you have PAL, in North American and Japan you have NTSC, and in Australasia (I believe) you have SECAM. Not to mention those HDTVs have their own nifty copy-protection pieces.
Naw, the Mafia'll just break your kneecaps. Those heal. These guys'll break fair-use. That'll be much harder to fix.
Gouge everyone's eyes out, and break their cochleas. That'll teach you stealing scumbags.
...for something to be idiotproof! Really, a system that has millions of lives in its very, err, algorithms should be made so impossible to mess up that it's tedious to do simple things. Sure, there'd be a lot more disgruntled air traffic controllers, but hey, that's what insane asylums are for, right? And, with the idiotproofness of the system, they couldn't tell a plane to go ram itself into the ground. Well, not without going even more insane and just mashing the console 'till it breaks. Now THAT'S what they need: consoles made out of inch-thick lead and bulletproof glass. It might be heavy, but at least the disgruntled controllers couldn't break it...now, err, what was I saying?...
IS it possible to find an enjoyable job that's profitable (to the extent one would consider "successful")? Myself, I love artsy stuff. You know, painting, literature, music. I know, or at least I've been told (most likely from corporate propaganda spreaders) that artists have really unsuccessful, poor, unhappy lives. Despite the fact that most of you are geeks, I would hope that many of you have had real-world experience and probably have some knowledge about this. Is the myth true? Do (real) artists live miserable lives? Is it possible to be happy with a job in IT?
I like lists, so let me put my questions in list form. I just hope (someone) will give this thread enough attention to respond.
- Is it possible to have a six-figure income and be happy doing what you do almost all the time? (Upper-management positions don't apply. I'm not a greedy scumbag, I wouldn't want that life.)
- Do most artists live miserable, economically (or otherwise) failing lives?
- Is it possible to be happy with a job in IT? (Yeah, well, you know, the stories!)
Pardon my bad, err, everything, I'm a bit tired. (Finals can really wipe you out.)
Still, I agree with you on all other aspects. I mean, hey, what a perfect euphanism: Deep Blue going over the Deep Blue.
Listening to that on one of those teenie Mac speakers, of COURSE it's not going to sound any different. ;) While I can't entirely vouch for the quality of AAC, from what I've heard, it's really fitting to be alongside MPEG-4 video -- MPEG-4 video was designed for Internet viewing, and IIRC, AAC was designed for the same purpose.
Really, it comes down to this:
In the beginning, there was MPEG-1 and MPEG-1 Layer 1,2,3 audio. Big deal, koz they were all more-or-less firsts in semi-quality video compression.
Then came (in no particular order) MPEG-2 and MPEG-4. MPEG-2 was a format designed for DVDs and other high-resolution media, and AC3, its companion, designed for high-quality audio. MPEG-4 was designed for Internet viewing, and, as I said, AAC was (is) its companion.
That said, there is a lot of crossing over within the formats. Personally, I encode DivX video with MPEG-1 Layer 3 audio (VBR, which is against the AVI standard, bad me, but oh well).
I don't mean to get off on a rant here, but the largest problem I see with MP3 is that people aren't using VBR. It's an EXCELLENT thing: take bits from places where they aren't needed and put them where more bandwidth is needed. You can have a "CD-quality" MP3 file using VBR -- at lower filesizes -- that you would need 320Kbps CBR to achieve.
Well, that, and people are still using Xing. stop it! Use LAME + EAC to rip and encode your CDs. Honestly.
And now, the obligatory plug. For more information on MP3 encoding, visit r3mix.net. Of course, these are facts, not opinions; I couldn't be wrong.
And don't forget to purchase Priesthood 4.2, a great accessory to Vatican 2.0. Priesthood 4.2 offers great new features, including Child Molester 1.5, Priest Relocation 2.0 and the all new Condemned 1.0! (Condemned may cause massive hierarchal failure. This may be caused by outdated versions of Pope.)
Ow! Dammit! No, really, watch for falling prices! They really hurt!
He must be a terrorist.
Offer it in multiple different formats. Some Monkey's Audio for a lossless copy, some VBR MP3 encoded with LAME using the --r3mix tag, some Shorten lossless audio for those that prefer it, some OGG Vorbis for those that prefer the ultimate in open-source audio, and perhaps an AIFF. Makes sense to me.
This move has got to be high up on the idiot-o-meter. Now the pedophiles know exactly where to look -- and with the façade of safety, parents will let their guard down.
Yeah, REALLY smart idea.
Apparently not yours. (Nice grammar.)
Except that this doesn't really work. I received a telemarketing call on my cell -- when it was off -- but it still left a message (it was an automated thing). Needless to say, I was pretty pissed off -- that shit costs me money!
APPARITIONALY you didn't even spell 'apparently' correctly.