I was just adjusting to what 60%+ of Slashdot's readers, and the original poster, understand.
There is also a difference between Imperial Gallons and US Gallons (which they probably call English Gallons to be confusing).
Do you think that 85p a litre would be understood as easily by a lot of the people reading this thread?
Re:Inflation.
on
Out of Gas
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Your prices are fluctuating due to the price of oil on the market. Our price fluctuations are the same as yours... but just seem smaller due to the massive *fixed amount* of tax per litre we get.
Good thing tax isn't proportional to the price. Otherwise we would be paying $8 or so a gallon by now.
Fact is, your petrol is still incredibly cheap when compared with other countries. I think you can start complaining with reason when it hits $3 or $4 a gallon. Maybe it'll make people think twice about buying an SUV.
Re:Inflation.
on
Out of Gas
·
· Score: 4, Informative
Please come to the UK, where it is around $5.50+ a US gallon most of the time. Of course, because we are a smaller country and have had this fuel price thing going for many a year, we usually live closer to where we work than many people in the US [do to their place of work]. We aren't as reliant on personal transport.
Aren't the high-priced Linux systems meant for those people who don't care what they get, as long as they pay a lot for it? (bosses who won't get free/low priced stuff because they see it as 'cheap') I thought they included a lot of support over competing products as well.
Considering they have not one, but three whole sentences relating to Googol in their corporate history page (someone posted it above), they have already done it.
Sorry, but Google isn't benefitting from anything illegal or immoral here. It is only a made up word. It isn't trademarked, copyright is dubious considering it is merely a single word, and the definition must be public domain if it is a standard term for 10^100.
Weird, I've got 160MB in mine, and only because the 256MB SODIMM was out of stock. Amazingly, a 266MHz PII isn't that bad if you aren't running a heavy desktop and don't want to play intensive games or video.
To be honest, the backlight is a bit dodgy now so I probably couldn't tell the difference between 16-bit and 32-bit. Did have issues with neomagic and xfree86 in the past though, but not on the last install (Gentoo).
Definitely. I've got an ancient laptop (HP Omnibook 4100), and the only thing holding it back is the 2MB graphics (neomagic). If I could get a 4MB ATI then I could have a full 32-bit desktop:(
This is using PCI-Express, just with a different slot more suitable for the task. c.f. mini-PCI and PCI.
Intel do integrated graphics. They'll probably simply have non-MXM notebooks that aren't upgradeable, or use a dummy pass-thru MXM card like the article suggests. Yes, that means that connector also has video in pins.
I assume this like how they used canaries to test for gas in mines? If the canary died, then it was dangerous to be in that area.
So from that, I assume that "canary protection" is actually running a kind of honeytrap for common PHP exploits, and if one is triggered ("dies") then it does some computery equivalent of ("lets get the fuck out of this mine").
This is all speculation based upon the name though.
Ah, I live in the UK, where we actually have a pretty tough driving test (and hence lots of proper driving lessons), unlike what I hear about many places in the states. Not that that means people are good drivers in the end, a lot of people might just be "in the zone" for their driving test despite being rather poor at driving. Then again, not obeying traffic signs / signals is a rare occurrence over here, in my experience. Then again, we now have 4 tests to get a driving license: driving, theory, reactions and maintainence.
Maybe it is just a confidence thing. Geeks lack confidence, hence take longer to learn because they take less 'risks' than someone who has confidence.
> And, btw, intelligence is absolutely no indicator of someone's ability > to pilot or steer or drive a machine.
Actually it is.
However driving ability isn't proportional to intelligence. It is inversely proportional. Tests have shown that the more stupid a person is, the quicker they learn and better a driver they are. They can probably concentrate on the road or something because they don't have other thoughts going through their head.
The reason for drinking cold beer is licensing laws. Cold, less flavoured, beer is quicker to drink, and people want to get drunk because life sucks in the UK. Hence they drink lager. That, and they are pansies.
Now I like my real ale chilled myself, but only for the refreshing aspect that cool drinks provide. 10C to 15C is fine.
As for this "invention"... the standard way to keep kegs cool is a wet tea-towel and good old evaporation. Of course, this method is fine for real ale on a summer day when you expect to sell the whole lot in a day or two, but not for frigid lager that has to be sold cold so that people can't taste how nasty is actually is.
And yes, Guinness Extra Cold is just a ploy to sell more beer to the aforementioned Pansies that can't stomach the taste of beer in its natural state.
I haven't seen anything myself from my all-too-regular trawls around hardware sites. I've seen x16 + x4 + x1 however (x4 is 2GB/s total bandwidth). However I'm sure that it is only a matter of time until it does happen.
I'm talking about ATI's integrated graphics chipsets, the ones where you can run the integrated graphics (with AGP functionality) at the same time as a graphics card in an AGP slot. Now whilst ATI could have done some clever stuff with a single AGP controller, it would make more sense to simply make use of the AGP v3 functionality that allows more than one AGP device in a system.
But... sensible ideas are often eschewed in favour of some hair brained system that kinda worked all too often...
In fact all the first generation PCI-Express chipsets only support one x16 PCIe for graphics controller.
I doubt that Intel is going to make a 2 port one especially for Alienware.
So I expect it means that the second graphics card is plugged into a x4 or x1 PCIe connector.
Anyway, this is nothing special, it is all part of the specification. Hell, you could have two AGP v3 slots in a machine working at the same time - how do you think ATI's integrated graphics can work at the same time as an inserted AGP card's?
> Nintendo foolishly made their game Gamecube discs mini-dvd, so you > cannot play movies on it
I love the dinky little Gamecube discs. It sets the Gamecube aside, it says "I'm better than the others". Also it is a small cube that can be stached out of site easily, and isn't embarrassing to have in sight, unlike an XBox or PS2 which are both examples of ugly design.
Anyway, DVD players cost next to nothing anyway, so in the end this was a smart move by Nintendo.
Or you could get that Panasonic DVD player with built-in Gamecube. Actually, I think it is a shame that more DVD player manufacturers haven't licenced the Gamecube hardware to make DVD players with extra functionality.
Will all the old patents from the past 50 years in the US suddenly be patented?
Will us European programmers suddenly need a license to implement quicksort and all of those other software patents that expired so long ago?
If so, the European software industry is fucked. Truly and royally fucked. It will kill it totally. There won't be one. Implementing software patents allowing this would be 100% counter-productive.
Now if the law is only for new applications, not for ones already existing... then just maybe. If the patent is truly deserving.
Why don't I believe that this will be the case. It'll just be a whole load of obvious patents for software and methods that have been done a thousand times before, albeit in a slightly different context - which somehow makes the new patent valid!
This is just another law to get a load of lawyers a load of money for submitting patents, whilst fucking over everybody else.
So? 1 song for $1.25, 2 for $2.20 (card transaction fee will be shared between the two, at this low a price the fee will be the minimum, only when the price hits $5 or so will the "as a percentage" rule come in), 3 for $3.15, 4 for $4.10, 5 for $5.
See how pricing can be made fair for both the company and the purchaser. Volume discounts due to reduced costs are common in practically any industry.
It seems that people install these things again and again because there is a slight feature in it that they like.
So maybe a good solution is to find something legitimate that does that same task and install it for them.
For example, there must be a legitimate application out there that does what Comet Cursor does without the spyware. Install Bittorrent and add shortcuts to various bittorrent sites - if they are going to download music, at least make it download music safely and usefully for other users. And so on.
And as for corporate users... anyone who manages a network that gets these problems should be sacked. Those machines are the company's, they should only be able to run approved applications. Yeah, give some leeway, allow IM, web and e-mail of course, allow reasonable customisation and personalisation, but don't allow local installation of software or plug-ins. If someone needs some software, let them ask IT with a valid reason for it.
If I was an OEM, I'd get a license from one of the companies to include AdAware/Spybot on the shipped systems and set it to run once a week. That's gotta be worth it to remove 12% of support calls!
Why can't [s]he have a minimal install OS on a locked down system, and have to run applications from an application server, save her files on that server, and never have any access to the machine they are using.
I.e., a classic old unix setup of a power XServer, app server, file server, and a dumb x terminal (well, a more intelligent terminal that runs applications locally if necessary - e.g., audio applications, stuff that isn't good to run over a network!).
Much simpler to administer as well. Only one application needs updating. Files are automatically backed up. Support costs will be lower, and hardware requirements lower.
With this system, only one person has root access to the main server (better make sure that the passwords are locked in the safe though) and clients. This isn't the user. Set the BIOS to boot off the network too, then password protect the BIOS. No local HD should be necessary, except for swap, but the cost saving on the HD should allow for more local memory to be installed anyway.
I mean, if a user is only using 5% of a typical desktop system's resources even with a word processor, email client, etc, running, then 20 users are just about going to stress a server of the same spec. If the server was a meaty quad processor system with fast disks and all, then you should be able to service hundreds of users. Best have a GigE connection to the server though, heh.
Yearly license fees are the last resort of the software company that has run out of ideas for extra features for their software.
I just don't see what Longhorn is going to provide in terms of an OS over XP... unless they make it into MacOS X.
It is scary to think of where MacOS X will be by the time that Longhorn is eventually released. 10.4 will be in 2005, 10.5 in 2006. Considering the user friendly features and applications at the moment...
Slashdot Mirror
I was just adjusting to what 60%+ of Slashdot's readers, and the original poster, understand.
There is also a difference between Imperial Gallons and US Gallons (which they probably call English Gallons to be confusing).
Do you think that 85p a litre would be understood as easily by a lot of the people reading this thread?
Your prices are fluctuating due to the price of oil on the market. Our price fluctuations are the same as yours ... but just seem smaller due to the massive *fixed amount* of tax per litre we get.
Good thing tax isn't proportional to the price. Otherwise we would be paying $8 or so a gallon by now.
Fact is, your petrol is still incredibly cheap when compared with other countries. I think you can start complaining with reason when it hits $3 or $4 a gallon. Maybe it'll make people think twice about buying an SUV.
Please come to the UK, where it is around $5.50+ a US gallon most of the time. Of course, because we are a smaller country and have had this fuel price thing going for many a year, we usually live closer to where we work than many people in the US [do to their place of work]. We aren't as reliant on personal transport.
Aren't the high-priced Linux systems meant for those people who don't care what they get, as long as they pay a lot for it? (bosses who won't get free/low priced stuff because they see it as 'cheap') I thought they included a lot of support over competing products as well.
Considering they have not one, but three whole sentences relating to Googol in their corporate history page (someone posted it above), they have already done it.
Sorry, but Google isn't benefitting from anything illegal or immoral here. It is only a made up word. It isn't trademarked, copyright is dubious considering it is merely a single word, and the definition must be public domain if it is a standard term for 10^100.
Weird, I've got 160MB in mine, and only because the 256MB SODIMM was out of stock. Amazingly, a 266MHz PII isn't that bad if you aren't running a heavy desktop and don't want to play intensive games or video.
To be honest, the backlight is a bit dodgy now so I probably couldn't tell the difference between 16-bit and 32-bit. Did have issues with neomagic and xfree86 in the past though, but not on the last install (Gentoo).
Definitely. I've got an ancient laptop (HP Omnibook 4100), and the only thing holding it back is the 2MB graphics (neomagic). If I could get a 4MB ATI then I could have a full 32-bit desktop :(
Oh wait, I only use it to run emacs and xterm.
This is using PCI-Express, just with a different slot more suitable for the task. c.f. mini-PCI and PCI.
Intel do integrated graphics. They'll probably simply have non-MXM notebooks that aren't upgradeable, or use a dummy pass-thru MXM card like the article suggests. Yes, that means that connector also has video in pins.
One is a ~1990 era version of the ARMv3 architecture (IIRC).
The other is ARM's latest version of the ARM architecture.
26-bit addressing limitations were removed ~14 years ago. I don't even think any of the more recent versions of the ARM architecture support it.
Much better to have a "floor recognition system" or for those rare occassions, "boob recognition system" if you want to record conversations.
In fact, how about a sensor that picks up the vibrations of your jawbone when you speak to turn on the camera instead of an "eye contact" camera.
I assume this like how they used canaries to test for gas in mines? If the canary died, then it was dangerous to be in that area.
So from that, I assume that "canary protection" is actually running a kind of honeytrap for common PHP exploits, and if one is triggered ("dies") then it does some computery equivalent of ("lets get the fuck out of this mine").
This is all speculation based upon the name though.
Ah, I live in the UK, where we actually have a pretty tough driving test (and hence lots of proper driving lessons), unlike what I hear about many places in the states. Not that that means people are good drivers in the end, a lot of people might just be "in the zone" for their driving test despite being rather poor at driving. Then again, not obeying traffic signs / signals is a rare occurrence over here, in my experience. Then again, we now have 4 tests to get a driving license: driving, theory, reactions and maintainence.
Maybe it is just a confidence thing. Geeks lack confidence, hence take longer to learn because they take less 'risks' than someone who has confidence.
> And, btw, intelligence is absolutely no indicator of someone's ability
> to pilot or steer or drive a machine.
Actually it is.
However driving ability isn't proportional to intelligence. It is inversely proportional. Tests have shown that the more stupid a person is, the quicker they learn and better a driver they are. They can probably concentrate on the road or something because they don't have other thoughts going through their head.
I drink real ale.
... the standard way to keep kegs cool is a wet tea-towel and good old evaporation. Of course, this method is fine for real ale on a summer day when you expect to sell the whole lot in a day or two, but not for frigid lager that has to be sold cold so that people can't taste how nasty is actually is.
The reason for drinking cold beer is licensing laws. Cold, less flavoured, beer is quicker to drink, and people want to get drunk because life sucks in the UK. Hence they drink lager. That, and they are pansies.
Now I like my real ale chilled myself, but only for the refreshing aspect that cool drinks provide. 10C to 15C is fine.
As for this "invention"
And yes, Guinness Extra Cold is just a ploy to sell more beer to the aforementioned Pansies that can't stomach the taste of beer in its natural state.
I haven't seen anything myself from my all-too-regular trawls around hardware sites. I've seen x16 + x4 + x1 however (x4 is 2GB/s total bandwidth). However I'm sure that it is only a matter of time until it does happen.
I'm talking about ATI's integrated graphics chipsets, the ones where you can run the integrated graphics (with AGP functionality) at the same time as a graphics card in an AGP slot. Now whilst ATI could have done some clever stuff with a single AGP controller, it would make more sense to simply make use of the AGP v3 functionality that allows more than one AGP device in a system.
... sensible ideas are often eschewed in favour of some hair brained system that kinda worked all too often...
But
In fact all the first generation PCI-Express chipsets only support one x16 PCIe for graphics controller.
I doubt that Intel is going to make a 2 port one especially for Alienware.
So I expect it means that the second graphics card is plugged into a x4 or x1 PCIe connector.
Anyway, this is nothing special, it is all part of the specification. Hell, you could have two AGP v3 slots in a machine working at the same time - how do you think ATI's integrated graphics can work at the same time as an inserted AGP card's?
> Nintendo foolishly made their game Gamecube discs mini-dvd, so you
> cannot play movies on it
I love the dinky little Gamecube discs. It sets the Gamecube aside, it says "I'm better than the others". Also it is a small cube that can be stached out of site easily, and isn't embarrassing to have in sight, unlike an XBox or PS2 which are both examples of ugly design.
Anyway, DVD players cost next to nothing anyway, so in the end this was a smart move by Nintendo.
Or you could get that Panasonic DVD player with built-in Gamecube. Actually, I think it is a shame that more DVD player manufacturers haven't licenced the Gamecube hardware to make DVD players with extra functionality.
Will all the old patents from the past 50 years in the US suddenly be patented?
... then just maybe. If the patent is truly deserving.
Will us European programmers suddenly need a license to implement quicksort and all of those other software patents that expired so long ago?
If so, the European software industry is fucked. Truly and royally fucked. It will kill it totally. There won't be one. Implementing software patents allowing this would be 100% counter-productive.
Now if the law is only for new applications, not for ones already existing
Why don't I believe that this will be the case. It'll just be a whole load of obvious patents for software and methods that have been done a thousand times before, albeit in a slightly different context - which somehow makes the new patent valid!
This is just another law to get a load of lawyers a load of money for submitting patents, whilst fucking over everybody else.
Fucking sickening.
So? 1 song for $1.25, 2 for $2.20 (card transaction fee will be shared between the two, at this low a price the fee will be the minimum, only when the price hits $5 or so will the "as a percentage" rule come in), 3 for $3.15, 4 for $4.10, 5 for $5.
See how pricing can be made fair for both the company and the purchaser. Volume discounts due to reduced costs are common in practically any industry.
It seems that people install these things again and again because there is a slight feature in it that they like.
... anyone who manages a network that gets these problems should be sacked. Those machines are the company's, they should only be able to run approved applications. Yeah, give some leeway, allow IM, web and e-mail of course, allow reasonable customisation and personalisation, but don't allow local installation of software or plug-ins. If someone needs some software, let them ask IT with a valid reason for it.
So maybe a good solution is to find something legitimate that does that same task and install it for them.
For example, there must be a legitimate application out there that does what Comet Cursor does without the spyware. Install Bittorrent and add shortcuts to various bittorrent sites - if they are going to download music, at least make it download music safely and usefully for other users. And so on.
And as for corporate users
A lot of "Spyware Removal" software is actually Spyware that removes competing spyware.
The only two to trust are AdAware and Spybot.
Unfortunately the Spybot download doesn't work at the moment, I think it's slashdotted.
That, and AdAware.
So that they catch what the other one missed.
If I was an OEM, I'd get a license from one of the companies to include AdAware/Spybot on the shipped systems and set it to run once a week. That's gotta be worth it to remove 12% of support calls!
What about the corporate desktop?
Why does the secretary need a desktop anyway?
Why can't [s]he have a minimal install OS on a locked down system, and have to run applications from an application server, save her files on that server, and never have any access to the machine they are using.
I.e., a classic old unix setup of a power XServer, app server, file server, and a dumb x terminal (well, a more intelligent terminal that runs applications locally if necessary - e.g., audio applications, stuff that isn't good to run over a network!).
Much simpler to administer as well. Only one application needs updating. Files are automatically backed up. Support costs will be lower, and hardware requirements lower.
With this system, only one person has root access to the main server (better make sure that the passwords are locked in the safe though) and clients. This isn't the user. Set the BIOS to boot off the network too, then password protect the BIOS. No local HD should be necessary, except for swap, but the cost saving on the HD should allow for more local memory to be installed anyway.
I mean, if a user is only using 5% of a typical desktop system's resources even with a word processor, email client, etc, running, then 20 users are just about going to stress a server of the same spec. If the server was a meaty quad processor system with fast disks and all, then you should be able to service hundreds of users. Best have a GigE connection to the server though, heh.
Yearly license fees are the last resort of the software company that has run out of ideas for extra features for their software.
... unless they make it into MacOS X.
...
I just don't see what Longhorn is going to provide in terms of an OS over XP
It is scary to think of where MacOS X will be by the time that Longhorn is eventually released. 10.4 will be in 2005, 10.5 in 2006. Considering the user friendly features and applications at the moment