If you change your specs slightly from "...I want a machine that will meet my needs for the next few years..." to "...I want a machine that will meet my needs now, knowing that I'll be upgrading in less than a year..." then you'll find a ton of options.
A Dell precision laptop (such as the M50) will hold a gig of ram, has a UXGA display, and is essentially a desktop in a laptop form factor. The price is a paltry $2.5 k (for what you're asking for) and it'll resell next year for $2 k, so you'll be 'renting' a machine for $500 for a year.
You'll want to upgrade in a year anyway, regardless of the machine you pick out now. A mid-range machine will keep its value longer than a high range machine (in the laptop world).
Please don't forget that the shuttle and other small form factor PCs almost always trade performance for size and cost. An equivilant laptop will have equal or better performance, but will keep its value, and last longer.
Lastly, desktops and desktop LCD screens are not meant for travel. If you look at the vibration specs alone you'll find that a laptop can take much more abuse than most LCDs and desktops. Trying to get a desktop machine with lcd and associated pieces through airport scanners without a lot of hassle (please turn on the computer and/or open the case of not only the computer, but the LCD and other parts which could possibly hold explosives or other lethal items). Putting it in baggage can be much worse (wear and tear, lost luggage, etc).
So, in the end, I would strongly suggest you get what will work for you now, and leave the future to deal with itself. Even if you do get a tiny PC which holds 2g of ram, you'll still want a better PC this time next year when you want a processor that doesn't fit your MB.
Is there a database, or method of recording this data, in electronic form, that will stand up in court?
Ask a lawyer!!!! The only way to know if something will stand up in court is if it alreay has stood up in court, and even then it's tricky. Unless you're up to researching the possible cases where these types of documentation were scrutinized by the court, then a lawyer is your only hope.
For these reasons, use a regular notebook which will stand up in court. If you need to attach documenation, tape it in to the notebook. If it really has to stand up in court, use a notary public.
Notary publics can also date/time stamp sealed envelopes, and under contract it can probably be less than registered mail. If you work in a large company (which you don't, otherwise you wouldn't be asking these questions) then they probably have one person on staff who is certified as a notary public.
Print out your journal once a week (two copies, one in envelope, one out) and have the notary sign and seal the sealed copy, and notarize the external copy. Keep both together in another envelope (with good record keeping) and make notes in the journal database about whaty entries are in the envelope for future reference.
The reality is that if you are defending a claim, you must prove that you came up with the idea first. They may well attack any sort of credibility you have if anything you make to track it can be modified in any way by you, such as an onsite database. You need to have third party impartial involvement.
They are obviously making this game for people who want to spend time playing the game instead of those people who want to spend time being indecisive and regretting past decisions.
If you want to have X characters, and have them all progress slowly, then you can do so on the ten different servers. If you honestly, after choosing 10 of the available paths, find that you find all the players you've created to be fun/entertaining/useful equally, and couldn't imagine getting rid of one to try another path, then I'd say you are having a very good time. If you want to try a different path, then one or more of them aren't making you happy enough, and you should destroy one or more to make room to try new "styles" of playing
Games like this, I suppose, are a good outlet for those who can't be decisive about simple decisions like what cereal they should eat for breakfast.
If you can't make a choice, and stick with it with no regrets knowing very well that you may lose all the effort you put into it, then no wonder you are trying to escape to a fantasy world. You'll never accomplish anything here, so you might as well try to accomplish something useless in a fake environment.
Don't assume that another character class or playing style is going to be more fun or better than what you are playing now. This goes back to regrets and indecisiveness. The world doesn't need another sheep.
The subsidies are for audio CD-Rs only. You can buy a pack of regular CD-Rs and burn audio on them, but home cd audio recorders (component audio equipment) won't record to them.
If MS ever tries to prevent people from running their office software on any other OS than MS's own windows OS, the monopoly charges will explode.
MS itself knows that to prevent this would be suicide, and would only lend credibility to the idead that one company should not be in control of both the OS software and the office applications.
As I look back on my childhood, I realize that I wasn't paying attention to anything I wasn't very interested in. I have very little memory of my school years, other than when I was exceptionally happy or sad.
Daydreaming was a big problem for me. Following instructions, doing homework, etc - they just flew right by me. I remember only a few teachers, but I don't remember spending any length of time in classrooms with any of them.
Even now I have two professors for a single class. One of them causes me to tune out within a few seconds - if I didn't have the lecture slides to look ahead, I'd be dozing off. I have to pay attention, though, because there are important things said (read - used in an exam) that are not available in the book, slides, handouts, or web site.
It...is...so...painfully...slow.
The other teacher is engaging, commands the classroom, and randomly calls on students for answers to simple questions. This forces me to follow the discussion through, but entertains me enough that even though I get what is being taught, I don't lose interest in the presentation.
I doubt that I'm any smarter than the other students, but I seem to grasp a lot of these topics much more quickly than they are being taught. I don't go to discussions because they simply are teaching at a lower level and helping those who are struggling.
At any rate, your daughter has to learn to live in a world that doesn't match her learning style and speed. You can help her immensely, but I don't think there are any medications that will help her deal with it. They will only delay her acclimation into the way the world works around her, unless she plans on using them her entire life.
You might consider encouraging her more, and following up. Try to improve her memory for dates, times, assignments and events. Just quiz her and make it an important aspect of life. I still have problems in this respect, and half the issues I had with getting homework done (outside of procrastination and general distaste) was when the assignment was actually due, and how much real time I had left.
Good luck. I have a toddler and an infant, both very energetic and curious. There's no substitute for a parent, and I hope you are there for your kids.
So you claim that a "well regulated militia" which is necessary for a free state, is actually a specific type of weapon, and not a structure?
Sorry for being skeptical about the entire claim. Sure, I can see that there are regulated firearms, just as there are regulated clocks, etc. But I've never seen the phrase 'militia' used to describe a type of weapon, only a force consisting of 2 or more individuals wielding firearms...
I suppose the point could be stretched to say that they were really saying that a well armed militia (in today's terms) is necessary, but I have my doubts.
Don't bother asking for the source of the statistics I used - I used to be able to google for it, but it's long since gone. Remember to create a bibliography for all your documents, even the unimportant ones, folks!
This can be neatly summed up as A stitch in time saves nine.
However, the other side of the coin has this story to tell:
You are present in a room with dozens of walls. A few, at the top, have escapes which you can't see from the bottom. You have one ladder, but it'll take you hours to climb a wall and find out if it's the right one (you have no food or water).
You have a series of clues, and things become more apparent the more you study each wall.
Your above theory says, "Let's climb the first wall that seems the most likely." But what you may find out is that you spent several hours climbing a wall that is wrong. You've squandered your time, effort and money. And now you get to go back down and try again.
Are you as likely to jump up the next wall, or study it out this time? You've already lost several hours, and you feel as though your time is coming to a close. It is rational to defer spending resources on an unknown.
It's not perfect, we have several people studying all the available clues, but you shouldn't be throwing all your effort into one ladder when you don't even know if it's going to help. The probability that our emissions is *causing* or *accelerating* global warming has such a large range right now.
All I'm saying is that we shouldn't be crying wolf until we identify the enemy. It is smart to make wise investments in clean air. To leave only footprints, and take only pictures so to speak. It is unwise to run around claiming that we know what's wrong, and that if we don't change we will be in a poor state later.
Yes, yes, everything is a theory. In this case, however, global warming is a symptom. The theory is that we humans are causing or helping the slide toward global warming, and this theory has nowhere near the ratio of for/against evidence that relativity or darwinian evolution has, and those two are still contested today.
IM(no)HO, this is a flawed analogy on many levels. The general public has more knowledge (read:only a very little) about the average bank vault than the average climate scientist has about climate change through the centuries, nevermind millenia.
I'd like to see a poll of 'the vast majority of the world's scientists' before I take that statment at anything more than '4 out of 5 dentist recommend x brand. Sure, global warming looks like it could be a problem, and it's possible that human activity affects it in a grander scale than the butterfly on japan affects the climate in florida. It's easy to postulate possibilities.
We can predict weather based on patterns, but we still can't predict it based on causes other than other weather. We know, for instance, that in the northern hemisphere after several months of generally warm and hot weather it will then have several months of generally cool and cold weather. This is a generic weather cycle. We can't predict on any more of a minute scale other than observing what weather is already happening and what has happened with that kind of weather before (ie, clouds over chicago generally mean there will be clouds over michigan soon, and depending on the type of cloud may or may not dump water, etc)
What global warming used to be was "The world is getting warmer, why is that?" Now we're finally to the part that scientists are seeing patterns in geological history where such large scale changes occured, in concert with other large changes (magnetosphere, etc). It will likely be found out that this is another, extremely long, cycle we are moving around in that we are only now discovering (in the past 100 years) because only now have we had the record correlating ability to do so.
Again, I'm not saying it's untrue that humans are affecting global climate change (I'm sure we are) but the level and amount of change caused by us is what's in play here.
What irks me is that people are using it as a crutch for pollution change. If pollution change is a good thing, it should be able to stand on what we know it causes right now, rather than on the possible future eventuallities.
Global warming is not a crutch to be used to prop up environmental change. I believe in passing environmentally sensible policy, but if people keep putting global warming out as the reason for these regulations, then when global warming is found to be a natural cycle in the earth, environmental policy will fall on its rear end and won't be able to get up by itself for another decade or two, even when it's also shown that we may be accelerating the change.
-Adam
If having a strong, well defined opinion is trolling, then put me under a bridge with a toll box.
About extremists or fanatics: The world needs them, there is a place for them in society. They shouldn't be offended by being called extremists or fanatics - they intend to pull us in a direction by representing a view that is so far from reality that soon the general public doesn't view the center as unnatural, since there are views that are far stronger. This gentle tugging and pulling is needed to affect change.
Sounds like it's time for a diet with fewer greenhouse gases....
I *love* it when people postulate that humans are the cause for 'global warming'. It's been shown that
The earth has been gradually getting warmer
Certian chemicals synthesized by humans can cause some amount of climate change
But it has never been proven that human activity of any form did cause, (or could stop) the climate change everyone seems so keen to label global warming.
News flash: Global warming itself is still theory. It has some amount of scientific evidence behind it, but some against as well. This is to say nothing about the theory of human dynamics on climate.
What is happening, however, is there are groups out there who believe that until we know for certian that we are the problem, we should assume we are and stop what we can. These people are called extremists or fanatics.
I do not deny that the planet is changing, and likely it is due in part to human life. But it would be just as irresponsible for us to run in and fix something we don't understand (and may well not be 'broken') as it would to wontonly destroy our atmosphere (which is what some are claiming we do).
Yes, yes, let's reduce our pollution. I, as well as many others reading this, have mild but chronic asthma. Sure, I'd like to breathe cleaner air and know that I won't get as ill as frequently as I currently do.
Let's just not become couriers of FUD in the process.
-Adam
If it ain't broke, fix it 'till it is.
Earth First! (we'll strip mine the other planets later)
No, I'm just sick of everyone trying to 'correct' me. If you don't get it, think of it as an inside joke. Or not. I'm glad, however, that you're at least trying to think about it.
I think you didn't notice the "Pedants: Think about it on a different level." line just below it.
But, in the end, it's not what you or I think, it's what you or I mean. I mean Price to performance. I don't know what you mean, only what you've expressed, but I'm pretty sure you didn't understand the relationship between the first and second lines of the tag.
First, you buy one or more car battery solar cell trickle chargers. These things are expensive, and don't charge very fast, but they do work. Next you buy a gel cell (sealed lead acid battery, or SLA) at 12v, perhaps 2 or so AH. Have the solar cell on the outside of your backpack and let it charge the SLA up while hiking. No extra circuitry required, just connect the red to the red, black to the black. The Radio shack $30 solar cells ought to give you about 1 amp hour worth of charge in the SLA every eight hours of bright sun.
Hook the laptop to the battery through a car adaptor (specific to your laptop) and use the laptop for ~15minutes.
Rinse, repeat.
If you want to use it more than 15 minutes every eight hours, buy a more expensive solar cell, or more of them, but the weight/time you get might not be attractive enough to work with.
Were I you, I'd look into getting a very power conservative laptop, palmtop, or even PDA and use it instead. A PDA with a folding keyboard can do pretty much anything you'd want to do with your laptop out in the middle of nowhere, and consumes significantly less energy.
-Adam
Re:Don't dis the invisible car
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Review: Solaris
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· Score: 3, Insightful
Two concepts that are important for this technology:
Use of prisms over the LCDs, so at a particular angle you'll see one of perhaps ten or twenty different images which coresponds to the angle you are viewing the image at
Camouflage is a technique of disguising an object such that in certian surroundings it is difficult to identify and/or locate.
Bond's car, like many of his toys, is clearly over the top (ie, the above ideas are obviously refined), but is still within the realm of possibility, though it is improbable. With bond's films you don't have to suspend belief very much at all. Besides, they camouflage the use of improbable technology with explosions and girls, and hey, it obviously works.
The PC has 2 or more network cards, and one program on the system. The only interface is a mouse.
The delinquent sees as many windows on the screen as there are NICs in the computer. They manually route packets by identifying a packet header in hex in the window, and dragging that packet from the window it's coming from to the window it should be routed to.
They would be checked by an automatic router in operation in the background, and would be given further punishment if they route packets incorrectly.
Their sentence term would simply be to route as many packets as were lost due to their actions.
Find out how they get their ads (ad company, in house, etc) and pay to display banner or pop-up ads on their site which bring the user to a site that explains what they're doing, and how easy it is to get around it
Seriously, just like those web sites that make it difficult to right click (assuming that anyone who right-clicks on their site is stealing images or content) they have every right to add code to their site that prevents one from reading the material without jumping through some hoops.
I simply avoid those sites. Chances are this technology will be picked up by the kind of sites I don't visit anyway.
If major sites which I frequently visit become the victim of stupid thinking, then I will simply hack around it, or stop using them.
-Adam
Ok, start your 'quote taken out of context' engine
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"Longhorn" Alpha Preview
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· Score: 1, Flamebait
Remember, in order for Linux to succeed to world domination and provide everyone with the proper OS choice, we need to start our battles early. Try picking out quotes which, taken out of context, prove your point that Microsoft is passing off shoddy work!
Under the scenes, the [new] WinFS file system . . . tied the system up in knots, and must be turned off before the performance returns to normal.
Such quotes will further our cause, and drive Bill nuts! He's such a pedant!
Bad grounding kills. I'd rather work with an ungrounded system than a badly grounded system.
First of all, ethernet doesn't need a ground.
If you're already dedicated to it, however, you do need to look into it, because an ungrounded shield can be dangerous as well.
For ideas, do a web search on grounding rs-485 network cables. rs-485 is a differential signalling system similar to ethernet that is meant for long serial runs (kilometer or more) where grounding is a an issue.
In most cases, you need to find out what the voltage differential is, possible current flow, and run a suitable grounding wire along with the cable since the shield may not be adequate to the job, and may still leave quite a voltage differential. Sometimes, however, it's appropiate to allow a voltage differential and ground through a capacitor and/or resistor.
In other words, there's no single way to do it, and the way you do it will depend on many things, not the least of which is what you're doing with the network and where it's being used.
Good luck! Don't suck on the wires, especially when you know for sure that they aren't live (they are always 'live').
The guy doing the demo was probably dumbing up a basic microphone tactic that's been in use for decades.
There are not two microphones in that headset - that would just make it worse, since no PC it would run on is real time enough to match the sound samples together, etc, etc, etc.
Instead they use a dual port microphone. The element lies between the front of the mic (towards the speaker) and the back (towards ambient noise). Sound pressure from ambient noise tends to hit both the front and back simultanously, while sound pressure from the speaker hits only the front. The difference gives mainly the speaker, with muted external sound
Even cheap mics have that now. The main difference between a good mic and a bad one is its construction and materials, which affect its response characteristics.
So, what you're saying is that I could use my DOS IPX software and run it on a linux machine in an amulator box, and it would manage the IPX stuff for me?
Furthermore, you're saying I could replace my novell server with linux, and use my hardware key which uses an NLM, which MARS does not support?
What exactly was the reason, again, that you have to upgrade to either linux or windows?
You're having a hard time finding 'parts'???
Go to your local computer store. If you need a motherboard, get a motherboard. If you need a processor, get a processor. Etc, etc, etc.
There are valid reasons to upgrade software, but hardware shouldn't be one of them.
I do the computer side of a small video chain. Each store has a novell server, and multiple dos workstations. I'd like to put it all on linux so the interoffice communication can all be done via tcp/ip with the modems. There are other reasons. Unfortunately the software we're using requires IPX for the hardware key, so that's impossible in my situation.
However, we're running 1.4GHz machines in some stores (ie, a $250 machine) as workstations with either a boot floppy or compactflash. There are no problems with running dos on these systems, except that we have to use DEVICE=HIMEM.SYS with the/EISA switch so it'll use upper memory on machines with more than 64MB of memory.
So, tell us again why you can't find hardware for your current lite dos systems?
It's difficult to get a 'click' feel without an associated 'click' sound. Sure, you could put rubber underneath so the plastic hits it instead of another piece of plastic, but then you don't get the nice satisfying click you're looking for.
However, the sound created is rather tiny. The reason it sounds so loud is that the keyboard, especially the underside, acts as a soundboard. Lucky for your marital peace, you can deaden this effect to some degree.
Place the keyboard onto some sort of mat, so the sound doesn't travel to the table.
Attach foam or some other sound absorbing material to the back of the keyboard.
Place sound absorbing materials around (and above) the computer area. Couch pillows are good for this sort of thing.
All of these things will affect the feedback you get from the keyboard. What I really suggest is that you spend time getting used to a different feeling keyboard, preferably USB so you can connect both at the same time.
Online forum? He can post well reasoned, sane replies to the same forum. Anyone who goes to the trouble of reading the forum will run across them and be able to make up their own mind.
Unless your friend has the money and desire to pursue this legally, outside of the internet, then the only way to fight 'public' slander, libel, abuse, etc, is to present yourself in that 'public' forum, and let the readers know who you really are.
But, quite frankly, it sounds like this is a small time deal, and I bet the only thing impacted will be your friend's pride.
Of course, you're asking slashdot. I mean, really, all we can do is stroke your ego by saying insipid things like, "Dude, you are so right to toast him!"
Slashdot Mirror
If you change your specs slightly from "...I want a machine that will meet my needs for the next few years..." to "...I want a machine that will meet my needs now, knowing that I'll be upgrading in less than a year..." then you'll find a ton of options.
A Dell precision laptop (such as the M50) will hold a gig of ram, has a UXGA display, and is essentially a desktop in a laptop form factor. The price is a paltry $2.5 k (for what you're asking for) and it'll resell next year for $2 k, so you'll be 'renting' a machine for $500 for a year.
You'll want to upgrade in a year anyway, regardless of the machine you pick out now. A mid-range machine will keep its value longer than a high range machine (in the laptop world).
Please don't forget that the shuttle and other small form factor PCs almost always trade performance for size and cost. An equivilant laptop will have equal or better performance, but will keep its value, and last longer.
Lastly, desktops and desktop LCD screens are not meant for travel. If you look at the vibration specs alone you'll find that a laptop can take much more abuse than most LCDs and desktops. Trying to get a desktop machine with lcd and associated pieces through airport scanners without a lot of hassle (please turn on the computer and/or open the case of not only the computer, but the LCD and other parts which could possibly hold explosives or other lethal items). Putting it in baggage can be much worse (wear and tear, lost luggage, etc).
So, in the end, I would strongly suggest you get what will work for you now, and leave the future to deal with itself. Even if you do get a tiny PC which holds 2g of ram, you'll still want a better PC this time next year when you want a processor that doesn't fit your MB.
-Adam
Is there a database, or method of recording this data, in electronic form, that will stand up in court?
Ask a lawyer!!!! The only way to know if something will stand up in court is if it alreay has stood up in court, and even then it's tricky. Unless you're up to researching the possible cases where these types of documentation were scrutinized by the court, then a lawyer is your only hope.
For these reasons, use a regular notebook which will stand up in court. If you need to attach documenation, tape it in to the notebook. If it really has to stand up in court, use a notary public.
Notary publics can also date/time stamp sealed envelopes, and under contract it can probably be less than registered mail. If you work in a large company (which you don't, otherwise you wouldn't be asking these questions) then they probably have one person on staff who is certified as a notary public.
Print out your journal once a week (two copies, one in envelope, one out) and have the notary sign and seal the sealed copy, and notarize the external copy. Keep both together in another envelope (with good record keeping) and make notes in the journal database about whaty entries are in the envelope for future reference.
The reality is that if you are defending a claim, you must prove that you came up with the idea first. They may well attack any sort of credibility you have if anything you make to track it can be modified in any way by you, such as an onsite database. You need to have third party impartial involvement.
-Adam
Yeah, you like to have your cake and eat it too.
They are obviously making this game for people who want to spend time playing the game instead of those people who want to spend time being indecisive and regretting past decisions.
If you want to have X characters, and have them all progress slowly, then you can do so on the ten different servers. If you honestly, after choosing 10 of the available paths, find that you find all the players you've created to be fun/entertaining/useful equally, and couldn't imagine getting rid of one to try another path, then I'd say you are having a very good time. If you want to try a different path, then one or more of them aren't making you happy enough, and you should destroy one or more to make room to try new "styles" of playing
Games like this, I suppose, are a good outlet for those who can't be decisive about simple decisions like what cereal they should eat for breakfast.
If you can't make a choice, and stick with it with no regrets knowing very well that you may lose all the effort you put into it, then no wonder you are trying to escape to a fantasy world. You'll never accomplish anything here, so you might as well try to accomplish something useless in a fake environment.
Don't assume that another character class or playing style is going to be more fun or better than what you are playing now. This goes back to regrets and indecisiveness. The world doesn't need another sheep.
-Adam
Sucks to be ewe.
The subsidies are for audio CD-Rs only. You can buy a pack of regular CD-Rs and burn audio on them, but home cd audio recorders (component audio equipment) won't record to them.
-Adam
If MS ever tries to prevent people from running their office software on any other OS than MS's own windows OS, the monopoly charges will explode.
MS itself knows that to prevent this would be suicide, and would only lend credibility to the idead that one company should not be in control of both the OS software and the office applications.
-Adam
As I look back on my childhood, I realize that I wasn't paying attention to anything I wasn't very interested in. I have very little memory of my school years, other than when I was exceptionally happy or sad.
Daydreaming was a big problem for me. Following instructions, doing homework, etc - they just flew right by me. I remember only a few teachers, but I don't remember spending any length of time in classrooms with any of them.
Even now I have two professors for a single class. One of them causes me to tune out within a few seconds - if I didn't have the lecture slides to look ahead, I'd be dozing off. I have to pay attention, though, because there are important things said (read - used in an exam) that are not available in the book, slides, handouts, or web site.
It...is...so...painfully...slow.
The other teacher is engaging, commands the classroom, and randomly calls on students for answers to simple questions. This forces me to follow the discussion through, but entertains me enough that even though I get what is being taught, I don't lose interest in the presentation.
I doubt that I'm any smarter than the other students, but I seem to grasp a lot of these topics much more quickly than they are being taught. I don't go to discussions because they simply are teaching at a lower level and helping those who are struggling.
At any rate, your daughter has to learn to live in a world that doesn't match her learning style and speed. You can help her immensely, but I don't think there are any medications that will help her deal with it. They will only delay her acclimation into the way the world works around her, unless she plans on using them her entire life.
You might consider encouraging her more, and following up. Try to improve her memory for dates, times, assignments and events. Just quiz her and make it an important aspect of life. I still have problems in this respect, and half the issues I had with getting homework done (outside of procrastination and general distaste) was when the assignment was actually due, and how much real time I had left.
Good luck. I have a toddler and an infant, both very energetic and curious. There's no substitute for a parent, and I hope you are there for your kids.
-Adam
So you claim that a "well regulated militia" which is necessary for a free state, is actually a specific type of weapon, and not a structure?
Sorry for being skeptical about the entire claim. Sure, I can see that there are regulated firearms, just as there are regulated clocks, etc. But I've never seen the phrase 'militia' used to describe a type of weapon, only a force consisting of 2 or more individuals wielding firearms...
I suppose the point could be stretched to say that they were really saying that a well armed militia (in today's terms) is necessary, but I have my doubts.
-Adam
What I thought on this topic a few years ago:
A well regulated militia
Don't bother asking for the source of the statistics I used - I used to be able to google for it, but it's long since gone. Remember to create a bibliography for all your documents, even the unimportant ones, folks!
-Adam
This can be neatly summed up as A stitch in time saves nine.
However, the other side of the coin has this story to tell:
You are present in a room with dozens of walls. A few, at the top, have escapes which you can't see from the bottom. You have one ladder, but it'll take you hours to climb a wall and find out if it's the right one (you have no food or water).
You have a series of clues, and things become more apparent the more you study each wall.
Your above theory says, "Let's climb the first wall that seems the most likely." But what you may find out is that you spent several hours climbing a wall that is wrong. You've squandered your time, effort and money. And now you get to go back down and try again.
Are you as likely to jump up the next wall, or study it out this time? You've already lost several hours, and you feel as though your time is coming to a close. It is rational to defer spending resources on an unknown.
It's not perfect, we have several people studying all the available clues, but you shouldn't be throwing all your effort into one ladder when you don't even know if it's going to help. The probability that our emissions is *causing* or *accelerating* global warming has such a large range right now.
All I'm saying is that we shouldn't be crying wolf until we identify the enemy. It is smart to make wise investments in clean air. To leave only footprints, and take only pictures so to speak. It is unwise to run around claiming that we know what's wrong, and that if we don't change we will be in a poor state later.
-Adam
Yes, yes, everything is a theory. In this case, however, global warming is a symptom . The theory is that we humans are causing or helping the slide toward global warming, and this theory has nowhere near the ratio of for/against evidence that relativity or darwinian evolution has, and those two are still contested today.
IM(no)HO, this is a flawed analogy on many levels. The general public has more knowledge (read:only a very little) about the average bank vault than the average climate scientist has about climate change through the centuries, nevermind millenia.
I'd like to see a poll of 'the vast majority of the world's scientists' before I take that statment at anything more than '4 out of 5 dentist recommend x brand. Sure, global warming looks like it could be a problem, and it's possible that human activity affects it in a grander scale than the butterfly on japan affects the climate in florida. It's easy to postulate possibilities.
We can predict weather based on patterns, but we still can't predict it based on causes other than other weather. We know, for instance, that in the northern hemisphere after several months of generally warm and hot weather it will then have several months of generally cool and cold weather. This is a generic weather cycle. We can't predict on any more of a minute scale other than observing what weather is already happening and what has happened with that kind of weather before (ie, clouds over chicago generally mean there will be clouds over michigan soon, and depending on the type of cloud may or may not dump water, etc)
What global warming used to be was "The world is getting warmer, why is that?" Now we're finally to the part that scientists are seeing patterns in geological history where such large scale changes occured, in concert with other large changes (magnetosphere, etc). It will likely be found out that this is another, extremely long, cycle we are moving around in that we are only now discovering (in the past 100 years) because only now have we had the record correlating ability to do so.
Again, I'm not saying it's untrue that humans are affecting global climate change (I'm sure we are) but the level and amount of change caused by us is what's in play here.
What irks me is that people are using it as a crutch for pollution change. If pollution change is a good thing, it should be able to stand on what we know it causes right now, rather than on the possible future eventuallities.
Global warming is not a crutch to be used to prop up environmental change. I believe in passing environmentally sensible policy, but if people keep putting global warming out as the reason for these regulations, then when global warming is found to be a natural cycle in the earth, environmental policy will fall on its rear end and won't be able to get up by itself for another decade or two, even when it's also shown that we may be accelerating the change.
-Adam
If having a strong, well defined opinion is trolling, then put me under a bridge with a toll box.
About extremists or fanatics: The world needs them, there is a place for them in society. They shouldn't be offended by being called extremists or fanatics - they intend to pull us in a direction by representing a view that is so far from reality that soon the general public doesn't view the center as unnatural, since there are views that are far stronger. This gentle tugging and pulling is needed to affect change.
I *love* it when people postulate that humans are the cause for 'global warming'. It's been shown that
But it has never been proven that human activity of any form did cause, (or could stop) the climate change everyone seems so keen to label global warming.
News flash: Global warming itself is still theory. It has some amount of scientific evidence behind it, but some against as well. This is to say nothing about the theory of human dynamics on climate.
What is happening, however, is there are groups out there who believe that until we know for certian that we are the problem, we should assume we are and stop what we can. These people are called extremists or fanatics.
I do not deny that the planet is changing, and likely it is due in part to human life. But it would be just as irresponsible for us to run in and fix something we don't understand (and may well not be 'broken') as it would to wontonly destroy our atmosphere (which is what some are claiming we do).
Yes, yes, let's reduce our pollution. I, as well as many others reading this, have mild but chronic asthma. Sure, I'd like to breathe cleaner air and know that I won't get as ill as frequently as I currently do.
Let's just not become couriers of FUD in the process.
-Adam
If it ain't broke, fix it 'till it is.
Earth First! (we'll strip mine the other planets later)
No, I'm just sick of everyone trying to 'correct' me. If you don't get it, think of it as an inside joke. Or not. I'm glad, however, that you're at least trying to think about it.
-Adam
I think you didn't notice the "Pedants: Think about it on a different level." line just below it.
But, in the end, it's not what you or I think, it's what you or I mean. I mean Price to performance. I don't know what you mean, only what you've expressed, but I'm pretty sure you didn't understand the relationship between the first and second lines of the tag.
-Adam
First, you buy one or more car battery solar cell trickle chargers. These things are expensive, and don't charge very fast, but they do work. Next you buy a gel cell (sealed lead acid battery, or SLA) at 12v, perhaps 2 or so AH. Have the solar cell on the outside of your backpack and let it charge the SLA up while hiking. No extra circuitry required, just connect the red to the red, black to the black. The Radio shack $30 solar cells ought to give you about 1 amp hour worth of charge in the SLA every eight hours of bright sun.
Hook the laptop to the battery through a car adaptor (specific to your laptop) and use the laptop for ~15minutes.
Rinse, repeat.
If you want to use it more than 15 minutes every eight hours, buy a more expensive solar cell, or more of them, but the weight/time you get might not be attractive enough to work with.
Were I you, I'd look into getting a very power conservative laptop, palmtop, or even PDA and use it instead. A PDA with a folding keyboard can do pretty much anything you'd want to do with your laptop out in the middle of nowhere, and consumes significantly less energy.
-Adam
Bond's car, like many of his toys, is clearly over the top (ie, the above ideas are obviously refined), but is still within the realm of possibility, though it is improbable. With bond's films you don't have to suspend belief very much at all. Besides, they camouflage the use of improbable technology with explosions and girls, and hey, it obviously works.
-Adam
Let's develop a manual, GUI router software.
The PC has 2 or more network cards, and one program on the system. The only interface is a mouse.
The delinquent sees as many windows on the screen as there are NICs in the computer. They manually route packets by identifying a packet header in hex in the window, and dragging that packet from the window it's coming from to the window it should be routed to.
They would be checked by an automatic router in operation in the background, and would be given further punishment if they route packets incorrectly.
Their sentence term would simply be to route as many packets as were lost due to their actions.
-Adam
Find out how they get their ads (ad company, in house, etc) and pay to display banner or pop-up ads on their site which bring the user to a site that explains what they're doing, and how easy it is to get around it
Seriously, just like those web sites that make it difficult to right click (assuming that anyone who right-clicks on their site is stealing images or content) they have every right to add code to their site that prevents one from reading the material without jumping through some hoops.
I simply avoid those sites. Chances are this technology will be picked up by the kind of sites I don't visit anyway.
If major sites which I frequently visit become the victim of stupid thinking, then I will simply hack around it, or stop using them.
-Adam
Remember, in order for Linux to succeed to world domination and provide everyone with the proper OS choice, we need to start our battles early. Try picking out quotes which, taken out of context, prove your point that Microsoft is passing off shoddy work!
Under the scenes, the [new] WinFS file system . . . tied the system up in knots, and must be turned off before the performance returns to normal.
Such quotes will further our cause, and drive Bill nuts! He's such a pedant!
Consider this your call to arms!
-Adam
Bad grounding kills. I'd rather work with an ungrounded system than a badly grounded system.
First of all, ethernet doesn't need a ground.
If you're already dedicated to it, however, you do need to look into it, because an ungrounded shield can be dangerous as well.
For ideas, do a web search on grounding rs-485 network cables. rs-485 is a differential signalling system similar to ethernet that is meant for long serial runs (kilometer or more) where grounding is a an issue.
In most cases, you need to find out what the voltage differential is, possible current flow, and run a suitable grounding wire along with the cable since the shield may not be adequate to the job, and may still leave quite a voltage differential. Sometimes, however, it's appropiate to allow a voltage differential and ground through a capacitor and/or resistor.
In other words, there's no single way to do it, and the way you do it will depend on many things, not the least of which is what you're doing with the network and where it's being used.
Good luck! Don't suck on the wires, especially when you know for sure that they aren't live (they are always 'live').
-Adam
The guy doing the demo was probably dumbing up a basic microphone tactic that's been in use for decades.
There are not two microphones in that headset - that would just make it worse, since no PC it would run on is real time enough to match the sound samples together, etc, etc, etc.
Instead they use a dual port microphone. The element lies between the front of the mic (towards the speaker) and the back (towards ambient noise). Sound pressure from ambient noise tends to hit both the front and back simultanously, while sound pressure from the speaker hits only the front. The difference gives mainly the speaker, with muted external sound
Even cheap mics have that now. The main difference between a good mic and a bad one is its construction and materials, which affect its response characteristics.
-Adam
Does anyone believe in keeping it simple, anymore?
Most people do, yes, but most companies believe in keeping it profitable. (at least for the few high executives, anyway)
-Adam
So, what you're saying is that I could use my DOS IPX software and run it on a linux machine in an amulator box, and it would manage the IPX stuff for me?
Furthermore, you're saying I could replace my novell server with linux, and use my hardware key which uses an NLM, which MARS does not support?
-Adam
What exactly was the reason, again, that you have to upgrade to either linux or windows?
/EISA switch so it'll use upper memory on machines with more than 64MB of memory.
You're having a hard time finding 'parts'???
Go to your local computer store. If you need a motherboard, get a motherboard. If you need a processor, get a processor. Etc, etc, etc.
There are valid reasons to upgrade software, but hardware shouldn't be one of them.
I do the computer side of a small video chain. Each store has a novell server, and multiple dos workstations. I'd like to put it all on linux so the interoffice communication can all be done via tcp/ip with the modems. There are other reasons. Unfortunately the software we're using requires IPX for the hardware key, so that's impossible in my situation.
However, we're running 1.4GHz machines in some stores (ie, a $250 machine) as workstations with either a boot floppy or compactflash. There are no problems with running dos on these systems, except that we have to use DEVICE=HIMEM.SYS with the
So, tell us again why you can't find hardware for your current lite dos systems?
-Adam
However, the sound created is rather tiny. The reason it sounds so loud is that the keyboard, especially the underside, acts as a soundboard. Lucky for your marital peace, you can deaden this effect to some degree.
- Place the keyboard onto some sort of mat, so the sound doesn't travel to the table.
-
Attach foam or some other sound absorbing material to the back of the keyboard.
-
Place sound absorbing materials around (and above) the computer area. Couch pillows are good for this sort of thing.
All of these things will affect the feedback you get from the keyboard. What I really suggest is that you spend time getting used to a different feeling keyboard, preferably USB so you can connect both at the same time.-Adam
Online forum? He can post well reasoned, sane replies to the same forum. Anyone who goes to the trouble of reading the forum will run across them and be able to make up their own mind.
Unless your friend has the money and desire to pursue this legally, outside of the internet, then the only way to fight 'public' slander, libel, abuse, etc, is to present yourself in that 'public' forum, and let the readers know who you really are.
But, quite frankly, it sounds like this is a small time deal, and I bet the only thing impacted will be your friend's pride.
Of course, you're asking slashdot. I mean, really, all we can do is stroke your ego by saying insipid things like, "Dude, you are so right to toast him!"
As with all things in life, this too shall pass.
-Adam