The batteries get low?? I have an HP 20S (non-RPN thank you very much), which I bought over 10 years ago, and is unbelievably still running on the batteries that came with it.
I find the highlighting of text used in Linux (or X-windows) rather hard... it tends to include too much text or not enough, and when I then click elsewhere and move the mouse just a tiny bit as I click, I highlight another letter and I lose the text I intended to copy. From a usability standpoint, the X-Windows method is horrible. My poor mom never got to grips with it (and she's gotten used to some pretty weird OS'es in the past).
Another thing that Linux needs is a proper clipboard like Windows has. Copy anything you like: pictures, files, texts, documents. Then paste it into any application that will accept the data type. I do my day-to-day work in MS Windows, and this is one feature that I use very often, without having to think about it. Is there anything similar for Linux in the making?
Yup, I have changed my mind and will vote for a D66 candidate rather than a VVD one (the right wing). I wrote the VVD MEP who is on the relevant committee earlier, and got a response much to the effect of "We know what we are doing; you can rest easy and go back to sleep".
The Dutch will recognise the famous quote of one of our former prime ministers ("U kunt rustig weer gaan slapen"), which exemplifies the problem I have with these politicians: the last thing they want is informed citizens butting into their affairs. They know what's best, after all.
I wouldn't mind seeing systems like this implimentated in say, elected public offices to keep track of opinion areas, ethnic densities, crime rates, poll results, average pay.
It'll be like playing SimCity *grin*.
I think it's a seriously bad idea though. I think that if a system like this would be installed in city government officials and the like, they'd spend the whole day staring at the screen, and making quick fixes to address small local problems. They might be able to spot trends and see the larger picture as well, but I fear they would start fighting symptons rather than the causes (even more than they do nowadays).
A 'SimCity' government might look at the screen and see growing waiting lists in Health Care. So, naturally they decide to build a few more hospitals and increase funding to the existing ones. Well... the waiting lists is a current problem in our country right now, but no one is fighting or even finding the real cause (hint: it isn't the amount of money we spend). In fact, the entire system of accounting in health care is set up with one goal in mind: to allow the minister of health to oversee the state and expenses in health care at a glance, and tweak the settings as apropriate. Sim City all over again, in other words.
This might be a good system for more real-time applications, like crime fighting.
It can be a free form tool to coordinate various teams and projects. Its important to bear in mind though that even the best tool is no replacement for good management.
IMHO, a free-form logging tool or discussion board serves two valuable purposes:
1) On a free-form weblog or discussion board, it is much easier to be honest about problems. Compare that to formalised documents such as progress reports, where most people tend to play down issues because they think they can fix them themselves before the next report is due, or because they don't want to make their boss (or themselves) look bad on a formal and perpetually archived document. Good management requires good and timely information... our company has an unmoderated board with lots of flames, gripes and complaints, and if I were the CEO, I'd take a peek at that board every now and then.
2) Formalised document hierarchies can sometimes be rather a discouragement to recording the odd thought, idea or issue. Should this be a memo, briefing note, how-to, FYI bulletin, technical subsystem spec or should it go on the ARID log? Where do I file it? Does it need to be reviewed? Sometimes, not having a lot of structure can be good, and weblogs can provide such an environment.
Isn't Darl McBride the true father of Linux? This is why he wants his $699
Funny, but the claims in this press release are much like SCO's claims: "Linus used stolen code in Linux! No, I'm not going to tell you which lines of codes he stole exactly, but I assure you they are there!". Only their money-spinning schemes differ. Darl says: "I own the stolen code and you owe me $699", whereas Brown says: "Buy my book to learn more".
By the way,Darl is becoming more and more like that paperboy from Better off dead. "I - want - my - 2 dollars!!!". I wonder if he will meet a similar fate in the end?
This is an example of how countries in Europe are *not* run by large corporations, but by the people (at least compared to the US).
Actually it's run by both, just like the US. In Europe, the balance swings somewhat more favorably in the direction of the people, but corporations do have a big influence. Look at the following quote on the amendments made to the original proposal on patent law, from the (supposedly politically neutral) EC website:
...but restores the overall balance between the interests of the rights holders and other parties (competitors and consumers) struck by the original Commission proposal presented in February 2002 (see IP/02/277 and MEMO/02/32).
Translation: "Ok, we decided to listen to the liberal anti-IP hippies, as well as the lobbyists for the megacorps, who provide us with so many wonderful jobs." You will get the same answer from many politicians if you challenge them on their stance in this issue, or other economic issues. The problem isn't that they keep the interests of corporations in mind, after all they do provide many with their livelihood, and the well-being of corporations does help the economy as a whole. The problem is that the politicians let the corporations tell them what exactly should be done to safeguard the well-being of those corporations, and that advice often does not serve the economy or the common good.
Funny... I thought patents were invented only to serve the common good, period. Granting privileges and protection to inventors was never a goal of the inventors of patents, but a means to the end, to encourage research and the sharing of the results, for the common good. Sadly no legislator still thinks this way.
Our neighbors across the pond might actually have a good idea for once:)...
Seems our neighbors are getting more and more of a clue these days, on other matters as well. Germany seems to have some decent politicians.
In contrast, the Netherlands is still planning to vote for the US-style patent laws. I've heard no debate or news coverage whatsoever on the subject... they probably will vote for it just because that git Bolkestein is 'our' Euro-commissioner.
The reality is that most medium sized companies can be vulnerable to social engineering. In most cases the weak point in any security system is going to be on the human level. When you work with people you have to have some element of trust to make things more efficient.
A few years ago, a journalist showed how easy it was to get into the maximum-security area of the Prosecutor's Office in the Netherlands. It was as simple as forging a badge on a photocopier, checking out who went into that area, making sure he looked like he belonged there (no furtive glances, right clothes etc.). Then he just followed a guy into the secure zone, with the guy courteosly holding the door open for him. He was able to do this several times.
And unless you have a zero tolerance policy on holding the door open for someone, your information is not safe
That's just what they had in the military place I used to work. I notice that most larger offices and places with sensitive information are starting to use turnstyles and keycards, which amounts to the same thing. No badge = no entry. Forget your badge? You can get a 1-day pass at the security desk, but they will check your face against a photo on file, and require ID. Having reasonably good yet uncumbersome security is not that hard to implement for low-level security (i.e. against thieves). Problem is: many companies only pay passing attention to security (physical as well as electronic), and think one rent-a-cop at the door is sufficient.
Unless you have security guards that require written permission for every single hardware move your hardware is not going to be 100% safe.
Also becoming more commonplace... These days, the most popular target for thieves is laptops. Easy to carry, valuable, and it's the one piece of equipment the guards will expect people to carry out.
It's funny to see how this craze is taking off in China only now... since these things have existed for ages. Also interesting to think about why these bikes haven't become popular in the Netherlands, another bike-loving country.Sparta has been selling powered bikes for years, with either an electric motor or a small gasoline-powered one.
Then again, I can understand why they aren't popular here. Firstly, there's the price tag of EUR 1750 (Look on the site under "Collectie / Electrische fiets"). Secondly... crime statistics teach us that every bike owner has his bike stolen, on average, once a year in this country. And this bike would make a particularly juicy target for thieves.
We send millions of emails per week to our members.
To each member?! *cackles*
The BondedSender process looked us over and saw that we had, *gasp*, 50 complaints with a volume of 20 million messages sent.
It does sound unreasonable. How about you inform your customers on Hotmail? Just tell them 'you may not get our mailings because your provider sucks'. As a customer (not a paying one, but still...) I'd hate the fact that legitimate mail to me is being withheld, because the sender isn'tt bonded.
There's no way in hell I'd pay (or deposit a bond) for some assurance that my messages get delivered to Hotmail. Next thing you know, Gmail, Yahoo, and local ISPs will demand a bond for bulk mail delivery as well, and you'll end up having to deposit thousands of bonds running into the millions of dollars.
Ebay can be a good source for cheap stuff if you don't mind buying second-hand goods. I've bought a few things dirt-cheap on Ebay... sometimes you have to take a little gamble, but generally I haven't been disappointed often, not even with items sensitive to wear and improper handling such as model airplane engines.
An added bonus for the environmentally-conscious: you're helping to save the planet by recycling;)
Oh and Brazilians have been successfully using electronic voting for a decade, and India has been using them on and off for half a decade.
The real problem isn't the reliability of the machines. Electronic voting has existed in the Netherlands for decades, using fully proprietary hardware and software. The voting machines are very reliable and easy to use. These are the machines Ireland would have used for their electronic elections. The state of NY is interested as well.
Quess what, I'm still against electronic voting of this sort. The machine doesn't produce a paper trail, and there is now way to find out, ever, if fraud has taken place by the machine's supplier or operators. The fact that a paper ballot system is unwieldy,slow, and requiries many people for collecting and counting, is a fact that works in the system's favour! It means that anyone trying to commit fraud on a large scale, will have to face a similarly unwieldy task, and he will have to get past all of these people as well.
This guy gives a nice twist on things, when confronted with the possibility of criminal charges, after uncertified software was installed on 'production' voting machines.
(from the Wired article:)
"This doesn't solve the problems," Iredal said. "It just sets a tone of confrontation at a time when we should be working together to address issues with the certification process."
Soooo... there is a problem with the certification process, rather than with the business practices at Diebold. Of course Diebold should be allowed to install whatever software they deem neccesary on the machines, we can trust them, right?
Electronic voting with this level of security and accountability would be as safe as doing a paper ballot vote, then giving all the ballots to me for counting. Of course I'd promise to count accurately, wink wink, nudge nudge.
Nedap is a Dutch company, that provides voting machines for the Dutch elections as well. By the way, these do not provide a paper trail, at least not the version used in the Netherlands.
Electronic voting has recently come under attack in the Netherlands as well. A number of parties say there is not enough accountability and auditing possible with this system. Funny how it's the left-wing parties questioning e-voting; you'd think they were the ones with a lot of trust in their government and the ability of that government to shape our society.
I'd like to add another one: speed. I take a digital camera with me on scuba dives, and it's hard enough to get a good picture, what with my trying to stay in one place and the silly fish always moving about. The camera takes 1/2 second to take the picture after I push the button, which often is long enough to spoil the framing or make the subject swim away.
For my next camera, I'll definitely be looking at the speed it takes pictures with.
I've never known any pirate who did it to make money. I know a guy who distributed for profit, but he was a wanker and as soon as people found out they stopped supplying him.
I bought a warez CD once (yes: bad, bad me)... It was sold from an ordinary apartment with a family living in it. Not a single computer in sight... and frankly, these people did not look like the types who might own a computer, much less use it to copy and distribute software. They did have boxes and boxes full of various warez CDs... obviously they had a lot of customers.
The whole thing looked like a front, and it might as well have organised crime painted all over it. That family was just selling the disks for someone else, in exchange for a small cut of the profits. Granted, this was quite a while ago, and it might well be that organised crime has taken a step back now that most stuff can be had for free on the Internet. For a fact, I see very few 'proper' (i.e. pressed rather than burned) warez CDs anymore, although from what I hear, organised software piracy is still rampant in places like the middle east, Asia and China.
Since when is buying pirated software an arrestable offence?
"Traficking in stolen goods". Knowingly buying stolen goods is an offence in many countries. I'm not sure how this would apply to software, since it isn't really stolen, but illegaly copied. Who knows? It might be illegal as well (IANAL).
I wish... they put all that effort into hunting criminals that actually hurt people (as opposed to wallets).
Rest assured that they are: the police of various countries often work together to track down terrorists and murderers. You should also realise that a lawful society depends on all laws being enforced. Things would turn into a right mess if the police would stop going after petty crime, traffic violations and fraud cases, until they had solved all murder cases.
I'd been so used to projectors losing brightness proportional to their distance that the brightness of this thing took me by surprise.
I have compared a few DLP and LCD units, and while the contrast and color of the DLPs beat the LCDs, the image of the LCDs was brighter than the DLPs with similarly powerful bulbs (no, I don't know here the DLPs leave the 'extra' light:-). To achieve the same brightness, a DLP will require a brighter bulb, which means extra $$$ and fan noise. But... if you do fork over the cash for that brighter bulb, the picture of a DLP does look a lot better.
I've compared a few units, like the much-vaunted Infocus X1 and the similarly-priced Nec VT46. Compared to the NEC, the X1's picture was rather dark... too dark for a not-quite-dark room. Since I didn't have the cash for a brighter DLP, I settled on the NEC, and so far I am very pleased with its performance.
Oh and please spend another few dollars on a proper projection screen. It's money well spent.
Good advice. Also consider the noise level: some projectors are rather quiet where others sound like a 747 taking off. Finally inquire about bulb life and cost: as a rule the bulbs are expensive.
By far the best place is indeed avsforum. just one warning, everyone raves about the infocus X1
Oh, and try to find a shop where you can see two projectors in action side-by-side, for comparison. I was sure I was going to buy the Infocus X1 (partly going by the advice on AVSForum. But after comparing a few units, I settled on the NEC VT46, with a much brighter image and significantly less fan noise. The moral of the story is: go see the unit of your choice first before spending your money.
As for buying on Ebay... if you happen to buy a secondhand unit with a bulb nearing its end, that $300 projector may need a $400 bulb replacement soon.
I think it's a little strange the BC/FC is being mounted on such a large aircraft, with slow scramble speed and low maneuverability, unless the US is planning to have many planes airborne, around the clock, which does seem somewhat wasteful.
IIRC, the power plant, optics and electronics for this system are all fairly bulky. This isn't something that you could easily fit into a fighter plane or something slightly larger. I'm not sure how much room (if any) would be left over in a 747 with one of these babies fitted, so it might not even be feasible to put one on Air Force One.
I imagine they would combine the laser with surveillance and detection functions such as AWACS or Joint STARS. In those cases it would not be such a strange idea to have one on CAP (Continuous Air Presence) over certain theatres of operation. But to defend all of the US with these would be a bit impractical.
Which leads to the question: what other stuff could they zap with this? Ground-based launchers? Enemy fighter aircraft? SAMs? Or is this thing only good against ballistic weapons?
Does anyone really think Redmond is just going to happily dispose of their $$$ and make it easy to do so at the same time?
Que Clippy: "It looks like you are trying to file a claim against Microsoft. Would you like to
- Call a service rep to help you fill out your claim form 26B/6? (0.99c / minute)
- Have your legs broken by Steve Balmer?
- Have your claim paid out in Windows ME licenses at their retail dollar value?
- All of the above?
Slashdot Mirror
But yes... I do love my HP calculators
I find the highlighting of text used in Linux (or X-windows) rather hard... it tends to include too much text or not enough, and when I then click elsewhere and move the mouse just a tiny bit as I click, I highlight another letter and I lose the text I intended to copy. From a usability standpoint, the X-Windows method is horrible. My poor mom never got to grips with it (and she's gotten used to some pretty weird OS'es in the past).
Another thing that Linux needs is a proper clipboard like Windows has. Copy anything you like: pictures, files, texts, documents. Then paste it into any application that will accept the data type. I do my day-to-day work in MS Windows, and this is one feature that I use very often, without having to think about it. Is there anything similar for Linux in the making?
The Dutch will recognise the famous quote of one of our former prime ministers ("U kunt rustig weer gaan slapen"), which exemplifies the problem I have with these politicians: the last thing they want is informed citizens butting into their affairs. They know what's best, after all.
I think it's a seriously bad idea though. I think that if a system like this would be installed in city government officials and the like, they'd spend the whole day staring at the screen, and making quick fixes to address small local problems. They might be able to spot trends and see the larger picture as well, but I fear they would start fighting symptons rather than the causes (even more than they do nowadays).
A 'SimCity' government might look at the screen and see growing waiting lists in Health Care. So, naturally they decide to build a few more hospitals and increase funding to the existing ones. Well... the waiting lists is a current problem in our country right now, but no one is fighting or even finding the real cause (hint: it isn't the amount of money we spend). In fact, the entire system of accounting in health care is set up with one goal in mind: to allow the minister of health to oversee the state and expenses in health care at a glance, and tweak the settings as apropriate. Sim City all over again, in other words.
This might be a good system for more real-time applications, like crime fighting.
1) On a free-form weblog or discussion board, it is much easier to be honest about problems. Compare that to formalised documents such as progress reports, where most people tend to play down issues because they think they can fix them themselves before the next report is due, or because they don't want to make their boss (or themselves) look bad on a formal and perpetually archived document. Good management requires good and timely information... our company has an unmoderated board with lots of flames, gripes and complaints, and if I were the CEO, I'd take a peek at that board every now and then.
2) Formalised document hierarchies can sometimes be rather a discouragement to recording the odd thought, idea or issue. Should this be a memo, briefing note, how-to, FYI bulletin, technical subsystem spec or should it go on the ARID log? Where do I file it? Does it need to be reviewed? Sometimes, not having a lot of structure can be good, and weblogs can provide such an environment.
By the way,Darl is becoming more and more like that paperboy from Better off dead. "I - want - my - 2 dollars!!!". I wonder if he will meet a similar fate in the end?
Translation: "Ok, we decided to listen to the liberal anti-IP hippies, as well as the lobbyists for the megacorps, who provide us with so many wonderful jobs." You will get the same answer from many politicians if you challenge them on their stance in this issue, or other economic issues. The problem isn't that they keep the interests of corporations in mind, after all they do provide many with their livelihood, and the well-being of corporations does help the economy as a whole. The problem is that the politicians let the corporations tell them what exactly should be done to safeguard the well-being of those corporations, and that advice often does not serve the economy or the common good.
Funny... I thought patents were invented only to serve the common good, period. Granting privileges and protection to inventors was never a goal of the inventors of patents, but a means to the end, to encourage research and the sharing of the results, for the common good. Sadly no legislator still thinks this way.
In contrast, the Netherlands is still planning to vote for the US-style patent laws. I've heard no debate or news coverage whatsoever on the subject... they probably will vote for it just because that git Bolkestein is 'our' Euro-commissioner.
That's just what they had in the military place I used to work. I notice that most larger offices and places with sensitive information are starting to use turnstyles and keycards, which amounts to the same thing. No badge = no entry. Forget your badge? You can get a 1-day pass at the security desk, but they will check your face against a photo on file, and require ID. Having reasonably good yet uncumbersome security is not that hard to implement for low-level security (i.e. against thieves). Problem is: many companies only pay passing attention to security (physical as well as electronic), and think one rent-a-cop at the door is sufficient. Also becoming more commonplace... These days, the most popular target for thieves is laptops. Easy to carry, valuable, and it's the one piece of equipment the guards will expect people to carry out.
It's funny to see how this craze is taking off in China only now... since these things have existed for ages. Also interesting to think about why these bikes haven't become popular in the Netherlands, another bike-loving country.Sparta has been selling powered bikes for years, with either an electric motor or a small gasoline-powered one.
Then again, I can understand why they aren't popular here. Firstly, there's the price tag of EUR 1750 (Look on the site under "Collectie / Electrische fiets"). Secondly... crime statistics teach us that every bike owner has his bike stolen, on average, once a year in this country. And this bike would make a particularly juicy target for thieves.
It does sound unreasonable. How about you inform your customers on Hotmail? Just tell them 'you may not get our mailings because your provider sucks'. As a customer (not a paying one, but still...) I'd hate the fact that legitimate mail to me is being withheld, because the sender isn'tt bonded.
There's no way in hell I'd pay (or deposit a bond) for some assurance that my messages get delivered to Hotmail. Next thing you know, Gmail, Yahoo, and local ISPs will demand a bond for bulk mail delivery as well, and you'll end up having to deposit thousands of bonds running into the millions of dollars.
Ebay can be a good source for cheap stuff if you don't mind buying second-hand goods. I've bought a few things dirt-cheap on Ebay... sometimes you have to take a little gamble, but generally I haven't been disappointed often, not even with items sensitive to wear and improper handling such as model airplane engines.
;)
An added bonus for the environmentally-conscious: you're helping to save the planet by recycling
Quess what, I'm still against electronic voting of this sort. The machine doesn't produce a paper trail, and there is now way to find out, ever, if fraud has taken place by the machine's supplier or operators. The fact that a paper ballot system is unwieldy
Electronic voting with this level of security and accountability would be as safe as doing a paper ballot vote, then giving all the ballots to me for counting. Of course I'd promise to count accurately, wink wink, nudge nudge.
Electronic voting has recently come under attack in the Netherlands as well. A number of parties say there is not enough accountability and auditing possible with this system. Funny how it's the left-wing parties questioning e-voting; you'd think they were the ones with a lot of trust in their government and the ability of that government to shape our society.
For my next camera, I'll definitely be looking at the speed it takes pictures with.
The whole thing looked like a front, and it might as well have organised crime painted all over it. That family was just selling the disks for someone else, in exchange for a small cut of the profits. Granted, this was quite a while ago, and it might well be that organised crime has taken a step back now that most stuff can be had for free on the Internet. For a fact, I see very few 'proper' (i.e. pressed rather than burned) warez CDs anymore, although from what I hear, organised software piracy is still rampant in places like the middle east, Asia and China.
"Traficking in stolen goods". Knowingly buying stolen goods is an offence in many countries. I'm not sure how this would apply to software, since it isn't really stolen, but illegaly copied. Who knows? It might be illegal as well (IANAL).
I've compared a few units, like the much-vaunted Infocus X1 and the similarly-priced Nec VT46. Compared to the NEC, the X1's picture was rather dark... too dark for a not-quite-dark room. Since I didn't have the cash for a brighter DLP, I settled on the NEC, and so far I am very pleased with its performance.
Oh and please spend another few dollars on a proper projection screen. It's money well spent.
Oh, and try to find a shop where you can see two projectors in action side-by-side, for comparison. I was sure I was going to buy the Infocus X1 (partly going by the advice on AVSForum. But after comparing a few units, I settled on the NEC VT46, with a much brighter image and significantly less fan noise. The moral of the story is: go see the unit of your choice first before spending your money.
As for buying on Ebay... if you happen to buy a secondhand unit with a bulb nearing its end, that $300 projector may need a $400 bulb replacement soon.
I imagine they would combine the laser with surveillance and detection functions such as AWACS or Joint STARS. In those cases it would not be such a strange idea to have one on CAP (Continuous Air Presence) over certain theatres of operation. But to defend all of the US with these would be a bit impractical.
Which leads to the question: what other stuff could they zap with this? Ground-based launchers? Enemy fighter aircraft? SAMs? Or is this thing only good against ballistic weapons?
- Call a service rep to help you fill out your claim form 26B/6? (0.99c / minute)
- Have your legs broken by Steve Balmer?
- Have your claim paid out in Windows ME licenses at their retail dollar value?
- All of the above?