They did tinker in the PC market, mostly through rebranded Olivetti systems.. but the only type of customer who would probably buy them would have been a DEC shop already.. but then getting a decent VT emulator running was very difficult, and the good ones (e.g. KEA ZSTEM) were expensive, which meant then those VTs were hard to shift.
The novel "Feed" by "Mira Grant" (a pseudonym) does indeed use something similar as a premise. A cure for the common cold and a cure for cancer have unfortunately side effects when combined.. nobody gets a cold or cancer any more, but they do turn into zombies when they die.
One unexpected legacy of the DEC years is that Windows NT is very heavily influenced by Digital's VMS OS. When Microsoft wanted to build an enterprise-ready OS, they basically hired DEC's engineers to design it for them (for example Dave Cutler). So even under the hood of Windows 7, some of that core architecture is directly influenced by DEC's work.
I do wonder what would have happened if DEC hadn't been taken over by the dead hand of Compaq. After all, IBM still sell plenty of big iron systems and there's a definite need these days for highly reliable and secure systems - of the type DEC made - for eCommerce applications.
Isn't it amazing that the FBI can get their arses into gear over Anonymous, while allowing thousands of other criminal operations to use US based servers without disturbance. I am constantly horrified by the number of malicious sites operating out of the mainland US that are clearly operating in plain sight.
China is an intriguing idea as the source for the malware.. if you think about it, China's interests are in no way served by the nuclear ambitions of Iran and North Korea. Western military action against either could be disastrous for the status quo that China depends on, but equally they might not want to side with the west. So quietly sabotaging the nuclear programmes of either or both might be an example of Realpolitik - that is, practical politics that achieves useful results rather than grand gestures.
Wikipedia wants cash, advertisers want eyeballs to look at their ads and many would dearly like to advertise on Wikipedia. Surely bringing those two things together is an obvious fix. The caveat is that the content must remain neutral, even if ads are running on it. But heck, many other publications manage to have an NPOV while accepting ads!
No great loss.. obviously there was some mileage in a backstory about the origin of the Cylons, but not a whole series. Incidentally, if you're in the UK then you've only seen the first 9 episodes of 13.. the remainder should be on in the New Year.
Big pharma companies like Novartis live and die by patents. They're not afraid to duke it out with a patent troll, as it would give their army of patent lawyers something to do. Perhaps they can do some good in this case if they can persuade the court that this practice should be curtailed.
nic.ly is very clear about this in several places in its regulations: The Applicant certifies that, to the best of his/her knowledge the domain name is not being registered for any activities/purpose not permitted under Libyan law. [..] Domain names must not contain obscene, scandalous, indecent, or contrary to Libyan law or Islamic morality words, phrases nor abbreviations.. So if vb.ly's content broke Libyan laws.. then, tough. Get a Libyan lawyer.
YouGov isn't so bad, and it's mostly a lot more interesting than Mechanical Turk, but it can take LONG time to get your £50 (although I *have* been paid).. partly because there are so many "prize draw" surveys that they do (of course, if I'd actually won a prize draw I wouldn't be complaining!)
Google Answers was a lot more interesting when it came to it.. there were potentially some decent rewards if you did the work, but it went the way of a lot of Google products (i.e. canned). But then I suppose you could always use a Freelance site for more involved works and better pay..
Well, that's how *I* would start vetting, but then I work in the IT security field and not advertising!
But.. check the WHOIS for the registration date and valid contact details, check that the registrar isn't someone odd like China or Russia, check to see where the site is hosted, check the other sites on the same server and nearby IP addresses, also check the nameservers and if you are feeling more advanced check the MX handler. DomainTools or Robtex is your friend here.. very often you will find red flags using just those checks alone.
Interesting.. but written by someone who works for Media Breakaway (formerly OptInRealBig) who don't exactly have a squeaky clean reputation when it comes to checking who they do business with.
ABC is owned by Disney. Steve Jobs owns 138 million Disney shares or about $4.7bn worth of stock. Anyone else think it odd that Disney is running a puff piece for one of its major shareholders?
You're right about signal strength bars.. they don't actually show the signal strength at all. Five bars only means that the signal is strong enough to work properly, not that it's the maximum strength. Imagine that the signal strength is acually 0 to 10, but the indicator only shows 0 to 5.. most of the time it will show 5. The same is true for a lot of battery indicators too.
Or a more accurate version.. “Upon investigation we discovered that we’d f—ked up the antenna design and were desperate to find a way out. So, ignoring the fact that the iPhone 4 actually drops calls and that covering the antenna with insulation such as a rubber bumper, tape or even nail varnish fixes the problem, we’ve come up with some guff about the displayed signal strength being wrong. So from now on, your iPhone 4 will only display 2 bars for signal strength no matter where you are, and if you have a problem with that I suggest you talk to your carrier. Hey, at least we didn’t have to shitcan our entire product line after only 42 days like Microsoft did with the KIN.. well, not yet”.
Ah crap.. I get it now..
There are in fact only THREE possible combinations - HH, HT (or TH) and TT. I can't really draw a pie chart here so you will have to imagine it.
The probability of HH = 0.25
The probability of TT = 0.25
The probability of HT = 0.5 (i.e. 0.25 + 0.25)
Given that TT is not possible because we have at least one H, then we cut a quarter out of the pie chart so it looks a bit like a pacman.
The probability of HH = 0.33
The probability of HT = 0.67
So the probability of the second one being H (or a boy) is indeed one third.
I blame it on cognitive dissonance caused by insufficient caffeine.
Someone who comes up with convoluted maths like that is probably the same type of person who thinks that they have a system to beat the roulette wheel.
Let's examine the question again: "I have two children, one of whom is a son born on a Tuesday. What is the probability that I have two boys?".. this is the same as saying "I have just tossed a 10 pence coin and it has come up heads, what is the probability that another coin toss will come up heads?". The answer is 0.5, because the second result is not influenced in any way by the first result (except in strictly biological and not mathematical circumstances).
Roulette is a similar game of probability - 18 red and 18 black numbers plus one (or two) zeroes. If you ignore the zeroes for the moment, then you could also say "I just played roulette and got a red 7. What the probability that I will get two reds?" Here the answer would be 0.5 again (if you ignored the zeroes). Of course in real life, the zero or zeroes exist and THAT is why the house always wins..
If you have an Android phone, you can download a free application called WiFi Analyzer by Kevin Yuan which scans signal strength and can identify possibly interfering networks, pretty much like NetStumbler but in a more convenient package. If you are patient enough then you can map out signal strengths in various locations when you have GOOD reception, and then compare them to what happens when you have BAD reception and see where the interference is worse.. if it's a rival WiFi network then it should be even easier!
But as others say.. the source of interference could be one of so many things in the 2.4 GHz band including DECT phones, baby monitors, microwaves or even just plain old fault equipment
Slashdot Mirror
When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth.
A useful site.. I think like a lot of other people I used it when I was skint, but I'm not now! Couldn't have used the internet without it!
A member in good standing according to the Florida Bar. Which pretty much tells you everything you need to know about the Florida Bar..
They did tinker in the PC market, mostly through rebranded Olivetti systems.. but the only type of customer who would probably buy them would have been a DEC shop already.. but then getting a decent VT emulator running was very difficult, and the good ones (e.g. KEA ZSTEM) were expensive, which meant then those VTs were hard to shift.
The novel "Feed" by "Mira Grant" (a pseudonym) does indeed use something similar as a premise. A cure for the common cold and a cure for cancer have unfortunately side effects when combined.. nobody gets a cold or cancer any more, but they do turn into zombies when they die.
Oh I really hate Octal. At least you can normally tell hex from decimal quite easily..
I do wonder what would have happened if DEC hadn't been taken over by the dead hand of Compaq. After all, IBM still sell plenty of big iron systems and there's a definite need these days for highly reliable and secure systems - of the type DEC made - for eCommerce applications.
Isn't it amazing that the FBI can get their arses into gear over Anonymous, while allowing thousands of other criminal operations to use US based servers without disturbance. I am constantly horrified by the number of malicious sites operating out of the mainland US that are clearly operating in plain sight.
China is an intriguing idea as the source for the malware.. if you think about it, China's interests are in no way served by the nuclear ambitions of Iran and North Korea. Western military action against either could be disastrous for the status quo that China depends on, but equally they might not want to side with the west. So quietly sabotaging the nuclear programmes of either or both might be an example of Realpolitik - that is, practical politics that achieves useful results rather than grand gestures.
Wikipedia wants cash, advertisers want eyeballs to look at their ads and many would dearly like to advertise on Wikipedia. Surely bringing those two things together is an obvious fix. The caveat is that the content must remain neutral, even if ads are running on it. But heck, many other publications manage to have an NPOV while accepting ads!
No great loss.. obviously there was some mileage in a backstory about the origin of the Cylons, but not a whole series. Incidentally, if you're in the UK then you've only seen the first 9 episodes of 13.. the remainder should be on in the New Year.
Big pharma companies like Novartis live and die by patents. They're not afraid to duke it out with a patent troll, as it would give their army of patent lawyers something to do. Perhaps they can do some good in this case if they can persuade the court that this practice should be curtailed.
nic.ly is very clear about this in several places in its regulations: The Applicant certifies that, to the best of his/her knowledge the domain name is not being registered for any activities/purpose not permitted under Libyan law. [..] Domain names must not contain obscene, scandalous, indecent, or contrary to Libyan law or Islamic morality words, phrases nor abbreviations.. So if vb.ly's content broke Libyan laws.. then, tough. Get a Libyan lawyer.
Remember RAM disks? Kind of an eighties thing I guess..
Google Answers was a lot more interesting when it came to it.. there were potentially some decent rewards if you did the work, but it went the way of a lot of Google products (i.e. canned). But then I suppose you could always use a Freelance site for more involved works and better pay..
Corrected.. he *used* to work for Media Breakaway (but it seems not for long!)
But.. check the WHOIS for the registration date and valid contact details, check that the registrar isn't someone odd like China or Russia, check to see where the site is hosted, check the other sites on the same server and nearby IP addresses, also check the nameservers and if you are feeling more advanced check the MX handler. DomainTools or Robtex is your friend here.. very often you will find red flags using just those checks alone.
Interesting.. but written by someone who works for Media Breakaway (formerly OptInRealBig) who don't exactly have a squeaky clean reputation when it comes to checking who they do business with.
ABC is owned by Disney. Steve Jobs owns 138 million Disney shares or about $4.7bn worth of stock. Anyone else think it odd that Disney is running a puff piece for one of its major shareholders?
You're right about signal strength bars.. they don't actually show the signal strength at all. Five bars only means that the signal is strong enough to work properly, not that it's the maximum strength. Imagine that the signal strength is acually 0 to 10, but the indicator only shows 0 to 5.. most of the time it will show 5. The same is true for a lot of battery indicators too.
Or a more accurate version.. “Upon investigation we discovered that we’d f—ked up the antenna design and were desperate to find a way out. So, ignoring the fact that the iPhone 4 actually drops calls and that covering the antenna with insulation such as a rubber bumper, tape or even nail varnish fixes the problem, we’ve come up with some guff about the displayed signal strength being wrong. So from now on, your iPhone 4 will only display 2 bars for signal strength no matter where you are, and if you have a problem with that I suggest you talk to your carrier. Hey, at least we didn’t have to shitcan our entire product line after only 42 days like Microsoft did with the KIN.. well, not yet”.
I don't know.. let's kill some rats to find out.
Ah crap.. I get it now..
There are in fact only THREE possible combinations - HH, HT (or TH) and TT. I can't really draw a pie chart here so you will have to imagine it.
The probability of HH = 0.25
The probability of TT = 0.25
The probability of HT = 0.5 (i.e. 0.25 + 0.25)
Given that TT is not possible because we have at least one H, then we cut a quarter out of the pie chart so it looks a bit like a pacman.
The probability of HH = 0.33
The probability of HT = 0.67
So the probability of the second one being H (or a boy) is indeed one third.
I blame it on cognitive dissonance caused by insufficient caffeine.
Let's examine the question again: "I have two children, one of whom is a son born on a Tuesday. What is the probability that I have two boys?" .. this is the same as saying "I have just tossed a 10 pence coin and it has come up heads, what is the probability that another coin toss will come up heads?". The answer is 0.5, because the second result is not influenced in any way by the first result (except in strictly biological and not mathematical circumstances).
Roulette is a similar game of probability - 18 red and 18 black numbers plus one (or two) zeroes. If you ignore the zeroes for the moment, then you could also say "I just played roulette and got a red 7. What the probability that I will get two reds?" Here the answer would be 0.5 again (if you ignored the zeroes). Of course in real life, the zero or zeroes exist and THAT is why the house always wins..
If you have an Android phone, you can download a free application called WiFi Analyzer by Kevin Yuan which scans signal strength and can identify possibly interfering networks, pretty much like NetStumbler but in a more convenient package. If you are patient enough then you can map out signal strengths in various locations when you have GOOD reception, and then compare them to what happens when you have BAD reception and see where the interference is worse.. if it's a rival WiFi network then it should be even easier! But as others say.. the source of interference could be one of so many things in the 2.4 GHz band including DECT phones, baby monitors, microwaves or even just plain old fault equipment