Re:The worst of it all...
on
SCO Nigerian Spam
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
I am a little shocked by people falling over Nigerian scams, even when it was unpopular. My grandfather received the first one I ever saw, several years ago, and being over 80 years old. He laughed his ass off, and called us over to see it. He is quite intelligent, though. I've seen the gleam in some people's eyes when getting a Nigerian scam; it's the same as when they're buying a lottery ticket. Hoping it may be true...
It was solved by buying a cheap iBook (which is now, by far, my favorite computer), and using Remote Desktop Connection to operate a desktop Win-XP Pro PC.
Microsoft bashing aside, RDP works well enough for me, and it solved my problem perfectly too: badass Intel/AMD hardware inside my little iBook (Virtual PC on this thing is SLOW). Of course, this way I have all of the advantages of having both computers.
This solution is certainly not for everyone, but for me it works like a charm.
I really like the idea of the "digital darkroom", and I love the instant gratification and feedback I get from the digital camera. I had the patience for the darkroom once, but it's really difficult to set up in a small apartment, and having a real job (TM), I can't find the time to do it. To me, the camera's recording of the conditions and parameters that go into each shot is a great learning tool. There are some film cameras that do this, but they're expensive...
My problem is, I think, more with the Nikon Coolpix 4300 I bought than with digital itself. I like the lens and the image quality very much (in fact, the pictures I pointed to wit ere taken with the Coolpix, and look great even at 8x10"). It's the feel of the camera that bothers me; it is small and light, but difficult to hold, and the viewfinder is useless.
You have a Beseler SLR? I have a nice Beseler enlarger:)
I think your photos are very good, by the way. The Jefferson memorial framed by blossoms is great!
Cheers, Jorge
When I was 16, a friend lent me a good camera to try for a couple of weeks. Until then, I had *no* idea what it was about. Those two weeks were full of lame, unfocused, blurred photos. But I had fallen in love; I still can't explain why very well, but I have been into photography ever since.
I enjoy the whole process, from composing and shooting, to developing in the darkroom. Sadly, the darkroom takes an enormous amount of time and requires a decent room, which I don't have now. Even so, the thrill of watching the pictures appear slowly on the paper, rocking the trays gently, taking the time to look at each negative slowly... it's lots of fun, but takes TONS of time. Despite my geekiness, which made me buy a digital camera recently, I still prefer film by far. I think it has to do with the camera itself, more than the media, but this is the first time I've thought of selling any $GADGET I've bought.
I recently went to a photo workshop in Valparaiso (large seaport in Chile), and had two of my pictures published in our largest dead-tree newspaper. They are available online too if you'd like to critique:-)
I am writing this on my fully loaded PC, which dual boots WinXP and Gentoo Linux. However, since I bought an iBook, I've been using it more and more, and the PC less and less. The tools are great, the design is great, and it *is* UNIX for all I care, with the best interface I've seen.
I managed to switch the servers at work from Windows to Linux, saving tons of money in the process, and I love Linux on the server. For myself, though, the iBook was it; I don't think I'll buy a PC again, and I'm already lusting after the Powerbooks.
This music service is more icing on the cake. When billing outside the US is available, I'm gonna use it. I've already shown the Music Store to a couple of friends, who were impressed enough that they're switching in the next days. Some of them are avid Kazaa users, but they realize the inconvenience is huge, and they know they hurt the artist by P2Ping their songs; they want to pay for their music, and this was just at the sweet spot. The non-obtrusive DRM helped too.
*snip*... I'm fully ready to start becoming a full-fledged, card carrying Mac whore *snip*
Command-line Windows?
I knew there had to be a reason for the Lindows controversy. Let's see...*Pictures B. Gates thinking hard*
1. Windows-without-Windows? Lame...
2. Non-Windows? Lamer...
3. Disk Operating System? Nah, used that one already.
4. Command-Line Windows? Mmmm... has potential...
5. command Line-Windows?
6. Lindows!
So it's in use? *Picks up phone...*
</tinfoil hat>
I have a close friend who works for a medical research institution here in Chile. They research contraceptives and provide free reproductive health care for extremely poor people. They are supported, to a large extent, by grants from the Gates Foundation. Think what you may about Microsoft, I think Mr. Gates has done some really good things through the Foundation.
AFAIK, the Gates Foundation is also responsible for vaccines for millions of African kids, in places where the government can't or won't do it.
Living in Santiago, I can testify they luckily did. Using a backup server, they were able to restore traffic to normal within 6 hours.
I'd like to clarify a few points, though. Our traffic lights are fully autonomous, but the stolen computers analyze traffic flow via cameras at critical junctions and synchronize the lights from one crossroads to the next.
This works so well that, even when traffic is extremely heavy, cars keep moving along. On most mornings and evenings, if you are going "with the flow" you can drive for miles without getting a red light.
On the subject of security: apart from stealing the alarm system (we thought that was funny, too), they removed heavy cast-iron bars from a window to enter this office. To do this, they had to break down part of the wall. This was obviously a well-planned, well executed heist.
Thus, you are basically looking at light bulbs when you use your monitors. As a result, your eye sight gets worse.
I used computers more than 15 hours/day.
So, I also hope new display technology which is not so bad for eyes.
I'll bite.
As a M.D., heavy computer user, and having gone through eye surgery myself, I've put a lot of reading into precisely this. I get this kind of question asked on a daily basis.
Short version: This is false. Monitors do not worsen your eyesight.
Long version: Computer display devices do not have, and they are not, light bulbs. LCD displays carry a small fluorescent tube to provide backlighting. In a CRT, as probably all/. readers know, an electron beam is used to excite a phosphor coating on the tube, which then glows. This has nothing to do with the way a lightbulb works.
There are, however, certain things that can give you the idea that your eyesight's getting worse. Your eyes naturally focus at infinity, which means that the muscles which stretch the lens for focusing rest when you look at a far-off point (20 feet away or more).
As you grow older (and I mean from 15 years on), the lens becomes more and more rigid, and your focusing muscles must work harder to focus nearer. Ultimately, you just can not focus close enough to read (which is a normal condition) and must wear eyeglasses to do it (at 50 yrs approx).
This means that, as time goes by, you have to strain more and more to look at the screen, will see it blurry from time to time when your muscles get tired and can't focus properly (and yes, they do get tired), and might get headaches from the effort expended.
Is this is the case, an optometrist can provide eyeglasses to look at the screen with your eyes focused at infinity. Sitting farther from the computer will also help.
This thing doesn't even have the company name on its return address, it's just called Expiration Department.
This is just an attempt to snare unsuspecting customers aware from other registrars, apparently earning a tidy profit for Verisign (Go Daddy software complains that that Verisign charges $29.95 instead of their $8.95)
You can PLAY the DVD, record the analog signal, and encode that for VCD, and the quality will still be perfectly good, for VCD.
Well, you could do it, but that's the reason DVD players are required to have Macrovision protection (you probably have seen it; shifting, wavy lines) to be licensed. Granted, you can buy Macrovision-defeating hardware, but that makes it more difficult.
I think no one's said it's impossible; you could, for instance, point a camcorder at the screen, but the quality would suck seriously.
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I am a little shocked by people falling over Nigerian scams, even when it was unpopular. My grandfather received the first one I ever saw, several years ago, and being over 80 years old. He laughed his ass off, and called us over to see it. He is quite intelligent, though. I've seen the gleam in some people's eyes when getting a Nigerian scam; it's the same as when they're buying a lottery ticket. Hoping it may be true...
It was solved by buying a cheap iBook (which is now, by far, my favorite computer), and using Remote Desktop Connection to operate a desktop Win-XP Pro PC.
Microsoft bashing aside, RDP works well enough for me, and it solved my problem perfectly too: badass Intel/AMD hardware inside my little iBook (Virtual PC on this thing is SLOW). Of course, this way I have all of the advantages of having both computers.
This solution is certainly not for everyone, but for me it works like a charm.
Cheers,
Jorge
I really like the idea of the "digital darkroom", and I love the instant gratification and feedback I get from the digital camera. I had the patience for the darkroom once, but it's really difficult to set up in a small apartment, and having a real job (TM), I can't find the time to do it. To me, the camera's recording of the conditions and parameters that go into each shot is a great learning tool. There are some film cameras that do this, but they're expensive... :)
My problem is, I think, more with the Nikon Coolpix 4300 I bought than with digital itself. I like the lens and the image quality very much (in fact, the pictures I pointed to wit ere taken with the Coolpix, and look great even at 8x10"). It's the feel of the camera that bothers me; it is small and light, but difficult to hold, and the viewfinder is useless.
You have a Beseler SLR? I have a nice Beseler enlarger
I think your photos are very good, by the way. The Jefferson memorial framed by blossoms is great!
Cheers, Jorge
When I was 16, a friend lent me a good camera to try for a couple of weeks. Until then, I had *no* idea what it was about. Those two weeks were full of lame, unfocused, blurred photos. But I had fallen in love; I still can't explain why very well, but I have been into photography ever since. :-)
I enjoy the whole process, from composing and shooting, to developing in the darkroom. Sadly, the darkroom takes an enormous amount of time and requires a decent room, which I don't have now. Even so, the thrill of watching the pictures appear slowly on the paper, rocking the trays gently, taking the time to look at each negative slowly... it's lots of fun, but takes TONS of time. Despite my geekiness, which made me buy a digital camera recently, I still prefer film by far. I think it has to do with the camera itself, more than the media, but this is the first time I've thought of selling any $GADGET I've bought.
I recently went to a photo workshop in Valparaiso (large seaport in Chile), and had two of my pictures published in our largest dead-tree newspaper. They are available online too if you'd like to critique
I am writing this on my fully loaded PC, which dual boots WinXP and Gentoo Linux. However, since I bought an iBook, I've been using it more and more, and the PC less and less. The tools are great, the design is great, and it *is* UNIX for all I care, with the best interface I've seen.
I managed to switch the servers at work from Windows to Linux, saving tons of money in the process, and I love Linux on the server. For myself, though, the iBook was it; I don't think I'll buy a PC again, and I'm already lusting after the Powerbooks.
This music service is more icing on the cake. When billing outside the US is available, I'm gonna use it. I've already shown the Music Store to a couple of friends, who were impressed enough that they're switching in the next days. Some of them are avid Kazaa users, but they realize the inconvenience is huge, and they know they hurt the artist by P2Ping their songs; they want to pay for their music, and this was just at the sweet spot. The non-obtrusive DRM helped too.
*snip*... I'm fully ready to start becoming a full-fledged, card carrying Mac whore *snip*
I think I already did...
Command-line Windows?
I knew there had to be a reason for the Lindows controversy. Let's see...*Pictures B. Gates thinking hard*
1. Windows-without-Windows? Lame...
2. Non-Windows? Lamer...
3. Disk Operating System? Nah, used that one already.
4. Command-Line Windows? Mmmm... has potential...
5. command Line-Windows?
6. Lindows!
So it's in use? *Picks up phone...*
</tinfoil hat>
...but in an automated invoicing system written for my current clients, the main invoicing function call is, of course, Invoice-O-Matic() :-)
I have a close friend who works for a medical research institution here in Chile. They research contraceptives and provide free reproductive health care for extremely poor people. They are supported, to a large extent, by grants from the Gates Foundation. Think what you may about Microsoft, I think Mr. Gates has done some really good things through the Foundation.
AFAIK, the Gates Foundation is also responsible for vaccines for millions of African kids, in places where the government can't or won't do it.
Living in Santiago, I can testify they luckily did. Using a backup server, they were able to restore traffic to normal within 6 hours.
I'd like to clarify a few points, though. Our traffic lights are fully autonomous, but the stolen computers analyze traffic flow via cameras at critical junctions and synchronize the lights from one crossroads to the next.
This works so well that, even when traffic is extremely heavy, cars keep moving along. On most mornings and evenings, if you are going "with the flow" you can drive for miles without getting a red light.
On the subject of security: apart from stealing the alarm system (we thought that was funny, too), they removed heavy cast-iron bars from a window to enter this office. To do this, they had to break down part of the wall. This was obviously a well-planned, well executed heist.
Thus, you are basically looking at light bulbs when you use your monitors. As a result, your eye sight gets worse. I used computers more than 15 hours/day. So, I also hope new display technology which is not so bad for eyes.
I'll bite.As a M.D., heavy computer user, and having gone through eye surgery myself, I've put a lot of reading into precisely this. I get this kind of question asked on a daily basis.
Short version: This is false. Monitors do not worsen your eyesight.
Long version: Computer display devices do not have, and they are not, light bulbs. LCD displays carry a small fluorescent tube to provide backlighting. In a CRT, as probably allThere are, however, certain things that can give you the idea that your eyesight's getting worse. Your eyes naturally focus at infinity, which means that the muscles which stretch the lens for focusing rest when you look at a far-off point (20 feet away or more).
As you grow older (and I mean from 15 years on), the lens becomes more and more rigid, and your focusing muscles must work harder to focus nearer. Ultimately, you just can not focus close enough to read (which is a normal condition) and must wear eyeglasses to do it (at 50 yrs approx).
This means that, as time goes by, you have to strain more and more to look at the screen, will see it blurry from time to time when your muscles get tired and can't focus properly (and yes, they do get tired), and might get headaches from the effort expended.
Is this is the case, an optometrist can provide eyeglasses to look at the screen with your eyes focused at infinity. Sitting farther from the computer will also help.
This thing doesn't even have the company name on its return address, it's just called Expiration Department.
This is just an attempt to snare unsuspecting customers aware from other registrars, apparently earning a tidy profit for Verisign (Go Daddy software complains that that Verisign charges $29.95 instead of their $8.95)
You can PLAY the DVD, record the analog signal, and encode that for VCD, and the quality will still be perfectly good, for VCD.
Well, you could do it, but that's the reason DVD players are required to have Macrovision protection (you probably have seen it; shifting, wavy lines) to be licensed. Granted, you can buy Macrovision-defeating hardware, but that makes it more difficult. I think no one's said it's impossible; you could, for instance, point a camcorder at the screen, but the quality would suck seriously.