(Pan into Claria's Vice President D. Reed Freeman office. He's sitting at his desk putting the finishing touches on Gator II, and looks at his watch.) Boy it's late, look at the... (In a flash G-man from HL2 shows up in front of him and everything freezes.) Time, Mr. Freeman? Is it really that time again? It seems as if you only just arrived. You've done a great deal in a small time span. You've done so well, in fact, that I've received some interesting offers for your services. Ordinarily, I wouldn't contemplate them... but these *are* extraordinary times. Rather than offer you the illusion of free choice, I will take the liberty of choosing for you... if and when your time comes round again. I do apologize for what must seem to you an arbitrary imposition, Mr. Freeman. I trust it will all make sense to you in the course of... well... I'm really not at liberty to say. In the meantime... this is where I get off. (They both disappear, and are teleported to Homeland Security headquarters.)
I suppose the same thing could be applied to electric and hybrid cars. It would make their electrical use more efficient and give them more mileage. Plus you wouldn't have an unfashionable and ugly solar collector on the roof, it would just be integrated into the paint job.
Guess it would give new meaning to "Electric Blue" huh...
"Save the Earth??? The Earth is fine! The people are f**ked." - George Carlin
I don't understand why scientists insist on saying the Earth is in danger. The Earth doesn't care, it's a rock. Maybe if they start saying The Human Race is in "serious, imminent, unavoidable danger" people might pay attention.
I would like to create custom subliminal CDs for my own use.
I can imagine... "Oh, you like Billy Joel? I just happen to have his CD here! Let's have a listen!"
In the middle of the night (have sex with me)
I go walking in my dreams (you dream of me)
Through the mountains of faith (let me touch your mountains)
To a river so deep (I go really deep)
Quite possibly the worst printer I have ever had the displeasure of working on was the HP4500/4550 series color LaserJets. It's a tumbler design, each color has it's own section of a big drum that rotates to put the toner on the paper. This rotating drum get so dirty with extra toner that it either collects on the bottom or it cross-contaminates the other colors. It also takes over 5 minutes just to warm up/calibrate/initialize, which really annoys the hell out of you when you have to keep power-cycling the printer. The final straw was a few of the printers started failing at the same time, just spitting out blank paper until the tray ran dry. Turns out it was a bad batch of image transfer belts which of course you can't find any information about on HP's support site. Bah...
When you think about it, if the laser is hot enough you can use it in army situations. ie, soldier get's his arm shot off, you can use it to cotterize the wound and stop the bleeding. Heck, strong enough you could be packing a laser to blind the opposition or paint a building for a laser guided bomb.
I suppose it's only good for day attacks, or at least perhaps they can use a bunch of those really strong search lights and hope for the best...
That is very cool...
But I'm wondering if this would be a way to host "unsavory" web sites. For example, if you were posting code for building worms or a hate web site. It's easier to hide a ipaq then it is to hide a tower, monitor, keyboard, etc.
As an old veteren in Customer Tech Support, I can easily tell you why you encountered unhelpful and sometimes nasty people.
With the recent economic downturn and the companies treating employees like trading cards, the kind that everyone has and no one cares about, customer service will suffer.
Resons for this are: 1) Low employee morale. After worrying about layoffs, cutbacks, inflation, and the like, is it really any wonder why analysts and representitives have a hard time keeping cheerful? 2) Ineffective call centers. Combine a high turnover rate with layoffs, and you have the equivilant of a department that was just thrown together for the first time. Training sessions are cut short or do not exist. Simple things like where to send particular calls are probably missed or skipped for more important things like pressure selling. 3) Ineffective policies and procedures. When I worked for an ISP help desk, we won't mention any names (TELUS), we prided ourselves on answering 80% of calls under 20 seconds, and our customers enjoyed that kind of service. Now that companies want to cut their costs wherever they can, they increase the wait times so that customers will try to get help from the web site or e-mail or live chat, much less in cost the the telephone. I'm sure Mr Katz would rather have a live body then spend time looking for a solution on the net which probably isn't there, so would a lot of consumers. So increase the wait time, that increases the frustration and anger, and by the time you get the person you need you tend to hit them with both barrels. Needless to say that wouldn't leave me with the happy-go-lucky feeling if I had to contend with pissed off customers all day.
So try not to blame the analyst, they are only humans trying to keep their jobs, their livlyhood, and their sanity.
Anything else I can help you with? Have a great day! (click) Idiot.
"We assume in this book that animal life will be somehow Earth-like. We take the perhaps jingoistic stance that Earth-life is every-life, that lessons from Earth are not only guides but also rules. We assume that DNA is the only way, rather than only one way" (p. 282).
It's not a bad assumption in my mind. It's hard to think of another form of life without some of our features being as industrial as we are. The human body is well adapted not only to our climate but for creating as well.
While I know it is only a movie, in K-PAX they were discussing why the alian was in the form of a human. The alian responded it was like a drop of water, formed to what was the least resistance. The human form was the best suited for the environment.
I'm firm believer that science is universal, and that for another life to contact us must at least have some means to put together a transistor radio.
I know TELUS in Alberta tried providing cable service. They even had given prototype boxes out to a test group of subscribers (including the internet help desk, that's how I know.) It was a great picture, but they had so many problems and lack of interest that the shut it down.
Plus, I don't think this would expand the telecommunication territory. The Digital Cable add-on to the DSL line does not help the fact that if you are too far away from the central office, you still can't get a strong enough signal for DLS to be useful. I would suggest they fix that first before tackling digital cable, because frankly cable companies are kicking ass over both issues.
So I guess they shouldn't expect a christmas card from you huh?
Of course someone with a brain would also realize the first line in the story was the submitter's real words, hence the quote marks. While I'm sure/. could have put in [trying to use] to make the sentence clearer, they are not obligated to. In fact, I know I would hate if they edited all of my submissions...
And just so you know,/. has more credibility then they could ever need.
A book I found good is the Linux Core Kernal Commentary. It's by Scott Maxwell and published by CoriolisOpen Press. It comes with in-depth code annotation and a CD full of useful tools.
That's not saying much for security if all someone has to do is attach a tap at some point of the barbed wire, or powerline, or kite string, or whatever...
Microsoft brings it on it's own head by it's anti-competitive nature, and the success it has had. All it requires is one hacker to be annoyed at something Microsoft has done, exploit a vunerability, and publish it. The script kiddies will do the rest. When MS blocked netscape users from the MSN website is an example of what can set the fuse.
I do have a question. Why not just remove the article after you find out that it's a duplicate? Judging by the... er... quality of comments, is it really worth it to keep the article up?
Yahoo has a simplified article on it as only they can.
Who want's to bet the government was already listening on the line? "Sir, it's morse code. They are saying 'ssssssssssssss'?"
The initial request for questions almost paints you as the Champion selected to fight the good fight of online rights. Meaning no disrespect, I appreciate people trying to be heard, but did you always want to champion a cause like this or were you drawn into it from a past incident?
"Although the fans alter their speed in response to temperature changes, there's no fail-safe mechanism for the entire system. "
I bet there's no failsafe for the cooling system either. Pumps can break just as easily as fans, and what happens when the water stops flowing? Or for that matter if the tubes get pinched by a geek in a hurry?
Still, it is an interesting idea. Does anyone know if ThinkGeek is going to include this in their "tricked out" computer? Tubes with liquid flowing in a case with a flourecent light would be cool... How about some tiny sparkles in it too, or some substance to make it glow in the dark?:)
Just like Russia back in the good old days. Except here officers would say please after asking for your papers...
This is a horse that just won't die, and it worries me how many people are actually considering it. At least here in Alberta, our premier knows what to think of National ID cards.
Slashdot Mirror
(Pan into Claria's Vice President D. Reed Freeman office. He's sitting at his desk putting the finishing touches on Gator II, and looks at his watch.) ...
Boy it's late, look at the
(In a flash G-man from HL2 shows up in front of him and everything freezes.)
Time, Mr. Freeman? Is it really that time again? It seems as if you only just arrived. You've done a great deal in a small time span. You've done so well, in fact, that I've received some interesting offers for your services.
Ordinarily, I wouldn't contemplate them... but these *are* extraordinary times.
Rather than offer you the illusion of free choice, I will take the liberty of choosing for you... if and when your time comes round again. I do apologize for what must seem to you an arbitrary imposition, Mr. Freeman. I trust it will all make sense to you in the course of... well... I'm really not at liberty to say. In the meantime... this is where I get off.
(They both disappear, and are teleported to Homeland Security headquarters.)
Geez, how disturbing is that?
I suppose the same thing could be applied to electric and hybrid cars. It would make their electrical use more efficient and give them more mileage. Plus you wouldn't have an unfashionable and ugly solar collector on the roof, it would just be integrated into the paint job.
Guess it would give new meaning to "Electric Blue" huh...
"Save the Earth??? The Earth is fine! The people are f**ked." - George Carlin
I don't understand why scientists insist on saying the Earth is in danger. The Earth doesn't care, it's a rock. Maybe if they start saying The Human Race is in "serious, imminent, unavoidable danger" people might pay attention.
No, probably not.
I would like to create custom subliminal CDs for my own use.
I can imagine... "Oh, you like Billy Joel? I just happen to have his CD here! Let's have a listen!"
In the middle of the night (have sex with me)
I go walking in my dreams (you dream of me)
Through the mountains of faith (let me touch your mountains)
To a river so deep (I go really deep)
Quite possibly the worst printer I have ever had the displeasure of working on was the HP4500/4550 series color LaserJets. It's a tumbler design, each color has it's own section of a big drum that rotates to put the toner on the paper. This rotating drum get so dirty with extra toner that it either collects on the bottom or it cross-contaminates the other colors. It also takes over 5 minutes just to warm up/calibrate/initialize, which really annoys the hell out of you when you have to keep power-cycling the printer.
The final straw was a few of the printers started failing at the same time, just spitting out blank paper until the tray ran dry. Turns out it was a bad batch of image transfer belts which of course you can't find any information about on HP's support site.
Bah...
Seeing as everyone else is playing with google over this...
Query: ask slashdot ADD insightful comments -"insensitive clod" -"karma whore" -"Katz"
Hmm, 2310, not bad.
Here's where the show finally jumps the shark...
When you think about it, if the laser is hot enough you can use it in army situations. ie, soldier get's his arm shot off, you can use it to cotterize the wound and stop the bleeding. Heck, strong enough you could be packing a laser to blind the opposition or paint a building for a laser guided bomb. I suppose it's only good for day attacks, or at least perhaps they can use a bunch of those really strong search lights and hope for the best...
That is very cool... But I'm wondering if this would be a way to host "unsavory" web sites. For example, if you were posting code for building worms or a hate web site. It's easier to hide a ipaq then it is to hide a tower, monitor, keyboard, etc.
As an old veteren in Customer Tech Support, I can easily tell you why you encountered unhelpful and sometimes nasty people.
With the recent economic downturn and the companies treating employees like trading cards, the kind that everyone has and no one cares about, customer service will suffer.
Resons for this are:
1) Low employee morale. After worrying about layoffs, cutbacks, inflation, and the like, is it really any wonder why analysts and representitives have a hard time keeping cheerful?
2) Ineffective call centers. Combine a high turnover rate with layoffs, and you have the equivilant of a department that was just thrown together for the first time. Training sessions are cut short or do not exist. Simple things like where to send particular calls are probably missed or skipped for more important things like pressure selling.
3) Ineffective policies and procedures. When I worked for an ISP help desk, we won't mention any names (TELUS), we prided ourselves on answering 80% of calls under 20 seconds, and our customers enjoyed that kind of service. Now that companies want to cut their costs wherever they can, they increase the wait times so that customers will try to get help from the web site or e-mail or live chat, much less in cost the the telephone. I'm sure Mr Katz would rather have a live body then spend time looking for a solution on the net which probably isn't there, so would a lot of consumers. So increase the wait time, that increases the frustration and anger, and by the time you get the person you need you tend to hit them with both barrels. Needless to say that wouldn't leave me with the happy-go-lucky feeling if I had to contend with pissed off customers all day.
So try not to blame the analyst, they are only humans trying to keep their jobs, their livlyhood, and their sanity.
Anything else I can help you with? Have a great day! (click) Idiot.
"We assume in this book that animal life will be somehow Earth-like. We take the perhaps jingoistic stance that Earth-life is every-life, that lessons from Earth are not only guides but also rules. We assume that DNA is the only way, rather than only one way" (p. 282).
It's not a bad assumption in my mind. It's hard to think of another form of life without some of our features being as industrial as we are. The human body is well adapted not only to our climate but for creating as well.
While I know it is only a movie, in K-PAX they were discussing why the alian was in the form of a human. The alian responded it was like a drop of water, formed to what was the least resistance. The human form was the best suited for the environment.
I'm firm believer that science is universal, and that for another life to contact us must at least have some means to put together a transistor radio.
Well I guess this beats some boring story other people will tell their kids of how they proposed...
I know TELUS in Alberta tried providing cable service. They even had given prototype boxes out to a test group of subscribers (including the internet help desk, that's how I know.) It was a great picture, but they had so many problems and lack of interest that the shut it down.
Plus, I don't think this would expand the telecommunication territory. The Digital Cable add-on to the DSL line does not help the fact that if you are too far away from the central office, you still can't get a strong enough signal for DLS to be useful. I would suggest they fix that first before tackling digital cable, because frankly cable companies are kicking ass over both issues.
So I guess they shouldn't expect a christmas card from you huh?
/. could have put in [trying to use] to make the sentence clearer, they are not obligated to. In fact, I know I would hate if they edited all of my submissions...
/. has more credibility then they could ever need.
Of course someone with a brain would also realize the first line in the story was the submitter's real words, hence the quote marks. While I'm sure
And just so you know,
</flame>
A book I found good is the Linux Core Kernal Commentary. It's by Scott Maxwell and published by CoriolisOpen Press. It comes with in-depth code annotation and a CD full of useful tools.
If you're interested the ISBN is 1-57610-469-9
Is Lindows going to honor the GPL of programs they are obviously going to borrow from the *nix community?
Will Lindows make their source code available?
That's not saying much for security if all someone has to do is attach a tap at some point of the barbed wire, or powerline, or kite string, or whatever...
Hmm, die painfully, or die eventually. I think I'll take the latter.
Microsoft brings it on it's own head by it's anti-competitive nature, and the success it has had. All it requires is one hacker to be annoyed at something Microsoft has done, exploit a vunerability, and publish it. The script kiddies will do the rest. When MS blocked netscape users from the MSN website is an example of what can set the fuse.
We still luv ya... :)
I do have a question. Why not just remove the article after you find out that it's a duplicate? Judging by the... er... quality of comments, is it really worth it to keep the article up?
Yahoo has a simplified article on it as only they can. Who want's to bet the government was already listening on the line? "Sir, it's morse code. They are saying 'ssssssssssssss'?"
The initial request for questions almost paints you as the Champion selected to fight the good fight of online rights. Meaning no disrespect, I appreciate people trying to be heard, but did you always want to champion a cause like this or were you drawn into it from a past incident?
"Although the fans alter their speed in response to temperature changes, there's no fail-safe mechanism for the entire system. "
:)
I bet there's no failsafe for the cooling system either. Pumps can break just as easily as fans, and what happens when the water stops flowing? Or for that matter if the tubes get pinched by a geek in a hurry?
Still, it is an interesting idea. Does anyone know if ThinkGeek is going to include this in their "tricked out" computer? Tubes with liquid flowing in a case with a flourecent light would be cool... How about some tiny sparkles in it too, or some substance to make it glow in the dark?
Just like Russia back in the good old days.
Except here officers would say please after asking for your papers...
This is a horse that just won't die, and it worries me how many people are actually considering it. At least here in Alberta, our premier knows what to think of National ID cards.
Here's hoping the creators of Internet v2.0 learn from the mistakes and lessons of Internet v1.0.
I'll drink to that...