What's so bad about product activation? It just registers your product electronically to make sure that you're not pirating the software.
It also ensures that you have to call them and grovel if you upgrade your system between tax years.
In order to bring 2001 tax info forward into the 2002 software, you have to have both versions of the program installed. Except that the previous version is already installed on a "different computer"(same HD, different MB)
And don't get me started about them requiring Internet Despoiler to be installed as well.
Does this mean that most of the computers at my work are suddenly going to die?
If MS-Dos, Win3.1 and Win 95 are dead, there'll only be 2 computers left at work with "living" operating systems.
Yes, we still have a few 486s running DOS or 3.1 doing dumb terminal and data logging stuff. Why upgrade if the tools ya got work fine? (C'mon Billy, answer that one. I dare you.)
A few months ago, ALbertsons began giving away free discount cards that track your purchases.
Safeway has been doing this for several years. I try to avoid them as much as possible, but if the deal is too good to pass up (especially a loss leader - costs them money for me to buy) I'll use my mother-in-law's card. They don't need to know that she died four years ago.
Yeah, I know I'm posting from my Windows machine. My FreeBSD machine is in the other room, with the AV gear. It's pretending to be a jukebox right now. When I finally scrape together enough nickles for a new machine, then my main machine will dual boot win/bsd.
Like others have said, games are a big part of my keeping winsows at home. That and the tax software that my wife and I use is Windows only. (anyone know of Linux/BSD Canadian tax software?)
The vid wall solution is much brighter than a projector could be on any screen. A better option if lighting isn't entirely controllable in the viewing area.(think trade show booth, lecture theater where there is a demonstration involved, outdoors)
On the other hand, it's a pretty cool thing to do 'just because you can'.
That is not required in every state, nor in every country.
For instance, in Canada, as long as one party to the conversation is aware that the recording is happening, then it's ok.
Anyways its clear that this device doesn't use a service to get its listings, and apparently it has to be programmed like an old style VCR.
Which means it will not be tied to a subscription (like TIVO), which further means that it will likely be available in Canada (unlike TIVO).
Besides, it's not that hard to program an old school VCR.
an employee's file-sharing on company time is a waste of resources,
And for this reason my employer has a written policy forbidding the use of P2P clients and IM clients on company computers.
Thge policy also forbids surfing porn, and web sites promoting illegal activities (hacking pages, etc).
There is some kind of content filter at the gateway which occasionally triggers on keywords, and seems to have a ban list of sites that the admins feel the policy forbids.
Dosen't bother me, as my cable modem at home is faster than the shared bandwidth at work.
Ericsson's core switching products (at least what I work on - 212/20 and 212/30) are running on 68xxx processors, and a proprietary OS called PLEX. AFAIK you can't be taught PLEX unless you are an Ericsson employee, so I don't know how *nix-like it is.
We did test a VOIP product that Ericsson was selling, and it was based on NT, but I belive it was not something that they had developed themselves, but rather from a smaller vendor that they bought out.
FWIW, we returned the test system.
Ericsson's support (billing, maintainence, monitoring)software runs on SPARC stations, but that isn't carrying the customer traffic.
The (recently defunct) AT&T wireless airplane phone system was heavily Sun based. Each base station had a SPARC 5 built into it, and their control center monitored the network with more SPARCs.
The other one marketed by sony, plays only a special devices, which do play DVD movies and CD audio, but WON'T play this simple DVD music format (not quite sure how it recognizes it versus... Anyways, Which do you think will catch on?
Go to the polling station.
Mark an X in the circle.
Votes are counted while the scrutineers watch.
Time-honoured, simple, distributed computing system. Works great.
... and we know who won the election within a few hours of the polls closing.
How can you make art out of one of the most annoying sounds in existence?
In Frank Zappa's book, he answers the old 'what is art' question by saying (misquoted from memory) "when someone creates something and declares it to be art, then he has created art, and has become an artist".
Of course, no one has to agree with any artist that is is good art, or that there is any point to it.
Yup. That's the obvious answer.
From the story: While other kinds of telecom prices--from long-distance and wireless-phone rates to super-high-speed oc-3 lines--have fallen, prices for high-speed cable and DSL connections have actually risen.
People vote with their wallets. If you want to sell more of anything it has to be percieved as being worth the money.
For most people, internet connectivity is not nescessary, and a faster connection is even less so. Especially for 3x the money.
You also might not know it, but the crime RATES in this country have been dropping for some time.
Effect.
With that said, how come there are more cops than 20 years ago
Cause.
Obviously, it's not a 1:1 relationship, but it is a contributing factor.
Now, if they could weed out the (very few) bad apples that manage to get into policing, maybe people would start trusting them again.
More trust of police -> more co-operation with police -> more bad guys caught -> less crime. Or something like that.
But whenever you have a high power signal there is a dead spot around the antenna that spreads like a cone from the top of the antenna down.
I've heard that referred to as the "umbrella effect" or simply as shadowing. Usually I would expect to see that happening quite near the tower, but it depends on the design of the antenna.
Depending on what kind of antenna (or array of antennae) WWV is using, the signal could have a narrow vertical beamwidth. No point in wasting power by directing it into the dirt, or at the moon.
Of course, if they are using a vertical 1/4 wave antenna, in the style of AM broadcasters, what I have been babbling about isn't relevant. (For those who aren't familliar with AM broadcast, the transmitting antenna IS the tower. The tower is built to a height of 1/4 wavelength of the signal, and is sitting on a big insulator)
I'm more concerned that they will want to download the thing every year when renewing my car insurance. I have had to do some moderately drastic driving to avoid being rear-ended, or otherwise plowed into.
I'm sorry sir, it apears that you moved from a full stop onto the boulevard last December. Your insurance is now doubled. Have a nice day.
It seems like one big scam, to try to get the population to keep on upgrading.
You answered your own question. They convince us to keep upgrading, they get more money.
What we want is irrelevant. (insert borg-ism here)
Slashdot Mirror
What's so bad about product activation? It just registers your product electronically to make sure that you're not pirating the software.
It also ensures that you have to call them and grovel if you upgrade your system between tax years.
In order to bring 2001 tax info forward into the 2002 software, you have to have both versions of the program installed. Except that the previous version is already installed on a "different computer"(same HD, different MB)
And don't get me started about them requiring Internet Despoiler to be installed as well.
This is not cool, it's dumb. /. ?
/. effect.
As opposed to all the lame case mod stories and operating system religious flame wars on
That said, pics would have been good, if he could find a host that can withstand the
All the more reason to be very careful what storage format you archive your pr0n collection on.
ComScore also looks for trends in the credit card statements that about 30,000 of its panelists view online
Is it just me - or does that sound slightly worrying?
No, it's extremely worrying.
One of the other search engines (Altavista?) used to let you see 20 random queries
It was Excite, but they stopped in 2001.
Slashdotters who post (or click on) links to www.goatse.cx
Doh!! What have I done to myself?!?
Does this mean that most of the computers at my work are suddenly going to die?
If MS-Dos, Win3.1 and Win 95 are dead, there'll only be 2 computers left at work with "living" operating systems.
Yes, we still have a few 486s running DOS or 3.1 doing dumb terminal and data logging stuff. Why upgrade if the tools ya got work fine? (C'mon Billy, answer that one. I dare you.)
A few months ago, ALbertsons began giving away free discount cards that track your purchases.
Safeway has been doing this for several years. I try to avoid them as much as possible, but if the deal is too good to pass up (especially a loss leader - costs them money for me to buy) I'll use my mother-in-law's card. They don't need to know that she died four years ago.
There needs to be some kind of utility that figures out dependencies, then goes and DOWNLOADS AND INSTALLS THEM for you
You mean like the FreeBSD ports setup?
Yeah, I know I'm posting from my Windows machine. My FreeBSD machine is in the other room, with the AV gear. It's pretending to be a jukebox right now. When I finally scrape together enough nickles for a new machine, then my main machine will dual boot win/bsd.
Like others have said, games are a big part of my keeping winsows at home. That and the tax software that my wife and I use is Windows only. (anyone know of Linux/BSD Canadian tax software?)
The vid wall solution is much brighter than a projector could be on any screen. A better option if lighting isn't entirely controllable in the viewing area.(think trade show booth, lecture theater where there is a demonstration involved, outdoors)
On the other hand, it's a pretty cool thing to do 'just because you can'.
That is not required in every state, nor in every country.
For instance, in Canada, as long as one party to the conversation is aware that the recording is happening, then it's ok.
Anyways its clear that this device doesn't use a service to get its listings, and apparently it has to be programmed like an old style VCR.
Which means it will not be tied to a subscription (like TIVO), which further means that it will likely be available in Canada (unlike TIVO).
Besides, it's not that hard to program an old school VCR.
an employee's file-sharing on company time is a waste of resources,
And for this reason my employer has a written policy forbidding the use of P2P clients and IM clients on company computers.
Thge policy also forbids surfing porn, and web sites promoting illegal activities (hacking pages, etc).
There is some kind of content filter at the gateway which occasionally triggers on keywords, and seems to have a ban list of sites that the admins feel the policy forbids.
Dosen't bother me, as my cable modem at home is faster than the shared bandwidth at work.
Ericsson base at least some of their stuff on Sun
Ericsson's core switching products (at least what I work on - 212/20 and 212/30) are running on 68xxx processors, and a proprietary OS called PLEX. AFAIK you can't be taught PLEX unless you are an Ericsson employee, so I don't know how *nix-like it is.
We did test a VOIP product that Ericsson was selling, and it was based on NT, but I belive it was not something that they had developed themselves, but rather from a smaller vendor that they bought out. FWIW, we returned the test system.
Ericsson's support (billing, maintainence, monitoring)software runs on SPARC stations, but that isn't carrying the customer traffic.
The (recently defunct) AT&T wireless airplane phone system was heavily Sun based. Each base station had a SPARC 5 built into it, and their control center monitored the network with more SPARCs.
There are some pictures of this locomotive here
The other one marketed by sony, plays only a special devices, which do play DVD movies and CD audio, but WON'T play this simple DVD music format (not quite sure how it recognizes it versus ... Anyways, Which do you think will catch on?
The Betamax?
Sheesh, didn't Sony already learn this lesson?
Go to the polling station.
... and we know who won the election within a few hours of the polls closing.
Mark an X in the circle.
Votes are counted while the scrutineers watch.
Time-honoured, simple, distributed computing system. Works great.
How can you make art out of one of the most annoying sounds in existence?
In Frank Zappa's book, he answers the old 'what is art' question by saying (misquoted from memory) "when someone creates something and declares it to be art, then he has created art, and has become an artist".
Of course, no one has to agree with any artist that is is good art, or that there is any point to it.
Yup. That's the obvious answer.
From the story:
While other kinds of telecom prices--from long-distance and wireless-phone rates to super-high-speed oc-3 lines--have fallen, prices for high-speed cable and DSL connections have actually risen.
People vote with their wallets. If you want to sell more of anything it has to be percieved as being worth the money.
For most people, internet connectivity is not nescessary, and a faster connection is even less so. Especially for 3x the money.
You also might not know it, but the crime RATES in this country have been dropping for some time.
Effect.
With that said, how come there are more cops than 20 years ago
Cause.
Obviously, it's not a 1:1 relationship, but it is a contributing factor.
Now, if they could weed out the (very few) bad apples that manage to get into policing, maybe people would start trusting them again.
More trust of police -> more co-operation with police -> more bad guys caught -> less crime. Or something like that.
Sure the little polar bear might seem a bit silly, but it's like any other trademark, it lets you know who made (processed in this case) it.
And more importantly, that DeBeers never had their dirty paws on it.
But whenever you have a high power signal there is a dead spot around the antenna that spreads like a cone from the top of the antenna down.
I've heard that referred to as the "umbrella effect" or simply as shadowing. Usually I would expect to see that happening quite near the tower, but it depends on the design of the antenna.
Depending on what kind of antenna (or array of antennae) WWV is using, the signal could have a narrow vertical beamwidth. No point in wasting power by directing it into the dirt, or at the moon.
Of course, if they are using a vertical 1/4 wave antenna, in the style of AM broadcasters, what I have been babbling about isn't relevant. (For those who aren't familliar with AM broadcast, the transmitting antenna IS the tower. The tower is built to a height of 1/4 wavelength of the signal, and is sitting on a big insulator)
I'm more concerned that they will want to download the thing every year when renewing my car insurance.
I have had to do some moderately drastic driving to avoid being rear-ended, or otherwise plowed into.
It seems like one big scam, to try to get the population to keep on upgrading.
You answered your own question. They convince us to keep upgrading, they get more money.
What we want is irrelevant. (insert borg-ism here)
Frontpage doesn't produce W3C compliant code
Of course it doesn't. It creates IE specific code.
Hmmm both are microsoft products, coincidence?
nah.