Completely dead here in Ostuni (Puglia), that's on a Telecom Italia business connection. Just need to swap to OpenDNS on my machine here - cheap arse Italian Pirelli router doesn't allow the DNS addresses to be changed!
What? Are you telling me that from today, dialing 999 won't get me the emergency services? And that's not the only thing that's changing? Nicer ambulances, faster response times, and better-looking drivers mean they're not THE emergency-services, they're MY emergency-services?
"Dear Sir stroke Madam, I am writing to inform you of a fire which has broken out on the premises of..." no, that's too formal "Dear Sir stroke Madam. Fire! Fire! Help me! 123 Carrendon Road. Looking forward to hearing from you. All the best, Maurice Moss."
Forgot to add (and it was the point of my post too, duh) that your experience of Helsinki != Rest of Europe. Never forget it's a mixture of countries ranging from highly developed to practically 3rd world. Some of it has fabulous public transport networks, a lot of it doesn't.
The use of a car for the daily commute is very uncommon compared to the United States. High prices did spur better investment in public transportation in Europe
All depends where you are in Europe. If you live on the continent in one of the major conurbations then it probably is likely that a large number of people use public transport. Yet once you move away from the big cities (where a fair few people do still live) you'll find public transport is lacking at best.
I'm currently living in a small town (pop 32k in winter, 200k in summer) in southern Italy, public transport is limited to a bus to the nearby towns every hour or two. Everybody drives and uses their car regardless of the distances involved (even if it's only 500m). The buses are unreliable, the trains are past their best, and the number of pretty new (no more than 6mnths old) cars about is very high.
Previously I was living in the north of England in the sprawl that is West Yorkshire (total pop. over 2m) and you'd think that for such an area the majority of people would use the reasonable public transport system - wrong! The car is king even for just popping up the road to the shops.
After Norway the UK has the highest fuel prices in Europe, yet the use of the car for the daily commute is _very_ common.
The fastest street-legal saloon car in the world is the Mercedes-Benz Brabus (tuned) W211 'E V12' - based on the E-Class saloon.
You're a couple years out of date there. The Brabus Rocket (Based on the CLS saloon) has been the fastest street-legal saloon since 2006. And the Bullit Black Arrow (based on the new C) might take the title yet...
That's my least favorite part of the MacBook Pro keyboard, F keys are only F keys when I hit the damned "fn" button. I can't find any way to lock them.
Assuming they haven't changed system prefs too much from 10.4 to 10.5, open up Keyboard and Mouse Settings, and there should be a checkbox option to "Use all F1, F2 etc. keys as standard function keys". If the option's no longer there I'll swap you a 5yr old Powerbook G4 for your MacBook Pro
Stoller came after me back in March 2004 because I was using 'stealth' in my domain name - and still am! I documented it all here:
My Stoller Story. He was going after a hell of a lot of personal websites at the time, trying to scare money out of people. He deserves a good kicking. If it wasn't for the fact he was on the other side of the Atlantic I'd personally have torn him limb from limb.
My Dual G5 PowerMac and 30" LCD display were both bought in the US and work fine here in the EU.
According to a recent article in the WSJ Apple are getting wise to this and have recently started fitting different PSUs for different regions - it might have worked this time, but next time you try to save some money to prevent Apple from screwing you then your expensive purchase is likely to go bang as soon as you hook it up to the power...
From the iMac G5 specs page (US): Line voltage: 100-120V AC or 100-240V AC, depending on country of purchase
From the Power Mac specs page (US): Line voltage: 100-125V AC or 200-240V AC
However any Apple product with an external power supply is likely to remain compatible with voltages between 100 and 240
Debatable. Most (if not all) new macs sold in the USA and Japan are tweaked to only use a 100-120V supply. Machines sold in other regions support 100-240V.
Looking at the US specs page for the mini it does state that it'll accept 100-240V but you might be best waiting until some US customers receive their machines and check the powersupply specs...
www.apple.com/uk was running smoothly during the keynote, however at about 7pm GMT it started to get a bit sluggish, but never reached the inaccessible stage - At least not from my office anyway, and we're on a lowly 1Mb DSL line...
The US site at www.apple.com is/was another kettle of fish for getting exceedingly sluggish after the keynote.
I'm in the middle of modifying my Saab 9000 2.3 LPT into a full pressure turbo..
Have fun, as a driver of a 2.3FPT 9000 I can say it's well worth the effort - it puts a big smile on my face every time I put my foot down and the turbo spools up...
in 1986 at least it was one of the few places in England where the familiar "bobby" (policeman) carries serious fire power.
The local bobby won't have been a bobby as such, but a member of the UK atomic energy authority's constabulary. As far as I'm aware they're the only police force operating on a nationwide basis where all the officers are armed.
Lets make it go a bit further and install a box in very car that records exactly what the car is doing at all times. Furthermore if a car is found driving without a box the police will know instantly and can stop it.
So are you suggesting that every single car, new and old, on the road has to have a black box fitted? I can understand new cars having a box fitted, but old ones?
I drive a '91 Saab 900, fitting a black box to that isn't going to be easy, and it's likely that it'd be a different installation to that in, say, an '82 Volvo 740. So what of the costs of engineering different monitoring systems for every possible old car that's on the road, or do you create a self contained unit that just gets bolted in place somewhere? And am I responsible for the cost of purchasing the unit and getting it installed, or does the government pay for it? What about my '72 NSU Ro80, I only drive that on the road a few times a year would it still require a black box for such little use? Or my boss's '74 Triumph Stag that he only uses in the summer months...?
Let's assume that they can't be fitted to old cars and yet are required by law, what happens when I'm stopped because my Saab or NSU isn't identifying to roadside police as having a black box fitted? Do they impound my car and frog march me down to the nearest Ford dealer to buy some POS just so I'll have something to monitor my driving? Surely that's doing away with my personal freedom to drive any car I want to? I can't be forced to buy a new car to comply with government regulation, and you can have my Saab when you pry the keys from my cold dead hands...
No more need for speed camera or police resources wasted on policing the roads.
Total monitoring should not be a replacement for traffic police going about doing their job as speed cameras seem to have been. I freely admit that I don't always obey the posted speed limits and there are a number of times when dropping a gear and flooring the accelerator had got me out of trouble, however I do follow all other traffic rules unlike many other people on the road.
Case in point, in the UK driving with fog lights on when there is no fog and visibility is not severely reduced is a punishable offense, yet every other car on the road (in the middle of summer) is driving round with their front fogs turned on - do I ever see anyone being stopped for this? No. Does flashing hi-beams at these drivers and pointing at the lights prompt them to turn them off? No, you get the finger instead... The fact of the matter is that the roads need policing with equal force (?) as any other line of police business.
You've certainly put forward an interesting argument (much of which I agree with) but implementation would require a total big brother state.
About the closest I seen in practice is de "noord-zuid-as" bus "road" that operates in Amsterdam around the airport. Wich is a normal bus but a bit longer and drives on its own concrete road bypassing other traffic.
We have a similar system operating here in Bradford in the UK. IIRC there's now 3 guided busways within the local area. The only advantage to them that I've seen is that during rush hour the buses move far faster than the other road users.
I don't see any real advantage to the system as opposed to having a dedicated bus lane, buses can pull out of a bus lane to pass others that are collecting/dropping off passengers, whereas this guided system just creates queues of buses in the lane.
Let's face it: these "technical" schools aren't the best place to find people who want more than to learn how to use computers enough to find themselves a comfortable job; that's what these schools are for. He may be able to find a few of these people at his school, but I wouldn't count on it.
City Technology Colleges are a long running thorn in the British Education system, set up by the previous (conservative) government in the late 80's the current (labour) government tried to abolish them but came up against a lot of resistance so decided to create their own version known as 'City Academies'.
To cut a long story short I attended a CTC (Dixons CTC to be precise) and the schools are not in any way designed to just get people a "comfortable job", roughly 90% of pupils go on study at university (not work in supermarkets as most UK school leavers seem to do). They actively promote wider thinking and encourage pupils to look behind whats visible and learn more than would be expected in mainstream schools. In my experience a shortage of students (and, to some extent, staff) willing, and wanting, to delve into IT aspects there is not.
one of those tossers in a Smart car has just driven straight in and parked at right angles to the kerb
I've had that happen to me when parking outside of my University, I just keep backing in - normally the sight of a large battered Land Rover backing up towards their drivers door (and showing no sign of stopping) scares them out - but you've got to be quick and do it before they get out of their car.
We do have a mount for an iPod in the ashtray of our 1968 Model 95 (why GM had to go and start reusing model numbers I will never know).
Funny you should mention that, I've got my iPod mounted in the ashtray of my 2003 9-5 Wagon. Just a piece of stiff foam cut and shaped to hold the bottom of the iPod tightly and then a short cable run up to the tape deck. Got to love Saab for offering audio systems with both CD and Tape, just a pity they don't do a minidisc changer - then I'd be all set!
The 15" Powerbook also features factory defects, such as a poorly designed casing behind the LCD panel, causing pressure on it to form white splotches in the middle of the screen.
I ordered a 1.25Ghz 15" PowerBook the day after they were announced. Being one of Apples less cared about customers in Europe it took 34 days to arrive. But it's mint, with no defects whatsoever. Everything fits flush and the screen is magnificent - no white spots, no scratches, no dead pixels.
Slashdot Mirror
Completely dead here in Ostuni (Puglia), that's on a Telecom Italia business connection. Just need to swap to OpenDNS on my machine here - cheap arse Italian Pirelli router doesn't allow the DNS addresses to be changed!
What? Are you telling me that from today, dialing 999 won't get me the emergency services? And that's not the only thing that's changing? Nicer ambulances, faster response times, and better-looking drivers mean they're not THE emergency-services, they're MY emergency-services?
Nah, this is much easier...
"Dear Sir stroke Madam, I am writing to inform you of a fire which has broken out on the premises of..." no, that's too formal "Dear Sir stroke Madam. Fire! Fire! Help me! 123 Carrendon Road. Looking forward to hearing from you. All the best, Maurice Moss."
112 for Europe
Same here, the trackpad on my 1st-gen Alu 15" Powerbook is still like new and it's been heavily used for almost 5yrs now.
Forgot to add (and it was the point of my post too, duh) that your experience of Helsinki != Rest of Europe. Never forget it's a mixture of countries ranging from highly developed to practically 3rd world. Some of it has fabulous public transport networks, a lot of it doesn't.
The use of a car for the daily commute is very uncommon compared to the United States. High prices did spur better investment in public transportation in Europe
All depends where you are in Europe. If you live on the continent in one of the major conurbations then it probably is likely that a large number of people use public transport. Yet once you move away from the big cities (where a fair few people do still live) you'll find public transport is lacking at best.
I'm currently living in a small town (pop 32k in winter, 200k in summer) in southern Italy, public transport is limited to a bus to the nearby towns every hour or two. Everybody drives and uses their car regardless of the distances involved (even if it's only 500m). The buses are unreliable, the trains are past their best, and the number of pretty new (no more than 6mnths old) cars about is very high.
Previously I was living in the north of England in the sprawl that is West Yorkshire (total pop. over 2m) and you'd think that for such an area the majority of people would use the reasonable public transport system - wrong! The car is king even for just popping up the road to the shops.
After Norway the UK has the highest fuel prices in Europe, yet the use of the car for the daily commute is _very_ common.
The fastest street-legal saloon car in the world is the Mercedes-Benz Brabus (tuned) W211 'E V12' - based on the E-Class saloon.
You're a couple years out of date there. The Brabus Rocket (Based on the CLS saloon) has been the fastest street-legal saloon since 2006. And the Bullit Black Arrow (based on the new C) might take the title yet...
That's my least favorite part of the MacBook Pro keyboard, F keys are only F keys when I hit the damned "fn" button. I can't find any way to lock them.
Assuming they haven't changed system prefs too much from 10.4 to 10.5, open up Keyboard and Mouse Settings, and there should be a checkbox option to "Use all F1, F2 etc. keys as standard function keys". If the option's no longer there I'll swap you a 5yr old Powerbook G4 for your MacBook Pro
Relock trigger to National Association of Credit Managers, 10 clicks.
He went after one of their fan sites tho'. Read it here:
SJStealthfan Shut Down!
Stoller came after me back in March 2004 because I was using 'stealth' in my domain name - and still am! I documented it all here:
My Stoller Story. He was going after a hell of a lot of personal websites at the time, trying to scare money out of people. He deserves a good kicking. If it wasn't for the fact he was on the other side of the Atlantic I'd personally have torn him limb from limb.
My Dual G5 PowerMac and 30" LCD display were both bought in the US and work fine here in the EU.
According to a recent article in the WSJ Apple are getting wise to this and have recently started fitting different PSUs for different regions - it might have worked this time, but next time you try to save some money to prevent Apple from screwing you then your expensive purchase is likely to go bang as soon as you hook it up to the power...
From the iMac G5 specs page (US):
Line voltage: 100-120V AC or 100-240V AC, depending on country of purchase
From the Power Mac specs page (US):
Line voltage: 100-125V AC or 200-240V AC
However any Apple product with an external power supply is likely to remain compatible with voltages between 100 and 240
Debatable. Most (if not all) new macs sold in the USA and Japan are tweaked to only use a 100-120V supply. Machines sold in other regions support 100-240V.
Looking at the US specs page for the mini it does state that it'll accept 100-240V but you might be best waiting until some US customers receive their machines and check the powersupply specs...
www.apple.com/uk was running smoothly during the keynote, however at about 7pm GMT it started to get a bit sluggish, but never reached the inaccessible stage - At least not from my office anyway, and we're on a lowly 1Mb DSL line...
The US site at www.apple.com is/was another kettle of fish for getting exceedingly sluggish after the keynote.
That's interesting because I've got three domains with Joker and I haven't seen a single email yet. And yes all my contact info is correct
Same situation here: 3 domains, all with Joker, no emails.
I'm in the middle of modifying my Saab 9000 2.3 LPT into a full pressure turbo..
Have fun, as a driver of a 2.3FPT 9000 I can say it's well worth the effort - it puts a big smile on my face every time I put my foot down and the turbo spools up...
in 1986 at least it was one of the few places in England where the familiar "bobby" (policeman) carries serious fire power.
The local bobby won't have been a bobby as such, but a member of the UK atomic energy authority's constabulary. As far as I'm aware they're the only police force operating on a nationwide basis where all the officers are armed.
Lets make it go a bit further and install a box in very car that records exactly what the car is doing at all times. Furthermore if a car is found driving without a box the police will know instantly and can stop it.
So are you suggesting that every single car, new and old, on the road has to have a black box fitted? I can understand new cars having a box fitted, but old ones?
I drive a '91 Saab 900, fitting a black box to that isn't going to be easy, and it's likely that it'd be a different installation to that in, say, an '82 Volvo 740. So what of the costs of engineering different monitoring systems for every possible old car that's on the road, or do you create a self contained unit that just gets bolted in place somewhere? And am I responsible for the cost of purchasing the unit and getting it installed, or does the government pay for it? What about my '72 NSU Ro80, I only drive that on the road a few times a year would it still require a black box for such little use? Or my boss's '74 Triumph Stag that he only uses in the summer months...?
Let's assume that they can't be fitted to old cars and yet are required by law, what happens when I'm stopped because my Saab or NSU isn't identifying to roadside police as having a black box fitted? Do they impound my car and frog march me down to the nearest Ford dealer to buy some POS just so I'll have something to monitor my driving? Surely that's doing away with my personal freedom to drive any car I want to? I can't be forced to buy a new car to comply with government regulation, and you can have my Saab when you pry the keys from my cold dead hands...
No more need for speed camera or police resources wasted on policing the roads.
Total monitoring should not be a replacement for traffic police going about doing their job as speed cameras seem to have been. I freely admit that I don't always obey the posted speed limits and there are a number of times when dropping a gear and flooring the accelerator had got me out of trouble, however I do follow all other traffic rules unlike many other people on the road.
Case in point, in the UK driving with fog lights on when there is no fog and visibility is not severely reduced is a punishable offense, yet every other car on the road (in the middle of summer) is driving round with their front fogs turned on - do I ever see anyone being stopped for this? No. Does flashing hi-beams at these drivers and pointing at the lights prompt them to turn them off? No, you get the finger instead... The fact of the matter is that the roads need policing with equal force (?) as any other line of police business.
You've certainly put forward an interesting argument (much of which I agree with) but implementation would require a total big brother state.
About the closest I seen in practice is de "noord-zuid-as" bus "road" that operates in Amsterdam around the airport. Wich is a normal bus but a bit longer and drives on its own concrete road bypassing other traffic.
We have a similar system operating here in Bradford in the UK. IIRC there's now 3 guided busways within the local area. The only advantage to them that I've seen is that during rush hour the buses move far faster than the other road users.
I don't see any real advantage to the system as opposed to having a dedicated bus lane, buses can pull out of a bus lane to pass others that are collecting/dropping off passengers, whereas this guided system just creates queues of buses in the lane.
Let's face it: these "technical" schools aren't the best place to find people who want more than to learn how to use computers enough to find themselves a comfortable job; that's what these schools are for. He may be able to find a few of these people at his school, but I wouldn't count on it.
City Technology Colleges are a long running thorn in the British Education system, set up by the previous (conservative) government in the late 80's the current (labour) government tried to abolish them but came up against a lot of resistance so decided to create their own version known as 'City Academies'.
To cut a long story short I attended a CTC (Dixons CTC to be precise) and the schools are not in any way designed to just get people a "comfortable job", roughly 90% of pupils go on study at university (not work in supermarkets as most UK school leavers seem to do). They actively promote wider thinking and encourage pupils to look behind whats visible and learn more than would be expected in mainstream schools. In my experience a shortage of students (and, to some extent, staff) willing, and wanting, to delve into IT aspects there is not.
one of those tossers in a Smart car has just driven straight in and parked at right angles to the kerb
I've had that happen to me when parking outside of my University, I just keep backing in - normally the sight of a large battered Land Rover backing up towards their drivers door (and showing no sign of stopping) scares them out - but you've got to be quick and do it before they get out of their car.
6. PC Laptop with LCD, very portable!! Actually the Apple ][ c had a laptop profile but no LCD screen.
Apple did sell a ][c with a LCD screen for a while but ended up dropping it due to low takeup. Writeup available here.
We do have a mount for an iPod in the ashtray of our 1968 Model 95 (why GM had to go and start reusing model numbers I will never know).
Funny you should mention that, I've got my iPod mounted in the ashtray of my 2003 9-5 Wagon. Just a piece of stiff foam cut and shaped to hold the bottom of the iPod tightly and then a short cable run up to the tape deck. Got to love Saab for offering audio systems with both CD and Tape, just a pity they don't do a minidisc changer - then I'd be all set!
The 15" Powerbook also features factory defects, such as a poorly designed casing behind the LCD panel, causing pressure on it to form white splotches in the middle of the screen.
I ordered a 1.25Ghz 15" PowerBook the day after they were announced. Being one of Apples less cared about customers in Europe it took 34 days to arrive. But it's mint, with no defects whatsoever. Everything fits flush and the screen is magnificent - no white spots, no scratches, no dead pixels.