The industry hates these low-margin cheapos. They would love them to go away. But they fill a big need as long as the user has realistic expectations.
I use my netbook on the road. I like its small size. I answer emails (briefly) and read a little news. Some social sites included, but just to check in. When I am traveling I have no need for a powerful machine. The low price point is important, however. This is definitely an "extra" machine. I loaded EeeBuntu on mine and it is pretty snappy. At home I use it as a wireless radio bedside with some cheap add on speakers.
One feature that would appeal to me would be a built in printer. B&W would suffice. On the road I always want to print out little stuff, but can't -- unless I go to a business center or a I-cafe. On line movie/theater tickets (you often have to print them.) Airline E-ticket receipts. (You are obliged to have this on hand). A thermal printer, like the kind they have on those hand held credit card machines they use in restaurants, would be enough (in A5 size). But a tiny single sheet feed inkjet (A5) would be too cool.
Yes, of course, there are little road warrior printers. But it would be great to have this capability right on board. I envision the paper dropping into a slot on top of the LCD and running through behind it. I have checked around, but never found one. It would have to be cheap, though. Give away the razor and sell the blade. They'll nail me on cartridges or thermal paper. If it added, say, 75 dollars to the price I would spring.
There has been controversy. There are claims that his amanuensis did much more than simply transcribe. I saw a squib on it somewhere. No link for that part of the story. But Google is your friend if you're interested.
Mr Burton has (or had) a show at New York's Museum of Modern Art. Nice to see him properly recognized. They displayed some of his concept drawings for movies etc. Tina Brown's "The Daily Beast" did a feature on it with a slide show. (Too lazy to find you a link.)
No offense intended to the great nation of Uruguay, but why would giant robotic aliens give a rat's ass about Montevideo of all places?
Aliens might not look at the world from our narrow perspective. Maybe they are looking for some kind of secret Nazi stuff hidden there by an émigré Nazi fugitive genius type who was really an alien. Maybe Hitler was really an evil alien and he is still there. (Some conspiracists thought he was down that way for years.) Good plot fodder... Nazis.
Remember "The Boys From Brazil?" Anyway, IMHO it seems more interesting than them attacking Washington DC again. Unless Tim Burton has them do it, of course. In that case it's cool.
What in the holy hell do people who make costumes have to do with any of this?
If you are going to rob a bank anonymously you absolutely need a costumer. The costumer is the person who dresses up the bank robber in his archetypal stripped shirt and handkerchief mask. Costumers are typically blond with big... ideas.
Consider the networking software law enforcement uses to create charts of the relationships of bad guys. Such software is, in a manner of speaking, like the reciprocal of a networking site. When you aggregate a person's friends you have much of use about the private person, that is, the real person. In a networking site the network of contacts is fully exposed instead of being teased out of investigative data. Things that are usually hard to find out about a person are made very easy.
Soldiers are by nature involved in many classified things. A person's social site contacts can tell the thoughtful investigator (this time a bad guy) much. They could expose compromising relationships. Or questionable activities. Even the appearance of impropriety might give a bad guy undue leverage. Look at this kerfuffle over the new MI6 chief And to think his wife posted with no privacy settings at all. Admittedly this was not compromising, just insecure, embarrassing, and possibly dangerous for her very own family. People with classified access should think long and hard about what they do with these admittedly appealing and engaging (for some) social networking resources.
On the other hand, having such a site makes life very easy for security clearance investigators and potential employers.
Bought this machine with Windows XP because that was all they offered at the retailer. XP is painfully slow, even aftger optimization. After some research I decided to try Eeebuntu Remix. Loaded it as a dual boot. Glad I did. Snappy with a smartphone style desktop perfectly suited to this use profile. Great selection of apps for on the go. I use Mplayer to stream radio through it at home. I keep Windows because Mplayer seems to consistently choke on some live streams. The distro has an important update just out and this issue might be fixed. Agree with parent that the flash option is better. I confidently chuck this little dude right in my checked luggage sometimes. Who wants to go through the TSA computer dance? Not me.
Linux belongs on these modest platforms. Windows is far too clunky.
The debate surrounding TFA points up something that is becoming increasingly apparent. The rich will enjoy significantly more lifespan than the poor or even the middle class. Now this has basically always been somewhat true on average. Aristocrats always enjoyed health advantages over their tenants since the beginning of history. However, we are talking ten or twenty percent more life in this case. But with advances going the way they are the wealthy, and even the comfortably well off, could live almost twice as long as the majority of people. Think of the advantage this in turn gives them in terms of gathering and maintaining even more wealth. One could always envy the rich historically, but it was the rare person who got much more than the three score and ten. That has changed, and things are teed up for it to change far more drastically in the next twenty years. Life is the ultimate coin. There is bound to be real social upheaval unless we level the playing field. Until then... I suggest you cut back on a few extras and get the high option plan.
I am glad I am grown up and retired. It seems from my vantage point that the law has lost all common sense and direction. These aggressive and ambitious prosecutors are convicting experimenting teens for sex crimes, and misusing statutes like the one under discussion to get another notch in their respective belts. What public good was served by prosecuting this poor slob as a hacker? None. He has no dangerous computer skills. What public good was served by prosecuting those girls for sexting? None. Criminalizing anti social or maladaptive behavior is clearly against the public interest. The guy should have been fired at most, but perhaps merely warned and sent to counseling. Now society has another unemployable felonious ward instead of a taxpayer. The same applies to drug laws IMHO.
We need better feedback on prosecutors who over reach to further their ambitions and appease the lynching impulse in their constituencies. There are too many SOBs like that creep who pilloried those Duke athletes. Are there not enough real criminals?
Our justice system is just plain broken. Senator Webb of Virginia is co-sponsoring a bill to study and revamp it from top to bottom. Check out the video on the LEAP website (Law Enforcement Against Prohibition). http://www.leap.cc/cms/index.php
to prove it. IANAL but it seems to me to be very unwise to criminalize any form of speech (with the obvious exception of dangerous hoaxing ). Kids are cruel to each other. We do not need to criminalize; we need to humanize. However, cyber bullies and their parents can be sued into penury if it goes too far. There is plenty of existing case law to protect people from calumny and defamation and liable. A cyber bully attack leaves so much text evidence as opposed to old fashioned playground bullying. This kind of behavior is already a tort in the extreme. Who needs another law. It is a stupid impulse and counter productive to criminalize anti social or maladaptive behavior. Look how much good it has done us with drugs..
sinecure. How do you pay off an assemblyman for backing you on the pork barrel bypass? You fix a tollbooth job for his worthless son in law. Those jobs are highly necessary. In fact they make the world go around.
The resurrection of all these out-of-print books is made possible by a surge in print-on-demand publishers like Lulu. (There are many.) Using high-volume lasers and robo binders a pdf can be hosted and then used to print a book as a one-off economically. When somebody orders it only then does it get printed. This technology and business model stands on its head the old print-5000-and-pray business model of publishing that is about half a millennium old.
FYI: It costs about 15 dollars a month to host a pdf on a print-on-demand firm's servers. There is of course fulfillment each time a book gets posted, but up-front costs are minimal -- editing and layout excepted. Some authors are skipping New York altogether and cutting to the chase with POD. (Read: Profit.) Disclaimer. I have no connection to the print-on-demand industry. But I have looked into it for my book since my New York agent died. The inconsiderate bastard.
Right you are. Copyright holders in the 19th century were indeed very much against the library movement and tried to stop it. But the doctrine of first sale trumped their objections, just as it did when the movie studios objected to video rental. Copy machines in libraries also produced an uproar, but fair use doctrine keeps them cranking.
Digital distribution was a game changer, since digital media is usually copied and not merely rented, lent or sold when it is distributed. (And the copyright holder always strongly retains the right of duplication.) Many copyright holders, especially corporate ones, have used main force to attempt to hold onto that prerogative, but the slow demise of DRM demonstrates that they have conceded that they need to lower their margin and make profits from volume, while accepting that customers will do some duplication -- perhaps even to the right holder's benefit as a form of PR -- but diluting their perceived rights nonetheless. In the end I think that companies that find a way to benefit from viral distribution will win out.
Thanks again. Well I downloaded the ISO and noted along with you that there was no checksum.(Put it in my survey for all the good it will do.)
Did not flash the drive. Sort of wanted to wait until the smoke cleared. Really appreciate your updates. My power supply has not arrived in any case and I was going to bundle the work. I will wait for a good fix -- if they can even manage. It pays to be lazy. I am thinking this may be a total design cluster freak and I will have RMA the drive.
Hey, thanks. That was considerate. My help ticket is still open so this is welcome. I was checking Seagate's forum boards and saw some recent postings that the firmware was available, but did not see a link. Then I got busy with other stuff. Then I saw your reply. I have an e-sata hard drive containment, which should work nicely for flashing this drive without installing it. Doubt I will ever make it a system drive as planned though.
I bought a 500 GB Seagate Barracuda about three months ago with plans to install it. My system drive is five years old and on the small side - and I wanted more storage. I got lazy and just did not do the swap out. Then I thought I would get a video card and power supply upgrade as well since prices are pretty good now. So I ordered the stuff from Newegg. Figured I would do the crap all at once. So the Seagate has been sitting on my desk in its antistatic bag for an age.
Then I see that there is a Seagate issue story on Slashdot. Okay. It would be just my luck. So I hit the link and check it out. And lo and behold my brand new drive is one of the blighted models. I have put in a ticket on their customer service system for the needed firmware -- it seems the flaw varies according to the exact serial number. No answer yet. But a look at their forum board shows that the firmware is not even out yet. Next Tuesday say the posters. Sure am glad this drive is serenely gathering dust on my desktop instead of fragging data in my desktop. Seagate has a good rep for doing no hassle returns. And I have had one good experience with them on a dinking drive. The saga continues. But as of now it appears that the promised fix is... promised.
The "high gain" inductive connection is a transformer itself, with the primary in the base and the secondary and batteries in the moveable part. And this kind of separable transformer makes a lot of good sense for toothbrushes, shavers, and kettles, where moisture and water is nearby. However, there is no energy transfer taking place unless the kettle or handle is sitting on its base.
Now I can't quite imagine how that "charging table" would not use some minimal amount of standby power for at least the circuitry that detects the presence of a phone or ipod or portable mp3 player or whatever.
Of course you are right, Ashtead. And it is interesting. The base for my kettle must be sucking a little juice even when the kettle is turned off. All these vampires, taken together, are quite a power drain. All the TV standbys and so forth -- especially the cheapo ones. Yikes!
As for broadcast power? Maybe for some specialized application. But general home use? My own instinct is that it would be like living in a low power microwave. And I am not paranoid about cell phones etc. put them to my ear without a thought.But swimming in enough raw juice to charge or power my cell and mp3. Not in my house.
Slashdot Mirror
The industry hates these low-margin cheapos. They would love them to go away. But they fill a big need as long as the user has realistic expectations.
I use my netbook on the road. I like its small size. I answer emails (briefly) and read a little news. Some social sites included, but just to check in. When I am traveling I have no need for a powerful machine. The low price point is important, however. This is definitely an "extra" machine. I loaded EeeBuntu on mine and it is pretty snappy. At home I use it as a wireless radio bedside with some cheap add on speakers.
One feature that would appeal to me would be a built in printer. B&W would suffice. On the road I always want to print out little stuff, but can't -- unless I go to a business center or a I-cafe. On line movie/theater tickets (you often have to print them.) Airline E-ticket receipts. (You are obliged to have this on hand). A thermal printer, like the kind they have on those hand held credit card machines they use in restaurants, would be enough (in A5 size). But a tiny single sheet feed inkjet (A5) would be too cool.
Yes, of course, there are little road warrior printers. But it would be great to have this capability right on board. I envision the paper dropping into a slot on top of the LCD and running through behind it. I have checked around, but never found one. It would have to be cheap, though. Give away the razor and sell the blade. They'll nail me on cartridges or thermal paper. If it added, say, 75 dollars to the price I would spring.
Here is an AP story about the book (Appeared in the Kuwait Times). It was made into a piece of cinema.
http://www.kuwaittimes.net/read_news.php?newsid=MTMzMjY3NzAyMQ==
There has been controversy. There are claims that his amanuensis did much more than simply transcribe. I saw a squib on it somewhere. No link for that part of the story. But Google is your friend if you're interested.
Thanks. That was informative. Wish I still had the mod points that I lost.
Darn it. Don't you be smart with me. Everyone knows it's cows all the way down.
All straight lines are curved because the universe is curved because it's on the back of a cow and everybody knows that a cow's back is curved.
Mr Burton has (or had) a show at New York's Museum of Modern Art. Nice to see him properly recognized. They displayed some of his concept drawings for movies etc. Tina Brown's "The Daily Beast" did a feature on it with a slide show. (Too lazy to find you a link.)
Aliens might not look at the world from our narrow perspective. Maybe they are looking for some kind of secret Nazi stuff hidden there by an émigré Nazi fugitive genius type who was really an alien. Maybe Hitler was really an evil alien and he is still there. (Some conspiracists thought he was down that way for years.) Good plot fodder... Nazis.
Remember "The Boys From Brazil?" Anyway, IMHO it seems more interesting than them attacking Washington DC again. Unless Tim Burton has them do it, of course. In that case it's cool.
What in the holy hell do people who make costumes have to do with any of this?
If you are going to rob a bank anonymously you absolutely need a costumer. The costumer is the person who dresses up the bank robber in his archetypal stripped shirt and handkerchief mask. Costumers are typically blond with big... ideas.
... and lose your signal. Moreover, I might sue you for breaking your EULA.
You watch. I get to watch... you. Puts a new twist on adult PPV
Still, people will no doubt line up for this "service". I'm... confused.
The car battery is hooked to the monkey's itchy phantom scrotum.
Now. I want to know.
Who screwed the monkey in the first place and got the first case of AIDS?
Consider the networking software law enforcement uses to create charts of the relationships of bad guys. Such software is, in a manner of speaking, like the reciprocal of a networking site. When you aggregate a person's friends you have much of use about the private person, that is, the real person. In a networking site the network of contacts is fully exposed instead of being teased out of investigative data. Things that are usually hard to find out about a person are made very easy.
Soldiers are by nature involved in many classified things. A person's social site contacts can tell the thoughtful investigator (this time a bad guy) much. They could expose compromising relationships. Or questionable activities. Even the appearance of impropriety might give a bad guy undue leverage. Look at this kerfuffle over the new MI6 chief And to think his wife posted with no privacy settings at all. Admittedly this was not compromising, just insecure, embarrassing, and possibly dangerous for her very own family. People with classified access should think long and hard about what they do with these admittedly appealing and engaging (for some) social networking resources.
On the other hand, having such a site makes life very easy for security clearance investigators and potential employers.
Toro! Toro! Toro!
Bought this machine with Windows XP because that was all they offered at the retailer. XP is painfully slow, even aftger optimization. After some research I decided to try Eeebuntu Remix. Loaded it as a dual boot. Glad I did. Snappy with a smartphone style desktop perfectly suited to this use profile. Great selection of apps for on the go. I use Mplayer to stream radio through it at home. I keep Windows because Mplayer seems to consistently choke on some live streams. The distro has an important update just out and this issue might be fixed. Agree with parent that the flash option is better. I confidently chuck this little dude right in my checked luggage sometimes. Who wants to go through the TSA computer dance? Not me.
Linux belongs on these modest platforms. Windows is far too clunky.
The debate surrounding TFA points up something that is becoming increasingly apparent. The rich will enjoy significantly more lifespan than the poor or even the middle class. Now this has basically always been somewhat true on average. Aristocrats always enjoyed health advantages over their tenants since the beginning of history. However, we are talking ten or twenty percent more life in this case. But with advances going the way they are the wealthy, and even the comfortably well off, could live almost twice as long as the majority of people. Think of the advantage this in turn gives them in terms of gathering and maintaining even more wealth. One could always envy the rich historically, but it was the rare person who got much more than the three score and ten. That has changed, and things are teed up for it to change far more drastically in the next twenty years. Life is the ultimate coin. There is bound to be real social upheaval unless we level the playing field. Until then... I suggest you cut back on a few extras and get the high option plan.
I am glad I am grown up and retired. It seems from my vantage point that the law has lost all common sense and direction. These aggressive and ambitious prosecutors are convicting experimenting teens for sex crimes, and misusing statutes like the one under discussion to get another notch in their respective belts. What public good was served by prosecuting this poor slob as a hacker? None. He has no dangerous computer skills. What public good was served by prosecuting those girls for sexting? None. Criminalizing anti social or maladaptive behavior is clearly against the public interest. The guy should have been fired at most, but perhaps merely warned and sent to counseling. Now society has another unemployable felonious ward instead of a taxpayer. The same applies to drug laws IMHO.
We need better feedback on prosecutors who over reach to further their ambitions and appease the lynching impulse in their constituencies. There are too many SOBs like that creep who pilloried those Duke athletes. Are there not enough real criminals?
Our justice system is just plain broken. Senator Webb of Virginia is co-sponsoring a bill to study and revamp it from top to bottom. Check out the video on the LEAP website (Law Enforcement Against Prohibition). http://www.leap.cc/cms/index.php
to prove it. IANAL but it seems to me to be very unwise to criminalize any form of speech (with the obvious exception of dangerous hoaxing ). Kids are cruel to each other. We do not need to criminalize; we need to humanize. However, cyber bullies and their parents can be sued into penury if it goes too far. There is plenty of existing case law to protect people from calumny and defamation and liable. A cyber bully attack leaves so much text evidence as opposed to old fashioned playground bullying. This kind of behavior is already a tort in the extreme. Who needs another law. It is a stupid impulse and counter productive to criminalize anti social or maladaptive behavior. Look how much good it has done us with drugs..
sinecure. How do you pay off an assemblyman for backing you on the pork barrel bypass? You fix a tollbooth job for his worthless son in law. Those jobs are highly necessary. In fact they make the world go around.
There goes my patent on making a biped smart enough to operate a backhoe, but too dumb to form a labor union.
The Astra Naughties. It ends with one clad only in a diaper... Oh, wait!
The resurrection of all these out-of-print books is made possible by a surge in print-on-demand publishers like Lulu. (There are many.) Using high-volume lasers and robo binders a pdf can be hosted and then used to print a book as a one-off economically. When somebody orders it only then does it get printed. This technology and business model stands on its head the old print-5000-and-pray business model of publishing that is about half a millennium old.
FYI: It costs about 15 dollars a month to host a pdf on a print-on-demand firm's servers. There is of course fulfillment each time a book gets posted, but up-front costs are minimal -- editing and layout excepted. Some authors are skipping New York altogether and cutting to the chase with POD. (Read: Profit.) Disclaimer. I have no connection to the print-on-demand industry. But I have looked into it for my book since my New York agent died. The inconsiderate bastard.
Right you are. Copyright holders in the 19th century were indeed very much against the library movement and tried to stop it. But the doctrine of first sale trumped their objections, just as it did when the movie studios objected to video rental. Copy machines in libraries also produced an uproar, but fair use doctrine keeps them cranking.
Digital distribution was a game changer, since digital media is usually copied and not merely rented, lent or sold when it is distributed. (And the copyright holder always strongly retains the right of duplication.) Many copyright holders, especially corporate ones, have used main force to attempt to hold onto that prerogative, but the slow demise of DRM demonstrates that they have conceded that they need to lower their margin and make profits from volume, while accepting that customers will do some duplication -- perhaps even to the right holder's benefit as a form of PR -- but diluting their perceived rights nonetheless. In the end I think that companies that find a way to benefit from viral distribution will win out.
Thanks again. Well I downloaded the ISO and noted along with you that there was no checksum.(Put it in my survey for all the good it will do.)
Did not flash the drive. Sort of wanted to wait until the smoke cleared. Really appreciate your updates. My power supply has not arrived in any case and I was going to bundle the work. I will wait for a good fix -- if they can even manage. It pays to be lazy. I am thinking this may be a total design cluster freak and I will have RMA the drive.
Hey, thanks. That was considerate. My help ticket is still open so this is welcome. I was checking Seagate's forum boards and saw some recent postings that the firmware was available, but did not see a link. Then I got busy with other stuff. Then I saw your reply. I have an e-sata hard drive containment, which should work nicely for flashing this drive without installing it. Doubt I will ever make it a system drive as planned though.
I bought a 500 GB Seagate Barracuda about three months ago with plans to install it. My system drive is five years old and on the small side - and I wanted more storage. I got lazy and just did not do the swap out. Then I thought I would get a video card and power supply upgrade as well since prices are pretty good now. So I ordered the stuff from Newegg. Figured I would do the crap all at once. So the Seagate has been sitting on my desk in its antistatic bag for an age.
Then I see that there is a Seagate issue story on Slashdot. Okay. It would be just my luck. So I hit the link and check it out. And lo and behold my brand new drive is one of the blighted models. I have put in a ticket on their customer service system for the needed firmware -- it seems the flaw varies according to the exact serial number. No answer yet. But a look at their forum board shows that the firmware is not even out yet. Next Tuesday say the posters. Sure am glad this drive is serenely gathering dust on my desktop instead of fragging data in my desktop. Seagate has a good rep for doing no hassle returns. And I have had one good experience with them on a dinking drive. The saga continues. But as of now it appears that the promised fix is... promised.
So sometimes it pays to be lazy.
The "high gain" inductive connection is a transformer itself, with the primary in the base and the secondary and batteries in the moveable part. And this kind of separable transformer makes a lot of good sense for toothbrushes, shavers, and kettles, where moisture and water is nearby. However, there is no energy transfer taking place unless the kettle or handle is sitting on its base.
Now I can't quite imagine how that "charging table" would not use some minimal amount of standby power for at least the circuitry that detects the presence of a phone or ipod or portable mp3 player or whatever.
Of course you are right, Ashtead. And it is interesting. The base for my kettle must be sucking a little juice even when the kettle is turned off. All these vampires, taken together, are quite a power drain. All the TV standbys and so forth -- especially the cheapo ones. Yikes!
As for broadcast power? Maybe for some specialized application. But general home use? My own instinct is that it would be like living in a low power microwave. And I am not paranoid about cell phones etc. put them to my ear without a thought.But swimming in enough raw juice to charge or power my cell and mp3. Not in my house.