Johanson Heads for Home
December 15, 2003 - Australian Earthrounder Jon Johanson (EAA 265714), who had been stranded at the McMurdo/Scott Base in Antarctica since December 8, finally made it back to Invercargill, New Zealand, on Sunday, December 15, after receiving about 100 gallons of fuel from fellow EAAer Polly Vacher (EAA 727449). Vacher, who had the fuel stocked at McMurdo/Scott for her own world endeavor, no longer needed the fuel after canceling her trip midstream for lack of fuel elsewhere. In return for the fuel, Johanson will aid Vacher in her cause, Wheelies on Wings, the Australian equivalent to Flying Scholarships for the Disabled. According to ABC News Online, Johanson was expected to continue the journey to his hometown of Adelaide on Monday (Tuesday AEDT) after a good night's rest.
WA5 has taken the goodness from WA2 (speed), the goodness from WA3 (awesome skins), and maintained the general WinAmp greatness (play anything, cool vis, etc.), and brought them to WA5.
Question... why wasn't version 3 just version 2 with the additional upgrades? I never understood why WA3 had to go so far downhill and seems to have taken however long to finally get things back to what SHOULD have been released as v3.
Agreed! It's pretty true about most software products (and recently hardware even)... but interestingly my UltimateTV (ironically a Microsoft product) hasn't had a update since June (or there abouts) and hasn't crashed on me once since then (it didn't recover gracefully from a power cut, but then neither did my Series2 Tivo.
Time to source, purchase and assemble all of those components?
Time to tinker with the Linux serial driver to make IR work properly?
RCA cables and other misc connectivity items? Not expensive, but included w/ the Tivo.
Time to install the software and get everything tested and working?
Time to train wife how to boot into the right shell?
Sure it can be done, for an acceptable cost given the added benefits you get from that solution... but if cost and WAF are priorities then there's simply no comparison.
I've always maintained that buying a real Tivo was always the cheaper option, especially if you count the costs of your time involved. Now, even not counting those costs the commercial product is much cheaper! If "cheap" is really what you want (as it's listed in your request) then you really need to look at it closely.
With a new account (1 year contract) at DirecTV or Dish you can get a free or cheap PVR included... and many other benefits (3 rooms, free installation, etc. etc.). Certain plans (Platinum level or some shiiiiii) even give you the PVR subscription fee included (or included in your receiver mirroring fee).
I'm not saying you shouldn't try building one yourself, but the argument was usually "I could build one cheaper with parts I have lying around" however most people then went out and spent $75-$100 on a brand new capture card. With subsidized
MythTV has definitely progressed along the years, but it's still not 100% reliable (what open-source anything ever is truly complete, tested, and waranteed). That being said, it definitely has some other cool "Media" functions that I really would like in my family room. Of course, I'm not willing to live with the ugly beige box and noise (before you say silent processors and slimline cases, add those costs to your initial argument).
If I truly had the hardware lying around (I don't) and I truly wanted a project not just the end Tivo functionality (I don't) and I was willing to put up with all the tinkering and annoyances required (I might be, wife definitely isn't) then I would consider doing it.
I absolutely love my Canon EOS Elan II. There are a range of Canon's that would fit your budget, but the Elan series is where you start getting more solid bodies with metal lens mounts. The packages they offer with a 28-80 lens or whatever it is are a fine start, but you'll want better glass sooner or later.
Canon has a new entry-level Digital SLR that will be able to use all of your EOS lenses (and a special short-style lens that may or may not be the future for Canon). It's not the best body, and is missing a few features that I consider essential, but it's certainly a good choice if money is an object.
I buy all my cameras and lenses from CameraWorld.com in Oregon. They have been good to me, and their prices are comparable to other reputable stores.
Of course, another option is to pick up something cheap (maybe used) and spend the money just on lenses then upgrade to whatever body you want later. I'm finally starting to run out of features on my Elan II, but I probably wont move to one of the pro-sumer level bodies I'll just spend the big bucks for a pro Digital SLR.
As mentioned before, check photo.net for all info!
Just got around to testing the latest eMame... no go. I've read there's not quite enough internal memory on the 3650 for it to load. The developer is slowly working on a trimmed down version, but since he doesn't have a 3650 he doesn't have much to go on.
If I could find some time, I'd take a look at it. I think the Doom port had a similar problem.
5 points if you can remember the name of the Internet company he tried to start in an attempt to retain the domain name...
Give up? It was Metaverse. Adam Curry was/is a great guy... one of the early early Internet pioneers way before MTV decided they even needed a website he was trying to build a music community that is way better than mtv.com currently is.
I'm still not convinced that I'm as quick texting with my 3650, but I have gotten used to where the numbers are to be able to dial without looking.
It was incredibly difficult to get used to at first, much like a Dvorak keyboard... but now it's fine
What I don't like about the 3660 and a lot of the other Nokia phones is the inconsistent size of the keys. At least in the rotary configuration they're the same size and [rotated] shape... Try finding the 8 key on the 3660. Or the stupid wobble buttons on the 3200!
--D
p.s. I absolutely LOVE my 3650! Best phone I've ever had!
I just got back from England yesterday on a 2 week vacation.
a) Prepaid sim chips were no 5-10c per minute. More like 30pm which is 45-50c per minute. About what we pay here for prepaid wireless.
b) Most of their phones come locked as well... in fact, from looking around it was still pretty hard to buy "just a phone".
But, it was kind of cool once I managed to unlock my 3650 to be able to spend 10 for a chip, phone number & 5 worth of calls (and 10p texts).
Please quote source. Obviously, it certainly appears that humans intervened (at least in one occurance), but I would love to hear any conclusive proof or admissions of guilt.
Do you want the real explanation, or the easy one?
Basically it breaks down to the fact that the computer doesn't know (and isn't learning) "strategy". It's choice of moves are based largely on analyzing the possible outcomes and choosing the one that is most likely to result in victory.
However, since a human can form their own strategy (often, and why I don't like man vs. computer chess, in a way that just confuses and/or plays on the computers weaknesses), the human has an inherent advantage that obviously only just outweighs the raw processing power of the computer.
Plenty of analogies to be made, but basically it breaks down to that chess is more than just the raw combination of moves. It really is a strategic battle simulation.
--D
p.s. Computers with good programming and "knowledge" of strategies, tactics, and past performances can get much closer than a pure processing machine.
I get a lot of spam email like that. I was under the assumption that it was not a valid formatted message (I thought a text part had to be included with the HTML in a designated MIME encoded section) so I upped the score on those particular tests... very effective!
UNTIL... I started getting email from my Aunt, who uses Hotmail in the UK. Turns out her messages come with no plain text body. Odd... She's the only legitimate sender that does that. Fortunately Bayes picked it up (down) enough to negate the raised score of the HTML only test. A quick add to the whitelist (where she should have been anyway) and we're back in business
You ask for one who's sweet, sexy, funny, intelligent, good coversationalist, likes to have sex, knows Linux, but has very little experience, and no baggage.
Those are just criteria of the ideal candidate, you will probably interview and maybe hire somebody with at least 2 out of 3 qualifications, no?:)
You guys keep saying that selling hardware at a loss is a bad business model, but it's really not...
Take a look at cellphones. That's hardware you bought at a loss to the company in exchange for the revenue from future service.
XBox and most other consoles... hardware at a loss, money in games. Most people buy enough games to make up for those that only buy a few.
WalMart selling certain items at a loss to get you into their store to buy more stuff.
CueCat... free hardware, but it theoretically locked you into their service.
iOpener... perfect for the home grandma, and she doesn't have to buy a big expensive computer up front. At $99 they were selling well despite the hacker interest... and people liked them and the service they provided.
All good ideas, and decent hardware... some of them just failed to adequately secure their revenue stream. Doesn't mean the idea, or even the numbers weren't good... if everything went according to plan.
I still think there's a market for returnable digital cameras, especially as the costs for digital prints get cheaper than developing film. I hope the idea continues and the cameras get better and better. In the meantime, thanks for the free CCD (or is it CMOS sensor?)
I have an Archos Multimedia with a 20gig 2.5" laptop drive in it (Hitachi). I've always treated it super-sensitively, especially when it's spinning (and doubly so when it's spinning up or down). Are the 1.8" drives in the newer iPods any better? I know those IBM CF microdrives are much stronger.
Can these drives really handle jogging? Anyone have URLs with real-world tests?
I would love to be able to not worry about it, but just assumed it came with the teritory of hard-drive based mp3 players.
Probably about 4 or 5 years back? They were trying to decide whether they wanted to become a technology company selling natural language query stuff... or whether they wanted to become a search engine/portal that was so popular at that time...
Odd company, never use their site... I think they only exist for a takeover bid.
You're forgetting that the average Joe will be able to take the Yamaha system out of the box, plug it in, and be listening to music this year. (quote Apple: There is no step 3)
Your solution we'll be sitting around waiting for the software packages to finish the last 3% of functionality (in the meantime, their skins engine will work just fine)... not to mention what will happen when the whole thing crashes:)
I love Linux, but when it comes to reliable, easy-to-install, works every time, doesn't require a degree in programming, there's something to be said about paying money for a prepackaged working solution with support and a warranty.
Nobody has yet to show me a MythTV solution that is half as clean and reliable as a Tivo or UltimateTV and doesn't sound like a jet engine inside a beige box
--D
p.s. "Linux is only free if your time has no value"
p.p.s. Let the troll mods flow in, I got karma to burn!
If we could patch ever nameserver to never allow a wildcard for a root domain, would that fix it permanently? If Microsoft where to send down an auto-update with a patch to DNS, that would certainly get us in the right direction, no?
Slashdot Mirror
According the EAA, Jon made it out on Monday.
Johanson Heads for Home December 15, 2003 - Australian Earthrounder Jon Johanson (EAA 265714), who had been stranded at the McMurdo/Scott Base in Antarctica since December 8, finally made it back to Invercargill, New Zealand, on Sunday, December 15, after receiving about 100 gallons of fuel from fellow EAAer Polly Vacher (EAA 727449). Vacher, who had the fuel stocked at McMurdo/Scott for her own world endeavor, no longer needed the fuel after canceling her trip midstream for lack of fuel elsewhere. In return for the fuel, Johanson will aid Vacher in her cause, Wheelies on Wings, the Australian equivalent to Flying Scholarships for the Disabled. According to ABC News Online, Johanson was expected to continue the journey to his hometown of Adelaide on Monday (Tuesday AEDT) after a good night's rest.
WA5 has taken the goodness from WA2 (speed), the goodness from WA3 (awesome skins), and maintained the general WinAmp greatness (play anything, cool vis, etc.), and brought them to WA5.
Question... why wasn't version 3 just version 2 with the additional upgrades? I never understood why WA3 had to go so far downhill and seems to have taken however long to finally get things back to what SHOULD have been released as v3.
--D
Agreed! It's pretty true about most software products (and recently hardware even)... but interestingly my UltimateTV (ironically a Microsoft product) hasn't had a update since June (or there abouts) and hasn't crashed on me once since then (it didn't recover gracefully from a power cut, but then neither did my Series2 Tivo.
--D
Time to source, purchase and assemble all of those components?
Time to tinker with the Linux serial driver to make IR work properly?
RCA cables and other misc connectivity items? Not expensive, but included w/ the Tivo.
Time to install the software and get everything tested and working?
Time to train wife how to boot into the right shell?
Sure it can be done, for an acceptable cost given the added benefits you get from that solution... but if cost and WAF are priorities then there's simply no comparison.
--D
I've always maintained that buying a real Tivo was always the cheaper option, especially if you count the costs of your time involved. Now, even not counting those costs the commercial product is much cheaper! If "cheap" is really what you want (as it's listed in your request) then you really need to look at it closely.
With a new account (1 year contract) at DirecTV or Dish you can get a free or cheap PVR included... and many other benefits (3 rooms, free installation, etc. etc.). Certain plans (Platinum level or some shiiiiii) even give you the PVR subscription fee included (or included in your receiver mirroring fee).
I'm not saying you shouldn't try building one yourself, but the argument was usually "I could build one cheaper with parts I have lying around" however most people then went out and spent $75-$100 on a brand new capture card. With subsidized
MythTV has definitely progressed along the years, but it's still not 100% reliable (what open-source anything ever is truly complete, tested, and waranteed). That being said, it definitely has some other cool "Media" functions that I really would like in my family room. Of course, I'm not willing to live with the ugly beige box and noise (before you say silent processors and slimline cases, add those costs to your initial argument).
If I truly had the hardware lying around (I don't) and I truly wanted a project not just the end Tivo functionality (I don't) and I was willing to put up with all the tinkering and annoyances required (I might be, wife definitely isn't) then I would consider doing it.
--Darren
I absolutely love my Canon EOS Elan II. There are a range of Canon's that would fit your budget, but the Elan series is where you start getting more solid bodies with metal lens mounts. The packages they offer with a 28-80 lens or whatever it is are a fine start, but you'll want better glass sooner or later.
Canon has a new entry-level Digital SLR that will be able to use all of your EOS lenses (and a special short-style lens that may or may not be the future for Canon). It's not the best body, and is missing a few features that I consider essential, but it's certainly a good choice if money is an object.
I buy all my cameras and lenses from CameraWorld.com in Oregon. They have been good to me, and their prices are comparable to other reputable stores.
Of course, another option is to pick up something cheap (maybe used) and spend the money just on lenses then upgrade to whatever body you want later. I'm finally starting to run out of features on my Elan II, but I probably wont move to one of the pro-sumer level bodies I'll just spend the big bucks for a pro Digital SLR.
As mentioned before, check photo.net for all info!
--D
Just got around to testing the latest eMame... no go. I've read there's not quite enough internal memory on the 3650 for it to load. The developer is slowly working on a trimmed down version, but since he doesn't have a 3650 he doesn't have much to go on.
If I could find some time, I'd take a look at it. I think the Doom port had a similar problem.
--D
I had the same problem. The best they could come up with was a "Customer Care Advocate" who was neither my advocate, nor did she care.
Dispicable! Unfortunately, I don't think the other carriers are going to be all that much better.
--D
5 points if you can remember the name of the Internet company he tried to start in an attempt to retain the domain name...
Give up? It was Metaverse. Adam Curry was/is a great guy... one of the early early Internet pioneers way before MTV decided they even needed a website he was trying to build a music community that is way better than mtv.com currently is.
--D
Coolest feature EVER!
:)
What will replace it?
--D
I'm still not convinced that I'm as quick texting with my 3650, but I have gotten used to where the numbers are to be able to dial without looking.
It was incredibly difficult to get used to at first, much like a Dvorak keyboard... but now it's fine
What I don't like about the 3660 and a lot of the other Nokia phones is the inconsistent size of the keys. At least in the rotary configuration they're the same size and [rotated] shape... Try finding the 8 key on the 3660. Or the stupid wobble buttons on the 3200!
--D
p.s. I absolutely LOVE my 3650! Best phone I've ever had!
Not entirely true on everything.
I just got back from England yesterday on a 2 week vacation.
a) Prepaid sim chips were no 5-10c per minute. More like 30pm which is 45-50c per minute. About what we pay here for prepaid wireless.
b) Most of their phones come locked as well... in fact, from looking around it was still pretty hard to buy "just a phone".
But, it was kind of cool once I managed to unlock my 3650 to be able to spend 10 for a chip, phone number & 5 worth of calls (and 10p texts).
--D
Did you copy and paste this from the last Kasparov story??? :) The words look so familiar!
You're absolutely correct, btw.
--D
Please quote source. Obviously, it certainly appears that humans intervened (at least in one occurance), but I would love to hear any conclusive proof or admissions of guilt.
--D
Do you want the real explanation, or the easy one?
Basically it breaks down to the fact that the computer doesn't know (and isn't learning) "strategy". It's choice of moves are based largely on analyzing the possible outcomes and choosing the one that is most likely to result in victory.
However, since a human can form their own strategy (often, and why I don't like man vs. computer chess, in a way that just confuses and/or plays on the computers weaknesses), the human has an inherent advantage that obviously only just outweighs the raw processing power of the computer.
Plenty of analogies to be made, but basically it breaks down to that chess is more than just the raw combination of moves. It really is a strategic battle simulation.
--D
p.s. Computers with good programming and "knowledge" of strategies, tactics, and past performances can get much closer than a pure processing machine.
I get a lot of spam email like that. I was under the assumption that it was not a valid formatted message (I thought a text part had to be included with the HTML in a designated MIME encoded section) so I upped the score on those particular tests... very effective!
UNTIL... I started getting email from my Aunt, who uses Hotmail in the UK. Turns out her messages come with no plain text body. Odd... She's the only legitimate sender that does that. Fortunately Bayes picked it up (down) enough to negate the raised score of the HTML only test. A quick add to the whitelist (where she should have been anyway) and we're back in business
--D
You ask for one who's sweet, sexy, funny, intelligent, good coversationalist, likes to have sex, knows Linux, but has very little experience, and no baggage.
:)
Those are just criteria of the ideal candidate, you will probably interview and maybe hire somebody with at least 2 out of 3 qualifications, no?
--D
And how can we enjoy their software? I thought it didn't run on Linux?
--D
You guys keep saying that selling hardware at a loss is a bad business model, but it's really not...
Take a look at cellphones. That's hardware you bought at a loss to the company in exchange for the revenue from future service.
XBox and most other consoles... hardware at a loss, money in games. Most people buy enough games to make up for those that only buy a few.
WalMart selling certain items at a loss to get you into their store to buy more stuff.
CueCat... free hardware, but it theoretically locked you into their service.
iOpener... perfect for the home grandma, and she doesn't have to buy a big expensive computer up front. At $99 they were selling well despite the hacker interest... and people liked them and the service they provided.
All good ideas, and decent hardware... some of them just failed to adequately secure their revenue stream. Doesn't mean the idea, or even the numbers weren't good... if everything went according to plan.
I still think there's a market for returnable digital cameras, especially as the costs for digital prints get cheaper than developing film. I hope the idea continues and the cameras get better and better. In the meantime, thanks for the free CCD (or is it CMOS sensor?)
--D
I have an Archos Multimedia with a 20gig 2.5" laptop drive in it (Hitachi). I've always treated it super-sensitively, especially when it's spinning (and doubly so when it's spinning up or down). Are the 1.8" drives in the newer iPods any better? I know those IBM CF microdrives are much stronger.
Can these drives really handle jogging? Anyone have URLs with real-world tests?
I would love to be able to not worry about it, but just assumed it came with the teritory of hard-drive based mp3 players.
--Darren
Probably about 4 or 5 years back? They were trying to decide whether they wanted to become a technology company selling natural language query stuff... or whether they wanted to become a search engine/portal that was so popular at that time...
Odd company, never use their site... I think they only exist for a takeover bid.
--D
It's less so about eating well as it is about avoiding the stuff that is stupidly bad for you.
No mayo on your burger? Saves you 200 calories.
Diet soda instead of regular? Saves you 120 or so.
Sugar free Red Bull instead of the regular one? Saves you 240?
--D
You're forgetting that the average Joe will be able to take the Yamaha system out of the box, plug it in, and be listening to music this year. (quote Apple: There is no step 3)
:)
Your solution we'll be sitting around waiting for the software packages to finish the last 3% of functionality (in the meantime, their skins engine will work just fine)... not to mention what will happen when the whole thing crashes
I love Linux, but when it comes to reliable, easy-to-install, works every time, doesn't require a degree in programming, there's something to be said about paying money for a prepackaged working solution with support and a warranty.
Nobody has yet to show me a MythTV solution that is half as clean and reliable as a Tivo or UltimateTV and doesn't sound like a jet engine inside a beige box
--D
p.s. "Linux is only free if your time has no value"
p.p.s. Let the troll mods flow in, I got karma to burn!
If we could patch ever nameserver to never allow a wildcard for a root domain, would that fix it permanently? If Microsoft where to send down an auto-update with a patch to DNS, that would certainly get us in the right direction, no?
--D
This case originated in my home town. They're a bunch of religious nuts out here. Very wholesome in Sacramento, except apparently in the legislature :)
We plan our Sunday breakfasts around church time... you can't eat in Elk Grove past 10:00am!
--D