any action by the local telephone companies to apply extra charges could inspire a significant shift in local telephone providers.
I was being billed more than $60 per month on my phone line for local charges that was attributable only to my dial in access.
For me the net cost of cable is cheaper and somewhat faster than regular phone connections.
In many areas, this is not an option, however, examine other options, e.g. making a competing long distance provider your local phone company ( after being assured they will not be as stupid !
Begin speaking to these companies now so you can instruct them in the proper competitive stance vis-a-vis the consumer.
no touch pad, which on GW2K has the mouse cursor jump unpredictably to another area of the screen. Touch typing can really generate some interesting code!
My lease on a Gateway is ending later this year; however, I have been recommending IBM laptops for some time.
The quality is higher, to the extent that an older IBM unit with a 486 chip and a 10.4" screen appeared superior to my P133 with a 12.1" screen. For example, the screen on the IBM was so much brighter that it appeared to be larger than mine. Moreover, the quality of construction appeared to surpass my unit; which had about 5-6 dead pixels, developed a stress crack on the top of the case, and suffered a premature death of a Lithium Ion battery (for which I could not get a technical support response).
This unit, cost above $6000 including leasing fees and a higher level of support. With the remarkable decrease in laptop pricing, one should look at the current top-of-line laptops - but one that is just been supplanted by a newer version.
For example, the introduction of the PII chips to the 770 line did not give a large performance boost, but was costly in terms of battery life (from memory: it dropped to about half). Check out a more general source, e.g. Value America where this combination could yield a good price.
As a matter of honest disclosure, hardware is not my forte, hence do not rely solely upon my recommendations. These represent my plan of action for my laptop replacement.
One other consideration that is pertinent to a Linux user: it functions satisfactorily on a less fully equiped unit than a Windows OS would require. When in doubt, opt for more memory than CPU rating.
In my case, I need to keep my copy, but the language in a contract can be deemed unenforceable if the conditions are onerous.
See those signs, saying your lost belongings are strictly your responsibility? Depending where you are a good lawyer can turn that disclaimer into a joke.
Moreover, since we are talking of law, for which I suspect you hold the same level of expertise as I: None! Consider where auto manufacturers had similar contracts, that were thrown out, because there was too great of an asymmetry of power between the writer and the buyer. You may have gone to law school, but like our esteemed congress representatives in the House and Senate have demonstrated, (despite most being trained as lawyers) ignorance of the law. The contract writer may not hold the power entirely in their hands, no matter how clever their words may be. That will be for a higher court to determine, rather than either I or you may deem as the correct Opinion.
It makes sense for those wanting to buy a PPC clone with Linux to contact Motorola and point out the existence of this market. Saying, of course, you would be first in line to buy a machine equiped as:..., in this price range:...
If enough letters were sent, perhaps sanity would return.
I will not be one of the letter writers at this point, because I am not lusting for a PPC machine. Perhaps after seeing one, my view may be altered.
Plastic? You mean polymers, which can include ...
on
Research news from IBM
·
· Score: 1
electrical conducting materials.
As one of the respondents already pointed out, transistors are based on semi-conducting materials. Moreover, on silicon chips I was under the impression they were etched to allow electrical conductors to be deposited, e.g. Aluminum (and IBM is planning to use Copper).
Plastics are a vernacular term, probably meant to connote that many are made by quick processing that goes from a melt to a solid state rapidly, which along with the long chain lengths and protruding chemical structures results in a glassy physical state (i.e. non-crystalline). A glassy state material is not a rigid as a crystal and near its glass transition point may be deformed, or stretched. Indeed, these properties are use in safety helmets. Historically plastics were based on hydrocarbon chains (viewed only as an industrial product), which are classed as non-conductors. More recent research in light weight batteries, have shifted the focus to unsaturated bonding in polymer chains where at least some electrons are not as tightly held and able to allow electron jumping or some level of electrical conductivity.
There is more to these stories, but I may have already told you than you really wished to know!
first there was the LA Times article where a PR program with spurious letters to the editor for an ersatz grass roots campaign for MS.
Here's another to consider, a MS VP was quoted on how he and his group destroyed the lone official supporter of IBM's OS/2 program with misinformation deposited on internet sites by his group in the fight against that OS prior to the release of Win 95.
This is not a personal attack against you or every Microsoft employee (or even its products), however, there is some documented history of MS playing such a game. Moreover, the above-cited VP noted his win was so easy because it was against IBM's policy to use such tactics.
What I find astounding is the short memory span of both those defending and attacking MS. This should not simply be a matter of opinion when some evidence exists already with high level admissions.
Even plain text is taking out the unsupported "" and in the footnote "* The ''..."
Just in case that too is automatically edited out I used a joking version of HTML, where in the last proper sentence of the note I set "jokeoff" and the footnote just used: *The "joke"...
What's happening? I could have sworn that I have seen "ranton", "/rantoff" HTML's, but the system hates angle brackets, even separated with or without text. Hey Rob, given how good this is - how do the "first posts" and other stupidities get through?"
I am not a lover of Word, indeed I could not even stomach opening version 6.0 - despite it seemed to be an improvement over version 2.0c that I detested. However, being a consultant working on primarily Windows/DOS applications and many times on the client's site I had to use the software they preferred, i.e. located on their machines.
The point is the version numbers mean nothing, since they jumped from version 2.0c to 6.0. About the same time a number of the RDBMS backends jumped to numbered versions not justified by their development history.
Returning to Word, in some respects Word 97 that came installed on my machine seemed to be a major improvement. Indeed, I began to use it thinking they finally got their act together. Nonetheless, I was soon enlightened when it crashed in the help when I was trying to determine how to do some non-trivial operation, just as 2.0c had done to me years ago!I suspect, that may be a MS feature, i.e. crash when the application cannot perform the operation to hide its major flaws.
Another event, again using Word 97 drove me up a wall where I was screaming at my machine like a maniac and approaching the point where I might have put my fist through my 19" Hitachi monitor screen. All because, that stupid paper clip (that I had shut down) would not let me use a "Save As" without warning me of the dire consequences of losing formatting information by going to text! I only wanted to save it in Win 97 format. Simple option in WordPro, but not when the built in "Wisdom" is at work. So much so, that the HELP cannot be canceled - they expect a lockstep response that is appropriate for the most inexperienced users.
I pulled myself away, because I was afraid what this crazy man might do. On reflection, I could see that somehow they expected me to Save, for some convoluted reasoning - whereas only text could be an option for modifying a MS format. I look forward to using Linux WordPrefect and putting files in any format I choose to please whomever I am exchanging files.
Problem here is that @home is distrubuted differently across the U.S. Hence, is anyone successfully connected with the Comcast installation? If so I have a few questions. For Example: I thought I had a IP static address but it's set as automatic (PnP?) under the card properties; second, with their custom login for mail - is it back to Win 95 everytime it's mail time?
Steve Mann, has more to say in the LJ #68 pp 10-19. However, some details seem to differ from the article referenced here, unless I misread the Linux Journal text.
Many times, I suspect my cable connections approximate POTs and a 56K modem! Nonetheless, in total net costs, cable is cheaper than that option. I was paying $20/month to the ISP, but Bell Atlantic had these 1000 or more local units that had to be 90% or more due to the internet connections. That's over $80 a month for lousy 28.8K connections (with a 56K modem), hence, it might be a bit cheaper with "true" 56K POTs rates but never less than the flat $40 for cable.
Regarding, ADSL - I pass no matter what the price. Someday there will be true DSL from some source with reasonable tech support (absent from the @home, so far).
Coded in Visual Basic and employing Access database (small installations?).
Are you aware that all version of Access back to 2.0 has a flaw for large tables where a deleted record can cause an edit to be misplaced when some weird conditions are met? Supposedly this has been fixed, but the patch (for Office) has failed for a number of installations. That was weeks ago, has the new patch been released?
My last check of Wine showed VB 5.0 would not even load, so it would have to the exe file of your application that must be checked.
Basically, I am confused on the plans to port to Linux using a closed development tool and database.
Do you really think the average Windows user will be readily proficient to set up accounts and groups to protect their (home) systems?
MS has a large installed base, inertia alone will preserve a large fraction. Consider this: AT&T retains 66% of the long distance market.
Another factor to not under estimate, is the stupid, sophomoric opinions of those that think that Linux is their personal toy. Many will be put off, even MS stupidities no not come off as offensive as some (self appointed) protectors.
If Linux can take a major fraction of the corporate server market, (which depends upon other factors than price, performance and reliability) I would be quite satisfied. The desktop will be a much harder sell, unless MS persists in pushing NT onto the unsupported home users, then Apple or BE might be the more logical winners.
Unlike products directed at supposedly "knowledgeable users", any appliance is going to be reviewed by different criteria than applied to PC's and software. Unreliability will be the kiss of death, hence, if this is the best that MS can produce with its partners it will be excluded and not forgiven for its flaws.
However, should they produce an acceptable product, which is not beyond the realm of possibility they may gain market share.
Until then perhaps we should await their offerings and ignore the hype from sources.
Slashdot Mirror
any action by the local telephone companies to apply extra charges could inspire a significant shift in local telephone providers.
I was being billed more than $60 per month on my phone line for local charges that was attributable only to my dial in access.
For me the net cost of cable is cheaper and somewhat faster than regular phone connections.
In many areas, this is not an option, however, examine other options, e.g. making a competing long distance provider your local phone company ( after being assured they will not be as stupid !
Begin speaking to these companies now so you can instruct them in the proper competitive stance vis-a-vis the consumer.
no touch pad, which on GW2K has the mouse cursor jump unpredictably to another area of the screen. Touch typing can really generate some interesting code!
not to buy their laptops, realizing (of course) I am using a Toshiba 19" monitor to view my text.
the appellate courts have been much more friendly to MS's innovations , such as ignoring a consent decree and allowing the making IE part of the OS .
Realistically, it probably has always been a fall back strategy to lose the case and win on appeal.
[ Not original ideas, but I thought a reminder is in order. ]
My lease on a Gateway is ending later this year; however, I have been recommending IBM laptops for some time.
The quality is higher, to the extent that an older IBM unit with a 486 chip and a 10.4" screen appeared superior to my P133 with a 12.1" screen. For example, the screen on the IBM was so much brighter that it appeared to be larger than mine. Moreover, the quality of construction appeared to surpass my unit; which had about 5-6 dead pixels, developed a stress crack on the top of the case, and suffered a premature death of a Lithium Ion battery (for which I could not get a technical support response).
This unit, cost above $6000 including leasing fees and a higher level of support. With the remarkable decrease in laptop pricing, one should look at the current top-of-line laptops - but one that is just been supplanted by a newer version.
For example, the introduction of the PII chips to the 770 line did not give a large performance boost, but was costly in terms of battery life (from memory: it dropped to about half). Check out a more general source, e.g. Value America where this combination could yield a good price.
As a matter of honest disclosure, hardware is not my forte, hence do not rely solely upon my recommendations. These represent my plan of action for my laptop replacement.
One other consideration that is pertinent to a Linux user: it functions satisfactorily on a less fully equiped unit than a Windows OS would require. When in doubt, opt for more memory than CPU rating.
no less and certainly not more!
do not wish to force to pay for it!
In my case, I need to keep my copy, but the language in a contract can be deemed unenforceable if the conditions are onerous.
See those signs, saying your lost belongings are strictly your responsibility? Depending where you are a good lawyer can turn that disclaimer into a joke.
Moreover, since we are talking of law, for which I suspect you hold the same level of expertise as I: None! Consider where auto manufacturers had similar contracts, that were thrown out, because there was too great of an asymmetry of power between the writer and the buyer. You may have gone to law school, but like our esteemed congress representatives in the House and Senate have demonstrated, (despite most being trained as lawyers) ignorance of the law. The contract writer may not hold the power entirely in their hands, no matter how clever their words may be. That will be for a higher court to determine, rather than either I or you may deem as the correct Opinion.
It makes sense for those wanting to buy a PPC clone with Linux to contact Motorola and point out the existence of this market. Saying, of course, you would be first in line to buy a machine equiped as: ..., in this price range: ...
If enough letters were sent, perhaps sanity would return.
I will not be one of the letter writers at this point, because I am not lusting for a PPC machine. Perhaps after seeing one, my view may be altered.
electrical conducting materials.
As one of the respondents already pointed out, transistors are based on semi-conducting materials. Moreover, on silicon chips I was under the impression they were etched to allow electrical conductors to be deposited, e.g. Aluminum (and IBM is planning to use Copper).
Plastics are a vernacular term, probably meant to connote that many are made by quick processing that goes from a melt to a solid state rapidly, which along with the long chain lengths and protruding chemical structures results in a glassy physical state (i.e. non-crystalline). A glassy state material is not a rigid as a crystal and near its glass transition point may be deformed, or stretched. Indeed, these properties are use in safety helmets. Historically plastics were based on hydrocarbon chains (viewed only as an industrial product), which are classed as non-conductors. More recent research in light weight batteries, have shifted the focus to unsaturated bonding in polymer chains where at least some electrons are not as tightly held and able to allow electron jumping or some level of electrical conductivity.
There is more to these stories, but I may have already told you than you really wished to know!
first there was the LA Times article where a PR program with spurious letters to the editor for an ersatz grass roots campaign for MS.
Here's another to consider, a MS VP was quoted on how he and his group destroyed the lone official supporter of IBM's OS/2 program with misinformation deposited on internet sites by his group in the fight against that OS prior to the release of Win 95.
This is not a personal attack against you or every Microsoft employee (or even its products), however, there is some documented history of MS playing such a game. Moreover, the above-cited VP noted his win was so easy because it was against IBM's policy to use such tactics.
What I find astounding is the short memory span of both those defending and attacking MS. This should not simply be a matter of opinion when some evidence exists already with high level admissions.
Even plain text is taking out the unsupported "" and in the footnote "* The '' ..."
...
Just in case that too is automatically edited out I used a joking version of HTML, where in the last proper sentence of the note I set "jokeoff" and the footnote just used: *The "joke"
What's happening? I could have sworn that I have seen "ranton", "/rantoff" HTML's, but the system hates angle brackets, even separated with or without text. Hey Rob, given how good this is - how do the "first posts" and other stupidities get through?"
Hope that makes it throught!
it's really not the up to that revision number.
I am not a lover of Word, indeed I could not even stomach opening version 6.0 - despite it seemed to be an improvement over version 2.0c that I detested. However, being a consultant working on primarily Windows/DOS applications and many times on the client's site I had to use the software they preferred, i.e. located on their machines.
The point is the version numbers mean nothing, since they jumped from version 2.0c to 6.0. About the same time a number of the RDBMS backends jumped to numbered versions not justified by their development history.
Returning to Word, in some respects Word 97 that came installed on my machine seemed to be a major improvement. Indeed, I began to use it thinking they finally got their act together. Nonetheless, I was soon enlightened when it crashed in the help when I was trying to determine how to do some non-trivial operation, just as 2.0c had done to me years ago! I suspect, that may be a MS feature, i.e. crash when the application cannot perform the operation to hide its major flaws.
Another event, again using Word 97 drove me up a wall where I was screaming at my machine like a maniac and approaching the point where I might have put my fist through my 19" Hitachi monitor screen. All because, that stupid paper clip (that I had shut down) would not let me use a "Save As" without warning me of the dire consequences of losing formatting information by going to text! I only wanted to save it in Win 97 format. Simple option in WordPro, but not when the built in "Wisdom" is at work. So much so, that the HELP cannot be canceled - they expect a lockstep response that is appropriate for the most inexperienced users.
I pulled myself away, because I was afraid what this crazy man might do. On reflection, I could see that somehow they expected me to Save, for some convoluted reasoning - whereas only text could be an option for modifying a MS format. I look forward to using Linux WordPrefect and putting files in any format I choose to please whomever I am exchanging files.
You give MS too much credit, backoff!
* The applied ONLY to the last sentence!
Problem here is that @home is distrubuted differently across the U.S. Hence, is anyone successfully connected with the Comcast installation? If so I have a few questions. For Example: I thought I had a IP static address but it's set as automatic (PnP?) under the card properties; second, with their custom login for mail - is it back to Win 95 everytime it's mail time?
Steve Mann, has more to say in the LJ #68 pp 10-19. However, some details seem to differ from the article referenced here, unless I misread the Linux Journal text.
one is NOT assured of a minimum connection rate.
Many times, I suspect my cable connections approximate POTs and a 56K modem! Nonetheless, in total net costs, cable is cheaper than that option. I was paying $20/month to the ISP, but Bell Atlantic had these 1000 or more local units that had to be 90% or more due to the internet connections. That's over $80 a month for lousy 28.8K connections (with a 56K modem), hence, it might be a bit cheaper with "true" 56K POTs rates but never less than the flat $40 for cable.
Regarding, ADSL - I pass no matter what the price. Someday there will be true DSL from some source with reasonable tech support (absent from the @home, so far).
I could not fit in partially.
I would like to have an email address to converse with you more directly. If you see this contact me by email.
I have some interest - Herschel
Coded in Visual Basic and employing Access database (small installations?).
Are you aware that all version of Access back to 2.0 has a flaw for large tables where a deleted record can cause an edit to be misplaced when some weird conditions are met? Supposedly this has been fixed, but the patch (for Office) has failed for a number of installations. That was weeks ago, has the new patch been released?
My last check of Wine showed VB 5.0 would not even load, so it would have to the exe file of your application that must be checked.
Basically, I am confused on the plans to port to Linux using a closed development tool and database.
Do you really think the average Windows user will be readily proficient to set up accounts and groups to protect their (home) systems?
MS has a large installed base, inertia alone will preserve a large fraction. Consider this: AT&T retains 66% of the long distance market.
Another factor to not under estimate, is the stupid, sophomoric opinions of those that think that Linux is their personal toy. Many will be put off, even MS stupidities no not come off as offensive as some (self appointed) protectors.
If Linux can take a major fraction of the corporate server market, (which depends upon other factors than price, performance and reliability) I would be quite satisfied. The desktop will be a much harder sell, unless MS persists in pushing NT onto the unsupported home users, then Apple or BE might be the more logical winners.
Unlike products directed at supposedly "knowledgeable users", any appliance is going to be reviewed by different criteria than applied to PC's and software. Unreliability will be the kiss of death, hence, if this is the best that MS can produce with its partners it will be excluded and not forgiven for its flaws.
However, should they produce an acceptable product, which is not beyond the realm of possibility they may gain market share.
Until then perhaps we should await their offerings and ignore the hype from sources .
Just incase, I mistyped my password:
Herschel Cohen at hcohen2@home.com