I understand the convenience of using GPS units for avoiding construction and major traffic delays.
But, what's wrong with people actually looking at a map before the trip, familiarizing themselves with the roads they'll be encountering, and then driving to their destination. Or actually paying enough attention to their surroundings to know which direction they're going, and reading the signs that the government has spent billions of dollars to install on the highways?
I can't count the times in the last year or two when I've been nearly killed by people fiddling with technology in their vehicles. Talking, texting, pressing buttons, changing channels, putting in the next DVD, etc... Driving is not a right, it is a privilege that carries a responsibility to be aware of one's surroundings at all times, and should be treated as such. The convergence of a lot of technologies into easily obtainable handheld devices is making travel even more dangerous, because lots of people take so much for granted.
I use Google's navigation stuff all the time, it's great! But it almost seems like the people who rely on the gadgets in their vehicle are the ones causing the accidents that the GPS units are trying to route around.
I set my parents up with an Ubuntu box a few years ago, three or four now, I can't remember. I'd had a windows box for them previously, but it was agonizing, with the amount of spyware/malware floating around, and stupid web-popups causing virus/trojan infections.
So I thought to give Ubuntu a try. I got them a $200 box from wal-mart, threw an extra stick of RAM and a DVD drive in it, then installed whichever version of Ubuntu was current at the time. It works great for them, they can browse wherever they need to on the internet, check their emails and communicate with their brothers and sisters. No need for convoluted regular updates of antivirus programs.
It 'just worked", was very inexpensive, and my parents actually enjoy the internet and the ability to find information about things they're interested in.
Fast forward to the present, still on the same box, running Hardy Heron, still enjoying and using the machine without any problems. I call that good.
Cost Effective.. As in, how much will the cost be if your server hardware takes a dump, and you have to put all new hardware in, restore from backup, and be losing money during the down time?
I work for a newspaper, one of the absolutely skinflintiest, most penny-pinching companies I've seen in my life. When they built the new building about 5 years ago, I asked them to include climate control for the server room. "We'll deal with that next year, it's not in the budget this year." was their reply. So, the server room, which at the time only had two rack-mounted servers and a Unix box inside, got up to about 80F routinely. I begged, pleaded, and pestered them until they actually did something. Chopped a hole in the wall, and stuck in an old window-mount, venting to the inside of the inserting/packaging/warehouse area. This was able to get the temperature down to about 70F, and hold it there. With the addition of two more servers, though, the temp got up to about 78-80F. And, this was in the winter. As soon as spring came around, the tempereatures started to climb, up to about 85-90F, and with the upcoming addition of four to six more servers, it was way too hot.
We took the plunge, and I was able to actually get them to install, as a Capital project, rather than regular expenses, a Mitsubishi Mr. Slim remote unit. Wall-mounted, with external condenser, etc... This did require the running of a 220V circuit, but the cost was just under USD$10,000.00. Considering that there are nine servers in there, with a few more on the way, and each one costs about 5 grand, plus some software, and plus the downtime and such, it was VERY much worth the cost, especially since we'll be able to add more servers in the future and still have plenty of growth room. Plus, the servers and hard drives should last longer too, since their lifespan won't be affected by high temperatures. I'm able to keep it at about 63F right now, measured on the wall farthest away from the A/C unit, behind the servers. Just walking back there, you can feel a massive amount of heat being thrown off.
Seriously, don't cheap out on cooling your hardware. In the long run, you will regret it if you do. The
It seems to me that so many industries these days are facing changes that require them to change their business model, just a little, or completely.
I work for a newspaper company in the midwest, and it's mostly smaller local newspapers. Ad revenue is where the company makes all its money, the money gained from newspaper purchases is nearly insignificant in comparison.
I don't really know all the numbers, but with the rising costs of fuel and life in general, just hauling in the blank newsprint, and transporting the printed product is costing a lot more these days, plus the increased wages to people who do the work. The whole infrastructure of the company is becoming more and more expensive as time goes on, and it's going to have to change, or else the companies will just shut down.
I've seen the printed-paper newspaper industry in a decline for years, and it will only accelerate. The industry is one of the most skinflintiest businesses around, from my own experience and from talking to others in different areas of the country. "They" just don't seem to care about long-term savings, it's always about the bottom line this second. They'd rather pay for hours and hours of tech work maintaining and repairing old and worn-out equipment than saving money in the long-run by buying newer up-to-date stuff that will work more efficiently and not have so much labor involved in its upkeep.
One thing that I've had in my mind for a long time, is the cool emergence of the "electronic paper" technology. I think it would resurrect the system, if they were able to get a portable version of this paper, like say, in a little scroll tube that the paper can be unrolled from, and set up kiosks where the current paper dispensers are in towns, and people who subscribe get a scrollcase and access to these kiosks to download their content.
Since it's electronic, the stories can be updated more frequently than once every 24 hours, and you can still get the local investigation and analysis of the reporters. The ad revenue can still be there, just like it is on the printed page. Huge money could be saved in the man-hours of printing the page, and of transporting it. The unfortunate side-effectt this has is severely curtailing the income of the guys who work the press itself, but with a weekly summary/sunday paper, they'd still have jobs.
Plus, I don't really see this happening any time soon, but as the people who now are young adults familiar with the internet grow into older adults, they will begin to become more interested in their community news, and want a source to read it from.
Sometime in the next 5-10 years, the printed newspaper industry is going to have to change, but it's going to take a younger, more technologically-aware and less-resistant-to-change cadre of publishing beureaucracy.
Anyway, that's my mindless ramblings for the morning...
Well, I bought a panasonic PV-DV51 (at least I think that's the model number, it's been a long time since I thought about it) several years ago.
I've used it for just general home stuff, but I also made a couple mounts for my car, one inside above the rear passenger seat for an in-car cam, and the other one where the drivers-side rear mirror goes. I do a lot of autocrosses and roadrace track days, and the camera gets bounced around pretty darned good.
The only problem I ever had with it was at the Lake Superior ProRally last year, when it was raining/drizzling out, and the water got inside enough to first make the display stop, then make the buttons stop working. I just left it sit out overnight with a fan blowing past it, and it's worked fine ever since.
There is a LOT of vibration that the camera gets with the way it mounts, but I've never had a problem yet. I don't have a nice DV transport either, so I have to use the camera's internals to get the video from the miniDV tape to the computer.
I've also just recently purchased another camera, a Canon model, and it seems to be holding up to the task ok so far, but I haven't used it as much as the Panasonic.
I've got to wonder, if you're just taping presentations you're giving (is the camera mounted on a tripod?) why would your cameras be chewed up like this?
If an Identity theft convict gets 3.5 to 7, how much will a spam convict get? It's great that one is down, but how many more will take his place, and make sure not to make his same mistakes? The penalties could (and should) be harsh, but we have to catch them first, I suppose...
Well, the HUGE Corporation owns the Very Big Company that owns the Smaller Company that is made up of many small newspapers in central Wisconsin. the Very Big company is a mostly Microsoft house, with macs for doing layout and such, with several people on the IT staff.
Me and one other guy do pretty much all of the IT support (except network/mail administration), network support, application support, desktop support, etc. for the 12 newspapers that make up the Smaller Company. Basically, if it's got a switch, knob, button, light, display, or dial, or if it beeps and gets plugged into any sort of receptacle, then we get to support it.
There's one or two guys at the Very Big Company who enjoy the fun of linux, and then there's me, and I keep bringing up the linux issue to people (like I did with the Director of IT at the Very Big Company yesterday. I figured it would be a chance, since he's got a huge poster of the 2.4 kernel on his wall) and his quote went something like "That's all good, but when something goes wrong, just tell the user to go find the answer on a mailing list somewhere. HHAHAHAHAHahahahaha.." and then he walked away.
Right now, the only linux machine in all of the 12 locations that I cover is my dual-boot laptop. I'm going to try and scrounge up a machine to set up as a linux workstation replacement, and have one of the more open-minded people try to use it in parallel with their regular one for a while, and get their reaction. I'd love to help Scribus out with bug reports/feature requests, but It's going to take some doing before I can even get a machine to run it on.
As for the "you should use Mac OSX" guy, I'd love to, but does QuarkXpress 4.xx work with OSX? I was under the impression that QuarkXpress 5.xx did, but not 4.xx. at 900 bucks a pop, 5.xx licenses are definitely not what the company's going to go for, just to justify going to OSX. And as for servers, We've got racks of Dell Poweredges that cost a pretty penny, and work wonderfully, so I doubt they want to convert to OSX boxes as servers either.
I think the current IT regime at the HUGE Corporation and the Very Big Company would love to drive the rest of the macs out and go with all PC's, but there are the rabid macheads who want to keep on keepin' on. I'm just trying to slip some linux in the door in all the hubbub.
Personally, all I care is that the system works, and works well. currently, the Windows boxes do that, and the mac ones don't, without a LOT of babysitting. I figure if I can get a linux box in somewhere that does the same things that both the macs AND the windows machines do, at a lower cost with equal or better results, that's one equation they can't ignore.
By the way, I discovered completely by accident over the weekend that this app comes with the ClusterKnoppix LiveCD, I think version 3.3-2004-02-16. I think its v1.1.4 of Scribus that's included.
I have to support about 12 small newspapers right now, and I would LOVE to be able to get rid of all the stupid macintoshes that are a PITA to maintain and go to a more stable platform that doesn't break the bank.
The newspaper industry IS notoriously stingy (as evident by my paycheck), and if this app comes out polished enough to be able to perform the same functions of QuarkXpress and run it on hardware that's less expensive to purchase, maintain and replace, that's another lever to use on the administrative side to get some linux workstations in place. Add in some OpenOffice.org to the equation, and most of the win2k boxes can get converted, too.
Of course, since we're all running on an AD domain, we'd still have to pay Microsoft for the CALs to connect to the W2k servers and the Exchange2K email server. Change will be a loooong time coming there.
But Scribus is an awesome HUGE step in the right direction for linux. For linux to become a real desktop replacement in the workplace, it's gotta have the apps that are needed by even the "niche" industries, like publishing, accounting, insurance, etc...
There are hordes of small businesses that have to pay big-business prices for software to do their job. I'd almost say the small-businesses outnumber the big ones, so if the SB owner can convert to linux, when they become a BB, they will bring linux with them, and the plan to rule the world will finally be culminated!!!! er, I mean, they will help to bring linux to the masses.
What I got out of the article is, "No fair, they don't design pen and paper RPG rules with computer play in mind!"
To my thinking, it's a pen and paper
RPG game... why does it have to work exactly the same on a computer at all? I mean it's not like the rules are actually hard and fast "you MUST do EXACTLY as the DM/Players guides say."
Right in the book, it says they are only suggestions, guidelines. Really, what (to me) makes a great roleplaying session is the departure from those rules in subtle ways that makes the game more personalized and just a better story. After all, that is what Role Playing is about, making a story about "what if". It's really hard to make departures like that on a computer that's only programmed with two or three responses to any given choice in an RPG.
I do agree with the author's cynicism of WotC though, I haven't liked that company since they screwed up Magic: The Gathering by releasing version after version after version, without thought to gameplay, or at least not much.
Overall, though, I don't think that you can truly make a "proper" RPG on a computer, because of that lack of human element. It's fun to play computer games, and it's fun to roleplay, but I think that the pen and paper RPG's are better, because in the end you make a better story, and you actually have interaction with People, in Real Life, not with someone on the other end of a keyboard...
but what do I know, I only play the games, I don't make them.
Not as bad as it really seems
on
Hack Your Ride
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
chipping a car is really not that crazy or extreme. Most cars come from the factory with "stupid-proof" setups, i.e., they run very very rich so you can't induce detonation and blow your engine easily, and they engineer in lots of understeer for safety reasons since 90% of the people on the road aren't what you'd exactly call performance oriented drivers.
chipping a car mostly involves re-doing the fuel injector maps and spark timing control for certain rpm ranges to increase torque and horsepower. This has the added benefit of also increasing fuel mileage in many cases, since it's set to be very rich from the factory. When you lean it out a little, you use less fuel, get more power, and have fun in the process.
Most factory turbo cars that I know of don't really use electronic boost control mechanisms, they actually use wastegates and compressor bypass valves to maintain boost in a mechanical/pneumatic fashion. Electronic boost controllers are pretty expensive, anyway.
but just reprogramming the existing chip in a car is nowhere near as good as installing a complete standalone Engine Management System. With an EMS like a Haltech (produced in AU, btw), for example, you can actually adjust fuel, timing, boost, etc literally on the fly, unlike a reprogrammed ODBII type computer found in most cars. This allows you to fine-tune your car for maximum efficiency or power, or whatever you're looking for. (power, of course, duh!)
You'd be really suprised how over-engineered a lot of cars are, and what they can take. Hmm.. sorta like overclocking a processor, really. If you take the proper precautions with each (better cooling, faster ram, good power supply, for the computer, or higher-octane fuel, good lubricants, and regular maintenance for the car)
So before we get our panties in a bundle and start completely ranting on the car tuner demographic (but it wouldn't really be slashdot without it) just keep in mind that it's the same sort of compulsion for car tuners as it is for overclockers, or mod-chippers, or kernel-hackers...
The reason they keep pushing the mac thing is to reaffirm to themselves that they didn't make a bad investment on overpriced hardware. Nobody likes to be embarrassed alone.
I support both mac and windows boxen, and truthfully, in my experience to date, the x86 PC's are FAR superior to anything that macintosh has been able to provide.
However, since this actually has nothing to with the actual topic of the post..
This is one of the reasons I haven't got a dvd burner yet, because the (affordable) software hasn't caught up to the hardware yet.
Hondas break just as much as any other car if not maintaned properly. No reason to put them on some sort of pedestal. If you run it hard and don't do proper maintenance, you'll run into the same problems as any other car.
As for the Volvo concept car, it's just that, a concept that will never go into production. It's actually really good policy to get as many points of view as possible when developing a car. Many of the ideas are a little wacky, but future designs could take some variation on a theme and make some nifty improvements. Flip-up rear seats, for example, would make things very handy when hauling things around, if you didn't already have a truck or minivan to do it for you.
And speaking of reliability, Volvo makes some of the most reliable and tough cars on the planet. I'd bet that a regularly maintained volvo outlasts a regularly maintained honda 9 out of 10 times... of course, they'd both be 35 years old and ready for the museum by the time they give up the ghost...
If it weren't for the whole godawful obsession with time and deadlines and the whole ratrace thing, people would leave much healthier stress-free lives.
Timeshifting is a great convenience, but it still is just a delay so the "megacorps" can use us as tools to their ends for longer hours, and with the timeshifted media to watch/listen to, we spend less and less times developing and nurturing relationships with other humans.
And also.... is a book still a book if it's a tape? I think not. I think that a story is still a story, but a Book has a front and back cover, and pages, and is WAY WAY WAY better than any book on tape, because reading takes more concentration, therefore the imagery in your mind will be more detailed and vivid. Just listening can provoke the imagination, too, but for me stories on tape just don't quite have the same effect.
Anyway, enough rambling on at the fingers.
If I remember correctly, the cheating a-la Cheater-Strike didn't really happen until after the retail release of Counterstrike... up until then, there were a few here and there, but you could nearly always tell who was cheating.. then it basically became the norm to cheat, and I just stopped playing.. thats why the theft of the HL2 source pissed me off so much. I was looking forward to the good-old-days of no cheats/hacks, at least for a few days...
Is "community service" really really punishing or something? They were going to fine him 21,000 dollars, but instead chose to give him 200 hours of community service... That's $105 an hour.. can I find some community service like that? Please?
As a few others have mentioned, cold turkey works well. Make sure keep yourself well hydrated. I'm a little over 4 months caffeine free right now, and it worked for me. Initially, I drank a LOT of orange soda and orange juice, and gallons of water. I think the orange soda helped a lot, because I was used to the carbonation from the Mountain Dew I was always drinking, so it gave me a little bit of a placebo...
The first day, I had a splitting headache, but if you keep hydrated, that goes away pretty quickly, at least it did for me.
I hadn't had any caffeine for about 4 months, until new years eve, when I had a couple cans of coke with near equal amounts of Captain Morgan... with no ill effects to speak of, except for the tiredness the next day, which was most likely because I went to bed at 5:30AM...
So, Cold Turkey With Lots of Fluids is the way to go.
If I were just an average out-of-the-box Microsoft Windows user, and say, Charter Pipeline cablemodem internet subscriber, and didn't really know a lot about how networks worked, and stuff like that, shouldn't it be charter's fault for allowing my computer to be online in the same workgroup as a bunch of other users? or Microsoft's fault for having the hard drive shared by default, so programs like kazaa can just hook into whatever content on my computer?
The **AA's were just a little too shortsighted about this whole internet thing, and are trying to put hardcore stops on the whole thing, just so they can get their hands back around it, and regain control of the masses. What happens to other companies who are shortsigthed? They go bankrupt, and disappear. Why the HELL should we pass laws and make legislation to ensure ANY company's continuing survival? If they can't paddle their own boat because they thought they didn't need the oars, they should've stayed on the beach drinking maitais, or else face the Wrath of the Jellyfish. (or something thats supposed to be profound and witty all at the same time....)
My opinion: ADHD and other "disorders" affecting the "mental health" of people due to "chemical imbalances" seem very real to many people. How can so many people have this problem, and it not be what "the doctors" say it is? easy. I think that due to the horrible diet and lack of decent exercise, all the chemicals we ingest in everything we eat and drink, OF COURSE we're going to have chemical imbalances. because our bodies are trying to filter out all this crap that shouldn't be there in the first place. I'm not a doctor, or a scientist, but yeah, I feel depressed a lot, and i have trouble concentrating on things a lot, too. does that mean I have some sort of depression, or have ADHD? could be.. but my choice is to deal with it without going to the doctors and taking drugs for it. When I feel like the bottom dropped out, yeah, its uncomfortable. Who says life is supposed to make you happy all the time? It's the experience of it that helps us grow into better people. All I know is that all these kids (and adults now apparently) with add were given all these special considerations in schools, and what did us "smart" kids get? more homework. because the schoolsystems aren't designed to help individuals excel. they're designed to get the lowest common denominator the rudimentary requirements of an "education" so they can go get a job as a coporate drone somewhere.
Much of this problem I think has to do with the way the education system is handled, the way the U.S. as a society is becoming. It's only going to get worse. these mental problems are the trickle-down symptoms of a failing gigantic empire.
But, that's just one man's own opinion.
So, someone gets a dummy card that looks real and holds that in their hand. but the stolen card is up your sleeve, and activates the electronics. Visual verification by the cashier? sure! Of course the signature looks right, you wrote it!
But it seems like it might be a halfway decent technology if they can figure out how to avoid abuse like that.
ah well, just my 857,345,246.4 rubles.
My girlfriend always watched that show, and she's getting the DVD's. Personally, my friends and I really have to control ourselves to NOT MST3K-ize anything we watch. It's ingrained. Too much Wierd Al Yankovic as a kid, I guess....
Slashdot Mirror
I understand the convenience of using GPS units for avoiding construction and major traffic delays.
But, what's wrong with people actually looking at a map before the trip, familiarizing themselves with the roads they'll be encountering, and then driving to their destination. Or actually paying enough attention to their surroundings to know which direction they're going, and reading the signs that the government has spent billions of dollars to install on the highways?
I can't count the times in the last year or two when I've been nearly killed by people fiddling with technology in their vehicles. Talking, texting, pressing buttons, changing channels, putting in the next DVD, etc... Driving is not a right, it is a privilege that carries a responsibility to be aware of one's surroundings at all times, and should be treated as such. The convergence of a lot of technologies into easily obtainable handheld devices is making travel even more dangerous, because lots of people take so much for granted.
I use Google's navigation stuff all the time, it's great! But it almost seems like the people who rely on the gadgets in their vehicle are the ones causing the accidents that the GPS units are trying to route around.
I set my parents up with an Ubuntu box a few years ago, three or four now, I can't remember. I'd had a windows box for them previously, but it was agonizing, with the amount of spyware/malware floating around, and stupid web-popups causing virus/trojan infections. So I thought to give Ubuntu a try. I got them a $200 box from wal-mart, threw an extra stick of RAM and a DVD drive in it, then installed whichever version of Ubuntu was current at the time. It works great for them, they can browse wherever they need to on the internet, check their emails and communicate with their brothers and sisters. No need for convoluted regular updates of antivirus programs. It 'just worked", was very inexpensive, and my parents actually enjoy the internet and the ability to find information about things they're interested in. Fast forward to the present, still on the same box, running Hardy Heron, still enjoying and using the machine without any problems. I call that good.
Cost Effective.. As in, how much will the cost be if your server hardware takes a dump, and you have to put all new hardware in, restore from backup, and be losing money during the down time?
I work for a newspaper, one of the absolutely skinflintiest, most penny-pinching companies I've seen in my life. When they built the new building about 5 years ago, I asked them to include climate control for the server room. "We'll deal with that next year, it's not in the budget this year." was their reply. So, the server room, which at the time only had two rack-mounted servers and a Unix box inside, got up to about 80F routinely. I begged, pleaded, and pestered them until they actually did something. Chopped a hole in the wall, and stuck in an old window-mount, venting to the inside of the inserting/packaging/warehouse area. This was able to get the temperature down to about 70F, and hold it there. With the addition of two more servers, though, the temp got up to about 78-80F. And, this was in the winter. As soon as spring came around, the tempereatures started to climb, up to about 85-90F, and with the upcoming addition of four to six more servers, it was way too hot.
We took the plunge, and I was able to actually get them to install, as a Capital project, rather than regular expenses, a Mitsubishi Mr. Slim remote unit. Wall-mounted, with external condenser, etc...
This did require the running of a 220V circuit, but the cost was just under USD$10,000.00. Considering that there are nine servers in there, with a few more on the way, and each one costs about 5 grand, plus some software, and plus the downtime and such, it was VERY much worth the cost, especially since we'll be able to add more servers in the future and still have plenty of growth room. Plus, the servers and hard drives should last longer too, since their lifespan won't be affected by high temperatures. I'm able to keep it at about 63F right now, measured on the wall farthest away from the A/C unit, behind the servers. Just walking back there, you can feel a massive amount of heat being thrown off.
Seriously, don't cheap out on cooling your hardware. In the long run, you will regret it if you do.
The
It seems to me that so many industries these days are facing changes that require them to change their business model, just a little, or completely.
I work for a newspaper company in the midwest, and it's mostly smaller local newspapers. Ad revenue is where the company makes all its money, the money gained from newspaper purchases is nearly insignificant in comparison.
I don't really know all the numbers, but with the rising costs of fuel and life in general, just hauling in the blank newsprint, and transporting the printed product is costing a lot more these days, plus the increased wages to people who do the work. The whole infrastructure of the company is becoming more and more expensive as time goes on, and it's going to have to change, or else the companies will just shut down.
I've seen the printed-paper newspaper industry in a decline for years, and it will only accelerate. The industry is one of the most skinflintiest businesses around, from my own experience and from talking to others in different areas of the country. "They" just don't seem to care about long-term savings, it's always about the bottom line this second. They'd rather pay for hours and hours of tech work maintaining and repairing old and worn-out equipment than saving money in the long-run by buying newer up-to-date stuff that will work more efficiently and not have so much labor involved in its upkeep.
One thing that I've had in my mind for a long time, is the cool emergence of the "electronic paper" technology. I think it would resurrect the system, if they were able to get a portable version of this paper, like say, in a little scroll tube that the paper can be unrolled from, and set up kiosks where the current paper dispensers are in towns, and people who subscribe get a scrollcase and access to these kiosks to download their content.
Since it's electronic, the stories can be updated more frequently than once every 24 hours, and you can still get the local investigation and analysis of the reporters. The ad revenue can still be there, just like it is on the printed page. Huge money could be saved in the man-hours of printing the page, and of transporting it. The unfortunate side-effectt this has is severely curtailing the income of the guys who work the press itself, but with a weekly summary/sunday paper, they'd still have jobs.
Plus, I don't really see this happening any time soon, but as the people who now are young adults familiar with the internet grow into older adults, they will begin to become more interested in their community news, and want a source to read it from.
Sometime in the next 5-10 years, the printed newspaper industry is going to have to change, but it's going to take a younger, more technologically-aware and less-resistant-to-change cadre of publishing beureaucracy.
Anyway, that's my mindless ramblings for the morning...
Well, I bought a panasonic PV-DV51 (at least I think that's the model number, it's been a long time since I thought about it) several years ago.
I've used it for just general home stuff, but I also made a couple mounts for my car, one inside above the rear passenger seat for an in-car cam, and the other one where the drivers-side rear mirror goes. I do a lot of autocrosses and roadrace track days, and the camera gets bounced around pretty darned good.
The only problem I ever had with it was at the Lake Superior ProRally last year, when it was raining/drizzling out, and the water got inside enough to first make the display stop, then make the buttons stop working. I just left it sit out overnight with a fan blowing past it, and it's worked fine ever since.
There is a LOT of vibration that the camera gets with the way it mounts, but I've never had a problem yet. I don't have a nice DV transport either, so I have to use the camera's internals to get the video from the miniDV tape to the computer.
I've also just recently purchased another camera, a Canon model, and it seems to be holding up to the task ok so far, but I haven't used it as much as the Panasonic.
I've got to wonder, if you're just taping presentations you're giving (is the camera mounted on a tripod?) why would your cameras be chewed up like this?
Is it Verizon directly digging and breaking things, Or is it their lowest bidder contractor?
It sounds to me like whoever they have doing the work needs to go back to contractor school.
If it were me, I'd say who cares!!! all that stuff is outside, but I've got fiber to my house, I'm never coming out again!
If an Identity theft convict gets 3.5 to 7, how much will a spam convict get? It's great that one is down, but how many more will take his place, and make sure not to make his same mistakes? The penalties could (and should) be harsh, but we have to catch them first, I suppose...
Sure there is. there's a BUNCH of liveCD's made for that purpose, actually..
it was a slashdot story a while back, but it was such a good link that I kept it...
http://www.frozentech.com/content/livecd.php
Well, the HUGE Corporation owns the Very Big Company that owns the Smaller Company that is made up of many small newspapers in central Wisconsin. the Very Big company is a mostly Microsoft house, with macs for doing layout and such, with several people on the IT staff.
Me and one other guy do pretty much all of the IT support (except network/mail administration), network support, application support, desktop support, etc. for the 12 newspapers that make up the Smaller Company. Basically, if it's got a switch, knob, button, light, display, or dial, or if it beeps and gets plugged into any sort of receptacle, then we get to support it.
There's one or two guys at the Very Big Company who enjoy the fun of linux, and then there's me, and I keep bringing up the linux issue to people (like I did with the Director of IT at the Very Big Company yesterday. I figured it would be a chance, since he's got a huge poster of the 2.4 kernel on his wall) and his quote went something like "That's all good, but when something goes wrong, just tell the user to go find the answer on a mailing list somewhere. HHAHAHAHAHahahahaha.." and then he walked away.
Right now, the only linux machine in all of the 12 locations that I cover is my dual-boot laptop. I'm going to try and scrounge up a machine to set up as a linux workstation replacement, and have one of the more open-minded people try to use it in parallel with their regular one for a while, and get their reaction. I'd love to help Scribus out with bug reports/feature requests, but It's going to take some doing before I can even get a machine to run it on.
As for the "you should use Mac OSX" guy, I'd love to, but does QuarkXpress 4.xx work with OSX? I was under the impression that QuarkXpress 5.xx did, but not 4.xx. at 900 bucks a pop, 5.xx licenses are definitely not what the company's going to go for, just to justify going to OSX. And as for servers, We've got racks of Dell Poweredges that cost a pretty penny, and work wonderfully, so I doubt they want to convert to OSX boxes as servers either.
I think the current IT regime at the HUGE Corporation and the Very Big Company would love to drive the rest of the macs out and go with all PC's, but there are the rabid macheads who want to keep on keepin' on. I'm just trying to slip some linux in the door in all the hubbub.
Personally, all I care is that the system works, and works well. currently, the Windows boxes do that, and the mac ones don't, without a LOT of babysitting. I figure if I can get a linux box in somewhere that does the same things that both the macs AND the windows machines do, at a lower cost with equal or better results, that's one equation they can't ignore.
By the way, I discovered completely by accident over the weekend that this app comes with the ClusterKnoppix LiveCD, I think version 3.3-2004-02-16. I think its v1.1.4 of Scribus that's included.
I have to support about 12 small newspapers right now, and I would LOVE to be able to get rid of all the stupid macintoshes that are a PITA to maintain and go to a more stable platform that doesn't break the bank.
The newspaper industry IS notoriously stingy (as evident by my paycheck), and if this app comes out polished enough to be able to perform the same functions of QuarkXpress and run it on hardware that's less expensive to purchase, maintain and replace, that's another lever to use on the administrative side to get some linux workstations in place. Add in some OpenOffice.org to the equation, and most of the win2k boxes can get converted, too.
Of course, since we're all running on an AD domain, we'd still have to pay Microsoft for the CALs to connect to the W2k servers and the Exchange2K email server. Change will be a loooong time coming there.
But Scribus is an awesome HUGE step in the right direction for linux. For linux to become a real desktop replacement in the workplace, it's gotta have the apps that are needed by even the "niche" industries, like publishing, accounting, insurance, etc...
There are hordes of small businesses that have to pay big-business prices for software to do their job. I'd almost say the small-businesses outnumber the big ones, so if the SB owner can convert to linux, when they become a BB, they will bring linux with them, and the plan to rule the world will finally be culminated!!!! er, I mean, they will help to bring linux to the masses.
What I got out of the article is, "No fair, they don't design pen and paper RPG rules with computer play in mind!"
To my thinking, it's a pen and paper RPG game... why does it have to work exactly the same on a computer at all? I mean it's not like the rules are actually hard and fast "you MUST do EXACTLY as the DM/Players guides say."
Right in the book, it says they are only suggestions, guidelines. Really, what (to me) makes a great roleplaying session is the departure from those rules in subtle ways that makes the game more personalized and just a better story. After all, that is what Role Playing is about, making a story about "what if". It's really hard to make departures like that on a computer that's only programmed with two or three responses to any given choice in an RPG.
I do agree with the author's cynicism of WotC though, I haven't liked that company since they screwed up Magic: The Gathering by releasing version after version after version, without thought to gameplay, or at least not much.
Overall, though, I don't think that you can truly make a "proper" RPG on a computer, because of that lack of human element. It's fun to play computer games, and it's fun to roleplay, but I think that the pen and paper RPG's are better, because in the end you make a better story, and you actually have interaction with People, in Real Life, not with someone on the other end of a keyboard...
but what do I know, I only play the games, I don't make them.
chipping a car is really not that crazy or extreme. Most cars come from the factory with "stupid-proof" setups, i.e., they run very very rich so you can't induce detonation and blow your engine easily, and they engineer in lots of understeer for safety reasons since 90% of the people on the road aren't what you'd exactly call performance oriented drivers.
chipping a car mostly involves re-doing the fuel injector maps and spark timing control for certain rpm ranges to increase torque and horsepower. This has the added benefit of also increasing fuel mileage in many cases, since it's set to be very rich from the factory. When you lean it out a little, you use less fuel, get more power, and have fun in the process.
Most factory turbo cars that I know of don't really use electronic boost control mechanisms, they actually use wastegates and compressor bypass valves to maintain boost in a mechanical/pneumatic fashion. Electronic boost controllers are pretty expensive, anyway.
but just reprogramming the existing chip in a car is nowhere near as good as installing a complete standalone Engine Management System. With an EMS like a Haltech (produced in AU, btw), for example, you can actually adjust fuel, timing, boost, etc literally on the fly, unlike a reprogrammed ODBII type computer found in most cars. This allows you to fine-tune your car for maximum efficiency or power, or whatever you're looking for. (power, of course, duh!)
You'd be really suprised how over-engineered a lot of cars are, and what they can take. Hmm.. sorta like overclocking a processor, really. If you take the proper precautions with each (better cooling, faster ram, good power supply, for the computer, or higher-octane fuel, good lubricants, and regular maintenance for the car)
So before we get our panties in a bundle and start completely ranting on the car tuner demographic (but it wouldn't really be slashdot without it) just keep in mind that it's the same sort of compulsion for car tuners as it is for overclockers, or mod-chippers, or kernel-hackers...
The reason they keep pushing the mac thing is to reaffirm to themselves that they didn't make a bad investment on overpriced hardware. Nobody likes to be embarrassed alone. I support both mac and windows boxen, and truthfully, in my experience to date, the x86 PC's are FAR superior to anything that macintosh has been able to provide. However, since this actually has nothing to with the actual topic of the post.. This is one of the reasons I haven't got a dvd burner yet, because the (affordable) software hasn't caught up to the hardware yet.
Hondas break just as much as any other car if not maintaned properly. No reason to put them on some sort of pedestal. If you run it hard and don't do proper maintenance, you'll run into the same problems as any other car. As for the Volvo concept car, it's just that, a concept that will never go into production. It's actually really good policy to get as many points of view as possible when developing a car. Many of the ideas are a little wacky, but future designs could take some variation on a theme and make some nifty improvements. Flip-up rear seats, for example, would make things very handy when hauling things around, if you didn't already have a truck or minivan to do it for you. And speaking of reliability, Volvo makes some of the most reliable and tough cars on the planet. I'd bet that a regularly maintained volvo outlasts a regularly maintained honda 9 out of 10 times... of course, they'd both be 35 years old and ready for the museum by the time they give up the ghost...
If it weren't for the whole godawful obsession with time and deadlines and the whole ratrace thing, people would leave much healthier stress-free lives. Timeshifting is a great convenience, but it still is just a delay so the "megacorps" can use us as tools to their ends for longer hours, and with the timeshifted media to watch/listen to, we spend less and less times developing and nurturing relationships with other humans. And also.... is a book still a book if it's a tape? I think not. I think that a story is still a story, but a Book has a front and back cover, and pages, and is WAY WAY WAY better than any book on tape, because reading takes more concentration, therefore the imagery in your mind will be more detailed and vivid. Just listening can provoke the imagination, too, but for me stories on tape just don't quite have the same effect. Anyway, enough rambling on at the fingers.
If I remember correctly, the cheating a-la Cheater-Strike didn't really happen until after the retail release of Counterstrike... up until then, there were a few here and there, but you could nearly always tell who was cheating.. then it basically became the norm to cheat, and I just stopped playing.. thats why the theft of the HL2 source pissed me off so much. I was looking forward to the good-old-days of no cheats/hacks, at least for a few days...
ok, i meant pounds, or euros.. I have been conditioned to automatically see all typings of currency as dollars,. I need help.
Is "community service" really really punishing or something? They were going to fine him 21,000 dollars, but instead chose to give him 200 hours of community service... That's $105 an hour.. can I find some community service like that? Please?
As a few others have mentioned, cold turkey works well. Make sure keep yourself well hydrated. I'm a little over 4 months caffeine free right now, and it worked for me. Initially, I drank a LOT of orange soda and orange juice, and gallons of water. I think the orange soda helped a lot, because I was used to the carbonation from the Mountain Dew I was always drinking, so it gave me a little bit of a placebo... The first day, I had a splitting headache, but if you keep hydrated, that goes away pretty quickly, at least it did for me. I hadn't had any caffeine for about 4 months, until new years eve, when I had a couple cans of coke with near equal amounts of Captain Morgan... with no ill effects to speak of, except for the tiredness the next day, which was most likely because I went to bed at 5:30AM... So, Cold Turkey With Lots of Fluids is the way to go.
If I were just an average out-of-the-box Microsoft Windows user, and say, Charter Pipeline cablemodem internet subscriber, and didn't really know a lot about how networks worked, and stuff like that, shouldn't it be charter's fault for allowing my computer to be online in the same workgroup as a bunch of other users? or Microsoft's fault for having the hard drive shared by default, so programs like kazaa can just hook into whatever content on my computer?
The **AA's were just a little too shortsighted about this whole internet thing, and are trying to put hardcore stops on the whole thing, just so they can get their hands back around it, and regain control of the masses. What happens to other companies who are shortsigthed? They go bankrupt, and disappear. Why the HELL should we pass laws and make legislation to ensure ANY company's continuing survival? If they can't paddle their own boat because they thought they didn't need the oars, they should've stayed on the beach drinking maitais, or else face the Wrath of the Jellyfish. (or something thats supposed to be profound and witty all at the same time....)
My opinion: ADHD and other "disorders" affecting the "mental health" of people due to "chemical imbalances" seem very real to many people. How can so many people have this problem, and it not be what "the doctors" say it is? easy. I think that due to the horrible diet and lack of decent exercise, all the chemicals we ingest in everything we eat and drink, OF COURSE we're going to have chemical imbalances. because our bodies are trying to filter out all this crap that shouldn't be there in the first place. I'm not a doctor, or a scientist, but yeah, I feel depressed a lot, and i have trouble concentrating on things a lot, too. does that mean I have some sort of depression, or have ADHD? could be.. but my choice is to deal with it without going to the doctors and taking drugs for it. When I feel like the bottom dropped out, yeah, its uncomfortable. Who says life is supposed to make you happy all the time? It's the experience of it that helps us grow into better people. All I know is that all these kids (and adults now apparently) with add were given all these special considerations in schools, and what did us "smart" kids get? more homework. because the schoolsystems aren't designed to help individuals excel. they're designed to get the lowest common denominator the rudimentary requirements of an "education" so they can go get a job as a coporate drone somewhere. Much of this problem I think has to do with the way the education system is handled, the way the U.S. as a society is becoming. It's only going to get worse. these mental problems are the trickle-down symptoms of a failing gigantic empire. But, that's just one man's own opinion.
So, someone gets a dummy card that looks real and holds that in their hand. but the stolen card is up your sleeve, and activates the electronics. Visual verification by the cashier? sure! Of course the signature looks right, you wrote it! But it seems like it might be a halfway decent technology if they can figure out how to avoid abuse like that. ah well, just my 857,345,246.4 rubles.
no no no, we use Dollars here, not Pounds.
My girlfriend always watched that show, and she's getting the DVD's. Personally, my friends and I really have to control ourselves to NOT MST3K-ize anything we watch. It's ingrained. Too much Wierd Al Yankovic as a kid, I guess....
I was going to reply to this, but then I forgot what I was going to say, because this shiny light looked interesting.