I would have to also wonder about getting so used to the sound that it loses its meaning.
Some time ago, I figured that I didn't need to use bookmarks since I could just commit the page number to memory. And it worked fine (I'm not particularly amnesic...) But after a while, I found it harder and harder to return to my place. Not because I could not remember the page number, but because I remembered ALL OF THEM, and didn't know which was the correct one. In other words, I had exhausted the usefullness of this memory exercise.
I also have to question the conclusion of those "researchers" that decided that your car was safer with the headlights always on. I believe that they based their conclusion on some studies that suggested a connection between cars with headlights on and lower accident rates. AN APPARENT CONNECTION PROVES NOTHING! I have to wonder if the lower accident rate was due to the fact that it was unusual for cars to have their headlights on (during the day), and that other drivers were just paying more attention to THOSE cars...
For all we know, if all cars had their headlights on, the accident rate might return to the same place it was beforehand.
Anyway, I agree with you that certain stimuli may lose their advantage when they are commonly encountered.
>slackware sucks
have you used it lately? you couldnt be further from the truth. I agree with AC, after enduring Redhat and Debian, I found Slackware to be "just right". Debian, for instance, is truly annoying with the million question gauntlet...
just because it was the first distro... Hmmm. Are you sure? My first Linux experience was with SLS.99p6 in 1993, and I don't recall Slackware being available back then. I could be wrong, though:-)
(Troll writes:)
>Poor choice of a name
How about MicroSoft? Small and limp... Yep, that's a good name.
this has been a public service announcement paid for by the anti-troll assoc. and slashdot members against FUD Go, get 'em tiger!
Mono is the word for `Monkey' in Spanish. We like monkeys.
At least it isn't some crap like MNDN, short for "MNDN is Not Dot Net". Acronyms like HURD make me want to HURL.
Actually, the reference to "monkey" opens up some possibilities for related products:
Monkey belt: a network-accessible coin purse
Monkey business: an office productivity set
Monkey see, monkey do: a remote GUI admin tool
Monkey shines: a ray tracing plug-in
Monkey wrench: a repair utility (or DOS tool!)
Well I think it maybe because of the fact most of us believe in the SEY (someone else's yard) theory,
What would be my share? If it meant cheap and clean power, I would be glad to store a couple kilos of waste in my back yard. Seriously. What is the cask size, a few cubic yards? Just dig the hole deep enough and use an indestructible cask.
I have seen new Kyocera 120-watt panels for under $500 US.
Cool! Excellent!
Besides, a cheap shunt controller can be made from a 68HC08 microcontroller and a few bucks of analog components.
I was thinking it shouldn't be too expensive:-) Although I would try to see if a PIC 12Cxx could do the job. No xtal, just power, ground, and 6 IO pins:-) For about (or under) a buck.
anyone know the lifecycle cost of solar cell power vs other types of power?
Sorry, I forgot to answer the second part of your question:-)
Let's assume that this 40 watt system will operate at 12 hours a day, and let's derate the output to 40 watts over 8 hours (instead of 12). That gives us 320 watt hours per day of work, or 115 kilowatt hours per 360 sunny days. You will have to reduce that figure depending on the local climate.
Where I live, electricity costs about 9.5 cents per kilowatt hour, so this setup would be worth about $11 per year. Not much of a bargain - for me anyway. (In case you are wondering, I probably get 350 days of full sunshine per year.)
But I don't think MY cost comparison is of any interest to the people in the article. The first few hundred watts are probably the most productive anyway. After that, the watts are probably just "wasted" on entertainment.
anyone know the lifecycle cost of solar cell power vs other types of power?
Well, first you have the solar cells. Fancy new ones will probably cost $10 per watt, but I have seen perfectly good looking surplus ones for around $4/watt. So you would be looking at about $160 or so for the 40 watts mentioned in this story.
Of course, you aren't just going to nail the solar cells to a tree, so also figure in the cost of a nice frame. Considering that these people don't have a lot of money, I think it would be better to make the frames locally, and save on the labor costs. How does $20 for a plywood and plexiglas frame sound?
We also want some way to store the power. A deep-cycle marine battery is just right for this. Figure maybe $50 for that. The rich imperialist systems also include a charge controller, but our friends might prefer to save the $100 or so and flip a switch when the battery is fully charged. Add maybe $10 for a pair of cheap gauges (volts and amps).
Also figure in the cost of electrical wiring and miscellaneous hardware. I think we could get the cost down to around $250 if our goal is to provide power affordably.
How long will all this last? My guess is that the cells may (may!) last 10 years, the battery as long as five, and the frame maybe a few years. That brings my 10-year estimate to maybe $300 to $400, or up to $40 per year.
Every time Dr. Evil announces that he is working on a new weapon, you folks always assume it is
going to be some orbiting death-ray, a volcano machine, or a bomb that will blow the earth into
little bits. You are always jumping to conclusions...
Maybe this time Dr. Evil is making a weapon that will fight crime and make our streets safe. Or
one that only works against crooked lawyers and politicians. But I repeat myself. Did you even
consider the possibility that Dr. Evil might be trying to be helpful this time? No, you didn't.
Frankly, if I were Dr. Evil, I would be pretty upset with this constant stereotyping. Maybe that
is the cause of his inner anger that causes him to do these things. You are to blame, not him...
... and it complains and throws up a red flag when a ping sweep or SNMP querys are done, causing users to panic...
If you really want to have some fun, add this inocuous line to their email:
cat/etc/passwd | mail
If I remember correctly, some email virus checker will see this and decide that there is
a dangerous virus about to attack their computer! (Don't try this at home, kids. Heh heh!)
Not especially so. I just figured someone might like a tip on how to produce a password that is actually random.
As I mentioned in a different reply, the truly random passwords have patterns that can actually
make them easier to remember than something you make up that seems random.
Unless you are a Rain Man type who can easily remember a large number of random passwords...
No, actually that is a problem:-) I can always remember my current passwords, but if I want to
fire up an old system that's been on the shelf for the last year, it's going to be single-user boot...
After generating fresh random password, I can ususally think of some nmeumonic to make it easy
to remember. That brings the number of "symbols" down to three or four. What is funny is that the
real random characters don't seem all that random after all. If I were just making up "random" chars
off the top of my head, I would certainly not have picked many of the truly random ones. Go figure.
90 days seems like a good password lifetime. Of course, that is another reason it is impossible
for me to remember those really old ones.
For all my passwords (and I have a lot of them), the only acceptable way is to pick them randomly.
And I don't mean pseudo-random, like a computer generated password, or "sounds random", from just
making up letters and digits out of my head.
I have a cup full of small squares, each one with a letter or digit on them. Pull one out, put it
back in, shake, and repeat 7 or 8 times.
And I think removing versions and "good status" messages is just plain stupid. When I boot up, I
WANT to know what is running, and that everything is "just swell". What is the problem,
anyway? BOO HOO! BOO HOO! "I cannot deal with all those confusing boot messages. BOO HOO!"
And how many times do you reboot, anyway? Once a week? Twice a year? Every day? Whatever the
interval, a few pages of messages aren't going to hurt anyone. What if you have a problem and now
NEED the messages from last week? On many systems, that will still be in the message logs.
There are a lot of ways to get information, but the message logs are often the most convenient.
I don't see why someone would be so upset about a few K of storage or a few extra kprintf calls.
...but add a Catalyst 5500 or 5000 or an ATM 36170 and we're talking $70 000+ CAN
It does not HAVE to be expensive... Get a Fore LE155 switch (about $5k) and replace some or all of the MMF modules with SMF. Total cost: about $6k to $8k US, or maybe $10k CAN. That's for 12 OC3 ports - not as good as OC12, but still worth something, eh?
I just looked up an HP/Agilent module (HFCT-5805D), about $200 each. This one is good for 15km, and I'm sure you can get SMLR (long reach) for more money. But 15k isn't too shabby for many fiber runs.
Want IP instead of ATM? Okay, you can build your own router from open source software, with SMF OC3 and ethernet, for less than $US 2k each.
Granted, OC3 (about 130mb payload) isn't exciting and glamorous. But it IS equalent to a lot of IP T1's of customer traffic.
Well, we all know it is coming. Some of us are even getting prepared. Most of us are wondering what to do. I'm still looking for my towel.
So far, though, everyone refers to it as "the" apocalypse. Shouldn't we have a choice? That's where this explosive market opportunity starts. We are now offering partnership equity positions in a new user-friendly, broadband, multimedia, object-oriented, fully scalable, fault-tolerant, interactive, Internet-enabled, web-based, and open source PERSONALIZED APOCALPYSE.
Create your own personalized apocalypse experience at www.myapocalypse.com
Offer may vary by country, state, and religion. Actual apocalpyse may vary. Prerequisites may include IE released for Linux.
this one takes the que from the tv in the form of a special audio signal
Audio, eh? I assumed that the "obvious" way of getting the data would be through a small square in the corner of the picture. Modulate the square's luminance, and you have data transfer. It should be pretty easy to explain to the customer, too.
Whatever their audio decoder costs, I'm sure that a simple photocell would be cheaper.
"The old adage 'The only safe computer is locked in a room and unplugged from the Internet' proves false.
- The only safe computer is locked in a room and unplugged from the Internet.
+ The only safe computer is locked in a light-tight, Sonex lined, Faraday cage and unplugged from the Internet.
Nevada's still fighting to stop being the primary waste dump, AFAIK.
I cannot speak for the others, but I am opposed to the proposed nuclear waste dump because I don't want other people's garbage. It is as simple as that - people should take care of their own garbage, and not just ship it somewhere else. Maybe then they would think a bit before creating the garbage in the first place (this goes for ALL garbage, nuclear or not).
As for nuclear power, I would welcome a few plants around here. Hell, we could sell power to California and reduce the tax dependence on gaming. There's plenty of room out here in the desert. There is even a nice salt flat just five miles down the road from me - build a plant there
if you want!
All I demand is that the plant be a MODERN design, not some shit death-trap like the Soviets built, or the obsolete ones mandated by our brain-dead Atomic Energy Commission...
Slashdot Mirror
I would have to also wonder about getting so used to the sound that it loses its meaning.
Some time ago, I figured that I didn't need to use bookmarks since I could just commit the page number to memory. And it worked fine (I'm not particularly amnesic...) But after a while, I found it harder and harder to return to my place. Not because I could not remember the page number, but because I remembered ALL OF THEM, and didn't know which was the correct one. In other words, I had exhausted the usefullness of this memory exercise.
I also have to question the conclusion of those "researchers" that decided that your car was safer with the headlights always on. I believe that they based their conclusion on some studies that suggested a connection between cars with headlights on and lower accident rates. AN APPARENT CONNECTION PROVES NOTHING! I have to wonder if the lower accident rate was due to the fact that it was unusual for cars to have their headlights on (during the day), and that other drivers were just paying more attention to THOSE cars...
For all we know, if all cars had their headlights on, the accident rate might return to the same place it was beforehand.
Anyway, I agree with you that certain stimuli may lose their advantage when they are commonly encountered.
>slackware sucks
.99p6 in 1993, and I don't recall Slackware being available back then. I could be wrong, though :-)
have you used it lately? you couldnt be further from the truth.
I agree with AC, after enduring Redhat and Debian, I found Slackware to be "just right". Debian, for instance, is truly annoying with the million question gauntlet...
just because it was the first distro...
Hmmm. Are you sure? My first Linux experience was with SLS
(Troll writes:)
>Poor choice of a name
How about MicroSoft? Small and limp... Yep, that's a good name.
this has been a public service announcement paid for by the anti-troll assoc. and slashdot members against FUD
Go, get 'em tiger!
Mono is the word for `Monkey' in Spanish. We like monkeys.
At least it isn't some crap like MNDN, short for "MNDN is Not Dot Net". Acronyms like HURD make me want to HURL.
Actually, the reference to "monkey" opens up some possibilities for related products:
Monkey belt: a network-accessible coin purse
Monkey business: an office productivity set
Monkey see, monkey do: a remote GUI admin tool
Monkey shines: a ray tracing plug-in
Monkey wrench: a repair utility (or DOS tool!)
Yeah, and you never read slashdot at work?
:-) In fact my boss approves of it. He says I will even get a raise when my karma reaches 100!
I do
The only stipulation is that I have to get the moderators to post their names under my comments so that he knows they aren't fake.
Well I think it maybe because of the fact most of us believe in the SEY (someone else's yard) theory,
What would be my share? If it meant cheap and clean power, I would be glad to store a couple kilos of waste in my back yard. Seriously. What is the cask size, a few cubic yards? Just dig the hole deep enough and use an indestructible cask.
...an operating system that only holds a very, very small number of users...
Why would a company specialize on Corvette parts when the Ford market is so much bigger?
I have seen new Kyocera 120-watt panels for under $500 US.
:-) Although I would try to see if a PIC 12Cxx could do the job. No xtal, just power, ground, and 6 IO pins :-) For about (or under) a buck.
Cool! Excellent!
Besides, a cheap shunt controller can be made from a 68HC08 microcontroller and a few bucks of analog components.
I was thinking it shouldn't be too expensive
Thanks for the info!
anyone know the lifecycle cost of solar cell power vs other types of power?
:-)
Sorry, I forgot to answer the second part of your question
Let's assume that this 40 watt system will operate at 12 hours a day, and let's derate the output to 40 watts over 8 hours (instead of 12). That gives us 320 watt hours per day of work, or 115 kilowatt hours per 360 sunny days. You will have to reduce that figure depending on the local climate.
Where I live, electricity costs about 9.5 cents per kilowatt hour, so this setup would be worth about $11 per year. Not much of a bargain - for me anyway. (In case you are wondering, I probably get 350 days of full sunshine per year.)
But I don't think MY cost comparison is of any interest to the people in the article. The first few hundred watts are probably the most productive anyway. After that, the watts are probably just "wasted" on entertainment.
anyone know the lifecycle cost of solar cell power vs other types of power?
Well, first you have the solar cells. Fancy new ones will probably cost $10 per watt, but I have seen perfectly good looking surplus ones for around $4/watt. So you would be looking at about $160 or so for the 40 watts mentioned in this story.
Of course, you aren't just going to nail the solar cells to a tree, so also figure in the cost of a nice frame. Considering that these people don't have a lot of money, I think it would be better to make the frames locally, and save on the labor costs. How does $20 for a plywood and plexiglas frame sound?
We also want some way to store the power. A deep-cycle marine battery is just right for this. Figure maybe $50 for that. The rich imperialist systems also include a charge controller, but our friends might prefer to save the $100 or so and flip a switch when the battery is fully charged. Add maybe $10 for a pair of cheap gauges (volts and amps).
Also figure in the cost of electrical wiring and miscellaneous hardware. I think we could get the cost down to around $250 if our goal is to provide power affordably.
How long will all this last? My guess is that the cells may (may!) last 10 years, the battery as long as five, and the frame maybe a few years. That brings my 10-year estimate to maybe $300 to $400, or up to $40 per year.
Every time Dr. Evil announces that he is working on a new weapon, you folks always assume it is
going to be some orbiting death-ray, a volcano machine, or a bomb that will blow the earth into
little bits. You are always jumping to conclusions...
Maybe this time Dr. Evil is making a weapon that will fight crime and make our streets safe. Or
one that only works against crooked lawyers and politicians. But I repeat myself. Did you even
consider the possibility that Dr. Evil might be trying to be helpful this time? No, you didn't.
Frankly, if I were Dr. Evil, I would be pretty upset with this constant stereotyping. Maybe that
is the cause of his inner anger that causes him to do these things. You are to blame, not him...
... and it complains and throws up a red flag when a ping sweep or SNMP querys are done, causing users to panic ...
/etc/passwd | mail
If you really want to have some fun, add this inocuous line to their email:
cat
If I remember correctly, some email virus checker will see this and decide that there is
a dangerous virus about to attack their computer! (Don't try this at home, kids. Heh heh!)
Uh, and this is insightful?
Not especially so. I just figured someone might like a tip on how to produce a password that is actually random.
As I mentioned in a different reply, the truly random passwords have patterns that can actually
make them easier to remember than something you make up that seems random.
Unless you are a Rain Man type who can easily remember a large number of random passwords...
:-) I can always remember my current passwords, but if I want to
No, actually that is a problem
fire up an old system that's been on the shelf for the last year, it's going to be single-user boot...
After generating fresh random password, I can ususally think of some nmeumonic to make it easy
to remember. That brings the number of "symbols" down to three or four. What is funny is that the
real random characters don't seem all that random after all. If I were just making up "random" chars
off the top of my head, I would certainly not have picked many of the truly random ones. Go figure.
90 days seems like a good password lifetime. Of course, that is another reason it is impossible
for me to remember those really old ones.
For all my passwords (and I have a lot of them), the only acceptable way is to pick them randomly.
And I don't mean pseudo-random, like a computer generated password, or "sounds random", from just
making up letters and digits out of my head.
I have a cup full of small squares, each one with a letter or digit on them. Pull one out, put it
back in, shake, and repeat 7 or 8 times.
The boot messages are annoying and obscure actual errors.
You state that as if it were an objective fact. Actually it is your opinion. My opinion is otherwise.
The discussion is about NOT DISPLAYING THE USELESS ONES during booting.
Useless is also a matter of opinion. And the messages do not add any appreciable delay. I have
seen kernel messages go by at hundreds per second on occasion. Mere dozens of "useless" messages won't make any difference in boot time.
I read the article. I was paying attention.
I read the article.
And I think removing versions and "good status" messages is just plain stupid. When I boot up, I
WANT to know what is running, and that everything is "just swell". What is the problem,
anyway? BOO HOO! BOO HOO! "I cannot deal with all those confusing boot messages. BOO HOO!"
And how many times do you reboot, anyway? Once a week? Twice a year? Every day? Whatever the
interval, a few pages of messages aren't going to hurt anyone. What if you have a problem and now
NEED the messages from last week? On many systems, that will still be in the message logs.
There are a lot of ways to get information, but the message logs are often the most convenient.
I don't see why someone would be so upset about a few K of storage or a few extra kprintf calls.
Well, it is their web site. Shouldn't they have some control over the readers who go to NY Times for the latest BBC news? :-)
...but add a Catalyst 5500 or 5000 or an ATM 36170 and we're talking $70 000+ CAN
It does not HAVE to be expensive... Get a Fore LE155 switch (about $5k) and replace some or all of the MMF modules with SMF. Total cost: about $6k to $8k US, or maybe $10k CAN. That's for 12 OC3 ports - not as good as OC12, but still worth something, eh?
I just looked up an HP/Agilent module (HFCT-5805D), about $200 each. This one is good for 15km, and I'm sure you can get SMLR (long reach) for more money. But 15k isn't too shabby for many fiber runs.
Want IP instead of ATM? Okay, you can build your own router from open source software, with SMF OC3 and ethernet, for less than $US 2k each.
Granted, OC3 (about 130mb payload) isn't exciting and glamorous. But it IS equalent to a lot of IP T1's of customer traffic.
Hmmm... Apocalypse, eh?!
Internet + Apocalypse = $$
"How you can profit from the coming Apocalypse"
Well, we all know it is coming. Some of us are even getting prepared. Most of us are wondering what to do. I'm still looking for my towel.
So far, though, everyone refers to it as "the" apocalypse. Shouldn't we have a choice? That's where this explosive market opportunity starts. We are now offering partnership equity positions in a new user-friendly, broadband, multimedia, object-oriented, fully scalable, fault-tolerant, interactive, Internet-enabled, web-based, and open source PERSONALIZED APOCALPYSE.
Create your own personalized apocalypse experience at www.myapocalypse.com
Offer may vary by country, state, and religion. Actual apocalpyse may vary. Prerequisites may include IE released for Linux.
I'd be willing to bet that your opinion and mine differ greatly.
:-)
Not true. I agree with you 100%
Hey! Don't stop there. Keep going! I want to know how the story ends :-)
this one takes the que from the tv in the form of a special audio signal
Audio, eh? I assumed that the "obvious" way of getting the data would be through a small square in the corner of the picture. Modulate the square's luminance, and you have data transfer. It should be pretty easy to explain to the customer, too.
Whatever their audio decoder costs, I'm sure that a simple photocell would be cheaper.
"The old adage 'The only safe computer is locked in a room and unplugged from the Internet' proves false.
- The only safe computer is locked in a room and unplugged from the Internet.
+ The only safe computer is locked in a light-tight, Sonex lined, Faraday cage and unplugged from the Internet.
I am sick of looking for a free domain and finding its taken by "Dirty Domain Squatters Inc"
You can find more than a hundred "interesting" domain name possibilities at Peckerheads Domain Board.
Nevada's still fighting to stop being the primary waste dump, AFAIK.
I cannot speak for the others, but I am opposed to the proposed nuclear waste dump because I don't want other people's garbage. It is as simple as that - people should take care of their own garbage, and not just ship it somewhere else. Maybe then they would think a bit before creating the garbage in the first place (this goes for ALL garbage, nuclear or not).
As for nuclear power, I would welcome a few plants around here. Hell, we could sell power to California and reduce the tax dependence on gaming. There's plenty of room out here in the desert. There is even a nice salt flat just five miles down the road from me - build a plant there
if you want!
All I demand is that the plant be a MODERN design, not some shit death-trap like the Soviets built, or the obsolete ones mandated by our brain-dead Atomic Energy Commission...