I live in the Houston area as well. Since I live in an apartment complex with a T3 attached ( Walden Internet Village), I haven't needed to purchase ADSL from Southwestern Bell, but have looked into it for friends or on the off-chance that I need to move from my current apartment. My friend called for ADSL service and then after about 5 weeks they came out to hook up his line since their maps indicated that he was in an area where service was possible. Upon arrival, they discovered that something about the way his apartment complex was wired precluded the possibility of getting ADSL. Of course, they then suggested ISDN instead. The sad thing is that he was going to move into my complex with the T3 but decided to sign another year lease when he heard that he could get DSL. The moral: don't get your hopes up. There are lots of variables. Treat DSL like the article mentions: like a package ordered from a catalog and forgotten until two months later. The tech guy from SWB said that on average, about 20% of apartments or homes that look like they would support ADSL actually cannot. However, the few friends I have that have ADSL love it. While they haven't been getting the 900K that the above posting purports, it is much cheaper and quicker than ISDN ever was for them (especially since here in the south, ISDN is so expensive compared to other areas).
Maybe they could integrate Perl support into Visual Interdev and allow you to make the scripts and such inside of their project mentality. For purist reasons, I don't want Microsoft subverting Perl for their own ends, but I would like an cross-breed Visual Interdev/Visual Perl beast. This isn't a troll.
After reading about a guy who had his computer components hanging from the ceiling as some kind of mobile, he mentioned his next trick was to put the computer at the bottom of his fish tank. This got me thinking about something you described. What kind of polycarbonate crystalline substance (i'm not a chemistry person so i'm guessing here)could we encase the motherboard and all cards so that it is an electrical insulator and yet conducts heat away very well? Unfortunately, you'd have to be pretty sure about the jumper settings before encasing the board and immersing it. However, give this guy some kudos for using mineral oil for I was still thinking of mere water. Those of you out there with the Handbook of Chemistry and Physics blah blah blah what would the best substance to immerse it in?
I had just about everything you could imagine Star Wars. I loved it. My entire room was totally decorated in Star Wars merchandise. I wish I had some of it today (long story about why it is all gone but I still had the Millenium Falcon and the Rebel Transport in their boxes). Few things from my childhood touch me as did those toys and universes I made up playing with them. All I have left today are an original blaster and some of the die cast toys. I spent part of Saturday looking at the vintage Star wars toys on eBay and feeling jealous (Hey! I had that....That too!)
Actually, I never had any respect for Cyrix. Every machine I used with Cyrix chips seemed grossly underpowered for my needs. While some people would argue that there are many users that don't need the full blown power of a PII(I) and I agree with them, I'd rather steer these users to AMD and Celeries...
While I have been patiently waiting for FireWire devices to out for quite some time, I have to wonder what advantage I gain in this age of Ultra2 SCSI. True, even high performing hard drives don't use all of the bandwidth available to them theoretically so sheer speed is not necessarily the issue. Clearly, being able to deliver some power down the Firewire chain is useful for laptops, but as we see with these drives, anything beyond one drive requires an AC adapter. Price considerations? FireWire is still expensive..does anyone know if this is inherent in its design? I wonder which can be more cheaply made. Hotswapping? Not really an issue for me at this time but definately ties into one of Firewire's only advantages: non-PC appliances. Sony is just about the only provider of Firewire enabled consumer electronics at the moment but Firewire videocameras and vcrs and dvd-recordables would be nice. Firewire zip drives would be nice...carry your drive to a friend and plug it in without having to reboot his machine. I'm curious what other advantages and disadvantages you perceive in the Firewire vs SCSI debate. BTW, I'm looking for a converter box to convert RCA-style composite or S-video into Firewire. I want my VCR to jack into a Firewire video capture card I have been eying. Please email me if you know of one.
While never a great ( i might not even go so far as to say good) Magic player, I have played decks of relatively low-cost,common to uncommon cards against the evil, awe-inspiring, decks-so-full-of-rare-and-expensive-cards-that-you -can-buy-cars-if-you-sold-the-deck, decks and won. True, there is a worry about rich punks buying their way into the game but an intelligent and creative player can often accomplish more with less.
Well you tried to offer a story of hope with an example of your life, yet you only highlighted the problem a bit more. You had to resort to being one of them to avoid being picked on. Heck, the irony of our cliques and misconceptions is that someone had to tell the guy that you "belonged" to a group that deserved to be left alone. I'm not saying that you subverted yourself to become respected...heck you might even like to run, but the only time that things will be alright is if the guy who stood up for you had said "Leave him alone, man." Period. No qualifier. Just for being who you want to be.
"Unfortunately, the element known as geekgirl (symbol Gg) rarely is found in sufficient quantities to allow for systematic long term tests. Even when found, it rarely occurs in its natural state, being usually combined with the element Geekguy (Gy) for which it has a particular affinity...."
I live in an apartment complex with a T3 attached and 100baseT to each apartment. One would think that geeks of all genders would be there but the complex is still primarily 25-32year old white males. True, there are a few geekgirls around but most are married to the guys in the complex.
Maybe I should put out a personal ad looking for a geekgirl in the Houston area. I can see it now...
SWGy ISO SGg for geeky times and good conversation. ICQ me at....
There is a somewhat similar situation here in the US that arised out of the devestiture of AT&T into the "Baby Bells". The central database of available phone numbers and infrastructure was given to a newly formed company called BellCore which still exists today. Each of the Baby Bells pays a processing fee again any transaction done against this central database. At the time of the divestiture, this was seen as a necessary evil since it was thought that for each new phone company to have to begin their central infrastructure from the ground up to be too difficult and time consuming. As far as I know, only Bell Atlantic has been developing their own internal version of BellCore. This is fortuitious in that it helps them open up their business to other local carriers in the hopes that the FCC will allow them into the long distance market. I guess the point of this long winded example is to show that as soon as the new registrars see the business need for their own databases, they will create them....just like Bell Atlantic.
As informed consumers, we have to be able to see past the marketing hype of any company, however, I am getting a bit tired of Microsoft trumpeting older technologies as "new". For example, ClearType appears to be nothing more than subpixel rendering which I believe we all discussed as not being new just as this mouse is a slightly updated design on the Logitech Marble.
I interviewed with 3M and bought a couple from their inhouse store. Best mouse pads I have ever used. Really helps when you set the mouse sensitivity high for drawing work. But do heed the warning about placing them on highly varnished wood.
It would be a shame if the ruling bodes against AOL and is subsequently applied to software companies using volunteers for beta testing. I personally enjoy seeing applications before they are done and being one of the few to do so. I wonder if this could lengthen product delivery times and reduce quality as companies hindered in their use of volunteers, use fewer but expensive professionals. On the other hand, I wonder if all consumers could sue Microsoft for beta testing all the software they put out. Darn buggy things... We've all been beta testing for Microsoft for years and pay for the privilege! Hehe...
...getting duly compensated? As the article states, many of the people involved were using AOL at a time when there were (rather high) per hour charges. A "free" account actually translates into a decent second job. Weren't prices something like $5/hour or more? I'm afraid that I want to side with AOL on this count. I feel dirty admitting that...
This way anyone can document what they are beginning. Still, the burden of proof is upon the developer, yet this could a clearinghouse of information as well as a piece of evidence.
...you are backing a crappy technology when your competitor can write an article like this and not set off anyone's BS detectors. Well written and had almost none of the expected "us vs them" that corporate comparisions usually have. I wonder if the people responsible for selling Circuit City on DIVX still work there? I'd imagine that heads have rolled by now. Wait I think I see one now...
While it is true that UserFriendly commonly uses the likenesses of the Star Wars universe, does the same hold true for BeDope and Segfault?
To be honest, I think it is all an April Fool's joke and am a bit embarassed that I was one of the "600" that submitted the story of UF being down. This is after I laughed at the concerned callers of a local radio station after they ran a story about the "Internet Clean Up day" today in order to clean up the mess of the Melissa Virus and to test Y2K issues.
Still, if it is true, I don't think it is Microsoft(they don't need too much more bad publicity and besides...Dilbert is still around) or LucasArts. Anyone else think it could be Apple?
Userfriendly often makes fun of the iMac(iWhack) which is Apple's cashcow and baby right now. I think we all know how they try to protect their copyrights. This also ties in BeDope (in a fashion). Not sure where Segfault fits in as I only learned of them yesterday...after they were turned off.
Happy April Fools' Day and let's all hope it is just a joke on us.
How about a poll? 1) It's all a hoax 2) It's Microsoft's fault 3) It's LucasArts's fault 4) It's Apple's fault 5) sunspots, dude 6) This poll sucks/Rob sucks/Slashdot sucks
Slashdot Mirror
I live in the Houston area as well. Since I live in an apartment complex with a T3 attached ( Walden Internet Village), I haven't needed to purchase ADSL from Southwestern Bell, but have looked into it for friends or on the off-chance that I need to move from my current apartment. My friend called for ADSL service and then after about 5 weeks they came out to hook up his line since their maps indicated that he was in an area where service was possible. Upon arrival, they discovered that something about the way his apartment complex was wired precluded the possibility of getting ADSL. Of course, they then suggested ISDN instead. The sad thing is that he was going to move into my complex with the T3 but decided to sign another year lease when he heard that he could get DSL. The moral: don't get your hopes up. There are lots of variables. Treat DSL like the article mentions: like a package ordered from a catalog and forgotten until two months later. The tech guy from SWB said that on average, about 20% of apartments or homes that look like they would support ADSL actually cannot. However, the few friends I have that have ADSL love it. While they haven't been getting the 900K that the above posting purports, it is much cheaper and quicker than ISDN ever was for them (especially since here in the south, ISDN is so expensive compared to other areas).
Maybe they could integrate Perl support into Visual Interdev and allow you to make the scripts and such inside of their project mentality. For purist reasons, I don't want Microsoft subverting Perl for their own ends, but I would like an cross-breed Visual Interdev/Visual Perl beast. This isn't a troll.
After reading about a guy who had his computer components hanging from the ceiling as some kind of mobile, he mentioned his next trick was to put the computer at the bottom of his fish tank. This got me thinking about something you described. What kind of polycarbonate crystalline substance (i'm not a chemistry person so i'm guessing here)could we encase the motherboard and all cards so that it is an electrical insulator and yet conducts heat away very well? Unfortunately, you'd have to be pretty sure about the jumper settings before encasing the board and immersing it. However, give this guy some kudos for using mineral oil for I was still thinking of mere water. Those of you out there with the Handbook of Chemistry and Physics blah blah blah what would the best substance to immerse it in?
LOL....
now if i could only get my toaster to run linux...
It crashes and burns the toast under NT.
How many different software licenses do you operate under?
....cluster of playstation 2s.....
I had just about everything you could imagine Star Wars. I loved it. My entire room was totally decorated in Star Wars merchandise. I wish I had some of it today (long story about why it is all gone but I still had the Millenium Falcon and the Rebel Transport in their boxes). Few things from my childhood touch me as did those toys and universes I made up playing with them. All I have left today are an original blaster and some of the die cast toys. I spent part of Saturday looking at the vintage Star wars toys on eBay and feeling jealous (Hey! I had that....That too!)
Actually, I never had any respect for Cyrix. Every machine I used with Cyrix chips seemed grossly underpowered for my needs. While some people would argue that there are many users that don't need the full blown power of a PII(I) and I agree with them, I'd rather steer these users to AMD and Celeries...
While I have been patiently waiting for FireWire devices to out for quite some time, I have to wonder what advantage I gain in this age of Ultra2 SCSI. True, even high performing hard drives don't use all of the bandwidth available to them theoretically so sheer speed is not necessarily the issue. Clearly, being able to deliver some power down the Firewire chain is useful for laptops, but as we see with these drives, anything beyond one drive requires an AC adapter. Price considerations? FireWire is still expensive..does anyone know if this is inherent in its design? I wonder which can be more cheaply made. Hotswapping? Not really an issue for me at this time but definately ties into one of Firewire's only advantages: non-PC appliances. Sony is just about the only provider of Firewire enabled consumer electronics at the moment but Firewire videocameras and vcrs and dvd-recordables would be nice. Firewire zip drives would be nice...carry your drive to a friend and plug it in without having to reboot his machine. I'm curious what other advantages and disadvantages you perceive in the Firewire vs SCSI debate. BTW, I'm looking for a converter box to convert RCA-style composite or S-video into Firewire. I want my VCR to jack into a Firewire video capture card I have been eying. Please email me if you know of one.
While never a great ( i might not even go so far as to say good) Magic player, I have played decks of relatively low-cost,common to uncommon cards against the evil, awe-inspiring, decks-so-full-of-rare-and-expensive-cards-that-you -can-buy-cars-if-you-sold-the-deck, decks and won. True, there is a worry about rich punks buying their way into the game but an intelligent and creative player can often accomplish more with less.
Well you tried to offer a story of hope with an example of your life, yet you only highlighted the problem a bit more. You had to resort to being one of them to avoid being picked on. Heck, the irony of our cliques and misconceptions is that someone had to tell the guy that you "belonged" to a group that deserved to be left alone. I'm not saying that you subverted yourself to become respected...heck you might even like to run, but the only time that things will be alright is if the guy who stood up for you had said "Leave him alone, man." Period. No qualifier. Just for being who you want to be.
"Get together with some people and watch all the high school angst movies."
Anyone else in the mood to watch Heathers?
You should try living in some of the small towns of Oklahoma...
*eeewwwwwww*
"Unfortunately, the element known as geekgirl (symbol Gg) rarely is found in sufficient quantities to allow for systematic long term tests. Even when found, it rarely occurs in its natural state, being usually combined with the element Geekguy (Gy) for which it has a particular affinity...."
I live in an apartment complex with a T3 attached and 100baseT to each apartment. One would think that geeks of all genders would be there but the complex is still primarily 25-32year old white males. True, there are a few geekgirls around but most are married to the guys in the complex.
Maybe I should put out a personal ad looking for a geekgirl in the Houston area. I can see it now...
SWGy ISO SGg for geeky times and good conversation. ICQ me at....
LOL!
There is a somewhat similar situation here in the US that arised out of the devestiture of AT&T into the "Baby Bells". The central database of available phone numbers and infrastructure was given to a newly formed company called BellCore which still exists today. Each of the Baby Bells pays a processing fee again any transaction done against this central database. At the time of the divestiture, this was seen as a necessary evil since it was thought that for each new phone company to have to begin their central infrastructure from the ground up to be too difficult and time consuming. As far as I know, only Bell Atlantic has been developing their own internal version of BellCore. This is fortuitious in that it helps them open up their business to other local carriers in the hopes that the FCC will allow them into the long distance market. I guess the point of this long winded example is to show that as soon as the new registrars see the business need for their own databases, they will create them....just like Bell Atlantic.
(correct me if I am wrong on any of these facts)
As informed consumers, we have to be able to see past the marketing hype of any company, however, I am getting a bit tired of Microsoft trumpeting older technologies as "new". For example, ClearType appears to be nothing more than subpixel rendering which I believe we all discussed as not being new just as this mouse is a slightly updated design on the Logitech Marble.
I interviewed with 3M and bought a couple from their inhouse store. Best mouse pads I have ever used. Really helps when you set the mouse sensitivity high for drawing work. But do heed the warning about placing them on highly varnished wood.
It would be a shame if the ruling bodes against AOL and is subsequently applied to software companies using volunteers for beta testing. I personally enjoy seeing applications before they are done and being one of the few to do so. I wonder if this could lengthen product delivery times and reduce quality as companies hindered in their use of volunteers, use fewer but expensive professionals. On the other hand, I wonder if all consumers could sue Microsoft for beta testing all the software they put out. Darn buggy things... We've all been beta testing for Microsoft for years and pay for the privilege! Hehe...
...getting duly compensated? As the article states, many of the people involved were using AOL at a time when there were (rather high) per hour charges. A "free" account actually translates into a decent second job. Weren't prices something like $5/hour or more? I'm afraid that I want to side with AOL on this count. I feel dirty admitting that...
...think of the blue-screens of death when describing the blue-faced mandrill for the NT book? I know I did. :)
This way anyone can document what they are beginning. Still, the burden of proof is upon the developer, yet this could a clearinghouse of information as well as a piece of evidence.
...you are backing a crappy technology when your competitor can write an article like this and not set off anyone's BS detectors. Well written and had almost none of the expected "us vs them" that corporate comparisions usually have. I wonder if the people responsible for selling Circuit City on DIVX still work there? I'd imagine that heads have rolled by now. Wait I think I see one now...
While it is true that UserFriendly commonly uses the likenesses of the Star Wars universe, does the same hold true for BeDope and Segfault?
To be honest, I think it is all an April Fool's joke and am a bit embarassed that I was one of the "600" that submitted the story of UF being down. This is after I laughed at the concerned callers of a local radio station after they ran a story about the "Internet Clean Up day" today in order to clean up the mess of the Melissa Virus and to test Y2K issues.
Still, if it is true, I don't think it is Microsoft(they don't need too much more bad publicity and besides...Dilbert is still around) or LucasArts. Anyone else think it could be Apple?
Userfriendly often makes fun of the iMac(iWhack) which is Apple's cashcow and baby right now. I think we all know how they try to protect their copyrights. This also ties in BeDope (in a fashion). Not sure where Segfault fits in as I only learned of them yesterday...after they were turned off.
Happy April Fools' Day and let's all hope it is just a joke on us.
How about a poll?
1) It's all a hoax
2) It's Microsoft's fault
3) It's LucasArts's fault
4) It's Apple's fault
5) sunspots, dude
6) This poll sucks/Rob sucks/Slashdot sucks
I hope it is all a big April Fool's joke...of course, they have been building up to it for too long for it to be a really funny April fools' joke