When young and foolish - as opposed to old and foolish - I once wired a 12 electrolytic capacitor across the mains as an experiment.
I moved away a bit - and turned on the power.
B A N G !!!!
The noise was truly incredible. There wasn't much left of the capacitor. I reckon it would have made a truly amazing electric firework. Didn't even blow any fuses.
Re: Cell phone / Remote phone privacy
on
VoIP Questioned
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· Score: 1
Actually, there's a pretty long history of naming products generically.
MS SQL Server is a good example. But looking back a bit, what about the IBM PC?
If you have - or aspire to having - a well-known name, you can get away with it. If you succeed, the field is yours. What used to happen was that companies made products and the field got named after them - Xerox, Hoover (possibly UK only), Sellotape (UK), the list is long.
If the field is large and your name too generic, you won't get noticed.
If you do end up with Windows, be sure to put on a copy of "Drawing for Children". It is excellent, and public domain (from the Netherlands, actually).
You'll find it by Googling or at http://www.cs.uu.nl/people/markov/kids/draw.html
I seem to recall their final solution (hmm, interesting choice of words) was much more subtle. Windows checked to see it was running on DR-DOS and then SOMETIMES made stuff go wrong. (Memory allocation maybe?). So people like me (I was a PC retailer at the time) ended up saying "Don't use DR-DOS. It's cheaper and mostly works really well, but doesn't seem to work quite right with Windows". This was true, but for the wrong reasons! The question is - was this legal? It was certainly immoral... if you use non-Ford petrol in my nice Ford, I'll sometimes lock up the engine.. but illegal? Probably not unless you are a monopoly - and they weren't at that time, just aiming to be. And their aim was pretty accurate.
It's hard. I've been in countless interviews on both sides of the table.
It is very tough to a) tell the people you are capable and good (after all, what WOULD you say?) and b) to judge that.
You can only really judge a programmer after you have seen them in action for some time. But asking previous employers isn't going to help much - after all, he/she left/was fired/finished the contract.
So what do you do? I tend to run by gut feel - it works, but doesn't seem all that scientific . Frankly, I'd like a better way.
Er, isn't the whole problem with deserts the LACK of water? A gadget like this will consume a fair bit of water, surely? More in hot, dry weather.
As a matter of interest, my Scottish grandmother used something similar, a pan of water with a [non-porous] milk container, wet cloth on top. The non-porous pan meant the water only evaporated through the cloth, thus slowing water consumption.
Here in Australia, we use canvas water bags hung outside the car - they stay cool all right, especially as you drive along. (Disclaimer, don't try this in a city)
Last Friday, I had to fire up an old, tired PC running Windows 98. Gosh, a real dinosaur - 166Mhz, 256Mb RAM, MS Office. It was weird. It booted quickly, and the whole thing felt snappy. Menus actually popped up on screen immediately. Explorer did things, instead of hanging about "thinking" all the time.
Windows XP doesn't feel like that, even with my brand new 3Ghz, 1Gb RAM machine. Why is this so? Why are the menus so slow - and what have they done to Windows Explorer to make it so snail-like?
The team member has a "big read button"... that's odd, I would expect most of the team members to be literate already. Wait a minute though, isn't one of the teams from Texas?
Lemme see, does this guy REALLY think the moon exposes different sides to different nations? I thought the moon being tidally locked (that means the same side points to the earth at all times, ok?) was pretty well known.
I admit to being amused when I looked up at the moon from Australia instead of England and thinking "hey - it's upside down".
Stripping attachments. Yes, it sounds like a great idea. But it stops me doing my job. I write software, I talk to my co-workers in the UK, I exchange info with them, I send updates to my clients, etc, etc. How do I do this? I already have substantial problems. I can't send many attachments, I can't receive attachments, they tend to get quarantined (usually at our main mail server, which is in Scotland [and I'm in Australia, so getting technical help there is challenging.. er, they're asleep]). We need some decent way to do this. If I have to sign my attachments that's ok,... but a virus could probably do that, if it were clever enough. It could even trap my password, dammit. We need some real solutions. Calling people morons because they open attachments - remember these are probably from someone they know, who probably send them legitimate stuff regularly - does not help.
In March, 1998, Auckland - New Zealand's major city (though not the capital, that's Wellington, in case you need to know) - had a FIVE week blackout. This was after the system was privatised. They cut back on maintanance and instead of three main feeds, they had one. It blew up. Five weeks with no power. In a major(-ish - hey, I live in Sydney) city. Incredible. If any city NOT privatised has suffered such an indignity I have not heard about it. So I blame privatisation - the accountants tend to outrank and overrule the engineers (heard that one before? Remember Challenger?)
Re:I assume it touches on copying
on
Altered Carbon
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· Score: 1
Yup. I can't recall if you could be "sleeved" in a body of the opposite gender or if they thought up some way to prevent it, sorry. But aside from that, yes.
How narcissistic is that? (And before you ask, yes, I DID have to look up how to spell that)
Altered Carbon readily available - in Oz, anyway
on
Altered Carbon
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· Score: 1
Yup, read this a while back. It's great. Dark, complex, scary, thought provoking. I had no trouble finding it in Sydney, and I imagine the UK would have it too. Publishing schedules for books are weird, aren't they? It seems amazing we don't have some more organised scheme. Mind you, books are just data in a nice form (portable, rugged, readible in any reasonable light, no batteries). The whole business is living in fear, I imagine. It's amazing the music industry has been the first to take the bullet. I never expected that. Printed paper - and the process that produces it cheaply - is proving robust.
Let me see - SCO are claiming that the Linux code (available to anyone) has been copied from their code. SCO are happy to show their code to anyone who signs an agreement agreeing not to use it. But they claim their code is the same as the Linux code - which is available to anyone... So all you get to see is two pieces of code, supoposedly the same. It doesn't sound too interesting... look mum, these two screens of code are the same!
The real problem underlying this whole music copyright fight is basically pretty simple.
There is a huge and rich industry that has made a great deal of money from distributing music. It is not really needed any more but it doesn't want to go away. (Disintermedierisation, someone called it. I think it means cutting out the middleman).
Does this wealth include the artist? No, it doesn't. A tiny few have made - and will continue to make - a fortune. Most are penniless, many bankrupt.
If I were a struggling garage band today, I would make an album and put it on my web site (yes of course I have a web site - a mate of mine made it - or something). Let the fans download it for free - or maybe for US$5. If they spread it amongst themselves, so what? I make my real money from performances anyway. But I'd surely get more than doing a deal with the record company - most bands lose money for their first few albums.. Maybe more.
If I were a more famous band I would do the same - and make more money that I do now because the record company takes most of it.
If I were truly successful then... actually these few don't matter, really.. But it's nice to dream. Maybe I could stay with the record company and continue to make lots of money? Sounds ok to me.
And the record companies would gradually die out. (It's called obsolescence). But they will fight - and they are! Using all the resources they have available. Wealth, influence, rich friends, lawyers.
Slashdot Mirror
When young and foolish - as opposed to old and foolish - I once wired a 12 electrolytic capacitor across the mains as an experiment.
I moved away a bit - and turned on the power.
B A N G !!!!
The noise was truly incredible. There wasn't much left of the capacitor. I reckon it would have made a truly amazing electric firework. Didn't even blow any fuses.
Yeah, I have thin walls too.
Actually, there's a pretty long history of naming products generically.
MS SQL Server is a good example.
But looking back a bit, what about the IBM PC?
If you have - or aspire to having - a well-known name, you can get away with it. If you succeed, the field is yours.
What used to happen was that companies made products and the field got named after them - Xerox, Hoover (possibly UK only), Sellotape (UK), the list is long.
If the field is large and your name too generic, you won't get noticed.
If you do end up with Windows, be sure to put on a copy of "Drawing for Children". It is excellent, and public domain (from the Netherlands, actually).
You'll find it by Googling or at http://www.cs.uu.nl/people/markov/kids/draw.html
I seem to recall their final solution (hmm, interesting choice of words) was much more subtle. ... if you use non-Ford petrol in my nice Ford, I'll sometimes lock up the engine .. but illegal? Probably not unless you are a monopoly - and they weren't at that time, just aiming to be. And their aim was pretty accurate.
Windows checked to see it was running on DR-DOS and then SOMETIMES made stuff go wrong. (Memory allocation maybe?).
So people like me (I was a PC retailer at the time) ended up saying "Don't use DR-DOS. It's cheaper and mostly works really well, but doesn't seem to work quite right with Windows". This was true, but for the wrong reasons!
The question is - was this legal? It was certainly immoral
It's hard.
I've been in countless interviews on both sides of the table.
It is very tough to a) tell the people you are capable and good (after all, what WOULD you say?) and b) to judge that.
You can only really judge a programmer after you have seen them in action for some time. But asking previous employers isn't going to help much - after all, he/she left/was fired/finished the contract.
So what do you do? I tend to run by gut feel - it works, but doesn't seem all that scientific . Frankly, I'd like a better way.
Wow .. some hope!
Er, isn't the whole problem with deserts the LACK of water?
A gadget like this will consume a fair bit of water, surely? More in hot, dry weather.
As a matter of interest, my Scottish grandmother used something similar, a pan of water with a [non-porous] milk container, wet cloth on top. The non-porous pan meant the water only evaporated through the cloth, thus slowing water consumption.
Here in Australia, we use canvas water bags hung outside the car - they stay cool all right, especially as you drive along. (Disclaimer, don't try this in a city)
My Windows XP (3Ghz, 1Gb RAM) IS adjusted for "best performance" ... but the menu delays persist.
Why?
Last Friday, I had to fire up an old, tired PC running Windows 98. Gosh, a real dinosaur - 166Mhz, 256Mb RAM, MS Office.
It was weird. It booted quickly, and the whole thing felt snappy. Menus actually popped up on screen immediately. Explorer did things, instead of hanging about "thinking" all the time.
Windows XP doesn't feel like that, even with my brand new 3Ghz, 1Gb RAM machine.
Why is this so? Why are the menus so slow - and what have they done to Windows Explorer to make it so snail-like?
The team member has a "big read button" ... that's odd, I would expect most of the team members to be literate already.
Wait a minute though, isn't one of the teams from Texas?
If I recall my "Yes Minister", praising a politician for COURAGE is like saying "Goodbye, it's been nice knowing you".
Lemme see, does this guy REALLY think the moon exposes different sides to different nations? I thought the moon being tidally locked (that means the same side points to the earth at all times, ok?) was pretty well known. I admit to being amused when I looked up at the moon from Australia instead of England and thinking "hey - it's upside down".
Stripping attachments. Yes, it sounds like a great idea. .. er, they're asleep]). ... but a virus could probably do that, if it were clever enough. It could even trap my password, dammit.
But it stops me doing my job. I write software, I talk to my co-workers in the UK, I exchange info with them, I send updates to my clients, etc, etc.
How do I do this? I already have substantial problems. I can't send many attachments, I can't receive attachments, they tend to get quarantined (usually at our main mail server, which is in Scotland [and I'm in Australia, so getting technical help there is challenging
We need some decent way to do this. If I have to sign my attachments that's ok,
We need some real solutions. Calling people morons because they open attachments - remember these are probably from someone they know, who probably send them legitimate stuff regularly - does not help.
Hmm,
... or are we thinking of different kinds of leisure activity?
Come on, surely a joystick could get in there somewhere
"I think there is a world market for mabye five computers." Thomas Watson, IBM 1943
I guess we could run the fast rail lines with computers, then. Maybe one computer could run more than one railway?
So for the average /. reader, this would put pretty much all mail into the same category.
Obviously you should ride a bicycle with solar lights.
It works for me.
In March, 1998, Auckland - New Zealand's major city (though not the capital, that's Wellington, in case you need to know) - had a FIVE week blackout.
This was after the system was privatised. They cut back on maintanance and instead of three main feeds, they had one. It blew up.
Five weeks with no power. In a major(-ish - hey, I live in Sydney) city. Incredible.
If any city NOT privatised has suffered such an indignity I have not heard about it.
So I blame privatisation - the accountants tend to outrank and overrule the engineers (heard that one before? Remember Challenger?)
Yup.
I can't recall if you could be "sleeved" in a body of the opposite gender or if they thought up some way to prevent it, sorry.
But aside from that, yes.
How narcissistic is that? (And before you ask, yes, I DID have to look up how to spell that)
Yup, read this a while back. It's great. Dark, complex, scary, thought provoking.
I had no trouble finding it in Sydney, and I imagine the UK would have it too. Publishing schedules for books are weird, aren't they?
It seems amazing we don't have some more organised scheme.
Mind you, books are just data in a nice form (portable, rugged, readible in any reasonable light, no batteries). The whole business is living in fear, I imagine. It's amazing the music industry has been the first to take the bullet. I never expected that. Printed paper - and the process that produces it cheaply - is proving robust.
Let me see - SCO are claiming that the Linux code (available to anyone) has been copied from their code. ... ... look mum, these two screens of code are the same!
SCO are happy to show their code to anyone who signs an agreement agreeing not to use it.
But they claim their code is the same as the Linux code - which is available to anyone
So all you get to see is two pieces of code, supoposedly the same. It doesn't sound too interesting
Sounds pretty boring.
The real problem underlying this whole music copyright fight is basically pretty simple.
.. Maybe more.
... actually these few don't matter, really .. But it's nice to dream. Maybe I could stay with the record company and continue to make lots of money? Sounds ok to me.
...
There is a huge and rich industry that has made a great deal of money from distributing music. It is not really needed any more but it doesn't want to go away. (Disintermedierisation, someone called it. I think it means cutting out the middleman).
Does this wealth include the artist? No, it doesn't. A tiny few have made - and will continue to make - a fortune. Most are penniless, many bankrupt.
If I were a struggling garage band today, I would make an album and put it on my web site (yes of course I have a web site - a mate of mine made it - or something). Let the fans download it for free - or maybe for US$5. If they spread it amongst themselves, so what? I make my real money from performances anyway. But I'd surely get more than doing a deal with the record company - most bands lose money for their first few albums
If I were a more famous band I would do the same - and make more money that I do now because the record company takes most of it.
If I were truly successful then
And the record companies would gradually die out. (It's called obsolescence). But they will fight - and they are! Using all the resources they have available. Wealth, influence, rich friends, lawyers.
Let battle be joined
Where I am, it's definitely the 1st of April. You too, probably.
...
So somehow, I don't quite believe this
Hey - what's wrong with a British accent?
Simon (once from Britain, long, long ago)