Personally, I'd like to see copyright terms reduced to seven years. As far as I know, IP producers demand payback on investment in at most 3-5 years. Giving royalties much beyond that timeframe will NOT result in any more IP production, at least at any company I've ever heard of. In a way, I think long copyright terms are a kickback scam: the government gives huge royalty collection rights to IP holders, and then gets a kickback in the form of taxes collected from IP holders' royalty income. As far as I can tell, long copyright terms do nothing for voters. Hopefully voters will rebel soon in the voting booth.
Re:My experience replacing CRT with LCD
on
Are CRTs History?
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· Score: 1
I just paid $50 for a Dell P1110 on ebay and picked it up locally from the seller (half-hour drive) so no shipping charge. The monitor is awesome. 21" (20" viewable) area, bright colors, perfectly flat screen, and 85hz refresh at 1600 x 1200 resolution. These monitors used to retail for over a thousand dollars. Try beating that with a used LCD! Maybe the prices for new CRT's vs new LCD's are getting close, but for used monitors there's no contest. Used CRT's give by far the best value for the dollar. Try selling a used CRT. It's just about impossible to find a buyer at any price 'cause everyone want an LCD these days.
I liked the article, but one thing that bugged me was that the author kept using the word "channel" and writing about how there would be more and more "channels". The future of TV is zero channels. I want to download and watch. There is no need for a "channel". The channel metaphor implies a continuous stream of information. I like the metaphor of a "library" instead. I browse titles through some sort of on-line catalog, then download and watch later or right away. A library is not a channel. I would say zero channels, many on-line libraries. Or maybe just one on-line library named "Google".
Hans Moravec's article
When will computer hardware match the human brain? includes several charts that show computing machinery speeds from 1900 to 2000. The article asserts that machines will reach human-level processing speed by 2020. I, for one, welcome our new... Oh, never mind.
It doesn't. Here is a more accurate description of how the technology works. The marketing droids turned "perpendicular" into "3D" to increase the hype level. This advance will probably only give an incremental improvement in density. Sigh.
I find that cutting back my responsibilities in all areas of life helps. For example, if I'm having money problems, I move to a cheaper place, drive a cheaper car, etc... When my home life and personal life feel comfortable and easily manageable, with enough free time for fun stuff, I can handle work stress way more easily. If work is the only source of stress in my life, and I can't handle it, I cut back my work hours. If management expects, for example, sixty hours a week for my salary, then I give them two weeks notice of my change in availablility to fewer hours with a proportional reduction in salary. If I can't handle the salary reduction, then I've got to cut my expenses. It's simple. If I'm stressed out, that means I'm asking myself to do too much. Sometimes a humble life is the best life.
I'm worried about the temperature of the airship skin. Granted, at very high altitudes, the air will be thin, but at mach 20, the air temperature (actually kinetic energy) will be very high. Since the ship will be accelerating for days from mach 1 to mach 24 orbital speed, the thin skin will have plenty of time to heat up and melt. Active cooling would be too heavy for the airship's huge surface area. Likewise for ablative cooling.
I had just graduated from college when the 386 came out, and yes, these same discussions took place back then. Newspaper and magazine articles gushed about how 32-bit processors crunched twice as much data at a time as 16-bit processors did. Then people went out and bought 32-bit computers and were shocked that 32-bit software ran more slowly than 16-bit software. People continued to run 16-bit DOS and 16-bit software until the memory limitations became too painful to bear.
I've struggled with this same problem for years, and adjusting the day/night light cycle really works for me, as long as I also turn the lights off early enough each night. I need about 10 hours of darkness each day. Luckily, watching TV in the dark (making sure the TV is far enough away from me to not give too much light) counts as dark. Surfing the net in the dark doesn't work for me because the computer screen is too bright and too close. So here is what I do: I turn off all lights except my TV by 9 PM (I know, TV is boring - actually, that helps put me to sleep!) and a timer turns a bright light on at 7 AM. When I stick with that schedule, I fall asleep naturally before midnight and I wake up feeling refreshed without needing any alarm before 8 AM. The tough part for me is turning the computer off by 9 PM. If I keep looking at a brightly lit computer monitor late at night, or keep my room lights on late at night, no amount of bright light in the morning will wake me up. Similarly, if I don't have a light automatically turn on an hour before my wake up time, no amount of going to bed early will actually get me to sleep early, I just lie in bed awake later and later each night. When I control the lighting like this, my sleep time automatically adjusts by about two hours a week until I'm falling asleep and waking up when I want to. It takes about a week to start noticing the change. Good luck.
My router WAN activity light and modem activity light and are continuously flickering, even when no computers on my LAN are turned on. I tried replacing my Linksys BEFSR41 router with a Belkin F5D5231-4 router, and switching from a DSL modem to a cable modem but the new lights flicker just as much as the old ones. Since my computer is powered off, the continuous activity must be coming from the internet. I guess either hackers or worms.
Remember, wages are not set by fairness but by supply and demand. Is it really fair that someone who picks fruit 12 hours a day in 100 degree heat gets $4 per hour while a PHB gets $30 per hour to sit in an air-conditioned cubicle and think? If other companies are paying more than your current pay for your current work, that is important to both you and your company.
I would mention that I have recently noticed that market rates for my work are much higher than my current pay; that I very much like my job; that I definitely want to stay with my current employer; and that I am feeling tempted to consider higher-paying alternatives.
Some small storefronts in big cities can be barely bigger than a few meters. In big earthquakes, addresses might change. Also, over many years, addresses of small places would change due to plate tectonics. Due to chaotic gradual movement, mapping historical addresses to modern addresses could pose difficulties.
In about five years, when Hard drives are about 5 TB, it will take about a year to fill up the drive. But at the end of that year hard drives will have doubled in size to 10 TB, giving another year! The next year's size increase should give an additional two years of recording time, etc... Thus it could be possible starting 5 years from now to record one's whole life on a single hard drive. (Well, copying to a larger drive each year!)
Slashdot Mirror
Personally, I'd like to see copyright terms reduced to seven years. As far as I know, IP producers demand payback on investment in at most 3-5 years. Giving royalties much beyond that timeframe will NOT result in any more IP production, at least at any company I've ever heard of. In a way, I think long copyright terms are a kickback scam: the government gives huge royalty collection rights to IP holders, and then gets a kickback in the form of taxes collected from IP holders' royalty income. As far as I can tell, long copyright terms do nothing for voters. Hopefully voters will rebel soon in the voting booth.
I just paid $50 for a Dell P1110 on ebay and picked it up locally from the seller (half-hour drive) so no shipping charge. The monitor is awesome. 21" (20" viewable) area, bright colors, perfectly flat screen, and 85hz refresh at 1600 x 1200 resolution. These monitors used to retail for over a thousand dollars. Try beating that with a used LCD! Maybe the prices for new CRT's vs new LCD's are getting close, but for used monitors there's no contest. Used CRT's give by far the best value for the dollar. Try selling a used CRT. It's just about impossible to find a buyer at any price 'cause everyone want an LCD these days.
I liked the article, but one thing that bugged me was that the author kept using the word "channel" and writing about how there would be more and more "channels". The future of TV is zero channels. I want to download and watch. There is no need for a "channel". The channel metaphor implies a continuous stream of information. I like the metaphor of a "library" instead. I browse titles through some sort of on-line catalog, then download and watch later or right away. A library is not a channel. I would say zero channels, many on-line libraries. Or maybe just one on-line library named "Google".
Hans Moravec's article When will computer hardware match the human brain? includes several charts that show computing machinery speeds from 1900 to 2000. The article asserts that machines will reach human-level processing speed by 2020. I, for one, welcome our new... Oh, never mind.
It doesn't. Here is a more accurate description of how the technology works. The marketing droids turned "perpendicular" into "3D" to increase the hype level. This advance will probably only give an incremental improvement in density. Sigh.
Loosens necktie...
Every time I go to the store, they give me the shopping cart with square wheels.
I was an ugly kid. When I was born, the doctor took one look at me and slapped my mother.
R.I.P. Rodney Dangerfield
George Bush re-elected president. Ha ha ha ha. Oh wait...
In Korea, only old people watch TV on cellphones!
I find that cutting back my responsibilities in all areas of life helps. For example, if I'm having money problems, I move to a cheaper place, drive a cheaper car, etc... When my home life and personal life feel comfortable and easily manageable, with enough free time for fun stuff, I can handle work stress way more easily. If work is the only source of stress in my life, and I can't handle it, I cut back my work hours. If management expects, for example, sixty hours a week for my salary, then I give them two weeks notice of my change in availablility to fewer hours with a proportional reduction in salary. If I can't handle the salary reduction, then I've got to cut my expenses. It's simple. If I'm stressed out, that means I'm asking myself to do too much. Sometimes a humble life is the best life.
I'm worried about the temperature of the airship skin. Granted, at very high altitudes, the air will be thin, but at mach 20, the air temperature (actually kinetic energy) will be very high. Since the ship will be accelerating for days from mach 1 to mach 24 orbital speed, the thin skin will have plenty of time to heat up and melt. Active cooling would be too heavy for the airship's huge surface area. Likewise for ablative cooling.
Duh. Actually, for a while it was the New York Times. Then Geek.com. For the last few years, it's been Slashdot.
I had just graduated from college when the 386 came out, and yes, these same discussions took place back then. Newspaper and magazine articles gushed about how 32-bit processors crunched twice as much data at a time as 16-bit processors did. Then people went out and bought 32-bit computers and were shocked that 32-bit software ran more slowly than 16-bit software. People continued to run 16-bit DOS and 16-bit software until the memory limitations became too painful to bear.
I've struggled with this same problem for years, and adjusting the day/night light cycle really works for me, as long as I also turn the lights off early enough each night. I need about 10 hours of darkness each day. Luckily, watching TV in the dark (making sure the TV is far enough away from me to not give too much light) counts as dark. Surfing the net in the dark doesn't work for me because the computer screen is too bright and too close. So here is what I do: I turn off all lights except my TV by 9 PM (I know, TV is boring - actually, that helps put me to sleep!) and a timer turns a bright light on at 7 AM. When I stick with that schedule, I fall asleep naturally before midnight and I wake up feeling refreshed without needing any alarm before 8 AM. The tough part for me is turning the computer off by 9 PM. If I keep looking at a brightly lit computer monitor late at night, or keep my room lights on late at night, no amount of bright light in the morning will wake me up. Similarly, if I don't have a light automatically turn on an hour before my wake up time, no amount of going to bed early will actually get me to sleep early, I just lie in bed awake later and later each night. When I control the lighting like this, my sleep time automatically adjusts by about two hours a week until I'm falling asleep and waking up when I want to. It takes about a week to start noticing the change. Good luck.
According to http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/leapsec.html leap seconds compensate for changes in the earths rotational speed not the earths orbital speed.
My router WAN activity light and modem activity light and are continuously flickering, even when no computers on my LAN are turned on. I tried replacing my Linksys BEFSR41 router with a Belkin F5D5231-4 router, and switching from a DSL modem to a cable modem but the new lights flicker just as much as the old ones. Since my computer is powered off, the continuous activity must be coming from the internet. I guess either hackers or worms.
Link to the May Harper's "The Economics of Empire" article:3 .htm
www.mindfully.org/WTO/2003/Economics-OfEmpireMay0
Remember, wages are not set by fairness but by supply and demand. Is it really fair that someone who picks fruit 12 hours a day in 100 degree heat gets $4 per hour while a PHB gets $30 per hour to sit in an air-conditioned cubicle and think? If other companies are paying more than your current pay for your current work, that is important to both you and your company. I would mention that I have recently noticed that market rates for my work are much higher than my current pay; that I very much like my job; that I definitely want to stay with my current employer; and that I am feeling tempted to consider higher-paying alternatives.
Some small storefronts in big cities can be barely bigger than a few meters. In big earthquakes, addresses might change. Also, over many years, addresses of small places would change due to plate tectonics. Due to chaotic gradual movement, mapping historical addresses to modern addresses could pose difficulties.
Everything Microsoft sells, we're going to give away for free.
A digita video camera with a one-year recording time.
Higher resolution video compresses more easily. Using MPEG 4, 640 X 480 30 fps compresses to about one Mbps (120KB per second or ~400MB per hour).
In about five years, when Hard drives are about 5 TB, it will take about a year to fill up the drive. But at the end of that year hard drives will have doubled in size to 10 TB, giving another year! The next year's size increase should give an additional two years of recording time, etc... Thus it could be possible starting 5 years from now to record one's whole life on a single hard drive. (Well, copying to a larger drive each year!)
'Out of Area' IS the tipoff. I've had caller ID for three years and in that three years, every 'Out of Area' call was a telemarketer!
www.webhostingratings.com has user reviews of web hosts. I changed web hosts based on what I learned there and am very happy with the result.
Awesome... Now maybe 3dRealms can finally finish Duke Nukem Forever!