In dealing with backups, the important thing to remember is that anything that makes backups inconvenient for the users will end up keeping the backups from being made and screw you in the end. I can offer these suggestions:
If not already being done, set things up so that the data that needs backed up is on a network server. Network access of the local drives is not as good, particularly if any users turn their computers off at night. Identify what directories need to be backed up and overnight have an automatic program copy them completely, copying to a completely different server or at least a different hard drive (compressing at this step can save you a lot of storage space). Also identify any company data (that might not be in any user account) that needs the same treatment and copy the databases in the same way. Since you indicated you are in a satellite office, you might even consider sending a copy of your archive to the main office. (I used to back up daily but would send a copy of key databases to the main office once a week over a 56k connection. With today's connection speeds I would be doing it daily.) If there's a privacy issue here, the data can be encrypted with only two people at your satellite office having the key, but it's still a handy way to get a copy off-site. Be sure this backup gets done and that if the automatic procedure fails that you know about it; either have it send you e-mail on success or have another program confirm success and alert you on failure (obviously the second option should not be run automatically from the same system you run the first one on, it could be run on your on system as a log-in task for example).
I didn't suggest writing the data directly to back-up media because in my experience this frequently fails and causes backups to not be made. Once you have a good backup you can copy the files to CDR or tape yourself (I prefer CDR or other media like a swapable hard drive where I can access individual files directly over tape; I've had too many cases where I couldn't get what I needed off the tape when the time came). If you have a lot of data, try to plan your backup device so that everything will fit on one piece of media without swaps, swaps complicate the backups and soon they are done less and less frequently. If you do it right you can come in each day and write the backup to CDR while you're getting your first cup of coffee.
Mirrored drives are great protection against hardware failures and with IDE RAID controllers on the motherboards, hard to justify not using in a file server. These will only protect you from a hard drive failure though, not from files being deleted by the user or a virus or other problems, so don't count on them as any form of backup.
Beware. The article makes it prety clear that the image sensor is 640x480 and that if you op for 1280x960 that the extra pixels are just interpolated. The author also indicated that post processing image software will do a far better job of interpolating the pixels than the software in the camera. Actually, since the capacity is unaffected by this setting, I suspect that they don't even interpolate and store the extra pixels at all, they just set a bit for the image based on the switch position and then when it's time to output the image do the interpolating if needed. What a waste, the switch is a marketing gimic, not a feature.
What crap. OK, it's thin. Big deal. If you need tiny get one of those web cam/camera devices. Heck, at this price, get two.
As to the 1.3 megapixel claim being a fib as the article calls it, better names for this would seem to be fraud or deceptive and false marketing,. The 50 image capacity is nothing to be impressed about either, given the small size of each image. I've seen many cameras in the $29 to $49 range that match or beat this in specs.
The sad thing is, given the quality of their products in the past, I would have expected Logitech to "get it right" if they decided to enter this market. I'm still shopping for a digital camera, but here's what I'm looking for:
Adjustable Focus with macro capability
Flash
Decent pixel size (>1.3 meg)
Ability to capture a picture without storing it in a lossy jpg format
Ability to use a standard battery, not a $5 non-rechargable one that only lasts a brief time
Beyong that, an LCD, storage options and price will all factor in o the final selection. Any suggestions?
Do they have enough influence what XM plays? I don't know. I'm far more concerned that they do have enough influence to ruin free broadcast radio, perhaps to force people to XM.
As I'm not one of the people blessed with having way too much money, I'll stick with other alternatives. MP3 would be my technology of choice if I were making a change today.
From the Roaring Penguin article: And another interesting little "easter egg" is on the AdTI's very own Web site.
Unfortunately, the link provided now just points to some pictures of someone's kid. The lesson I hope this and future authors learn is that if you want to point out something interesting on an enemy site, you should state clearly what it is and you should have a backup copy (perhaps a link to a third party mirror or cache such as Google to avoid accusations that you created false documents or violated copyright) for when the offending information is quickly taken down or even replaced with something that refutes your original point.
Think about it: The pits in a CD are permanetely under a clear protctive surface (and larger than these pits). These pits are exposed and amazingly small. I wouldn't be surprised to learn the prototype was done in clean room conditions (I would be amazed if it wasn't). I don't see this technology built into a ring, even if it was a locket type arangement that you had to fumble with. It's difficult to imagine how they could hope to protect the media and make any reasonable reader or writer that could work in normal environments.
With eBay, everything can be "try before you buy".
With all the scamers and crooks on ebay it would be better called try to buy. But even if you don't get taken on ebay as a buyer, as a seller buying and reselling on ebay comes at a steep commision for try before you buy. Also, it is based on the concept that there's another idiot out there that's even dumber than you and willing to buy something you decided you don't want. While logic tells me that this can always be true, reports indicate that it acually is.
While I keep my book rather than reselling them, I can see many reasons for buying and reselling:
Your library, like most, may have a small selection that does not include the book you are interested in.
You might plan to read it over more than the 1 or 3 week period that the library allows.
You might have bought it intending to keep it but simply have decided that the book wasn't that good, or just not something that you'll ever read again.
You might try to sell it on e-bay for more than the retail price. I have a friend who has sold a lot of books on ebay, both stuff bought at Goodwill for a nickel or dime and sold on-line for $30 or more, as well as new books that she was surprised to see bid up significantly higher than the new book price she paid at Borders for the still in print book (plus an extra profit made in that shipping fee).
You might see it in the book store, want it and buy it now planning on selling it, and still be further ahead than making several trips to your local library (about a 35+ mile round trip drive each time in my case) to pick it up and return it,
even if they do have it when you look for it.
Not at all amazing that this was posted by an Anonymous Coward. When that attitude leads you to become a victim of identity theft I expect your viewpoint will change drastically.
There are several ways to answer this. The tree of all possiable moves is (very) large but finite, so given infinite (or very very large) resources and time it would be possible to "solve". But the numbers get so large one might come to conclusions like given all the mater in the universe, the solution will not happen in your lifetime.
One other consideration is, that while it seems likely (from our experience with master and grand master class players) that white has the advantage and thus whould be the likely winner if there is a winner in the solution, it has not been shown that this is the case, it could well turn out that in the "perfect" game black has the advantage as long as he makes no mistakes. It seems far more likely to turn out that the "perfect" game will be a draw, meaning that if either player makes an error and the other can play perfectly from there, the player to not make the error will win. (and error being any move that takes a branch on the tree that leads to a forced loss for the player who made the move). For example, tic-tac-toe can be easily proven to have this type of solution, and chess might has well.
This was very interesting. As to the regulation that permits self powered devices but forbids batteries, how far can that be pushed and how useful would it be to push it?
That is to say, if the racket can make a difference based on the energy it can recover from the ball impact, what could you do if you built a self generating power system into the racket handle, much like technology used in a self winding electronic watch, but at a much larger scale? Of course, without a battery the power generated could be stored in a capacitor until used. While this approach seems far beyond the sprit of the game, one could say the same about piezoelectric technology in the first place. I'm just thinking, if it going to be used at all, why not get energy from all racket movement as well as ball impact.
I'm not sure about which region, but I've seen from a newsgroup that season 4 has been released (was long before season 5 had completely aired). The DVD does contain some nice stuff, including a director's commentary for the episode on a second audio track. Lots of nice insight to the creative process there. Waiting for all seasons to be released is an option, but that may be a while, and you'll be without the insight of stuff like this extra material while you wait.
No one else seems to have menioned this, but I can't view the site with Netscape (4.79, 1024x768). It's slapping the photos right over the text, not exactly browser friendly. I guss I could run IE, but then the terrorists win.
That's certainly one possibility, but how many people make the same call when they take the computer home, turn it on, and it doesn't boot up?
At least a nice GUI could display a helpful message, and confirm that the box you bought works before you shell out as much as $299 for a MS OS (yes, I know there are less expensive ways to legitimately buy XP Pro but many customers apparently do not).
Seems like a case of damned if you do, damned if you don't. I still think the manufacturer should consider pre-installing Linux. While I would like to see it be a full blown OS with lots of extras (certainly a browser and a full office suite at a minimum), maybe the best thing to avoid the "How do I use this calls" could be to ship a stripped down version with no useful applications - the GUI could inform the user that the system clearly works but that they will need to install their own OS to actually do anything with the computer.
I saw a news show report a few days ago too. But LOTR did not take best movie. This is MTV remember...even the webpage shows they gave it to Ali (Floats like a butterfly, stinks like a B movie).
The winmodem issue was bad enough, but if there isn't Linux support for the video chipset that's awful! But it all brings up the question, why sell an OS free system rather than just including a free OS (Linux) on the drive? Certainly geeks who want a different flavor of Linux would have no problems with this. You might have to include a simple utility to kill the Linux partition for appliance users who will be instaling a flavor of Windows, but with Linux on the system already, maybe a few of them might decide it was less painful learing a stable system than installing Microsoft.
And Linux on the drive would certainly help address the issue of support for the shipped hardware!
This concept has about as much validity as requiring viewers to actually go out and buy Pepsi, or Budwiser, or a new Oldsmobile, or the current flavor of Prozak because it was advertised on a show you watched. After all, if you don't buy the product then there's not much point in advertising it and paying for the show, is there? So clearly anyone who doesn't buy everything that was advertised is in just as much violation of this unsigned contract.
Looking at it another way, if the commercial is for something I'm simply genetically not going to buy, say any of the vividly advertised female products while I'm male, am I contractually obligated to buy the product? If I'm not going to buy it, am I obligated to watch the commercial, and how is the sponsor harmed if I don't?
Sponsors advertise because many people will watch the commercials. Heck, I've rewound a fast forwarded VHS tape many times when I noted that the commercial was something of interest. And some of those watchers will buy the product. But there is no obligation to do either, buy the product or watch the commercial. And calling those of us who go to the bathroom, grab a snack, or otherwise don't watch a commercial "thieves" is the real crime.
If there's a jury trial it will be hard to find 12 juriors who have never gone to the bathroom during a commercial break, or who want to be labeled criminals for doing so.
Heck, it's seldom mentioned but RCA has long put into their TV's a feature where you can sure to other stations and the TV will return to the one you were originally watching after some user select multiple of 30 seconds. Notice how the industry leaves them alone but comes up with this lame argument against little guys it figures it can bankrup if they try to fight back.
Before buying into this be sure you understand all of the HDTV formats and options. The articl claims "full high-definition picture quality" but doesn't quite define what that is. The industry has multiple standards for widescreen formats. The lowest is pretty crappy, but is still being passed of to many people who are paying an arm and a leg to be early adopters of HDTV. Some day they will find they have paid a lot for a system that is limited to low quality, not "full high-definition picture quality". This sounds like it could be another case of that.
Normal TV is 480 lines interlaced. Improved quality can be designated as 480p (non-interlaced), 1080i, 720p and 1080p (in that order). Unless you're getting 1080p with a digital interface to the display (not RGB analog) I don't believe you're getting "full high-definition picture quality". Since the industry is still fighting (afsik) about copy protection of this 1080p digital signal, I question if the technology can give the promised quality, or if you can even find a display that would accept it at any price.
And I tend to agree that this kind of prices on magnetic tapes that likely will degrade isn't a wise move.
I would be interested in knowing what game(s) are being used in these events, and, if not legitimate free software, if the school is buying 34 copies of them for the students. Doing this without legal copies is almost certain to have a bad end, as someone is sure to get uptight about these kids playing these games.
By the way, is this school district, like most in this country, so obsessed with "zero tolerance" that they will not even let the students have a gun charm on their keychain, a picture of a gun, or hold their hand with the index fingure extended and the thumb up and say "bang"? If so is there a problem with this additude and lan based games, or is there some politically correct lan based game?
If it's on fiber, they already have it! Do a little research into Echelon. Just one example, apparently our friend the Brits have detoured almost every piece of fiber over ther through a US NSA facility.
It's hardly like the typical commercial theater needs or has it's own library of films. But long term, digital will give the studios more control, not the theaters. Once these digital flicks are delivered by satellite or fiber, the theaters will have to take and show them as the studio sees fit.
Imagine you have a new release scheduled for two screens and it quickly bombs. You have more flexiability to reschedule (perhaps giving 2 other films that were sharing another screen each their own screen, or even to juggle one print of whatever's hot between two screens). On a "fed from the studio" digital world, you play what they feed you.
With this data one should be able to calculate the mass of a bit of information. (Construct an experiment to prove your calculations). Also, use Albert's clasic equation to determine the energy of a bit of information. Determine how much energy is released if you empty the windows desktop trahs bin icon.
Slashdot Mirror
If not already being done, set things up so that the data that needs backed up is on a network server. Network access of the local drives is not as good, particularly if any users turn their computers off at night. Identify what directories need to be backed up and overnight have an automatic program copy them completely, copying to a completely different server or at least a different hard drive (compressing at this step can save you a lot of storage space). Also identify any company data (that might not be in any user account) that needs the same treatment and copy the databases in the same way. Since you indicated you are in a satellite office, you might even consider sending a copy of your archive to the main office. (I used to back up daily but would send a copy of key databases to the main office once a week over a 56k connection. With today's connection speeds I would be doing it daily.) If there's a privacy issue here, the data can be encrypted with only two people at your satellite office having the key, but it's still a handy way to get a copy off-site. Be sure this backup gets done and that if the automatic procedure fails that you know about it; either have it send you e-mail on success or have another program confirm success and alert you on failure (obviously the second option should not be run automatically from the same system you run the first one on, it could be run on your on system as a log-in task for example).
I didn't suggest writing the data directly to back-up media because in my experience this frequently fails and causes backups to not be made. Once you have a good backup you can copy the files to CDR or tape yourself (I prefer CDR or other media like a swapable hard drive where I can access individual files directly over tape; I've had too many cases where I couldn't get what I needed off the tape when the time came). If you have a lot of data, try to plan your backup device so that everything will fit on one piece of media without swaps, swaps complicate the backups and soon they are done less and less frequently. If you do it right you can come in each day and write the backup to CDR while you're getting your first cup of coffee.
Mirrored drives are great protection against hardware failures and with IDE RAID controllers on the motherboards, hard to justify not using in a file server. These will only protect you from a hard drive failure though, not from files being deleted by the user or a virus or other problems, so don't count on them as any form of backup.
Beware. The article makes it prety clear that the image sensor is 640x480 and that if you op for 1280x960 that the extra pixels are just interpolated. The author also indicated that post processing image software will do a far better job of interpolating the pixels than the software in the camera. Actually, since the capacity is unaffected by this setting, I suspect that they don't even interpolate and store the extra pixels at all, they just set a bit for the image based on the switch position and then when it's time to output the image do the interpolating if needed. What a waste, the switch is a marketing gimic, not a feature.
As to the 1.3 megapixel claim being a fib as the article calls it, better names for this would seem to be fraud or deceptive and false marketing,. The 50 image capacity is nothing to be impressed about either, given the small size of each image. I've seen many cameras in the $29 to $49 range that match or beat this in specs.
The sad thing is, given the quality of their products in the past, I would have expected Logitech to "get it right" if they decided to enter this market. I'm still shopping for a digital camera, but here's what I'm looking for:
Adjustable Focus with macro capability
Flash
Decent pixel size (>1.3 meg)
Ability to capture a picture without storing it in a lossy jpg format
Ability to use a standard battery, not a $5 non-rechargable one that only lasts a brief time
Beyong that, an LCD, storage options and price will all factor in o the final selection. Any suggestions?
As I'm not one of the people blessed with having way too much money, I'll stick with other alternatives. MP3 would be my technology of choice if I were making a change today.
Unfortunately, the link provided now just points to some pictures of someone's kid. The lesson I hope this and future authors learn is that if you want to point out something interesting on an enemy site, you should state clearly what it is and you should have a backup copy (perhaps a link to a third party mirror or cache such as Google to avoid accusations that you created false documents or violated copyright) for when the offending information is quickly taken down or even replaced with something that refutes your original point.
Think about it: The pits in a CD are permanetely under a clear protctive surface (and larger than these pits). These pits are exposed and amazingly small. I wouldn't be surprised to learn the prototype was done in clean room conditions (I would be amazed if it wasn't). I don't see this technology built into a ring, even if it was a locket type arangement that you had to fumble with. It's difficult to imagine how they could hope to protect the media and make any reasonable reader or writer that could work in normal environments.
With all the scamers and crooks on ebay it would be better called try to buy. But even if you don't get taken on ebay as a buyer, as a seller buying and reselling on ebay comes at a steep commision for try before you buy. Also, it is based on the concept that there's another idiot out there that's even dumber than you and willing to buy something you decided you don't want. While logic tells me that this can always be true, reports indicate that it acually is.
Your library, like most, may have a small selection that does not include the book you are interested in.
You might plan to read it over more than the 1 or 3 week period that the library allows.
You might have bought it intending to keep it but simply have decided that the book wasn't that good, or just not something that you'll ever read again.
You might try to sell it on e-bay for more than the retail price. I have a friend who has sold a lot of books on ebay, both stuff bought at Goodwill for a nickel or dime and sold on-line for $30 or more, as well as new books that she was surprised to see bid up significantly higher than the new book price she paid at Borders for the still in print book (plus an extra profit made in that shipping fee).
You might see it in the book store, want it and buy it now planning on selling it, and still be further ahead than making several trips to your local library (about a 35+ mile round trip drive each time in my case) to pick it up and return it, even if they do have it when you look for it.
Not at all amazing that this was posted by an Anonymous Coward. When that attitude leads you to become a victim of identity theft I expect your viewpoint will change drastically.
Actually, any porting is trivial for the person who doesn't have to do it.
One other consideration is, that while it seems likely (from our experience with master and grand master class players) that white has the advantage and thus whould be the likely winner if there is a winner in the solution, it has not been shown that this is the case, it could well turn out that in the "perfect" game black has the advantage as long as he makes no mistakes. It seems far more likely to turn out that the "perfect" game will be a draw, meaning that if either player makes an error and the other can play perfectly from there, the player to not make the error will win. (and error being any move that takes a branch on the tree that leads to a forced loss for the player who made the move). For example, tic-tac-toe can be easily proven to have this type of solution, and chess might has well.
That is to say, if the racket can make a difference based on the energy it can recover from the ball impact, what could you do if you built a self generating power system into the racket handle, much like technology used in a self winding electronic watch, but at a much larger scale? Of course, without a battery the power generated could be stored in a capacitor until used. While this approach seems far beyond the sprit of the game, one could say the same about piezoelectric technology in the first place. I'm just thinking, if it going to be used at all, why not get energy from all racket movement as well as ball impact.
I'm not sure about which region, but I've seen from a newsgroup that season 4 has been released (was long before season 5 had completely aired). The DVD does contain some nice stuff, including a director's commentary for the episode on a second audio track. Lots of nice insight to the creative process there. Waiting for all seasons to be released is an option, but that may be a while, and you'll be without the insight of stuff like this extra material while you wait.
No one else seems to have menioned this, but I can't view the site with Netscape (4.79, 1024x768). It's slapping the photos right over the text, not exactly browser friendly. I guss I could run IE, but then the terrorists win.
At least a nice GUI could display a helpful message, and confirm that the box you bought works before you shell out as much as $299 for a MS OS (yes, I know there are less expensive ways to legitimately buy XP Pro but many customers apparently do not).
Seems like a case of damned if you do, damned if you don't. I still think the manufacturer should consider pre-installing Linux. While I would like to see it be a full blown OS with lots of extras (certainly a browser and a full office suite at a minimum), maybe the best thing to avoid the "How do I use this calls" could be to ship a stripped down version with no useful applications - the GUI could inform the user that the system clearly works but that they will need to install their own OS to actually do anything with the computer.
I saw a news show report a few days ago too. But LOTR did not take best movie. This is MTV remember...even the webpage shows they gave it to Ali (Floats like a butterfly, stinks like a B movie).
And Linux on the drive would certainly help address the issue of support for the shipped hardware!
Looking at it another way, if the commercial is for something I'm simply genetically not going to buy, say any of the vividly advertised female products while I'm male, am I contractually obligated to buy the product? If I'm not going to buy it, am I obligated to watch the commercial, and how is the sponsor harmed if I don't?
Sponsors advertise because many people will watch the commercials. Heck, I've rewound a fast forwarded VHS tape many times when I noted that the commercial was something of interest. And some of those watchers will buy the product. But there is no obligation to do either, buy the product or watch the commercial. And calling those of us who go to the bathroom, grab a snack, or otherwise don't watch a commercial "thieves" is the real crime.
Heck, it's seldom mentioned but RCA has long put into their TV's a feature where you can sure to other stations and the TV will return to the one you were originally watching after some user select multiple of 30 seconds. Notice how the industry leaves them alone but comes up with this lame argument against little guys it figures it can bankrup if they try to fight back.
It's about time we saw this sort of thing. I just hope there is a jury trial.
Normal TV is 480 lines interlaced. Improved quality can be designated as 480p (non-interlaced), 1080i, 720p and 1080p (in that order). Unless you're getting 1080p with a digital interface to the display (not RGB analog) I don't believe you're getting "full high-definition picture quality". Since the industry is still fighting (afsik) about copy protection of this 1080p digital signal, I question if the technology can give the promised quality, or if you can even find a display that would accept it at any price.
And I tend to agree that this kind of prices on magnetic tapes that likely will degrade isn't a wise move.
By the way, is this school district, like most in this country, so obsessed with "zero tolerance" that they will not even let the students have a gun charm on their keychain, a picture of a gun, or hold their hand with the index fingure extended and the thumb up and say "bang"? If so is there a problem with this additude and lan based games, or is there some politically correct lan based game?
If it's on fiber, they already have it! Do a little research into Echelon. Just one example, apparently our friend the Brits have detoured almost every piece of fiber over ther through a US NSA facility.
Imagine you have a new release scheduled for two screens and it quickly bombs. You have more flexiability to reschedule (perhaps giving 2 other films that were sharing another screen each their own screen, or even to juggle one print of whatever's hot between two screens). On a "fed from the studio" digital world, you play what they feed you.
With this data one should be able to calculate the mass of a bit of information. (Construct an experiment to prove your calculations). Also, use Albert's clasic equation to determine the energy of a bit of information. Determine how much energy is released if you empty the windows desktop trahs bin icon.