Perhaps it's a good thing you don't habve mod points at the moment; mod points are not intended for you to just mod down things you don't agree with. When you don't agree post back your point of view (and don't just call someone a troll; explain why). Personally, I resent over 50% of my modest income going to taxes: Federal Income tax, social security and "unemployment" tax, state income tax, property tax, sales tax, and a few others. I resent even more when non-government groups add extra cost to my utility bills and items I buy to give free telco services to "special" groups, or breaks on power to "special" groups because power costs are so high, or free or discounted drugs to other countries (even Canada - when we in the U.S. usually funded most of that research that led to the drugs through our taxes!) or any of a number of other "special" price breaks that in reality just discriminate against the average working guy. And now to see a company that has been convicted in Federal Courts of abusing it's monopoly power but suffered no real penality continue to abuse it's monopoly power by spendig money (the media and Certificate of Authenticity might be small in cost but are not free) this way to fight Linux in the "developing world" while the same benefit is denied to the people who the monopoly victimized in the first place is really disgusting.
So another way to look at it is that Microsoft is giving out free software to the "third world", and someone is going to pay for it. Which explains why Microsoft software in the U.S keeps getting more and more expensive
when he himself drove an "eco-friendly" Toyota that spewed blue smoke to commute fifty miles to work.
No, more like the eco-kooks who promote cars that run on clean burning hydrogen, without looking into how that hydrogen is produced (hint: a company that produces it in large quanities breaks it down from natural gas by subjecting it to heat from burning yet more natural gas in a catalyic environment, the result is hydrogen, carbon monoxide and carbon dixoide, The carbon dixoide and some of the carbon monoxide is vented freely into the air, just to make the "clean burning hydrogen". The result is a lot more polution than if the cars just burnt natural gas, but the eco-kooks can look at their hydrogen cars and talk about how clean they are).
If you think that even a 95% decrease in the lead in the microprocessor would have as much as 0.1% impact on the amount of lead in a desktop computer, think again! The lead in the solder on the boards and in the power supply is a far greater factor than the very small amount of lead in a CPU. Sure, you can say "any decrease is an improvement", and maybe it even really is (that depends an awful lot on what the lead is replaced with though), but don't let let yourself be fooled by someone pointing at the CPU and calling attention to it while the Intel chip is not the real problem.
As proposed in the article, this seems extremely lame. However, I've long thought there would be a better way to do it. Humans age 0 to about 4 show a remarkable ability to pick up any languauge. I suggest we should take some yound children (it's not like there isn't a large surplus of them) and raise them with chimps and even dolphins, as well as give them enough human contact that they also pick up our language. Then in a short time we would have people (small people, but still people) who do understand communication of these other species, rather than have people who just act like apes (we have enough of those already).
yea, this competition from DVDs is particularly awful; people are resisting paying $19.99 for a movie soundtrack when they can buy the movie itself on DVD for $12. Who do we have to bribe to get a law passed against this sort of thing?
If we assume that these batteries have a capacity of 1000 mah, which seems like a reasonable figure
It better be a lot more than that, since AA NiMH cells currently have as much as 2300 mah capacity (maybe more, I haven't looked in a few weeks) and these are much larger D cells.
You live in an apartment and your outlets "can't handle it". So what! These batteries solve the very problem that everyone is pretending they create.
Problem: The batteries can recharge in 30 seconds, but that would draw way too much power through the circuit breaker and the wire in the wall,
Solution: Now how are we going to get all of that current quickly and safely? Hey, the batteres not only can charge quickly but can drain quickly. And they don't have to charge quickly, it's just that that can. So the solution is pretty simple; we take a few of these inexpensive batteries and keep them in the charger, letting them slowly charge there. From there they can quickly charge other batteries without drawing a lot of power from the wall.
Of course, if you aready have a charged set in the charger you might be tempted to just swap the sets and avoid the quick charging cycle all together. This would work fine in some cases, but the ability to charge quickly might give you a handy way to recharge without even removing batteries (if the device were correctly designed for it), would give you a way to recharge sealed devices like the iPod (which should never be built in a way the batteries can't be replaced, but that's another issue), and would let you recharge different size batteries (a recharger with extra D cells in it could also recharge AA, AAA, and C cells, for example).
But then I started thinking about railguns and emp devices...
If they do it right we can use one cell to fire the railgun. Then that cell, discharged, moves up and becomes the next projectile to fire, while the next cell feeds from a magazine to power the device.
You can measure the internal resistance by shorting the battery through an ammeter and measuring the terminal voltage. Terminal voltage when shorted, divided by current through the ammeter, gives internal resistance.
If you short the battery you will likely destroy the meter, and maybe the battery as well (particularly if the internal resistance is low). And if you short the battery then by definition there will be no terminal voltage, any that you do measure is a result of minimal internal resistance of the meter, not the battery!
There are plenty of valid ways to determine battery internal resistance that actually work and do not involve destroying the equipment. This isn't one of them.
One has to wonder about an implimentation for "fringe" computers when the website (http://www.petscii.com/) supports IE but only gives a blank page if opened in Netscape.
Why is this icon used on this story. Are they tryoing to persuade us that the author is a smart guy? I've certainly never seen a more misused icon on Slashdot, unless the irony is intended.
Re:Get the legal unboxed OEM version
on
PC In An XP Box
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
On the chance that Microsoft might go after someone, I'm certainly not going to name anyone, but you can find this very easily by searching on-line retailers. I just found a second source with a very quick look, and my usual source is currently selling the OEM version of XP Home for $84 and OEM XP Pro for $134. The website says "Must be bought with hardware" and if you look a little more you will see that they spell out that it can be ANY HARDWARE, and they do have some quite inexpensive hardware items (Need an extra patch cable or extension cable?)
Even if you can't find the OEMs who will sell it with "any hardware", considering that the OEM price of XP home is in the $80 range, if you did have to buy it with a CPU or Hard drive, you could still buy am OEM version with low end hardware for a lot less than you would have to pay for the retail box version of XP home with no hardware (not that Bill is over charging or anything). Given the option, I would take a "free" CPU or hard drive to save some money.
However, you have pointed out one cookie-cutter license posted by Microsoft. It's well known that they write individual OEM aggrements with many if not most resellers, and the terms of these licenses are generally not made public. Since the terms of private agreements between Microsoft and their OEM are not public, I can not know them and I cartainly cannot be held to terms kept secret from me. So if I buy an OEM product from a Microsoft reseller in good faith, I certainly have every right to use it. And I have to believe that Microsoft is condoning the selling of such products that they supply, even if they hold other vendors to different standards. As you say, The "nonperipheral computer hardware component" is a bit vague, but Microsoft is the one who wrote it and made it vague. You know it's happening (you say as much), and Microsoft knows it's happening. In any case, the end user is in the clear, so paying a lot more for the retail box of XP is a move that only puts more money in the Microsoft war chest.
Get the legal unboxed OEM version
on
PC In An XP Box
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
Too bad most Slashdotters who use XP won't actually HAVE an XP box...
Well, it's not really too bad, since having a box is a sign you gave Microsoft lots of extra money. While I expect you intended to imply that some slashdot readers pirate Microsoft software, many know that they can legally buy OEM copies of WInXP with some hardware for a lot less than they would pay for a boxed retail copy of XP. In some cases that hardware can cost as low as a buck. And whatever it costs you get the same software, a legal unique ID for it, extra hardware and a lower total cost. So unless you want to display that box as a sign of shame for paying too much for the software, (or get great rebate deals on other products that effectively make the retail box free, as happened when XP first came out) why would anyone buy the retail box?
when Peter can't read
on
PC In An XP Box
·
· Score: 1, Insightful
I too at first read it as in an Xbox, but
I looked at the article rather than rushing to post something that showed my ignorance.
The irony is that an XBox actually costs less than an XP box!!!!!
Poker is very popular online. Most of the online card rooms have 3rd parties audit there random # generators. Poker is played against other players, not the house.
And you believe that the person running one of these "online card rooms" never plays one of the hands himself? You are much more trusting than I. And it's worth noting that no audit of the random number generators would catch such cheating - you don't need to give yourself any special cards or "deal from the bottom". Just seeing what cards are about to be given out by the dealer, as well as knowing what everyone has in their hands, would give such an operator a tremendous advantage, and the deals could still be done with perfectly fair randon number generators (in fact, anyone doing this would gladly have their site audited for randomness, as it would convince some players who don't think things through that the game was fair).
The odds are bad enough against you in a casino. But to "gamble" on-line in a simulated casino game is insane. Does anyone here really believe that the deck, dice or wheel will be fair on a big bet in an on-line game?
People who call this gambling are much like the people who confuse the shell game or the three card monty with "games of chance" or "games of skill" (they are really very expensive performances of close up magic).
OK, the Diebold system is obviously one of the worst solutions. And high-tech should be able to help an election. But the problem with any system that prints a receipt with vote information or allows verification of a voters selection on-line, is that it facilitates the buying and selling of votes. With the traditional paper system you don't have that issue. It's hard to sell a vote if you vote on a private paper ballot, alone in a voting booth where no one can see what you marked, simply because people will not be wiling to pay for what they cannot verify. But any verification system proposed so far opens itself to verification of votes to third parties, which opens the doors to vote buying and selling. Our political system has more than enough problems now, I would just as soon stick to paper ballots rather than use electronic systems until this problem is addressed and resolved.
Sounds like you wanted AMD to buy something from you and make new business contacts for you. That woukld be a pretty expensive and dumb move on their part. But they certainly could and should give the free hotspots something for taking part in the promotion and providing the network connection. Either share a little of the cost of the network connection, or at the very least offer new hotspots a free wireless router (which would cost them next to nothing in quanity).
By the way, remember that most U.S. sold products are sold with a U.S. mindset that often screws the international customer as well as the U.S. customer who travels. A notebook will very likely come with a power supply that has only an American tupe plug and requires only 110 volts at 60 cycles/second. You likely will have to buy an extra adapter if you get such a notebook. Beware of many of these sold here, as many will not have the power wattage requirement, as well as having the other problems. Also, if you plan on using video out from your notebook, understand that almost any notebook you get here will only offer NTSC video, not PAL, even if the same model offers PAL in Europe.
The same caution goes to any other product you might buy. Yes, you can get a $29.99 DVD player here. But it will require 110 Volt 60 cycles, have an American plug, will only play region 1 DVDs with no way to change it, and likely will only output in NTSC (although a few will let you switch to PAL, but unless you bring a TV you'll have no way to test that in this country).
Few locations carry Dell in stock, so if you want that you'll have some work to do. But I've found other laptops, such as the top end HP's, to be as good or better at a lower price. These are available in many retail stores. Unless you really want a Dell (or Gateway) you should be able to buy what you want easily.
Since you mentioned going to New York, be warned that there are a lot of "electronics stores" in Manhattan that offer "too good to be true" deals. There is a reason these deals are call "too good to be true" and there have been many many national news pieces on how many people are robbed blind in these stores, yet they are still in operation. Avoid them and shop for your new computer at a National Retailer like CompUSA, Best Buy or Circuit City.
One very annoying sales pratice that you might have problems dealing with is the all too common "rebate" deals on computers and notebooks. You'll frequently find stores with one or even two $100 or more rebates on notebooks, and sometimes lots of extra goodies that are "free after rebate" when you buy them with the notebook. Unfortunately, the mail-in rebate deals almost always are limited to the U.S. and sometimes Canada, and require a street address (not a post office box). Unless you have a contact here in the U.S. (something I assume you do not have or you would not have needed to ask your original question), you may have problems collecting on a rebate offer. Maybe someone else will respond to this with some suggestions on how a traveler can work around this.
Slashdot Mirror
Perhaps it's a good thing you don't habve mod points at the moment; mod points are not intended for you to just mod down things you don't agree with. When you don't agree post back your point of view (and don't just call someone a troll; explain why). Personally, I resent over 50% of my modest income going to taxes: Federal Income tax, social security and "unemployment" tax, state income tax, property tax, sales tax, and a few others. I resent even more when non-government groups add extra cost to my utility bills and items I buy to give free telco services to "special" groups, or breaks on power to "special" groups because power costs are so high, or free or discounted drugs to other countries (even Canada - when we in the U.S. usually funded most of that research that led to the drugs through our taxes!) or any of a number of other "special" price breaks that in reality just discriminate against the average working guy. And now to see a company that has been convicted in Federal Courts of abusing it's monopoly power but suffered no real penality continue to abuse it's monopoly power by spendig money (the media and Certificate of Authenticity might be small in cost but are not free) this way to fight Linux in the "developing world" while the same benefit is denied to the people who the monopoly victimized in the first place is really disgusting.
So another way to look at it is that Microsoft is giving out free software to the "third world", and someone is going to pay for it. Which explains why Microsoft software in the U.S keeps getting more and more expensive
No, more like the eco-kooks who promote cars that run on clean burning hydrogen, without looking into how that hydrogen is produced (hint: a company that produces it in large quanities breaks it down from natural gas by subjecting it to heat from burning yet more natural gas in a catalyic environment, the result is hydrogen, carbon monoxide and carbon dixoide, The carbon dixoide and some of the carbon monoxide is vented freely into the air, just to make the "clean burning hydrogen". The result is a lot more polution than if the cars just burnt natural gas, but the eco-kooks can look at their hydrogen cars and talk about how clean they are).
If you think that even a 95% decrease in the lead in the microprocessor would have as much as 0.1% impact on the amount of lead in a desktop computer, think again! The lead in the solder on the boards and in the power supply is a far greater factor than the very small amount of lead in a CPU. Sure, you can say "any decrease is an improvement", and maybe it even really is (that depends an awful lot on what the lead is replaced with though), but don't let let yourself be fooled by someone pointing at the CPU and calling attention to it while the Intel chip is not the real problem.
As proposed in the article, this seems extremely lame. However, I've long thought there would be a better way to do it. Humans age 0 to about 4 show a remarkable ability to pick up any languauge. I suggest we should take some yound children (it's not like there isn't a large surplus of them) and raise them with chimps and even dolphins, as well as give them enough human contact that they also pick up our language. Then in a short time we would have people (small people, but still people) who do understand communication of these other species, rather than have people who just act like apes (we have enough of those already).
yea, this competition from DVDs is particularly awful; people are resisting paying $19.99 for a movie soundtrack when they can buy the movie itself on DVD for $12. Who do we have to bribe to get a law passed against this sort of thing?
dno't call me Surely
Badgers got two appendixes????
It better be a lot more than that, since AA NiMH cells currently have as much as 2300 mah capacity (maybe more, I haven't looked in a few weeks) and these are much larger D cells.
Problem: The batteries can recharge in 30 seconds, but that would draw way too much power through the circuit breaker and the wire in the wall,
Solution: Now how are we going to get all of that current quickly and safely? Hey, the batteres not only can charge quickly but can drain quickly. And they don't have to charge quickly, it's just that that can . So the solution is pretty simple; we take a few of these inexpensive batteries and keep them in the charger, letting them slowly charge there. From there they can quickly charge other batteries without drawing a lot of power from the wall.
Of course, if you aready have a charged set in the charger you might be tempted to just swap the sets and avoid the quick charging cycle all together. This would work fine in some cases, but the ability to charge quickly might give you a handy way to recharge without even removing batteries (if the device were correctly designed for it), would give you a way to recharge sealed devices like the iPod (which should never be built in a way the batteries can't be replaced, but that's another issue), and would let you recharge different size batteries (a recharger with extra D cells in it could also recharge AA, AAA, and C cells, for example).
If they do it right we can use one cell to fire the railgun. Then that cell, discharged, moves up and becomes the next projectile to fire, while the next cell feeds from a magazine to power the device.
If you short the battery you will likely destroy the meter, and maybe the battery as well (particularly if the internal resistance is low). And if you short the battery then by definition there will be no terminal voltage, any that you do measure is a result of minimal internal resistance of the meter, not the battery!
There are plenty of valid ways to determine battery internal resistance that actually work and do not involve destroying the equipment. This isn't one of them.
One has to wonder about an implimentation for "fringe" computers when the website (http://www.petscii.com/) supports IE but only gives a blank page if opened in Netscape.
Why is this icon used on this story. Are they tryoing to persuade us that the author is a smart guy? I've certainly never seen a more misused icon on Slashdot, unless the irony is intended.
Even if you can't find the OEMs who will sell it with "any hardware", considering that the OEM price of XP home is in the $80 range, if you did have to buy it with a CPU or Hard drive, you could still buy am OEM version with low end hardware for a lot less than you would have to pay for the retail box version of XP home with no hardware (not that Bill is over charging or anything). Given the option, I would take a "free" CPU or hard drive to save some money.
However, you have pointed out one cookie-cutter license posted by Microsoft. It's well known that they write individual OEM aggrements with many if not most resellers, and the terms of these licenses are generally not made public. Since the terms of private agreements between Microsoft and their OEM are not public, I can not know them and I cartainly cannot be held to terms kept secret from me. So if I buy an OEM product from a Microsoft reseller in good faith, I certainly have every right to use it. And I have to believe that Microsoft is condoning the selling of such products that they supply, even if they hold other vendors to different standards. As you say, The "nonperipheral computer hardware component" is a bit vague, but Microsoft is the one who wrote it and made it vague. You know it's happening (you say as much), and Microsoft knows it's happening. In any case, the end user is in the clear, so paying a lot more for the retail box of XP is a move that only puts more money in the Microsoft war chest.
Well, it's not really too bad, since having a box is a sign you gave Microsoft lots of extra money. While I expect you intended to imply that some slashdot readers pirate Microsoft software, many know that they can legally buy OEM copies of WInXP with some hardware for a lot less than they would pay for a boxed retail copy of XP. In some cases that hardware can cost as low as a buck. And whatever it costs you get the same software, a legal unique ID for it, extra hardware and a lower total cost. So unless you want to display that box as a sign of shame for paying too much for the software, (or get great rebate deals on other products that effectively make the retail box free, as happened when XP first came out) why would anyone buy the retail box?
The irony is that an XBox actually costs less than an XP box!!!!!
Construct an experimant to prove you theory.
And you believe that the person running one of these "online card rooms" never plays one of the hands himself? You are much more trusting than I. And it's worth noting that no audit of the random number generators would catch such cheating - you don't need to give yourself any special cards or "deal from the bottom". Just seeing what cards are about to be given out by the dealer, as well as knowing what everyone has in their hands, would give such an operator a tremendous advantage, and the deals could still be done with perfectly fair randon number generators (in fact, anyone doing this would gladly have their site audited for randomness, as it would convince some players who don't think things through that the game was fair).
No, I haven't, for the same reason.
People who call this gambling are much like the people who confuse the shell game or the three card monty with "games of chance" or "games of skill" (they are really very expensive performances of close up magic).
OK, the Diebold system is obviously one of the worst solutions. And high-tech should be able to help an election. But the problem with any system that prints a receipt with vote information or allows verification of a voters selection on-line, is that it facilitates the buying and selling of votes. With the traditional paper system you don't have that issue. It's hard to sell a vote if you vote on a private paper ballot, alone in a voting booth where no one can see what you marked, simply because people will not be wiling to pay for what they cannot verify. But any verification system proposed so far opens itself to verification of votes to third parties, which opens the doors to vote buying and selling. Our political system has more than enough problems now, I would just as soon stick to paper ballots rather than use electronic systems until this problem is addressed and resolved.
Sounds like you wanted AMD to buy something from you and make new business contacts for you. That woukld be a pretty expensive and dumb move on their part. But they certainly could and should give the free hotspots something for taking part in the promotion and providing the network connection. Either share a little of the cost of the network connection, or at the very least offer new hotspots a free wireless router (which would cost them next to nothing in quanity).
The same caution goes to any other product you might buy. Yes, you can get a $29.99 DVD player here. But it will require 110 Volt 60 cycles, have an American plug, will only play region 1 DVDs with no way to change it, and likely will only output in NTSC (although a few will let you switch to PAL, but unless you bring a TV you'll have no way to test that in this country).
Since you mentioned going to New York, be warned that there are a lot of "electronics stores" in Manhattan that offer "too good to be true" deals. There is a reason these deals are call "too good to be true" and there have been many many national news pieces on how many people are robbed blind in these stores, yet they are still in operation. Avoid them and shop for your new computer at a National Retailer like CompUSA, Best Buy or Circuit City.
One very annoying sales pratice that you might have problems dealing with is the all too common "rebate" deals on computers and notebooks. You'll frequently find stores with one or even two $100 or more rebates on notebooks, and sometimes lots of extra goodies that are "free after rebate" when you buy them with the notebook. Unfortunately, the mail-in rebate deals almost always are limited to the U.S. and sometimes Canada, and require a street address (not a post office box). Unless you have a contact here in the U.S. (something I assume you do not have or you would not have needed to ask your original question), you may have problems collecting on a rebate offer. Maybe someone else will respond to this with some suggestions on how a traveler can work around this.