This is annoying for those who cannot switch browsers for one reason or the other. In my opinion, web developers should aim to make their sites usable for as many different browsers as is reasonably possible. Including Internet Explorer, Lynx, mobile phones and old Netscape versions. Usable does not imply that the site needs to look pretty in that browser, but people should be able to access the (text) content.
Your users will have a reason why they use a particular browser, and often it's not because they're too lazy/dumb to install a "better" one.
Power companies _can_ change their output levels rather quickly-depending on the type of power stations they use. Nuclear power stations and gas-powered generators can be powered up and down fairly quickly, as can be hydropower stations with (water) reservoirs (the ones where you pump the water up in periods of low demand). On the other hand, there are a some power stations that cannot be switched on and off quickly enough, but are cheaper to run than the others (e.g. hydropower stations). So the cheaper options are used to cover the basic load, while the others are used in periods of high demand only. As the peak demand rises the power companies face the choice of either building new power plants or trying to move load from peak to off-peak times.
Yes, he's probably talking about the direct results. However, there are numerous other studies who are claiming the Chernobyl death toll is a lot higher than the studies that are the base of the English Wikipedia article (see the German Wikipedia, linked from my other post). Naturally Europeans have a bit of a different view on this subject since they are and were affected by the disaster.
The source for "tens of thousands" and for the claims relating to the abortions is the German wikipedia, which has a more detailed article discussing the studies as well. There seem to be quite a lot of people criticising the IAEO, UN & Co. report (which I believe is the base of some numbers on the English wikipedia) for wrong methodologies and purposely disregarding studies with larger death counts. The source for what I cited should be a recent meta-study based on Russian data. http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katastrophe_von_Tsche rnobyl#Ergebnisse_anderer_Studien The true number of dead might be somewhere in between the different estimates.
I call bullshit on this one. He clearly has the facts wrong.
The article states that the Chernobyl disaster killed just a few firemen who were fighting the fire. In fact many tens of thousands of people already died or will die of some form of cancer as a consequence of the disaster. For the religious among you: it is estimated that there have been 100000 and 200000 abortions because of Chernobyl.
I read the article because I thought it might offer some sensible views on the topic, but in reality it is just a bad piece of lobbying. I wonder why the editors let this slip into the paper.
A lot of comments around here read "Apple is a hardware company" and "Apple is not a software company".
But in reality, Apple is an all-in-one solution company.
If a consumer runs into troubles with a Windows box, it is likely that the problem involves either the internal hardware or the operating system. Now, Apple's customers might just contact Apple. Windows box users will likely need to determine whether it's hardware or software-related, and who made the hardware or software. Combined with the observation that OSX tends to be more stable I would argue that Apple would not be so successful if it was just selling stylish hardware.
Re:One Point For Gmail
on
Gmail vs Pine
·
· Score: 1
I was recently staying at a place where the only Internet access I could get (from my bed;-) was some wireless network with a firewall that blocked almost everything but ssh. I was quite happy ssh-ing to a server where I could run lynx, pine and mutt.
The atmosphere on Mars is 95% carbon dioxide, 3% nitrogen, 1.6% argon, and contains traces of oxygen and water. It's atmospheric pressure is 750Pa, about 0.75% of Earth's pressure (data from Wikipedia).
But maybe the atmosphere is more harsh on Mars precisely because it is more dense than on the Moon. Unlike on Moon, you can have significant dust storms on Mars.
Wikipedia writes, "In the winter months when the poles are in continual darkness, the surface gets so cold that as much as 25% of the entire atmosphere condenses out into thick slabs of CO2 ice (dry ice). When the poles are again exposed to sunlight the CO2 ice sublimates, creating enormous winds that sweep off the poles as fast as 250 mph (400 km/h)." I'd rather not be there...
-Don't think too much whether something makes sense or not. -If something bothers you, go ahead and complain/sue/threaten to sue. This is far better than trying to solve a conflict by other means. -Repeat: I am right and everyone else is wrong. -Don't ever deviate from your point of view.;-)
And, as a matter of fact, lots of computer users simply don't care about it, since they're not bothered by the US tax system anyway! Either because they're not living in the US, or because someone else is doing the taxes for them.
Let's assume that the typical family might have two computers at home. Maybe they use two computers at work. Of those four computers, not more than one would likely be used to run tax software.
Meaning that the overly strong emphasis on tax software is totally unneccessary.
A lot of Nokia phones can be unlocked by typing a special unlock code. You can get that code from some web sites for free. AFAIK this is the same code as your cell phone provider could give you. I don't know whether this is illegal--it probably depends heavily on the country, courts and cell phone contracts. Note that this does not remove the "branding" of the phone.
I think the organizations that represent disabled people haven't realized that they should not deal with the FOSS community the way they do with Microsoft. FOSS development has mostly depended on someone needing/wanting/linking a certain functionality and then trying to code it. Whereas Microsoft will likely think about markets, good press and money. I would suggest that the representative organizations set up a mixed team of blind and seeing software developers who could contribute to the FOSS community.
There is a German company (http://www.smartfuelcell.de/ that is already producing fuel-cell powered generators for camping. I guess it won't take too long until they are small enough to fit in a laptop bag.
All software downloads on my computer go into a "downloads" folder and are sorted by type and/or name of software. This practice is from the days before broadband connections for home users became commonplace. Coincidentially this allows me to use older versions of software like ICQ where the ads are about half as large as in the newer one or older versions of winamp (for some plugins). But I mostly tend to keep my software up-to-date.
I like the second article, but the first one really sucks. Sorry, but it does.
-No mention of the performance other than that it was okay for the LAN party.
-The reviewer says that the pictures don't really show the size of the machine. Well, why doesn't he take some pictures of the device instead of using photoshopped stuff that probably came from the manufacturer's press office??
-He talks about the weight and the battery life, but provides no information about it (apart from saying that it's heavier than a monitor).
Okay, maybe the reviewer was stll hung over from the LAN party. But then, why doesn't he wait until the next day to write a sensible review? This review is nothing more than a feel-good piece of writing that does not provide much more info than what could be gleaned from the manufacturer's web site or a store. It's more like an ad-even though he mentions the problems that arose later on.
ebay's success did not really come because it is well designed, but rather because so many people are using it. Whether Google manages to attract a sufficiently large number of buyers and sellers remains to be seen. It might be a good tactical thing that Google allows people to post their ebay offers in Google base.
I guess they absolutely want to be able to run XP on that machine, which is a legitimate requirement because it is a de-facto standard in most environments. Of course, it is incredible that we throw such a lot of computing power at simple tasks like web browsing, writing letters and sending e-mails. For all of these tasks, the computing power of a second generation Palm PDA would be more than sufficient (if you don't care about Java and Flash).
First of all, if the computers will be owned/paid for by students...
-Specify a minimum configuration (i.e. nothing slower than a P4) but do not require that they buy specific models or from specific manufacturers. Some people will likely want to use their own machines. -Get special offers for a few laptop models from one or two manufacturers that have good quality and support (e.g. Lenovo) and can give your students a significant discount. Put your own software image on them and offer extended support for these models. That way those who are not too good with computers will likely buy these and it might be easier to support. -don't think that you can have any kind of control over the machines. As soon as you try to lock them down, someone will see this as a challenge and try to hack it. -This also means that your students will have to install most software themselves. -Offer a good helpdesk and hotline. -Software that's hard to install or expensive to license could run on a central server. -Leave a PC lab or two there in case someone's laptop breaks. -Offer storage on the network. -Install a WLAN in the cafeteria and in spaces that students use to work. -Maybe have a few laptops on hand that people can borrow if theirs break. -If you want to force people to install virus protection, offer it for free. -Take care that your network is secure. If you use WLAN, consider having users connect via VPN. -Students will like you if you do _not_ restrict filesharing on the internal network. Handle this at the firewall.
Why am I running setup more than once anyways?
Because the average Windows home user puts so much junk on the system that it needs to be reinstalled every year !?
Slashdot Mirror
This is annoying for those who cannot switch browsers for one reason or the other. In my opinion, web developers should aim to make their sites usable for as many different browsers as is reasonably possible. Including Internet Explorer, Lynx, mobile phones and old Netscape versions. Usable does not imply that the site needs to look pretty in that browser, but people should be able to access the (text) content.
Your users will have a reason why they use a particular browser, and often it's not because they're too lazy/dumb to install a "better" one.
But if it's their error they normally have to pay for it.
Makes me think that it is still the safest option to have customers do all their banking right at a teller.
Power companies _can_ change their output levels rather quickly-depending on the type of power stations they use.
Nuclear power stations and gas-powered generators can be powered up and down fairly quickly, as can be hydropower stations with (water) reservoirs (the ones where you pump the water up in periods of low demand).
On the other hand, there are a some power stations that cannot be switched on and off quickly enough, but are cheaper to run than the others (e.g. hydropower stations). So the cheaper options are used to cover the basic load, while the others are used in periods of high demand only. As the peak demand rises the power companies face the choice of either building new power plants or trying to move load from peak to off-peak times.
Yes, he's probably talking about the direct results. However, there are numerous other studies who are claiming the Chernobyl death toll is a lot higher than the studies that are the base of the English Wikipedia article (see the German Wikipedia, linked from my other post). Naturally Europeans have a bit of a different view on this subject since they are and were affected by the disaster.
The source for "tens of thousands" and for the claims relating to the abortions is the German wikipedia, which has a more detailed article discussing the studies as well. There seem to be quite a lot of people criticising the IAEO, UN & Co. report (which I believe is the base of some numbers on the English wikipedia) for wrong methodologies and purposely disregarding studies with larger death counts. The source for what I cited should be a recent meta-study based on Russian data. http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katastrophe_von_Tsche rnobyl#Ergebnisse_anderer_Studien
The true number of dead might be somewhere in between the different estimates.
I call bullshit on this one. He clearly has the facts wrong.
The article states that the Chernobyl disaster killed just a few firemen who were fighting the fire. In fact many tens of thousands of people already died or will die of some form of cancer as a consequence of the disaster. For the religious among you: it is estimated that there have been 100000 and 200000 abortions because of Chernobyl.
I read the article because I thought it might offer some sensible views on the topic, but in reality it is just a bad piece of lobbying. I wonder why the editors let this slip into the paper.
A lot of comments around here read
"Apple is a hardware company" and
"Apple is not a software company".
But in reality, Apple is an all-in-one solution company.
If a consumer runs into troubles with a Windows box, it is likely that the problem involves either the internal hardware or the operating system. Now, Apple's customers might just contact Apple. Windows box users will likely need to determine whether it's hardware or software-related, and who made the hardware or software. Combined with the observation that OSX tends to be more stable I would argue that Apple would not be so successful if it was just selling stylish hardware.
I was recently staying at a place where the only Internet access I could get (from my bed ;-) was some wireless network with a firewall that blocked almost everything but ssh. I was quite happy ssh-ing to a server where I could run lynx, pine and mutt.
The atmosphere on Mars is 95% carbon dioxide, 3% nitrogen, 1.6% argon, and contains traces of oxygen and water. It's atmospheric pressure is 750Pa, about 0.75% of Earth's pressure (data from Wikipedia).
But maybe the atmosphere is more harsh on Mars precisely because it is more dense than on the Moon. Unlike on Moon, you can have significant dust storms on Mars.
Wikipedia writes, "In the winter months when the poles are in continual darkness, the surface gets so cold that as much as 25% of the entire atmosphere condenses out into thick slabs of CO2 ice (dry ice). When the poles are again exposed to sunlight the CO2 ice sublimates, creating enormous winds that sweep off the poles as fast as 250 mph (400 km/h)."
I'd rather not be there...
This is the way to go for future lawyers:
;-)
-Don't think too much whether something makes sense or not.
-If something bothers you, go ahead and complain/sue/threaten to sue. This is far better than trying to solve a conflict by other means.
-Repeat: I am right and everyone else is wrong.
-Don't ever deviate from your point of view.
Good point.
And, as a matter of fact, lots of computer users simply don't care about it, since they're not bothered by the US tax system anyway! Either because they're not living in the US, or because someone else is doing the taxes for them.
Let's assume that the typical family might have two computers at home. Maybe they use two computers at work. Of those four computers, not more than one would likely be used to run tax software.
Meaning that the overly strong emphasis on tax software is totally unneccessary.
A lot of Nokia phones can be unlocked by typing a special unlock code. You can get that code from some web sites for free. AFAIK this is the same code as your cell phone provider could give you. I don't know whether this is illegal--it probably depends heavily on the country, courts and cell phone contracts. Note that this does not remove the "branding" of the phone.
I think the organizations that represent disabled people haven't realized that they should not deal with the FOSS community the way they do with Microsoft. FOSS development has mostly depended on someone needing/wanting/linking a certain functionality and then trying to code it. Whereas Microsoft will likely think about markets, good press and money.
I would suggest that the representative organizations set up a mixed team of blind and seeing software developers who could contribute to the FOSS community.
There is a German company (http://www.smartfuelcell.de/ that is already producing fuel-cell powered generators for camping. I guess it won't take too long until they are small enough to fit in a laptop bag.
All software downloads on my computer go into a "downloads" folder and are sorted by type and/or name of software. This practice is from the days before broadband connections for home users became commonplace. Coincidentially this allows me to use older versions of software like ICQ where the ads are about half as large as in the newer one or older versions of winamp (for some plugins). But I mostly tend to keep my software up-to-date.
I like the second article, but the first one really sucks. Sorry, but it does.
-No mention of the performance other than that it was okay for the LAN party.
-The reviewer says that the pictures don't really show the size of the machine. Well, why doesn't he take some pictures of the device instead of using photoshopped stuff that probably came from the manufacturer's press office??
-He talks about the weight and the battery life, but provides no information about it (apart from saying that it's heavier than a monitor).
Okay, maybe the reviewer was stll hung over from the LAN party. But then, why doesn't he wait until the next day to write a sensible review?
This review is nothing more than a feel-good piece of writing that does not provide much more info than what could be gleaned from the manufacturer's web site or a store. It's more like an ad-even though he mentions the problems that arose later on.
For a nice city-wide implementation of a mesh network, look here:
http://www.funkfeuer.at/index.php?id=42&L=1.
It's done mostly with cheap Linksys access points with OpenWRT and works really well. On this page http://www.funkfeuer.at/index.php?id=66&L=1 you can see that it meshes really nicely.
This works in some places. In other places people steal the bikes, throw 'em in the river, lock 'em up at home or bring them to another country.
Well, you watched a mirrored video, didn't you?
Getting high speed internet was the most challenging experience in my life. That guy needs a life!
ebay's success did not really come because it is well designed, but rather because so many people are using it. Whether Google manages to attract a sufficiently large number of buyers and sellers remains to be seen. It might be a good tactical thing that Google allows people to post their ebay offers in Google base.
I agree with you.
I guess they absolutely want to be able to run XP on that machine, which is a legitimate requirement because it is a de-facto standard in most environments. Of course, it is incredible that we throw such a lot of computing power at simple tasks like web browsing, writing letters and sending e-mails. For all of these tasks, the computing power of a second generation Palm PDA would be more than sufficient (if you don't care about Java and Flash).
I'm a student myself.
...
First of all, if the computers will be owned/paid for by students
-Specify a minimum configuration (i.e. nothing slower than a P4) but do not require that they buy specific models or from specific manufacturers. Some people will likely want to use their own machines.
-Get special offers for a few laptop models from one or two manufacturers that have good quality and support (e.g. Lenovo) and can give your students a significant discount. Put your own software image on them and offer extended support for these models. That way those who are not too good with computers will likely buy these and it might be easier to support.
-don't think that you can have any kind of control over the machines. As soon as you try to lock them down, someone will see this as a challenge and try to hack it.
-This also means that your students will have to install most software themselves.
-Offer a good helpdesk and hotline.
-Software that's hard to install or expensive to license could run on a central server.
-Leave a PC lab or two there in case someone's laptop breaks.
-Offer storage on the network.
-Install a WLAN in the cafeteria and in spaces that students use to work.
-Maybe have a few laptops on hand that people can borrow if theirs break.
-If you want to force people to install virus protection, offer it for free.
-Take care that your network is secure. If you use WLAN, consider having users connect via VPN.
-Students will like you if you do _not_ restrict filesharing on the internal network. Handle this at the firewall.
Why am I running setup more than once anyways?
Because the average Windows home user puts so much junk on the system that it needs to be reinstalled every year !?