Mainly as it doesn't involve messing about with drivers.
Put teensy dongle into your PC and as far as it's aware there's a physically wired mouse and keyboard plugged in.
Doesn't matter what OS, whether it's POSTing, whether your BT module has decided to wake up etc etc. You have a working mouse and keyboard.
Maybe Bluetooth has improved since I last tried - put I really can't see the advantage (and seemingly neither can the marketplace).
Most games are developed cross-platform with consoles - there are very few PC only games where graphics are the selling point.
What this means is that whilst you might get higher resolutions, or maybe some fancier filtering, what you get on your PC can never be too different to what a 360/PS3 is capable of pumping out.
It was only really the gaming that kept me on the eternal treadmill of GPU purchases - so my PC has had no new bits in it for a few years, and I'm more than happy with it for that.
Finally I don't think graphics are the selling point the used to be. What we have now is 'good enough' - in precisely the same way I used to slavishly update my soundcard for stereo, ' CD controller, MT32 compatibility etc I used to upgrade my GPU. Now as with the soundcard, the upgrades no longer seem to be worth the money. Not to say I wouldn't mind an improvement, but just that my actual increase in enjoyment would in no way outbalance the expense of the purchase.
You can buy a $200 console with the power of a mobile phone and the opportunity to buy games shonky games at $10 each.
Or for a 50% greater initial investment you can have a console that is more powerful and has armfuls of triple-A titles available on it for the price of a blank DVD.
Does anybody actually believe this is going to work in any way at all?
Surely the 'correct' way to address the problem would be to just bring out a PSTwo console for $99 and release region specific titles out of the back catalogue at $10 a shot.
If you REALLY wanted to put some effort in, you could for example just add in an HD and flog the games over broadband with a bit of DRM chucked on top as $5 downloads.
I'm quite convinced this new console will not suffer from any form of piracy as quite frankly nobody in their right mind would bother trying.
Very few people actually need to crunch numbers - which is pretty much all high GHz chips are any good for.
Looking back to old PCs I built, I'd choose the CPU first - then just bits around it to make the CPU work (the endless procession of beige plastic boxes I randomly bought to house these machines still litter attics of my family as they were cast off).
Gaming is the only thing that needs power, and when building a gaming system the CPU requirement is "high enough for it not to be the bottleneck holding back the GPU".
Final point would be if you look at how PCs are sold now. It used to be the manufacturer would have 1, maybe 2 ranges and prices would scale with the CPU (and whatever you bought, it came in the same beige box). Almost like cars now, each manufacturer has a brand, then they have models in the brand. The models come in a few standard versions, but they'll attempt to upsell you on the minutiae of bells and whistles available to bolt on. You probably don't need most of those things you checked boxes for, you wouldn't really notice the difference if they weren't there, but like metallic point, you'll just add it on as it's only a bit more.
I think this all officially started when manufacturers started offering laptops in different colours. It wasn't about specs any more.
There are obviously still those obsessed with having the fastest machine out there, but that's more for the brand image. We've all got PCs - but how many of us are typing this on the mythical l337 ninja-rig? Nah - we're all typing on good enough systems, and tomorrow we'll go to work in our good-enough cars (and possible ponder a Ferrari purchase, before reality kicks in).
and the chances of that happening are precisely f'all currently.
Look at laptops, phones etc - things we have nowadays
Wouldn't it have been nifty if all laptops used the same sized battery packs - or more realistically a limited selection?
I'll give exceptionally good odds that the battery packs will be unique per manufacturer. Then they'll be people selling patterned sets. Then the car manufacturers will start ripping up warranties, putting all manner of 'original only' chippery etc etc in then. We'll then have people complaining about the rip-off prices, then the counter-stories about dodgy sets bursting into flames - blah blah blah.
"The fact that a human embryo is, well, human, is not disputed by any in the scientific community"
I'll dispute it. Well actually I might dispute it, depending upon what your definition of human is.
When that sperm an egg meld together and feverishly start multiplying, then that 'could be' implanted in a womb and 'could become' a person. It's still just a lump of cells and personally I couldn't give a monkey's what's done with it.
When we move into abortion I get a little more uncomfortable. Officially I'm a pro-choice libertarian blah blah, but I don't like it as at some point it is a person - and I've just never quite managed to work out where that point is. I am sure however that a ball of cells doesn't count as a person.
Often wonder in this age of cloning, why all cells aren't considered by some as sacred? "If the DNA of that cell had been harvested, swapped out with that in a fertilized egg and implanted - that could have become a person etc." Is it the DNA that's sacred, or the fertilized egg? How about the fertilized egg without the genetic material? The sperm and the unfertilized egg?
But I digress. Probably also worth keeping in mind that religion doesn't seem to be too good at backing advances in Science. Sometimes wonder where we'd be if we'd all listened to those papal decisions and put down our telescopes and microscopes when asked.
Thought it was just me.
Usenet, Email, web, google, ebay, amazon, RSS, facebook, Spotify - I eventually found a place on my favourites list for these 'great new things' over the years.
Many of the early contenders (e.g. altavista) sortof faded away, but usually as something better still came along.
Twitter is rubbish. I mean I really really fail to see the point of it - and thought maybe I was just wasn't down with the kids any more.
Which is quite clearly how long the 'friend' carries on filming, before turning off the camera to go and help.
Bonus points are awarded for zooming in on the injury and horrific camera shake due to uncontrolable giggling.
Alright - I know anybody familiar with UK politics is sniggering at that.
There was no shredder, there were no WMDs, Saddam was still a bad man - people just seize upon whatever anecdotal evidence they hear that happens to fit with their pre-existing views.
Whilt you might feel The Guardian has a bias, they do raise some rather good points - basically there is no evidence at all, and what there is seems quite fantastically suspect.
I think you'll find that 'necklacing' was basically the result of 'kangaroo courts'/'mob justice' and mainly occured during the late 80s. These would be the same 80s where Nelson Mandela was in a prison cell, so I'm suspecting he has a pretty sound alibi.
His wife at the time Winnie, however is an evil ****. I seem to remember she had her 'football team' of goons, who were alleged to have been involved with all manner of enforcement/infighting within the ANC at the time. I believe she also condoned the use of necklacing for collaborators.
would be to just rent a virtual machine (and let a 3rd party company deal with all the backup/hardware gubbins).
Weak point here though would be the connection to the server - so as well as primary ADSL/Cable access from his office, you'd then need maybe 3G dongle backup on his router, then a spare client machine and then..:)
Firstly - Running IT for your family is a pain. We all know you'll get nothing out of it apart from grief:) If you are feeling altruistic, then read on.
Secondly. Moving parts break. Heat breaks things. Fans sucking dog hairs into the system will break things. Assuming he's going to be using the same MS DOS app for the next decade or so, he does not need a powerful machine (which is handy). You just want some ultra-low power system (Atom? - how about one of those Asus desktop EEPC thingies - fit a cheap SSD if it doesn't come with one) - ideally just get something with a CPU and a PSU that doesn't need a fan, just a heatsink.
Thirdly it will fail. It's a PC for your Dad, it's critical to his business - therefore whatever you do will screw up. Install a backup solution. I'm assuming it's not creating vast amounts of data, so just something that'll spool the new data up the ADSL/cable/modem to a NAS/PC you can get your hands on somewhere out there.
Finally - you might want to consider VMWare. Performance hit isn't a problem in his case, and wouldn't it be nice if you could restore a complete failure/screwup in minutes (Oh and allow him to run a decent OS alongside the DOS app - as a bonus). Hardware's going to be cheap, so might as well buy a spare system. Anything does wrong - you just zap the image onto the new system and he's up and running whilst you try to work out whether the old PSU shorted, or the memory just came loose. If you feel very techy, could just setup the systems to mirror and implement a hot-standby (although possibly we're moving into the realms of overkill here).
Not enough stuff is IP aware and there'll always be something under your TV that isn't - well for quite a few more years.
What I wish somebody would do is bring out a hybrid solution.
E.g. I have a Harmony remote, which I just plug into the web and it picks up all the codes, works out what needs to be sent to what for each task (i.e. when I want to play on my 360, turn off my cable box, flick the TV to a certain input, flick the component switch over etc).
I press the button on the remote, it sends RF sigmal to a box in a cupboard, that then emits the right IR triggers to the actual kit.
Configuration of all this is a doddle as Harmony/Logitech have and maintain databases for pretty much everything already. Whilst I can't make all my stuff IP aware, I can't see a reason why the single RF receiver in the cupboard can't be easily enough. It's not so much that I want to ONLY control using the remote (I like the clicky buttons), just it would be nice if I could use other things as well. If the inputs to my TV/AMP could be looped through a slingbox as well, you'd be able to remote control and watch you're entire system from home - or even just allow you to setup recordings on your PVR from your phone when out and about.
that without that contract it's a little one sided.
How about if you post a review of your doctor online you waive your doctor-patient confidentiality rights?
You get to call him useless, he gets a chance to announce you're a paranoid sociopath.
My post was not a troll, just a brief summary of 90% of the posts beneath the story (at the time), I was interested enough to click upon.
I was expecting a few trolls, but not that many.
As some of the other posters have pointed out, the large number leaving is probably due to the increase difficulty in recent graduates getting US jobs, combined with better opportunities available in their home/other country.
Having known many forgeign students, this 'go home' attitude really grates. These are not stupid people. These are people who've scrimped, saved, had parents and family take out massive loans to pay for their education. They emerge as extremely high tax net-contributors and then suddenly find themselves.... oh I give up.
Mark this up as a troll as well for all I care.
have made them want to leave.. ..I mean just look at the friendly and completely non-xenophobic 'anonymous' posts that seem to have coagulated beneath this story.
I've thought about this a few times.
"why is it okay to profit from things you personally find reprehensible?"
I guess we all participate in things we find personally reprehensible. I don't agree with everything the tax I pay is spent on. Should I stop paying tax? Should I emigrate to a country where I agree with 100% of how my taxes are spent? Maybe aim for 90%? (but then would that be number of things, or take into account my strength of opinion on different matters).
To be honest, I just don't know - which makes this entire post somewhat pointless...
Maybe instead of marking down companies you won't invest in, you should seize the chance to pick and choose that investments give to target 'good'. e.g. Oil is running out, we'll need energy, so investing in non-oil energy seems theoretically like a good thing (from a financial point of view, irrespective of other considerations). Personally I'm all for nuclear, in the short term at least, as the benefits massively outweigh the negatives in my mind - but then some will insist that it's solar/wind/wave or nothing.
Another point is that unless these companies you hate cease to exist magically, how does one go about stopping them being 'bad'. From their point of view they are there to serve the shareholders, you're not a shareholder, they don't care what you think. Buy enough shares and you can make them bend to your will. Buy all the shares and you can wind up the company on the spot. You don't like Exxon - buy it and stop it. Except that wouldn't work - another company with more willing shareholders would step in to fill the gap and you'd just end up a load poorer, passing the benefit onto the 'new evil' and their 'new evil shareholders'
Basically unless everybody agrees on what's wrong and stops it, you can't stop it. So a right/wrong that the majority agree on is basically a law - so with a little leap of logic, if it's not illegal, you're very unlikely to stop it. i.e. you're wasting your time picking on individual companies as that's pointless, the focus should be on restraining them all through laws.
Now laws are per country - so currently they'd just jump ship to a more 'relaxed' regime.. so we need to remove that as well - basically we need to merge all countries into a single.. oh.. well that's not going to happen in my life-time.
"It's nice to have it confirmed that multinational service providers shelve morals in the pursuit of cash."
Exactly which world are you living in, their entire remit is to make as much cash for their shareholders as possible - and board get a kicking (or even prosecuted) if they don't.
Exactly how many companies do you think had their share price rise on the news they sacrified some profits to do the moral thing?
If windows really did half the speed of your connection, I think it might have been picked up and commented on.
I think the post should have read "My windows box is broken and my linux one isn't"
If anybody here is worried, I've got a 20M cable connection. It runs at precisely 20M and does so on all my PCs (Linux and Windows) - can I have a story posted about me?
There's loads of things you can fiddle with and it may make a difference on fast connections (Jumbo frames, MTU, Not using an onboard NIC - but none of this would have a 50% hit on the download rate at 20M).
personality type. Well not quite true, precisely the same test filled in honestly might - but you'd have to be a dribbling idiot to fill one in honestly for a job interview.
Not just a single way of filling it in, answers would depend on the job type you are applying for - I would be more subservient and blindly optimistic in a retail job, whereas for a higher skilled job you add in a bit more personality.
I think these tests do work - just not in the way they're officially meant to.
If they just changed the title of the test to "What sort of person do you think we're looking for?" then it becomes a nice intellectual exercise. The customer who's going to walk into the sneaker shop is going to be greated with a smile despite the hangover, on the form the manager will be declared to be your new god, despite the fact the guy manages a sneaker shop. Just an extension of the interview process we've had for years - just instead of lying to the interviewer (about how is is the job you've always wanted - not that you've got a mortgage payment due, they were employing locally and hey you only intend to do it for a few months). On the other side of the table you know pretty much everything out of their mouths is 'interview-bollocks' - but it's just a game you play, points are awarded to each side and if they score enough they win and get the job. Actually most interviews are just a matter of avoiding saying anything stupid. They have your CV and know what you can do already, interview is just to check you can lie convincingly to function in a large group.
At work my employers pay me to come up with ideas for them and whilst I was a student the government/university were doing just the same. If you've been supported by somebody during your development, then you owe them (what exactly is a more vague area).
Personally I'm all for these incubator/spinoffs, as they have many advantages:
Top academics don't have to choose between research or decent financial income - they can have both. It's not perfect, but I was always suspicious of the great minds who'd never actually managed to ever join the real world. They just remained students for ever.
Great work placement opportunities. For a chunk of a degree and majority of a Masters/Doctorate, you need to get yourself in a lab. Most of what's been done within a university is.. well uninspiring. Some professor had an idea 10 years ago and he's hellbent on fiddling with it. Nobody else cares, he gets his funding... but well you're unlikely to mind much use for the topic after you've finished. Work for a spinnoff/incubator and it's an exciting field. Real money from real people has decreed you're in that lab. When you've finished you know you've learnt something that other people care about and there's likely to be a job in it (if you're not useless you'll probably have been offered one at the startup).
I think you're missing an opportunity to balance that nasty oil-fuelled trade deficit..*reaches for calculator*
Yup, about 5 barrels of HP branded inkjet ink should do it.
Slashdot Mirror
Mainly as it doesn't involve messing about with drivers.
Put teensy dongle into your PC and as far as it's aware there's a physically wired mouse and keyboard plugged in.
Doesn't matter what OS, whether it's POSTing, whether your BT module has decided to wake up etc etc. You have a working mouse and keyboard. Maybe Bluetooth has improved since I last tried - put I really can't see the advantage (and seemingly neither can the marketplace).
Most games are developed cross-platform with consoles - there are very few PC only games where graphics are the selling point.
What this means is that whilst you might get higher resolutions, or maybe some fancier filtering, what you get on your PC can never be too different to what a 360/PS3 is capable of pumping out.
It was only really the gaming that kept me on the eternal treadmill of GPU purchases - so my PC has had no new bits in it for a few years, and I'm more than happy with it for that.
Finally I don't think graphics are the selling point the used to be. What we have now is 'good enough' - in precisely the same way I used to slavishly update my soundcard for stereo, ' CD controller, MT32 compatibility etc I used to upgrade my GPU. Now as with the soundcard, the upgrades no longer seem to be worth the money. Not to say I wouldn't mind an improvement, but just that my actual increase in enjoyment would in no way outbalance the expense of the purchase.
You can buy a $200 console with the power of a mobile phone and the opportunity to buy games shonky games at $10 each.
Or for a 50% greater initial investment you can have a console that is more powerful and has armfuls of triple-A titles available on it for the price of a blank DVD.
Does anybody actually believe this is going to work in any way at all?
Surely the 'correct' way to address the problem would be to just bring out a PSTwo console for $99 and release region specific titles out of the back catalogue at $10 a shot.
If you REALLY wanted to put some effort in, you could for example just add in an HD and flog the games over broadband with a bit of DRM chucked on top as $5 downloads.
I'm quite convinced this new console will not suffer from any form of piracy as quite frankly nobody in their right mind would bother trying.
Very few people actually need to crunch numbers - which is pretty much all high GHz chips are any good for.
Looking back to old PCs I built, I'd choose the CPU first - then just bits around it to make the CPU work (the endless procession of beige plastic boxes I randomly bought to house these machines still litter attics of my family as they were cast off).
Gaming is the only thing that needs power, and when building a gaming system the CPU requirement is "high enough for it not to be the bottleneck holding back the GPU".
Final point would be if you look at how PCs are sold now. It used to be the manufacturer would have 1, maybe 2 ranges and prices would scale with the CPU (and whatever you bought, it came in the same beige box). Almost like cars now, each manufacturer has a brand, then they have models in the brand. The models come in a few standard versions, but they'll attempt to upsell you on the minutiae of bells and whistles available to bolt on. You probably don't need most of those things you checked boxes for, you wouldn't really notice the difference if they weren't there, but like metallic point, you'll just add it on as it's only a bit more.
I think this all officially started when manufacturers started offering laptops in different colours. It wasn't about specs any more.
There are obviously still those obsessed with having the fastest machine out there, but that's more for the brand image. We've all got PCs - but how many of us are typing this on the mythical l337 ninja-rig? Nah - we're all typing on good enough systems, and tomorrow we'll go to work in our good-enough cars (and possible ponder a Ferrari purchase, before reality kicks in).
and the chances of that happening are precisely f'all currently.
Look at laptops, phones etc - things we have nowadays
Wouldn't it have been nifty if all laptops used the same sized battery packs - or more realistically a limited selection?
I'll give exceptionally good odds that the battery packs will be unique per manufacturer. Then they'll be people selling patterned sets. Then the car manufacturers will start ripping up warranties, putting all manner of 'original only' chippery etc etc in then. We'll then have people complaining about the rip-off prices, then the counter-stories about dodgy sets bursting into flames - blah blah blah.
"The fact that a human embryo is, well, human, is not disputed by any in the scientific community"
I'll dispute it. Well actually I might dispute it, depending upon what your definition of human is.
When that sperm an egg meld together and feverishly start multiplying, then that 'could be' implanted in a womb and 'could become' a person. It's still just a lump of cells and personally I couldn't give a monkey's what's done with it.
When we move into abortion I get a little more uncomfortable. Officially I'm a pro-choice libertarian blah blah, but I don't like it as at some point it is a person - and I've just never quite managed to work out where that point is. I am sure however that a ball of cells doesn't count as a person.
Often wonder in this age of cloning, why all cells aren't considered by some as sacred? "If the DNA of that cell had been harvested, swapped out with that in a fertilized egg and implanted - that could have become a person etc." Is it the DNA that's sacred, or the fertilized egg? How about the fertilized egg without the genetic material? The sperm and the unfertilized egg?
But I digress. Probably also worth keeping in mind that religion doesn't seem to be too good at backing advances in Science. Sometimes wonder where we'd be if we'd all listened to those papal decisions and put down our telescopes and microscopes when asked.
Thought it was just me.
Usenet, Email, web, google, ebay, amazon, RSS, facebook, Spotify - I eventually found a place on my favourites list for these 'great new things' over the years.
Many of the early contenders (e.g. altavista) sortof faded away, but usually as something better still came along.
Twitter is rubbish. I mean I really really fail to see the point of it - and thought maybe I was just wasn't down with the kids any more.
Which is quite clearly how long the 'friend' carries on filming, before turning off the camera to go and help.
Bonus points are awarded for zooming in on the injury and horrific camera shake due to uncontrolable giggling.
and a few years away from being replaced by machines.
Alright - I know anybody familiar with UK politics is sniggering at that.
There was no shredder, there were no WMDs, Saddam was still a bad man - people just seize upon whatever anecdotal evidence they hear that happens to fit with their pre-existing views.
Whilt you might feel The Guardian has a bias, they do raise some rather good points - basically there is no evidence at all, and what there is seems quite fantastically suspect.
I think you'll find that 'necklacing' was basically the result of 'kangaroo courts'/'mob justice' and mainly occured during the late 80s. These would be the same 80s where Nelson Mandela was in a prison cell, so I'm suspecting he has a pretty sound alibi.
His wife at the time Winnie, however is an evil ****. I seem to remember she had her 'football team' of goons, who were alleged to have been involved with all manner of enforcement/infighting within the ANC at the time. I believe she also condoned the use of necklacing for collaborators.
would be to just rent a virtual machine (and let a 3rd party company deal with all the backup/hardware gubbins). :)
Weak point here though would be the connection to the server - so as well as primary ADSL/Cable access from his office, you'd then need maybe 3G dongle backup on his router, then a spare client machine and then..
Firstly - Running IT for your family is a pain. We all know you'll get nothing out of it apart from grief :) If you are feeling altruistic, then read on.
Secondly. Moving parts break. Heat breaks things. Fans sucking dog hairs into the system will break things. Assuming he's going to be using the same MS DOS app for the next decade or so, he does not need a powerful machine (which is handy). You just want some ultra-low power system (Atom? - how about one of those Asus desktop EEPC thingies - fit a cheap SSD if it doesn't come with one) - ideally just get something with a CPU and a PSU that doesn't need a fan, just a heatsink.
Thirdly it will fail. It's a PC for your Dad, it's critical to his business - therefore whatever you do will screw up. Install a backup solution. I'm assuming it's not creating vast amounts of data, so just something that'll spool the new data up the ADSL/cable/modem to a NAS/PC you can get your hands on somewhere out there.
Finally - you might want to consider VMWare. Performance hit isn't a problem in his case, and wouldn't it be nice if you could restore a complete failure/screwup in minutes (Oh and allow him to run a decent OS alongside the DOS app - as a bonus). Hardware's going to be cheap, so might as well buy a spare system. Anything does wrong - you just zap the image onto the new system and he's up and running whilst you try to work out whether the old PSU shorted, or the memory just came loose. If you feel very techy, could just setup the systems to mirror and implement a hot-standby (although possibly we're moving into the realms of overkill here).
Well I mean you might get off tripping on the reduction to a swelling, or maybe you want to OD and give yourself indigestion..
Not enough stuff is IP aware and there'll always be something under your TV that isn't - well for quite a few more years.
What I wish somebody would do is bring out a hybrid solution.
E.g. I have a Harmony remote, which I just plug into the web and it picks up all the codes, works out what needs to be sent to what for each task (i.e. when I want to play on my 360, turn off my cable box, flick the TV to a certain input, flick the component switch over etc).
I press the button on the remote, it sends RF sigmal to a box in a cupboard, that then emits the right IR triggers to the actual kit.
Configuration of all this is a doddle as Harmony/Logitech have and maintain databases for pretty much everything already.
Whilst I can't make all my stuff IP aware, I can't see a reason why the single RF receiver in the cupboard can't be easily enough. It's not so much that I want to ONLY control using the remote (I like the clicky buttons), just it would be nice if I could use other things as well. If the inputs to my TV/AMP could be looped through a slingbox as well, you'd be able to remote control and watch you're entire system from home - or even just allow you to setup recordings on your PVR from your phone when out and about.
that without that contract it's a little one sided.
How about if you post a review of your doctor online you waive your doctor-patient confidentiality rights?
You get to call him useless, he gets a chance to announce you're a paranoid sociopath.
My post was not a troll, just a brief summary of 90% of the posts beneath the story (at the time), I was interested enough to click upon.
I was expecting a few trolls, but not that many.
As some of the other posters have pointed out, the large number leaving is probably due to the increase difficulty in recent graduates getting US jobs, combined with better opportunities available in their home/other country.
Having known many forgeign students, this 'go home' attitude really grates. These are not stupid people. These are people who've scrimped, saved, had parents and family take out massive loans to pay for their education. They emerge as extremely high tax net-contributors and then suddenly find themselves.... oh I give up.
Mark this up as a troll as well for all I care.
have made them want to leave..
..I mean just look at the friendly and completely non-xenophobic 'anonymous' posts that seem to have coagulated beneath this story.
I've thought about this a few times.
"why is it okay to profit from things you personally find reprehensible?"
I guess we all participate in things we find personally reprehensible. I don't agree with everything the tax I pay is spent on. Should I stop paying tax? Should I emigrate to a country where I agree with 100% of how my taxes are spent? Maybe aim for 90%? (but then would that be number of things, or take into account my strength of opinion on different matters).
To be honest, I just don't know - which makes this entire post somewhat pointless...
Maybe instead of marking down companies you won't invest in, you should seize the chance to pick and choose that investments give to target 'good'. e.g. Oil is running out, we'll need energy, so investing in non-oil energy seems theoretically like a good thing (from a financial point of view, irrespective of other considerations). Personally I'm all for nuclear, in the short term at least, as the benefits massively outweigh the negatives in my mind - but then some will insist that it's solar/wind/wave or nothing.
Another point is that unless these companies you hate cease to exist magically, how does one go about stopping them being 'bad'. From their point of view they are there to serve the shareholders, you're not a shareholder, they don't care what you think. Buy enough shares and you can make them bend to your will. Buy all the shares and you can wind up the company on the spot. You don't like Exxon - buy it and stop it. Except that wouldn't work - another company with more willing shareholders would step in to fill the gap and you'd just end up a load poorer, passing the benefit onto the 'new evil' and their 'new evil shareholders'
Basically unless everybody agrees on what's wrong and stops it, you can't stop it. So a right/wrong that the majority agree on is basically a law - so with a little leap of logic, if it's not illegal, you're very unlikely to stop it. i.e. you're wasting your time picking on individual companies as that's pointless, the focus should be on restraining them all through laws.
Now laws are per country - so currently they'd just jump ship to a more 'relaxed' regime.. so we need to remove that as well - basically we need to merge all countries into a single.. oh.. well that's not going to happen in my life-time.
"It's nice to have it confirmed that multinational service providers shelve morals in the pursuit of cash."
Exactly which world are you living in, their entire remit is to make as much cash for their shareholders as possible - and board get a kicking (or even prosecuted) if they don't.
Exactly how many companies do you think had their share price rise on the news they sacrified some profits to do the moral thing?
If windows really did half the speed of your connection, I think it might have been picked up and commented on.
I think the post should have read "My windows box is broken and my linux one isn't"
If anybody here is worried, I've got a 20M cable connection. It runs at precisely 20M and does so on all my PCs (Linux and Windows) - can I have a story posted about me?
There's loads of things you can fiddle with and it may make a difference on fast connections (Jumbo frames, MTU, Not using an onboard NIC - but none of this would have a 50% hit on the download rate at 20M).
personality type. Well not quite true, precisely the same test filled in honestly might - but you'd have to be a dribbling idiot to fill one in honestly for a job interview.
Not just a single way of filling it in, answers would depend on the job type you are applying for - I would be more subservient and blindly optimistic in a retail job, whereas for a higher skilled job you add in a bit more personality.
I think these tests do work - just not in the way they're officially meant to.
If they just changed the title of the test to "What sort of person do you think we're looking for?" then it becomes a nice intellectual exercise. The customer who's going to walk into the sneaker shop is going to be greated with a smile despite the hangover, on the form the manager will be declared to be your new god, despite the fact the guy manages a sneaker shop. Just an extension of the interview process we've had for years - just instead of lying to the interviewer (about how is is the job you've always wanted - not that you've got a mortgage payment due, they were employing locally and hey you only intend to do it for a few months). On the other side of the table you know pretty much everything out of their mouths is 'interview-bollocks' - but it's just a game you play, points are awarded to each side and if they score enough they win and get the job. Actually most interviews are just a matter of avoiding saying anything stupid. They have your CV and know what you can do already, interview is just to check you can lie convincingly to function in a large group.
At work my employers pay me to come up with ideas for them and whilst I was a student the government/university were doing just the same. If you've been supported by somebody during your development, then you owe them (what exactly is a more vague area).
Personally I'm all for these incubator/spinoffs, as they have many advantages:
Top academics don't have to choose between research or decent financial income - they can have both. It's not perfect, but I was always suspicious of the great minds who'd never actually managed to ever join the real world. They just remained students for ever.
Great work placement opportunities. For a chunk of a degree and majority of a Masters/Doctorate, you need to get yourself in a lab. Most of what's been done within a university is.. well uninspiring. Some professor had an idea 10 years ago and he's hellbent on fiddling with it. Nobody else cares, he gets his funding... but well you're unlikely to mind much use for the topic after you've finished. Work for a spinnoff/incubator and it's an exciting field. Real money from real people has decreed you're in that lab. When you've finished you know you've learnt something that other people care about and there's likely to be a job in it (if you're not useless you'll probably have been offered one at the startup).
I think you're missing an opportunity to balance that nasty oil-fuelled trade deficit..*reaches for calculator*
Yup, about 5 barrels of HP branded inkjet ink should do it.
Point I was attempting to make is that the heritage of nice mobos from Abit lives on with DFI. Abit the brand dying now makes no real difference.