If the rest of the world goes with Linux, the Chinese will make motherboards for Linux, the Japanese will make digital cameras, printers and fun gadgets for Linux, and Bill Gates will still make money for his shareholders. Linux users will still be able to buy stuff just like we do now from Asian vendors. However, if Gates locks us out, we may have to take up reading manuals in some form of pigeon english.
I have not bought an X-box, Microsoft keyboard, nor a microsoft mouse, yet I'm typing this message to you all. But I have to confess, I am using a Microsoft OS... Hopefully I will get over my addiction one of these days.
I can understand the dyes bleaching out of the LCDs but on the other hand the DLP technology uses little mirrors that reflect light much the same way a Boy Scout uses a hand mirror to send a signal. The mirrors are small and light but the mechanism is mechanical. The amount of time the mirrors are reflecting are controlled electronically. After so many hours, I would expect the mirrors to wear out. Yet I saw no dead mirror reflected in any of the pictures after the 5,000 hours of 30 or more frames a second of being twisted in and out of reflectivity. Does anybody know how long the mirrors are supposed to last?
If the DLP mirrors are lasting so long, why not DLP TV's?
They thought of doing this from outer space for a whole city until someone pointed what happens to the inhabitants. They get cooked. If you move it off-city, those pesky micrometeorite could realign it over the city. That was the end of that idea.
For a terrestial based system, all you would need is a violent wind storm or the appropriate hacker/juvenile delinquent to realign your transmitter. There must be a few hundred ambulance chasers drooling for the chance to file a neglience suit.
If I want to get cook, I prefer the old fashion way --- at the beach.
If you look at Microsoft's treatment of Opera, Microsoft could create a DMCA'ed coding format that basically says that this file can only be opened by a Microsoft product. It would be difficult to provide a work around. Since they own the lion share of the market, other attempts to read their format could wither.
You should also try http://www.evworld.com . EV World (Electric Vehicle World) publishes weekly articles from different authors concerning "the Hydrogen Economy". The general content is much more substantial and these authors don't sound like a spin doctors for the Bush Administration.
HP got out of the CD RW business months ago for this very reason. They decided to concentrate on DVD where there are better margins. I wonder if Yamaha had better margins and stayed the course for a few months more.
Real inquiring minds want to know, other minds want to no.
If you have to load the CD driver after the OS is installed, how would you go about making a bootable rescue CD for when the OS gets corrupted? Is there a URL that tells some one how?
I look for enlightenment, not criticism. The first builds me up, the later tears me down.
You should also read the other article especially about the use of batteries instead of fuel cells.
http://www.evworld.com/databases/storybuilder.cfm? storyid=465
Linux would be an ideal OS for managing batteries (and even fule cells).
In 1995, the Federal debt was $4.974 Trillion vs $0.590 collected in personal income taxes, a ratio of 8.4 to 1. In 2000, the debt was $5.674 Trillion vs $1.004 collected in personal income tax, a ratio of 5.6 to 1. So in other words, for every dollar I pay in income tax there is about $5.6 dollars of Federal debt in my name. This year the ratio is going up due to deficit spending. Sort of puts things in a more personal perspective.
Personally, even if a guy pick up my garbage and works a full week, he should be able to save enough money to fill a cavity and get a yearly physical.
There is no reason for someone to have a $1.5 billion dollar income and not pick up some of the some of the medical tab for the poor guy who picks up his garbage.
How should we view fair taxation on the internet? Gateway and other companies have a "presence" in some or all the states. Whenever, someone buys something from one of these companies, that company is suppose to collect sales tax for that state if it has a "presence" in that state. Seems fair to me. How about you?
In South Dakota, a weather modification project was blamed by locals for causing a flood that claimed 275 lives. The meteorological upshot of the whole thing was that an east wind rose up over a stationary front and dumped 16 inches of rain on the center of the Black Hills. Needless to say the resultant flash flood killed a lot of people living along Rapid Creek. The project leaders say that the project was not to blame (and rightly so) but you couldn't convince some of the locals of that.
Seeding of clouds is a very localized phenomena. IF you get the seed into a cloud at the right place at the right time, you can decrease hail size OR you can increase rain fall by 10 to maybe 15%. There is a lot of luck, timing, and skill involved.
The main hypothesis of the article has been around for decades. The upshot is that the delivery of enough seed at the right time has to be massive and continuous in order to affect large scale systems. Even the USA does not have those types of resources. If we did, and in the end, it might not make a difference.
Also remember you can get more blood out of a turnip that rain out of a clear sky!!
In 2012, I predict that I will be in my Flying Car listening to my satellite radio when my speech recognition computer picks up the tune "Fly me to the Moon" and will get ticketed by NASA, the FAA, and a dozen State Troopers.
PS My Flying Car will be a fuel celled vehicle and the gas station will serve nothing but hydrogen.
I greatily reduced the number of snail mail spams by submitting my name and address to the Direct [Tele-] Marketing Association lists. Information can be found here:
When you think of so many gigabits per square inch on a platter and that the magnetic head is controlled by a mechanic actuator arm, slight wear could cause the head to shift. Are we starting to see recognition of this through the warranties?
As one of the people who is responsible for Gov't laptops, the policy you sight helps me. I'm the one who fills out the reports/e-mails, etc. when a piece of equipment walks off. The 3rd piece of paperwork just says that you walked into the building with YOUR laptop and if stopped on the way out you have a piece of paper that says that machine is YOURS. Otherwise, IF stopped, you're going to have a nice long conversation with security until you can PROVE that it is your laptop. Get my drift? Same thing if you can't prove that I gave you permission to drive my car when you are pulled over by the cops. Can you say suspicion of "Grand Theft Auto"? How would they know? Really.
By the way how did you get to reserve and use a government facility for a "non-governmental" user's group meeting? I was turned down when trying to get a Linux meeting schedule there.
Inquiring minds want to know....
I'm a support person who buys printers such as 6L's, 5Ms, 4100's, and 4500's. I haven't tested the older printer speed but our newer two printers, an HP 4100 and an HP 4550, are about right on the money when it comes to rated speed in both B&W and in Color.
We are on a Novell system with feeds from Windoze and Linux machines. We haven't had any problems.
Our first HP4500 was a nightmare of paper jams. Other sections had HP4500s also but with not anywhere near as many jams. Our jams were about 225 printed pages per jam while the others were around 3,000 and 4,500 printed pages before a jam. The only thing I could put my finger on was that we had a slightly earlier ROM version than the others. That's the bad.
The ugly was the stall tactics from HP. "You used the wrong paper.", etc, etc. Their manuals say we should not use paper with more than 5% GROUND fiber while the recycled paper packages say that they contain 30% post consumer recycled fiber. Needless to say that HP and the paper companies did not return my e-mails. They must have smelled lawyers!!! It wasn't until I said that we used the same materials as the other sections AND presented them with my statistics. Still they wanted to throw parts and service calls at the problem. It wasn't until the last service tech "fixed" the machine for good;-). HP relented and ordered a replacement. (The HP service techs were good to excellent people but HP policy should be abandoned along with at least one of their phone reps.)
Instead of an HP4500, we received an HP4550. Bless their hearts and my ulcer. The HP4550 is better but they have a way to go before it is as bullet proof as their B&W printer. We still get paper jams but mostly with HP branded transparencies. When doing transparencies, we have to leave the printer's "back-door" open. I'm looking right now to replace this printer with something other than an HP. Maybe somebody else knows the meaning of the words, "good warranty service".
Companies sell name to companies all the time in hopes that you might be interested in their products. If you buy a computer, why would you not possibly be interested in personalized mouse pads subscriptions to various magazines, etc.?
The selling of email addresses should not be made illegal per se. There should be a check box to opt in to sell your address and for specific purposes. Anyone not doing so would face a hefty fine.
Trouble with that is that the spammers will move offshore. But that's the criminal mind at work!!
The amount of hydrogen produced is in proportional to the amount of juice being drawn by the product. When the product is not on, no hydrogen is being produced. Therefore no explosion.
When the product is turned on, the hydrogen does not come into contact with oxygen until it permiates through the fuel cell. Again, no protential for explosion.
I would rather be in a fuel cell car in an accident than in a conventional car. I be less likely to have gasoline pool under me and ignite. The hydrogen, if it escaped would float up.
In a garage, they are proposing that SMALL louvers be installed so that the hydrogen can NOT build up to explosive levels. IF there is a leak in a valve.
Being in government, I have to communicate with you all whether you are in some state or local government organization or just a Joe Blow citizen who needs to interact with us. Each one of you/them uses different software to communicate or share their data with us. While Microsoft is a fairly wide spread standard, no one dominates at 100%. If we are to communicate with you all, we would have to buy a dozen or more word processors, spreadsheets, databases and all their versions (DOS/Apple/Unix/Windows/etc.). We can't do it!!! We do not have the tax dollars to buy all those licences (and computers) and put them on everybody's desktop.
What have we done? We have bought the top two (maybe three) and we communicate using via Wintel PCs. What we see lacking is not the features but the ability for one application to read another's format. Open and highly documented formats would go a long way in helping us to communicate with you all. Neither of which are the aspirations of proprietary software houses.
However, if they could interchange formats, the goal would become one of designing user friendlier systems. For instance, I love to parse data with Excel. Excel makes it so easy. I hate to do it with Lotus 123. I have to enter something that looks like Fortran format code and I have to work at getting the format structure right. I love to be able to see where an error occurs when I use WordPerfect's Reveal Codes (so I can easily correct it). There are so many fine features in so many different types of software packages, no one application and no one software house has them all.
I doubt that the proprietary software houses would consent to open standards and documentation. It's not in their business models and egos to cooperate. That leaves Open Source as the only viable solution. Would Open Source eventually incorporate all the best of the best features in one or two applications? I hope so. Until then the Sensible Choice is to use those packages that make me productive and those that allow me to communicate with you via computer.
Re:Jabber is an offense against christians!
on
Jabber Makes It Good
·
· Score: 1
Did you burn your dictionary because you thought it was satanic? Or did you merely eat it?
If not, I would suggegest that you blow the dust off of it and realize the word jabber comes from the Middle English word jaberen meaning imitative (?).
There are reasons why I try not to tell people I'm a Christian. I think it has to do with association with witch and book burners.
Do unto others as you would have done unto yourself -- read !!!!
Several variant of Fortran allow for free formating where you can indent at will. It makes for cleaner code and easier interpretation.
When I learned C, I also learned that it could over write the operating system. Whereas Fortran is a straight number cruncher. I don't have to worry about an indirect pointer reading data from who knows where or sending my data into some part of the OS. In other words, I'm comfortable that my Fortran program is not going to force me to do a reinstall!!
In C/C++ the braces make reading the code harder than in Fortran. I find that I waste more paper because of the braces and have to go through more pages just to see if an algorithm flows properly.
Whenever I go outside to observe in my suburban light polluted neighborhood, there is a pesky street light. With my neighbor's permission, I shine a laser pointer ($16 - from my local mega office supply store) at the photo diode switch located as a knob on top of the lamp. I use a tripod, cloths pin, and some tape/rubber bands to hold the pointer in place. The photodiode holes are ususally oriented toward the west.
There are people working to try to limit obnoxious outdoor lighting. They are the folks and associates of the International Dark Sky Association at http://www.darksky.org
While we talk of root,/etc, priviledges, patches and so forth, but what does the Harry Homeowner of the Wal-Mart genre really need? It's basically a PC set up as an appliance. One that he doesn't have to worry about a CLI, commands and arguement lists, viruses, trojan horses, where he can let the wife write a few emails, let the kids surf the net, IM a few friends. Harry may be computer phobic, he may not care, he may not comprehend or he has so many hassles at work that just doesn't want to get into the underpinnings of the OS, refresh rates, etc. He just wants to click on something and have it run his email, browser, IM, game, kid's web site, or whatever. He wants or needs a machine that is as easy to operate as his car or microwave. Yeah, it may cost him a few six packs a year, but if it make mama and the kids happy, he's a hero!!
Maybe what he needs is a Linux-based X-box with the equivalent of Works, a browser, IM, a way to save pictures, emails, and music, etc., a hard drive thats as easy to remove/replace as a game cartridge, (C++ on a game cartridge?), a CD-burner that's optional, and an OS that's in firmware. Something thats impervious to viruses, trojan horses, DOS's, and BSOD's. An AOL-like PC. Something with an OS that's solid for "Works" type applications. The old Apple ][+ comes to mind with its built in BASIC and OS on firmware but still with enough flexibility to "hack the system" without distroying it.
I think WalMart needs to withdraw this machine, regroup, and offer a console-like PC hooked to the internet with a real monitor. There should be NO WAY of updating the machine just like there is no way of updating an Nintendo.
Slashdot Mirror
If the rest of the world goes with Linux, the Chinese will make motherboards for Linux, the Japanese will make digital cameras, printers and fun gadgets for Linux, and Bill Gates will still make money for his shareholders. Linux users will still be able to buy stuff just like we do now from Asian vendors. However, if Gates locks us out, we may have to take up reading manuals in some form of pigeon english.
I have not bought an X-box, Microsoft keyboard, nor a microsoft mouse, yet I'm typing this message to you all. But I have to confess, I am using a Microsoft OS... Hopefully I will get over my addiction one of these days.
I can understand the dyes bleaching out of the LCDs but on the other hand the DLP technology uses little mirrors that reflect light much the same way a Boy Scout uses a hand mirror to send a signal. The mirrors are small and light but the mechanism is mechanical. The amount of time the mirrors are reflecting are controlled electronically. After so many hours, I would expect the mirrors to wear out. Yet I saw no dead mirror reflected in any of the pictures after the 5,000 hours of 30 or more frames a second of being twisted in and out of reflectivity. Does anybody know how long the mirrors are supposed to last?
If the DLP mirrors are lasting so long, why not DLP TV's?
They thought of doing this from outer space for a whole city until someone pointed what happens to the inhabitants. They get cooked. If you move it off-city, those pesky micrometeorite could realign it over the city. That was the end of that idea.
For a terrestial based system, all you would need is a violent wind storm or the appropriate hacker/juvenile delinquent to realign your transmitter. There must be a few hundred ambulance chasers drooling for the chance to file a neglience suit.
If I want to get cook, I prefer the old fashion way --- at the beach.
If you look at Microsoft's treatment of Opera, Microsoft could create a DMCA'ed coding format that basically says that this file can only be opened by a Microsoft product. It would be difficult to provide a work around. Since they own the lion share of the market, other attempts to read their format could wither.
You should also try http://www.evworld.com . EV World (Electric Vehicle World) publishes weekly articles from different authors concerning "the Hydrogen Economy". The general content is much more substantial and these authors don't sound like a spin doctors for the Bush Administration.
HP got out of the CD RW business months ago for this very reason. They decided to concentrate on DVD where there are better margins. I wonder if Yamaha had better margins and stayed the course for a few months more. Real inquiring minds want to know, other minds want to no.
If you have to load the CD driver after the OS is installed, how would you go about making a bootable rescue CD for when the OS gets corrupted? Is there a URL that tells some one how? I look for enlightenment, not criticism. The first builds me up, the later tears me down.
You should also read the other article especially about the use of batteries instead of fuel cells. http://www.evworld.com/databases/storybuilder.cfm? storyid=465
Linux would be an ideal OS for managing batteries (and even fule cells).
In 1995, the Federal debt was $4.974 Trillion vs $0.590 collected in personal income taxes, a ratio of 8.4 to 1. In 2000, the debt was $5.674 Trillion vs $1.004 collected in personal income tax, a ratio of 5.6 to 1. So in other words, for every dollar I pay in income tax there is about $5.6 dollars of Federal debt in my name. This year the ratio is going up due to deficit spending. Sort of puts things in a more personal perspective.
Personally, even if a guy pick up my garbage and works a full week, he should be able to save enough money to fill a cavity and get a yearly physical.
There is no reason for someone to have a $1.5 billion dollar income and not pick up some of the some of the medical tab for the poor guy who picks up his garbage.
How should we view fair taxation on the internet? Gateway and other companies have a "presence" in some or all the states. Whenever, someone buys something from one of these companies, that company is suppose to collect sales tax for that state if it has a "presence" in that state. Seems fair to me. How about you?
In South Dakota, a weather modification project was blamed by locals for causing a flood that claimed 275 lives. The meteorological upshot of the whole thing was that an east wind rose up over a stationary front and dumped 16 inches of rain on the center of the Black Hills. Needless to say the resultant flash flood killed a lot of people living along Rapid Creek. The project leaders say that the project was not to blame (and rightly so) but you couldn't convince some of the locals of that.
Seeding of clouds is a very localized phenomena. IF you get the seed into a cloud at the right place at the right time, you can decrease hail size OR you can increase rain fall by 10 to maybe 15%. There is a lot of luck, timing, and skill involved.
The main hypothesis of the article has been around for decades. The upshot is that the delivery of enough seed at the right time has to be massive and continuous in order to affect large scale systems. Even the USA does not have those types of resources. If we did, and in the end, it might not make a difference.
Also remember you can get more blood out of a turnip that rain out of a clear sky!!
In 2012, I predict that I will be in my Flying Car listening to my satellite radio when my speech recognition computer picks up the tune "Fly me to the Moon" and will get ticketed by NASA, the FAA, and a dozen State Troopers.
PS My Flying Car will be a fuel celled vehicle and the gas station will serve nothing but hydrogen.
I greatily reduced the number of snail mail spams by submitting my name and address to the Direct [Tele-] Marketing Association lists. Information can be found here:
h tm l#mail
http://www.dmaconsumers.org/consumerassistance.
They read the book first !!
When you think of so many gigabits per square inch on a platter and that the magnetic head is controlled by a mechanic actuator arm, slight wear could cause the head to shift. Are we starting to see recognition of this through the warranties?
As one of the people who is responsible for Gov't laptops, the policy you sight helps me. I'm the one who fills out the reports/e-mails, etc. when a piece of equipment walks off. The 3rd piece of paperwork just says that you walked into the building with YOUR laptop and if stopped on the way out you have a piece of paper that says that machine is YOURS. Otherwise, IF stopped, you're going to have a nice long conversation with security until you can PROVE that it is your laptop. Get my drift? Same thing if you can't prove that I gave you permission to drive my car when you are pulled over by the cops. Can you say suspicion of "Grand Theft Auto"? How would they know? Really. By the way how did you get to reserve and use a government facility for a "non-governmental" user's group meeting? I was turned down when trying to get a Linux meeting schedule there. Inquiring minds want to know....
I'm a support person who buys printers such as 6L's, 5Ms, 4100's, and 4500's. I haven't tested the older printer speed but our newer two printers, an HP 4100 and an HP 4550, are about right on the money when it comes to rated speed in both B&W and in Color.
;-). HP relented and ordered a replacement. (The HP service techs were good to excellent people but HP policy should be abandoned along with at least one of their phone reps.)
We are on a Novell system with feeds from Windoze and Linux machines. We haven't had any problems.
Our first HP4500 was a nightmare of paper jams. Other sections had HP4500s also but with not anywhere near as many jams. Our jams were about 225 printed pages per jam while the others were around 3,000 and 4,500 printed pages before a jam. The only thing I could put my finger on was that we had a slightly earlier ROM version than the others. That's the bad.
The ugly was the stall tactics from HP. "You used the wrong paper.", etc, etc. Their manuals say we should not use paper with more than 5% GROUND fiber while the recycled paper packages say that they contain 30% post consumer recycled fiber. Needless to say that HP and the paper companies did not return my e-mails. They must have smelled lawyers!!! It wasn't until I said that we used the same materials as the other sections AND presented them with my statistics. Still they wanted to throw parts and service calls at the problem. It wasn't until the last service tech "fixed" the machine for good
Instead of an HP4500, we received an HP4550. Bless their hearts and my ulcer. The HP4550 is better but they have a way to go before it is as bullet proof as their B&W printer. We still get paper jams but mostly with HP branded transparencies. When doing transparencies, we have to leave the printer's "back-door" open. I'm looking right now to replace this printer with something other than an HP. Maybe somebody else knows the meaning of the words, "good warranty service".
Will Microsoft pay AMD and Intel to put "patent protect" trustworthy into their chips?
Companies sell name to companies all the time in hopes that you might be interested in their products. If you buy a computer, why would you not possibly be interested in personalized mouse pads subscriptions to various magazines, etc.?
The selling of email addresses should not be made illegal per se. There should be a check box to opt in to sell your address and for specific purposes. Anyone not doing so would face a hefty fine.
Trouble with that is that the spammers will move offshore. But that's the criminal mind at work!!
The amount of hydrogen produced is in proportional to the amount of juice being drawn by the product. When the product is not on, no hydrogen is being produced. Therefore no explosion.
When the product is turned on, the hydrogen does not come into contact with oxygen until it permiates through the fuel cell. Again, no protential for explosion.
I would rather be in a fuel cell car in an accident than in a conventional car. I be less likely to have gasoline pool under me and ignite. The hydrogen, if it escaped would float up.
In a garage, they are proposing that SMALL louvers be installed so that the hydrogen can NOT build up to explosive levels. IF there is a leak in a valve.
Being in government, I have to communicate with you all whether you are in some state or local government organization or just a Joe Blow citizen who needs to interact with us. Each one of you/them uses different software to communicate or share their data with us. While Microsoft is a fairly wide spread standard, no one dominates at 100%. If we are to communicate with you all, we would have to buy a dozen or more word processors, spreadsheets, databases and all their versions (DOS/Apple/Unix/Windows/etc.). We can't do it!!! We do not have the tax dollars to buy all those licences (and computers) and put them on everybody's desktop.
What have we done? We have bought the top two (maybe three) and we communicate using via Wintel PCs. What we see lacking is not the features but the ability for one application to read another's format. Open and highly documented formats would go a long way in helping us to communicate with you all. Neither of which are the aspirations of proprietary software houses.
However, if they could interchange formats, the goal would become one of designing user friendlier systems. For instance, I love to parse data with Excel. Excel makes it so easy. I hate to do it with Lotus 123. I have to enter something that looks like Fortran format code and I have to work at getting the format structure right. I love to be able to see where an error occurs when I use WordPerfect's Reveal Codes (so I can easily correct it). There are so many fine features in so many different types of software packages, no one application and no one software house has them all.
I doubt that the proprietary software houses would consent to open standards and documentation. It's not in their business models and egos to cooperate. That leaves Open Source as the only viable solution. Would Open Source eventually incorporate all the best of the best features in one or two applications? I hope so. Until then the Sensible Choice is to use those packages that make me productive and those that allow me to communicate with you via computer.
Did you burn your dictionary because you thought it was satanic? Or did you merely eat it?
If not, I would suggegest that you blow the dust off of it and realize the word jabber comes from the Middle English word jaberen meaning imitative (?).
There are reasons why I try not to tell people I'm a Christian. I think it has to do with association with witch and book burners.
Do unto others as you would have done unto yourself
-- read !!!!
...and they are looking for the authority to hire and fire at will. Either your a good ole boy or your a pile of dung. Something smells.
Several variant of Fortran allow for free formating where you can indent at will. It makes for cleaner code and easier interpretation.
When I learned C, I also learned that it could over write the operating system. Whereas Fortran is a straight number cruncher. I don't have to worry about an indirect pointer reading data from who knows where or sending my data into some part of the OS. In other words, I'm comfortable that my Fortran program is not going to force me to do a reinstall!!
In C/C++ the braces make reading the code harder than in Fortran. I find that I waste more paper because of the braces and have to go through more pages just to see if an algorithm flows properly.
Whenever I go outside to observe in my suburban light polluted neighborhood, there is a pesky street light. With my neighbor's permission, I shine a laser pointer ($16 - from my local mega office supply store) at the photo diode switch located as a knob on top of the lamp. I use a tripod, cloths pin, and some tape/rubber bands to hold the pointer in place. The photodiode holes are ususally oriented toward the west.
There are people working to try to limit obnoxious outdoor lighting. They are the folks and associates of the International Dark Sky Association at http://www.darksky.org
While we talk of root,
Maybe what he needs is a Linux-based X-box with the equivalent of Works, a browser, IM, a way to save pictures, emails, and music, etc., a hard drive thats as easy to remove/replace as a game cartridge, (C++ on a game cartridge?), a CD-burner that's optional, and an OS that's in firmware. Something thats impervious to viruses, trojan horses, DOS's, and BSOD's. An AOL-like PC. Something with an OS that's solid for "Works" type applications. The old Apple ][+ comes to mind with its built in BASIC and OS on firmware but still with enough flexibility to "hack the system" without distroying it.
I think WalMart needs to withdraw this machine, regroup, and offer a console-like PC hooked to the internet with a real monitor. There should be NO WAY of updating the machine just like there is no way of updating an Nintendo.
Anyone game for this?