Thank you. I know that there are different key combinations which can emulate the missing keys but they are a pain to use (and remember) so are fairly worthless.
"The nice thing about standards is that there are so many from which to choose."
There is no "page down" (or PgUp) key on Apple notebook computers (They may exist on the desktop versions, I don't know). Also no Backspace... which is really no Delete since the Delete key acts like a backspace and doesn't do the normal things a Delete key does (like delete stuff).
I think the point is that there are no "standards" or that there are lots of standards and everybody makes up their own and doesn't really feel obligated to follow them consistently.
I agree that you really shouldn't need a graphing calculator. I am old enough that I did all of my math before the invention of the calculator. A simple slide rule (equivalent to 4 function calculator plus trig tables) was sufficient for everything (up through 3 years of calculus).
It was much more important to know how to solve the problem and formulate the equation than to do the math. Maybe things have changed.
Nuclear power has never been economic. It has only existed because of massive government subsidies (research, fuel, insurance, waste disposal, etc.). Also, unlike other technologies, the cost per watt of installed power keeps increasing, not decreasing. This latest disaster will only make it more expensive. Already wind and solar are cheaper per watt of installed power without all the nasty nuclear uncertainties. I doubt that you will see any new nuclear plants in the US solely because of the cost. No sane investor would fund a nuclear power plant now.
I lived in Switzerland for 3 years. I used to commute to work on the train and bus. This was 25 km and took me the same amount of time as driving would have (less time if you count the rush hour traffic). Fast, easy convenient, low stress. That's the "short distance case".
We also used the train for weekend trips to go hiking, biking and skiing to Switzerland, Italy and France. Again, it was cheaper, faster, low stress, convenient. That's the mid-distance case.
The only other place I traveled was Africa and the US and I took airplanes. That's the long distance case.
It was actually fairly efficient. Oil is viscous (especially when cold) so it moved up the narrow tube quite nicely.
The "screw" was just a coiled wire in a narrow plastic tube about 4mm dia. It was powered by an electric drill so it rotated at a fairly high rate.
I had a boat with similar problems. I finally found an "Archimedes screw" device to put down the oil dipstick tube which removed the old oil. This was a spiral wire inside a plastic tube turned by an electric drill. This worked well.
Actually, this was a "state of the art" computer at the time and was quite functional. It was much better than the TRS-80 (aka Trash 80) which I purchased before the Osborne. (I also had an Apple II and Apple/// - which really was trash - along with many other early computers - Commodore PET anyone?). The Osborne was the first one which was not a toy. I purchased an Osborne and started programming a complex electronic medical record and medical billing program (with the included dBase) which later turned into a profitable company (after shifting to FoxBase for multi-user functionality.)
It was about the size a weight of a portable sewing machine (luggable) so I could easily take it with me and program during my long slow "on call" shifts in the emergency room. It had a great keyboard, hard drive and came with office and database software.
Also, it was very reliable. It even survived a fall from the back of a moving car (don't ask). I used it as a "portable" computer for several years.
Concrete does not melt. It turns to powder starting at about 400 C and any rock and sand in it will melt at 800 C to 1200 C. When it turns into a powder, it doesn't have any structural integrity. It disintegrates and would allow anything to pass through it... (? China syndrome...)
Bell labs (like Xerox PARC) was a fantastic institution which created many advances and some of them actually escaped since they were insanely good.
However, the old "Ma Bell" was firmly in the "you can have any telephone you want as long as it is black" camp. "We're the phone company, we don't care; we don't have to care".
This also works in the US. I have done this to guard against the threat of lawsuits with small companies (but never had to use it). Large companies do this all of the time. It's called "strategic bankruptcy". Its a convenient way to privatize profits and socialize the losses. Our banker friends did this with all of the toxic loans they created.
If you go and actually try to research software patents your head will explode so best to follow Linus's advice:
I do not look up any patents on _principle_, because (a) it's a horrible
waste of time and (b) I don't want to know.
The fact is, technical people are better off not looking at patents. If you don't know what they cover and where they are, you won't be knowingly
infringing on them. If somebody sues you, you change the algorithm or you just hire a hit-man to whack the stupid git.
I think you are making a good point. There are two types of risks associated with radiation exposure. The first is what these charts address which is acute exposure leading to "radiation sickness". As the charts show, it take a relatively large dose of radiation to make you sick in the short term and most of the people in Japan (except the workers close to the plant) are receiving only small doses.
The second risk is the long term risk of cancers. These show up years later and due to this delay in time and the difficulty of measuring cumulative radiation exposure, it is hard to predict cancer risk. There have been numerous studies trying to quantify the risk and all of them show an increase in cancer with increasing radiation exposure. However, it is difficult to sort out how much exposure is "safe" and the answer is probably that any exposure to radiation (including "background" radiation) causes some increase in cancer.
Just a few data points. It is estimated that the Chernobyl disaster will cause 50,000 excess cases of thyroid cancer.
CAT (CT) abdomen scans will cause one case of cancer for every 250 exams. Routine x-ray mammogram screenings are estimated to increase the risk of breast cancer by 10%.
For the Japan nuclear disaster, there are short term risks of radiation exposure (primarily people living near the reactor) and also long term risks from the nuclear isotopes which can travel long distances in the atmosphere or in the food chain. Iodine has a relatively short half life (7 days) but others are much longer (caesium-137, strontium-90, plutonium, americium)... tens to thousands of years. So they will continue to deliver radiation risk over a wide area for a long time.
All TVs used to sync to the power line. That is why we have 60/30 frames per second in the US 60HZ power (NTSC) and 50/25 frames in Europe (PAL) 50HZ power.
Of course, the new TVs now all convert voltage and frequency from the plug to DC and work from that.
Deleted has never meant deleted. It has always been possible to retrieve files from the 'Recycle bin', Trash bin, or file system. Only by diligently deleting at a low level has it ever been possible to really delete something (and even these efforts could be ineffective).
Having just switched to a Mac, my biggest irritation (other than the odd keyboard) is that the menu bar is always at the very top of the screen and is not attached to the window. When you have lots of small windows open, it just drives me crazy having to go to the menu at the top of the screen.
Any way to fix this short of installing Linux on the machine?
I am still using an HP LaserJet 4L printer that is almost 20 years old. I give it light duty at home but it has been absolutely reliable. It's connected to an HP JetDirect network interface (also 20 years old) and prints flawlessly from Mac, Linux and Windows.
The printer never has given me any problems. It's slow but rock solid.
I get Al Jazeera on LinkTV also (through Dish satellite). However, most cable systems don't carry it and it's rare to find an over the air broadcast of Al Jazeera.
The cable systems seem to have lots of channels available for shopping channels and of course Fox news but can't seem to find the space for a "foreign" news network.
Slashdot Mirror
"The nice thing about standards is that there are so many from which to choose."
I think the point is that there are no "standards" or that there are lots of standards and everybody makes up their own and doesn't really feel obligated to follow them consistently.
"every contract by which anyone is restrained from engaging in a lawful profession, trade, or business of any kind is to that extent void."
I agree that you really shouldn't need a graphing calculator. I am old enough that I did all of my math before the invention of the calculator. A simple slide rule (equivalent to 4 function calculator plus trig tables) was sufficient for everything (up through 3 years of calculus).
It was much more important to know how to solve the problem and formulate the equation than to do the math. Maybe things have changed.
I rather think that this is a good thing.
We also used the train for weekend trips to go hiking, biking and skiing to Switzerland, Italy and France. Again, it was cheaper, faster, low stress, convenient. That's the mid-distance case.
The only other place I traveled was Africa and the US and I took airplanes. That's the long distance case.
It was actually fairly efficient. Oil is viscous (especially when cold) so it moved up the narrow tube quite nicely. The "screw" was just a coiled wire in a narrow plastic tube about 4mm dia. It was powered by an electric drill so it rotated at a fairly high rate.
I had a boat with similar problems. I finally found an "Archimedes screw" device to put down the oil dipstick tube which removed the old oil. This was a spiral wire inside a plastic tube turned by an electric drill. This worked well.
It was about the size a weight of a portable sewing machine (luggable) so I could easily take it with me and program during my long slow "on call" shifts in the emergency room. It had a great keyboard, hard drive and came with office and database software.
Also, it was very reliable. It even survived a fall from the back of a moving car (don't ask). I used it as a "portable" computer for several years.
Why do people keep using Windows?
Concrete does not melt. It turns to powder starting at about 400 C and any rock and sand in it will melt at 800 C to 1200 C. When it turns into a powder, it doesn't have any structural integrity. It disintegrates and would allow anything to pass through it... (? China syndrome...)
However, the old "Ma Bell" was firmly in the "you can have any telephone you want as long as it is black" camp. "We're the phone company, we don't care; we don't have to care".
If you go and actually try to research software patents your head will explode so best to follow Linus's advice:
T-Mobile and ATT both have prepaid data.
You and Ann Coulter should get together.
The second risk is the long term risk of cancers. These show up years later and due to this delay in time and the difficulty of measuring cumulative radiation exposure, it is hard to predict cancer risk. There have been numerous studies trying to quantify the risk and all of them show an increase in cancer with increasing radiation exposure. However, it is difficult to sort out how much exposure is "safe" and the answer is probably that any exposure to radiation (including "background" radiation) causes some increase in cancer.
Just a few data points. It is estimated that the Chernobyl disaster will cause 50,000 excess cases of thyroid cancer. CAT (CT) abdomen scans will cause one case of cancer for every 250 exams. Routine x-ray mammogram screenings are estimated to increase the risk of breast cancer by 10%.
For the Japan nuclear disaster, there are short term risks of radiation exposure (primarily people living near the reactor) and also long term risks from the nuclear isotopes which can travel long distances in the atmosphere or in the food chain. Iodine has a relatively short half life (7 days) but others are much longer (caesium-137, strontium-90, plutonium, americium)... tens to thousands of years. So they will continue to deliver radiation risk over a wide area for a long time.
All TVs used to sync to the power line. That is why we have 60/30 frames per second in the US 60HZ power (NTSC) and 50/25 frames in Europe (PAL) 50HZ power. Of course, the new TVs now all convert voltage and frequency from the plug to DC and work from that.
(At my age, "sonny" is a compliment)
Deleted has never meant deleted. It has always been possible to retrieve files from the 'Recycle bin', Trash bin, or file system. Only by diligently deleting at a low level has it ever been possible to really delete something (and even these efforts could be ineffective).
Thanks for these tips
Any way to fix this short of installing Linux on the machine?
My main question is "Does it run on Linux or Mac?". I suspect not from reading between the lines but it would be useful to know.
The printer never has given me any problems. It's slow but rock solid.
The cable systems seem to have lots of channels available for shopping channels and of course Fox news but can't seem to find the space for a "foreign" news network.
It's a big deal to have Al Jazeera in the USA. Most cable systems don't carry it out of a kind of xenophobic fear of a "foreign" point of view.