I don't know about the UK in general, but I'm here at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.
In order to use the ethernet ports available on campus, they make us register the physical MAC address of our ethernet adapters. Then the name that's resolved by our IP addresses has our LAN username attached to it (which of course doubles as our email address).
So anyone who logs my address with my username when I make some sort of connection to their server or whatnot, can email or further figure who I am and where I'm at.
It's a little unnerving. I'll be glad to purged from this system in a couple of weeks.
My first thought was that it's an anti-piracy measure.
Microsoft must think that some of these "No OS" buyers will install an illegitimate copy of an Microsoft OS or that they'll abuse one of their legitimate licenses. The less-than-elegant "solution" of making them buy one anyways is interesting.
However, as the subject says, doesn't this screw the companies who purchase volume licenses? Why bother buying those licenses at all if you can't buy computers from one of your sources without an OS anyways?
Can companies ask their supplier to sell them systems utilizing the OEM key instead of paying for another MS OS+license?
In my most recent memory is the Virtual Mode series (all 4 books) which I just finished. Between the author's notes and some of my own intuition, it wasn't difficult to see the connection between some of the twists on computer concepts in the series. Most notably while reading the first novel, the words chip, virtual mode, and various references to x86 computers pop up. All the while, I was amazed that it formed the central concept/analogy to understanding the fantastic multiverse that the series explored.
Thus, it would seem that bits of your computer knowledge/terminology that lay dormant became the foundation for a multiverse.
My question is:
Has any other seemingly muted element in your life spawned entire realms or universes, perhaps for volumes yet to be written?
I've read some of your other works, and the closest I could determine was Tatham Mound which seemed to have just come from your backyard:) and maybe the so-close-to-home Geodyssey series (I've read them but I can't claim to know whether any ideas present in it were ever muted elements in your life)
I would think that there are others, and of course all of your work (as far as I could tell) has many sources for ideas as evidenced in your Author's Notes. But in my opinion, the one featuring a concept grounded on some previously-mundane computer vocabulary, Virtual Mode, seems to be the most radical endeavor grown out of the smallest seed.
Perhaps lamely put, I think it's the coolest idea you've had yet!
Can your readers look forward to anything on the same scale of wild and original again?
Many thanks for all your hard work! -A Reader of Books
Slashdot Mirror
password protecting warez in an archive to prevent anyone from finding out it's warez?
I don't know about the UK in general, but I'm here at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.
In order to use the ethernet ports available on campus, they make us register the physical MAC address of our ethernet adapters. Then the name that's resolved by our IP addresses has our LAN username attached to it (which of course doubles as our email address).
So anyone who logs my address with my username when I make some sort of connection to their server or whatnot, can email or further figure who I am and where I'm at.
It's a little unnerving. I'll be glad to purged from this system in a couple of weeks.
My first thought was that it's an anti-piracy measure.
Microsoft must think that some of these "No OS" buyers will install an illegitimate copy of an Microsoft OS or that they'll abuse one of their legitimate licenses. The less-than-elegant "solution" of making them buy one anyways is interesting.
However, as the subject says, doesn't this screw the companies who purchase volume licenses? Why bother buying those licenses at all if you can't buy computers from one of your sources without an OS anyways?
Can companies ask their supplier to sell them systems utilizing the OEM key instead of paying for another MS OS+license?
In my most recent memory is the Virtual Mode series (all 4 books) which I just finished. Between the author's notes and some of my own intuition, it wasn't difficult to see the connection between some of the twists on computer concepts in the series. Most notably while reading the first novel, the words chip, virtual mode, and various references to x86 computers pop up. All the while, I was amazed that it formed the central concept/analogy to understanding the fantastic multiverse that the series explored.
Thus, it would seem that bits of your computer knowledge/terminology that lay dormant became the foundation for a multiverse.
My question is:
Has any other seemingly muted element in your life spawned entire realms or universes, perhaps for volumes yet to be written?
I've read some of your other works, and the closest I could determine was Tatham Mound which seemed to have just come from your backyard :) and maybe the so-close-to-home Geodyssey series (I've read them but I can't claim to know whether any ideas present in it were ever muted elements in your life)
I would think that there are others, and of course all of your work (as far as I could tell) has many sources for ideas as evidenced in your Author's Notes. But in my opinion, the one featuring a concept grounded on some previously-mundane computer vocabulary, Virtual Mode, seems to be the most radical endeavor grown out of the smallest seed.
Perhaps lamely put, I think it's the coolest idea you've had yet!
Can your readers look forward to anything on the same scale of wild and original again?
Many thanks for all your hard work!-A Reader of Books