I remember the cards that you could add in V-RAM (I'm scared to check, but there might be one buried in a closet around here somewhere), but not any that you could add a socket GPU.
I don't see any reason why not though, except that perhaps the bandwidth requirements may generally require a secondary PCI slot as well so it's easier to just use an additional card?
Ummm. Well let's see, he's not a mechanical engineering student. He doesn't have any of the tools (it's not like most people happen to have an engine-hoist just kicking around). He rents, and at an apartment, so he doesn't have a garage to work in... and a new engine might be well worth more than the value of restoring the vehicle.
Having done a fair deal of auto-repair work myself I'd have to say this: get a fucking life. It's not all that simple, and it requires tools, time, space and skills that average people don't have.
My buddy was out looking for a Honda Prelude. He found one advertisement that was very much like this. Basically it had
Little to no rust (excellent body condition)
A cd/DVD player
4 LCD screens (headrests, mirror, and passenger)
High-end stereo (speakers/amps/etc)
A blown engine
The guy was selling it for a few grand, and had basically advertised it as "for the value of all the media equipment inside, but you'll need to buy a new engine"
My guess is that the seller "bling'ed" out his car, then drove it too hard and blew a cylinder or a few gaskets.
I don't really see any discussion on whether these pack more power than a 50lb car battery would
Well, assuming that power-per-mass ration is roughly equivalent, then these batteries have one big advantage: space
A large collection of "brick" style batteries is somewhat restrictive due to the shapes and material of the batteries. For these, the same advantage is gained as it is for clothing, etc.
For clothes, yes, you could have an LED shirt or whatever with a bunch of "aaa" batteries in a pack at your side, or it could be woven right into the fabric.
In a car, you could integrate these batteries much more easily into the design of the car. There's less necessity for a single huge compartment to house them.
Of course, one big question then becomes, how do you charge them? If you can't, then it becomes an issue of discarding and replacing them. If they're enviro-friendly when discarded, then perhaps you can use a method almost like a common car now. Have a fuel tank that you would purge of power cells - or bacteria - and then refill, perhaps through a liquid of some sort?
To me, this sounds a lot more convenient than hauling around 50lb batteries.
By apt-get I'm assuming this is debian/ubuntu, but anyhow.
If you're doing updates this way, you probably want to have a local package repository. That way you're only downloading from the 'net once, rather than having several hundred machines contacting somearchive.debian.org for the same update.
Of course, along those lines, where I used to work (mid-sized school district) all clients booted through PXE, and didn't have drives at all. System updates were done to a shared changeroot and worked rather nicely.
I'm not sure about digital snapshot cameras. But I've seen plenty of security/web/etc cameras that do IR. Filters for a camera may be somewhat affordable as well.
The problem with a "universal" style charger is that it might screw up and overvolt your device (or you might set the dial wrong when switching between devices), but what about something that was semi-smart and would auto-adjust depending on the plug?
Let's say you get a little charging pod, maybe with a simple interface (LCD, buttons for +/- voltage or amps within available range). Now, it can come with several end-connectors, all which have different pins to plug into the master device. Plug one in and set the volts/amps.
Next time it will automatically start charging at the voltage assigned to that pinout combo (two pins are always for actual power, but the rest are identifiers).
Next, you can chop up your old connectors and then wire them onto the positive-negative leads from each. If it were to be a non-geek project then perhaps it would have some sort of easy-to-use clip to hook things onto the adaptors.
Finally, charging. Plug end into device, plug other end into charger. The correct power settings are detected, and charging begins.
Nerds tend to have a number of devices on-hand which, at various intervals, require charging.
I personally tend to have have a small bag with my PDA, digital camera, and Mp3 player kicking around. All these devices use 5V, but connectors include:
a) Camera: standard barrel-connector
b) PDA: standard barrel connector (my old HP Ipaq required either the addon pack or keyboard to connect to a proprietary connector, but the addons had the barrel connector)
c) Mp3 player (Insignia): standard USB-mini
d) Phone (Samsung): USB cable connected to proprietary jack
I carry around a charger with an adjustable voltage setting and various connector bits for charging, but it lacks one for the USB-mini (or the weird USB-attached one on my phone).
What I've actually been wanting to do is emasculate a USB extension cable and add a barrel connector on one end, that way I can plug the phone's cable or the USB-mini into my charger and thus not need extra chargers for them while on the road. Overall they're a major pain in the ass to deal with though.
My favorite issue with Telus was in dealing with contracts and their "bundled" bills.
My grandparents signed up for internet with them, and supposedly for the first while the internet rates were lower than normal. After a while, they decided to cancel and move on to Shaw. When they called in to do so, Telus told them that they were locked in a (3 year I believe) contract.
Now keep in mind, this is not like a cellular service. There's no documentation, no terms of service provided. The box that came with the DSL modem had only the usage manual. Nothing signed, and nothing anywhere stating a contract.
According to the phone agent, the "contract" was presented in a click-through on the software used to setup the modem. However, in this case I was the one that setup the modem, and had done so through their webpage (not using the software CD, and not seeing any click-through contracts).
Telus - of course - could not provide anything to support their "contact", but the rep actually told me "if you don't like it, take it to court." When I asked for their legal contact info, I was told for that I'd have to "get a lawyer, and have him figure it out."
At the same time, Telus is also the local phone monopoly, so bills for ADSL and phone service are combined. I tried to get *those* separated so that I could at least deal with VISA about the DSL service without getting dinged for non-payment on the phone part. Telus will not separate the bills.
I've had plenty of issues with Telus on my own, but this case was the worst. Trying to trick senior citizens into believing their into a contract without any corroboration is just plani evil (and I did check the old advertising for the plain, no contract was mentioned).
I'd imagine that Klingons would dish out some pretty massive punishment when scammers get caught, so you're unlikely to see many Klingons using these tools.
Okay, first off Bob does _not_ get Sally's user name and password. Bob uses his own user name and new _secure_ password to access the network share
Yup, and in an optimal world where IT is informed about changes it wouldn't be too big an issue to make a few network changes to give Bob the access he needs. However, in many places I've worked it's more a case of "Sally's on mat-leave? Who's handling her work. How does he have access? You did what???!!"
The true answer is that their password _can_ be the name of their dog, for 95% of users
In a perfect world, this might be true. However, it's not. It's like saying that 70% of the people on earth can have unprotected sex because only 30% have STD's (numbers pulled at random for demonstration purposes).
However, in real life, there are plenty of other scenarios.
a) Not password, but security related (say restriction downloads). You have Bob on the 1st floor who pretty much just writes out paperwork. However, Bob's computer gets a virus. This virus emails itself to the department in the form of an infected document or whatever, which gets opened by Jim in accounting. Now Jim's computer sends all the client-info to some public webserver where it's picked up by crackers from Russia.
What, you want a password example, OK, how about this
b) We'll use Bob as an example again, except this time, Sally from HR has gone on Maternity leave. There's nobody to replace her right away, so Bob gets somewhat of a promotion. Sally gives Bob access to her network share via her username/password, so that he can access documents there. Sally's password is fairly secure, however Bob's is still "fido." Frank from the other department decides to sniff around because he thinks he's getting stiffed on pay. He logs into Bob's computer and downloads an Excel sheet with the employee pay scales from Sally's share that's still connected on Bob's computer...
And yes, there are plenty of examples that are more simple than this. Simple situations can cause big problems.
Now, I don't agree with IT Departments that insist you have a 15-character alphanumeric password with at least 2 other characters, but having a decently secure password that's not easily dictionaried or guessed is not that hard. Even alphanumeric is easy:
slashd0t
slash_d0t
d0t_slash
sla5h_d0t
Overly difficult to remember, not really. Super-duper-secure, perhaps not, but better than "fido" or the name of your firstborn child.
Were they legally imported? Is it the device that's illegal, or just the sale of them? Bags of crack won't make it through the border, hell customs will even search out volumes of pirated DVD's and seize them.
If there were signed off on during importing before the guy sold them, then perhaps he could argue that by passing customs they were given somewhat of a thumbs-up?
It seems to me that losing some merchandise at the border would have been a lot better than getting stuck in jail after selling it.
While this particular law may have been a little more obvious, there are plenty that aren't. In fact, there are so many weird laws out there that even the best judges/lawyers/politicians can't keep track of them. In some cases it helps the prosecutors (if they really want to nail somebody but can't get him on "crime X", find a "crime Y" that fits), and in rare cases it may help the defendant (find a weird technicality that actually lets you off).
However, the only way to have a bad law shot down seems to be to go to court over it, and fight it tooth and nail.
It's not so easy to "simply not break the law" when the law is nonsensical.
I've always found the biggest issues with Intel was due to deficiencies in the hardware, not the drivers. Drivers tended to install fairly easily, or be OS-native (even Linux support was great), however in terms of inherent functionality the hardware was at most near the middle lines.
ATI on the other hand, was well known for shit-tastic drivers until AMD stepped in more recently.
There shouldn't be a race condition. Only one user per voting machine at a time, and each machine has its own records. The records can then be synced to the master which can do some more detailed analysis later.
No DB needed, just (as you mentioned) a unique serial, date, location, and vote.
No chances of anyone voting for a somebody named "DROP TABLE candidates" either:-)
Slashdot Mirror
I remember the cards that you could add in V-RAM (I'm scared to check, but there might be one buried in a closet around here somewhere), but not any that you could add a socket GPU.
I don't see any reason why not though, except that perhaps the bandwidth requirements may generally require a secondary PCI slot as well so it's easier to just use an additional card?
Ummm. Well let's see, he's not a mechanical engineering student. He doesn't have any of the tools (it's not like most people happen to have an engine-hoist just kicking around). He rents, and at an apartment, so he doesn't have a garage to work in... and a new engine might be well worth more than the value of restoring the vehicle.
Having done a fair deal of auto-repair work myself I'd have to say this: get a fucking life. It's not all that simple, and it requires tools, time, space and skills that average people don't have.
I wonder if we'll ever see graphics card makers use socket GPU's (or maybe it's been done before).
Could be a useful thing if they start coming out with multi-GPU cards... if you can't afford a dual-GPU then add it in later.
My buddy was out looking for a Honda Prelude. He found one advertisement that was very much like this. Basically it had
Little to no rust (excellent body condition)
A cd/DVD player
4 LCD screens (headrests, mirror, and passenger)
High-end stereo (speakers/amps/etc)
A blown engine
The guy was selling it for a few grand, and had basically advertised it as "for the value of all the media equipment inside, but you'll need to buy a new engine"
My guess is that the seller "bling'ed" out his car, then drove it too hard and blew a cylinder or a few gaskets.
I don't really see any discussion on whether these pack more power than a 50lb car battery would
Well, assuming that power-per-mass ration is roughly equivalent, then these batteries have one big advantage: space
A large collection of "brick" style batteries is somewhat restrictive due to the shapes and material of the batteries. For these, the same advantage is gained as it is for clothing, etc.
For clothes, yes, you could have an LED shirt or whatever with a bunch of "aaa" batteries in a pack at your side, or it could be woven right into the fabric.
In a car, you could integrate these batteries much more easily into the design of the car. There's less necessity for a single huge compartment to house them.
Of course, one big question then becomes, how do you charge them? If you can't, then it becomes an issue of discarding and replacing them. If they're enviro-friendly when discarded, then perhaps you can use a method almost like a common car now. Have a fuel tank that you would purge of power cells - or bacteria - and then refill, perhaps through a liquid of some sort?
To me, this sounds a lot more convenient than hauling around 50lb batteries.
That works too, but your repository should be able to pick-and-choose which packages it gets, and not mirror the whole thing.
The nice thing about a local repository is that you can also add your own packages to it, which is sometimes useful for in-house apps or patches.
Maybe you can run it under Wine, or perhaps a VM? :-)
Platforms other than XP? Easy, they're selling them (Vista).
Actually to some extent this depends on which window manager you're running, as they stick buttons in different places by default.
In most cases though, it's probably going to be gnome/kde, although I think that there are some slimline versions of ubuntu that use XFCE or others.
By apt-get I'm assuming this is debian/ubuntu, but anyhow.
If you're doing updates this way, you probably want to have a local package repository. That way you're only downloading from the 'net once, rather than having several hundred machines contacting somearchive.debian.org for the same update.
Of course, along those lines, where I used to work (mid-sized school district) all clients booted through PXE, and didn't have drives at all. System updates were done to a shared changeroot and worked rather nicely.
I'm not sure about digital snapshot cameras. But I've seen plenty of security/web/etc cameras that do IR. Filters for a camera may be somewhat affordable as well.
Why not cameras that use different wavelengths of light, etc? For example, one that works in visible light, and one that works in infrared?
How about the use of different polarized lenses to block certain wavelengths of light?
The problem with a "universal" style charger is that it might screw up and overvolt your device (or you might set the dial wrong when switching between devices), but what about something that was semi-smart and would auto-adjust depending on the plug?
Let's say you get a little charging pod, maybe with a simple interface (LCD, buttons for +/- voltage or amps within available range). Now, it can come with several end-connectors, all which have different pins to plug into the master device. Plug one in and set the volts/amps.
Next time it will automatically start charging at the voltage assigned to that pinout combo (two pins are always for actual power, but the rest are identifiers).
Next, you can chop up your old connectors and then wire them onto the positive-negative leads from each. If it were to be a non-geek project then perhaps it would have some sort of easy-to-use clip to hook things onto the adaptors.
Finally, charging. Plug end into device, plug other end into charger. The correct power settings are detected, and charging begins.
I can see a reason for two:
1. Work
2. Home
I suppose some people could add from the above:
3. Mistress
I'll skip the oblig comment about #1 and #2 not being applicable on /.
Nerds tend to have a number of devices on-hand which, at various intervals, require charging.
I personally tend to have have a small bag with my PDA, digital camera, and Mp3 player kicking around. All these devices use 5V, but connectors include:
a) Camera: standard barrel-connector
b) PDA: standard barrel connector (my old HP Ipaq required either the addon pack or keyboard to connect to a proprietary connector, but the addons had the barrel connector)
c) Mp3 player (Insignia): standard USB-mini
d) Phone (Samsung): USB cable connected to proprietary jack
I carry around a charger with an adjustable voltage setting and various connector bits for charging, but it lacks one for the USB-mini (or the weird USB-attached one on my phone).
What I've actually been wanting to do is emasculate a USB extension cable and add a barrel connector on one end, that way I can plug the phone's cable or the USB-mini into my charger and thus not need extra chargers for them while on the road. Overall they're a major pain in the ass to deal with though.
My favorite issue with Telus was in dealing with contracts and their "bundled" bills.
My grandparents signed up for internet with them, and supposedly for the first while the internet rates were lower than normal. After a while, they decided to cancel and move on to Shaw. When they called in to do so, Telus told them that they were locked in a (3 year I believe) contract.
Now keep in mind, this is not like a cellular service. There's no documentation, no terms of service provided. The box that came with the DSL modem had only the usage manual. Nothing signed, and nothing anywhere stating a contract.
According to the phone agent, the "contract" was presented in a click-through on the software used to setup the modem. However, in this case I was the one that setup the modem, and had done so through their webpage (not using the software CD, and not seeing any click-through contracts).
Telus - of course - could not provide anything to support their "contact", but the rep actually told me "if you don't like it, take it to court." When I asked for their legal contact info, I was told for that I'd have to "get a lawyer, and have him figure it out."
At the same time, Telus is also the local phone monopoly, so bills for ADSL and phone service are combined. I tried to get *those* separated so that I could at least deal with VISA about the DSL service without getting dinged for non-payment on the phone part. Telus will not separate the bills.
I've had plenty of issues with Telus on my own, but this case was the worst. Trying to trick senior citizens into believing their into a contract without any corroboration is just plani evil (and I did check the old advertising for the plain, no contract was mentioned).
I'd imagine that Klingons would dish out some pretty massive punishment when scammers get caught, so you're unlikely to see many Klingons using these tools.
Perhaps you'd be better to search in Ferenghi?
Okay, first off Bob does _not_ get Sally's user name and password. Bob uses his own user name and new _secure_ password to access the network share
Yup, and in an optimal world where IT is informed about changes it wouldn't be too big an issue to make a few network changes to give Bob the access he needs. However, in many places I've worked it's more a case of "Sally's on mat-leave? Who's handling her work. How does he have access? You did what???!!"
Or they could use it to bring additional charges against the gang-members who were making the video...
The true answer is that their password _can_ be the name of their dog, for 95% of users
In a perfect world, this might be true. However, it's not. It's like saying that 70% of the people on earth can have unprotected sex because only 30% have STD's (numbers pulled at random for demonstration purposes).
However, in real life, there are plenty of other scenarios.
a) Not password, but security related (say restriction downloads). You have Bob on the 1st floor who pretty much just writes out paperwork. However, Bob's computer gets a virus. This virus emails itself to the department in the form of an infected document or whatever, which gets opened by Jim in accounting. Now Jim's computer sends all the client-info to some public webserver where it's picked up by crackers from Russia.
What, you want a password example, OK, how about this
b) We'll use Bob as an example again, except this time, Sally from HR has gone on Maternity leave. There's nobody to replace her right away, so Bob gets somewhat of a promotion. Sally gives Bob access to her network share via her username/password, so that he can access documents there. Sally's password is fairly secure, however Bob's is still "fido." Frank from the other department decides to sniff around because he thinks he's getting stiffed on pay. He logs into Bob's computer and downloads an Excel sheet with the employee pay scales from Sally's share that's still connected on Bob's computer...
And yes, there are plenty of examples that are more simple than this. Simple situations can cause big problems.
Now, I don't agree with IT Departments that insist you have a 15-character alphanumeric password with at least 2 other characters, but having a decently secure password that's not easily dictionaried or guessed is not that hard. Even alphanumeric is easy:
slashd0t
slash_d0t
d0t_slash
sla5h_d0t
Overly difficult to remember, not really. Super-duper-secure, perhaps not, but better than "fido" or the name of your firstborn child.
Were they legally imported? Is it the device that's illegal, or just the sale of them? Bags of crack won't make it through the border, hell customs will even search out volumes of pirated DVD's and seize them.
If there were signed off on during importing before the guy sold them, then perhaps he could argue that by passing customs they were given somewhat of a thumbs-up?
It seems to me that losing some merchandise at the border would have been a lot better than getting stuck in jail after selling it.
While this particular law may have been a little more obvious, there are plenty that aren't. In fact, there are so many weird laws out there that even the best judges/lawyers/politicians can't keep track of them. In some cases it helps the prosecutors (if they really want to nail somebody but can't get him on "crime X", find a "crime Y" that fits), and in rare cases it may help the defendant (find a weird technicality that actually lets you off).
However, the only way to have a bad law shot down seems to be to go to court over it, and fight it tooth and nail.
It's not so easy to "simply not break the law" when the law is nonsensical.
I've always found the biggest issues with Intel was due to deficiencies in the hardware, not the drivers. Drivers tended to install fairly easily, or be OS-native (even Linux support was great), however in terms of inherent functionality the hardware was at most near the middle lines.
ATI on the other hand, was well known for shit-tastic drivers until AMD stepped in more recently.
I'm guessing this applies to those that were taking business trips and thus had additional info (company sponsored, conference room, etc).
br
I don't think I've ever been asked where I worked when booking at a Best Western (not that I use them often).
There shouldn't be a race condition. Only one user per voting machine at a time, and each machine has its own records. The records can then be synced to the master which can do some more detailed analysis later.
No DB needed, just (as you mentioned) a unique serial, date, location, and vote.
No chances of anyone voting for a somebody named "DROP TABLE candidates" either :-)