I work in a school district (a Canadian one at that). I've never seen any such contracts. Furthermore, who would be the ones submitting the material? Teachers of individual classes, principals? My experience has been that many teachers - while definitely knowledgeable within their own domain - often lack knowledge of outside factors. I've met plenty of Math teachers who can't spell, English teachers with poor math skills, so it wouldn't be a surprise if teachers would upload this material without checking the further legal ramifications.
That said, Principals and administrators are often more aware of legal issues, at least in terms of avoiding something that will get a school sued, but the technology angle of this might make it a bit elusive, and plenty of teachers might be submitting students' work to the database without checking with the admin-types first...
From my experience, hard work basically gets your... more work.
If you're in a union-style environment, hard work gets your work done just in time to have them ask you to do the work of the next guy who can't be fired (because he's union, and he hasn't done anything extreme like steal from the company, he just does 20% of the work you do).
If you're in a private/non-union environment, hard works gets your work done just in time to have the boss's son/nephew/niece/brother/cousin dump a bunch of half-baked shit on you... so you can fix up his mess so that he can tag out early head to the golf course.
While I'm very inclined to agree that the misuse of antibiotics contributes to the creation of resistant bacteria/etc, I wonder about other causes. From what I've seen, both personally and as advertised, humans nowadays have taken a large slide backwards in terms of personal health (and also in many cases, hygiene, as well). I have to wonder if perhaps one of the reason these nasties are breeding so strongly is that they have a environment in overweight, over-cholesterol, underexercised, overworked average citizens whose bodies simply aren't in good shape overall due to poor diet/exercise/working-conditions/etc.
So yes, these bugs are breeding strong to begin with, then are given a nice shot of antibiotics which kills off the weaker portions, which leaves the stronger ones to transfer to the next person.
Anyone with a medical background care to comment on this?
I've gotten plenty of spams that look exactly like the paypal "you have paid X" emails. The only difference is that the site it links to is not paypal, but one intended to snarf your password.
It's always worth checking out when you get a notification that a possibly-fraudulant purchase has been made. In my case I just go directly to paypal in my browser (without using the link in the email) and check my account, but I'd bet a lot of people might get suckered by this one.
Is there a way to enable signature-checking for certain domains? I haven't really looked into it, but I'll gladly add a check for PayPal's sig to my Postfix/etc config files.
I wonder what the cost is to produce these once the initial template is made? I know that many microchips have been found to have microscopic (nanoscopic?) logos and/or designs etched in them. Many countries also include various watermarks etched to microweave in their currency.
How practical would it be to include an imprint that is only visible to microscope, and have a verification method that depends on checking said imprint (would have to be viewable with somewhat inexpensive microscopes).
Only a porn star could receive sperm from two different males in a small enough period of time to make your idea happen
Why? In various tests it can be shown that some people's "swimmers" are faster than others. So maybe person (a) had the lazy backstroke variety while person (b) had the olympic athlete variety. What's the optimal time to reach destination, and I've heard that it be in excess of an hour... which is plenty of time for things to happen with two donors.
There are a lot of people on here that like to say that "lawyers like to draw things out because it earns more money"
From what I've seen, if a lawyer is worth his/her beans, it works out just as well if not better when the case closes fast. You close the case, get paid, and it's good for your reputation. This frees you up for other cases, so there's not really any lost profit, just more cases. I suppose there are advantages/disadvantages of either. A long-drawn case could be worth a lot of money, but it seems to me that the long-drawn case doesn't really look good for the lawyer, can be a bit of a bore, and would really suck reputation-wise if it ended in a loss.
On the other hand, one might lose a bunch of cases out of several quick ones, so that's not exactly reputation-positive either. There's also the extra amount of learning involved in pulling a bunch of extra cases, but I suppose it's my personality-type to prefer variety.
HP's policy seems to generally be that the OS gets reimaged when the machine comes in anyhow. I was told this by a rep when sending my machine in for motherboard issues (zd7000 has issues using both RAM slots, Northbridge is a bit flakey). To avoid losing my data, I took out the 80GB drive and stuck in a blank 10GB. Oddly, the laptop came back with another 80GB drive and fresh OS install:-)
So I guess the solution is, don't mention linux, just stick a spare drive in and get a free upgrade.
If you did, there's this little option called "chargeback"
Moreover, if you don't have verbal (record) or written assent to the so-called contract, it'll be dumped. Basically what Visa does is get both parties on the phone and ask the salesperson to play back the part where they indicated a contract or non-refundable item. Nothing said, nothing written = no contract, and your money usually comes back to you.
Just like Apple Computer didn't have any intention of getting into the music business, and thus agreed not to do so with "Apple Records" (Apple Corps, associated/w the Beatles). However, as time passed, the emergence of P2P music technology and portable players led to the creation of the now-famous iPod and the related website iTunes. Of course, this led to more legal battles between the two Apples, but it's probably safe to say that Apple Computer didn't see the merger of the computing and music markets coming.
So, like Apple, it might be true that Google has no interest in pursuing the mobile-phone industry, but who knows about the future
The voice acting wasn't bad... I'd definitely have to say that the "olde english" flair added something to the environment, however then I got my GF into playing FFX.
Some of the rendering is a little plasticy, but I'd have to say that while the character models are perhaps not as good as FFXII, the environment is in many cases a little better, the soundtrack is better, and the actual voice acting is definitely a step above.
I remember playing KOTOR a few years back and thinking that a final-fantasy-style game would do well in such an environment, so FFXII wasn't a big deviation for me in terms of gameplay. When you think about it, it's really just a step up from the mechanics of say, "Chrono Trigger" and "Secret of Mana"
I would summarize it as:
- Nicer battle system (more interactive, more realistic)
- Lots of eyecandy
- Poor transitions (from in-game to pre-rendered video, for example many boss attachs)
However, it has these certain MMORPG overtones
- Lots of repetitive tasks
- Sidequests don't add much to the overall story value
- Grind...
And the plot is a bit lacking
- Underdeveloped characters
- Less believable characters
- Pretty, but fluffy...
However, the environment itself was rather nice. In the english version, the use of somewhat archaic language added somewhat to the game IMHO
I think at the moment they're facing many enemies, but overall their greatest is in fact their own incompetence and inability to smoothly transition in a changing market. Their own enemy is simple greed.
For years and even decades, music companies have managed to milk the talent of skilled performers while at the same time overpumping and burning out mediocre ones. However, those days are gone, and the market has changed. Gone are the days when you needed to buy three tapes if you wanted a proper-quality version for your car, home, and office (there was some loss when copying tapes). Gone are the days when customers could not easily replicate music. Gone are the days when they could milk customers for an entire disc/tape/record when only 1-3 songs were worth bothering with. Moreover, while their models have also greatly depending on screwing over good musicians with draconian contracts. Yes, they still have such contracts, and some fools fall into them, but at the same time more and more are realizing that they don't need to RIAA to further themselves, or that it would be a case of 2 steps forward, 3 steps back in many cases. Lastly, customers are starting to turn away from the pop-performer crud that's been pumped for the last 5-8 years, and going back to music that was based on... well... music (and not some guy dancing on stage in fancy MTV duds). I work in a school district, and I'm very very happy to notice that even the kids are starting to turn away from lip-syncing low-talent hacks and go back to the good stuff.
So they've lost their target market. They've lost their baseline products. Heck, they've even lost their longstanding model of suppliers. The biggest part is the greed of it all, as they still expect the same massively-inflated profits. Keep in mind too, that this is not revenues I'm speaking of, but profits. After all the expenses, it's still a massive money they come ahead with. Perhaps that money might be declining in the future, or they might have to spend some of it developing new infrastructures for a time, but it's still a shitload and they've no right to complain at all.
Sure, there are some people who have biochemical anger reactions that are stronger and/or easier to set off than others, but those people can still learn to control their anger, it's just harder.
By the same basis, some people are better learners than other, which can be a product of the biological predisposition that determines attention span and various other things. Actually, I should rephrase that to say that some people are better learners under a given environment (which in many cases, is a common environment for many during childhood at least in regards to the education system). Now, those people may grow up learning very little, or they may discover a way to learn that better fits their attention spans, and thus come out with a lot. Drugs can also help in some cases, affecting conditions like attention deficits etc, but the overall result is a combination of the input method used and that acceptable (kinda like finding the right plug)
By the same token, those with anger issues, or social issues, can find ways to integrate into normal society. However, there may be the extreme case where there is simple no known input method to teach morality to a given individual, nor is there a method to adjust his/her biochemical "plug" so that it can receive input in a known way.
But then again, it depends on one's needs as well.
If you're a windows user, and you got Vista with your computer or whatever, and it does what you need it to, then there's no real drive to switch or investigate other options.
The same applies to linux users. Disregarding the tendency towards disdain of microsoft products in general, if you're using linux, why pay for a copy of Vista? Now maybe some users might play around with both if they were existing linux users and/or got a new machine that came with Vista... or if they find themselves having to service vista machines.
I don't personally have a need to buy Vista. If I got a new machine that had it, well then I'll probably play around with it a bit more here and there. What has always boggled me is the number of people who jump on one bandwagon or another... like those I know who bought Vista simply because it was newer. Windows XP isn't actually a bad OS, depending on what you need it to do, but if I really wanted fancy eyecandy I might be inclined to choose linux simply because it costs me nothing (other than time) to check it out.
That being said, I've still had no luck getting Beryl working on my Compaq nx8220 laptop... I'll have to play with it on my home one that has an Nvidia card... or the desktop that has an Intel i915 (which works nicely). I think perhaps one of the biggest drawbacks in the "eyecandy" realm of linux is the dubious hardware support. Sure, it'll look great and do lots of nifty things, but only if you can get the hardware to play nicely first. This is course, I will lay at the feet of the hardware manufacturers, but luckily that too is improving over time.
So overall, I use linux a lot, XP still fairly often, 98 fairly often (old work machines), Vista rarely, and OSX on the odd occasion that I play with a Mac at one of the sites at work.
Consider the number of college students that go out and "booze it up, etc, etc", perhaps rather than doing this, they're spending some time online playing a game. It doesn't necessarily mean that they are neglecting their studies, but rather that they are taking some time here and there to wind down and enjoy a nice game.
I tended to do the full-burn thing early-on, finish my assignments, and then kick back for a game of Quake 2/3 or various others when I was in college. It was a great way to relieve stress after busting my brain on code for several days/hours, and slightly more healthy than drinking my face off like many did.
Compare on similar hardware, and use categories such as UI attractiveness, usefulness, hardware consumption (RAM/disk-space/CPU/GPU) etc
Personally, some of the best things I've seen have been with Beryl. The "ripple" effect when a tray icon flashes is rather good for grabbing attention, but less annoying than your standard speech-bubble popup, the varying eyecandy is impressive, and it does enhance ones ability to multitask in various aspects. I've also heard similar good things about Vista's ability to organize folders in a 3d fashion.
As mentioned in an earlier post, I've found the Intel i915 series open-source drivers to be very nice. When setting then up with Beryl on my co-workers computer, I expected them to be laughable, but they turned out to be quite impressive indeed.
I'd guess that they still aren't great for the current generation of games etc, but for desktop acceleration, and some old games, Intel's commitment to Open-Source has been quite impressive. Of all the companies out there, I've found that they're the most FOSS-friendly, with OSS drivers for almost all their Soundcards, NIC's, Wireless NIC's, and Graphics cards.
Actually, I'd have agree here. For your normal desktop stuff, the i915 is pretty darn good.
In linux anyhow (in windows the freakin thing won't even show my accelerated RSS screensavers properly) it actually behaved better than a supposedly higher-end ATI card when using Beryl, and was in fact a fair bit more convenient to setup than even my NVidia card.
Actually, I rather like the artistic style of the game. The environment seems a mix of Sam'n'Max crossed with Zelda. Cartoony, but well drawn and believable while not trying to push the "realism" button too much (like many games do nowadays).
Of course that says nothing of the gameplay or plot, but I'll keep an eye on this one to see what the reviews say about that.
Sure, stick a tape in water and it might still maintain enough data for recovery. But how about running it past a magnet? Oops, there goes your data, and nowadays there are a lot of things that generate magnet fields which - while they might not be enough to completely fry all you data - do a good job of scrambling magnetic media.
Now I'm not going to suggest that a box of DVD's bought at Walmart in a 50/$25 pack is a good replacement for tapes, but in cases with proper handling and storage, optical-based media can be in fact quite reliable. There are still some steps that should be followed for any media, however:
a) Checksums. Write 'em if you can.
b) As with (a), verify them every now and then, and also do a full "test restore" once and awhile for good measure
c) Transportation: Use care, if you have magnetic media beware of anything that might give off a strong enough magnetic field to kill you data. If you have optical media, carefully store it and prevent scratching or abrasion
d) Storage: Use the same as above. Keep archives stored in a safe place - preferably OFF SITE, with friendly environmental conditions. An on-site storage facility will not help you if your building burns down. Storing it under the bed by the radiator in the computer tech's house is a good way to kill backups (such things happen more than one might think). A low-light, proper-humidity, sealed, element-safe storage location should be a good part of any backup plan. If it is on-site... well then get one that's fireproof, waterproof, and make sure that the door is actually closed on the thing at the end of the day otherwise all bets are off (off-site is still better).
e) Safety: Make sure your data storage location is secure. If you're using off-site, make sure that access to the off-site location is limited. Same thing with on-site (though it may be easier to control this). Remember, those backups have all your data, so while it may be safe from disc/tape-rot, fire, and flood... it also has be safe from the guy who's looking to steal your multi-million-dollar account numbers that have been saved in the backup.
Slashdot Mirror
I work in a school district (a Canadian one at that). I've never seen any such contracts. Furthermore, who would be the ones submitting the material? Teachers of individual classes, principals? My experience has been that many teachers - while definitely knowledgeable within their own domain - often lack knowledge of outside factors. I've met plenty of Math teachers who can't spell, English teachers with poor math skills, so it wouldn't be a surprise if teachers would upload this material without checking the further legal ramifications.
That said, Principals and administrators are often more aware of legal issues, at least in terms of avoiding something that will get a school sued, but the technology angle of this might make it a bit elusive, and plenty of teachers might be submitting students' work to the database without checking with the admin-types first...
From my experience, hard work basically gets your... more work.
If you're in a union-style environment, hard work gets your work done just in time to have them ask you to do the work of the next guy who can't be fired (because he's union, and he hasn't done anything extreme like steal from the company, he just does 20% of the work you do).
If you're in a private/non-union environment, hard works gets your work done just in time to have the boss's son/nephew/niece/brother/cousin dump a bunch of half-baked shit on you... so you can fix up his mess so that he can tag out early head to the golf course.
While I'm very inclined to agree that the misuse of antibiotics contributes to the creation of resistant bacteria/etc, I wonder about other causes. From what I've seen, both personally and as advertised, humans nowadays have taken a large slide backwards in terms of personal health (and also in many cases, hygiene, as well). I have to wonder if perhaps one of the reason these nasties are breeding so strongly is that they have a environment in overweight, over-cholesterol, underexercised, overworked average citizens whose bodies simply aren't in good shape overall due to poor diet/exercise/working-conditions/etc.
So yes, these bugs are breeding strong to begin with, then are given a nice shot of antibiotics which kills off the weaker portions, which leaves the stronger ones to transfer to the next person.
Anyone with a medical background care to comment on this?
WTF are they smoking up in Redmond?
At first it seemed to be dope due to the green color. At closer inspect, though, it turns out that it's dollar bills...
by measuring the microwave absorption ... This avoided the need to use electrodes. Such electrodes often disrupt the measurement.
According to This article they avoided standard meters to gain better measurements.
I've gotten plenty of spams that look exactly like the paypal "you have paid X" emails. The only difference is that the site it links to is not paypal, but one intended to snarf your password.
It's always worth checking out when you get a notification that a possibly-fraudulant purchase has been made. In my case I just go directly to paypal in my browser (without using the link in the email) and check my account, but I'd bet a lot of people might get suckered by this one.
Is there a way to enable signature-checking for certain domains? I haven't really looked into it, but I'll gladly add a check for PayPal's sig to my Postfix/etc config files.
I wonder what the cost is to produce these once the initial template is made? I know that many microchips have been found to have microscopic (nanoscopic?) logos and/or designs etched in them. Many countries also include various watermarks etched to microweave in their currency.
How practical would it be to include an imprint that is only visible to microscope, and have a verification method that depends on checking said imprint (would have to be viewable with somewhat inexpensive microscopes).
Only a porn star could receive sperm from two different males in a small enough period of time to make your idea happen
Why? In various tests it can be shown that some people's "swimmers" are faster than others. So maybe person (a) had the lazy backstroke variety while person (b) had the olympic athlete variety. What's the optimal time to reach destination, and I've heard that it be in excess of an hour... which is plenty of time for things to happen with two donors.
There are a lot of people on here that like to say that "lawyers like to draw things out because it earns more money"
From what I've seen, if a lawyer is worth his/her beans, it works out just as well if not better when the case closes fast. You close the case, get paid, and it's good for your reputation. This frees you up for other cases, so there's not really any lost profit, just more cases. I suppose there are advantages/disadvantages of either. A long-drawn case could be worth a lot of money, but it seems to me that the long-drawn case doesn't really look good for the lawyer, can be a bit of a bore, and would really suck reputation-wise if it ended in a loss.
On the other hand, one might lose a bunch of cases out of several quick ones, so that's not exactly reputation-positive either. There's also the extra amount of learning involved in pulling a bunch of extra cases, but I suppose it's my personality-type to prefer variety.
HP's policy seems to generally be that the OS gets reimaged when the machine comes in anyhow. I was told this by a rep when sending my machine in for motherboard issues (zd7000 has issues using both RAM slots, Northbridge is a bit flakey). To avoid losing my data, I took out the 80GB drive and stuck in a blank 10GB. Oddly, the laptop came back with another 80GB drive and fresh OS install :-)
So I guess the solution is, don't mention linux, just stick a spare drive in and get a free upgrade.
You just need to have purchased by Visa. If they don't honor the warranty, chargeback time!
If you did, there's this little option called "chargeback"
Moreover, if you don't have verbal (record) or written assent to the so-called contract, it'll be dumped. Basically what Visa does is get both parties on the phone and ask the salesperson to play back the part where they indicated a contract or non-refundable item. Nothing said, nothing written = no contract, and your money usually comes back to you.
Just like Apple Computer didn't have any intention of getting into the music business, and thus agreed not to do so with "Apple Records" (Apple Corps, associated /w the Beatles). However, as time passed, the emergence of P2P music technology and portable players led to the creation of the now-famous iPod and the related website iTunes. Of course, this led to more legal battles between the two Apples, but it's probably safe to say that Apple Computer didn't see the merger of the computing and music markets coming.
So, like Apple, it might be true that Google has no interest in pursuing the mobile-phone industry, but who knows about the future
The voice acting wasn't bad... I'd definitely have to say that the "olde english" flair added something to the environment, however then I got my GF into playing FFX.
Some of the rendering is a little plasticy, but I'd have to say that while the character models are perhaps not as good as FFXII, the environment is in many cases a little better, the soundtrack is better, and the actual voice acting is definitely a step above.
I remember playing KOTOR a few years back and thinking that a final-fantasy-style game would do well in such an environment, so FFXII wasn't a big deviation for me in terms of gameplay. When you think about it, it's really just a step up from the mechanics of say, "Chrono Trigger" and "Secret of Mana"
I would summarize it as: - Nicer battle system (more interactive, more realistic) - Lots of eyecandy - Poor transitions (from in-game to pre-rendered video, for example many boss attachs) However, it has these certain MMORPG overtones - Lots of repetitive tasks - Sidequests don't add much to the overall story value - Grind... And the plot is a bit lacking - Underdeveloped characters - Less believable characters - Pretty, but fluffy... However, the environment itself was rather nice. In the english version, the use of somewhat archaic language added somewhat to the game IMHO
I think at the moment they're facing many enemies, but overall their greatest is in fact their own incompetence and inability to smoothly transition in a changing market. Their own enemy is simple greed.
For years and even decades, music companies have managed to milk the talent of skilled performers while at the same time overpumping and burning out mediocre ones. However, those days are gone, and the market has changed. Gone are the days when you needed to buy three tapes if you wanted a proper-quality version for your car, home, and office (there was some loss when copying tapes). Gone are the days when customers could not easily replicate music. Gone are the days when they could milk customers for an entire disc/tape/record when only 1-3 songs were worth bothering with. Moreover, while their models have also greatly depending on screwing over good musicians with draconian contracts. Yes, they still have such contracts, and some fools fall into them, but at the same time more and more are realizing that they don't need to RIAA to further themselves, or that it would be a case of 2 steps forward, 3 steps back in many cases. Lastly, customers are starting to turn away from the pop-performer crud that's been pumped for the last 5-8 years, and going back to music that was based on... well... music (and not some guy dancing on stage in fancy MTV duds). I work in a school district, and I'm very very happy to notice that even the kids are starting to turn away from lip-syncing low-talent hacks and go back to the good stuff.
So they've lost their target market. They've lost their baseline products. Heck, they've even lost their longstanding model of suppliers. The biggest part is the greed of it all, as they still expect the same massively-inflated profits. Keep in mind too, that this is not revenues I'm speaking of, but profits. After all the expenses, it's still a massive money they come ahead with. Perhaps that money might be declining in the future, or they might have to spend some of it developing new infrastructures for a time, but it's still a shitload and they've no right to complain at all.
For example, take: killing=bad
However...
- killing animal=less bad
- (unless the animal is cute
- killing for food is better
- maiming is bad, but hunting for sport is good.
Add to that... killing people=badMorality is one of the trickiest and least simple/straightforward subjects out there, regardless even of religion.
Why can't it be a product of both?
Sure, there are some people who have biochemical anger reactions that are stronger and/or easier to set off than others, but those people can still learn to control their anger, it's just harder.
By the same basis, some people are better learners than other, which can be a product of the biological predisposition that determines attention span and various other things. Actually, I should rephrase that to say that some people are better learners under a given environment (which in many cases, is a common environment for many during childhood at least in regards to the education system). Now, those people may grow up learning very little, or they may discover a way to learn that better fits their attention spans, and thus come out with a lot. Drugs can also help in some cases, affecting conditions like attention deficits etc, but the overall result is a combination of the input method used and that acceptable (kinda like finding the right plug)
By the same token, those with anger issues, or social issues, can find ways to integrate into normal society. However, there may be the extreme case where there is simple no known input method to teach morality to a given individual, nor is there a method to adjust his/her biochemical "plug" so that it can receive input in a known way.
But then again, it depends on one's needs as well.
If you're a windows user, and you got Vista with your computer or whatever, and it does what you need it to, then there's no real drive to switch or investigate other options.
The same applies to linux users. Disregarding the tendency towards disdain of microsoft products in general, if you're using linux, why pay for a copy of Vista? Now maybe some users might play around with both if they were existing linux users and/or got a new machine that came with Vista... or if they find themselves having to service vista machines.
I don't personally have a need to buy Vista. If I got a new machine that had it, well then I'll probably play around with it a bit more here and there. What has always boggled me is the number of people who jump on one bandwagon or another... like those I know who bought Vista simply because it was newer. Windows XP isn't actually a bad OS, depending on what you need it to do, but if I really wanted fancy eyecandy I might be inclined to choose linux simply because it costs me nothing (other than time) to check it out.
That being said, I've still had no luck getting Beryl working on my Compaq nx8220 laptop... I'll have to play with it on my home one that has an Nvidia card... or the desktop that has an Intel i915 (which works nicely). I think perhaps one of the biggest drawbacks in the "eyecandy" realm of linux is the dubious hardware support. Sure, it'll look great and do lots of nifty things, but only if you can get the hardware to play nicely first. This is course, I will lay at the feet of the hardware manufacturers, but luckily that too is improving over time.
So overall, I use linux a lot, XP still fairly often, 98 fairly often (old work machines), Vista rarely, and OSX on the odd occasion that I play with a Mac at one of the sites at work.
Consider the number of college students that go out and "booze it up, etc, etc", perhaps rather than doing this, they're spending some time online playing a game. It doesn't necessarily mean that they are neglecting their studies, but rather that they are taking some time here and there to wind down and enjoy a nice game.
I tended to do the full-burn thing early-on, finish my assignments, and then kick back for a game of Quake 2/3 or various others when I was in college. It was a great way to relieve stress after busting my brain on code for several days/hours, and slightly more healthy than drinking my face off like many did.
Vista /w Beryl
OSX
Linux (say Debian/Ubuntu)
Compare on similar hardware, and use categories such as UI attractiveness, usefulness, hardware consumption (RAM/disk-space/CPU/GPU) etc
Personally, some of the best things I've seen have been with Beryl. The "ripple" effect when a tray icon flashes is rather good for grabbing attention, but less annoying than your standard speech-bubble popup, the varying eyecandy is impressive, and it does enhance ones ability to multitask in various aspects. I've also heard similar good things about Vista's ability to organize folders in a 3d fashion.
As mentioned in an earlier post, I've found the Intel i915 series open-source drivers to be very nice. When setting then up with Beryl on my co-workers computer, I expected them to be laughable, but they turned out to be quite impressive indeed.
I'd guess that they still aren't great for the current generation of games etc, but for desktop acceleration, and some old games, Intel's commitment to Open-Source has been quite impressive. Of all the companies out there, I've found that they're the most FOSS-friendly, with OSS drivers for almost all their Soundcards, NIC's, Wireless NIC's, and Graphics cards.
Actually, I'd have agree here. For your normal desktop stuff, the i915 is pretty darn good.
In linux anyhow (in windows the freakin thing won't even show my accelerated RSS screensavers properly) it actually behaved better than a supposedly higher-end ATI card when using Beryl, and was in fact a fair bit more convenient to setup than even my NVidia card.
Actually, I rather like the artistic style of the game. The environment seems a mix of Sam'n'Max crossed with Zelda. Cartoony, but well drawn and believable while not trying to push the "realism" button too much (like many games do nowadays).
Of course that says nothing of the gameplay or plot, but I'll keep an eye on this one to see what the reviews say about that.
Sure, stick a tape in water and it might still maintain enough data for recovery. But how about running it past a magnet? Oops, there goes your data, and nowadays there are a lot of things that generate magnet fields which - while they might not be enough to completely fry all you data - do a good job of scrambling magnetic media.
Now I'm not going to suggest that a box of DVD's bought at Walmart in a 50/$25 pack is a good replacement for tapes, but in cases with proper handling and storage, optical-based media can be in fact quite reliable. There are still some steps that should be followed for any media, however:
a) Checksums. Write 'em if you can.
b) As with (a), verify them every now and then, and also do a full "test restore" once and awhile for good measure
c) Transportation: Use care, if you have magnetic media beware of anything that might give off a strong enough magnetic field to kill you data. If you have optical media, carefully store it and prevent scratching or abrasion
d) Storage: Use the same as above. Keep archives stored in a safe place - preferably OFF SITE, with friendly environmental conditions. An on-site storage facility will not help you if your building burns down. Storing it under the bed by the radiator in the computer tech's house is a good way to kill backups (such things happen more than one might think). A low-light, proper-humidity, sealed, element-safe storage location should be a good part of any backup plan. If it is on-site... well then get one that's fireproof, waterproof, and make sure that the door is actually closed on the thing at the end of the day otherwise all bets are off (off-site is still better).
e) Safety: Make sure your data storage location is secure. If you're using off-site, make sure that access to the off-site location is limited. Same thing with on-site (though it may be easier to control this). Remember, those backups have all your data, so while it may be safe from disc/tape-rot, fire, and flood... it also has be safe from the guy who's looking to steal your multi-million-dollar account numbers that have been saved in the backup.