when my Dad accidentally deleted my ICQ list, it was the worst possible thing that could happen to me.
Yeah, but if you had a regular community in that list then you would quickly have it rebuilt as all your "friends" sent you messages like "duderz h0w come joo h4v3n't g4m3d with us l8ly?"
Actually, most real gamers don't talk like that, idiot newbies who make good cannon fodder do though:-)
Make all donations "anonymous" via a well-restricted system. If you support a party, then you probably donate in order to forward the needs of that party. If you are a corporate slug, you're quite likely doing it to get recognised for a favor.
Corporate slugs can still donate towards those who have a similar political agenda, but it would help relieve the issues of donations in the way of bribes.
Yes, politicians will still know who their key corporate wallet-openers are, but it might help the problem a bit.
The only problem I would see is, if it's anonymous - how do we regulate the amount they can donate. Perhaps we can just use "Mr X already donated, so he can't donate again. No amount, no recipient names."
Oh, and I'm Canadian, so this doesn't 100% affect me, except that American corps are often known to bribe politicians up here in hopes for opportunities to undercut local businesses or buy us out.
For those who run servers in racks, and pay for space taken taken, etc - it's a cost effective solution. If you pay for the space taken by a single PC, but suddenly can fit 3-4 in a the space of a single then you are saving money.
So they run on 12V DC? How many watts? Heating issues could also be a problem, if you start clustering these in a box... although you could use the extra space behind for a few fans.
Personally, I looked at this and said "sweet, it would probably fit in the dash of my car."
Running at 12V DC it makes sense, not to mention the fact that newer Mp3 decks can cost only about $100 less...
Yes, I want one of these in my car... wish it had TV-out and/or a decent video card (doesn't say the chipset) and/or maybe PCMCIA slots, but you can't have everything.
Resale value fine, as long as somebody doesn't unknowningly get stuck with it.
Leaky pipes, etc, etc are things often considered, I'm not sure if spam would qualify as something that's required to be disclosed, or asked about.
He's a question, what happens to some poor sucker when he moves out. I live in an apartment. The girl before me lived here for 2-3 years... but I'm getting mail addressed to somebody that is not me and not her.
I have a feeling that this spam could persist past the spammer, being a serious annoying for anyone unfortunate enough to buy his house when he next moves.
Isn't this a bit extreme? I mean, if they ran the "magic wand" or whatever over him, the levels would be constant enough to confirm it. I mean, if his head were giving off radiation, it would more or less confirm the story. Since lots of (irradiated?) blood passes through the brain, I would assume that it would have a high concentration?
Of course, if he had a green glowing trouser snake once they searched him, this would probably tip them off too.
Um, sorry sir. wow - can you use that thing as, like, a night-lite or something
I didn't quite grasp it in the article, but I would assume that this data is somehow encoded/protected so that it is only accessible with the key or subscription (post-trial)?
I remember when ID software shipped extra games on their Quake, etc CD's. You could call in and get a decoding key to install the games.
After a while, somebody cracked the CD and you could get the games with a keygen... somehow I think encoding data on a machine is just asking for trouble.
I use SilverServers (www.SilverServers.com) for my commercial clients.
Their primary business is shared and dedicated server hosting, however
Co-location services are available. Since they're situated in Canada, the
pricing reflects is significantly lower than US providers I've seen offering similar service.
Quality is provided through redundant power to the rack (2 separate
feeds) both with UPS and Generator backups. There are 2 ~100mbps
(BGP4) fibre connections through competing providers, backed up by
another (smaller) tertiary connection. The standard ~40U racks are in
a climate controlled environment in a seismically stable location. (for those non-tech, the temperature is regulated and it's not near any areas known for earthquakes, flooding or other natural problems).
For dedicated servers, their low-end (advertised) product consists of
custom-built system running RedHat Linux, Solaris x86 (being phased
out last time I checked), and W2K. They offer custom installs, IDE/SCSI RAID (hardware
and/or software depending on budget). For a single P3 machine the price starts at $169/month.
Remember, I'm Canadian so the prices I mention are in CAD. They're a solid provider whom I'd definately recommend, especially for dedicated servers.
I've found that most comparable American providers are most expensive, and the really cheap ones who advertise comparable service often run servers in other countries with cheap service and virtually no support. These guys hosted a major soccer server during the European soccer season, the hits they were getting were huge but the (dedicated) server survived nicely, which leads me to believe that they would also survive similarly in a slashdotting.
p.s. I think they also provide domain name registration, which I found was cheaper than elsewhere (they also host my domain).
It will be definately interesting to see how well these sell, and more importantly, what the sell-to-return ratio is after Christmas. I expect a lot of people are saying "hey, cheap computer!" and putting it under the tree.
Heck, for some guy buying a computer for his almost-never-used-a-PC-before granny/mother/aunt/etc this is a great present. Cheap, goes online, runs a word processor. They're not super-fast, but they're not retarded-slow either.
I doubt you'll see many gamers buying these, but for those who are just trying to get some letters printed and emails sent, it's a good deal.
I host myself, but for the business DSL connection, it's $75CAD (about $45US or so?) a month for business DSL.
The server I bought used, with the box and all internals at about $120CAD.
Comparable, a hosting company I work with charges about $25/mo CAD for shared hosting (there are other dedicated packages as well). If I weren't hosting a bunch of other people for free, and using a lot of bandwidth/files, I'd probably have gone for the $25/mo server, it's cheaper than running the business DSL (but also not as prestigious as running one's own server).
expect a great deal of political and legal pressure for Canada to fall in line with the other states.
You're right, and we should also revoke Canada's status as the 51st state right now. Damn Canadians never follow US law right anyways, let them try and duke it out as their own nation.
Actually, I read the same thing and was about to comment, but checked and found this here first. Canada is not a f**ing state buddies, it's a country. We have our own government, and our own laws. Granted, we often bend-over and take it when the US puts pressure on our government or legal system...
Get with it guys, there's no reason to patent these little mousies themselves, so long as the process is upheld (which we did do). Canada *does* tend to have a system of thought, law and morality that very much differs from the US (see laws: gun control, copyright, lawsuits), so we are perfectly within our rights to uphold these values in our laws.
Er, excuse me, have to get the door
Hello, who the heck are you??
What? FBI? Patriot act? Expression of terrorist thought? Guys, this is Canada!
No, it's not a state, we have our own government and laws.
What? Bought out... political pressuring? Damn... Ok, I'll come peacefully
With initial packet data speeds up to 384 kbpsa wideband radio technology that provides mobile users with data rates up to 2 Mbps
More interesting would be a test of this under high saturation. Current systems are already getting bogged down, reception is getting craps, calls lost, etc. Once the user-base for the service gets high, I would predict a decrease in speed (at least for a time).
Never trust the "up to." My internet is supposed to get "up to " > 2.5Mbps transfer rate down. Average or mean would be a better indicator.
The patent is rejected here in Canada. Mainly, I think, to set precedent against (and continuing with precedent of) patenting the "higher life forms", as was mentioned.
If you want, you can also look here for a local article on the topic. The methodologies etc are patentable, the life form is not (in Canada).
Really, it should be this way in the rest of the world too, patenting the methologies and general process (not the lifeform) should be quite enough to prevent against scientific pilfering.
More likely phone #'s aren't given out on a fully trusting basis. Image the amount of annoying trekky phone calls he gets when people figure out his number.
Mind you, it's probably not extremely hard to find, but likely private enough to discourage nuisances.
(anyone have access to a Hollywood phone directory?)
No kidding. Especially with a cost-capacity ratio. On SCSI, to get anywhere near the large amount of IDE capacity, you need multiple drives. And of course, drives in SCSI are not cheap by any stretch of the imagination.
I'd rather shell out for a few 80/120GB drives than be nickel&dimes by a lot of smaller ones, although in the case of SCSI it's more like quarter-and-loonied (dollared for you Americans)
It could be that they block the word "red" in sitenames to avoid anti-communist sites, but this would be a very generic and/or stupid filter (not that the firewall in general isn't stupid).
I can't hit any sites above (except for redlobster), so - does anyone know how to check if the GFOC blocks a particular site? How about sites like "redpaint.com".
So, out of curiousity, do the sales of said additions/attachments go up on "Black Friday" on correspondance to the sale items which go down?
Sounds like a good way to wring a few bucks out of the simpleminder. Hey, this printer is only $45, oh, but don't forget you'll need this USB cable (at $25), and maybe some extra ink (at $30)...
Joining the bandwagon, but I'll contradict a few arguements
"Your computer is broadcasting an internet IP address...blah blah blah"
OK, so first of all as most people have said, most computers don't "broadcast" per say, they just make public. Secondly, what if you have a router (or as I use, a LEAF firewall). Even if you were to misconstrue "public" as "broadcasting", my computer doesn't even have an IP address public to the internet... it's part of the LAN (the router handles all the internet stuff). In this case, the ad has even less validity.
In other words, it's a lie. For many who receieve this "global-encompassing-adspamcrap", it doesn't apply at all, but may trick the feebleminded into thinking that their computers are insecure.
working, stable and extremely mission-critical apps for very large and established corporations...That are oftimes bloody expensive to have any downtown in, let alone enough to verify a changover to a new system.
Locally, one of the larger local businesses has an old beastie made of wires and PCB that can not be shut down? Reason, to turn off the apparatus it's connected to would require a lot of work to get it warmed up again, and having that particular apparatus off would probably mean shutting the entire plant for a certain period of time...
a.k.a, not something you want to mess with unless you've tested, and tested, and tested, and scenarioed, and prayed a few times before frantically moving things over to whatever the new configuration is.
And in such times, isn't it murphey's law that you end up with an event like "what do you mean you forgot the power cable at the office?!!!" just before/when going live.
Good point, that actually happened to me... found out Monday, done on Thursday. Of course, nowadays you're not even safe in a big company. It's easier to see it coming, but if you're a small guy you tend to be vulnerable to downsizing.
Yeah, but if Carmack went to the moon/mars then the place would suddenly become infested by grey demons and ugly pig things with big teeth. Subsequently, they'd be sucked into hell and have to battle their way through before returning to save earth...
How many times are they going to try to make our appliances interactive before they realize that it's just not something most people want. I want my kitchen table to be - just a kitchen table. If I need a personal reminder to take my "medication" (no jokes please, allergy pills only), then really an organizer wall-fixture would be much more appealing.
Granted, a living room table with an LCD or something would be cool, but please... the last thing I need while I'm trying to enjoy dinner is to have a bunch of flashing messages and (likely the next bright idea) advertisements floating under my coffee cup.
Oh, and strike the talking chairs too, most people wouldn't care to hear "cripes man, go hit the thigh-master, yer crushing me!" when sitting down.
Even with a College/Uni degree, or diploma, nobody should really expect to get out and immediately get a $75000/yr+superduperbenefits job. Really, what you should look for is a job that you would like, make you enough income to survive the first year, and looks really good on a resume.
Barring that, you can also spot the companies you'd wish to work for that do pay the big bucks, and try getting in on one of the lesser positions.
It's 100% easier to climb a ladder when you're already working in a company. It's also (ironically) very often easier to get a job when you've already got a job. You don't have to mention on your resume that you're "undervalued and underpaid", just list what you're capable of, and the fact that you are currently doing it helps prove so.
There are a lot of small/starter companies who need computer support that frankly can't afford to pay big bucks in the beginning. They do look good on a resume though, and the work generally isn't too hard. Oftimes if you are lucky, said companies can end up growing, and as they grow - so often does your paycheque.
It's hard to think of with the cost of living nowadays, but sometimes the value of a position is not in the paycheque, but in the respect, references, and experience it gains.
Oh, and a big problem with small companies is that it gets really hard to leave when you're ready to move on... they tend to grow on you.
Slashdot Mirror
when my Dad accidentally deleted my ICQ list, it was the worst possible thing that could happen to me.
:-)
Yeah, but if you had a regular community in that list then you would quickly have it rebuilt as all your "friends" sent you messages like "duderz h0w come joo h4v3n't g4m3d with us l8ly?"
Actually, most real gamers don't talk like that, idiot newbies who make good cannon fodder do though
Make all donations "anonymous" via a well-restricted system. If you support a party, then you probably donate in order to forward the needs of that party. If you are a corporate slug, you're quite likely doing it to get recognised for a favor.
Corporate slugs can still donate towards those who have a similar political agenda, but it would help relieve the issues of donations in the way of bribes.
Yes, politicians will still know who their key corporate wallet-openers are, but it might help the problem a bit.
The only problem I would see is, if it's anonymous - how do we regulate the amount they can donate. Perhaps we can just use "Mr X already donated, so he can't donate again. No amount, no recipient names."
Oh, and I'm Canadian, so this doesn't 100% affect me, except that American corps are often known to bribe politicians up here in hopes for opportunities to undercut local businesses or buy us out.
For those who run servers in racks, and pay for space taken taken, etc - it's a cost effective solution. If you pay for the space taken by a single PC, but suddenly can fit 3-4 in a the space of a single then you are saving money.
So they run on 12V DC? How many watts? Heating issues could also be a problem, if you start clustering these in a box... although you could use the extra space behind for a few fans.
Personally, I looked at this and said "sweet, it would probably fit in the dash of my car."
Running at 12V DC it makes sense, not to mention the fact that newer Mp3 decks can cost only about $100 less...
Yes, I want one of these in my car... wish it had TV-out and/or a decent video card (doesn't say the chipset) and/or maybe PCMCIA slots, but you can't have everything.
Resale value fine, as long as somebody doesn't unknowningly get stuck with it.
Leaky pipes, etc, etc are things often considered, I'm not sure if spam would qualify as something that's required to be disclosed, or asked about.
He's a question, what happens to some poor sucker when he moves out. I live in an apartment. The girl before me lived here for 2-3 years... but I'm getting mail addressed to somebody that is not me and not her.
I have a feeling that this spam could persist past the spammer, being a serious annoying for anyone unfortunate enough to buy his house when he next moves.
Isn't this a bit extreme? I mean, if they ran the "magic wand" or whatever over him, the levels would be constant enough to confirm it. I mean, if his head were giving off radiation, it would more or less confirm the story. Since lots of (irradiated?) blood passes through the brain, I would assume that it would have a high concentration?
Of course, if he had a green glowing trouser snake once they searched him, this would probably tip them off too.
Um, sorry sir. wow - can you use that thing as, like, a night-lite or something
I didn't quite grasp it in the article, but I would assume that this data is somehow encoded/protected so that it is only accessible with the key or subscription (post-trial)?
I remember when ID software shipped extra games on their Quake, etc CD's. You could call in and get a decoding key to install the games.
After a while, somebody cracked the CD and you could get the games with a keygen... somehow I think encoding data on a machine is just asking for trouble.
I use SilverServers (www.SilverServers.com) for my commercial clients. Their primary business is shared and dedicated server hosting, however Co-location services are available. Since they're situated in Canada, the pricing reflects is significantly lower than US providers I've seen offering similar service.
Quality is provided through redundant power to the rack (2 separate feeds) both with UPS and Generator backups. There are 2 ~100mbps (BGP4) fibre connections through competing providers, backed up by another (smaller) tertiary connection. The standard ~40U racks are in a climate controlled environment in a seismically stable location. (for those non-tech, the temperature is regulated and it's not near any areas known for earthquakes, flooding or other natural problems).
For dedicated servers, their low-end (advertised) product consists of custom-built system running RedHat Linux, Solaris x86 (being phased out last time I checked), and W2K. They offer custom installs, IDE/SCSI RAID (hardware and/or software depending on budget). For a single P3 machine the price starts at $169/month.
Remember, I'm Canadian so the prices I mention are in CAD. They're a solid provider whom I'd definately recommend, especially for dedicated servers.
I've found that most comparable American providers are most expensive, and the really cheap ones who advertise comparable service often run servers in other countries with cheap service and virtually no support. These guys hosted a major soccer server during the European soccer season, the hits they were getting were huge but the (dedicated) server survived nicely, which leads me to believe that they would also survive similarly in a slashdotting.
p.s. I think they also provide domain name registration, which I found was cheaper than elsewhere (they also host my domain).
It will be definately interesting to see how well these sell, and more importantly, what the sell-to-return ratio is after Christmas. I expect a lot of people are saying "hey, cheap computer!" and putting it under the tree.
Heck, for some guy buying a computer for his almost-never-used-a-PC-before granny/mother/aunt/etc this is a great present. Cheap, goes online, runs a word processor. They're not super-fast, but they're not retarded-slow either.
I doubt you'll see many gamers buying these, but for those who are just trying to get some letters printed and emails sent, it's a good deal.
I host myself, but for the business DSL connection, it's $75CAD (about $45US or so?) a month for business DSL.
The server I bought used, with the box and all internals at about $120CAD.
Comparable, a hosting company I work with charges about $25/mo CAD for shared hosting (there are other dedicated packages as well). If I weren't hosting a bunch of other people for free, and using a lot of bandwidth/files, I'd probably have gone for the $25/mo server, it's cheaper than running the business DSL (but also not as prestigious as running one's own server).
expect a great deal of political and legal pressure for Canada to fall in line with the other states.
You're right, and we should also revoke Canada's status as the 51st state right now. Damn Canadians never follow US law right anyways, let them try and duke it out as their own nation.
er, wait a moment...
Actually, I read the same thing and was about to comment, but checked and found this here first. Canada is not a f**ing state buddies, it's a country. We have our own government, and our own laws. Granted, we often bend-over and take it when the US puts pressure on our government or legal system...
Get with it guys, there's no reason to patent these little mousies themselves, so long as the process is upheld (which we did do). Canada *does* tend to have a system of thought, law and morality that very much differs from the US (see laws: gun control, copyright, lawsuits), so we are perfectly within our rights to uphold these values in our laws.
Er, excuse me, have to get the door
Hello, who the heck are you??
What? FBI? Patriot act? Expression of terrorist thought? Guys, this is Canada!
No, it's not a state, we have our own government and laws.
What? Bought out... political pressuring? Damn... Ok, I'll come peacefully
With initial packet data speeds up to 384 kbps a wideband radio technology that provides mobile users with data rates up to 2 Mbps
More interesting would be a test of this under high saturation. Current systems are already getting bogged down, reception is getting craps, calls lost, etc. Once the user-base for the service gets high, I would predict a decrease in speed (at least for a time).
Never trust the "up to." My internet is supposed to get "up to " > 2.5Mbps transfer rate down. Average or mean would be a better indicator.
The patent is rejected here in Canada. Mainly, I think, to set precedent against (and continuing with precedent of) patenting the "higher life forms", as was mentioned.
If you want, you can also look here for a local article on the topic. The methodologies etc are patentable, the life form is not (in Canada).
Really, it should be this way in the rest of the world too, patenting the methologies and general process (not the lifeform) should be quite enough to prevent against scientific pilfering.
More likely phone #'s aren't given out on a fully trusting basis. Image the amount of annoying trekky phone calls he gets when people figure out his number.
Mind you, it's probably not extremely hard to find, but likely private enough to discourage nuisances.
(anyone have access to a Hollywood phone directory?)
No kidding. Especially with a cost-capacity ratio. On SCSI, to get anywhere near the large amount of IDE capacity, you need multiple drives. And of course, drives in SCSI are not cheap by any stretch of the imagination.
I'd rather shell out for a few 80/120GB drives than be nickel&dimes by a lot of smaller ones, although in the case of SCSI it's more like quarter-and-loonied (dollared for you Americans)
It could be that they block the word "red" in sitenames to avoid anti-communist sites, but this would be a very generic and/or stupid filter (not that the firewall in general isn't stupid).
I can't hit any sites above (except for redlobster), so - does anyone know how to check if the GFOC blocks a particular site? How about sites like "redpaint.com".
So, out of curiousity, do the sales of said additions/attachments go up on "Black Friday" on correspondance to the sale items which go down?
Sounds like a good way to wring a few bucks out of the simpleminder. Hey, this printer is only $45, oh, but don't forget you'll need this USB cable (at $25), and maybe some extra ink (at $30)...
Joining the bandwagon, but I'll contradict a few arguements
"Your computer is broadcasting an internet IP address...blah blah blah"
OK, so first of all as most people have said, most computers don't "broadcast" per say, they just make public. Secondly, what if you have a router (or as I use, a LEAF firewall). Even if you were to misconstrue "public" as "broadcasting", my computer doesn't even have an IP address public to the internet... it's part of the LAN (the router handles all the internet stuff). In this case, the ad has even less validity.
In other words, it's a lie. For many who receieve this "global-encompassing-adspamcrap", it doesn't apply at all, but may trick the feebleminded into thinking that their computers are insecure.
Because no matter who wins, on one end it proves that the DCMA can be abused, and it just generally stupid.
working, stable and extremely mission-critical apps for very large and established corporations...That are oftimes bloody expensive to have any downtown in, let alone enough to verify a changover to a new system.
Locally, one of the larger local businesses has an old beastie made of wires and PCB that can not be shut down? Reason, to turn off the apparatus it's connected to would require a lot of work to get it warmed up again, and having that particular apparatus off would probably mean shutting the entire plant for a certain period of time...
a.k.a, not something you want to mess with unless you've tested, and tested, and tested, and scenarioed, and prayed a few times before frantically moving things over to whatever the new configuration is.
And in such times, isn't it murphey's law that you end up with an event like "what do you mean you forgot the power cable at the office?!!!" just before/when going live.
Good point, that actually happened to me... found out Monday, done on Thursday. Of course, nowadays you're not even safe in a big company. It's easier to see it coming, but if you're a small guy you tend to be vulnerable to downsizing.
Yeah, but if Carmack went to the moon/mars then the place would suddenly become infested by grey demons and ugly pig things with big teeth. Subsequently, they'd be sucked into hell and have to battle their way through before returning to save earth...
How many times are they going to try to make our appliances interactive before they realize that it's just not something most people want. I want my kitchen table to be - just a kitchen table. If I need a personal reminder to take my "medication" (no jokes please, allergy pills only), then really an organizer wall-fixture would be much more appealing.
Granted, a living room table with an LCD or something would be cool, but please... the last thing I need while I'm trying to enjoy dinner is to have a bunch of flashing messages and (likely the next bright idea) advertisements floating under my coffee cup.
Oh, and strike the talking chairs too, most people wouldn't care to hear "cripes man, go hit the thigh-master, yer crushing me!" when sitting down.
Even with a College/Uni degree, or diploma, nobody should really expect to get out and immediately get a $75000/yr+superduperbenefits job. Really, what you should look for is a job that you would like, make you enough income to survive the first year, and looks really good on a resume.
Barring that, you can also spot the companies you'd wish to work for that do pay the big bucks, and try getting in on one of the lesser positions.
It's 100% easier to climb a ladder when you're already working in a company. It's also (ironically) very often easier to get a job when you've already got a job. You don't have to mention on your resume that you're "undervalued and underpaid", just list what you're capable of, and the fact that you are currently doing it helps prove so.
There are a lot of small/starter companies who need computer support that frankly can't afford to pay big bucks in the beginning. They do look good on a resume though, and the work generally isn't too hard. Oftimes if you are lucky, said companies can end up growing, and as they grow - so often does your paycheque.
It's hard to think of with the cost of living nowadays, but sometimes the value of a position is not in the paycheque, but in the respect, references, and experience it gains.
Oh, and a big problem with small companies is that it gets really hard to leave when you're ready to move on... they tend to grow on you.