It's like the joke about the two lawyers in the woods who stumble across a bear. The first lawyer begins to run, and the second says, "Hey, forget it, you can't outrun a bear." The first lawyer yells over his shoulder, "I don't have to outrun the bear, I just have to outrun you."
Apple has pulled their share of disasters as well, but when you look at Apple's competition, their products are often mind-numbingly BAD. VISTA? Earlier online music purchasing systems? Dell and Gateway computers?
Apple isn't all that great, it's just that the competition sucks. I mean when the Asus eee-pc is the most encouraging thing you've seen come to the tech table in awhile...
Years ago I used to play Asheron's Call. In those days, Microsoft owned the game, and instead of logging directly onto the servers you had to pass through Microsoft's "Gaming Zone." This was later extended to requiring Internet Explorer to access a Microsoft Passport account to log in to the Gaming Zone so you could get to Asheron's Call. Thanks to this convoluted system, there were a LOT of connection problems that weren't addressed until Microsoft finally sold the game back to Turbine, and you could log directly onto the Turbine servers.
Good luck XBOX Live customers, and don't hold your breath...
And that's what it comes down to: competent management and a market that values the product. It isn't rocket science to have good train service, even in a country as large as the U.S. Using technology from 70 years ago one should be able to board a train in New York, sleep in a comfortable sleeper car, and wake up in Chicago 12 hours later (750 miles/12 hours = average speed of 62.5 miles per hour). With current conventional technology the land speed record is slightly more than 350 miles an hour. In twelve hours under a best case scenario that train could travel 4200 miles. It's less than 2500 miles from NY to LA.
It's from the song "Asshole." The point is that Americans are the most egocentric people in the world. Large segments of the American population simply aren't interested in playing nice with others. The current President of the United States comes to mind...
Two words: Nuclear F**kin' Weapons Okay!? Russia, Germany, Romania - they can have all the Democracy they want. They can have a big Democracy cake walk right through the middle of Tienamen Square and it won't make a lick of difference because we got the bombs. Okay!? John Wayne's not dead He's frozen...
Which G4 did you buy? You might consider one of the new third party 7448 Dual G4 upgrades. They're not cheap ($600) but they beat any single processor G5 like a red-headed step-child. I installed one in an old Quicksilver (used machines can be had for $300) and it screams. It totally buries my 2.1Ghz G5 iMac. I also installed an old PC version ATI 9800 graphics card that I flashed with a reduced ROM so it would work on a Mac. I had to add a third party cooling device for the 9800, but the 7448 dual processor runs as cool as a cucumber. I can play WOW and watch YouTube at the same time with no problems whatsoever on this dual monitor system. I also am running a software stripe 0 RAID via a SATA PCI card and have RAM maxed out. These upgrades aren't what I would call cheap, but they do allow me to utilize older software and hardware, and they can be done piecemeal, not like plunking down the big $$$ for a new stripped down system.
Also, the old 7300's had 8 RAM slots, not 4, for a maximum RAM capacity of 1 Gig. I had one of those with the G3 upgrade too for a long time.
While new systems are still expensive, there's plenty of low-end Mac action to be had for those with more modest budgets and tinkering skills.
Excellent point, once you're past the threshold, who cares?
In addition, it's a well-established principal of operant conditioning that if you want to influence behavior, it's a lot more productive to reinforce the behavior you want than it is to punish the behavior you find undesirable. Yet as B.F. Skinner tried to point out in Walden 2, much of our culture (child-rearing, criminal justice, labor and foreign policy) is focused more on punishing bad behavior than rewarding good behavior.
Didn't we learn anything by watching "Office Space?"
Meh...
In 15 years the thing will wind up as baby furniture with kid puke on it anyway.
The sexual equivalent...
on
A Geek On Everest
·
· Score: 0, Offtopic
Kind of like shagging Paris Hilton????
I'm not saying everyone on the planet could pull it off (perhaps only a handful of Slashdot readers), but when it happens it's not exactly big news, is it????
OK, I'm old, and when I was a kid I used to watch "Green Acres." One of the running gags was that by moving to the country this lawyer from New York had to go outside and climb a telephone pole to receive a call. I guess it seemed pretty outrageous at the time.
40 years later I see people standing outside of buildings all the time, in all kinds of weather, trying to improve their mobile phone reception.
Even beyond the quality of credentials, how do you prove you have a PhD? When I turn in my dissertation for final deposit my fingerprints and DNA sample weren't stamped on it. My photo wasn't attached. How can this all be done online? What prevents me from finding a dissertation online and using the author's name as my own? Wales proposes contacting people at "valid email addresses" but how does that help? My email is not JoeSmithProf@Harvard.edu, it's smithj@harvard.edu. There is nothing to differentiate me from an undergrad or the housekeeping staff.
How do you match the credentials with the person? If you have to do it all online, I would just imagine that it wouldn't be too hard to fake.
And if the founding principle of the organization is that I can't use my credentials alone to win arguments, why would it matter if I had a PhD or not?
Or at least stop surfing it with IE and no firewall.
I've never run anti-virus software on a home PC. What's the point?
I currently have a router firewall, and I don't web surf much with a Windows machine. When I do, I use Firefox. On occasion I'll download Avast and run it, and I have never found a virus yet. By the time the software company releases a patch, and you download and apply it, there's a sporting chance you've been infected already. Then there are the slowdowns associated with the security software. Symantec in particular can bring a relatively robust machine to its knees. I don't do a lot on my PC beside gaming, so resinstalling wouldn't be a big deal if my machine did become infected.
I used to run Virex on my Mac back in the 90s, and it would occasionally catch something, but I dropped that by '95. I guess I'm just lucky not being dependent on MS Windows.
Mea Culpa. I'm obviously not an academic because I didn't just know without being told. I should have known that there is such consensus in the academic world that nobody requires electronic submissions, there's complete agreement in English regarding all grammar rules and the percentage of points marked off for errors, all papers must be formatted using the same style, be the same length, etc. Just like it must be known that all professors forbid Wikipedia and encyclopedia references in all papers. Personally, I haven't experienced the same consensus and conformity in academia that you appear to have.
Slashdot Mirror
It's like the joke about the two lawyers in the woods who stumble across a bear. The first lawyer begins to run, and the second says, "Hey, forget it, you can't outrun a bear." The first lawyer yells over his shoulder, "I don't have to outrun the bear, I just have to outrun you."
Apple has pulled their share of disasters as well, but when you look at Apple's competition, their products are often mind-numbingly BAD. VISTA? Earlier online music purchasing systems? Dell and Gateway computers?
Apple isn't all that great, it's just that the competition sucks. I mean when the Asus eee-pc is the most encouraging thing you've seen come to the tech table in awhile...
A horse is a horse
of course, of course
Unless you try to force
unnatural intercourse
upon the horse...
Apologies to Mr. Ed
Years ago I used to play Asheron's Call. In those days, Microsoft owned the game, and instead of logging directly onto the servers you had to pass through Microsoft's "Gaming Zone." This was later extended to requiring Internet Explorer to access a Microsoft Passport account to log in to the Gaming Zone so you could get to Asheron's Call. Thanks to this convoluted system, there were a LOT of connection problems that weren't addressed until Microsoft finally sold the game back to Turbine, and you could log directly onto the Turbine servers.
Good luck XBOX Live customers, and don't hold your breath...
And that's what it comes down to: competent management and a market that values the product. It isn't rocket science to have good train service, even in a country as large as the U.S. Using technology from 70 years ago one should be able to board a train in New York, sleep in a comfortable sleeper car, and wake up in Chicago 12 hours later (750 miles/12 hours = average speed of 62.5 miles per hour). With current conventional technology the land speed record is slightly more than 350 miles an hour. In twelve hours under a best case scenario that train could travel 4200 miles. It's less than 2500 miles from NY to LA.
It's from the song "Asshole." The point is that Americans are the most egocentric people in the world. Large segments of the American population simply aren't interested in playing nice with others. The current President of the United States comes to mind...
I think Dennis Leary said it best:
Two words: Nuclear F**kin' Weapons
Okay!?
Russia, Germany, Romania - they can have all the Democracy they want.
They can have a big Democracy cake walk right through the middle of Tienamen Square and it won't make a lick of difference because we got the bombs.
Okay!?
John Wayne's not dead
He's frozen...
Which G4 did you buy? You might consider one of the new third party 7448 Dual G4 upgrades. They're not cheap ($600) but they beat any single processor G5 like a red-headed step-child. I installed one in an old Quicksilver (used machines can be had for $300) and it screams. It totally buries my 2.1Ghz G5 iMac. I also installed an old PC version ATI 9800 graphics card that I flashed with a reduced ROM so it would work on a Mac. I had to add a third party cooling device for the 9800, but the 7448 dual processor runs as cool as a cucumber. I can play WOW and watch YouTube at the same time with no problems whatsoever on this dual monitor system. I also am running a software stripe 0 RAID via a SATA PCI card and have RAM maxed out. These upgrades aren't what I would call cheap, but they do allow me to utilize older software and hardware, and they can be done piecemeal, not like plunking down the big $$$ for a new stripped down system.
Also, the old 7300's had 8 RAM slots, not 4, for a maximum RAM capacity of 1 Gig. I had one of those with the G3 upgrade too for a long time.
While new systems are still expensive, there's plenty of low-end Mac action to be had for those with more modest budgets and tinkering skills.
Why does Linus hate freedom?
Apologies to Fox News...
Hopefully the plan is to update the CGA graphics on the PC version of Remote Control.
Laissez-faire? I think you meant protectionist tariff. There, fixed it for ya.
Excellent point, once you're past the threshold, who cares?
In addition, it's a well-established principal of operant conditioning that if you want to influence behavior, it's a lot more productive to reinforce the behavior you want than it is to punish the behavior you find undesirable. Yet as B.F. Skinner tried to point out in Walden 2, much of our culture (child-rearing, criminal justice, labor and foreign policy) is focused more on punishing bad behavior than rewarding good behavior.
Didn't we learn anything by watching "Office Space?"
If you're depending on the current Supreme Court to uphold prior decisions, you might be an optimist...
This two-year-old article begs to differ.
Meh... In 15 years the thing will wind up as baby furniture with kid puke on it anyway.
Kind of like shagging Paris Hilton????
I'm not saying everyone on the planet could pull it off (perhaps only a handful of Slashdot readers), but when it happens it's not exactly big news, is it????
Hanna-Barbera? That's like being kissed by an angel compared to a Sid and Marty Croft production...
"Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades." -anon
And absolutist thinking occurs most frequently in the minds of the mentally deficient.
Who the hell promoted you from "monkeyboy?"
I too live in a rural area with spotty reception.
OK, I'm old, and when I was a kid I used to watch "Green Acres." One of the running gags was that by moving to the country this lawyer from New York had to go outside and climb a telephone pole to receive a call. I guess it seemed pretty outrageous at the time.
40 years later I see people standing outside of buildings all the time, in all kinds of weather, trying to improve their mobile phone reception.
Even beyond the quality of credentials, how do you prove you have a PhD? When I turn in my dissertation for final deposit my fingerprints and DNA sample weren't stamped on it. My photo wasn't attached. How can this all be done online? What prevents me from finding a dissertation online and using the author's name as my own? Wales proposes contacting people at "valid email addresses" but how does that help? My email is not JoeSmithProf@Harvard.edu, it's smithj@harvard.edu. There is nothing to differentiate me from an undergrad or the housekeeping staff.
How do you match the credentials with the person? If you have to do it all online, I would just imagine that it wouldn't be too hard to fake.
And if the founding principle of the organization is that I can't use my credentials alone to win arguments, why would it matter if I had a PhD or not?
"stop surfing for porn so much."
Or at least stop surfing it with IE and no firewall.
I've never run anti-virus software on a home PC. What's the point?
I currently have a router firewall, and I don't web surf much with a Windows machine. When I do, I use Firefox. On occasion I'll download Avast and run it, and I have never found a virus yet. By the time the software company releases a patch, and you download and apply it, there's a sporting chance you've been infected already. Then there are the slowdowns associated with the security software. Symantec in particular can bring a relatively robust machine to its knees. I don't do a lot on my PC beside gaming, so resinstalling wouldn't be a big deal if my machine did become infected.
I used to run Virex on my Mac back in the 90s, and it would occasionally catch something, but I dropped that by '95. I guess I'm just lucky not being dependent on MS Windows.
I'll pay $500 for the wireless internet device / OS X hand-held computer and you can keep the iTunes / Mobile phone functions..
Sounds like he's been drinking his own Kool-Aid (I know, I know, it was really Flavor-Aid at Jonestown).
Funniest thing I've read on Slashdot in the last 6 years. Thank you.
Mea Culpa. I'm obviously not an academic because I didn't just know without being told. I should have known that there is such consensus in the academic world that nobody requires electronic submissions, there's complete agreement in English regarding all grammar rules and the percentage of points marked off for errors, all papers must be formatted using the same style, be the same length, etc. Just like it must be known that all professors forbid Wikipedia and encyclopedia references in all papers. Personally, I haven't experienced the same consensus and conformity in academia that you appear to have.