I work as a Sales Engineer for an enterprise software company, and I can think of a number of uses for this type of product. Just to clarify, a 'Sales Engineer' is generally someone who is in charge of all pre-sales engineering duties, such as requirements gathering, proof of concept, etc.
First of all, I do a lot of work in hotel rooms, and I like to take advantage of the mobility of my laptop. I hate working at the cramped desk that most hotels give you, so I usually end up working on the bed, and wireless would be very helpful.
Second, I feel that using a hardware NAT router in a hotel room is a 'Good Thing'. Yes, some of the software firewalls are nice, and will keep you protected - I feel however that the additional security layer is nice judging by the sort of activity that I see on the LANs of most hotels.
Third, business travelers often have need for impromptu meetings while on the road. With this unit everyone can share a single ethernet jack to get some work done.
Finally, the reason that might be most relevant only to other SE's like me....for a lot of proof-of-concept or demo environments it is imperative that you carry a router and other gear to emulate real world network conditions for your presentation/demonstration. This sure beats carrying a full-sized Linksys.
Very odd indeed.... Especially since at least three of the vendors listed on the Windows side (Wyse, Neoware and Maxspeed) all have Linux products that are almost identical hardware-wise to the Windows offerings. Maxspeed's 3xxx series Linux TC's are built with the exact same VIA EPIA board, and supporting hardware as the 5xxx series Windows CE and 8xxx series Windows XP boxes - the *only* difference is the OS image on the bootable Compact Flash media. You can change OS's on these TC's by simply shutting the unit down and swapping the Compact Flash card, or re-flashing the unit.
Speaking of the electronics area at the local dump....
I have found that this is a good place to get free parts for projects you are working on. Things like switches, LED's, fans, PSU's and cables are what I have commonly bagged, but you can certainly also get usable cases, CD/DVD drives etc. I once grabbed 2 identical Gateway P2-450 machines that a law firm had thrown out, installed Mandrake on them and sold them on EBay for shipping + $10 each. Certainly not a way I'd recommend to make a lot of money, but it was fun to rescue a couple of PC's that are hopefully out in the world doing something useful now.
I knew that mentioning Atlas Shrugged would bring forth a number of negative comments - that is to be expected. There are a couple of points that need clarification.
First, I have met people from all walks of life that have read the book, and were able to take something positive away from it. Yes, there are a ton of mindless, directionless fools that latched on to the legacy of the Ayn Rand foundation (Leonard Peikoff for one) and have made it into an organization that it is best to ignore. The fact that some people have read a nearly 50 year old text and adamantly insist that its lessons must be applied without any thoughts of updating them to current times is absolute lunacy. The BASIC IDEALS are still true though: 1) You are responsible for your own actions, and for your own success. 2) No one has the right to demand that another person provide their livelihood for them without proper payment - this is why slavery was abolished. Take this basic knowledge and apply it as you see fit to current political climate.
Second, the portrayal of Ayn Rand as someone that was "trying to justify the silver spoon it appeared that she was born with, in her mouth" is just plain ill-informed. She immigrated to America from Russia and started with nothing, and if I remember correctly this was during the depression.
Finally, the folks that are praised by the "Ayn Rand Institute" are immaterial. As I mentioned before, this institute is better left ignored.
Parent post is spot on.... If you have ever tried to throw a CD you know that the discs are extremely understable, and will corkscrew and flop to the ground if you put much effort into the throw. I can't imagine that a disc will be able to fly any appreciable distance out of a launcher unless the aerodynamics of the disc are changed to make it stable, or maybe slightly overstable.
Perhaps you can do what some others have done and make a set of groovy coasters by putting the cd in a microwave for 3-4 seconds? If you haven't tried this....it's pretty cool.
1) Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig. The meaning of "Quality" and the importance and joy of doing things to the best of ones ability are good lessons to learn at a young age.
2) The Age of Spiritual Machines, or just about anything by Ray Kurzweil. Help them develop their geek blueprint for what they want to accomplish with their life.
3) Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. This is a tough one for some people though. Some people that have grown up thinking that self interest automatically is bad, while altruism is automatically good, and a lot of these people will despise the message in this book. That's unfortunate, as this book is one title that people consistently mention when asked what their favorite book is.
Not only is this a really basic hack, but people have been using many different methods of sharing computing power almost as long as there have been computers. They could have made this a lot less expensive by just getting some X-terminals from Tektronix or one of the other companies off of Ebay. This is not even difficult on Windows if you buy Terminal Server.
Remember - it is "HP" themselves that are classifying this as an industry wide problem at this point. If you have seen something from a 3rd party or other vendor that proves HP's claims, then yes....commend away. My position on HP is so sour at this point that I will not believe them about this being industry wide until I can verify it on my own. See my earlier post for the reasons why I dislike HP so much now if you wish, but I can sum it up for you in one sentence: Their quality and customer service have gone completely to hell in the last few years, and they are no longer the icon of quality products they used to be.
I would have to agree with parent poster. I have used HP products over the years (Have a ScanJet 4P and LaserJet 5 that have been years-long workhorses) but my recent dealings with them on a Pavilion notebook have forced me to swear off ever buying HP/Compaq again.
The machine in question is a Pavilion N5190 that I bought in October of 2000 for ~$2500 US. Luckily I bought an extended warranty through the dealer when I purchased this thing, because it was in and out of the shop constantly for 2 new power supplies, a new motherboard, and other issues. Note that I have had over a dozen notebooks in my time, including IBM, Fujitsu, Toshiba and Dell and I have never had even 25% of the problems that I have had with this HP Pavilion. Thank goodness that the extended dealer warranty provided for a loaner, or I would have been really screwed. As soon as the extended warranty expired, the machine stopped booting again with what appears to be a power supply issue. Since it was out of warranty I decided to pop the case off to have a look, and I immediately noticed that the hard drive is prominently marked with a sticker that says "USED". I was (and still am) FURIOUS as this was supposed to be a new machine, and the hard disc had never been replaced. When I called HP for an explanation I got bounced around to the wrong departments for DAYS until I finally got a hold of someone in the "Quality Department". This person told me that it is common practice for HP/Compaq to use USED parts that have been tested as good in their new notebooks, and that this is mentioned in their warranty paperwork. I protested that 1) The verbage regarding used parts is buried in the fine print of the warranty terms which 2) a customer will never see until they have already purchased the machine. At this point, I am wondering how many other parts in this $2500 "new" laptop are really USED.
Call me crazy but I think this is wrong. If I am going to buy a NEW notebook, it is my expectation that all of the parts are new. I can buy machines that are refurbished if I want to, and spend a lot less money for the same machine. If a machine is being sold with USED parts in it, I feel that this should be prominently marked on the external packaging.
Nooo.... I use Alkaline batteries in my Canon A70 and they last for dozens of pictures. Usually one set is good for a couple days of shooting pictures, and I always use the LCD.
Having alkaline batteries last for only 2-3 pictures would be a sign of a definite problem, IMHO.
Quoted from parent: "Hotmail's public relations representative, Waggener Edstrom, has yet to respond to the story."
The reason he hasn't responded yet is he is still afraid to come out of his bedroom closet after the thousands of beatings he suffered at the hands of school-yard bullies as a result of his panty-waist name.
My advice to you would be.....transfer your domain to another hosting provider pronto. Let them know it was because of their unfounded threats, and who knows - you may get an apology and/or a better offer to stick with them. (Then again, maybe not!)
I'm really sorry, and I feel pretty darn foolish right about now..
I use as my only excuse the fact that I am sick as a dog right now, posting from bed via my Zaurus, and somehow it looked to my fever-blurred eyes that your post was attached to mine.
1) I fully understand the characteristics of the live rear axle, including the handling pros and cons. Although a live rear axle is hard to beat on a racetrack, these are not the conditions that I drive in everyday. AWD + independent suspension works better in the real world.
2) You mentioned that "I bet it hurts being stomped in the twisties by a car with a live rear axle, doesn't it rice boy?" - sorry, but you'll have to describe to me how that feels as I have no experience with it firsthand.
3) You accused me of hiding behind AC. Strange, but it sure doesn't look that way from here.
4) Finally, it was pretty juvenile to jump right into the insults with the "Riceboy" comment. Try and maintain a bit more dignity next time.
Personally, I see the fact that AMD provides me with a proc that is technically equivalent or superior to an Intel proc at a much more attractive price to be a "Worthy Achievment".
The 3000 GT certainly handles wonderfully, but your friend's experience with reliability is pretty common. Seems they were a bit more complex than they needed to be.
The Scooby has a pretty large reliability advantage over the 3000 GT in that it uses a much less complex AWD system that is based around viscous couplers. the whole system adds only ~150 pounds to the weight of the vehicle, and is very well built. I have over 130,000 on mine, most of which occured above 80 mph, and so far all I've done to the car (other than routine maintenance) is replace 1 wheel bearing. Not a bad record.
True, though the best "upgrade" of all would have been to leave the engine in the Scooby body, and build the drivetrain around Subaru's AWD system. The Scooby's suspension and drivetrain are worlds better than anything ever made by GM, including the Corvette.
Just thinking about that beautiful engine in an ugly, antiquated piece of GM crap brings a tear to my eye....
Gonna have to go drive my 99 Scooby now just to make myself feel better.
I'm not going to take sides on whether or not spammers should get jail time, but you should probably realize that there is a FAR greater economic factor involved than the wasting of end-users time. Currently the percentage of email transmitted in the US is over 50% if I remember correctly, and is on the rise. There is no escaping the fact that this is an unneccessary burden on the economy, as EVERYONE ELSE has to absorb the costs of a spammers bandwidth usage (ISP charges, telco charges, costs of enterprise spam blocking solutions/maintenance, taxes, etc). The amount of money that spammers waste is astronomical, and virtually none of the money they spend is theirs to spend in the first place.
You little whippersnappers must be too young to remember the days when hooking your computer up to the TV was your ONLY option? In my day, we had to hook our Commodore 64 up to a 13" Zenith with vacuum tubes - and we liked it!
You can do this on the web, using either the Tax Cut software on the web provided by H&R Block, or go to Yahoo and use their TurboTax service. There are probably others too.
People have the right to be safe from attacks from other people. No one however has any 'right' that entitles him or her to the safest and best products on the market. These are things that you go and get yourself if you find by your own judgment that the value you need to trade to get them (in this case money that you have provided value to others to acquire) is worth the cost. Money may not be a perfect mechanism for acquiring and exchanging value, as there are too many ways to acquire it illicitly (ie stealing, mugging people, strong-arm tactics) but it is far site better than anything else.
Bill Gates' life itself is not worth more than anybody elses, but if you are being honest with yourself you will realize that many people receive value from the products that Microsoft produces, and that is why they continue to use hard-earned cash to buy them. Even if you and I choose not to buy these products, it is still no less true. So no, his life isn't worth more, but he has fairly traded more value (products) for other value (money) than you or I have, and he's entitled to be able to trade for more valuable products in return than we can. Including.......safer cars, if he so desires.
Slashdot Mirror
I can see it now.....drink the beer, then smoke the can! Twice the bang for your buck!
I work as a Sales Engineer for an enterprise software company, and I can think of a number of uses for this type of product. Just to clarify, a 'Sales Engineer' is generally someone who is in charge of all pre-sales engineering duties, such as requirements gathering, proof of concept, etc.
First of all, I do a lot of work in hotel rooms, and I like to take advantage of the mobility of my laptop. I hate working at the cramped desk that most hotels give you, so I usually end up working on the bed, and wireless would be very helpful. Second, I feel that using a hardware NAT router in a hotel room is a 'Good Thing'. Yes, some of the software firewalls are nice, and will keep you protected - I feel however that the additional security layer is nice judging by the sort of activity that I see on the LANs of most hotels. Third, business travelers often have need for impromptu meetings while on the road. With this unit everyone can share a single ethernet jack to get some work done. Finally, the reason that might be most relevant only to other SE's like me....for a lot of proof-of-concept or demo environments it is imperative that you carry a router and other gear to emulate real world network conditions for your presentation/demonstration. This sure beats carrying a full-sized Linksys.
Consider yourself enlightened.
Very odd indeed.... Especially since at least three of the vendors listed on the Windows side (Wyse, Neoware and Maxspeed) all have Linux products that are almost identical hardware-wise to the Windows offerings. Maxspeed's 3xxx series Linux TC's are built with the exact same VIA EPIA board, and supporting hardware as the 5xxx series Windows CE and 8xxx series Windows XP boxes - the *only* difference is the OS image on the bootable Compact Flash media. You can change OS's on these TC's by simply shutting the unit down and swapping the Compact Flash card, or re-flashing the unit.
I have found that this is a good place to get free parts for projects you are working on. Things like switches, LED's, fans, PSU's and cables are what I have commonly bagged, but you can certainly also get usable cases, CD/DVD drives etc. I once grabbed 2 identical Gateway P2-450 machines that a law firm had thrown out, installed Mandrake on them and sold them on EBay for shipping + $10 each. Certainly not a way I'd recommend to make a lot of money, but it was fun to rescue a couple of PC's that are hopefully out in the world doing something useful now.
First, I have met people from all walks of life that have read the book, and were able to take something positive away from it. Yes, there are a ton of mindless, directionless fools that latched on to the legacy of the Ayn Rand foundation (Leonard Peikoff for one) and have made it into an organization that it is best to ignore. The fact that some people have read a nearly 50 year old text and adamantly insist that its lessons must be applied without any thoughts of updating them to current times is absolute lunacy. The BASIC IDEALS are still true though: 1) You are responsible for your own actions, and for your own success. 2) No one has the right to demand that another person provide their livelihood for them without proper payment - this is why slavery was abolished. Take this basic knowledge and apply it as you see fit to current political climate.
Second, the portrayal of Ayn Rand as someone that was "trying to justify the silver spoon it appeared that she was born with, in her mouth" is just plain ill-informed. She immigrated to America from Russia and started with nothing, and if I remember correctly this was during the depression.
Finally, the folks that are praised by the "Ayn Rand Institute" are immaterial. As I mentioned before, this institute is better left ignored.
Perhaps you can do what some others have done and make a set of groovy coasters by putting the cd in a microwave for 3-4 seconds? If you haven't tried this....it's pretty cool.
2) The Age of Spiritual Machines, or just about anything by Ray Kurzweil. Help them develop their geek blueprint for what they want to accomplish with their life.
3) Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. This is a tough one for some people though. Some people that have grown up thinking that self interest automatically is bad, while altruism is automatically good, and a lot of these people will despise the message in this book. That's unfortunate, as this book is one title that people consistently mention when asked what their favorite book is.
Google is your friend. Check out The Linux Bootable USB Key HOWTO . Particularly the piece about the Flonix Knoppix variant.
Not only is this a really basic hack, but people have been using many different methods of sharing computing power almost as long as there have been computers. They could have made this a lot less expensive by just getting some X-terminals from Tektronix or one of the other companies off of Ebay. This is not even difficult on Windows if you buy Terminal Server.
Slow news day I guess.
Remember - it is "HP" themselves that are classifying this as an industry wide problem at this point. If you have seen something from a 3rd party or other vendor that proves HP's claims, then yes....commend away. My position on HP is so sour at this point that I will not believe them about this being industry wide until I can verify it on my own. See my earlier post for the reasons why I dislike HP so much now if you wish, but I can sum it up for you in one sentence: Their quality and customer service have gone completely to hell in the last few years, and they are no longer the icon of quality products they used to be.
The machine in question is a Pavilion N5190 that I bought in October of 2000 for ~$2500 US. Luckily I bought an extended warranty through the dealer when I purchased this thing, because it was in and out of the shop constantly for 2 new power supplies, a new motherboard, and other issues. Note that I have had over a dozen notebooks in my time, including IBM, Fujitsu, Toshiba and Dell and I have never had even 25% of the problems that I have had with this HP Pavilion. Thank goodness that the extended dealer warranty provided for a loaner, or I would have been really screwed. As soon as the extended warranty expired, the machine stopped booting again with what appears to be a power supply issue. Since it was out of warranty I decided to pop the case off to have a look, and I immediately noticed that the hard drive is prominently marked with a sticker that says "USED". I was (and still am) FURIOUS as this was supposed to be a new machine, and the hard disc had never been replaced. When I called HP for an explanation I got bounced around to the wrong departments for DAYS until I finally got a hold of someone in the "Quality Department". This person told me that it is common practice for HP/Compaq to use USED parts that have been tested as good in their new notebooks, and that this is mentioned in their warranty paperwork. I protested that 1) The verbage regarding used parts is buried in the fine print of the warranty terms which 2) a customer will never see until they have already purchased the machine. At this point, I am wondering how many other parts in this $2500 "new" laptop are really USED.
Call me crazy but I think this is wrong. If I am going to buy a NEW notebook, it is my expectation that all of the parts are new. I can buy machines that are refurbished if I want to, and spend a lot less money for the same machine. If a machine is being sold with USED parts in it, I feel that this should be prominently marked on the external packaging.
How do you feel about this, Slashdot?
Having alkaline batteries last for only 2-3 pictures would be a sign of a definite problem, IMHO.
"Hotmail's public relations representative, Waggener Edstrom, has yet to respond to the story."
The reason he hasn't responded yet is he is still afraid to come out of his bedroom closet after the thousands of beatings he suffered at the hands of school-yard bullies as a result of his panty-waist name.
My advice to you would be.....transfer your domain to another hosting provider pronto. Let them know it was because of their unfounded threats, and who knows - you may get an apology and/or a better offer to stick with them. (Then again, maybe not!)
Wrong. San Francisco is foggy a lot, but the rest of NorCal has nearly perfect weather.
I'm really sorry, and I feel pretty darn foolish right about now..
I use as my only excuse the fact that I am sick as a dog right now, posting from bed via my Zaurus, and somehow it looked to my fever-blurred eyes that your post was attached to mine.
Very sorry for the misunderstanding.
1) I fully understand the characteristics of the live rear axle, including the handling pros and cons. Although a live rear axle is hard to beat on a racetrack, these are not the conditions that I drive in everyday. AWD + independent suspension works better in the real world.
2) You mentioned that "I bet it hurts being stomped in the twisties by a car with a live rear axle, doesn't it rice boy?" - sorry, but you'll have to describe to me how that feels as I have no experience with it firsthand.
3) You accused me of hiding behind AC. Strange, but it sure doesn't look that way from here.
4) Finally, it was pretty juvenile to jump right into the insults with the "Riceboy" comment. Try and maintain a bit more dignity next time.
Personally, I see the fact that AMD provides me with a proc that is technically equivalent or superior to an Intel proc at a much more attractive price to be a "Worthy Achievment".
The Scooby has a pretty large reliability advantage over the 3000 GT in that it uses a much less complex AWD system that is based around viscous couplers. the whole system adds only ~150 pounds to the weight of the vehicle, and is very well built. I have over 130,000 on mine, most of which occured above 80 mph, and so far all I've done to the car (other than routine maintenance) is replace 1 wheel bearing. Not a bad record.
True, though the best "upgrade" of all would have been to leave the engine in the Scooby body, and build the drivetrain around Subaru's AWD system. The Scooby's suspension and drivetrain are worlds better than anything ever made by GM, including the Corvette. Just thinking about that beautiful engine in an ugly, antiquated piece of GM crap brings a tear to my eye.... Gonna have to go drive my 99 Scooby now just to make myself feel better.
I'm not going to take sides on whether or not spammers should get jail time, but you should probably realize that there is a FAR greater economic factor involved than the wasting of end-users time. Currently the percentage of email transmitted in the US is over 50% if I remember correctly, and is on the rise. There is no escaping the fact that this is an unneccessary burden on the economy, as EVERYONE ELSE has to absorb the costs of a spammers bandwidth usage (ISP charges, telco charges, costs of enterprise spam blocking solutions/maintenance, taxes, etc). The amount of money that spammers waste is astronomical, and virtually none of the money they spend is theirs to spend in the first place.
You little whippersnappers must be too young to remember the days when hooking your computer up to the TV was your ONLY option? In my day, we had to hook our Commodore 64 up to a 13" Zenith with vacuum tubes - and we liked it!
You can do this on the web, using either the Tax Cut software on the web provided by H&R Block, or go to Yahoo and use their TurboTax service. There are probably others too.
People have the right to be safe from attacks from other people. No one however has any 'right' that entitles him or her to the safest and best products on the market. These are things that you go and get yourself if you find by your own judgment that the value you need to trade to get them (in this case money that you have provided value to others to acquire) is worth the cost. Money may not be a perfect mechanism for acquiring and exchanging value, as there are too many ways to acquire it illicitly (ie stealing, mugging people, strong-arm tactics) but it is far site better than anything else. Bill Gates' life itself is not worth more than anybody elses, but if you are being honest with yourself you will realize that many people receive value from the products that Microsoft produces, and that is why they continue to use hard-earned cash to buy them. Even if you and I choose not to buy these products, it is still no less true. So no, his life isn't worth more, but he has fairly traded more value (products) for other value (money) than you or I have, and he's entitled to be able to trade for more valuable products in return than we can. Including.......safer cars, if he so desires.
I get to keep all hardware that doesn't make orbit though... :-)