Sadly when they "click" it does not mean that a keypress has registered! It's like having a keyboard with buckling springs only the noise & touch gives no indication that you have done what you intended. Could it be a fake click has been added to keys that were never meant to click, that the click has nothing to do with electrical operation? Would the old HP have made a fake click? No, the click was there because it was how the reliable key mechanism operated. Click meant electrical contact, not fooled user.
Fake click is like a huge exhaust on a stock Civic. It's an Indonesian copy Rolex. It's the fake leather smell on a "pleather" laptop case - it's what's wrong with HP. But the people running HP think you're too stupid to notice that what you're buying isn't what it seems.
HP jumps down into the gutter with a Korean OEM, Kimpo, wasting the good will and reputation built over decades by the real engineers that used to (and no longer will) work there - GG Carly! Give me a Casio over a new HP any day.
I have a HP 16C and there has never been a more useful tool for the working programmer. Apart from the obvious number system conversions (unshifted A-F keys, joy!) it does any logical or arithmetic operation you might be considering on a real-world CPU. Bored on the plane? Take "Hacker's Delight" and a 16C and you're set. I wouldn't get rid of it and since RPN is like riding a bike, keeping it around while using a Texas Instruments machine isn't going to be hard.
But HP are in decline. Yet another ho-hum calculator in cheap plastic with mushy keys - gosh, thanks Carly. But after the last modern HP calculator I bought died after a week I'm not giving you any more of my money. Instead I'll have a Ti 84 Plus, or perhaps a Ti 89 Titanium. That HP has no fucking clue should be obvious from the 49G+ alone - how is it even possible to make a machine with that clock speed work so slow? I believe RPN is better - but I expect HP to drop calculators completely just as soon as that division has a couple of bad quarters.
What's so great about the 33S?
(FS: HP 42S, two-line display RPN scientific, like new, with box & manuals. $$$ offers?)
Better still to say "the average Slashdot editor is an idiot". If you had seen the Arstechnica coverage this would be apparent - what we're looking at here is a tabloid-tyle headline as a cheesy attention-getter. I see the same mind-numbing stupidity whenever I check hotmail!
The "Spyware" reported consists of cookies. Not trojans, backdoors, browser redirectors etc - cookies. Cookies can track you but they don't exercise code, and the ones that this software reports are not even fully researched. They're "potential" spyware - which is the same as finding a kid with three marijuana seedlings and charging him with posession of "potential" street value of $3 million.
Why would Earthlink do that? The Arstechnica article suggests it is because Earthlink advertise their Spyware-blocking service right next to the page that shows you the incredible amounts of spyware found on your system! Hmmm....
I don't know why I bother with slashdot. It must be a reflex built into my fingers or something but it certainly has turned to shit.
Now mod me down, editors. Show us how you censor those who disagree.
All you've done is apply a kind of dictionary compression to make the source code unreadable to humans with the side effect that it fits in less bytes. The code itself is much bigger than you'd like to think.
Comparisons of "code size" are extremely misleading until you start talking about the output of "gcc -E".
You could, or you could spend $10 more in the first place and save yourself an hour or more of disassembling your PC to get the supply out, disassembling the supply itself and the horror of seeing just how badly those things are built, then the time-wasting exercise with the ohmmeter. I don't know about you, but my time is worth $10/hr. Even to those who pay my salary! Go really deluxe, spend $20 extra and you'll get a supply that handles 100-240V, 50-60Hz, without switching! Now there's value.
Re:Is Real their own problem?
on
Real Problems
·
· Score: 1
Don't forget to say this to MPR and anyone else who hosts Real streams. Anyone who has installed Real's crap agrees with you already, but there won't be a choice until everyone who wants some other format asks for it.
SO click their contact link, email MPR and ask them for streaming MP3 or something. What's the worst they can do, ask you to become a subscriber?:-)
No, it's a choice made without feeling somehow guilty that I have to pay for the software I prefer. The reality is that I prefer the UI of Windows XP. I prefer a whole lot of applications that I can use in Windows XP to the either half-assed or non-existent Linux equivalents. You see that word, "prefer"? It means I like my setup better than yours. You don't have to care about that, only that you do things the way you like them.
If you're one of those idealogues, don't be offended - it's just an observation.
Re:Buffering....
on
Real Problems
·
· Score: 3, Informative
Get Streambox VCR Get Streambox Ripper (you'll find both on P2P networks, although Real successfully sued to have both products crippled or killed) Download and convert to your favorite format Don't forget to share!
Generally I don't give a shit about desktop Linux because the UI is crap. I tend to think of Linux desktop users as people fighting against reality for idealogical reasons. However, when the UI is out of the picture it's great.
I use Linux on a server for FLAC/MP3 serving with Slimserver from slim devices. The UI in that case is a simple web interface, no command line required. It does the job it's supposed to do, and I don't much have to care what else it does. Windows in that situation would be too complicated and perhaps not capable of the very long uptimes my Linux box gets.
On the iPod, it's a lot like the Apple iPod UI - task oriented, simple functions that do one thing well - or at least it will be when it's polished. Which is fine, I don't much care if Apple patent or copyright or sue or whatever. As long as I get to have menu items like "Capture from CF" and "Record" without buying garbage like the Belkin accessories that enable those functions (the Belkin CF reader should NOT be sold. It is incomplete, useless with RAW images). To think that Linux is going to let me use my iPod in more useful ways is awesome.
It's the first Linux project I've ever thought I could be interested in contributing to. Well done guys! (and let's not forget the ucLinux people, who have been working for quite some time to get where they are.)
Ha! At least you guys got to write some code. I once contracted for 6 months to a firm writing a very simple piece of firmware for a very simple piece of railway control instrumentation. Now I understand the need for safety, but this was incredible...
"Project Engineer" basically too shy to talk to anyone - the original guy, who was not bad, had quit. TWO full-time safety engineers. "Lead Engineer" who changed his mind about the design basics every three weeks. Four other engineers including myself.
And for those six months we did nothing but write design documents, beginning with a "C coding standard" and attend design review meetings to revise those documents. At least it paid well - but I've had jobs like the ones above where there was no money at the end of the job and they were more enjoyable. At the end of the contract the most satisyfing thing I had done was a build system with makefiles, but I later heard the "lead" scrapped that for his own design. And then scrapped that too:-)
The basic idea is good but the implementation (as reported here) is not so good.
People send spam because the cost is incredibly low. Requiring fees of $1000 or $2000 or $any,000 is wrong because it just means the spammer has a target, has to send out x number of messages to make the proposition attractive _before_ getting caught.
What is a better idea is a system where prepaid credits are used to send emails. Legitimate users are issued prepaid certificates good for a small volume of email. As their standing as good netizen goes up through repeated patronage of the.mail system the number of emails allocated per certificate goes up, perhaps to the point where they can renew annually and carry over credits for unused email allocation to the next allocation period. Each issue of certificates costs an appropriate amount of money.
Where spammers win is by exploiting the fact that the cost of email is fixed but the number of emails that can be sent for that cost is not. To defeat spam the marginal cost of email must be increased. This scheme would achieve that.
- people don't want Linux. Nobody working on Open Source cares to define consistent UI guidelines, to write decent documentation, to hide the seemingly complex underbelly or to offer more than RTFM! when "lusers" have problems. In short effort goes to making things work rather than making them usable, two very different aims.
- people who know enough to run Linux know they can build a machine themnselves with more power for less money. And forgetting "more power", how about "more appropriate"?
- on the same note those who know enough to run Linux realize that a PC from Dell/HP contains proprietary components like power supplies that don't quite follow the ATX standard - maintenance will be more difficult. Unless you buy the maintenance plan, and want to call Dell tech support, based in Calcutta... hmm, getting expensive, and ANNOYING!
- The major source of business for Dell etc. is corporate sales. Corporates don't choose Linux because they like a standardized platform for the IT drones to support. Rare is the enterprise where engineers run the show and "best" is number one on the list of criteria for a platform.
HP will not accomplish anything meaningful. HP is the Britney Spears of computer companies, everything glossy, pretty and cheap - it's all about the money and the fact that Linux costs them nothing to load is the only motivation for this cynical move. HP used to be great. Please everyone, mail your copy of "The HP Way" to Carly Fiorina today - I hear she has received a few hundred already from various disgruntled emplyoees/ex-customers, but the message hasn't sunk in yet, or she's too busy with her personal hairdresser to have read any of them.
Sure, they'll make big bucks with just Britney, Justin and Limp Bizkit available. Cause everyone knows people who drink coffee at Starbucks don't have taste.
No it is not a problem in a camera if you have a newer drive, they moved the spindle to the front of the assembly so that you can grab the end of the drive while removing it without damage. The older 1G IBM drives did have this problem but the new Hitachi drives do not.
Re:Directions on Taking Apart the Muvo2
on
iPod Mini Sells Out
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· Score: 5, Informative
You don't necessarily have to upgrade the firmware to be able to make the Muvo2 function again with CF media, only if your Muvo2 does not come up in auto-recover mode when the Microdrive is removed. Re-flashing takes place after the CF card replaces the Microdrive. Good luck finding the firmware, Creative seem to have removed it but Google is your friend.
The battery compartment comes completely off - makes it much easier to take it apart and put it back together again.
When I did this procedure, "Media Error" turned out to mean incompatible CF card. On the two working CF cards I tried there was no "Media Error".
The author of the instructions on dpreview seems to have done this to a Muvo2 with an older revision of firmware than what you get if buying today.
So chemists want to be he-man plumbers, swinging a pick and gaining satisfaction from building something tangible? Plumbers wish they could sit on their asses out of the weather and keep their fingers soft and clean on a keyboard all day. Programmers wish they could be making explosions in a chemistry lab, wearing a cool white coat and getting all the chicks!!
Don't worry, someone will dig it up in about 30 years for a summer movie. And if you must get some Sam'n'Max action there are a few DOS emulators for modern OSs that will let you play it without a boot disk. And if you don't have Sam'n'Max (or many other classics, like Loom, or Duke Nukem 3D, or Xcom) I recommend finding a copy of Kazaa lite, trading in such good stuff is active.
Congratulations on perfectly illustrating the attitude that keeps anyone from solving the problem. Congratulations to the moderator who gave you +1 Funny for doing exactly the same.
Anyone who can't use an interface you understand isn't as smart as you and therefore is not worthy of consideration. Is that it? You can see where this leads when a developer hears criticism of the UI - they designed it, so of course they understand it. Stupid users! Of course it's their fault.
And then they go and blame the same users for choosing windows...
You can make a living from improving eBay descriptions (and people do). You see it all the time - some estate sale scrounging idiot finds a "set of old camera lenses" called "sumicron" and "elmer" and "lietz". Sells all five for $30, buy it now! Thing is those lenses are worth $500, easily, if photographed and described properly.
You don't have to get lucky and find people who can't even transcribe a manufacturer's name properly (although I've bought "Rollieflex", "Rolliflex" and "Rollie Flex" cameras for good prices and sold them for profit), anyone who can't turn off caps lock, take a clear picture with a cheap digicam or even find a cheap digicam in the first place is presenting you with an opportunity to buy low and sell high. I'm reliably informed that is the secret of making money.
So now you know how auctions work, eh? If there weren't "dumb folks out there that jacked up the prices" why would anyone go to the trouble of arranging an auction? Ever sold anything on eBay? Try an experiment - sell some old crap with plenty of pictures and a gushing description and watch the money roll in - it's uncanny how some people want garbage.
There's nothing dumb about an Aeron chair unless your boss won't buy you one or you can't afford it. I bought myself one (yes, $750 worth) and never regretted it.
What it means is that Palm has come to the realization that the benefits of supporting the Macintosh are not enough to justify the cost of maintaining sync software for the platform.
Is that so hard to understand? You might not like it, but Palm owes Mac users NOTHING - as a public company it exists to make money for its shareholders and a decision made on any other basis is wrong. If you can do a better job of providing Macophiles with a PDA that works on their platform, write your business plan and go get some funding - but I feel that if you do some research you'll find there's no money in it.
Slashdot Mirror
Sadly when they "click" it does not mean that a keypress has registered! It's like having a keyboard with buckling springs only the noise & touch gives no indication that you have done what you intended. Could it be a fake click has been added to keys that were never meant to click, that the click has nothing to do with electrical operation? Would the old HP have made a fake click? No, the click was there because it was how the reliable key mechanism operated. Click meant electrical contact, not fooled user.
Fake click is like a huge exhaust on a stock Civic. It's an Indonesian copy Rolex. It's the fake leather smell on a "pleather" laptop case - it's what's wrong with HP. But the people running HP think you're too stupid to notice that what you're buying isn't what it seems.
HP jumps down into the gutter with a Korean OEM, Kimpo, wasting the good will and reputation built over decades by the real engineers that used to (and no longer will) work there - GG Carly! Give me a Casio over a new HP any day.
RPN is dead to me. Well, almost.
I have a HP 16C and there has never been a more useful tool for the working programmer. Apart from the obvious number system conversions (unshifted A-F keys, joy!) it does any logical or arithmetic operation you might be considering on a real-world CPU. Bored on the plane? Take "Hacker's Delight" and a 16C and you're set. I wouldn't get rid of it and since RPN is like riding a bike, keeping it around while using a Texas Instruments machine isn't going to be hard.
But HP are in decline. Yet another ho-hum calculator in cheap plastic with mushy keys - gosh, thanks Carly. But after the last modern HP calculator I bought died after a week I'm not giving you any more of my money. Instead I'll have a Ti 84 Plus, or perhaps a Ti 89 Titanium. That HP has no fucking clue should be obvious from the 49G+ alone - how is it even possible to make a machine with that clock speed work so slow? I believe RPN is better - but I expect HP to drop calculators completely just as soon as that division has a couple of bad quarters.
What's so great about the 33S?
(FS: HP 42S, two-line display RPN scientific, like new, with box & manuals. $$$ offers?)
Better still to say "the average Slashdot editor is an idiot". If you had seen the Arstechnica coverage this would be apparent - what we're looking at here is a tabloid-tyle headline as a cheesy attention-getter. I see the same mind-numbing stupidity whenever I check hotmail!
The "Spyware" reported consists of cookies. Not trojans, backdoors, browser redirectors etc - cookies. Cookies can track you but they don't exercise code, and the ones that this software reports are not even fully researched. They're "potential" spyware - which is the same as finding a kid with three marijuana seedlings and charging him with posession of "potential" street value of $3 million.
Why would Earthlink do that? The Arstechnica article suggests it is because Earthlink advertise their Spyware-blocking service right next to the page that shows you the incredible amounts of spyware found on your system! Hmmm....
I don't know why I bother with slashdot. It must be a reflex built into my fingers or something but it certainly has turned to shit.
Now mod me down, editors. Show us how you censor those who disagree.
You time yourself sometime - start with a running PC, end with a running PC. It's easily an hour.
All you've done is apply a kind of dictionary compression to make the source code unreadable to humans with the side effect that it fits in less bytes. The code itself is much bigger than you'd like to think.
Comparisons of "code size" are extremely misleading until you start talking about the output of "gcc -E".
You could, or you could spend $10 more in the first place and save yourself an hour or more of disassembling your PC to get the supply out, disassembling the supply itself and the horror of seeing just how badly those things are built, then the time-wasting exercise with the ohmmeter. I don't know about you, but my time is worth $10/hr. Even to those who pay my salary!
Go really deluxe, spend $20 extra and you'll get a supply that handles 100-240V, 50-60Hz, without switching! Now there's value.
Don't forget to say this to MPR and anyone else who hosts Real streams. Anyone who has installed Real's crap agrees with you already, but there won't be a choice until everyone who wants some other format asks for it.
:-)
SO click their contact link, email MPR and ask them for streaming MP3 or something. What's the worst they can do, ask you to become a subscriber?
No, it's a choice made without feeling somehow guilty that I have to pay for the software I prefer. The reality is that I prefer the UI of Windows XP. I prefer a whole lot of applications that I can use in Windows XP to the either half-assed or non-existent Linux equivalents. You see that word, "prefer"? It means I like my setup better than yours. You don't have to care about that, only that you do things the way you like them.
If you're one of those idealogues, don't be offended - it's just an observation.
Get Streambox VCR
Get Streambox Ripper
(you'll find both on P2P networks, although Real successfully sued to have both products crippled or killed)
Download and convert to your favorite format
Don't forget to share!
Generally I don't give a shit about desktop Linux because the UI is crap. I tend to think of Linux desktop users as people fighting against reality for idealogical reasons. However, when the UI is out of the picture it's great.
I use Linux on a server for FLAC/MP3 serving with Slimserver from slim devices. The UI in that case is a simple web interface, no command line required. It does the job it's supposed to do, and I don't much have to care what else it does. Windows in that situation would be too complicated and perhaps not capable of the very long uptimes my Linux box gets.
On the iPod, it's a lot like the Apple iPod UI - task oriented, simple functions that do one thing well - or at least it will be when it's polished. Which is fine, I don't much care if Apple patent or copyright or sue or whatever. As long as I get to have menu items like "Capture from CF" and "Record" without buying garbage like the Belkin accessories that enable those functions (the Belkin CF reader should NOT be sold. It is incomplete, useless with RAW images). To think that Linux is going to let me use my iPod in more useful ways is awesome.
It's the first Linux project I've ever thought I could be interested in contributing to. Well done guys! (and let's not forget the ucLinux people, who have been working for quite some time to get where they are.)
Ha! At least you guys got to write some code. I once contracted for 6 months to a firm writing a very simple piece of firmware for a very simple piece of railway control instrumentation. Now I understand the need for safety, but this was incredible...
:-)
"Project Engineer" basically too shy to talk to anyone - the original guy, who was not bad, had quit.
TWO full-time safety engineers.
"Lead Engineer" who changed his mind about the design basics every three weeks.
Four other engineers including myself.
And for those six months we did nothing but write design documents, beginning with a "C coding standard" and attend design review meetings to revise those documents. At least it paid well - but I've had jobs like the ones above where there was no money at the end of the job and they were more enjoyable. At the end of the contract the most satisyfing thing I had done was a build system with makefiles, but I later heard the "lead" scrapped that for his own design. And then scrapped that too
H) Time to shore up market share for X-Box 2.
(Gonna eat Sony's lunch, or at least gnash teeth furiously in its direction while they smile.)
The basic idea is good but the implementation (as reported here) is not so good.
.mail system the number of emails allocated per certificate goes up, perhaps to the point where they can renew annually and carry over credits for unused email allocation to the next allocation period. Each issue of certificates costs an appropriate amount of money.
People send spam because the cost is incredibly low. Requiring fees of $1000 or $2000 or $any,000 is wrong because it just means the spammer has a target, has to send out x number of messages to make the proposition attractive _before_ getting caught.
What is a better idea is a system where prepaid credits are used to send emails. Legitimate users are issued prepaid certificates good for a small volume of email. As their standing as good netizen goes up through repeated patronage of the
Where spammers win is by exploiting the fact that the cost of email is fixed but the number of emails that can be sent for that cost is not. To defeat spam the marginal cost of email must be increased. This scheme would achieve that.
And none of it materialized because:
- people don't want Linux. Nobody working on Open Source cares to define consistent UI guidelines, to write decent documentation, to hide the seemingly complex underbelly or to offer more than RTFM! when "lusers" have problems. In short effort goes to making things work rather than making them usable, two very different aims.
- people who know enough to run Linux know they can build a machine themnselves with more power for less money. And forgetting "more power", how about "more appropriate"?
- on the same note those who know enough to run Linux realize that a PC from Dell/HP contains proprietary components like power supplies that don't quite follow the ATX standard - maintenance will be more difficult. Unless you buy the maintenance plan, and want to call Dell tech support, based in Calcutta... hmm, getting expensive, and ANNOYING!
- The major source of business for Dell etc. is corporate sales. Corporates don't choose Linux because they like a standardized platform for the IT drones to support. Rare is the enterprise where engineers run the show and "best" is number one on the list of criteria for a platform.
HP will not accomplish anything meaningful. HP is the Britney Spears of computer companies, everything glossy, pretty and cheap - it's all about the money and the fact that Linux costs them nothing to load is the only motivation for this cynical move. HP used to be great. Please everyone, mail your copy of "The HP Way" to Carly Fiorina today - I hear she has received a few hundred already from various disgruntled emplyoees/ex-customers, but the message hasn't sunk in yet, or she's too busy with her personal hairdresser to have read any of them.
Sure, they'll make big bucks with just Britney, Justin and Limp Bizkit available. Cause everyone knows people who drink coffee at Starbucks don't have taste.
No it is not a problem in a camera if you have a newer drive, they moved the spindle to the front of the assembly so that you can grab the end of the drive while removing it without damage. The older 1G IBM drives did have this problem but the new Hitachi drives do not.
You don't necessarily have to upgrade the firmware to be able to make the Muvo2 function again with CF media, only if your Muvo2 does not come up in auto-recover mode when the Microdrive is removed. Re-flashing takes place after the CF card replaces the Microdrive. Good luck finding the firmware, Creative seem to have removed it but Google is your friend.
The battery compartment comes completely off - makes it much easier to take it apart and put it back together again.
When I did this procedure, "Media Error" turned out to mean incompatible CF card. On the two working CF cards I tried there was no "Media Error".
The author of the instructions on dpreview seems to have done this to a Muvo2 with an older revision of firmware than what you get if buying today.
Don't forget that the grass is always greener.
So chemists want to be he-man plumbers, swinging a pick and gaining satisfaction from building something tangible? Plumbers wish they could sit on their asses out of the weather and keep their fingers soft and clean on a keyboard all day. Programmers wish they could be making explosions in a chemistry lab, wearing a cool white coat and getting all the chicks!!
"bated" breath, silly buffer-overflowed.
Don't worry, someone will dig it up in about 30 years for a summer movie. And if you must get some Sam'n'Max action there are a few DOS emulators for modern OSs that will let you play it without a boot disk. And if you don't have Sam'n'Max (or many other classics, like Loom, or Duke Nukem 3D, or Xcom) I recommend finding a copy of Kazaa lite, trading in such good stuff is active.
Yeah, and where do you think the $205 drives came from? Clue: take a look at all the Muvo units being sold without their drives....
Basic eBay economics lesson: Things are worth more sold separately than they are together.
Congratulations on perfectly illustrating the attitude that keeps anyone from solving the problem. Congratulations to the moderator who gave you +1 Funny for doing exactly the same.
Anyone who can't use an interface you understand isn't as smart as you and therefore is not worthy of consideration. Is that it? You can see where this leads when a developer hears criticism of the UI - they designed it, so of course they understand it. Stupid users! Of course it's their fault.
And then they go and blame the same users for choosing windows...
You can make a living from improving eBay descriptions (and people do). You see it all the time - some estate sale scrounging idiot finds a "set of old camera lenses" called "sumicron" and "elmer" and "lietz". Sells all five for $30, buy it now! Thing is those lenses are worth $500, easily, if photographed and described properly.
You don't have to get lucky and find people who can't even transcribe a manufacturer's name properly (although I've bought "Rollieflex", "Rolliflex" and "Rollie Flex" cameras for good prices and sold them for profit), anyone who can't turn off caps lock, take a clear picture with a cheap digicam or even find a cheap digicam in the first place is presenting you with an opportunity to buy low and sell high. I'm reliably informed that is the secret of making money.
So now you know how auctions work, eh? If there weren't "dumb folks out there that jacked up the prices" why would anyone go to the trouble of arranging an auction? Ever sold anything on eBay? Try an experiment - sell some old crap with plenty of pictures and a gushing description and watch the money roll in - it's uncanny how some people want garbage.
There's nothing dumb about an Aeron chair unless your boss won't buy you one or you can't afford it. I bought myself one (yes, $750 worth) and never regretted it.
What it means is that Palm has come to the realization that the benefits of supporting the Macintosh are not enough to justify the cost of maintaining sync software for the platform.
Is that so hard to understand? You might not like it, but Palm owes Mac users NOTHING - as a public company it exists to make money for its shareholders and a decision made on any other basis is wrong. If you can do a better job of providing Macophiles with a PDA that works on their platform, write your business plan and go get some funding - but I feel that if you do some research you'll find there's no money in it.