They have arrived...
on
Whereables?
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
...you just didn't notice. (Okay, actually, they're not available to the public yet, but a couple of review sites have gotten their hands on working models.)
This is in-cart, not the self-checkout kiosks that live next to the regular cashiers.
And in St. Petersburg, FL they haven't even had self-checkout. Albertson's hasn't got them yet. Hell, the Publix down here (the most expensive grocery store in the area) still doesn't have them. The local K-Mart did, but they took them out after about two weeks. Apparently it confused all the old people.
When they make my perfect digital convergence device (combination cell phone, PDA, 3+ MP digital camera, 40GB USB hard drive, MP3 player, FM stereo radio, and GPS device), then it will matter. But for a digital camera that's *just* a digital camera, operating systems and openness don't matter as long as the thing is capable of taking pictures and loading them onto a PC. There's only a few items beyond those two that a digital camera needs. (Timed picture taking and zoom are good, manual settings for some things...but how many of the 90,000 possible features of a digital camera are you actually going to use?)
What? Everyone knows the original Cairo is the one in upstate New York. It's pronounced "Care-Oh" and shares a school district with Durham. (Beyond that, I know nothing about it. I grew up there and heard school closing reports on the radio. Didn't even now how it was spelled until I was a teenager.)
Oosthuizen said sand samples from Namakwa Sands has successfully been used in experiments to produce titanium metal and potentially oxygen.
So they've managed to split the metal out, but don't have the oxygen as straight O2 yet? The article is a bit short on details on this. If so, it's not going to be useful until he figures out how to get O2 (or H2O) through chemical reactions with whatever he's got now.
The Fifth Third Bank website is *NOT* part of the credit card processing system; and I was not involved in the redesign. And yes, I knew that it had changed, but since I don't have any accounts with the bank, I didn't bother looking into how well it worked. (I work in an office that was a CC processing company which 5/3 acquired; I have no access to Fifth Third accounts. It would be an hour drive for me to get to the nearest branch.) Take your complaints to someone else - like maybe to one of the customer service people at a branch? Ask them to demonstrate how to transfer funds. Laugh at them when it doesn't work. They will then bust their butts to get it fixed for you. (This worked for me with the bank I do have accounts at, AmSouth Bank.)
One other thing: I never said that Fifth Third Bank was good to use for personal banking, nor meant to imply it. I have no experience with that, and can only hope that your experiences are not typically (although, sadly, I think they may be). I only meant to say that (1) Verisign's behavior as described in the article is unacceptable, (2) Fifth Third would be a better choice for a merchant to use a credit card processor, and (3) impart some information about how Fifth Third's credit card processing works so that people would not be dealing with them blind.
Disclaimer: I work for Fifth Third Bank, in a credit card processing capacity (software testing and installation for authorization/settlement system).
First off, Verisign being totally down is completely unacceptable. Demand a refund for the service outage.
Second, why the hell are they totally down? The system that I work with (one of several owned by Fifth Third) is never completely down. We have three access methods; dial, SSL, and non-SSL TCP/IP. It's rare for one of them to have problems, virtually impossible for all of them to get hosed at once. We run on Tandems, which allow for "buddy" process running in seperate CPUs where the secondary takes over if the primary has a hardware problem; we have redundant access to our disk drives so that we can always get to the data. We also have a voice-menu system that you can use to authorize (not a good plan for e-commerce, but I figured if I was plugging the company I work for, why not?). Hell, we even have two identical systems in widely seperated locations! If you can't get through to us, you've probably got bigger things to worry about because there's been a major natural disaster.
Third, WTF did they change during the holiday season that blew up their system? We have a concept called "peak season freeze". Basically, we change *NO* software or hardware between mid-November and the end of September, except emergency fixes for things that are totally broken, and even that is rare.
Fourth, the guy who said you should running your own credit card processing solution is an idiot. He obviously does not know how the credit card processing world works and has never attempted a certification with one of the credit networks.
--Ender PS I'll go write up an explanation of how the credit card processing world works in my journal now, so that you can go educate yourselves on the basics.
Does this seem like "we'll get the original order of a list based on the sorted order and knowing how the sort algorithm took to run" (in otherwords, bound to be so wrong as to be useless)?
Seriously, who really needs fancy, complicated formatting? Especially, who in the government needs it? I can't think of any use, other than a 13-year-old girl's art project, that could possibly need formatting complicated enough that RTF or HTML can't do it. Can you?
Yes. In fact, if you didn't come up with anything that can't be done in HTML, you didn't think about it very hard. HTML has no way to set page breaks or margins (not reliable margins, anyway), both of which are necessary in a lot of government documents. Things like patent documents and court papers need very specific layouts. Neither of them do edit tracking, which may be a requirement in government documents (don't you want to see the private who inserted profanity into a government report thrown in the brig?).
Honestly. I've got no problem with people who want open standards compliant documents, but *use your brain a little*, people. Just because a file format uses an open standard does not mean it is the right tool for the job.
In versions before XP, associate the following macro code with a toolbar button in Word, otherwise the people who change background color without forcing foregroun color off of default (or vice versa) will really kill your eyes:
Sub ToggleBlue() ' ' ToggleBlue Macro ' Macro recorded 8/6/2003 by Ender Stonebender '
If Options.BlueScreen = True Then
Options.BlueScreen = False
ElseIf Options.BlueScreen = False Then
Options.BlueScreen = True
End If
End Sub
You can get to it through the menu system and options dialogs, but it's a pain in the ass. You'll have to figure out how to do this in Word XP for yourself, as I don't have access to any Office XP products.
It's white text, not yellow, on a blue background.
And it's not left from the "good ol' text days", it's there because Jerry Pournelle (sci-fi author and Byte magazine columnist) told them to put it there to match the good ol' text days - he claimed no one would want to use it otherwise. Once again, default settings beat good sense.
Mercedes is actually Mercedes-Benz, which was a part of Daimler-Benz, which merged with Chrysler corporation to make Daimler-Chrysler. So Maybach, Mercedes, Chrysler, and Dodge cars all come from the same parent corporation. (Don't ask about Ford, they're even worse.)
You'll get answers quicker this way. Probably better quality ones, and you won't have someone whose name is Samir and lives in Bangalore claiming his name is "Fred" and speaks with a thick Indian accent trying to solve the problem based on some lame-assed script. (Apologies to any Indian people who find this offensive.)
Would be good if it weren't half-assed
on
Spies Riding Shotgun
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
The fact of the matter is that these are only good for people attacking you. If they added a camera that looked out the front window of the vehicle, and recorded the last 30 seconds of data from that as well, it would be good. Then, not only could the know what was done, but might have some clue as to why it was done. Knowing what happened without knowing why it happened...it's pretty much useless for things like this.
--Ender
Re:Ok, there are spies. Now what?
on
Spies Riding Shotgun
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
While they are all crashes, they are not all caused by someone going to fast. (Your two statements, considered seperately, are both true - but not connected.) Occasionally, the crashes are caused by some asshat deciding to turn left in front of someone doing the speed limit (or less!) without enough time or space to brake to avoid the crash. (And don't even try "if you see someone looking to make a left turn, you should slow down" - what, I should stop and let them in on a two-lane, 50 MPH road? Bah!) There are also crashes caused by equipment failure - again, no one going to fast, but the person who should have been maintaining the vehicle and did not is responsible for the crash. I could sit here and come up with counterexamples to "Someone's always going too fast" all night - but I won't, because I've got better things to do.
I live in Pinellas county, Florida, which happens to be one county over from Hillsborough. The problem is not FTTP installation, it's the fact that the water table is about two feet below the ground, resulting in every underground conduit being stuck in that two-foot space, and shitty as-built documentation. No one here has a basement because if they did, the only thing you could keep in it would be alligators. They run into the same things trying to install natural gas pipelines.
You need more coffee, man - your brain hasn't started to function yet.
Even from the summary, it was obvious that these RFID tags are NOT going to be on the bottles you're carrying home. They're going to be on the bottles of prescription drugs that the pharmacies receive and will be used to authenticate that the drugs were not replaced during shipment. You'll still get the same amber bottle you've always gotten to carry your drugs home in.
Your last couple of points, however, are totally valid. Unless opening the bottles destroys the RFID tag, there's no way to tell that the drugs inside the bottles haven't been replaced. And 20 cases per year? Given the huge number of prescriptions filled in the US per year, 20 cases of counterfeit drugs is so miniscule that the problem is essentially non-existent.
Google puts ads at the top of the results page. But they have a different color background, very easy to differentiate. I've got my eyes trained to mostly ignore them - same for banner/skyscraper ads, although that's harder if they're animated.
Slashdot Mirror
...you just didn't notice. (Okay, actually, they're not available to the public yet, but a couple of review sites have gotten their hands on working models.)
Fossil Abacus Wrist PDA
Okay, this is probably more the inspiration for asking the question rather than what was being sought, but it's still a computer that you wear.
--Ender
This is in-cart, not the self-checkout kiosks that live next to the regular cashiers.
And in St. Petersburg, FL they haven't even had self-checkout. Albertson's hasn't got them yet. Hell, the Publix down here (the most expensive grocery store in the area) still doesn't have them. The local K-Mart did, but they took them out after about two weeks. Apparently it confused all the old people.
--Ender
Damn right!!!
I usually avoid this, but: MOD PARENT UP!
Damn. You beat me to it. But you forget the "...oh, wait. Never mind." bit at the end.
--Ender
These "Officials" are Joan Borucki, the director of California DMV.
Linky
--Ender
When they make my perfect digital convergence device (combination cell phone, PDA, 3+ MP digital camera, 40GB USB hard drive, MP3 player, FM stereo radio, and GPS device), then it will matter. But for a digital camera that's *just* a digital camera, operating systems and openness don't matter as long as the thing is capable of taking pictures and loading them onto a PC. There's only a few items beyond those two that a digital camera needs. (Timed picture taking and zoom are good, manual settings for some things...but how many of the 90,000 possible features of a digital camera are you actually going to use?)
--Ender
What? Everyone knows the original Cairo is the one in upstate New York. It's pronounced "Care-Oh" and shares a school district with Durham. (Beyond that, I know nothing about it. I grew up there and heard school closing reports on the radio. Didn't even now how it was spelled until I was a teenager.)
--Ender
It'll be free the same way TV (over the airwaves) is free to consumers: Advertising will be embedded in it.
Actually, I'm surprised I've never heard of anyone trying this. Did I just miss it, or did it really never happen?
--Ender
So they've managed to split the metal out, but don't have the oxygen as straight O2 yet? The article is a bit short on details on this. If so, it's not going to be useful until he figures out how to get O2 (or H2O) through chemical reactions with whatever he's got now.
--Ender
The Fifth Third Bank website is *NOT* part of the credit card processing system; and I was not involved in the redesign. And yes, I knew that it had changed, but since I don't have any accounts with the bank, I didn't bother looking into how well it worked. (I work in an office that was a CC processing company which 5/3 acquired; I have no access to Fifth Third accounts. It would be an hour drive for me to get to the nearest branch.) Take your complaints to someone else - like maybe to one of the customer service people at a branch? Ask them to demonstrate how to transfer funds. Laugh at them when it doesn't work. They will then bust their butts to get it fixed for you. (This worked for me with the bank I do have accounts at, AmSouth Bank.)
One other thing: I never said that Fifth Third Bank was good to use for personal banking, nor meant to imply it. I have no experience with that, and can only hope that your experiences are not typically (although, sadly, I think they may be). I only meant to say that (1) Verisign's behavior as described in the article is unacceptable, (2) Fifth Third would be a better choice for a merchant to use a credit card processor, and (3) impart some information about how Fifth Third's credit card processing works so that people would not be dealing with them blind.
--Ender
No. But it's not public internet, either, it's private connections. We also support VPN connectivity, in case you want another variation on SSL.
--Ender
Disclaimer: I work for Fifth Third Bank, in a credit card processing capacity (software testing and installation for authorization/settlement system).
First off, Verisign being totally down is completely unacceptable. Demand a refund for the service outage.
Second, why the hell are they totally down? The system that I work with (one of several owned by Fifth Third) is never completely down. We have three access methods; dial, SSL, and non-SSL TCP/IP. It's rare for one of them to have problems, virtually impossible for all of them to get hosed at once. We run on Tandems, which allow for "buddy" process running in seperate CPUs where the secondary takes over if the primary has a hardware problem; we have redundant access to our disk drives so that we can always get to the data. We also have a voice-menu system that you can use to authorize (not a good plan for e-commerce, but I figured if I was plugging the company I work for, why not?). Hell, we even have two identical systems in widely seperated locations! If you can't get through to us, you've probably got bigger things to worry about because there's been a major natural disaster.
Third, WTF did they change during the holiday season that blew up their system? We have a concept called "peak season freeze". Basically, we change *NO* software or hardware between mid-November and the end of September, except emergency fixes for things that are totally broken, and even that is rare.
Fourth, the guy who said you should running your own credit card processing solution is an idiot. He obviously does not know how the credit card processing world works and has never attempted a certification with one of the credit networks.
--Ender
PS I'll go write up an explanation of how the credit card processing world works in my journal now, so that you can go educate yourselves on the basics.
Does this seem like "we'll get the original order of a list based on the sorted order and knowing how the sort algorithm took to run" (in otherwords, bound to be so wrong as to be useless)?
Or is it just me?
--Ender
Yes. In fact, if you didn't come up with anything that can't be done in HTML, you didn't think about it very hard. HTML has no way to set page breaks or margins (not reliable margins, anyway), both of which are necessary in a lot of government documents. Things like patent documents and court papers need very specific layouts. Neither of them do edit tracking, which may be a requirement in government documents (don't you want to see the private who inserted profanity into a government report thrown in the brig?).
Honestly. I've got no problem with people who want open standards compliant documents, but *use your brain a little*, people. Just because a file format uses an open standard does not mean it is the right tool for the job.
--Ender
Just tried it - sure does. I should have thought to do it that way. It doesn't appear to be any faster, though.
In versions before XP, associate the following macro code with a toolbar button in Word, otherwise the people who change background color without forcing foregroun color off of default (or vice versa) will really kill your eyes:
Sub ToggleBlue()
'
' ToggleBlue Macro
' Macro recorded 8/6/2003 by Ender Stonebender
'
If Options.BlueScreen = True Then
Options.BlueScreen = False
ElseIf Options.BlueScreen = False Then
Options.BlueScreen = True
End If
End Sub
You can get to it through the menu system and options dialogs, but it's a pain in the ass. You'll have to figure out how to do this in Word XP for yourself, as I don't have access to any Office XP products.
--Ender
Wrong on two counts!
It's white text, not yellow, on a blue background.
And it's not left from the "good ol' text days", it's there because Jerry Pournelle (sci-fi author and Byte magazine columnist) told them to put it there to match the good ol' text days - he claimed no one would want to use it otherwise. Once again, default settings beat good sense.
--Ender
You don't follow the auto industry much, do you?
Mercedes is actually Mercedes-Benz, which was a part of Daimler-Benz, which merged with Chrysler corporation to make Daimler-Chrysler. So Maybach, Mercedes, Chrysler, and Dodge cars all come from the same parent corporation. (Don't ask about Ford, they're even worse.)
--Ender
You'll get answers quicker this way. Probably better quality ones, and you won't have someone whose name is Samir and lives in Bangalore claiming his name is "Fred" and speaks with a thick Indian accent trying to solve the problem based on some lame-assed script. (Apologies to any Indian people who find this offensive.)
The fact of the matter is that these are only good for people attacking you. If they added a camera that looked out the front window of the vehicle, and recorded the last 30 seconds of data from that as well, it would be good. Then, not only could the know what was done, but might have some clue as to why it was done. Knowing what happened without knowing why it happened...it's pretty much useless for things like this.
--Ender
While they are all crashes, they are not all caused by someone going to fast. (Your two statements, considered seperately, are both true - but not connected.) Occasionally, the crashes are caused by some asshat deciding to turn left in front of someone doing the speed limit (or less!) without enough time or space to brake to avoid the crash. (And don't even try "if you see someone looking to make a left turn, you should slow down" - what, I should stop and let them in on a two-lane, 50 MPH road? Bah!) There are also crashes caused by equipment failure - again, no one going to fast, but the person who should have been maintaining the vehicle and did not is responsible for the crash. I could sit here and come up with counterexamples to "Someone's always going too fast" all night - but I won't, because I've got better things to do.
--Ender
I live in Pinellas county, Florida, which happens to be one county over from Hillsborough. The problem is not FTTP installation, it's the fact that the water table is about two feet below the ground, resulting in every underground conduit being stuck in that two-foot space, and shitty as-built documentation. No one here has a basement because if they did, the only thing you could keep in it would be alligators. They run into the same things trying to install natural gas pipelines.
--Ender
You need more coffee, man - your brain hasn't started to function yet.
Even from the summary, it was obvious that these RFID tags are NOT going to be on the bottles you're carrying home. They're going to be on the bottles of prescription drugs that the pharmacies receive and will be used to authenticate that the drugs were not replaced during shipment. You'll still get the same amber bottle you've always gotten to carry your drugs home in.
Your last couple of points, however, are totally valid. Unless opening the bottles destroys the RFID tag, there's no way to tell that the drugs inside the bottles haven't been replaced. And 20 cases per year? Given the huge number of prescriptions filled in the US per year, 20 cases of counterfeit drugs is so miniscule that the problem is essentially non-existent.
--Ender
Google puts ads at the top of the results page. But they have a different color background, very easy to differentiate. I've got my eyes trained to mostly ignore them - same for banner/skyscraper ads, although that's harder if they're animated.
--Ender
That'd be great!!!!
Anybody know how to hotwire a tank?
--Ender