In my case, the phone problem pretty much belongs to my wife. She has either lost or destroyed 5 phones so far. (Tracking software helped recover most, but they were usually in bad shape) Insurance covered 4 of them (they definitely did NOT make money off of her). Now I just get her not-so-high-end phones...cheaper than paying the insurance premiums and deductibles when she has a loss. She loses credit cards too. Yes, she isn't very aware of her surroundings sometimes.
My 13 year old daughter lost her phone once (and I still think it's in the house somewhere). Luckily it was a cheap android (intentional on my part). I then got her another very cheap android telling her "This one is on me. The next one is on you". She doesn't use it much, though.
Myself and my 16 year old son have yet to lose a phone. That's why he has his precious iPhone...because he's responsible. Eventually I'll upgrade my Nexus 5 (2013) but it's still serving me well right now.
The original definitely had mass transit. And it had one little train (which looked like a bus) that would spawn and traverse the map. I always wondered if, say, the "bus" couldn't get to a certain section (if you built two disconnected rail lines, there would still be only one bus), if it would still apply the rail to that other section (I think it did...the bus was merely an animation that had no function other than to look cute). And yes, the entire city could be on mass transit. Great way to reduce pollution.
My friends and I spent many a weekend in college playing this. When I got a job, my officemate and I played over the net via email and teamed up, (Pirates & Empire...a very deadly combination) slaughtering everyone we played against. Yeah, kinda unfair, so I eventually started a "team game"...three teams of three races. It got every interesting. My officemate even printed out the whole galactic map, and using protractors and such, was able to figure out warp distances, so we schemed throughout the whole day on our move that night. It's a wonder we got any work done.
Fun times. My wife didn't agree, though. At the end it was taking me 2+ hours/night to do my turn.
Sad, but true. I'd mod this, but it's already +5 Funny.
Their paper license key request information is very well packed in a sturdy cardboard box, lined with foam. That piece of paper isn't gonna have anything done to it!
I still have my Bally system sitting on a shelf. When my kids get slightly older so as to not break it, (They use the Wii just fine, but if they break a controller, I can easily buy a new one) I'll bring it out, along with my Intellivision, Vectrex, and Sega Master System (yes, all the systems that weren't terribly popular...Intellivision being the most known). Hopefully it still works.
I had the Blue Ram accessory, as well as two of the BASIC cartridges (the original, and the next one that had the cassette port right on the cartridge). A whopping 2K of RAM! I never did get the Keyboard, though, but I knew people who did, along with the modem.
I remember subscribing to newsletters "The Arcadian" and "The Basic Express". I'm surprised I remembered those names, from like 30 years ago.
I liked the controller. Fun times that system was! It was my first game console.
Ever slightly offtopic, but as proof one needs to check up on the workers...
We were having our bedroom done due to a mold problem. Walls torn to the cement block, the whole works.
When they put the drywall up, there was a gap under a window. I looked in the gap (wondering why they didn't finish the job) and I noticed...there was no insulation! Further investigation revealed that was the only part that they "forgot" to insulate...however, they put the wrong insulation on the rest of the wall (ie a lower R rating than what we paid for & designated on the quote).
Arguments ensued, but in the end they agreed to tear the drywall off, put in the proper insulation, then put in new drywall. All in the name of customer service.
That, and the fact that the city permit office was getting very annoyed at them for other sloppy work...they didn't want any further complaints from us!
Had they not left that gap there, I would have been none the wiser.
From TFA:
The many fans of the sizzling chemistry between Daniel Jackson and the roguish Vala Mal Doran, played by Claudia Black, will no doubt be gearing up to lobby The Powers That Be at Bridge Studios in Vancouver urging Wright and Cooper to secure Shanks and Black as their male and female leads. I'd go for that.
'Course, they'd probably have to call the show "Stargate SG-1:Reloaded"
The black border goes around the screen, but the text isn't always wrapping...therefore the text is going into the black area. I can actually scroll horizontally into the black area, for many screens. I can only see the text if I highlight it.
I'm one of those that was scheduled to attend Hp World. Naturally, I'm disappointed that I won't be able to go now.
The posted notice suggests that Interex is financially unable to continue. (ironically, I just received a bill from them yesterday) While that might be true for the organization as a whole, why cancel the conference? I know my company has already paid for it, and I'm sure 1000's others have as well. So unless they only got a few registrants (I wondered why a lot of the courses were still available!), and assuming the vendors and such already paid for their booths, I wonder how they could not have the money for the conference?
Vonage has been available here for quite a while, and only recently has our local cable company, Brighthouse, began offering their version of it. Naturally, for about $15 more for the same level of service (I'll assume...I haven't done a real comparison, but it looked pretty much the same).
Are people signing up for it? You betcha! Two of my coworkers have...despite me showing them Vonage availability, they'd rather pay $15 more, because, mainly, "It's all on one bill".
This doesn't explain the bridges. But sometimes when filming a movie, they'll do some (sometimes temporary) changes.
My father was a dentist (retired now). But one time recently, his dental office was used in an independent film about a dentist. Closed the whole building for about a week. During that time, they actually made changes, that honestly, he didn't think were good (but it wasn't his movie)...such as taking a slightly curved wall and putting a square covering on it, thus making it look straight. They put everything back the way it was before they left (so he actually got some minor repairs done in addition to the compensation for having his office shut down for a week...pretty good deal). When he finally saw the movie, he couldn't recognize that the office was actually his (and he's been in it for almost 30 years!).
So it is possible they made some minor cosmetic changes to the hospital to fit their vision for the show.
I was attending HP World 2004 in Chicago last year. I plugged into the wall to try to get into their wifi network that they set up throughout the center. Well a rather self-important (and large) convention center security guard came up and barked at me, saying I'm not allowed to plug it, because they don't provide free electricity. This was at a COMPUTER CONFERENCE! (yeah, I'm sure that laptop cost them plenty to power, compared to the escalator next to me that was running to a floor not being used) Ironically, I was also with a convention IT staffer, as well as a conference staffer, trying to help me out with something, and neither one of them could talk sense into the guy. They did both agree to talk to their various supervisors about it; dunno if it did any good.
I spoke with one of the leaders of the conference about it (figuring I wasn't the only one who got yelled out), and she told me it was most likely due to union issues...the union apparently was very strong there and the conference staff wasn't allowed to pull any cables...they needed union convention center staffers to do it. What that has to do with me plugging in a personal laptop is beyond me. Should I have gotten a union rep to do it instead?
I'll chalk it up to lack of intelligence on the guard's part, but I had no further problems. 'Course, whenever I saw that guy, I immediately unplugged.
I do that too, to a couple of different places (ofoto, mysticphotolab), and there are others as well.
The problem that I've seen with these online photo albums is that they don't let you download the original uploaded file...you can only view an oversized thumbnail. Doing a right-click -> Save As won't get you the original quality of the image.
Mystic (dunno about the others) does save them for a time being, but you have to pay like $.50 to download the hi-res image. If you wanted to do this to hundreds of images, that's hardly cost-effective.
If there are indeed sites that allow it, I'd be all for using them, but due to costs, I doubt they'd be offered for free. In fact, my mom has been doing that with Ofoto, and she got a message that since she hasn't bought anything in a long time, they may delete her albums. One would be better off paying for cheap web hosting with a lot of storage space.
Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Add/Remove Programs -> GMail Drive Shell Extension
At least on Windoze 98 SE; dunno if it hooks in differently on 2000/XP.
The school budgets didn't increase at all. The money coming in from gambling replaced taxpayer funds - it wasn't added to them.
Check out this article. Granted, it's an editorial piece, but it is pretty accurate.
Something the article doesn't say...for the couple of years after the lotto was instated, education was highly funded. Only afterwards were the original funds slowly siphoned away, so now instead of the lotto being used as an enhancement, it's pretty much replaced the original funding.
The children of Florida thank Governor Jeb Bush for his wisdom.
(I had friends that created a popular Ultima editor, and we were huge WizEdit fans [and later the better Wizardry Scenario Editor] for Wizardry).
They wouldn't have been called "Magicsoft", by any chance? Creators of "Wizards Workbench", a Wizardry editor? (don't recall the Ultima editors, but I think one was plainly "Ultima IV construction set"). I liked the Wizardry editor...a friend and I made up our own scenarios and exchanged them. Powerful editor. The Ultima ones were pretty nifty too. I believe they were only for the Apple II at the time.
they are talking about having some kind of in-game arcade game you play to craft superior things
I don't know about other games, but if you've ever played Questron (old game somewhat similar to Ultima 1) there was an in-game arcade game that allowed you to raise your character's dexterity. You had to shoot discs as they flew across the screen (you had a rotating gun at the bottom and shot upward). Simple game, but the more you were able to shoot, the higher your dexterity was. Switching to a paddle (Apple II game), I was able to get my dexterity up so high, that I could rob a town blind and NEVER get hit by a town guard! Made the game rather easy at that point.
But I think it worked well, and if they can implement the same type of idea in a MMORPG, it could be a good thing, if done right. (ie to make a potion, one has to physically mix some reagents & liquids on-screen...the better you do it, the more powerful the potion is) Would help with the macroing problem in some games (like Ultima Online).
I don't know about other areas. But the e-pass system in Central Florida has specifically stated that time stamps collected (and recorded) will NOT be used for speed enforcement.
'Course, I'm sure they are free to change their minds at any given time. I've never had an issue with it, though.
their cost break-even is well within their 20-30 year lifetime. How long this takes depends on the electric rates in your area, of course.
True. Some places where power costs $.30/KWh (such as some islands) would yield a quick return. Other places, such as here in Central Florida with Florida Flicker & Flash charge ~$.08/KWh, and thus the return would take significantly longer. Less if the state gives a rebate or tax credit of some kind (Florida does neither, to my knowledge).
But I agree with a previous poster. Putting these cells into shingles would be a great boon. This would also help out the power company, since the power generation would be a little more distributed. I would assume the transmission loss would be a bit less as well.
Unfortunately, the article didn't mention price, at least not directly. It stated "would become practical in 2-3 years", which I can only assume means they'd be the same price as today's cells.
It is indeed a shame that more interest in this technology doesn't exist. The lack of responses to this article is pretty disappointing, especially since I would think/.ers would be one of the main supporters. Doubling the output of cells is a definite improvement.
I remember reading somewhere (IIRC one of the Real Goods Source Books) that had the phrase similar to "Solar Panels will never become widely accepted until they are available from your local Home Depot." This definitely rings true. Aside from the solar powered walkway lights (total garbage), they have very little to offer there. Solar Cells need to be cheaper and more powerful if people are going to use them.
It's good to see that progress is being made, though, as this article describes. Perhaps one day it will indeed become practical to use solar panels. Until then, we're stuck with calculators.
Whether it is RFID tags, or just entering a name into a (weather resistant) terminal, make it optional. Some trails in some places have books or cards you can fill out when you pass it; I assume that's in case you go missing, they have somewhere to start. It wouldn't bother me if I'm tracked somewhat (might actually make me feel safer), but others might care, so leave the choice to the individual.
Slashdot Mirror
Someone put a carrot on a stick and tape it to the hood of the car. Maybe that will work? It should sense that!
In my case, the phone problem pretty much belongs to my wife. She has either lost or destroyed 5 phones so far. (Tracking software helped recover most, but they were usually in bad shape) Insurance covered 4 of them (they definitely did NOT make money off of her). Now I just get her not-so-high-end phones...cheaper than paying the insurance premiums and deductibles when she has a loss. She loses credit cards too. Yes, she isn't very aware of her surroundings sometimes. My 13 year old daughter lost her phone once (and I still think it's in the house somewhere). Luckily it was a cheap android (intentional on my part). I then got her another very cheap android telling her "This one is on me. The next one is on you". She doesn't use it much, though. Myself and my 16 year old son have yet to lose a phone. That's why he has his precious iPhone...because he's responsible. Eventually I'll upgrade my Nexus 5 (2013) but it's still serving me well right now.
The original definitely had mass transit. And it had one little train (which looked like a bus) that would spawn and traverse the map. I always wondered if, say, the "bus" couldn't get to a certain section (if you built two disconnected rail lines, there would still be only one bus), if it would still apply the rail to that other section (I think it did...the bus was merely an animation that had no function other than to look cute). And yes, the entire city could be on mass transit. Great way to reduce pollution.
Fun times. My wife didn't agree, though. At the end it was taking me 2+ hours/night to do my turn.
Sad, but true. I'd mod this, but it's already +5 Funny. Their paper license key request information is very well packed in a sturdy cardboard box, lined with foam. That piece of paper isn't gonna have anything done to it!
I still have my Bally system sitting on a shelf. When my kids get slightly older so as to not break it, (They use the Wii just fine, but if they break a controller, I can easily buy a new one) I'll bring it out, along with my Intellivision, Vectrex, and Sega Master System (yes, all the systems that weren't terribly popular...Intellivision being the most known). Hopefully it still works.
I had the Blue Ram accessory, as well as two of the BASIC cartridges (the original, and the next one that had the cassette port right on the cartridge). A whopping 2K of RAM! I never did get the Keyboard, though, but I knew people who did, along with the modem.
I remember subscribing to newsletters "The Arcadian" and "The Basic Express". I'm surprised I remembered those names, from like 30 years ago.
I liked the controller. Fun times that system was! It was my first game console.
When they put the drywall up, there was a gap under a window. I looked in the gap (wondering why they didn't finish the job) and I noticed...there was no insulation! Further investigation revealed that was the only part that they "forgot" to insulate...however, they put the wrong insulation on the rest of the wall (ie a lower R rating than what we paid for & designated on the quote).
Arguments ensued, but in the end they agreed to tear the drywall off, put in the proper insulation, then put in new drywall. All in the name of customer service.
That, and the fact that the city permit office was getting very annoyed at them for other sloppy work...they didn't want any further complaints from us!
Had they not left that gap there, I would have been none the wiser.
'Course, they'd probably have to call the show "Stargate SG-1:Reloaded"
The black border goes around the screen, but the text isn't always wrapping...therefore the text is going into the black area. I can actually scroll horizontally into the black area, for many screens. I can only see the text if I highlight it.
The posted notice suggests that Interex is financially unable to continue. (ironically, I just received a bill from them yesterday) While that might be true for the organization as a whole, why cancel the conference? I know my company has already paid for it, and I'm sure 1000's others have as well. So unless they only got a few registrants (I wondered why a lot of the courses were still available!), and assuming the vendors and such already paid for their booths, I wonder how they could not have the money for the conference?
Vonage has been available here for quite a while, and only recently has our local cable company, Brighthouse, began offering their version of it. Naturally, for about $15 more for the same level of service (I'll assume...I haven't done a real comparison, but it looked pretty much the same).
Are people signing up for it? You betcha! Two of my coworkers have...despite me showing them Vonage availability, they'd rather pay $15 more, because, mainly, "It's all on one bill".
Shesh! And these are high level engineers, too.
My father was a dentist (retired now). But one time recently, his dental office was used in an independent film about a dentist. Closed the whole building for about a week. During that time, they actually made changes, that honestly, he didn't think were good (but it wasn't his movie)...such as taking a slightly curved wall and putting a square covering on it, thus making it look straight. They put everything back the way it was before they left (so he actually got some minor repairs done in addition to the compensation for having his office shut down for a week...pretty good deal). When he finally saw the movie, he couldn't recognize that the office was actually his (and he's been in it for almost 30 years!).
So it is possible they made some minor cosmetic changes to the hospital to fit their vision for the show.
I spoke with one of the leaders of the conference about it (figuring I wasn't the only one who got yelled out), and she told me it was most likely due to union issues...the union apparently was very strong there and the conference staff wasn't allowed to pull any cables...they needed union convention center staffers to do it. What that has to do with me plugging in a personal laptop is beyond me. Should I have gotten a union rep to do it instead?
I'll chalk it up to lack of intelligence on the guard's part, but I had no further problems. 'Course, whenever I saw that guy, I immediately unplugged.
More than one
The problem that I've seen with these online photo albums is that they don't let you download the original uploaded file...you can only view an oversized thumbnail. Doing a right-click -> Save As won't get you the original quality of the image.
Mystic (dunno about the others) does save them for a time being, but you have to pay like $.50 to download the hi-res image. If you wanted to do this to hundreds of images, that's hardly cost-effective.
If there are indeed sites that allow it, I'd be all for using them, but due to costs, I doubt they'd be offered for free. In fact, my mom has been doing that with Ofoto, and she got a message that since she hasn't bought anything in a long time, they may delete her albums. One would be better off paying for cheap web hosting with a lot of storage space.
Here is a place to start with...
-Phlack
Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Add/Remove Programs -> GMail Drive Shell Extension At least on Windoze 98 SE; dunno if it hooks in differently on 2000/XP.
Check out this article. Granted, it's an editorial piece, but it is pretty accurate.
Something the article doesn't say...for the couple of years after the lotto was instated, education was highly funded. Only afterwards were the original funds slowly siphoned away, so now instead of the lotto being used as an enhancement, it's pretty much replaced the original funding.
The children of Florida thank Governor Jeb Bush for his wisdom.
They wouldn't have been called "Magicsoft", by any chance? Creators of "Wizards Workbench", a Wizardry editor? (don't recall the Ultima editors, but I think one was plainly "Ultima IV construction set"). I liked the Wizardry editor...a friend and I made up our own scenarios and exchanged them. Powerful editor. The Ultima ones were pretty nifty too. I believe they were only for the Apple II at the time.
I don't know about other games, but if you've ever played Questron (old game somewhat similar to Ultima 1) there was an in-game arcade game that allowed you to raise your character's dexterity. You had to shoot discs as they flew across the screen (you had a rotating gun at the bottom and shot upward). Simple game, but the more you were able to shoot, the higher your dexterity was. Switching to a paddle (Apple II game), I was able to get my dexterity up so high, that I could rob a town blind and NEVER get hit by a town guard! Made the game rather easy at that point.
But I think it worked well, and if they can implement the same type of idea in a MMORPG, it could be a good thing, if done right. (ie to make a potion, one has to physically mix some reagents & liquids on-screen...the better you do it, the more powerful the potion is) Would help with the macroing problem in some games (like Ultima Online).
'Course, I'm sure they are free to change their minds at any given time. I've never had an issue with it, though.
Or PDA's. Then you could go Toothing. At least then you're already out and about.
But I agree with a previous poster. Putting these cells into shingles would be a great boon. This would also help out the power company, since the power generation would be a little more distributed. I would assume the transmission loss would be a bit less as well.
It is indeed a shame that more interest in this technology doesn't exist. The lack of responses to this article is pretty disappointing, especially since I would think /.ers would be one of the main supporters. Doubling the output of cells is a definite improvement.
I remember reading somewhere (IIRC one of the Real Goods Source Books) that had the phrase similar to "Solar Panels will never become widely accepted until they are available from your local Home Depot." This definitely rings true. Aside from the solar powered walkway lights (total garbage), they have very little to offer there. Solar Cells need to be cheaper and more powerful if people are going to use them.
It's good to see that progress is being made, though, as this article describes. Perhaps one day it will indeed become practical to use solar panels. Until then, we're stuck with calculators.
Whether it is RFID tags, or just entering a name into a (weather resistant) terminal, make it optional. Some trails in some places have books or cards you can fill out when you pass it; I assume that's in case you go missing, they have somewhere to start. It wouldn't bother me if I'm tracked somewhat (might actually make me feel safer), but others might care, so leave the choice to the individual.