A tale of altered reality, drug use, and the meaning of identity, the novel tells the story of TV celebrity Jason Taverner, who wakes up one morning to find that his very existence has been wiped from everyone's memories
With all due respect - I have to say that this plows what has become some very familiar ground.
"A couple of days ago, the folks over at Ajaxian introduced the world to UIzard, an awesome creation by a Korean developer using YUI. There is actually a heck of a lot more about it, and the excitement about the app caused the UIzard website to go down
"Awesome" should be expelled from the vocabulary of anyone over the age of consent.
Yeah, like phasing out support for older OS's. And putting in new formats for the next Office iteration.
support for any aging OS or app demands a serious commitment of time and resources - nothing comes free even in FOSS.
the components and focus of an office suite change over time. it's place within the office as a working environment also changes over time.
the geek obsesses over file formats.
file formats are a diversion.
what I see in the office are documents. in print or on display. most are ephemeral. most are internal - and the most sensitive are filed encrypted.
meaning that the geek will have a much bigger problem on his plate than reconstructing the.doc format - if, let us say, - ten years down the road he want to understand the surprises which unfolded at the big meeting here last night.
Like Office 2007 didn't cause most people fits when it was released?
Office 2007 is beyond question the most successful roll-out Microsoft has had in years.
Re:The Achilles heel of this...
on
Phoenix BIOSOS?
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
There are many devices that are older and will never have support for Windows XP or Vista or Windows 7. The devices are considered old and outdated...
In almost every case - they are old and outdated - at least those devices produced for the home and SOHO markets.
I replaced a old HP printer with a wireless multifunction HP printer-scanner-fax with Vista drivers - and by old I mean that only the parallel port worked with XP.
The new - refurbished - ink jet cost $99 with a one year HP warranty. It lacks only the color LCD for instant photo printing.
This is NOT a Linux problem. It is a Manufacturer-with-their-heads-up-their-asses problem.
There comes a time when the geek needs to let go. To pull the plug.
Open Source is not a panacea.
Someone still has to sit down and make the decision to write and test a new driver for a fast-fading piece of legacy hardware -
and if he says the hell with it, there is not much you can do.
The usage was current when the Black Flag still flew over the Caribbean. You'll find it in the unabridged Webster and in the OED.
Your bunk mates at Club Fed will lose patience when you return to this argument after your second conviction on the felony charge.
I've got about $3,000 invested in a TV and a blu-ray player, and I feel ripped off. I can't find 1080p content. I had to abandon cable because the quality was so poor
1080p is nice. But 1080i will suffice.
"Rio Bravo" "The Magnificent Seven" "Once Upon A Time In The West" "Winchester 73" "My Darling Clementine."
For other tastes:
"American Graffiti," "War Games" and "To Catch A Thief."
The Seven viewed off-air from PBS. The rest over our local cable's $6/mo HD movie tier. I can't fault the color or presentation - in any way.
The configuration options on a $3000 set are endless. The geek can - and probably will - get it wrong - if only because he can't bothered to RTFM.
First of all - what gross income? The pirates just upload their work to torrent sites.
The pirates are uploading the work of others. That's so much easier and cheaper than producing anything on your own.
They not only seem unable to create a character to replace 007, they also need to spend sixteen times as much to create the same level of special effects.
The same level of special effects?
That's ridiculous. The F/X in the Connery films is simplistic and obvious.
was really hoping they'd fight this one. From what I read of CL's lawyers earlier releases, it seemed that they could indeed have withstood and won any court battles that would have come their way
CL is a business. CL cut its losses. End of story.
I hate to piss on your firework but I have better things to do with my life than boycott a specific company just because some iPhone-using doofus got busted outside...
The geek has the attention span of a fruit fly. There is always some new cause to excite him - and on Slashdot, typically, a half-dozen or so every day.
Unless he is accused of a crime, he has no obligation to provide his information to a police officer.
From The Christian Science Monitor:
US citizens do not enjoy a constitutional right to refuse to reveal their identity when requested by police.
In what may become a major boost to US law enforcement and antiterrorism efforts, the US Supreme Court Monday upheld a Nevada law that makes it a criminal offense for anyone suspected of wrongdoing to refuse to identify himself to police.
Civil libertarians see the decision as a significant setback. And it remains unclear to what extent it may open the door to the issuing of national identification cards...
"It's a green light to explore the bounds of how much personal information can be demanded on pain of arrest," says Timothy Lynch of the Cato Institute in Washington.
The ruling marks the first time the nation's highest court has endorsed a provision compelling citizens to reveal information in a citizen-police encounter that may become a police investigation.
The 5-to-4 decision says that neither the Fourth Amendment's right to privacy nor the Fifth Amendment's guarantee against self-incrimination bars states from passing laws requiring citizens to identify themselves.
In effect, the majority justices say that in most cases it is no significant intrusion for police to request - and a suspect to provide - his name.
"One's identity is, by definition, unique; yet it is, in another sense, a universal characteristic," writes Justice Anthony Kennedy for the majority. "Answering a request to disclose a name is likely to be so insignificant in the scheme of things as to be incriminating only in unusual circumstances."
Justice Kennedy adds that if a case arises in which the furnished identity provides a key link leading to the conviction of the individual for a different crime, the court will revisit the issue.
Joining Justice Kennedy's majority opinion were Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Justices Sandra Day O'Connor, Antonin Scalia, and Clarence Thomas.
In a dissent, Justice John Paul Stevens says the Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination must always shield a criminal suspect who is being questioned by police. Since police may only request the name of someone they find suspicious (under the upheld Nevada statute), that person is by definition a criminal suspect who may not be compelled to make statements that might incriminate him, Justice Stevens says.
"The court reasons that we should not assume the disclosure of petitioner's name would be used to incriminate him," Justice Stevens writes. "But why else would an officer ask for it?"
Stevens adds, "A name can provide the key to a broad array of information about a person particularly in the hands of a police officer with access to a range of law enforcement databases."
The decision stems from the case of Larry Hiibel, who was arrested in May 2000 after he refused a deputy sheriff's repeated demand that he produce some form of identification.
The encounter took place at the side of a road in Humboldt County, Nev. The deputy had received a report of a man striking a woman in a pickup truck. When the deputy arrived at the scene, Mr. Hiibel was standing outside a pickup truck that was parked on the shoulder of the road. His daughter was sitting inside the truck.
The deputy asked Hiibel 11 times to produce identification. Hiibel repeatedly refused, saying he'd done nothing wrong. The deputy placed him under arrest in accord with a Nevada law that permits police to detain criminal suspects for up to 60 minutes to compel them to identify themselves.
Hiibel refused to comply. He was charged and convicted of violating the mandatory identity law, a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail. His conviction was affirmed by a state appeals court and the Nevada Supreme Court.
In upholding his conviction and the mandatory identity-disclosure law, the majority justices als
They maintained no clearinghouse, they published a list of possibilities and maintained a little black book of IP addresses to whom you could go for those files (which may or may not be available).
Back to the dictionary:
2: a central agency for the collection, classification, and distribution especially of information ; broadly : an informal channel for distributing information or assistance
Microsoft has a five star corporate credit rating. Exxon-Mobil grade corporate credit. Pfizer grade corporate credit.
Microsoft's total debt is 2 billion dollars.
Microsoft holds 24 billion in cash.
Revenues have shrunk to a bare $61.1 billion.
Its profit margin to a modest 26% - but, all in all, it's not a bad showing for a thirty year old industrial in a down market. Microsoft Corporation (MSFT
This is Microsoft's first trip to the bond market.
There is no private corporation on the planet which can borrow money more quickly or more cheaply.
The important question would be why his employer even phoned the police in the first place. This is one of those bizarre situations where it is obvious that the person was persecuted for a lifestyle choice and not for what he did or didn't do at work
You have to know why the photograph was on your system. You have to know how it was being used.
You can't take the man's word as gospel.
You need answers and you need them now.
The mayor won't be pleased when a secretary files a ten million dollar lawsuit for sexual harassment.
He will be even more unhappy when your man is arrested by the feds for soliciting minors on online -
and he'll be really - royally - pissed off if comes out later that you tucked the photograph away and did nothing.
You go into an office as an IT person who has updated the machines the night before to the new version of office and and see a bunch of helpless noobs unable to quit their program.
You can't simply drop a new app on your users like a bomb and expect them to be productive.
To understand Microsoft's success with the ribbon, you need to think about how much time Microsoft spends down in the trenches - studying the office worker.
The office environment.
The geek expects the suggestion box to work its magic. The OpenOffice fan club.
Microsoft believes in spending real money on real science.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm all for progress and new technology, but why discard something because it just needs a new set of drivers?
It is never just the driver.
I am retiring a parallel port printer.
The quad core 64 bit system I have on order doesn't have a parallel port.
The new printer supports photo quality inks and papers. It has a page feeder. It prints both sides in one pass.
It scans. It faxes. It has integrated WiFi....
Etc. Etc. Etc.
With all due respect - I have to say that this plows what has become some very familiar ground.
"A couple of days ago, the folks over at Ajaxian introduced the world to UIzard, an awesome creation by a Korean developer using YUI. There is actually a heck of a lot more about it, and the excitement about the app caused the UIzard website to go down
"Awesome" should be expelled from the vocabulary of anyone over the age of consent.
Yeah, like phasing out support for older OS's. And putting in new formats for the next Office iteration.
support for any aging OS or app demands a serious commitment of time and resources - nothing comes free even in FOSS.
the components and focus of an office suite change over time. it's place within the office as a working environment also changes over time.
the geek obsesses over file formats.
file formats are a diversion.
what I see in the office are documents. in print or on display. most are ephemeral. most are internal - and the most sensitive are filed encrypted.
meaning that the geek will have a much bigger problem on his plate than reconstructing the .doc format - if, let us say, - ten years down the road he want to understand the surprises which unfolded at the big meeting here last night.
Like Office 2007 didn't cause most people fits when it was released?
Office 2007 is beyond question the most successful roll-out Microsoft has had in years.
There are many devices that are older and will never have support for Windows XP or Vista or Windows 7. The devices are considered old and outdated...
In almost every case - they are old and outdated -
at least those devices produced for the home and SOHO markets.
I replaced a old HP printer with a wireless multifunction HP printer-scanner-fax with Vista drivers -
and by old I mean that only the parallel port worked with XP.
The new - refurbished - ink jet cost $99 with a one year HP warranty. It lacks only the color LCD for instant photo printing.
This is NOT a Linux problem. It is a Manufacturer-with-their-heads-up-their-asses problem.
There comes a time when the geek needs to let go. To pull the plug.
Open Source is not a panacea.
Someone still has to sit down and make the decision to write and test a new driver for a fast-fading piece of legacy hardware -
and if he says the hell with it, there is not much you can do.
And what's -really- the difference between a server going down locally that affects you and a server going down globally that affects you? Nothing.
The difference is that you don't have a global melt-down of every web base service that is dependent on Google.
Considering the amount of usage google sees, a minor interruption like today's issue is nothing that worries me much at all.
But usage is precisely the point.
I lost access to Search, News, E-Mail...
Everything Google.
To a casual user at home this doesn't matter - but try explaining a global blackout of Google to your boss.
Google is the poster child for the web-based app.
Computing in the cloud.
perhaps because the most aggravating delays in loading a page are caused by problems which the browser can't solve
Piracy in the media form is a myth.
The usage was current when the Black Flag still flew over the Caribbean. You'll find it in the unabridged Webster and in the OED.
Your bunk mates at Club Fed will lose patience when you return to this argument after your second conviction on the felony charge.
I've got about $3,000 invested in a TV and a blu-ray player, and I feel ripped off. I can't find 1080p content. I had to abandon cable because the quality was so poor
1080p is nice. But 1080i will suffice.
"Rio Bravo" "The Magnificent Seven" "Once Upon A Time In The West" "Winchester 73" "My Darling Clementine."
For other tastes:
"American Graffiti," "War Games" and "To Catch A Thief."
The Seven viewed off-air from PBS. The rest over our local cable's $6/mo HD movie tier.
I can't fault the color or presentation - in any way.
The configuration options on a $3000 set are endless. The geek can - and probably will - get it wrong - if only because he can't bothered to RTFM.
The terms that Doctorow proposes would suit my purpose just fine. And I would pay.
You didn't before.
You flew under the radar.
Why should anyone believe you will behave any differently now?
The geek is always puffing smoke about the "failed business model." Meaning the one in which he is expected to cough up some cash.
First of all - what gross income? The pirates just upload their work to torrent sites. The pirates are uploading the work of others. That's so much easier and cheaper than producing anything on your own.
They not only seem unable to create a character to replace 007, they also need to spend sixteen times as much to create the same level of special effects.
The same level of special effects?
That's ridiculous. The F/X in the Connery films is simplistic and obvious.
The best moments come when the gadgets are real.
Who hasn't wanted to pilot "Little Nelly?"
Try extracting anything useful from Sourceforge - and did I mention that you have to register before you can take a look around, poke the tires?
CL is a business. CL cut its losses. End of story.
There is a significant Bellwether for the future in the tech industry - find out what the Nerds are recommending!
The geek told me to buy into the Linux netbook.
The Linux netbook has gone the way of the dodo, so what am I to make of that?
In the Net Application webstats, Linux, all flavors, has a 1% market share. MS Vista 24%. Win 7 0.38%.
1/3 of "everything Linux."
Usage Share Trend for 'Windows 7' [May 12]
The geek may argue the numbers. But it is going to sting if Win 7 overtakes Linux while it is still an RC.
It could happen as early as the Fourth of July.
The Net Applications webstats are essentially mass market. That makes them all the more intriguing and all the more damning.
Almost everyone in this sector shops HP or Dell once every four or five years for the attractive OEM bundle and that is the end of it.
They don't upgrade hardware. They are never comfortable cracking open the hood to take a look inside.
No way in god's green earth are they ripping out Vista to install the Win 7 RC on their WalMart Pavilion.
No dual boot. No VM, either.
That means the upward push behind Win 7 has to be coming from the technical elite, the enthusiast, the geek.
There is simply no other realistic possibility.
The idea is to get the nerd chained to his laptop inside your restaurant. Not brown-bagging it in your parking lot.
I hate to piss on your firework but I have better things to do with my life than boycott a specific company just because some iPhone-using doofus got busted outside...
The geek has the attention span of a fruit fly. There is always some new cause to excite him - and on Slashdot, typically, a half-dozen or so every day.
Unless he is accused of a crime, he has no obligation to provide his information to a police officer.
From The Christian Science Monitor:
US citizens do not enjoy a constitutional right to refuse to reveal their identity when requested by police.
In what may become a major boost to US law enforcement and antiterrorism efforts, the US Supreme Court Monday upheld a Nevada law that makes it a criminal offense for anyone suspected of wrongdoing to refuse to identify himself to police.
Civil libertarians see the decision as a significant setback. And it remains unclear to what extent it may open the door to the issuing of national identification cards...
"It's a green light to explore the bounds of how much personal information can be demanded on pain of arrest," says Timothy Lynch of the Cato Institute in Washington.
The ruling marks the first time the nation's highest court has endorsed a provision compelling citizens to reveal information in a citizen-police encounter that may become a police investigation.
The 5-to-4 decision says that neither the Fourth Amendment's right to privacy nor the Fifth Amendment's guarantee against self-incrimination bars states from passing laws requiring citizens to identify themselves.
In effect, the majority justices say that in most cases it is no significant intrusion for police to request - and a suspect to provide - his name.
"One's identity is, by definition, unique; yet it is, in another sense, a universal characteristic," writes Justice Anthony Kennedy for the majority. "Answering a request to disclose a name is likely to be so insignificant in the scheme of things as to be incriminating only in unusual circumstances."
Justice Kennedy adds that if a case arises in which the furnished identity provides a key link leading to the conviction of the individual for a different crime, the court will revisit the issue.
Joining Justice Kennedy's majority opinion were Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Justices Sandra Day O'Connor, Antonin Scalia, and Clarence Thomas.
In a dissent, Justice John Paul Stevens says the Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination must always shield a criminal suspect who is being questioned by police. Since police may only request the name of someone they find suspicious (under the upheld Nevada statute), that person is by definition a criminal suspect who may not be compelled to make statements that might incriminate him, Justice Stevens says.
"The court reasons that we should not assume the disclosure of petitioner's name would be used to incriminate him," Justice Stevens writes. "But why else would an officer ask for it?"
Stevens adds, "A name can provide the key to a broad array of information about a person particularly in the hands of a police officer with access to a range of law enforcement databases."
The decision stems from the case of Larry Hiibel, who was arrested in May 2000 after he refused a deputy sheriff's repeated demand that he produce some form of identification.
The encounter took place at the side of a road in Humboldt County, Nev. The deputy had received a report of a man striking a woman in a pickup truck. When the deputy arrived at the scene, Mr. Hiibel was standing outside a pickup truck that was parked on the shoulder of the road. His daughter was sitting inside the truck.
The deputy asked Hiibel 11 times to produce identification. Hiibel repeatedly refused, saying he'd done nothing wrong. The deputy placed him under arrest in accord with a Nevada law that permits police to detain criminal suspects for up to 60 minutes to compel them to identify themselves.
Hiibel refused to comply. He was charged and convicted of violating the mandatory identity law, a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail. His conviction was affirmed by a state appeals court and the Nevada Supreme Court.
In upholding his conviction and the mandatory identity-disclosure law, the majority justices als
And the stationary plants are going to have to be farmed and converted into fuel and that fuel will have to be distributed.
Doing what we know how to do.
Using infrastructure that is already in place.
The motor coach built on a bus chassis gets 5 mpg - and a cruising range of 1,000 miles on a single 200 gallon tank.
It can be out exploring the Bad Lands for a month and the only support it will require is a single gas station on the perimeter.
It might not even need a paved road.
If you look only at mpg - the environmental impact seems dreadful. Pull back a bit and the picture is not so clear.
Gasoline and diesel are really quite remarkable fuels. It's taken 100 years to find a plausible alternative for the suburban commuter car -
and that is - or at least would seem to be - the easiest problem to define and solve.
They maintained no clearinghouse, they published a list of possibilities and maintained a little black book of IP addresses to whom you could go for those files (which may or may not be available).
Back to the dictionary:
2: a central agency for the collection, classification, and distribution especially of information ; broadly : an informal channel for distributing information or assistance
clearing house
If I tell you who I think the local drug dealer is, do I go to jail for selling you drugs?
You are the pimp and not the prostitute. You make a business out of steering clients to the woman.
That is your crime.
Microsoft has a five star corporate credit rating. Exxon-Mobil grade corporate credit. Pfizer grade corporate credit.
Microsoft's total debt is 2 billion dollars.
Microsoft holds 24 billion in cash.
Revenues have shrunk to a bare $61.1 billion.
Its profit margin to a modest 26% - but, all in all, it's not a bad showing for a thirty year old industrial in a down market. Microsoft Corporation (MSFT
This is Microsoft's first trip to the bond market.
There is no private corporation on the planet which can borrow money more quickly or more cheaply.
The five year bonds return 2.95%. That is just 1% over good-as-gold US Treasury notes. What's Behind Microsoft's Bond Offering?
There are certainly some interesting possibilities: perhaps a big push to get Win 7 out in time for the Christmas shopping season.
The dual-core Win 7 ATOM netbook with NVIDIA graphics could be crushing for the geek who placed his hopes on Linux and the ARM.
A fireproof/waterproof safe is good for that and a number of other items as well.
The home fire safe is UL rated for paper documents and currency. Internal temperatures rising to around 400 degrees F.
The media-rated safe, 125. Expect to spend $200 for a small 30 pound box. Sentry Fire-Safe Media Chest
You have to know why the photograph was on your system. You have to know how it was being used.
You can't take the man's word as gospel.
You need answers and you need them now.
The mayor won't be pleased when a secretary files a ten million dollar lawsuit for sexual harassment.
He will be even more unhappy when your man is arrested by the feds for soliciting minors on online -
and he'll be really - royally - pissed off if comes out later that you tucked the photograph away and did nothing.
You go into an office as an IT person who has updated the machines the night before to the new version of office and and see a bunch of helpless noobs unable to quit their program.
You can't simply drop a new app on your users like a bomb and expect them to be productive.
Most people who use Office use Office.
It's the simple truths that deserve a mod up.
To understand Microsoft's success with the ribbon, you need to think about how much time Microsoft spends down in the trenches - studying the office worker.
The office environment.
The geek expects the suggestion box to work its magic. The OpenOffice fan club.
Microsoft believes in spending real money on real science.