From my point of view, as a so-called "ethical" vegetarian, if they genetically engineered a plant that had meatball-like objects hanging on it like fruit, I wouldn't be morally opposed to eating them. For me, the main reason to avoid eating meat is that someone had to kill an animal as the direct product of my meal.
Now I know that there are all sorts of secondary, tertiary & so on, food (and other) products, which didn't directly require an animal to die on my behalf, but that's not the point of my post here. If genetic engineering puts a flavor in a plant product, that happens to be just like the flavor of a meat product, you still have to consider that you're only eating a plant that grew out of the ground, not an animal.
Well, if those fans were spinning at a million RPM, as suggested by the article, any noise they did generate would be in the ultrasonic range, don'cha think?
"It can record 60 minutes of high quality (6M bps) digital video...All stored on an 8cm DVD-Ram disc (2.8 GB capacity)."
The math sure does look wrong...
Well, do the math again; it looks okay to me.
6 Mbits/second = 45 Mbytes/minute.
45 x 60 = 2700 megabytes, or 2.831 gigabytes if you use 1024x1024 for "mega", rather than 1,000,000, which I used in my math.
Pretty good idea -- so long as the original version of the firmware comes on a CD, so that any strange upgrades that you didn't really want don't end up turning your brand new piece of equipment into a large hunk of metal.
Unfortunately, if the firmware update gets botched, the player may not be able to read the original firmware CD, hence it would retain it hunk-of-metal-like nature. The player would probably need some sort of "hard coded firmware backup" feature, like many of the computer BIOS's do, in which a shadow ROM is activated via some sort of special jumper option. Or maybe doing the CD/DVD player equivalent of "Press F1 for setup", i.e. holding down the play, pause & stop buttons during power up.
Perhaps some flash-upgradable hardware is the way to go. Throw a USB or serial connection on it and provide firmware updates for it; that's definately something that would convince *me* to buy any product.
Why would you need a USB or serial connection to do firmware updates? Surely there would be a way of making a "special" CD-ROM with some sort of volume label or data pattern that would trigger a firmware update right from the CD.
I have the 2nd edition, which lists Larry Wall, Tom Christiansen and Randal L. Schwartz as authors. I notice the new book has Jon Orwant in place of Randal; does this have anything to do with the past legal problems that he had experienced a while ago?
... is release the 8 foot tall version with smooth metal "skin" on the arms & legs. Then I'll buy one, and name him Gort. He'll look great out in the front lawn (provided that the military doesn't try to encase him in a block of plastic)
In Internet Explorer, going to "about:mozilla" results in a totally blank page with a blue (#000080) background, reminiscent of the BSOD. This is a pun at how Netscape crashes all the time.
Yeah, and here's the HTML code that they generate for "about:mozilla":
Well, that's assuming that you bust up your old Pentium 90 motherboard & toss the system into a landfill, rather than donate it to a church or library or other non-profit organization, where they'd still be using the old Win9x install.
In fact, I recently setup a new computer for my brother-in-law after his old Pentium 66 (upgraded via Overdrive to 133) motherboard died, and I just connected his existing Win95-installed hard drive to the new motherboard, and rebooted the system a few dozen times while it identified the various different motherboard/chipset resources it needed. Granted, I probably should have done a clean install, but he plans on upgrading to WinMe soon anyway (yeah, I know, no accounting for taste)
I stoppd reading when I got to "because the ShowStopper uses MacroVision copy protection, you can't daisy chain your DVD through the ShowStopper and then to the TV". I hate this kind of restriction because it makes the simplest kinds of hoopup impossible.
I don't have one of these, so I can't comment personally, but I think that the reviewer may have been mistaken; in fact, virtually all DVD players have MacroVision copy protection, and this is most likely the reason that the DVD outputs can't be daisy chained through the ShowStopper. (and before anyone points this out, yes, I know all about DVD players than can have MacroVision turned off. I own a "loophole" Apex AD600A).
I'm a bit disappointed that the reviewer didn't go into the other features of this unit; he mentioned that it had a "save to VCR" feature, but that was it. Also, he didn't mention all of the connectors that the unit has.
One last thing; did anyone notice the extra mounting flange on the right side of the "inside the box" picture? Can you say "expansion hard drive"?
Here here. I've been avoiding mentioning this also, since I hoped that it was just early code that was running more slowly, or as Pete says, it's the debugging code that's making the screen update slowly.
Of course, I recall that previous Netscape releases were often perceived at being a wee bit slower for some operations than the version I'd been using up to that point, but that after using the program for a short time, the difference wasn't as noticable - especially since I've also upgraded computers over the years. But it boggles the mind to think of all of the performance decreases that programs like this have seen over the years, in favor of extra features that have been added, or the fact that more & more people have accelerated graphics cards that simply don't exhibit the slowness anymore.
Can you imaging how quickly Netscape 1.0 would render its pages on one of today's fast computers? Now that really boggles the mind!
Mind you, I doh't agree with their marketing plan and whatnot...
But in a way, they are perfectly within their rights in having a license for the use of the CueCat. Why? Because it does have software in it... so they are effectively licensing your use of the built-in firmware that they developed (or paid to have developed).
Of course, the fact that there are dozens of appliances and gizmos in my house, all that have some sort of firmware in them, makes me wonder how long it will be until I'm faced with a licensing agreement for my Talky Toaster.
4) Skip all ads. ReplayTV took the approach of "screw the networks, we don't need 'em" and added a 30 second skip button. Since then, they've hired a former CBS exec and have realized that they will have to work with the networks in the future. The skip button is still there, but it is never advertised. TiVo decided early on that they would try to work with the networks and feature 3 levels of fast-forward, with auto correction (it backs up a bit when you hit play). Is it realistic for TiVo and ReplayTV to basically tell the networks "we don't care if no one sees the ads that make up your revenue stream"? NBC has invested in both companies BTW.
Actually, I've been wondering how long it will be until the networks start showing 37 and 23 and 49 second ads, or other weird lengths, to foil all of the "30 second skip" functions that the TiVo's and VCR's have. Or, better yet, how about banner ads at the top or bottom of the screen, during the actual shows?
A few people have mentioned instructors being overjoyed or at least pleased that some of their students have prior programming knowledge in their entry level classes, but this brings up another question: if you've already been using vi and g++ for some time, perhaps you'd be able to test out of the class and free up some time on your schedule (or take another elective, or whatever else suits you). Many colleges will let you test out of a class within the first week or so.
And to address another point that was mentioned in a few peoples' posts, the college where my son will be attending has a very strict policy on students' computers in their dorm rooms which are connected to the ResNet. To quote from their FAQ:
Q: Can I run Linux, Unix, BeOS, or any other operating systems that aren't listed on the minimum configuration list?
A: No, this network is not set up to handle the types of operating systems. You will not be allowed to get an account if you plan to run one of these operating systems on the network. Your account may be revoked and disciplinary action may be taken if you are running an unsupported OS.
Their "minimum configuration list" for PC's includes Win95/98, NT 4.0, and tentative approval for Win2K after May 2000 (I guess they haven't updated that page in a while) This, of course, is a whole 'nother can of worms, that's probably been discussed in previous topics.
Most, if not all, of the comments here & the previous CueCat story, have been about finding a way to use this unit as a real scanner, and not in conjunction with the bundled software. However, there is also a mention of a "convergence cable" on the CueCat site, which says (in part):
Convergence cable is the system component that links your computer to your television, allowing special broadcast cues to automatically direct your browser directly to where you need to go! Connecting to the audio-out on your TV, the cable carries the cues to your computer via the audio-in.:CRQ software then interprets these special codes and serves relevant, helpful content automatically.
So does anyone here any any idea what the heck they are doing with the audio to "interpret these special codes"?
If I go to the shop to buy catfood, they don't get any information from me: i just give them some money and that's it.
Ah, but you're wrong; they have gotten some very important information about you. They now know that you own a cat. (or perhaps you take care of one, or know someone that does, or...)
But seriously, I've always tried to save money when I can, so when the grocery stores started issuing "preferred customer cards" and I didn't have to clip coupons anymore, I was quite happy for the convenience... until I realized that by using my card, I was giving the store the ability to keep track of all of items I buy (assuming they are so inclined, have the storage space, etc.) But I've decided that I don't care if my store knows I like Diet Coke better than Diet Pepsi, or whatever.
The MySQL online manual is very thorough. Print it, and it would be better than the books that are out there.
It was nice of you to give a URL to documentation, and then suggest that we print it; however, you give the URL of the "by chapter" HTML documentation, which would take a hell of a lot of clicking to print! On that subject, I've been searching high & low on MySQL's site for some time now, looking for a PDF version of the manual that I can download and/or print; there are hints several places on their site that such a document exists, but I can't find it. Can anyone help?
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From my point of view, as a so-called "ethical" vegetarian, if they genetically engineered a plant that had meatball-like objects hanging on it like fruit, I wouldn't be morally opposed to eating them. For me, the main reason to avoid eating meat is that someone had to kill an animal as the direct product of my meal.
Now I know that there are all sorts of secondary, tertiary & so on, food (and other) products, which didn't directly require an animal to die on my behalf, but that's not the point of my post here. If genetic engineering puts a flavor in a plant product, that happens to be just like the flavor of a meat product, you still have to consider that you're only eating a plant that grew out of the ground, not an animal.
Well, if those fans were spinning at a million RPM, as suggested by the article, any noise they did generate would be in the ultrasonic range, don'cha think?
... someone will find a way to hack into my translator, and it will utter the equivalent of:
"I want to fondle your bum."
when I try to make a purchase in a shop.
"It can record 60 minutes of high quality (6M bps) digital video...All stored on an 8cm DVD-Ram disc (2.8 GB capacity)."
The math sure does look wrong...
Well, do the math again; it looks okay to me.
6 Mbits/second = 45 Mbytes/minute.
45 x 60 = 2700 megabytes, or 2.831 gigabytes if you use 1024x1024 for "mega", rather than 1,000,000, which I used in my math.
So, how long until they market this to parents, so they can monitor their kids' brainwaves while they surf the net?
"Uh oh, Ward, there's a Porn Alarm going off, I bet Wally is looking at that naughty web site again!"
"Thanks, June, I'll be right back. Oh, Wally..."
No, actually he plans to auction them off on eBay to help pay for his war efforts.
Pretty good idea -- so long as the original version of the firmware comes on a CD, so that any strange upgrades that you didn't really want don't end up turning your brand new piece of equipment into a large hunk of metal.
Unfortunately, if the firmware update gets botched, the player may not be able to read the original firmware CD, hence it would retain it hunk-of-metal-like nature. The player would probably need some sort of "hard coded firmware backup" feature, like many of the computer BIOS's do, in which a shadow ROM is activated via some sort of special jumper option. Or maybe doing the CD/DVD player equivalent of "Press F1 for setup", i.e. holding down the play, pause & stop buttons during power up.
Perhaps some flash-upgradable hardware is the way to go. Throw a USB or serial connection on it and provide firmware updates for it; that's definately something that would convince *me* to buy any product.
Why would you need a USB or serial connection to do firmware updates? Surely there would be a way of making a "special" CD-ROM with some sort of volume label or data pattern that would trigger a firmware update right from the CD.
Now all we need is a gene named "I'm getting better" or "I feel happy".
I have the 2nd edition, which lists Larry Wall, Tom Christiansen and Randal L. Schwartz as authors. I notice the new book has Jon Orwant in place of Randal; does this have anything to do with the past legal problems that he had experienced a while ago?
... is release the 8 foot tall version with smooth metal "skin" on the arms & legs. Then I'll buy one, and name him Gort. He'll look great out in the front lawn (provided that the military doesn't try to encase him in a block of plastic)
In Internet Explorer, going to "about:mozilla" results in a totally blank page with a blue (#000080) background, reminiscent of the BSOD. This is a pun at how Netscape crashes all the time.
Yeah, and here's the HTML code that they generate for "about:mozilla":
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<BODY bgcolor="#000080" text="#FFFFFF">
</BODY>
</HTML>
Nice of them to leave off the </HEAD>, wasn't it?
I looked everywhere, and I couldn't find any pictures of color handhelds integrated with farm animals. What's the deal anyway?
Well, that's assuming that you bust up your old Pentium 90 motherboard & toss the system into a landfill, rather than donate it to a church or library or other non-profit organization, where they'd still be using the old Win9x install.
In fact, I recently setup a new computer for my brother-in-law after his old Pentium 66 (upgraded via Overdrive to 133) motherboard died, and I just connected his existing Win95-installed hard drive to the new motherboard, and rebooted the system a few dozen times while it identified the various different motherboard/chipset resources it needed. Granted, I probably should have done a clean install, but he plans on upgrading to WinMe soon anyway (yeah, I know, no accounting for taste)
I stoppd reading when I got to "because the ShowStopper uses MacroVision copy protection, you can't daisy chain your DVD through the ShowStopper and then to the TV". I hate this kind of restriction because it makes the simplest kinds of hoopup impossible.
I don't have one of these, so I can't comment personally, but I think that the reviewer may have been mistaken; in fact, virtually all DVD players have MacroVision copy protection, and this is most likely the reason that the DVD outputs can't be daisy chained through the ShowStopper. (and before anyone points this out, yes, I know all about DVD players than can have MacroVision turned off. I own a "loophole" Apex AD600A).
I'm a bit disappointed that the reviewer didn't go into the other features of this unit; he mentioned that it had a "save to VCR" feature, but that was it. Also, he didn't mention all of the connectors that the unit has.
One last thing; did anyone notice the extra mounting flange on the right side of the "inside the box" picture? Can you say "expansion hard drive"?
Here here. I've been avoiding mentioning this also, since I hoped that it was just early code that was running more slowly, or as Pete says, it's the debugging code that's making the screen update slowly.
Of course, I recall that previous Netscape releases were often perceived at being a wee bit slower for some operations than the version I'd been using up to that point, but that after using the program for a short time, the difference wasn't as noticable - especially since I've also upgraded computers over the years. But it boggles the mind to think of all of the performance decreases that programs like this have seen over the years, in favor of extra features that have been added, or the fact that more & more people have accelerated graphics cards that simply don't exhibit the slowness anymore.
Can you imaging how quickly Netscape 1.0 would render its pages on one of today's fast computers? Now that really boggles the mind!
Mind you, I doh't agree with their marketing plan and whatnot...
But in a way, they are perfectly within their rights in having a license for the use of the CueCat. Why? Because it does have software in it... so they are effectively licensing your use of the built-in firmware that they developed (or paid to have developed).
Of course, the fact that there are dozens of appliances and gizmos in my house, all that have some sort of firmware in them, makes me wonder how long it will be until I'm faced with a licensing agreement for my Talky Toaster.
4) Skip all ads. ReplayTV took the approach of "screw the networks, we don't need 'em" and added a 30 second skip button. Since then, they've hired a former CBS exec and have realized that they will have to work with the networks in the future. The skip button is still there, but it is never advertised. TiVo decided early on that they would try to work with the networks and feature 3 levels of fast-forward, with auto correction (it backs up a bit when you hit play). Is it realistic for TiVo and ReplayTV to basically tell the networks "we don't care if no one sees the ads that make up your revenue stream"? NBC has invested in both companies BTW.
Actually, I've been wondering how long it will be until the networks start showing 37 and 23 and 49 second ads, or other weird lengths, to foil all of the "30 second skip" functions that the TiVo's and VCR's have. Or, better yet, how about banner ads at the top or bottom of the screen, during the actual shows?
No, actually it's here.
Translation:
"No sir, I didn't like it."
And to address another point that was mentioned in a few peoples' posts, the college where my son will be attending has a very strict policy on students' computers in their dorm rooms which are connected to the ResNet. To quote from their FAQ:
Their "minimum configuration list" for PC's includes Win95/98, NT 4.0, and tentative approval for Win2K after May 2000 (I guess they haven't updated that page in a while) This, of course, is a whole 'nother can of worms, that's probably been discussed in previous topics.
Most, if not all, of the comments here & the previous CueCat story, have been about finding a way to use this unit as a real scanner, and not in conjunction with the bundled software. However, there is also a mention of a "convergence cable" on the CueCat site, which says (in part):
:CRQ software then interprets these special codes and serves relevant, helpful content automatically.
Convergence cable is the system component that links your computer to your television, allowing special broadcast cues to automatically direct your browser directly to where you need to go! Connecting to the audio-out on your TV, the cable carries the cues to your computer via the audio-in.
So does anyone here any any idea what the heck they are doing with the audio to "interpret these special codes"?
I could have sworn I looked at this yesterday or the day before... but maybe I am pshycic...
You are 100% correct, it was one of a number of links that were in this article on August 16, on the LinuxWorld festivities.
I'm glad I'm not the only person who was experiencing deja vu on this article.
If I go to the shop to buy catfood, they don't get any information from me: i just give them some money and that's it.
...)
Ah, but you're wrong; they have gotten some very important information about you. They now know that you own a cat. (or perhaps you take care of one, or know someone that does, or
But seriously, I've always tried to save money when I can, so when the grocery stores started issuing "preferred customer cards" and I didn't have to clip coupons anymore, I was quite happy for the convenience... until I realized that by using my card, I was giving the store the ability to keep track of all of items I buy (assuming they are so inclined, have the storage space, etc.) But I've decided that I don't care if my store knows I like Diet Coke better than Diet Pepsi, or whatever.
The MySQL online manual is very thorough. Print it, and it would be better than the books that are out there.
It was nice of you to give a URL to documentation, and then suggest that we print it; however, you give the URL of the "by chapter" HTML documentation, which would take a hell of a lot of clicking to print! On that subject, I've been searching high & low on MySQL's site for some time now, looking for a PDF version of the manual that I can download and/or print; there are hints several places on their site that such a document exists, but I can't find it. Can anyone help?
Thanks,