Leaving aside the Sir Edmund Hillary rationale for hacking anything ("Because it was there") which is probably the #1 reason for any slashdottoid to crack out the soldering iron anyway, I have to wonder if this would be like circumventing any other speed limit. Aren't roadway speed limits set partly for safety & partly to control traffic?
If everybody "uncapped", would the result be enough net congestion that everyone would wind up getting "capped" speeds again? Is this a netizenship question?
As far as the ISP detecting "uncapped" cable modems, which has already been mentioned on this topic, I'd have to offer that my local cable provider employs so many utterly inept techs that they have trouble detecting when someone hooks up an unauthorized line to the pole, much less a change in the modem itself. That's why I've stuck with DSL -- 2 years with zero downtime, including a hurricane, while my cable service is down 3-4 times a week.
This is a good opportunity for Windows users to migrate to a free desktop.
Wouldn't Windows users have to migrate to Linux first? Unless I missed something, KDE is not a desktop environment that replaces the Windows GUI on Windows boxen.
Considering that the vast majority of computer users are going to barf at the thought of reinstalling their OS & that most are doing very well just to apply a "recovery disk" to restore their system to its original, store-bought state, I don't think that a pretty new desktop for Linux will do much to encourage the average Windows user to migrate to Linux.
Show me somebody who doesn't only want to see things which don't contradict their preset viewpoints & I'll show you somebody that is an outlier on every study of human nature I've ever read. You encounter this concept everywhere from T.S. Kuhn to Stephen Covey.
I am 50, and I call it Micro$oft for much the same reason that the characters in Harry Potter books refer to "you know who".
Another reason I use the abbreviation M$ is to keep it from being confused with multiple sclerosis (MS). Of course, both M$ and MS are terrible diseases, but past that, MS (the real disease) is no joke.
To the point: If you want to bash Adam for something, find something substantive instead of looking for "immaturity" in the abbreviations he uses. I personally think what he's doing in Iraq is far from being immature. He's trying to be part of a solution and not part of a problem.
Last night, I had to videotape the Super Bowl for my in-laws, because I have cable TV & they have DishTV satellite. Turns out that DishTV can't carry CBS in our area, because a broadcast station won't let them. The broadcast station is on my cable, hence my VCR got a workout.
Before going to a satellite, be certain that you either have an antenna capable of getting local broadcast channels or that your satellite provider will carry the local content you want.
That said, anybody who's posted here that your best option is to quit watching TV altogether is probably right.
Re:How many IP infringements in the /. article?
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Superbowling
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And what are those banners running at the top of every/. page?
Well, I guess that marks me as not having a paid membership to/. <sheepish grin>
The legalese applies chiefly to the media & prohibits unlicensed use of the trademarks, say, as part of a radio show or whatever.
I thought it was cool that they said one could make fun of the fact that they couldn't say S**** B***. Some DJs will have a blast with that.
How many IP infringements in the /. article?
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Superbowling
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· Score: 1
I counted 12.
I'm assuming that the ever-diligent/. staff didn't clear this with the lawyers...
But if we can't say these words, how the heck can we talk football at the coffeepot at work & if we don't talk football at the coffeepot at work, how many fewer of us will watch the game?
Whose boondogle is the whole idea of electronic voting?
The expenditure for electronic voting machines would have to be approved by elected public officials. And who is in the best position to tamper with a voting system or to approve purchasing a system that can be tampered with? Elected public officials & folks appointed to their jobs by elected public officials.
It would seem to me that electronic voting would be something that would favor the status quo, hence it would be very popular with elected officials who don't want to find out what life is like among the ranks of the formerly employed.
A paper-based audit trail is the only assurance we have that an election count hasn't been manipulated. Electronic voting would essentially eliminate this audit trail -- any paper would be generated by the machines & could be as easily bogussed as the electronic results.
Electronic voting should be one area where geeks should ACTIVELY OPPOSE technology!
There are good lawyers in the IP industry, hell, yes.
Something tells me the "good" lawyers are doing an awful lot of pro bono work for nonprofits, while the "bad" lawyers are getting paid well... or rather the partners are getting paid well for the work that their less-well-paid associates are doing.
I think it was Woody Allen who said, "The good people sleep much better at night than the bad people. Of course, the bad people enjoy the waking hours much more." Probably applies to lawyers as well.
Q: What's the difference between a lawyer & a catfish?
A: One is a bottom-dwelling scum-sucker & the other has gills.
A couple of days ago,/. hashed out the MikeRoweSoft.com "settlement" where Micro$oft gave a 17 yr old kid some certification course vouchers & an XBox. Now they cut the price of the XBox.
Could the cost of MS cert courses & exams be the next price cut?
Or someone who doesn't give a damn about SCO, and merely wants to distract attention away from their real goal of turning millions of end-user PCs into zombies to do their future bidding.
A bit of smoke-and-mirrors to keep us from noticing the real agenda? Hmmm... Viruses mirror politics?
I'm not a great fan of Media Player, though it does it's job pretty well, but doesn't the modern definition of a desktop OS contain a media player?
I don't think the definition of a desktop OPERATING SYSTEM includes applications. Sure, applications are usually bundled with OS distributions -- Windows is no more guilty of doing this than any number of Linux distros -- but the end user ought to have the ability to install or not install those bundled apps. And bundled apps ought to be well-behaved, allowing the user to uninstall them easily & without major negative consequences.
Good point. The only "smartphones" I see routinely other than Treos are RIM Blackberries & it's my understanding that RIM has signed some sort of development agreement with Palm, not MS or some Linux distributor.
I have almost zero interest in "smartphones" because I'm hearing impaired & even "hearing aid compatible" phones are next to useless for me. I maintain the minimum cellphone plan & let my wife & daughter have all those silly doo-dads like SMS or phone-cameras.
When wireless data becomes a basic plan rather than an add-on for voice accounts, I'll be more interested in "phones"...
But I'm a longtime PDA user & for simplicity in managing an address book, it's hard to beat the Palm OS. And the phone-centric stuff in OS 5 is very intriguing.
I don't know if Micro$oft will win, but the Outlook sync issue is pretty critical if Linux (or Symbian or Palm) is going to play against Micro$oft in this arena.
Personally, I'm able to avoid it -- my employer uses Exchange & Outlook is the default client, but I've been able to use Mozilla mail just fine & the Palm OS meets my calendar-contacts needs.
Yes, he had a nifty "parody" domain registered. And yes, he'd probably have been whupped in court over it.
A lot of folks so far are griping that he got Micro$oft stuff -- cert course, XBox, etc. -- but what do we expect Micro$oft to be giving away? SCO licenses? Some folks are even speculating that he will be doomed to an IIS hosting service, even though we don't know if MikeRoweSoft.com was a horrific FrontPage mess to begin with...
I think somebody at MS finally saw that the heavy-handed approach was not the best route to take with a 17 year old. They turned it into a PR win. And I think Mike Rowe would say it was a win-win.
If a car is going slower than 100 km/h or is weaving a little bit, we bet on whether or not the driver is on a cell phone. The result? More often that not.
Picture this: You're cruising down the interstate, doing maybe 5 over the limit when a school bus sized SUV blasts by you. There is a woman in the driver's seat -- almost invariably these ought-to-require-commercial-licenses vehicles are driven by females -- and she's holding a cellphone to her ear with one hand & is facing backwards slapping the mucus out of a rugrat with the other hand.
You drive for miles down the road, expecting to see the burnt-out hulk of that SUV in the median, but you never see any evidence of a wreck.
I take this as proof that there is a higher power that looks out for fools...
Does this mean that a smart thief no longer needs to smash in a window? Will they now be able to wirelessly hack the Mac & have the car just unlock its doors?
Speaking of hacking automobile computers, my lowly 2003 GMC SLE pickup has an "entertainment center" that has some Driver Information Center functions that I can't display, because I didn't pay extra for the deluxe SLT package (which has the control buttons). I think it would be cool if someone fixed up a "hardware hack" that would let me add a keypad so I could call up all the additional data on the dashboard display...
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If everybody "uncapped", would the result be enough net congestion that everyone would wind up getting "capped" speeds again? Is this a netizenship question?
As far as the ISP detecting "uncapped" cable modems, which has already been mentioned on this topic, I'd have to offer that my local cable provider employs so many utterly inept techs that they have trouble detecting when someone hooks up an unauthorized line to the pole, much less a change in the modem itself. That's why I've stuck with DSL -- 2 years with zero downtime, including a hurricane, while my cable service is down 3-4 times a week.
Perhaps they meant NO SOLICITORS.
Wouldn't Windows users have to migrate to Linux first? Unless I missed something, KDE is not a desktop environment that replaces the Windows GUI on Windows boxen.
Considering that the vast majority of computer users are going to barf at the thought of reinstalling their OS & that most are doing very well just to apply a "recovery disk" to restore their system to its original, store-bought state, I don't think that a pretty new desktop for Linux will do much to encourage the average Windows user to migrate to Linux.
Show me somebody who doesn't only want to see things which don't contradict their preset viewpoints & I'll show you somebody that is an outlier on every study of human nature I've ever read. You encounter this concept everywhere from T.S. Kuhn to Stephen Covey.
Another reason I use the abbreviation M$ is to keep it from being confused with multiple sclerosis (MS). Of course, both M$ and MS are terrible diseases, but past that, MS (the real disease) is no joke.
To the point: If you want to bash Adam for something, find something substantive instead of looking for "immaturity" in the abbreviations he uses. I personally think what he's doing in Iraq is far from being immature. He's trying to be part of a solution and not part of a problem.
Nice try, but no cigar. Adam didn't say the Iraqis were better or worse off than they were. He said that life there is "quite normal."
And "normal" is a relative term.
Before going to a satellite, be certain that you either have an antenna capable of getting local broadcast channels or that your satellite provider will carry the local content you want.
That said, anybody who's posted here that your best option is to quit watching TV altogether is probably right.
Well, I guess that marks me as not having a paid membership to /. <sheepish grin>
I thought it was cool that they said one could make fun of the fact that they couldn't say S**** B***. Some DJs will have a blast with that.
I'm assuming that the ever-diligent /. staff didn't clear this with the lawyers...
But if we can't say these words, how the heck can we talk football at the coffeepot at work & if we don't talk football at the coffeepot at work, how many fewer of us will watch the game?
The expenditure for electronic voting machines would have to be approved by elected public officials. And who is in the best position to tamper with a voting system or to approve purchasing a system that can be tampered with? Elected public officials & folks appointed to their jobs by elected public officials.
It would seem to me that electronic voting would be something that would favor the status quo, hence it would be very popular with elected officials who don't want to find out what life is like among the ranks of the formerly employed.
A paper-based audit trail is the only assurance we have that an election count hasn't been manipulated. Electronic voting would essentially eliminate this audit trail -- any paper would be generated by the machines & could be as easily bogussed as the electronic results.
Electronic voting should be one area where geeks should ACTIVELY OPPOSE technology!
Crazy? High? Are the two mutually exclusive?
Something tells me the "good" lawyers are doing an awful lot of pro bono work for nonprofits, while the "bad" lawyers are getting paid well ... or rather the partners are getting paid well for the work that their less-well-paid associates are doing.
I think it was Woody Allen who said, "The good people sleep much better at night than the bad people. Of course, the bad people enjoy the waking hours much more." Probably applies to lawyers as well.
Q: What's the difference between a lawyer & a catfish?
A: One is a bottom-dwelling scum-sucker & the other has gills.
Could the cost of MS cert courses & exams be the next price cut?
There's one hanging on the side of my Sony camcorder.
And that might be an application for a roll-up screen: a camcorder viewscreen that rolls out of the camera like a windowshade...
A bit of smoke-and-mirrors to keep us from noticing the real agenda? Hmmm... Viruses mirror politics?
I don't think the definition of a desktop OPERATING SYSTEM includes applications. Sure, applications are usually bundled with OS distributions -- Windows is no more guilty of doing this than any number of Linux distros -- but the end user ought to have the ability to install or not install those bundled apps. And bundled apps ought to be well-behaved, allowing the user to uninstall them easily & without major negative consequences.
I have almost zero interest in "smartphones" because I'm hearing impaired & even "hearing aid compatible" phones are next to useless for me. I maintain the minimum cellphone plan & let my wife & daughter have all those silly doo-dads like SMS or phone-cameras.
When wireless data becomes a basic plan rather than an add-on for voice accounts, I'll be more interested in "phones"...
But I'm a longtime PDA user & for simplicity in managing an address book, it's hard to beat the Palm OS. And the phone-centric stuff in OS 5 is very intriguing.
Personally, I'm able to avoid it -- my employer uses Exchange & Outlook is the default client, but I've been able to use Mozilla mail just fine & the Palm OS meets my calendar-contacts needs.
Is there any optimism that, once the current turmoil settles down, Iraq will be able to grow a stronger technology-based economy?
Yes, he had a nifty "parody" domain registered. And yes, he'd probably have been whupped in court over it. A lot of folks so far are griping that he got Micro$oft stuff -- cert course, XBox, etc. -- but what do we expect Micro$oft to be giving away? SCO licenses? Some folks are even speculating that he will be doomed to an IIS hosting service, even though we don't know if MikeRoweSoft.com was a horrific FrontPage mess to begin with... I think somebody at MS finally saw that the heavy-handed approach was not the best route to take with a 17 year old. They turned it into a PR win. And I think Mike Rowe would say it was a win-win.
Make that "marksMANship". Case rests. Now, if y'all will excuse me, I gotta go tend the still. It's over in the woods behind the trailer.
In the end, sheer numbers (money & men) won out.
There is a reason that the South held off the Northern invasion forces for five years, y'know?
Picture this: You're cruising down the interstate, doing maybe 5 over the limit when a school bus sized SUV blasts by you. There is a woman in the driver's seat -- almost invariably these ought-to-require-commercial-licenses vehicles are driven by females -- and she's holding a cellphone to her ear with one hand & is facing backwards slapping the mucus out of a rugrat with the other hand.
You drive for miles down the road, expecting to see the burnt-out hulk of that SUV in the median, but you never see any evidence of a wreck.
I take this as proof that there is a higher power that looks out for fools...
Speaking of hacking automobile computers, my lowly 2003 GMC SLE pickup has an "entertainment center" that has some Driver Information Center functions that I can't display, because I didn't pay extra for the deluxe SLT package (which has the control buttons). I think it would be cool if someone fixed up a "hardware hack" that would let me add a keypad so I could call up all the additional data on the dashboard display...