I can still remember ordering every single version on a 2400' tape from Lancaster Uni (UK) so we had versions for our office PCs, VAX 11/750, MicroVAX and some Silicon Graphics kit. Also grabbed the Commodore 64 version for home use. This was about the time we also had a coax-based LAN running serial port interfacing devices called InfaPlugs-they linked our PCs to the VAX as terminals and we also had an EPROM/PROM/PAL programmer online too. This was about 3 years before thin Ethernet snuck in and took over.
Hows about YEARS in all article dates - on the odd occasion I've done a bit of historical digging it would have been nice to know what YEAR the article came from--expecially those that say things like "within the next year..."
I've just run the '2038 test' perl code on my Redhat 9 box and it rolls back to 1901 - I'm in panic mode now! I understand I have to find a retired COBOL programmer and offer them lots of money to fix it - is that right?
The amount of UV is not great (fair enough - in darkroom circles I suppose it could be a problem) - where I used to work we conducted an experiment with (UV Erasable) EPROMS to see what would possibly happen to our racks of electronics if the stickers were left off the quartz erase window: we burnt ten EPROMS and rested them on top of the fluorescent tubes in the lighting fixtures in the lab, where they sat for 6 months and then a year. At the end of both periods we tested the EPROMS for errors and not a single bit was out of place.
Anyone stuck a CD-R in a similar location or a UV light box?
In other news, Eolas Technologies Inc, protagonists in the now-famous 'plugins patent case' announce they have ownership rights for Patent 9,999,666 "Coronal Mass Ejections as a source of wonderment and scientific curiosity" and are considering action against any persons found to be in any shape or form 'fascinated' by such phenomena without paying an appropriate fee.
"We plan to monitor national and international news sites for announcements about the phenomena", a spokesperson for Eolas said. "If a 'northern lights/aurora' event is predicted in a certain geographic area, we may send observers into the district looking for signs of persons peering into the sky and uttering indicative phrases such as "oooh" and "aaah", at which time we will ask to see confirmation that they have visited our prepayment web site (http://www.oohaahwowthatsamazing.con), paid for and downloaded their e-ticket permitting them to watch the event and be impressed. Only in cases where subjects can prove that staring at the phenomena did not cause any feeling of wonderment or in-depth thoughts about the enormity of the universe and the fragility of life will we consider waiving or reducing our demands for payment. A scheme is also in place for the scientific community and if we get notification of anyone so much as waving a thermocouple in the general direction of the sun we will expect our reasonable demands for payment to be met".
Grab a print?..that's too obvious and far too sensible.
Just think about the logical extension to this--you could cover every surface in a room with plasma TVs and never have to re-paper ever again! Want a new wallpaper pattern, just replace the memory cards in the TVs--so simple and labour saving.
Man gets into a taxi and the taxi driver takes off at speed. At the next intersection, the lights are red but the taxi driver runs straight through them.
The man in the back complains..."No worries", said the driver "...my brother always runs the reds too."
Same thing happens at the next junction. Passenger in the back shouts out as they roar through the junction. "No problem..my brother's always doing it and he's never been stopped or had an accident."
At the next intersection, the lights are GREEN and the taxi driver jams on the breaks and they screech to a halt. "Why the heck did you do that, the light was green!?" says the passenger.
"Sure, my brother might be crossing the other way" comes the reply.
...GPS nav...thermometer...wind speed indicator...compass...BG meter for diabetics...credit card holder...electronic lock for car/house...am/fm/dab radio...electric razor
Reminds me of an initiative around, oh, 15 years ago to replace plastic foam packing chips with specially treated popped corn for similar (biodegradeable) reasons. Seem to recall it worked well, but it also attracted rodents into shipping warehouses!
In a separate statement, a Pentagon spokesperson said that the device would also have a beneficial, non-agressive use for the removal of cateracts. "Imagine scheduling the mass eradication of cateracts on a regional basis by asking the inhabitants of a certain area to look skyward at a fixed point, at a certain time as our 'bird' flew over. After a few short bursts of intense, but directed energy, and the subsequent insertion of pre-distributed plastic corneas, we could cover an area the size of India in just over a week. I can neither confirm or deny that we are also planning to schedule the removal of moles, melanomas and unwanted tattoos."
Y'know what - that's probably one of the most interesting posts in this whole article - Jeez, there's so much drivel and inaccurate stuff being spouted all over the place.
We might as well add to the equation:
You stay in, burn some CPU cycles, spend some electricity OR you shut down, go out in your car (using fossil fuel and generating Co2), have a meal out, cooked using gas or electricity...etc.
I'm off to put my 3 year old son to bed - much more rewarding!
Remotely shut down a W2K server two weeks ago at 4am. Office worker tried to switch it on at 8am - dead. Swapped PSU with a working machine - no change. Motherboard dead.
a) Where all these 'low income' families get the money for a computer? Loved the Web site pics of people out with their several-hundred-pounds laptops. Is this really what happens? Happy surfers out in the open with their costly computing kit?
b) Did the initiatives divert money from more 'fundamental' social projects?
If you've insight into the state of these wifi initiatives would you spare the time to post some more info?
You want a salesman's visit. You want a brochure...
Yup, you're in procurement.
You want a demo from an expert..Can't get those from open source product consultants can we?
What if a commercial product cannot do what you want? Will the manufacturer tailor it just for you? Maybe they'll use a consultant or freelancer to produce customised code? Can't do that with an open source product eh, 'cos you..um..end up with..er..customised code produced with the benefit of full view of the main application source code.
Documentation: Good point-if you have a customised front end someone should produce this for you together with online resources, whereas a someone customising an open source solution should..er..produce this for you...etc...
A road map/new features plan for a commercial product will be based on the common wish list of the majority of the customer base coupled with the manufacturer's perception of market trends-eg: that pared-to-the-bone WP called MS Word. Open Source on the other hand can be individually tailored to your specific requirements as part of a change management process in which the customer is directly involved. When did MS last add that wanted feature to Excel just for you?
Support contracts-You think all contracts based solely on commercial apps never result in conflicts? Pick the right apps support company and check out what other customers say about them.
OK, I'm being a bit hard on you, but I think you are being a tad hard on open source solutions--admittedly some are not up to scratch but then that's why you get independent consultation--EXACTLY as you would for ANY project involving ANY software; off-the-shelf or off-the-'net.
Anyway, hope it all goes well for you whichever way you go.
In a very uncontrolled (and some would say "unwise") experiment, Sconium was brought into contention with various compounds containing Linuxium or Unixium, using Darlmcbridium as a catalyst.
The resulting decomposition allowed various component parts of the original compounds to be analysed for similar or identical structures.
Initial results show that the the catalyst may have actually damaged the structure of Sconium in a way that makes it ineffective for practical use in any ongoing work.
The breakdown of the Linuxium and Unixium compounds only seems to produce stronger bonds within the immediate family of elements and their attractors. Further experiments showed that interactions between Sconium and Ibmnium produced a corrosive formula resulting in partial neutralisation of the former by the latter.
In general, any exposure to Darlmcbridium seems to produce a lot of hot air.
Slashdot Mirror
Time to amend my two month old sig methinks!
I can still remember ordering every single version on a 2400' tape from Lancaster Uni (UK) so we had versions for our office PCs, VAX 11/750, MicroVAX and some Silicon Graphics kit. Also grabbed the Commodore 64 version for home use. This was about the time we also had a coax-based LAN running serial port interfacing devices called InfaPlugs-they linked our PCs to the VAX as terminals and we also had an EPROM/PROM/PAL programmer online too. This was about 3 years before thin Ethernet snuck in and took over.
Hows about YEARS in all article dates - on the odd occasion I've done a bit of historical digging it would have been nice to know what YEAR the article came from--expecially those that say things like "within the next year..."
...on likely dates for:
1) Lunar base inhabitant to receive first AOL free trial CD.
2) Lunar base inhabitant to be sent legal letter on behalf of RIAA.
3) Lunar Base computer room to be invoiceed by SCO.
Any takers?
I've just run the '2038 test' perl code on my Redhat 9 box and it rolls back to 1901 - I'm in panic mode now! I understand I have to find a retired COBOL programmer and offer them lots of money to fix it - is that right?
The amount of UV is not great (fair enough - in darkroom circles I suppose it could be a problem) - where I used to work we conducted an experiment with (UV Erasable) EPROMS to see what would possibly happen to our racks of electronics if the stickers were left off the quartz erase window: we burnt ten EPROMS and rested them on top of the fluorescent tubes in the lighting fixtures in the lab, where they sat for 6 months and then a year. At the end of both periods we tested the EPROMS for errors and not a single bit was out of place.
Anyone stuck a CD-R in a similar location or a UV light box?
In other news, Eolas Technologies Inc, protagonists in the now-famous 'plugins patent case' announce they have ownership rights for Patent 9,999,666 "Coronal Mass Ejections as a source of wonderment and scientific curiosity" and are considering action against any persons found to be in any shape or form 'fascinated' by such phenomena without paying an appropriate fee.
"We plan to monitor national and international news sites for announcements about the phenomena", a spokesperson for Eolas said. "If a 'northern lights/aurora' event is predicted in a certain geographic area, we may send observers into the district looking for signs of persons peering into the sky and uttering indicative phrases such as "oooh" and "aaah", at which time we will ask to see confirmation that they have visited our prepayment web site (http://www.oohaahwowthatsamazing.con), paid for and downloaded their e-ticket permitting them to watch the event and be impressed. Only in cases where subjects can prove that staring at the phenomena did not cause any feeling of wonderment or in-depth thoughts about the enormity of the universe and the fragility of life will we consider waiving or reducing our demands for payment. A scheme is also in place for the scientific community and if we get notification of anyone so much as waving a thermocouple in the general direction of the sun we will expect our reasonable demands for payment to be met".
Better not risk it unless its STP - I see a mass panic purchase of coax! 10Base2/10Base5 rulez.
Imagine what would happen if it hit a Beowulf Cluster?!
See that Mr Anderson, that is the writing of the inevitable Beowulf cluster joke.
I for one welcome the invention of foil wrap by our aluminium overlords.
'00 could be 3000 - maybe the page hasn't been created yet and it's just appeared to us through a rift in the time-space continuum.
Really!
Grab a print?..that's too obvious and far too sensible.
Just think about the logical extension to this--you could cover every surface in a room with plasma TVs and never have to re-paper ever again! Want a new wallpaper pattern, just replace the memory cards in the TVs--so simple and labour saving.
Man gets into a taxi and the taxi driver takes off at speed. At the next intersection, the lights are red but the taxi driver runs straight through them.
The man in the back complains..."No worries", said the driver "...my brother always runs the reds too."
Same thing happens at the next junction. Passenger in the back shouts out as they roar through the junction. "No problem..my brother's always doing it and he's never been stopped or had an accident."
At the next intersection, the lights are GREEN and the taxi driver jams on the breaks and they screech to a halt. "Why the heck did you do that, the light was green!?" says the passenger.
"Sure, my brother might be crossing the other way" comes the reply.
Hey ho, back to work!
...GPS nav ...thermometer ...wind speed indicator ...compass ...BG meter for diabetics ...credit card holder ...electronic lock for car/house ...am/fm/dab radio ...electric razor
Hate to see the size of the battery pack though.
Reminds me of an initiative around, oh, 15 years ago to replace plastic foam packing chips with specially treated popped corn for similar (biodegradeable) reasons. Seem to recall it worked well, but it also attracted rodents into shipping warehouses!
In a separate statement, a Pentagon spokesperson said that the device would also have a beneficial, non-agressive use for the removal of cateracts. "Imagine scheduling the mass eradication of cateracts on a regional basis by asking the inhabitants of a certain area to look skyward at a fixed point, at a certain time as our 'bird' flew over. After a few short bursts of intense, but directed energy, and the subsequent insertion of pre-distributed plastic corneas, we could cover an area the size of India in just over a week. I can neither confirm or deny that we are also planning to schedule the removal of moles, melanomas and unwanted tattoos."
No less!
...and if you do need a charger, take a USB charging lead!
OK, I'll bite...
Imagine putting a stack of Beowulf clustered systems on top of that (vertical, of course)-talk about forced air cooling.
Y'know what - that's probably one of the most interesting posts in this whole article - Jeez, there's so much drivel and inaccurate stuff being spouted all over the place.
We might as well add to the equation:
You stay in, burn some CPU cycles, spend some electricity OR you shut down, go out in your car (using fossil fuel and generating Co2), have a meal out, cooked using gas or electricity...etc.
I'm off to put my 3 year old son to bed - much more rewarding!
Remotely shut down a W2K server two weeks ago at 4am. Office worker tried to switch it on at 8am - dead. Swapped PSU with a working machine - no change. Motherboard dead.
It happens.
Thanks for the insight.
L3K
I'm all for it, but can't help wondering:
a) Where all these 'low income' families get the money for a computer? Loved the Web site pics of people out with their several-hundred-pounds laptops. Is this really what happens? Happy surfers out in the open with their costly computing kit?
b) Did the initiatives divert money from more 'fundamental' social projects?
If you've insight into the state of these wifi initiatives would you spare the time to post some more info?
Spooky isn't it! Once had a tech discussion on a cellphone about a server problem that ended...
Cust: Are do free this afternoon?
Me: Well, I've no specific plans.
Cust: Any chance of popping in this afternoon and having a look?
Me: Er, sorry, I'm in Bangkok en route to Australia
You're in procurement...hmm...
You want a salesman's visit. You want a brochure...
Yup, you're in procurement.
You want a demo from an expert..Can't get those from open source product consultants can we?
What if a commercial product cannot do what you want? Will the manufacturer tailor it just for you? Maybe they'll use a consultant or freelancer to produce customised code? Can't do that with an open source product eh, 'cos you..um..end up with..er..customised code produced with the benefit of full view of the main application source code.
Documentation: Good point-if you have a customised front end someone should produce this for you together with online resources, whereas a someone customising an open source solution should..er..produce this for you...etc...
A road map/new features plan for a commercial product will be based on the common wish list of the majority of the customer base coupled with the manufacturer's perception of market trends-eg: that pared-to-the-bone WP called MS Word. Open Source on the other hand can be individually tailored to your specific requirements as part of a change management process in which the customer is directly involved. When did MS last add that wanted feature to Excel just for you?
Support contracts-You think all contracts based solely on commercial apps never result in conflicts? Pick the right apps support company and check out what other customers say about them.
OK, I'm being a bit hard on you, but I think you are being a tad hard on open source solutions--admittedly some are not up to scratch but then that's why you get independent consultation--EXACTLY as you would for ANY project involving ANY software; off-the-shelf or off-the-'net.
Anyway, hope it all goes well for you whichever way you go.
In a very uncontrolled (and some would say "unwise") experiment, Sconium was brought into contention with various compounds containing Linuxium or Unixium, using Darlmcbridium as a catalyst.
The resulting decomposition allowed various component parts of the original compounds to be analysed for similar or identical structures.
Initial results show that the the catalyst may have actually damaged the structure of Sconium in a way that makes it ineffective for practical use in any ongoing work.
The breakdown of the Linuxium and Unixium compounds only seems to produce stronger bonds within the immediate family of elements and their attractors. Further experiments showed that interactions between Sconium and Ibmnium produced a corrosive formula resulting in partial neutralisation of the former by the latter.
In general, any exposure to Darlmcbridium seems to produce a lot of hot air.