Agreed. As a beginning user I was completely baffled by all the dual boot howtos that tell you exactly the opposite. The only thing I can think of is that they wanted you to partition with Linux since the utilities typically are more effective (then and now) in managing to actually get all the disk space into a usable partition. I have never bothered to find out precisely WHY a partitioning tool has to leave several MB of free space on the drive but Linux partitioning tools typically leave about 3mb versus 30mb using windows tools.
'You haven't checked out the prices of Macs lately have you? Similarly configured Macs and PCs run head to head in prices.'
This isn't true, has never been true, and probably will never be true. Mac fans have spread this nonsense for years. According to them I should have checked the prices 6 years ago and discovered the same thing. When put to the test I have always found they either want to pick a specific class of machine to test or overvalue their Mac comparing it to premium custom built systems instead of the mass produced crap that ALL large computer vendors produce.
'It does not do any good to have a working body if I am still brain dead at the end of the process.'
The brain shuts itself down to reduce demand for oxygen, it doesn't kill itself. Since all cells have this same anti-cancer protection it stands to reason that brain cells would live for hours and commit mass suicide if suddenly flooded with oxygen as well.
'It's called XP. If you think for one second that users who migrated from XP to vista and hated vista are more willing to go to an "unknown" OS versus going back to XP'
I don't know about him but I don't. But Microsoft is cutting off not support but SALES of XP. Two years after XP was released most competent users were still buying 2000. Microsoft didn't stop selling 2000 until it went into the 'extended support' phase. Microsoft expected an equally lackluster reception for Vista. They know it has severe problems. They announced a freaking upcoming service pack along with the release. That is basically saying that we know there are so many problems with this that we can't dish out the fixes with windows update, here take it anyway we are a monopoly.
I think people want something new. They expect compatibility from Vista. They don't necessarily expect that from another vendor. The Vista interface is drastically changed (for the worse I might add, I'm talking about menus not effects) and users will have to learn it just as they would have to learn to use Ubuntu (most users will never learn either).
'I don't know many people who have a problem with vista. I have a few friends running it and the only complaint I've heard at all is that one guy can't run an eight year old game on it.'
Yeah, and rarely used programs like Quickbooks. If you have any USB devices purchased before Vista's release you can forget it. XP said it didn't have the decoder for DVD. Vista plays the video out of the box but has no sound and gives no error. With XP people thought they needed to buy something, and did. With Vista they just think its broken.
As a technician I ran Vista on two test systems, these were pretty typical for XP generation hardware. Grandmas buy new gateways with Vista preloaded, grandma's buy what their grandson with a white box tells them to buy. Both systems are in perfect condition with no hardware problems. Both motherboards are Asus boards, nvidia graphics, 1 gig of ram. One system is a p4 3.0ghz, and the other is an Athlon x2 4800+. In both cases a Seagate SATA drive was used. Neither is these is what you would call ancient, in both cases the boards were the headliner boards from Asus when purchased.
During install there were problems on both machines. The install ran and then gave stop errors for an inaccessible boot device. In both cases vista supposedly had drivers but I loaded the manufacturer disk controller anyway and reinstalled. For the Athlon x2 4800 board this did not work either. I had to repeat the install one more time and it finally worked. Since nothing was actually changed and the hardware is fully functional I can only assume this was due to a bug in the Vista installer. I have since seen this problem numerous times in the field.
After installation I found that the p4 board had no official vista support. There was a second model of that board that appeared to be the same thing but with official vista support. Using the drivers from that board I was able to get everything working, except for the on-board audio. The X2 had Vista drivers and they loaded, again, with the exception of sound. Both machines would freeze randomly. These were complete system freezes, lights on caps lock and num lock couldn't be toggled, video was frozen and machine would have to be powered off to resolve. Nothing was overheating so I can only credit vista with this. If I ran anything using DirectX the freezes would be more frequent, aprox every 5 when they were usually hours apart otherwise. Perhaps there is a problem with the Nvidia drivers... pfft those are only used by the majority of the market, no biggie there.
Vista was also largely incompatible with CD/DVD virtual devices. These are used by... everyone who plays games on PCs. In other words, forget Vista for playing games. Lack of Quickbooks compatibility makes it useless for anyone in an office environment. Lack of proper Nvidia support makes it a poor choice for the majority of people with existing PCs. And the new inte
'If you're talking about making the whole wall a charging wall,'
No, I actually had in mind something flush or near flush with the wall, much like you mount those wall sockets and connected directly to the house wiring like those wall sockets. It would definately be best if these were preinstalled during construction but you could always retrofit one into your home using a larger version of those little blue boxes you can put in the wall to mount sockets where there is no stud (if they are as light as I suspect). Basically you cut a hole, put the box inside, and then use a screw to turn a wedge that extends out behind the drywall on each side of the box. You then screw what you are mounting into the box and wedge the drywall between the two. It works well but obviously has a weight limit.
The problem with outlets is that by the time you have the outlet itself, and the plug, you can't hide the wire behind the device and still have the device lie anywhere near approaching flat against the wall.
I suppose you could cut a hole and tie direct into the wiring but actually hang the device like a mirror or picture frame. That would require a smaller hole but seems more prone to being bumped or smacked and generally seems like it would be less secure.
'The new physical education is moving away from competitive team sports and is more about encouraging lifetime fitness'
This is great news. Somehow I doubt it though. I seem to recall that everything athletic was made into a competition or became one. If they are doing excercise the students will be competing on how many push ups they can do. If you use DDR then they will compete on DDR scores.
This is Slashdot, I haven't read the article. But is there any particular reason that the wire needs to be running to a wall socket? Why couldn't the wire be in the all and the charging devices sit on a small shelf? You walk in the door and empty your pockets, toss your keys, change, cell phone, pda, etc on the shelf? When you go to use them or to leave the next day, you pick up your fully charged cell phone.
With a slight increase in range these could maybe be put into ceiling panels. What would be really great is if standards were developed like those for batteries and devices were made to conform to the standards. The receivers and panels would be tuned to different standards. When you walk within range of a charging panel your device automatically begins to charge without you doing anything. Now imagine the charging panels are everywhere. Hospitals, Living rooms, McDonalds, Office Buildings, the bus station.
Except for large devices (and maybe this can eventually support large devices) wall sockets and charging or even thinking of charge becomes a thing of the past.
'Keeping companies honest, to use Linus's phrase, is probably akin to herding cats but unless all OSS projects everywhere are ready to "just say no" to any and all help, financial or otherwise, from all corporations I don't see how the community at large, or even just one project, can afford to refuse help from big business.'
Exactly. It isn't the job of open source, free software, or the community to keep companies honest. It's the job of the community to maintain the integrity of the community. Hitler could fund development for all I care, I'd still take it. As long as corporations aren't buying out independent free software developers then I don't see a problem.
I am actually more concerned about prominent free software developers being given jobs by corporations. Of course these people need to eat and I am all for them making a living and being able to work on free software full time. What concerns me is that in such a situation the corporation has bought the right to 'lobby' those developers as much as they please, if not dictate what they work on outright. This has resulted in a more pro-business stance and sympathy for the concerns of these entities, many times at the expense of individuals, users, and the community at large.
Linus himself is probably the most clear cut example of this. Please don't misunderstand, I'm not intending to put down Linus in any fashion, he has done and continues to do a great deal for the community. That said, since entering the corporate workplace Linus has become very sympathetic to commercial entities and their concerns.
'How about if I opened up a tiny little airline, that few a handful of flights every year, but hasn't had any crashes in the past 100 years? That wouldn't say they're safe, just that they don't fly enough to be statistically significant, and are not yet due for an accident. They could still be the crappiest airline around, with lousy maintenance, and the odds just haven't caught up with them. THAT is why accidents/flights are the most important metric.'
You need to learn the difference between statistics and reality. Statistics is a last resort pseudo-science used to predict the future because people don't like the answer 'we have no idea'. If the predictions are correct, yeah statistics. If they are wrong, well there was always a small statistical chance. In other words, statistics are a rigged game akin to religion with a 'it was gods will' cop out.
Statistics are why we have hundred year levies to protect from floods instead of a levy large enough to protect against the largest flood that ever occurred.
The safest airline is the one with the most qualified and attentive staff on the best equipment. This is true even if the airline in question hasn't flown ANY flights before and the other guy has flown 10,000. That is the difference between reality and statistics.
'The purpose of the majority of courses is to increase productivity of students.'
Still false. That may be the reason the students have chosen to benefit themselves but what has motivated the students is irrelevant. The students could be going because they desire knowledge, because there is something they want to accomplish, because of some good they hope to do in the world, or good old fashioned greed. None of that changes the purpose of the institution. The institution exists to TEACH the students information.
'The article goes on to say how this Performics division is likely to be sold off to make sure everything stays above board.'
Duh. What is the story here? If Google keeps Performics or adapts their search engine to increase its effectiveness (unlikely since they could have biased search results at any time) that would be news. That Google aquired a company with a division that increases search rankings and recognizes that as a conflict isn't really news at all.
There are exceptions in the realm of common usage but as a general rule it is improper grammar to pronounce acronyms, you should always say the letters.
I once went to an interview for a systems administration position with a large hosting company. Naturally, this position would involved administrating a Linux cluster farm and there were dozens of acronyms required to get the job. The guy doing the interviewing was familiar enough with the technology to know what to ask but he pronounced every acronym. His pronunciations were so bad I didn't figure out what had happened until after the interview, up to that point I thought they just used lots of niche proprietary stuff.
The whole interview went much like this:
Interviewer "Are you intimately familiar with enphus?" (I later determined this must have been NFS) Me "No, as a rule I only implement standard technologies and use open or in-house solutions to fill the gaps where needed."
'REQUIRE a picture on every single credit card (POS transactions), and be strict about the requirement on merchants to ship ONLY to addresses on file (online/telephone transactions).'
The picture sounds good. The changing card number idea is great. The only ship to billing address idea is terrible. It is inconvient and annoying when something you need NOW is declined because you live in a 'city' within greater Miami and told the card company the city name and put in Miami on the other. Or when you *gasp* want something shipped somewhere besides where the bill goes. Maybe, just maybe, you don't want to be harassed by card companies and don't use your real location and contact information, instead using a answering machine for that line and a drop box. All that is forgetting gift purchases of course. I even travel back and forth between two states and have a number of addresses in each state where I want things sent. Since my credit card company lets me give them one billing address and paypalers will only ship to your verified address and ignore all your others it is enough to drive a man insane.
Changing numbers would be great if they don't give the vendor a way to tell the difference. If they do, vendors will refuse. Even legitimate vendors because they all want automatic subscription renewals.
* This post has been paid for by violent men with large weapons.
'Also, Pocket PC/Windows Mobile uses a subset of the Windows API, which makes porting lightweight applications relatively easy.'
There is no such thing as a lightweight win32 application.
'INCLUDING video capture and CAD applications.'
Right, because we definately want to do video capture and CAD on a device that crawls when you try to add a note to a list of tasks.
Sorry, but PalmOS has a better interface (the windows interface is bad enough on the desktop). It is drastically faster. a 75mhz palm device outperforms a 400mhz pocketpc. And there is far more software available.
'that could very well be where the extra $75 in cost is going.'
I don't know about Vista but I am sure that licensing is where most of that $75 is going. If I know Microsoft the deal gives reduced rates for the license but includes a license fee on every laptop they sell, even the linux laptops. Microsoft will justify this by claiming that pirated copies of windows are just going on those machines anyway.
'Microsoft is plenty persuasive and I'm sure it will ultimately ship with SOME Windows variant, since what Microsoft wants, Microsoft gets.'
Yup, it is pretty obvious the evil empire has bought and paid for the project leader.
Yeah, but it wouldn't suprise me a bit to discover that the other $65 of the price increase is the cost of windows. The licensing cost is drastically reduced.... in exchange for selling a license with every machine. Even if the machine is going to run the linux version.
'Because we can't exhaustively compare their model vs. reality, we can't consider the Newtonian assumption fully validated by experiment.'
And for mostly the same reasons that we can't exhaustively compare their model vs reality, we can't consider the Newtonian assumption fully invalided by this experiment either. The biggest problem should be obvious, this brain hasn't been raised from birth to adulthood in the body and experiences of a mouse.
Everything we believe about brains tells us that they are no more or less than learning machines. They are attached to our bodies and the parts therein so they quickly begin interacting with those parts. Soon they discover patterns between those interactions and correlations, finding that control of some parts results in corresponding input in sense data. This mouse has no body, no senses, and even if it did, they wouldn't be the body and senses of a mouth. It doesn't have the same physical needs and impulses a mouse does. It doesn't have the same biochemical interactions resulting from diet.
This brain simulation should create a learning system similar to a neural net but there is no reason to believe that simulation will share anything with a mouse beyond raw capacities (even those will be diminished since it is only half a brain).
'By the same token, too many enviromentalists are far too quick to attribute ill effects to cell phones without any evidence to backup their opinion. My guess is that because cell phone users can be quite obnoxious it befits their sense of justice if the could cause cancer or kill bees.'
Quite frankly I don't have a chip on my shoulder that will be knocked off if some technology proves harmful. In the same token, I couldn't give two shits about the environmental causes unless it is people (that will be born during my lifetime) they are harming (no bees will amount to no people REAL fast).
That said my understanding is that a researcher came up with the hypothesis that cellular signals disrupt the navigation systems of bees based upon observations. My understanding is that this occurred BEFORE the bees started disappearing. The bees in question aren't able to return to their hives. If this wasn't a prediction he made it should have been since it logically follows his hypothesis. The hypothesis now gets upgraded to a theory and so far there is no reason not to believe it.
That is called the scientific method. I am ashamed to see so many ordinarily logical people ignoring or discarding REAL science in favor of blind faith in technology.
'I don't think any government would sell something like that to its citizens.'
If governments wanted the people to have power (utlimately all power is derived from force) our rebel leader forefathers wouldn't have had to put the right to bear arms in the constitution. It exists precisely because power must be distributed and a disarmed citizenry only have power at the mercy of the government.
'Anyway, it's really not reasonable at all, it was a knee-jerk reaction from people who don't understand physics, just like my girlfriend won't let me put my microwave in the kitchen because she thinks that it's going to harm her somehow, even if it's never in use while she's in the room.'
'was' is inappropriate because nobody has shown anything contrary to the research that shows cellular signals are disrupting the navigation systems used by bees. This article doesn't even mention cellular signals or reach any conclusions about what is causing the problems with the bees. There is nothing past tense about his potential problem.
I haven't heard anything about how this possibility violates the laws of physics, all I have heard is that based upon observations a theory was reached and predictions made. The bees disappearing is one of the predictions. That is called the scientific method, its the principle on which all credible knowledge is based.
Could the theory be incorrect? Certainly, but there is no reason that I am aware of to believe so at this time.
There isn't one word in that article for or against cellular signals disrupting bee navigation systems.
The article is about one common factor that has been found in many of the hives. The researchers stress that this is only a small sample of the hives and that they don't think this fungus alone could cause the problem.
Its also depressing because if the fungus is central to the problem there MIGHT be an untested chemical that COULD have some detrimental affect on the fungus... MAYBE.
'I see more and more in common media that everybody tries to blame everything on new technology'
That is fairly reasonable since this is a new problem it stands to reason that something new would be the cause. Most of the other things blamed on technology are old problems.
Slashdot Mirror
Agreed. As a beginning user I was completely baffled by all the dual boot howtos that tell you exactly the opposite. The only thing I can think of is that they wanted you to partition with Linux since the utilities typically are more effective (then and now) in managing to actually get all the disk space into a usable partition. I have never bothered to find out precisely WHY a partitioning tool has to leave several MB of free space on the drive but Linux partitioning tools typically leave about 3mb versus 30mb using windows tools.
'You haven't checked out the prices of Macs lately have you? Similarly configured Macs and PCs run head to head in prices.'
This isn't true, has never been true, and probably will never be true. Mac fans have spread this nonsense for years. According to them I should have checked the prices 6 years ago and discovered the same thing. When put to the test I have always found they either want to pick a specific class of machine to test or overvalue their Mac comparing it to premium custom built systems instead of the mass produced crap that ALL large computer vendors produce.
'Please, the penis pills are hardly lifesaving.'
That depends on whether you consider quality in your definition of life. If I can't laid after this procedure you might as well just let me go.
'It does not do any good to have a working body if I am still brain dead at the end of the process.'
The brain shuts itself down to reduce demand for oxygen, it doesn't kill itself. Since all cells have this same anti-cancer protection it stands to reason that brain cells would live for hours and commit mass suicide if suddenly flooded with oxygen as well.
shhh don't tell anyone but this was one guy, the number of doctors and scientists churned out in the US has nothing to do with it.
I think waste of time applies to both reading the post and the way the GP arrived at the conclusion.
'It's called XP. If you think for one second that users who migrated from XP to vista and hated vista are more willing to go to an "unknown" OS versus going back to XP'
I don't know about him but I don't. But Microsoft is cutting off not support but SALES of XP. Two years after XP was released most competent users were still buying 2000. Microsoft didn't stop selling 2000 until it went into the 'extended support' phase. Microsoft expected an equally lackluster reception for Vista. They know it has severe problems. They announced a freaking upcoming service pack along with the release. That is basically saying that we know there are so many problems with this that we can't dish out the fixes with windows update, here take it anyway we are a monopoly.
I think people want something new. They expect compatibility from Vista. They don't necessarily expect that from another vendor. The Vista interface is drastically changed (for the worse I might add, I'm talking about menus not effects) and users will have to learn it just as they would have to learn to use Ubuntu (most users will never learn either).
'I don't know many people who have a problem with vista. I have a few friends running it and the only complaint I've heard at all is that one guy can't run an eight year old game on it.'
Yeah, and rarely used programs like Quickbooks. If you have any USB devices purchased before Vista's release you can forget it. XP said it didn't have the decoder for DVD. Vista plays the video out of the box but has no sound and gives no error. With XP people thought they needed to buy something, and did. With Vista they just think its broken.
As a technician I ran Vista on two test systems, these were pretty typical for XP generation hardware. Grandmas buy new gateways with Vista preloaded, grandma's buy what their grandson with a white box tells them to buy. Both systems are in perfect condition with no hardware problems. Both motherboards are Asus boards, nvidia graphics, 1 gig of ram. One system is a p4 3.0ghz, and the other is an Athlon x2 4800+. In both cases a Seagate SATA drive was used. Neither is these is what you would call ancient, in both cases the boards were the headliner boards from Asus when purchased.
During install there were problems on both machines. The install ran and then gave stop errors for an inaccessible boot device. In both cases vista supposedly had drivers but I loaded the manufacturer disk controller anyway and reinstalled. For the Athlon x2 4800 board this did not work either. I had to repeat the install one more time and it finally worked. Since nothing was actually changed and the hardware is fully functional I can only assume this was due to a bug in the Vista installer. I have since seen this problem numerous times in the field.
After installation I found that the p4 board had no official vista support. There was a second model of that board that appeared to be the same thing but with official vista support. Using the drivers from that board I was able to get everything working, except for the on-board audio. The X2 had Vista drivers and they loaded, again, with the exception of sound. Both machines would freeze randomly. These were complete system freezes, lights on caps lock and num lock couldn't be toggled, video was frozen and machine would have to be powered off to resolve. Nothing was overheating so I can only credit vista with this. If I ran anything using DirectX the freezes would be more frequent, aprox every 5 when they were usually hours apart otherwise. Perhaps there is a problem with the Nvidia drivers... pfft those are only used by the majority of the market, no biggie there.
Vista was also largely incompatible with CD/DVD virtual devices. These are used by... everyone who plays games on PCs. In other words, forget Vista for playing games. Lack of Quickbooks compatibility makes it useless for anyone in an office environment. Lack of proper Nvidia support makes it a poor choice for the majority of people with existing PCs. And the new inte
'If you're talking about making the whole wall a charging wall,'
No, I actually had in mind something flush or near flush with the wall, much like you mount those wall sockets and connected directly to the house wiring like those wall sockets. It would definately be best if these were preinstalled during construction but you could always retrofit one into your home using a larger version of those little blue boxes you can put in the wall to mount sockets where there is no stud (if they are as light as I suspect). Basically you cut a hole, put the box inside, and then use a screw to turn a wedge that extends out behind the drywall on each side of the box. You then screw what you are mounting into the box and wedge the drywall between the two. It works well but obviously has a weight limit.
The problem with outlets is that by the time you have the outlet itself, and the plug, you can't hide the wire behind the device and still have the device lie anywhere near approaching flat against the wall.
I suppose you could cut a hole and tie direct into the wiring but actually hang the device like a mirror or picture frame. That would require a smaller hole but seems more prone to being bumped or smacked and generally seems like it would be less secure.
'The new physical education is moving away from competitive team sports and is more about encouraging lifetime fitness'
This is great news. Somehow I doubt it though. I seem to recall that everything athletic was made into a competition or became one. If they are doing excercise the students will be competing on how many push ups they can do. If you use DDR then they will compete on DDR scores.
I should proof read.
'Why couldn't the wire be in the all '
Should be
'Why couldn't the wire be in the wall'
This is Slashdot, I haven't read the article. But is there any particular reason that the wire needs to be running to a wall socket? Why couldn't the wire be in the all and the charging devices sit on a small shelf? You walk in the door and empty your pockets, toss your keys, change, cell phone, pda, etc on the shelf? When you go to use them or to leave the next day, you pick up your fully charged cell phone.
With a slight increase in range these could maybe be put into ceiling panels. What would be really great is if standards were developed like those for batteries and devices were made to conform to the standards. The receivers and panels would be tuned to different standards. When you walk within range of a charging panel your device automatically begins to charge without you doing anything. Now imagine the charging panels are everywhere. Hospitals, Living rooms, McDonalds, Office Buildings, the bus station.
Except for large devices (and maybe this can eventually support large devices) wall sockets and charging or even thinking of charge becomes a thing of the past.
'Keeping companies honest, to use Linus's phrase, is probably akin to herding cats but unless all OSS projects everywhere are ready to "just say no" to any and all help, financial or otherwise, from all corporations I don't see how the community at large, or even just one project, can afford to refuse help from big business.'
Exactly. It isn't the job of open source, free software, or the community to keep companies honest. It's the job of the community to maintain the integrity of the community. Hitler could fund development for all I care, I'd still take it. As long as corporations aren't buying out independent free software developers then I don't see a problem.
I am actually more concerned about prominent free software developers being given jobs by corporations. Of course these people need to eat and I am all for them making a living and being able to work on free software full time. What concerns me is that in such a situation the corporation has bought the right to 'lobby' those developers as much as they please, if not dictate what they work on outright. This has resulted in a more pro-business stance and sympathy for the concerns of these entities, many times at the expense of individuals, users, and the community at large.
Linus himself is probably the most clear cut example of this. Please don't misunderstand, I'm not intending to put down Linus in any fashion, he has done and continues to do a great deal for the community. That said, since entering the corporate workplace Linus has become very sympathetic to commercial entities and their concerns.
'How about if I opened up a tiny little airline, that few a handful of flights every year, but hasn't had any crashes in the past 100 years? That wouldn't say they're safe, just that they don't fly enough to be statistically significant, and are not yet due for an accident. They could still be the crappiest airline around, with lousy maintenance, and the odds just haven't caught up with them. THAT is why accidents/flights are the most important metric.'
You need to learn the difference between statistics and reality. Statistics is a last resort pseudo-science used to predict the future because people don't like the answer 'we have no idea'. If the predictions are correct, yeah statistics. If they are wrong, well there was always a small statistical chance. In other words, statistics are a rigged game akin to religion with a 'it was gods will' cop out.
Statistics are why we have hundred year levies to protect from floods instead of a levy large enough to protect against the largest flood that ever occurred.
The safest airline is the one with the most qualified and attentive staff on the best equipment. This is true even if the airline in question hasn't flown ANY flights before and the other guy has flown 10,000. That is the difference between reality and statistics.
'The purpose of the majority of courses is to increase productivity of students.'
Still false. That may be the reason the students have chosen to benefit themselves but what has motivated the students is irrelevant. The students could be going because they desire knowledge, because there is something they want to accomplish, because of some good they hope to do in the world, or good old fashioned greed. None of that changes the purpose of the institution. The institution exists to TEACH the students information.
'The article goes on to say how this Performics division is likely to be sold off to make sure everything stays above board.'
Duh. What is the story here? If Google keeps Performics or adapts their search engine to increase its effectiveness (unlikely since they could have biased search results at any time) that would be news. That Google aquired a company with a division that increases search rankings and recognizes that as a conflict isn't really news at all.
There are exceptions in the realm of common usage but as a general rule it is improper grammar to pronounce acronyms, you should always say the letters.
I once went to an interview for a systems administration position with a large hosting company. Naturally, this position would involved administrating a Linux cluster farm and there were dozens of acronyms required to get the job. The guy doing the interviewing was familiar enough with the technology to know what to ask but he pronounced every acronym. His pronunciations were so bad I didn't figure out what had happened until after the interview, up to that point I thought they just used lots of niche proprietary stuff.
The whole interview went much like this:
Interviewer "Are you intimately familiar with enphus?" (I later determined this must have been NFS)
Me "No, as a rule I only implement standard technologies and use open or in-house solutions to fill the gaps where needed."
'REQUIRE a picture on every single credit card (POS transactions), and be strict about the requirement on merchants to ship ONLY to addresses on file (online/telephone transactions).'
The picture sounds good. The changing card number idea is great. The only ship to billing address idea is terrible. It is inconvient and annoying when something you need NOW is declined because you live in a 'city' within greater Miami and told the card company the city name and put in Miami on the other. Or when you *gasp* want something shipped somewhere besides where the bill goes. Maybe, just maybe, you don't want to be harassed by card companies and don't use your real location and contact information, instead using a answering machine for that line and a drop box. All that is forgetting gift purchases of course. I even travel back and forth between two states and have a number of addresses in each state where I want things sent. Since my credit card company lets me give them one billing address and paypalers will only ship to your verified address and ignore all your others it is enough to drive a man insane.
Changing numbers would be great if they don't give the vendor a way to tell the difference. If they do, vendors will refuse. Even legitimate vendors because they all want automatic subscription renewals.
* This post has been paid for by violent men with large weapons.
'Palm OS did not multitask'
Sorry thats a feature on a PDA.
'Also, Pocket PC/Windows Mobile uses a subset of the Windows API, which makes porting lightweight applications relatively easy.'
There is no such thing as a lightweight win32 application.
'INCLUDING video capture and CAD applications.'
Right, because we definately want to do video capture and CAD on a device that crawls when you try to add a note to a list of tasks.
Sorry, but PalmOS has a better interface (the windows interface is bad enough on the desktop). It is drastically faster. a 75mhz palm device outperforms a 400mhz pocketpc. And there is far more software available.
'that could very well be where the extra $75 in cost is going.'
I don't know about Vista but I am sure that licensing is where most of that $75 is going. If I know Microsoft the deal gives reduced rates for the license but includes a license fee on every laptop they sell, even the linux laptops. Microsoft will justify this by claiming that pirated copies of windows are just going on those machines anyway.
'Microsoft is plenty persuasive and I'm sure it will ultimately ship with SOME Windows variant, since what Microsoft wants, Microsoft gets.'
Yup, it is pretty obvious the evil empire has bought and paid for the project leader.
Yeah, but it wouldn't suprise me a bit to discover that the other $65 of the price increase is the cost of windows. The licensing cost is drastically reduced.... in exchange for selling a license with every machine. Even if the machine is going to run the linux version.
OLPC has sold out.
'Because we can't exhaustively compare their model vs. reality, we can't consider the Newtonian assumption fully validated by experiment.'
And for mostly the same reasons that we can't exhaustively compare their model vs reality, we can't consider the Newtonian assumption fully invalided by this experiment either. The biggest problem should be obvious, this brain hasn't been raised from birth to adulthood in the body and experiences of a mouse.
Everything we believe about brains tells us that they are no more or less than learning machines. They are attached to our bodies and the parts therein so they quickly begin interacting with those parts. Soon they discover patterns between those interactions and correlations, finding that control of some parts results in corresponding input in sense data. This mouse has no body, no senses, and even if it did, they wouldn't be the body and senses of a mouth. It doesn't have the same physical needs and impulses a mouse does. It doesn't have the same biochemical interactions resulting from diet.
This brain simulation should create a learning system similar to a neural net but there is no reason to believe that simulation will share anything with a mouse beyond raw capacities (even those will be diminished since it is only half a brain).
'By the same token, too many enviromentalists are far too quick to attribute ill effects to cell phones without any evidence to backup their opinion. My guess is that because cell phone users can be quite obnoxious it befits their sense of justice if the could cause cancer or kill bees.'
Quite frankly I don't have a chip on my shoulder that will be knocked off if some technology proves harmful. In the same token, I couldn't give two shits about the environmental causes unless it is people (that will be born during my lifetime) they are harming (no bees will amount to no people REAL fast).
That said my understanding is that a researcher came up with the hypothesis that cellular signals disrupt the navigation systems of bees based upon observations. My understanding is that this occurred BEFORE the bees started disappearing. The bees in question aren't able to return to their hives. If this wasn't a prediction he made it should have been since it logically follows his hypothesis. The hypothesis now gets upgraded to a theory and so far there is no reason not to believe it.
That is called the scientific method. I am ashamed to see so many ordinarily logical people ignoring or discarding REAL science in favor of blind faith in technology.
'I don't think any government would sell something like that to its citizens.'
If governments wanted the people to have power (utlimately all power is derived from force) our rebel leader forefathers wouldn't have had to put the right to bear arms in the constitution. It exists precisely because power must be distributed and a disarmed citizenry only have power at the mercy of the government.
'Anyway, it's really not reasonable at all, it was a knee-jerk reaction from people who don't understand physics, just like my girlfriend won't let me put my microwave in the kitchen because she thinks that it's going to harm her somehow, even if it's never in use while she's in the room.'
'was' is inappropriate because nobody has shown anything contrary to the research that shows cellular signals are disrupting the navigation systems used by bees. This article doesn't even mention cellular signals or reach any conclusions about what is causing the problems with the bees. There is nothing past tense about his potential problem.
I haven't heard anything about how this possibility violates the laws of physics, all I have heard is that based upon observations a theory was reached and predictions made. The bees disappearing is one of the predictions. That is called the scientific method, its the principle on which all credible knowledge is based.
Could the theory be incorrect? Certainly, but there is no reason that I am aware of to believe so at this time.
There isn't one word in that article for or against cellular signals disrupting bee navigation systems.
The article is about one common factor that has been found in many of the hives. The researchers stress that this is only a small sample of the hives and that they don't think this fungus alone could cause the problem.
Its also depressing because if the fungus is central to the problem there MIGHT be an untested chemical that COULD have some detrimental affect on the fungus... MAYBE.
'I see more and more in common media that everybody tries to blame everything on new technology'
That is fairly reasonable since this is a new problem it stands to reason that something new would be the cause. Most of the other things blamed on technology are old problems.