I had a job at a call center for a short while. We used a web based interface to control call volume, generally 200-450 lines in continuous operation with a 'press thru' rate of, oh hell what was it, 2-3%? Something 4-5 of us could handle with ease. The recording itself was actually just done by calling the number of whatever company was operating the dialer. Leaving a voice mail basically, certain states might of even heard my voice hawking some psuedo health insurance card. However it should be noted that on the web front end you could also set or 'spoof' the number that was to be displayed on Caller IDs. From what I could gather the people operating the dialer were a New Zealand company. Whether it placed the calls from there is unknown. Also parts of our operation (Auto Warranties) operating in such a manner as we would have our operaters transfer the caller to a diffrent company in another state, being careful to ensure it was a 3 way call that was transparent to the caller. I assume this was to shield the company from any angry customers... I quit not long after I started and never knew how they avoided legal issues. They operated a debt consolidation business in the same manner, as the thing is with warranties we could only call certain states, deep south was great... but with the debt consolidation, they were merely a subcontractor for a non profit corporation which allowed them to operate by a different set of rules. Basically automated dialing to all but a handful of states with little recourse for those called.
During orientation, which featured a presentation featuring many obviously copyright clips the manager said with a laugh how they clear out their DNC (do not call) list every three months because by that time the people will have forgotten about them from 3 months prior. And with glee he stated that even for the few intrepid souls that brought them to court, it was relatively easy to be awarded favor by the small town courts they often found themselves in... I dunno it was an experience to say the least.
I find that looking at female US newreaders (and increasingly British ones too) sets off 'uncanny valley' for me. The nose is just to small, the hair doesn't move, and the facial expressions are just wrong
Yeah the old ones with a thing for Botox are certainly unnerving. However some of the local newsgirls...
Not that it matters anyway - PC Gamer does a low/medium/high end build spec and cost estimate in each issue, and until a few months ago, their "dream system" spec only had 2 GB of RAM.
Yes because we all know, a magazine that makes its payroll off advertisements from the very companies its suppose to be reviewing, makes the best choices in hardware.
Funny how with a little nudging I could have Vista rolling just fine in a VM on an old Sempron. It's all a matter of expectations. Vista is junk, I know this because I've ran it and I lose on average 10% +/- of my resources to Vista. I don't care if I have enough hardware to make it run well, the fact remains I know I'm losing out on my hardware resources while gaining nothing.
Throwing more hardware at a problem is far from an elegant solution. For all the bloat, what exactly does it accomplish which warrants such a massive hardware investment?
I'm going to assume alot more precaching probably a defrag type dealy mcbob in the background or two. I'm sure the services list got longer or more resource intensive as well. I'm sure it all seemed like a good idea, but as they say the road to hell is paved...
Of course, the awesoming of Mario the Plumber might have something to do with this. Considering that he's now portrayed as a "cool & edgy" character rather than "cute", this might have gone a long way toward changing the public's perception of Nintendo.
I've read far greater histories of Sega told by far greater men within the company then this guy. Instead of waxing poetically into the failure that is today's Sega maybe he outta be down with the workers ensuring the next Sonic game isn't a critical failure as has become the norm. Hey we may see a lot of Mario, but by and large he is kept to games of acceptable quality. But hey maybe I'm just a little bitter, considering the company had the best hardware they could of ever asked for with the Dreamcast and yet it was a non-starter. Too much 'change' was the problem, to many add ons for core hardware that shouldn't have been neglected with such piss poor hardware releases. And here we have an article about more change from Sega... 9th time is a charm eh?
If Psystar wins, then everybody and their grandmas will be running OSX.
Everybody will win: more folks will run a more secure OS than Windows and Apple will still get all the OS sales.
How will it be more secure if it becomes the number one target of miscreants? Will we have Windows Fanboys decrying the callousness of Steve Jobs and his insecure operating system? Would Apple be able to cope suddenly exposed to the attention of every malicious script kid out there?
[0123]Further, the description has been made of the electronic equipment according to the present invention by taking a digital single-lens reflex camera system as an example. However, the present invention can be applied not only to the digital single-lens reflex camera system, but also to a small electronic equipment, for example, a compact camera, a PDA, a mobile phone, or a notebook personal computer.
[0124]In the case of a personal computer system, a fuel tank charged with hydrogen fuel is provided to a portable personal computer body, and there is also provided a power generation cell for driving the personal computer body. A printer, a recording medium driving device, and the like, which are representative peripheral devices to be connected to the personal computer body, having an independent power generation cell may be connected to and integrated with the personal computer body.
[0125]In the case of a mobile phone system, a fuel tank charged with hydrogen fuel is provided to a mobile phone body and there is provided a power generation cell for driving the mobile phone body. A radio, a television receiver tuner, an audio player, and the like having an independent power generation cell may be connected to and integrated with the mobile phone body.
[0126]While the present invention has been described with reference to exemplary embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed exemplary embodiments. The scope of the following claims is to be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and equivalent structures and functions.
Just what my expensive electronics need, more moving parts!
Water and air management[8] (in PEMFCs). In this type of fuel cell, the membrane must be hydrated, requiring water to be evaporated at precisely the same rate that it is produced. If water is evaporated too quickly, the membrane dries, resistance across it increases, and eventually it will crack, creating a gas "short circuit" where hydrogen and oxygen combine directly, generating heat that will damage the fuel cell. If the water is evaporated too slowly, the electrodes will flood, preventing the reactants from reaching the catalyst and stopping the reaction. Methods to manage water in cells are being developed like electroosmotic pumps focusing on flow control. Just as in a combustion engine, a steady ratio between the reactant and oxygen is necessary to keep the fuel cell operating efficiently.
Something like special hardware tokens are much better, but there's no infrastructure for their distribution.
I seem to recall a rather high profile company introduce a hardware token to assist with account security, it was greeted with much enthusiasm by it's customers. Yet before long, it too, failed.
I doubt the blow is produced locally, unless you meant to say methamphetamine? Either way I applaud you for helping to support your local Escalade driving youths!
Purchasing locally only works if you live in an accessible area.
You're FUD doesn't work on an Oregonian my friend. The fact of the matter a real difference can be made by stopping at the local produce stand and buying your corn from a local. Sure the meat may be grown in god knows where cuz you got it at Wal-Mart but the fact remains you made a choice and purchased locally. That's how it has to start, not an over night revolution but instead simply being conscious of your actions and there repercussions. It's like the tire pressure thing, one little step but a ton of people can make a big diffrence.
Also, people in small communities often don't have the option to buy local? Or, What if the local stores are run by douchebags? Should we be foreced to spend our money to support them?
That's odd, I grew up in a town of less that 4,000 and had no trouble finding hand made clothes, fresh local produce, locally created art, music... You really aren't trying hard enough, I could go to Wal-mart right now and find tons of products that say MADE IN IDAHO right the hell on em, so yeah dude... I've been able to buy local no matter where I find myself.
I'll keep buying online, unless I need something more than just a low price. When I need more than low prices (like, support) then I'll buy local.
Yes because low price is king! Your community is 2nd! Dollar dollar bill ya'll... People not even willing to make one small change in their habits make me sick.
And if they implement a good double precision float in those stream units, I predict it will become very desirable for scientific computing.
I was wondering how long it would take for someone to get it, also I expect to see acceleration of 3d GUIs match performance of the old Win95 shell running on a modern computer. AKA Snappy! Little things like that will snowball until incredibly strong performance in calculations once negated to specialized hardware (486DX Anyone?) become the norm and expected.
I'm going to go out on a limb and say that for most people transactions should be limited to those that can be completed via a physical exchange of payment for goods and services. Ya know I hop on newegg to get a part here and there, but when I have a choice I keep my money in my community even if it costs an extra $10-20USD for a part... I'm just saying.
The only drug tests I've had to undergo in the US were for financial institutions.
I would say 9 out of every 10 jobs, that pay 40k or less institute at least a drug test upon the conditional offer of employment. However my experience in the job markets are limited to the Pacific Northwest region of the United States.
Then everyday before work I would sprinkle a little crystal on the coffee pot handle.
I think you over estimate the amount of drug needed to be found for any sort of conclusive judgment on the employee. The fact that most, if not all, keyboards would have some undesirable substance on 'em. And that is similar to the problem they have with current drug tests and the solution, there is a cut off limit which assumes some degree of inaccuracy in the test and prescribes a limit of substance found to ensure its above and beyond what could be considered reasonable when the amount of inaccuracy of any given test is considered.
Just to throw it out there I blame a weak American populace for rolling over and allowing the establishment of the drug testing industry. As the most obvious flaw is with marijuana as it can stay in your system for a month or more under the right circumstances. While even heavy users of very heavy drugs have a 3-4 day turn around before they are clean... AT MOST. That includes methamphetamine, cocaine, hydrocodone and alcohol.
blind people will be able to listen to songs for the first time!
Well I'm not sure 'listen' is the correct term here but I do understand what you are saying. Some form of tactile feedback for the music, which has been done before. If I remember correct, some of Howard Sterns more famous douchebagery included having a girl lay her speaker on the floor to be straddled while he spoke causing the vibrations to give her pleasure. So I would think a sound system with very high excursion would be a much better solution in the here and now for those with disabilities that want to experience some music without waiting for enhancements to the source material.
Not really, I'm pointing out as to why you would want to pirate, to sell bootlegs to those easily parted with their money. And of course the censorship angle is not to be ignored.
Why would anyone want to Pirate the Olympic broadcasts?
You must be new here allow me to explain. First and foremost a vast majority of the money holding populace are simple rubes. The profits to be made from a relatively poor and uneducated populace such as China has is not to be underestimated. This is common in the United States of America, such as Yellow Ribbons once found on the vast majority of the SUV driving public. Themselves unlikely to formulate even a remotely insightful or articulate statement as to the conflict responsible for it's re-adoption. Taking advantage of the rubes can also happen on a much more local level for when the Boise Broncos won the 2007 Fiesta Bowl the local news industry was elated to find it's self in a constant self gratification stroke fest as it replayed the admittedly exciting game over and over. Including a year later. Wal-Mart also jumped into the fray to hawk a commemorative DVD with all associated Bronco's paraphernalia located conveniently nearby. It was given the same status in the store as a new Hannah Montanna release for many months after. Just think if China pulls some big wins, the populace is going to eat it up.
Why make it for profit? We're talking about some of the very the tools we use for our democracy to function. It shouldn't be built by a corporate entity. It should be built by those beholden to no one other than the people of the United States.
Slashdot Mirror
I had a job at a call center for a short while. We used a web based interface to control call volume, generally 200-450 lines in continuous operation with a 'press thru' rate of, oh hell what was it, 2-3%? Something 4-5 of us could handle with ease. The recording itself was actually just done by calling the number of whatever company was operating the dialer. Leaving a voice mail basically, certain states might of even heard my voice hawking some psuedo health insurance card. However it should be noted that on the web front end you could also set or 'spoof' the number that was to be displayed on Caller IDs. From what I could gather the people operating the dialer were a New Zealand company. Whether it placed the calls from there is unknown. Also parts of our operation (Auto Warranties) operating in such a manner as we would have our operaters transfer the caller to a diffrent company in another state, being careful to ensure it was a 3 way call that was transparent to the caller. I assume this was to shield the company from any angry customers... I quit not long after I started and never knew how they avoided legal issues. They operated a debt consolidation business in the same manner, as the thing is with warranties we could only call certain states, deep south was great... but with the debt consolidation, they were merely a subcontractor for a non profit corporation which allowed them to operate by a different set of rules. Basically automated dialing to all but a handful of states with little recourse for those called.
During orientation, which featured a presentation featuring many obviously copyright clips the manager said with a laugh how they clear out their DNC (do not call) list every three months because by that time the people will have forgotten about them from 3 months prior. And with glee he stated that even for the few intrepid souls that brought them to court, it was relatively easy to be awarded favor by the small town courts they often found themselves in... I dunno it was an experience to say the least.
I find that looking at female US newreaders (and increasingly British ones too) sets off 'uncanny valley' for me. The nose is just to small, the hair doesn't move, and the facial expressions are just wrong
Yeah the old ones with a thing for Botox are certainly unnerving. However some of the local newsgirls...
I often hear people on Slashdot claiming that Flash is safe
Well sir you must view /. at a much lower threshold then I do!
If I can't dump it in the back of the intertruck, what are my other options?
Try sending it in an Internets to your staff.
Let me get this straight... It's not a truck?
No it's like a truck, except you can't dump stuff on it like it's a big truck.
Not that it matters anyway - PC Gamer does a low/medium/high end build spec and cost estimate in each issue, and until a few months ago, their "dream system" spec only had 2 GB of RAM.
Yes because we all know, a magazine that makes its payroll off advertisements from the very companies its suppose to be reviewing, makes the best choices in hardware.
Funny how with a little nudging I could have Vista rolling just fine in a VM on an old Sempron. It's all a matter of expectations. Vista is junk, I know this because I've ran it and I lose on average 10% +/- of my resources to Vista. I don't care if I have enough hardware to make it run well, the fact remains I know I'm losing out on my hardware resources while gaining nothing.
Throwing more hardware at a problem is far from an elegant solution. For all the bloat, what exactly does it accomplish which warrants such a massive hardware investment?
I'm going to assume alot more precaching probably a defrag type dealy mcbob in the background or two. I'm sure the services list got longer or more resource intensive as well. I'm sure it all seemed like a good idea, but as they say the road to hell is paved...
If, for instance, Saab released a new hybrid car which ran on hydrogen, and there was no infrastructure in place to supply that.
It's the check or the egg problem, all over again.
I had to do a double take, 0 comments!? its like wtf I just read this a few hours ago... ... at Ars Technica as it turns out... Go slashdot! Go!
Of course, the awesoming of Mario the Plumber might have something to do with this. Considering that he's now portrayed as a "cool & edgy" character rather than "cute", this might have gone a long way toward changing the public's perception of Nintendo.
All your blue hedgehogs are belong to us!
I've read far greater histories of Sega told by far greater men within the company then this guy. Instead of waxing poetically into the failure that is today's Sega maybe he outta be down with the workers ensuring the next Sonic game isn't a critical failure as has become the norm. Hey we may see a lot of Mario, but by and large he is kept to games of acceptable quality. But hey maybe I'm just a little bitter, considering the company had the best hardware they could of ever asked for with the Dreamcast and yet it was a non-starter. Too much 'change' was the problem, to many add ons for core hardware that shouldn't have been neglected with such piss poor hardware releases. And here we have an article about more change from Sega... 9th time is a charm eh?
If Psystar wins, then everybody and their grandmas will be running OSX. Everybody will win: more folks will run a more secure OS than Windows and Apple will still get all the OS sales.
How will it be more secure if it becomes the number one target of miscreants? Will we have Windows Fanboys decrying the callousness of Steve Jobs and his insecure operating system? Would Apple be able to cope suddenly exposed to the attention of every malicious script kid out there?
[0123]Further, the description has been made of the electronic equipment according to the present invention by taking a digital single-lens reflex camera system as an example. However, the present invention can be applied not only to the digital single-lens reflex camera system, but also to a small electronic equipment, for example, a compact camera, a PDA, a mobile phone, or a notebook personal computer. [0124]In the case of a personal computer system, a fuel tank charged with hydrogen fuel is provided to a portable personal computer body, and there is also provided a power generation cell for driving the personal computer body. A printer, a recording medium driving device, and the like, which are representative peripheral devices to be connected to the personal computer body, having an independent power generation cell may be connected to and integrated with the personal computer body. [0125]In the case of a mobile phone system, a fuel tank charged with hydrogen fuel is provided to a mobile phone body and there is provided a power generation cell for driving the mobile phone body. A radio, a television receiver tuner, an audio player, and the like having an independent power generation cell may be connected to and integrated with the mobile phone body. [0126]While the present invention has been described with reference to exemplary embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed exemplary embodiments. The scope of the following claims is to be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and equivalent structures and functions.
Water and air management[8] (in PEMFCs). In this type of fuel cell, the membrane must be hydrated, requiring water to be evaporated at precisely the same rate that it is produced. If water is evaporated too quickly, the membrane dries, resistance across it increases, and eventually it will crack, creating a gas "short circuit" where hydrogen and oxygen combine directly, generating heat that will damage the fuel cell. If the water is evaporated too slowly, the electrodes will flood, preventing the reactants from reaching the catalyst and stopping the reaction. Methods to manage water in cells are being developed like electroosmotic pumps focusing on flow control. Just as in a combustion engine, a steady ratio between the reactant and oxygen is necessary to keep the fuel cell operating efficiently.
Something like special hardware tokens are much better, but there's no infrastructure for their distribution.
I seem to recall a rather high profile company introduce a hardware token to assist with account security, it was greeted with much enthusiasm by it's customers. Yet before long, it too, failed .
I buy all my hookers and blow locally.
I doubt the blow is produced locally, unless you meant to say methamphetamine? Either way I applaud you for helping to support your local Escalade driving youths!
Purchasing locally only works if you live in an accessible area.
You're FUD doesn't work on an Oregonian my friend. The fact of the matter a real difference can be made by stopping at the local produce stand and buying your corn from a local. Sure the meat may be grown in god knows where cuz you got it at Wal-Mart but the fact remains you made a choice and purchased locally. That's how it has to start, not an over night revolution but instead simply being conscious of your actions and there repercussions. It's like the tire pressure thing, one little step but a ton of people can make a big diffrence.
Also, people in small communities often don't have the option to buy local? Or, What if the local stores are run by douchebags? Should we be foreced to spend our money to support them?
That's odd, I grew up in a town of less that 4,000 and had no trouble finding hand made clothes, fresh local produce, locally created art, music... You really aren't trying hard enough, I could go to Wal-mart right now and find tons of products that say MADE IN IDAHO right the hell on em, so yeah dude... I've been able to buy local no matter where I find myself.
I'll keep buying online, unless I need something more than just a low price. When I need more than low prices (like, support) then I'll buy local.
Yes because low price is king! Your community is 2nd! Dollar dollar bill ya'll... People not even willing to make one small change in their habits make me sick.
And if they implement a good double precision float in those stream units, I predict it will become very desirable for scientific computing.
I was wondering how long it would take for someone to get it, also I expect to see acceleration of 3d GUIs match performance of the old Win95 shell running on a modern computer. AKA Snappy! Little things like that will snowball until incredibly strong performance in calculations once negated to specialized hardware (486DX Anyone?) become the norm and expected.
I'm going to go out on a limb and say that for most people transactions should be limited to those that can be completed via a physical exchange of payment for goods and services. Ya know I hop on newegg to get a part here and there, but when I have a choice I keep my money in my community even if it costs an extra $10-20USD for a part... I'm just saying.
The only drug tests I've had to undergo in the US were for financial institutions.
I would say 9 out of every 10 jobs, that pay 40k or less institute at least a drug test upon the conditional offer of employment. However my experience in the job markets are limited to the Pacific Northwest region of the United States.
Then everyday before work I would sprinkle a little crystal on the coffee pot handle.
I think you over estimate the amount of drug needed to be found for any sort of conclusive judgment on the employee. The fact that most, if not all, keyboards would have some undesirable substance on 'em. And that is similar to the problem they have with current drug tests and the solution, there is a cut off limit which assumes some degree of inaccuracy in the test and prescribes a limit of substance found to ensure its above and beyond what could be considered reasonable when the amount of inaccuracy of any given test is considered.
Just to throw it out there I blame a weak American populace for rolling over and allowing the establishment of the drug testing industry. As the most obvious flaw is with marijuana as it can stay in your system for a month or more under the right circumstances. While even heavy users of very heavy drugs have a 3-4 day turn around before they are clean... AT MOST. That includes methamphetamine, cocaine, hydrocodone and alcohol.
blind people will be able to listen to songs for the first time!
Well I'm not sure 'listen' is the correct term here but I do understand what you are saying. Some form of tactile feedback for the music, which has been done before. If I remember correct, some of Howard Sterns more famous douchebagery included having a girl lay her speaker on the floor to be straddled while he spoke causing the vibrations to give her pleasure. So I would think a sound system with very high excursion would be a much better solution in the here and now for those with disabilities that want to experience some music without waiting for enhancements to the source material.
Not really, I'm pointing out as to why you would want to pirate, to sell bootlegs to those easily parted with their money. And of course the censorship angle is not to be ignored.
Why would anyone want to Pirate the Olympic broadcasts?
You must be new here allow me to explain. First and foremost a vast majority of the money holding populace are simple rubes. The profits to be made from a relatively poor and uneducated populace such as China has is not to be underestimated. This is common in the United States of America, such as Yellow Ribbons once found on the vast majority of the SUV driving public. Themselves unlikely to formulate even a remotely insightful or articulate statement as to the conflict responsible for it's re-adoption. Taking advantage of the rubes can also happen on a much more local level for when the Boise Broncos won the 2007 Fiesta Bowl the local news industry was elated to find it's self in a constant self gratification stroke fest as it replayed the admittedly exciting game over and over. Including a year later. Wal-Mart also jumped into the fray to hawk a commemorative DVD with all associated Bronco's paraphernalia located conveniently nearby. It was given the same status in the store as a new Hannah Montanna release for many months after. Just think if China pulls some big wins, the populace is going to eat it up.
Why make it for profit? We're talking about some of the very the tools we use for our democracy to function. It shouldn't be built by a corporate entity. It should be built by those beholden to no one other than the people of the United States.