Having never (to my recollection) seen this on TV (not a follower of the Superbowl), I'd say the best part of the ad is the bouncing boobs.......
Or the Futurama parody ad.....
I just spent a few minutes plowing through the EULA on MS site, and here's what it said under the "Virtualization" thing: Vista Home Basic and Premium:
Use with virtualization Technologies. You may not use the software installed on the licensed device within a virtual (or otherwise emulated) hardware system
Vista Ultimate:
Use with virtualization Technologies. You may use the software installed on the licensed device within a virtual (or otherwise emulated) hardware system on the licensed device. If you do so, you may not play or access content or use applications protected by any Microsoft digital, information or enterprise rights management technology or other Microsoft rights management services or use BitLocker.
The way I read it is as follows: If you have one license of Vista Home, and it's installed on your PC, you can not also install that same license to a virtual machine. If you have Vista Ultimate, you can also install a copy of the same license to a virtual machine. So, if you're a software dev, and want to test your software on different versions of Vista, and you have (for example) an MSDN subscription, you *can* install Vista Home into a VM, as long as it's not loaded on a "real" PC also. You could, however, load your copy of Ultimate into a VM, despite it also being loaded to a physical PC.
As for the "transfer once" clause, sounds to me like it'll be similar to when an upgrader changes his PC with XP, and has to re-activate. First one's free, second one break out the phone, call, and tell the rep you upgraded your PC. Big deal, been there, done that.
Astronaut Hall of Fame roof is a good spot
on
Watching a Space Shot?
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
Although it's about 5 miles from the pad. Went several years ago with my wife, and parents (X-Mas present sending them to FL from us kids) Worked out well, my Mom was able to get a good view, and they had elevator access to the roof deck. Watching from the KSC Visitors Center would have been OK, but you can't see the pad, so you only see the shuttle once it's in the air. AHF roof, you can see the pad.
I think to get closer (media area or Satrun V building), you need to either be related to someone on the shuttle, or maybe brown-nose your senator/congress people. Even those areas are around 3 miles away from the pad.
Only downside to AHF is the tower is just a little spike on the skyline, nothing like what you'd see from the media area. Price when we went down was basicly, buy an admission to the AHF, you could get up on the roof. They even had a projector showing NASA TV coverage on the wall of the Space Camp building....
Having seen the movie, when they shoot the window, it does not immediatly take out the side of the plane. As a point in fact, it does just blow out the window. Flying debris getting pulled out does the rest of the damage (assorted carry on luggage, snakes, etc)
Yeah, I sat through a big chunk of the movie thinking why don't they just turn down the cabing temp? Crank the AC as high as it'll go, and watch the snakes go beddie-bye?
If you see it, watch it for what it is, a stupid, fun, campy movie. Better than most of the DTV stuff that comes out, and definately not some preachy, art-house big message film.
Did I enjoy the film? yes. Would I go see it again? At a matinee, sure (only paid $4 the first time) Will I get the DVD? Most likely.
I can't comment on Nevada teachers, but my mother worked for years in various school districts around Michigan.
She'd easily spend a couple hours *EVERY* night going over papers planning class, etc. She'd have to spend her *OWN* money on class materials (adult ed, computer basics) Sure, she'd go to computer shows to scrounge through the "used but works, anything is $5" boxes, but that still came out of her pocket.
Maybe in some school districts (or colleges) the teachers have cushy benefits, etc, but the front line teachers (grade school, junior high, high school) are getting the shaft.
I think more so, the point he was trying to make is that reviewers get a gushy over *previews* of the game in question. The problem being, if they don't get "positive gushy," the publisher won't get any more juicy advertiseing dollars.
So, the bad previews get editorialized into something positive about game X, despite the fact that they were using alpha code, or maybe just pre-rendered screenshots, or even just the design document. Then, readers get geeked up about the game, wait 6 months for preview number 2, which is even more sugary sweetly positive, pre-oder, which convinces the retailers that the game will be a hit, so they get prepped to stock up.
Then, the game comes out, and sucks. Happens on the PC, happens on the consoles (maybe worse there?) Happens with hardware (oh look! This video card that isn't even in engineering samples will have 6 quintillion transistors, 1 million pixel pipelines, and support DirectX25, plus full Linux and DOS support! Lets write a positive preview of it to get a sample when it actually goes to silicon!)
One of the hardware sites a couple months back did a power-supply test. However, they didn't request samples from the manufacturers, they went shopping on the web, and ordered from retailers. They did get permission to use a power supply manufacturers test lab, but still bought and brought in a retail package from a web store, of that manufacturers brand. And also managed to convince said company to leave them alone with the test equipment...
Not sure how they managed that one...
I've gotten more and more un-impressed with previews. Either they preview goes on about great new features, that don't make the final release (BF2s dynamically re-sizeing maps), or there is just no "meat" to the article, to give a taste of what might be good about the game...
I kept seeing a recurring theme throughout the posts on this device (and I haven't read the article yet), in that police should chase the criminals with helicopters. Great idea, but a lot of cities and towns don't have, or can't afford, or don't have the facilities for a helicopter.
There are also many ways in which a helicopter can be either avoided, or at least forced to drop far enough back to give you a better chance to lose it. Going near a major airport comes to mind. A city with many tall buildings (downtown New York or LA comes to mind) would make the helicopter less effective.
The way I could see police using this device, is tag the car, then "let" them get away/out of sight. Using the GPS, keep a group of patrol cars in a "box" around the suspect, and eventually, he/she will stop somewhere. At that point, move in. Best case, everybody wins. The cops get the criminal, the vehicle is minimally damaged, and few if any civilians get hurt. Worst case, the cops get the car back in good shape, and again, few if any civilians get hurt. Truthfully, I believe the cops would much prefer fewer chances of civilian injuries versus getting the criminal in custody, and not just because of the lawsuits.
Likely, most chases start when the criminal does something to attract the attention of the police, who then do what they are supposed to do: try to catch them. The problem with backing off, is that once the chase is on, they get fixated on stopping them. It seems a (very loosely) similar situation would be when one is working on a project or program, and is cruising along, try to stop... One big difference, which I'm sure someone would point out if I don't, is writing code isn't going to hurt anyone.
Stop and think for a moment, too, what would happen if the police *never* chased. Why bother doing anything even remotely near the speed limit? Streets are too corwded, hit the sidewalk at 60mph... Traffic signals would be less than "suggestions"....
At least if people think there's the possiblity of a cop, or several cops, chasing, and likely stopping them, they're more likely to simply pull over. With the obvious exception of criminals....
Leaving aside the problems of customers and their CDs, or lack of...
Once way to avoid downloading gigs of data from Windows update, is to set up a server running Windows Server Update Services. This essentially brings the Windows updates to a PC on your network, from which client stations can grab updates. It does require you to setup a Group Policy pointing to the internal server, and only works for automaticly recieved updates, not when someone clicks on the "Windows Update" icon or link. But you can setup a cmd script to force the PC to check for updates, and could also export and import the GP settings, so that when you hand the PC back to the client, everything works the original way.
You can even tell the WSUS machine if you want it to download the updates and store them locally, or simply tell the client PCs what updates they can or cannot download, and let them get them from MS (which in your case would defeat the purpose) Also, WSUS can be downloaded and used for free from MS (frightening, isn't it?), although it does require either Windows 2000 or 2003 Server, and either SQL Server, or MSDE (if no SQL Server available)
This video started playing about the same point my MP3 of Pat Benatars' "I need a hero" started playing. Nearly perfect syncing for the 40 odd seconds of the video.....
One big difference I can see between the movie theatres enforcing ratings, and the video game industry, is this.
It is fairly easy to bust a theatre / theatre chain for not enforcing the sale of tickets to minors. You can have a cop or whatever, show up, walk into an R rated movie, and ask all the kids who look under 18 where their parents / 19 year old sibling / legal guardians are. If the parents etc aren't present (not just out at the snack bar) the theatre gets clobbered with fines. Or patrons of the movie, complain about the kids, theatre gets scrutinized, and possibly busted.
The video game industry is like the movie production companies. Write the game / produce the movie, hand it to the ratings board, accept / dispute whatever rating you get, edit to get a different rating, and send it on. In the case of the video game industry, that means WalMart / EB Games / Gamestop / etc. Odds on, a good sized chunk of retail outlets either don't have, or don't enforce, a policy of checking ID for anyone purchasing M / AO rated software.
When someone does complain (often a parent), it is not (in order): the parents fault for allowing their child to purchase the game, the retailer for selling it to the child (this can be easily gotten around anyway), it is the fault of the company that wrote the game. By that "logic" someone who takes a child into see an R / NC-17 / X rated film should be able to sue not the theatre chain, but the movie production company....
Putting fines in place on the *retailers* for sale of M / AO games to kids is not a bad thing, but due to the perception of computer games being something for "kids" it will impact on what is easily available for the 25+ year old gamers (the biggest chunk of computer gamers BTW) This will in turn lead to lowered profits, less "risk taking" in game design, and more "Super Mario Kart XXXIV" sort of things....
I love my model M keyboards! Even the one my wife uses! 3 at home (one for me, one for the wife, one on the switchbox), and one at work! Drives my co-workers bonkers sometimes. All they get is the soft little "click" from their Dell branded cheapo keyboards, while you can hear me typing away from the far side of the room with the lovely, crisp, clackey sound!
If I'm caught speeding? After all, shouldn't the manufacturer of a car be responsible for how I drive it? At least up until I pay it off?
Sheesh. Let's go back to the days where the only computers in a library were tied in to be able to look up books (electronic card catalog), and check other branches to see if a book was available. If you need internet access, either go to an internet cafe (if an adult), or let the schools keep there computer labs open for students *ONLY.*
The schools can then try to block "inappropriate" content (maybe with the help of some of the kids, it'd be experience for them), and the internet cafes are in it for the money, so what happens is their problem....
My perfect library would be a monstrous building that you need golf carts to get around, with at least two copies of every book published, anywhere, anytime, and librarians that are there to help me find what I'm looking for, not watching what I'm doing....
Why do you think in the US, a goodly number of cell phones with WiFi or BlueTooth are "crippled"
All it takes is for someone to port Skype or the like to [choose your phone OS], for phones with WiFi or BlueTooth. Then why would you use the cell carriers ever so expensive networks for phone calls?
I've got a Treo 600, and while there are tales of people, who with quite a bit of driver hacking/modifying have gotten a WiFi/SD memory card to work with the Treo 650, no one has done such with the 600. For WiFi, the only option is a company that (someday, maybe) will be releasing a WiFi "sled" to attach to the back of the phone. Making it twice as think, and likely quite a bit heavier...
Here in the US, the big corporations are able to ignore new phones with neat features until they can get the cell phone manufacturers to "cripple" certain features. Then they release them. Years after they were released elsewhere...
I was drooling over the Ericson P900. My guess is that phone will either
A) not be available in the US. Ever.
B) be out when it is so out of date, it won't be worth it....
One of the comments in the article, which seems more aimed in general at the tech industry as a whole, is the lack of products that make you go "wow"
"People have a little more money but there's nothing they want to buy. There's nothing that makes you say, 'Wow." Ten years ago I was seeing something interesting every month, but now we're touting bloated software and cute case designs as innovation."
Very true. I got into Pcs back when a home built 486DX2/66 was a powerhouse. Back when new products were coming out nearly constantly. Now, we get "fluff" like cases that have some weird helmet design on the front.
Thinking a bit more about it, it seems the auto industry has gone that way, at least some. Living outside Detroit, I used to go every year to the Auto Show, just to see the concept cars. Now the concepts look just like what's already on the road.
Too bad HP-28S calculators aren't selling for hundreds of dollars on eBay, I'd seriously consider selling mine to finance a Hawaiian trip...
One of the people I work for had (this was several months back) bought a laptop from BB. They had also bought the "if anything breaks, we fix it" plan. Needless to say, something broke, still well within the time of the "plan."
BB gave them the run-around for at least a week or so, that "it wasn't covered" by the plan. I'm not sure what the final outcome was, but just the story was enough to sour me on anything like an "extended service plan."
I won't buy one. I bought a Dell laptop, and skipped on the "anything plan," because likely, if something fails, they'd make my life miserable trying to get it fixed under the plan. If anything other than the LCD fails, I am reasonably confident I can replace it myself, for less.
About the only thing on Discovery that I watch anymore is MythBusters. I used to watch JunkYard Wars, but then Cathy Rogers left, and the science (or at least the "let's explain *how* the centrifugal pump they're trying to build from scrap parts works in laymans' terms") left. Then they got the loudmouth and the bimbo type (who is actually according to Crash from a couple of seasons ago, quite intelligent).
Now a days, I pretty much just watch History Channel, at least for my fix of "wow that's neat, and so's what they had to do to get it to work" fix. Am I a "hard-core" science geek? No. But I still enjoy *learning* new things that are not just related to my job.
The only other thing I watch on TLC, is Monster House, which has *no* science, but I enjoy seeing what they come up with for some house. And at least the personality conflicts tend to be lower key than American Chopper (which I only watch the comercials for), or Monster Garage (Jesse James just irritates me, the best episode of MG was when JJ wasn't on it until the very end because his appendix had to come out)
Seconds from Disaster and MegaStructures on National Geographic Channel are good, but I've already been seeing more repeats then new shows....
Having just finished watching all three parts of this tonight, they did have a segment were Rutan was showing some of his ideas for where to go with SpaceShipOne.
The first sketch he showed was SS1 attached to the top of a rocket, about twice the length of SS1. Presumably the idea being to boost it up higher than White Knight could get, then kick over to the internal rocket. Presumably to get into LEO.
The second was a concept for a orbital hotel, with a wheel nearby for an "exercise ring." He even admitted that the ring was cribbed from Von Braun. He was a bit "mystical" when describing what you could do in the hotel (observation domes where you could go to "contemplate"), but none the less, it would be a potential cash cow, if he / they can get the funding / customers / aproval.
Initially, if it flys (pardon the pun), I could see the uber-rich schmoes forking over $50k a night to stay up there, plus flight expenses. Eventually, just like with airline travel, the prices would begin to edge down to where normal folks could swing it, but it would be one of those "once in a lifetime" trips.
Of course, success hinges on on a few things. Money, first off, as always. Second, the public, and governments, will need to be willing to accept a certain amount of risk, and likely a few tragedies (Space hotel suffers blowout! News at 11!) The public, if the costs come down before any tragedies, *might* be willing to keep on going. The government, will potentially, and if the bill that is also being discussed here gets passed, try to kill private spaceflight with passengers (and possibly all together)
Which would bite. Because I want to retire to the damn Moon at Armstrong Base. Or be around to see the Utopia Planetia yards begin construction.
And be very careful if you let your non-nerd SO use your wireless laptop! My wife was using mine (ours) while her desk was tied up for other projects, just surfing the web. She sunddenly calls out for help, she had a "do you want to debug?" message. Tell her to hit no, it keeps coming back. Tell her to just shut the thing off. Get to it a little later, first problem (my fault) the virus defs are not current. Second, just leaving it sitting on the desk, on, it starts popping up ad windows. Oh crap. Update the virus defs, start scandisk, and it starts finding viruses galore. Run Adaware, finds 200+ objects. Decided to say the heck with it, backup up my Visual Studio projects, and break out the WinXP CD....
Found out later, she managed to somehow get the "virus of the week" that I didn't even know of until a day or so later....
GMail looking inside e-mails? Isn't this just doing the same thing? What is to stop them from releasing a "new, improved" version of this software to allow universities to look inside e-mails for other things? Phrases that look like part of a term paper, that I *may* be plagarizing (sp?)
FUD off
At least not going to college anymore, I don't (for now) have to worry about this. What I can see is this software is automaticly presuming you are guilty of music swapping, and searching your e-mail without due process (BTW, IANAL)
If the courts want to use an e-mail as evidence, do they not have to get a warrant? Why should this be any different?
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Having never (to my recollection) seen this on TV (not a follower of the Superbowl), I'd say the best part of the ad is the bouncing boobs....... Or the Futurama parody ad.....
I just spent a few minutes plowing through the EULA on MS site, and here's what it said under the "Virtualization" thing:
Vista Home Basic and Premium:
Use with virtualization Technologies. You may not use the software installed on the licensed device within a virtual (or otherwise emulated) hardware system
Vista Ultimate:
Use with virtualization Technologies. You may use the software installed on the licensed device within a virtual (or otherwise emulated) hardware system on the licensed device. If you do so, you may not play or access content or use applications protected by any Microsoft digital, information or enterprise rights management technology or other Microsoft rights management services or use BitLocker.
The way I read it is as follows: If you have one license of Vista Home, and it's installed on your PC, you can not also install that same license to a virtual machine. If you have Vista Ultimate, you can also install a copy of the same license to a virtual machine. So, if you're a software dev, and want to test your software on different versions of Vista, and you have (for example) an MSDN subscription, you *can* install Vista Home into a VM, as long as it's not loaded on a "real" PC also. You could, however, load your copy of Ultimate into a VM, despite it also being loaded to a physical PC.
As for the "transfer once" clause, sounds to me like it'll be similar to when an upgrader changes his PC with XP, and has to re-activate. First one's free, second one break out the phone, call, and tell the rep you upgraded your PC. Big deal, been there, done that.
Although it's about 5 miles from the pad. Went several years ago with my wife, and parents (X-Mas present sending them to FL from us kids) Worked out well, my Mom was able to get a good view, and they had elevator access to the roof deck. Watching from the KSC Visitors Center would have been OK, but you can't see the pad, so you only see the shuttle once it's in the air. AHF roof, you can see the pad.
I think to get closer (media area or Satrun V building), you need to either be related to someone on the shuttle, or maybe brown-nose your senator/congress people. Even those areas are around 3 miles away from the pad.
Only downside to AHF is the tower is just a little spike on the skyline, nothing like what you'd see from the media area. Price when we went down was basicly, buy an admission to the AHF, you could get up on the roof. They even had a projector showing NASA TV coverage on the wall of the Space Camp building....
Having seen the movie, when they shoot the window, it does not immediatly take out the side of the plane. As a point in fact, it does just blow out the window. Flying debris getting pulled out does the rest of the damage (assorted carry on luggage, snakes, etc)
Yeah, I sat through a big chunk of the movie thinking why don't they just turn down the cabing temp? Crank the AC as high as it'll go, and watch the snakes go beddie-bye?
If you see it, watch it for what it is, a stupid, fun, campy movie. Better than most of the DTV stuff that comes out, and definately not some preachy, art-house big message film.
Did I enjoy the film? yes.
Would I go see it again? At a matinee, sure (only paid $4 the first time)
Will I get the DVD? Most likely.
I can't comment on Nevada teachers, but my mother worked for years in various school districts around Michigan.
She'd easily spend a couple hours *EVERY* night going over papers planning class, etc. She'd have to spend her *OWN* money on class materials (adult ed, computer basics) Sure, she'd go to computer shows to scrounge through the "used but works, anything is $5" boxes, but that still came out of her pocket.
Maybe in some school districts (or colleges) the teachers have cushy benefits, etc, but the front line teachers (grade school, junior high, high school) are getting the shaft.
I think more so, the point he was trying to make is that reviewers get a gushy over *previews* of the game in question. The problem being, if they don't get "positive gushy," the publisher won't get any more juicy advertiseing dollars.
So, the bad previews get editorialized into something positive about game X, despite the fact that they were using alpha code, or maybe just pre-rendered screenshots, or even just the design document. Then, readers get geeked up about the game, wait 6 months for preview number 2, which is even more sugary sweetly positive, pre-oder, which convinces the retailers that the game will be a hit, so they get prepped to stock up.
Then, the game comes out, and sucks. Happens on the PC, happens on the consoles (maybe worse there?) Happens with hardware (oh look! This video card that isn't even in engineering samples will have 6 quintillion transistors, 1 million pixel pipelines, and support DirectX25, plus full Linux and DOS support! Lets write a positive preview of it to get a sample when it actually goes to silicon!)
One of the hardware sites a couple months back did a power-supply test. However, they didn't request samples from the manufacturers, they went shopping on the web, and ordered from retailers. They did get permission to use a power supply manufacturers test lab, but still bought and brought in a retail package from a web store, of that manufacturers brand. And also managed to convince said company to leave them alone with the test equipment...
Not sure how they managed that one...
I've gotten more and more un-impressed with previews. Either they preview goes on about great new features, that don't make the final release (BF2s dynamically re-sizeing maps), or there is just no "meat" to the article, to give a taste of what might be good about the game...
I kept seeing a recurring theme throughout the posts on this device (and I haven't read the article yet), in that police should chase the criminals with helicopters. Great idea, but a lot of cities and towns don't have, or can't afford, or don't have the facilities for a helicopter.
There are also many ways in which a helicopter can be either avoided, or at least forced to drop far enough back to give you a better chance to lose it. Going near a major airport comes to mind. A city with many tall buildings (downtown New York or LA comes to mind) would make the helicopter less effective.
The way I could see police using this device, is tag the car, then "let" them get away/out of sight. Using the GPS, keep a group of patrol cars in a "box" around the suspect, and eventually, he/she will stop somewhere. At that point, move in. Best case, everybody wins. The cops get the criminal, the vehicle is minimally damaged, and few if any civilians get hurt. Worst case, the cops get the car back in good shape, and again, few if any civilians get hurt. Truthfully, I believe the cops would much prefer fewer chances of civilian injuries versus getting the criminal in custody, and not just because of the lawsuits.
Likely, most chases start when the criminal does something to attract the attention of the police, who then do what they are supposed to do: try to catch them. The problem with backing off, is that once the chase is on, they get fixated on stopping them. It seems a (very loosely) similar situation would be when one is working on a project or program, and is cruising along, try to stop... One big difference, which I'm sure someone would point out if I don't, is writing code isn't going to hurt anyone.
Stop and think for a moment, too, what would happen if the police *never* chased. Why bother doing anything even remotely near the speed limit? Streets are too corwded, hit the sidewalk at 60mph... Traffic signals would be less than "suggestions"....
At least if people think there's the possiblity of a cop, or several cops, chasing, and likely stopping them, they're more likely to simply pull over. With the obvious exception of criminals....
Leaving aside the problems of customers and their CDs, or lack of...
Once way to avoid downloading gigs of data from Windows update, is to set up a server running Windows Server Update Services. This essentially brings the Windows updates to a PC on your network, from which client stations can grab updates. It does require you to setup a Group Policy pointing to the internal server, and only works for automaticly recieved updates, not when someone clicks on the "Windows Update" icon or link. But you can setup a cmd script to force the PC to check for updates, and could also export and import the GP settings, so that when you hand the PC back to the client, everything works the original way.
You can even tell the WSUS machine if you want it to download the updates and store them locally, or simply tell the client PCs what updates they can or cannot download, and let them get them from MS (which in your case would defeat the purpose) Also, WSUS can be downloaded and used for free from MS (frightening, isn't it?), although it does require either Windows 2000 or 2003 Server, and either SQL Server, or MSDE (if no SQL Server available)
This video started playing about the same point my MP3 of Pat Benatars' "I need a hero" started playing. Nearly perfect syncing for the 40 odd seconds of the video.....
One big difference I can see between the movie theatres enforcing ratings, and the video game industry, is this.
It is fairly easy to bust a theatre / theatre chain for not enforcing the sale of tickets to minors. You can have a cop or whatever, show up, walk into an R rated movie, and ask all the kids who look under 18 where their parents / 19 year old sibling / legal guardians are. If the parents etc aren't present (not just out at the snack bar) the theatre gets clobbered with fines. Or patrons of the movie, complain about the kids, theatre gets scrutinized, and possibly busted.
The video game industry is like the movie production companies. Write the game / produce the movie, hand it to the ratings board, accept / dispute whatever rating you get, edit to get a different rating, and send it on. In the case of the video game industry, that means WalMart / EB Games / Gamestop / etc. Odds on, a good sized chunk of retail outlets either don't have, or don't enforce, a policy of checking ID for anyone purchasing M / AO rated software.
When someone does complain (often a parent), it is not (in order): the parents fault for allowing their child to purchase the game, the retailer for selling it to the child (this can be easily gotten around anyway), it is the fault of the company that wrote the game. By that "logic" someone who takes a child into see an R / NC-17 / X rated film should be able to sue not the theatre chain, but the movie production company....
Putting fines in place on the *retailers* for sale of M / AO games to kids is not a bad thing, but due to the perception of computer games being something for "kids" it will impact on what is easily available for the 25+ year old gamers (the biggest chunk of computer gamers BTW) This will in turn lead to lowered profits, less "risk taking" in game design, and more "Super Mario Kart XXXIV" sort of things....
HEY!
I love my model M keyboards! Even the one my wife uses! 3 at home (one for me, one for the wife, one on the switchbox), and one at work! Drives my co-workers bonkers sometimes. All they get is the soft little "click" from their Dell branded cheapo keyboards, while you can hear me typing away from the far side of the room with the lovely, crisp, clackey sound!
I could see how this would suck for fast action games (FPS/Flight sims)....
Ghosting without having to pay for a crappy LCD, but an expensive display and vid card!
tthhhhpppttt!
If I'm caught speeding? After all, shouldn't the manufacturer of a car be responsible for how I drive it? At least up until I pay it off?
Sheesh. Let's go back to the days where the only computers in a library were tied in to be able to look up books (electronic card catalog), and check other branches to see if a book was available. If you need internet access, either go to an internet cafe (if an adult), or let the schools keep there computer labs open for students *ONLY.*
The schools can then try to block "inappropriate" content (maybe with the help of some of the kids, it'd be experience for them), and the internet cafes are in it for the money, so what happens is their problem....
My perfect library would be a monstrous building that you need golf carts to get around, with at least two copies of every book published, anywhere, anytime, and librarians that are there to help me find what I'm looking for, not watching what I'm doing....
But there are no boards that currently use this chipset....
Huzzah!!
Well said!
Hoist one for not just US astronauts, but for *all* humans who have died attempting to reach "the final frontier!"
And yes, I am a former Trekkie.
Quite a while ago? ;-)
Now if I had a PocketPC / Windows Mobile device....
Why do you think it isn't happening?
Why do you think in the US, a goodly number of cell phones with WiFi or BlueTooth are "crippled"
All it takes is for someone to port Skype or the like to [choose your phone OS], for phones with WiFi or BlueTooth. Then why would you use the cell carriers ever so expensive networks for phone calls?
I've got a Treo 600, and while there are tales of people, who with quite a bit of driver hacking/modifying have gotten a WiFi/SD memory card to work with the Treo 650, no one has done such with the 600. For WiFi, the only option is a company that (someday, maybe) will be releasing a WiFi "sled" to attach to the back of the phone. Making it twice as think, and likely quite a bit heavier...
Here in the US, the big corporations are able to ignore new phones with neat features until they can get the cell phone manufacturers to "cripple" certain features. Then they release them. Years after they were released elsewhere...
I was drooling over the Ericson P900. My guess is that phone will either
A) not be available in the US. Ever.
B) be out when it is so out of date, it won't be worth it....
One of the comments in the article, which seems more aimed in general at the tech industry as a whole, is the lack of products that make you go "wow"
"People have a little more money but there's nothing they want to buy. There's nothing that makes you say, 'Wow." Ten years ago I was seeing something interesting every month, but now we're touting bloated software and cute case designs as innovation."
Very true. I got into Pcs back when a home built 486DX2/66 was a powerhouse. Back when new products were coming out nearly constantly. Now, we get "fluff" like cases that have some weird helmet design on the front.
Thinking a bit more about it, it seems the auto industry has gone that way, at least some. Living outside Detroit, I used to go every year to the Auto Show, just to see the concept cars. Now the concepts look just like what's already on the road.
Too bad HP-28S calculators aren't selling for hundreds of dollars on eBay, I'd seriously consider selling mine to finance a Hawaiian trip...
One of the people I work for had (this was several months back) bought a laptop from BB. They had also bought the "if anything breaks, we fix it" plan. Needless to say, something broke, still well within the time of the "plan."
.05c (inflation doncha know)
BB gave them the run-around for at least a week or so, that "it wasn't covered" by the plan. I'm not sure what the final outcome was, but just the story was enough to sour me on anything like an "extended service plan."
I won't buy one. I bought a Dell laptop, and skipped on the "anything plan," because likely, if something fails, they'd make my life miserable trying to get it fixed under the plan. If anything other than the LCD fails, I am reasonably confident I can replace it myself, for less.
Extended "warranties" or "service plans" == scam
My
Jason A.
About the only thing on Discovery that I watch anymore is MythBusters. I used to watch JunkYard Wars, but then Cathy Rogers left, and the science (or at least the "let's explain *how* the centrifugal pump they're trying to build from scrap parts works in laymans' terms") left. Then they got the loudmouth and the bimbo type (who is actually according to Crash from a couple of seasons ago, quite intelligent).
Now a days, I pretty much just watch History Channel, at least for my fix of "wow that's neat, and so's what they had to do to get it to work" fix. Am I a "hard-core" science geek? No. But I still enjoy *learning* new things that are not just related to my job.
The only other thing I watch on TLC, is Monster House, which has *no* science, but I enjoy seeing what they come up with for some house. And at least the personality conflicts tend to be lower key than American Chopper (which I only watch the comercials for), or Monster Garage (Jesse James just irritates me, the best episode of MG was when JJ wasn't on it until the very end because his appendix had to come out)
Seconds from Disaster and MegaStructures on National Geographic Channel are good, but I've already been seeing more repeats then new shows....
Thanks to WorldWind from NASA, I now know where there will be a ringing payphone near my home.
;)
Hoover just south of 12 Mile rd @ 9:53PDT.
Now if I only knew what day....
Might be kinda cool to go to this, and see just what is going on. Maybe someone will offer me a red pill and a blue pill....
Having just finished watching all three parts of this tonight, they did have a segment were Rutan was showing some of his ideas for where to go with SpaceShipOne.
.02c
The first sketch he showed was SS1 attached to the top of a rocket, about twice the length of SS1. Presumably the idea being to boost it up higher than White Knight could get, then kick over to the internal rocket. Presumably to get into LEO.
The second was a concept for a orbital hotel, with a wheel nearby for an "exercise ring." He even admitted that the ring was cribbed from Von Braun. He was a bit "mystical" when describing what you could do in the hotel (observation domes where you could go to "contemplate"), but none the less, it would be a potential cash cow, if he / they can get the funding / customers / aproval.
Initially, if it flys (pardon the pun), I could see the uber-rich schmoes forking over $50k a night to stay up there, plus flight expenses. Eventually, just like with airline travel, the prices would begin to edge down to where normal folks could swing it, but it would be one of those "once in a lifetime" trips.
Of course, success hinges on on a few things. Money, first off, as always. Second, the public, and governments, will need to be willing to accept a certain amount of risk, and likely a few tragedies (Space hotel suffers blowout! News at 11!) The public, if the costs come down before any tragedies, *might* be willing to keep on going. The government, will potentially, and if the bill that is also being discussed here gets passed, try to kill private spaceflight with passengers (and possibly all together)
Which would bite. Because I want to retire to the damn Moon at Armstrong Base. Or be around to see the Utopia Planetia yards begin construction.
Just my
Jason
hehehehehehehe
;)
Maybe someone should post a link to an AlQueada or Taliban website and see how fast SlashDot can take it down?
And be very careful if you let your non-nerd SO use your wireless laptop! My wife was using mine (ours) while her desk was tied up for other projects, just surfing the web. She sunddenly calls out for help, she had a "do you want to debug?" message. Tell her to hit no, it keeps coming back. Tell her to just shut the thing off. Get to it a little later, first problem (my fault) the virus defs are not current. Second, just leaving it sitting on the desk, on, it starts popping up ad windows. Oh crap. Update the virus defs, start scandisk, and it starts finding viruses galore. Run Adaware, finds 200+ objects. Decided to say the heck with it, backup up my Visual Studio projects, and break out the WinXP CD....
Found out later, she managed to somehow get the "virus of the week" that I didn't even know of until a day or so later....
And yes, I use Windows....
Jason A.
GMail looking inside e-mails? Isn't this just doing the same thing? What is to stop them from releasing a "new, improved" version of this software to allow universities to look inside e-mails for other things? Phrases that look like part of a term paper, that I *may* be plagarizing (sp?)
FUD off
At least not going to college anymore, I don't (for now) have to worry about this. What I can see is this software is automaticly presuming you are guilty of music swapping, and searching your e-mail without due process (BTW, IANAL)
If the courts want to use an e-mail as evidence, do they not have to get a warrant? Why should this be any different?
harumph.
Jason A.