"Any CEO ramrodding out shoddy software would be in the same position as a CEO at a pharmaceutical company doing the same, subject to having the whistle blown on them."
One big difference: When a CEO ramrods stuff though (see Merck), people die. When software screws up, people usually don't.
In this day and age given the proven track record of the government using every inch of the nice, new power we've given in (thank you, PATROIT act, what makes us think that this isn't so much of a sabre-rattling as a sort of heads-up to the world that we're making the legal justification to ourselves for a nuclear strike? Ok, so technically the President has the power to do this already, but look at the timing of the issue: Iran, who we can't touch with conventional weapons, North Korea (same), and the whole China/Taiwan issue (which will come to a head someday. Soon.).
You don't request such powers just to have them in your hip pocket. You request such powers because you already have a plan in mind and need legal and "just" reason to use them.
Consider: Dubya wanted to invade Iraq. Wanted to topple Saddam. Invented the 9/11 - Iraq link. Invented the WMD angle. Invaded Iraq. Scenario 2: Dubya wants to prevent Iran from becoming a stronger nuclear power. Invents a "they are a threat to our freedom, and have WMD's" angle. And by his newly-given powers, uses the atom.
Not so far fetched. Congress would never go along with such a thing. But who cares about Congress when you can can have them sign their powers away to you?
I have a wedding to attend this weekend (Best Man! wOOt!). I'm also pretty handy with a roll of film. In somewhat of a reversal of normal, I'm shooting film and the wedding photographer is shooting digital.
I made it a point to get in touch with the photographer to ask her if she's mind my shooting at all. She thanked me for contacting her, and basically said that as long as it wasn't one of the carefully composed shots (like the ones after the wedding with the whole wedding party, though that would be a hell of trick because I'm IN the wedding party), she didn't have a problem with me shooting whatever I wanted. Oh, yeah, and asked me keep an eye on her so we didn't screw each other's shots up with the flash (yes, I've had this happen).
This lesson was learned after a wedding last year, when I showed up with my camera in hand was taking shots of the general goings-on of the wedding. After no more than about 20 minutes of this, the groom politely came up to me ask asked me to put away my camera. Apparently, I pissed off the photographer because I was "stealing" his shots.
My point in mentioning this: if you're advanced enough of an amateur that you think you might make the real photographer sweat, contact them beforehand. Talk with them. They're professionals, and will (sometimes) act that way, too. I know it has little to do with TFA, but...
"The point is to get rid of the Oxygen which becomes more and more toxic the deeper you go. Nitrogen is still there.
"
Not completely true.
(I'm ignoring the dangers/problems of nitrogen narcosis for a moment, too)
Problem with Nitrogen under pressure is that it likes to go into solution in your bloodstream (much like carbonating soda). Nitrogen infuses into the blood at a preditable, but relatively slow, rate. This becomes a bitch on a long, deep dive because you have to do a bunch of decompressions stops on the way back up to let the nitrogen back out of your blood in a nice, controlled manour, or else you end up with the bends*. Do a long enough dive, and you're talking about deco stops for hours.
Helium, however, is a smaller molecule. The body also doesn't cling on to it as well (it's not normally present in much more than trace amounts). So while it diffuses into the bloodstream far faster than nitrogen, it also comes out faster. A lot faster. Faster = less decompression time.
Side bonus: you sound like Mickey Mouse.
*- Bends can be deadly (and, sadly, it still happens, even though we (the diving community) understand it now). Get them bad enough, you'll end up with a big bubble of nitrogen that makes it's way somewhere important, like your brain.
If you look in the background of the picture, it looks like there are Zalman posters hanging up, like you'd have at a booth. Made much smaller, they might have an interesting idea for an effective CPU cooler (as Zalman has come up with some pretty neat ideas over the years, I'd almost expect something like this for them). The text is just for fun.
I'd assume everyone on here would understand humor when they saw it....but....
As a user of both Opera (since the 4.xx) days, and Firefox, the summary was right: it just depends on how you use your browser as to which one is better for you. For day-to-day work, I find Firefox somewhat better suited, as I come across fewer pages that misload, or don't have a lugin available. However, if I'm digging though pages and pages of pictures (such as photospot or, well, porn), Opera wins hands-down. Speed, speed, and more speed. Yes, Firefox is fast. But for flat pages or pictures, Opera (most of the time) takes everyone else to the cleaners.
The other side-advantage to using Opera for visiting less-than reputable sites is that chances are the site doesn't know how to exploit Opera, as it's (sadly) not really on the general populus's radar screen. I've waded though stuff that would require hip boots with Opera and came out smelling like a rose.
True, if it were open source it would be that much more wonderful, but as for closed-source programs, IMHO it's an example of a company Doing It Right.
Don't think it's just a direct line strike that can take you down....
Last summer we had a ground strike at our neighbors house's backyard (about 75' from my house, about 10' from theirs). Trashed their house pretty bad, to the point of even melting a hole in their propane feed line. Nasty bolt
So while I'm watching the fire department, cops, etc...show up at their house (The occupants were all scared shitless, but otherwise fine), I decided to go check the National Weather service. I had mistakenly forgot to turn it off before the storm, so I just sat down and started typing. Worked fine.
Except it said the network cable was unplugged. Huh?
Long story short: 6 (yes, 6) trashed NIC's, 1 trashed router, 1 trashed motherboard, 1 trashed VCR, and a trashed thermostat. Before you ask me about line protection, etc, consider this: the thermostat for the furnace is not on line power. It's battery powered. As for the computers and router: all are on UPS's. Big (2000VA+) industrial ones. Yes, Virgina, the power does suck where I live. The UPS's all reported a mild line spike (147v, if memory serves), but nothing crazy.
As best anyone can figure (though I'm open to other ideas), the spike got in one of two ways: either though the grounding wires (which would make sence, except for the UPS's protecting that line, too, and that still does not explain the thermostat), or some sort of strange transient voltage created in the wiring of the house by having that much current and voltage passed so close (sort of like creating a big A/C alternator).
Point being: when Mother Nature decides to pWn your equiptment, she's going to!
So first the developer of Motherboard Manager (an app I'm sure most of the MS users in here have had running at one time or another) bails out because it's really costing him too much in both time and money to keep the ball rolling.
Now Nullsoft bails out because AOL is, well, AOL.
Given that both of these programs were (at least originally) indedpendantly developed, are we starting to see a trend toward the innovation being sucked right out of the industry?
I'm for Kerry. Why? 'Cause he's a road cyclist. Anyone who would purposely wedge a bicycle seat up his ass for hours on end must like pain. And being a good leader does involve pain (even if it's mental anguish).
There's no way in hell that _any_ responsiable manufacturer would let Windows anywhere near a vital system (ie: brakes, airbags). Airbags are component-only: there's no OS to break. Same with (most) brakes (Mercedes has brake-by wire systems; not sure how it's integrated)....sure, abs is computer controlled, but when you stomp on that pedal, it's all mechanical. Sure, your fuel injection rail and some other engine systems are computer-controlled, but it's propriatiy embedded stuff that is dumb simple for a reason.
/rant on.
As for having fucking windows media center in your car for your infotainment while driving....ok, you're driving a car at 70mph. It weighs, oh, 3000 pounds. I don't feel like doing the math, but if someone wants to find out how much kinetic energy that is, it's going to be a scary number. You have one primary sence while driving: your vision (that's why deaf people can drive and blind people can't). So yeah, you REALLY need to take your eyes off of the road every 4 seconds to change a setting on that nice LCD on the dash (ala BMW's iDrive system, which every car magazine has bashed straight to the hell its designers belong in). Or to watch a scene from a movie. Because, you know, driving really isn't that important. Being entertained while driving, well, that's important! I find it really amazing that in-car entertainment systems haven't been attacked left-and-right by anyone who drives. Ok, having the screens on the back of headrests for the kids in the rear of the car: fine. (Though that's a whole 'nuther rant about bad parenting. None of us had this shit growing up, and we turned out....well....ok, we're on/.). Having the in-dash DVD player: Outlaw it.
Movies/internet surfing/pOrn is for home (or for the people in the back seat). Driving is for the person in the drivers seat. What a concept!
The point about current leakage from the tip of an iron (either intentionally or just due to shitty design) isn't something to be lightly considered when screwing around with IC's. Simply put, they don't tolerate it well. So that iron (I've seen the ad, too) is more than a joke. It's downright dangerous when it comes to IC work. One company I worked for (we made pacemakers) only used ESD-safe butane irons for rework. Completely eliminated the chance of an electric iron doing damage.
As for Radio shack, they make (well, someone makes it for them) a decent 23-watt pencil iron for about 10 bucks. Get a 3 pack of different sized tips and some 60/40 solder(or they have thinner 60/38/2 (silver is the 2%), which is GREAT for a lot of delicate work), some 18 or 22 gauge wire, a sponge, some desoldering wick, and a cheap stand. You'll be out about 25 bucks, but it'll pay for itself over time.
As for practice....soldering is not something learned overnight. The iron is a lot like firearms: respect what it can do to you, but don't be scared of it. Yes, you will burn the shit out of yourself at least 20 times (hint: if the soldering iron rolls off of the table, DON'T GRAB FOR IT!. You WILL grab the wrong end. Every time. It's a law of physics). I found playing with old ISA cards is a great place to start learning. They have lots of big components to practice both soldering and de-soldering, and you can use the wire you bought to solder on to pins of components for practice. Give a half-hour here and there, and soon enough you'll know enough not to be dangerous. Not to say this is the hardest thing in the world, but good soldering is a skill that takes a little finesse.
Yes, you can go get a fancy Weller or Metcal workstation, but you never loose the need for a good standard pencil. Still have mine, after all these years.
And no, it doesn't impress anyone but your geek friends. But saying you can solder is like a badge sometimes. Word gets around. (Remember the original Playstation mod chips? I can't tell you how many I did when work got around the dorm that I could solder. I had laundry money forever!)
Interesting side note to that: Motorcycles with side-cars are called "hacks" in the cycling community, for that very reason: They were hacked together, back in the day.
One thing that I'm sort of suprised didn't get mention yet: Caffiene is a stimulant. Stimulants make your body (heart especially) go faster. Thus increasing the rate of gastric emptying. Thus making you absorb the alcohol faster. Thus making your drunker, quicker. Possibly a REAL threat if one was drinking B(E) while knocking back shots. Nothing like a whole shitload of alcohol dumping into your system at once. Can we say "stomach pump"?
By the same arguement (the alcohol would get in your system faster), you might start to sober up faster, too. Absorption wouldn't take as long, so the alcohol would be in your bloodstream sooner, therefore getting chewed up by your liver sooner.
Point 3: I'll stick to my Crough's microbrew. Bud is pisswater, even when I was in college.
Amen to not having the watches that everyone else has.
Here are to some of the watches that say "I got my first well-paying job, AND I don't follow the unwashed masses".
Such as: Sinn Zeno Sector Ollech & Wajs
....when BetaMax came out, it was to spell the end of VHS!
Predicting the decline of any massively popular media is ignorant. We still have tapes. Hell, vinyl is making a resurgance! You can still get reel-to-reel tape too.
For those of you who don't understand the comment, it's actually funny to the riders on here.
BioPace is referring to a specific type of chainring (the front 2 or 3 gears on the bicycle) that was popularized by Shimano back in the late 80's/early 90's.
The concept was pretty simple: use egg-shaped gears. The idea behind it was to minimize the amount of time that your legs spend at the "dead spots" in the pedal stroke, namely when you foot is at the very top of the stroke and the very bottom. So the "egg" had its points at 12 o'clock and 6 o'clock, whith the longest sections being in the middle.
Shimano didn't invent this idea, it's been kicking around in various forms for 50+ years. And it always fails for the same reason: it does not work. The resulting pedal stroke is choppy, wasting energy, and (over time) people had a habit of developing knee and hip problems because of the unevenness. Interesingly, they only put these BioPace rings on the lower-end component sets; their top-of-the-line stuff kept with the regular round chainrings.
BioPace is oft used as a punchline to a bad-equipment joke (much as we use M$ as a punchline for bad software engineering).
Slashdot Mirror
One big difference: When a CEO ramrods stuff though (see Merck), people die. When software screws up, people usually don't.
Yup, they didn't hit a single thing in WWII. Missed every target they aimed at, largely because the B-52 didn't come on line until 1951.
You ment to say "The B-17 Flying Fortress and the B-24 Liberator dropping tons of bombs"
In this day and age given the proven track record of the government using every inch of the nice, new power we've given in (thank you, PATROIT act, what makes us think that this isn't so much of a sabre-rattling as a sort of heads-up to the world that we're making the legal justification to ourselves for a nuclear strike? Ok, so technically the President has the power to do this already, but look at the timing of the issue: Iran, who we can't touch with conventional weapons, North Korea (same), and the whole China/Taiwan issue (which will come to a head someday. Soon.).
You don't request such powers just to have them in your hip pocket. You request such powers because you already have a plan in mind and need legal and "just" reason to use them.
Consider: Dubya wanted to invade Iraq. Wanted to topple Saddam. Invented the 9/11 - Iraq link. Invented the WMD angle. Invaded Iraq. Scenario 2: Dubya wants to prevent Iran from becoming a stronger nuclear power. Invents a "they are a threat to our freedom, and have WMD's" angle. And by his newly-given powers, uses the atom.
Not so far fetched. Congress would never go along with such a thing. But who cares about Congress when you can can have them sign their powers away to you?
I made it a point to get in touch with the photographer to ask her if she's mind my shooting at all. She thanked me for contacting her, and basically said that as long as it wasn't one of the carefully composed shots (like the ones after the wedding with the whole wedding party, though that would be a hell of trick because I'm IN the wedding party), she didn't have a problem with me shooting whatever I wanted. Oh, yeah, and asked me keep an eye on her so we didn't screw each other's shots up with the flash (yes, I've had this happen).
This lesson was learned after a wedding last year, when I showed up with my camera in hand was taking shots of the general goings-on of the wedding. After no more than about 20 minutes of this, the groom politely came up to me ask asked me to put away my camera. Apparently, I pissed off the photographer because I was "stealing" his shots.
My point in mentioning this: if you're advanced enough of an amateur that you think you might make the real photographer sweat, contact them beforehand. Talk with them. They're professionals, and will (sometimes) act that way, too. I know it has little to do with TFA, but...
Not completely true.
(I'm ignoring the dangers/problems of nitrogen narcosis for a moment, too) Problem with Nitrogen under pressure is that it likes to go into solution in your bloodstream (much like carbonating soda). Nitrogen infuses into the blood at a preditable, but relatively slow, rate. This becomes a bitch on a long, deep dive because you have to do a bunch of decompressions stops on the way back up to let the nitrogen back out of your blood in a nice, controlled manour, or else you end up with the bends*. Do a long enough dive, and you're talking about deco stops for hours.
Helium, however, is a smaller molecule. The body also doesn't cling on to it as well (it's not normally present in much more than trace amounts). So while it diffuses into the bloodstream far faster than nitrogen, it also comes out faster. A lot faster. Faster = less decompression time.
Side bonus: you sound like Mickey Mouse.
*- Bends can be deadly (and, sadly, it still happens, even though we (the diving community) understand it now). Get them bad enough, you'll end up with a big bubble of nitrogen that makes it's way somewhere important, like your brain.
A mock up for a computer show.
If you look in the background of the picture, it looks like there are Zalman posters hanging up, like you'd have at a booth. Made much smaller, they might have an interesting idea for an effective CPU cooler (as Zalman has come up with some pretty neat ideas over the years, I'd almost expect something like this for them). The text is just for fun.
I'd assume everyone on here would understand humor when they saw it....but....
The other side-advantage to using Opera for visiting less-than reputable sites is that chances are the site doesn't know how to exploit Opera, as it's (sadly) not really on the general populus's radar screen. I've waded though stuff that would require hip boots with Opera and came out smelling like a rose.
True, if it were open source it would be that much more wonderful, but as for closed-source programs, IMHO it's an example of a company Doing It Right.
People
Eating
Tasty
Animals
I'm all for that version of PETA!
Some of us would read that: ".....is thankfully pro-choice".
"but mostly deals with issues about oppressed people from around the world"
Wouldn't you say that the government stepping into the doctors office isn't a form or repression?
Had I not read it from some reputable news sources, I would have just assumed that someone had taken over lokitorrent and was screwing with everyone.
If they want to put the fear of god into everyone, putting up a page that looks like the work of a 10 year old using Frontpage isn't the way to do it.
Last summer we had a ground strike at our neighbors house's backyard (about 75' from my house, about 10' from theirs). Trashed their house pretty bad, to the point of even melting a hole in their propane feed line. Nasty bolt
So while I'm watching the fire department, cops, etc...show up at their house (The occupants were all scared shitless, but otherwise fine), I decided to go check the National Weather service. I had mistakenly forgot to turn it off before the storm, so I just sat down and started typing. Worked fine.
Except it said the network cable was unplugged. Huh?
Long story short: 6 (yes, 6) trashed NIC's, 1 trashed router, 1 trashed motherboard, 1 trashed VCR, and a trashed thermostat. Before you ask me about line protection, etc, consider this: the thermostat for the furnace is not on line power. It's battery powered. As for the computers and router: all are on UPS's. Big (2000VA+) industrial ones. Yes, Virgina, the power does suck where I live. The UPS's all reported a mild line spike (147v, if memory serves), but nothing crazy.
As best anyone can figure (though I'm open to other ideas), the spike got in one of two ways: either though the grounding wires (which would make sence, except for the UPS's protecting that line, too, and that still does not explain the thermostat), or some sort of strange transient voltage created in the wiring of the house by having that much current and voltage passed so close (sort of like creating a big A/C alternator).
Point being: when Mother Nature decides to pWn your equiptment, she's going to!
(Actually, it's snowing like mad here....that might be quite comfortable).
(and yes, I have some Karma to burn)
Now Nullsoft bails out because AOL is, well, AOL.
Given that both of these programs were (at least originally) indedpendantly developed, are we starting to see a trend toward the innovation being sucked right out of the industry?
And me without my nomex underwear.
I'm for Kerry. Why? 'Cause he's a road cyclist. Anyone who would purposely wedge a bicycle seat up his ass for hours on end must like pain. And being a good leader does involve pain (even if it's mental anguish).
They never said it had to be for your face.
As for having fucking windows media center in your car for your infotainment while driving....ok, you're driving a car at 70mph. It weighs, oh, 3000 pounds. I don't feel like doing the math, but if someone wants to find out how much kinetic energy that is, it's going to be a scary number. You have one primary sence while driving: your vision (that's why deaf people can drive and blind people can't). So yeah, you REALLY need to take your eyes off of the road every 4 seconds to change a setting on that nice LCD on the dash (ala BMW's iDrive system, which every car magazine has bashed straight to the hell its designers belong in). Or to watch a scene from a movie. Because, you know, driving really isn't that important. Being entertained while driving, well, that's important! I find it really amazing that in-car entertainment systems haven't been attacked left-and-right by anyone who drives. Ok, having the screens on the back of headrests for the kids in the rear of the car: fine. (Though that's a whole 'nuther rant about bad parenting. None of us had this shit growing up, and we turned out....well....ok, we're on /.). Having the in-dash DVD player: Outlaw it.
Movies/internet surfing/pOrn is for home (or for the people in the back seat). Driving is for the person in the drivers seat. What a concept!
As for Radio shack, they make (well, someone makes it for them) a decent 23-watt pencil iron for about 10 bucks. Get a 3 pack of different sized tips and some 60/40 solder(or they have thinner 60/38/2 (silver is the 2%), which is GREAT for a lot of delicate work), some 18 or 22 gauge wire, a sponge, some desoldering wick, and a cheap stand. You'll be out about 25 bucks, but it'll pay for itself over time.
As for practice....soldering is not something learned overnight. The iron is a lot like firearms: respect what it can do to you, but don't be scared of it. Yes, you will burn the shit out of yourself at least 20 times (hint: if the soldering iron rolls off of the table, DON'T GRAB FOR IT!. You WILL grab the wrong end. Every time. It's a law of physics). I found playing with old ISA cards is a great place to start learning. They have lots of big components to practice both soldering and de-soldering, and you can use the wire you bought to solder on to pins of components for practice. Give a half-hour here and there, and soon enough you'll know enough not to be dangerous. Not to say this is the hardest thing in the world, but good soldering is a skill that takes a little finesse.
Yes, you can go get a fancy Weller or Metcal workstation, but you never loose the need for a good standard pencil. Still have mine, after all these years.
And no, it doesn't impress anyone but your geek friends. But saying you can solder is like a badge sometimes. Word gets around. (Remember the original Playstation mod chips? I can't tell you how many I did when work got around the dorm that I could solder. I had laundry money forever!)
Interesting side note to that: Motorcycles with side-cars are called "hacks" in the cycling community, for that very reason: They were hacked together, back in the day.
By the same arguement (the alcohol would get in your system faster), you might start to sober up faster, too. Absorption wouldn't take as long, so the alcohol would be in your bloodstream sooner, therefore getting chewed up by your liver sooner.
Point 3: I'll stick to my Crough's microbrew. Bud is pisswater, even when I was in college.
Yeah, and Beta's been "dead" for 20 years. But I still can go buy tapes for it.
We're going to slashdot the entire internet?
Here are to some of the watches that say "I got my first well-paying job, AND I don't follow the unwashed masses".
Such as:
Sinn
Zeno
Sector
Ollech & Wajs
Just a few ideas :-)
Predicting the decline of any massively popular media is ignorant. We still have tapes. Hell, vinyl is making a resurgance! You can still get reel-to-reel tape too.
Am I the only one who thought that was pretty damn clever? :-)
BioPace is referring to a specific type of chainring (the front 2 or 3 gears on the bicycle) that was popularized by Shimano back in the late 80's/early 90's.
The concept was pretty simple: use egg-shaped gears. The idea behind it was to minimize the amount of time that your legs spend at the "dead spots" in the pedal stroke, namely when you foot is at the very top of the stroke and the very bottom. So the "egg" had its points at 12 o'clock and 6 o'clock, whith the longest sections being in the middle.
Shimano didn't invent this idea, it's been kicking around in various forms for 50+ years. And it always fails for the same reason: it does not work. The resulting pedal stroke is choppy, wasting energy, and (over time) people had a habit of developing knee and hip problems because of the unevenness. Interesingly, they only put these BioPace rings on the lower-end component sets; their top-of-the-line stuff kept with the regular round chainrings.
BioPace is oft used as a punchline to a bad-equipment joke (much as we use M$ as a punchline for bad software engineering).