1. If an electron neutrino can spontaneously transform to a tau neutrino with higher mass, where exactly does the required energy come from? Alternatively, when a tau neutrino transforms to an electron neutrino, where does the extra energy disappear?
2. If neutrinos have mass, then they are restricted to speeds below c. If they are accelerated to near c, then according to the relativistic energy-momentum equations they should have colossal mass, not miniscule (just like electrons, for example). Is there any evidence of observing neutrinos with huge energies?
The Wiki article about neutrino oscillation paints the picture that the oscillation is a pseudo-illusionary quantum mechanical effect, and therefore questions like the two above are meaningless. Smells more like handwavium to me.
Could a real physicist push back the veil of shadows one bit? Pretty please? =)
I created and deleted the directory without any problems in Vista SP0, SP2 and Windows 7.. those who modded you up - on which system did this trick work? You did test it, right?
BTW to disable creating the useless short file names in order to slightly improve performance: Set NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation to "1" in \HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem and reboot to finally get rid of the cruft from the early 90's.
Remember that GPS signals are very, very weak. I have tested one of these, and it completely blocked a very sensitive SirfStar III -based receiver within a 5-meter range. The transmit power is actually much less than in a typical cell phone, so they are legal in my country.
The Airbus A330 is a fly-by-wire plane. At no point the crew would have to physically "fight" the controls - it's just a fancy joystick connected with electrical wires to the flight computers!
No force feedback either (except the "stick shaker"):P
Personally, I think this incident was caused by a combination of factors. ALL speculations tread on thin air before the CVR and FDR are recovered, but based on current data I would QUESS: -it is a dark, stormy night with no horizon or any landmarks visible -160km/h updraft brings moist air to a much higher flight level than usual -this causes sudden icing of the pitot tubes -this causes the flight computer to think that the plane is in danger of stalling, and it lowers the nose automatically -the crew switches auto-pilot and flight envelope protection partially off, or a (positive) lightning strike disables them -the crew has no good idea about the true speed and orientation of the plane -inside the cumulonimbus' horrible gusts the crew over-stresses the composite flight controls while fighting turbulence -the place exceeds it's maximum speed and/or structural load (G-) limits -two-three minutes later the agony of the 228 souls on board finally ends as the slowly disintegrating plane hits the sea near the speed of sound, instantly ripping them to stamp-sized bits
Here's more detailed speculation about possible causes and a crude analysis, taken from Usenet:
1. Terrorism or other malicious use of explosives
A bomb explodes in the cargo hold, crippling the aircraft's control systems or starting a structural break-up that eventually leads to loss of control.
Supportive evidence: According to Wikipedia, a bomb threat had been made on an earlier flight. Lack of communications from the flight crew indicates either a sudden event or something which lead to significant problems that the crew had to focus on. This would be consistent with the effects of a bomb. The automatic messages about computer system failures sent by the aircraft could be interpreted either as indications that the aircraft's movements have exceeded the limits that the systems can handle, or as indications about direct damage to the systems. A flash of light has been seen by other aircraft in the area.
Evidence against: While terrorist organizations exist both in France and Brazil, there has been no recent activity. No organization has claimed responsibility for the act. There is no specific evidence about a bomb. Nothing is known about any individuals or organizations who would have non-terrorism related reasons for malicious acts. It seems too big of a coincidence that a bomb would go off at the same time as the aircraft flies through very rough weather. Finally, what we know about the sequence of ACARS messages indicates that loss of cabin pressure was the last message in the sequence. This appears to rule out an explosion, unless it was contained in the hull and only damaged internal structures and components. This seems unlikely. The flash of light was apparently seen from too far to be caused by AF 447 related problems.
Open questions: Where are the cargo holds that are used to carry the passengers' luggage? Are they physically close to the computer and navigation systems that ACARS messages reported as failing? And obviously, physical evidence would be useful.
Verdict: Can most likely be ruled out
2. Explosion or other rapid, harmful reaction from the cargo
The sequence of events is as in the terrorism theory.
Supportive evidence: The sequence of events fits this theory, as it does the terrorism theory. The cargo might have shifted at the time of turbulence, initiating the reaction.
Evidence against: See the evidence regarding the malicious use of explosives. In addition, there is no information that the cargo could have contained something harmful.
Open questions: More information is needed about what was in the cargo, and who cargo was taken from.
This is why I can make a nice living for my entire family just by importing software from the USA. Shipping costs are very low, and margins are quite high for a computer related product. I resell most software 10-30% below localized prices, keeping the remaining difference of 10-40% for myself.
So, you can either complain, or profit. I chose the latter after the former didn't change anything.
One point that nobody commented on is that in (parts of?) Europe you can legally resell all software, including the OEM versions, unless you have made a written contract with the other party that says otherwise (if you sign one, you will get discounts).
When Vista came out, I made a small fortune importing a hundred Vista Ultimate licenses from the States, and after adding the VAT (~20%) and my profit margin (~20-25%) they still sold like cold beer on a hot day. (No remarks about Vista vs. your favourite Linux distro here, please.)
They were OEM-versions, but they are completely legal to resell, no matter what the box/DVD/EULA says. They activated just fine, but I could have legally bypassed it, if it had interfered with my rights. Those who bought them can still resell them. They still have high value, unlike in countries where an EULA can forbid you from transferring your legal right to use the software/bought song or video in digital format.
Nowadays, there are so many people reselling imported software (for example English versions from Hong Kong and Singapore) that the profit margins are razor-thin. By specializing it's still possible to use differences in prices and legal systems to make a nice profit; for example I currently have five Eee PC 901s with OS X installed for sale at a local auction site. The listing is currently at 580EUR (904USD). I have bought legal copies of OS X, and I can legally install them to whatever I want, modify them if necessary to exercise my rights, and (re)sell them.
In a nutshell: 1. My rights as a living person >> rights of immaterial corporations. 1b. No need to buy a mouse or motherboard or whatever with OEM software, no need to beg Apple's permission to use paid software,... 1c. After taxes, my Blu-ray player was 21% more expensive than at Amazon.com, but it came from the factory both region-free and without HDCP. For me, it was the better deal.
2. Big retailers and official on-line shops charge vastly more than in the US, small shops and resellers barely more and quite often even less after deducting the VAT.
3. Without accounting for PPP corrections, direct price comparisons can be very misleading. In addition, my country's tax percentages look horrible, but in reality there are so many tax brakes and deductions that the real-world rates are very close to the US rates. One difference is that the rich really pay more taxes than the poor (due to higher VAT and progressive taxation).
I apologize if I made wrong claims about the practices at the States, I haven't personally been there since they started fingerprinting foreign travelers. I have nothing to hide, so nobody has to take a look.
Under WinXP, holding down shift while clicking "no" equals "no to all". How intuitive..
(If I recall correctly, some early versions of XP had "n" as a keyboard shortcut for "no", and "N" for "no to all". Maybe they still work?)
Don't forget the ~200 countries besides the USA!
on
The End is Nigh for XP
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
In Europe, selling OEM versions of ANY software, unless you have personally signed an agreement to give up this right for reasonable compensation, is simply put completely legal. I have personally sold over 50 XP Home/Pro licences at online auctions and also about 10 Vista licences (half of them OEM). I buy broken equipment that still has the stickers on, trash or repair the hardware and sell the licences for a nice profit. Sometimes I even get Office XP or older licences for free as long as I take away all the "old junk" myself.
No need to sell mice, motherboards or anything. Also no software patents and I can wipe my ass with EULAs and any other bullshit "agreements" I haven't signed. Too bad our VAT is about 20%...
Hey, maybe some of you could sell me a bunch of Windows/Office licence stickers from outside the European VAT zone? I can pay for shipping;)
Every time I buy a new laptop it has Windows pre-installed. My solution is simple: the first thing I do is to put up an online auction with no starting price or reserve price and every single time I've gotten 90% of the official OEM price or better even when there are dozens of sellers. Then I simply remove the license sticker and mail it to the winner - 'problem' solved. Getting $100 back from a $600 laptop gives a nice discount too.
Is reselling software forbidden in some countries or why this simple option hasn't come up yet?
After installing ATITool 0.24 or newer, four clicks is all that it takes to get rid of Macrovision. Click "Settings", then choose "Miscalleaneous" tab and from there check "Remove Macrovision detection from analog input driver". Now you can use the card's analog inputs and outputs as you wish. I disabled mine so long ago I don't remember if you'll have to reboot afterwards.
Does anyone know a similiar procedure for Nvidia cards?
I think Linus hit the spot by pointing out that the future of home computing is going to to focus on parallel processing - it's 2006 and all my computers, including my LAPTOP, are dual-processor systems.
By 2010 I suspect at least desktops are 4-CPU systems and as the numbers of cores increase one of the large drawbacks of microkernels raises it's ugly head: microkernels turn simple locking algorithms into distributed computing-style algorithms.
Every game developer tells us how difficult it is to write multi-threaded code for even our monolithic operating systems (Windows, Linux, OSX). In microkernels you constantly have to worry how to share data with other threads as you can't trust them to give even correct pointers! If you would explicitly trust them, then a single failure at any driver or module would bring down the whole system - just like in monolithic kernels but with a performance penalty that scales nicely with the number of cores. What's even worse is that at a multi-core environment you'll have to be very, very careful when designing and implementing the distribution algorithms or a simple user-space program could easily crash the system or gain superuser privileges.
I play everyday on the bus, train and subway. My Centrino/Sonoma laptop has 6.5 hours of battery life when reading ebooks and using Gaim/Winamp, 5.7 hours when playing ePSX continuously (1600x1050 resolution, Ati X700, AC97 sound). An extra battery costs as much as a PSOne if I want to double my playing times.
By the way, why would you like to play when walking around? I sure hope you don't live in a place where's other traffic too..
The best thing about using an emulator with a laptop: not having to buy the games AGAIN.
My reason for always carrying my laptop with me is that I have ALL the books and lecture notes in PDF/PPT. Just by downloading the books from eMule I've saved more than $500 just in this semester, one third of the cost of my laptop. As a bonus I can chat with cute chicks from other faculties during lunch, on the bus during my 20min commute or even at boring classes ^____^
Intel's WLAN solution used in Centrino laptops, namely the ABG-compliant mini-PCI card has the ability to send and receive in frequencies from 600MHz to 7.2GHz with up to 500mW transmit power.
However, the open source drivers for Linux are deliberately crippled to very low transmit power (32mW) and narrow frequency bands by forcing Linux users to download and install a closed binary part. This closed DRM part is NOT present in Windows drivers and there exists at least two (albeit very expensive) programs that allow the card to be used as a signal generator with up to 500mW power and any frequency that the card is physically capable of. (please note that some brand name laptops include hardware filters to restrict the frequency range, my Acer does not)
My question is this: usually Open Source drivers allow me MORE control than using Windows so why do did the driver programmers decide to add DRM to the drivers? Fear of the authorities in some countries? Agreements signed with Intel in exchange for source code?
I think this makes foul of the GPLv2, I could modify the sources all I want but the closed DRM part still enforces arbitrary restrictions for me, so I won't break the rules of some other country's radio spectrum regulatory body.
Where I live I have the legal right to transmit on ANY frequency with up to 1000mW transmit power omnidirectionally*1 on my own property and in public spaces*2 without any licence. Yes, that includes TV, cell phone, commercial radio frequencies. The TV/phone/radio companies have leased monopolies to transmit on those frequencies using OVER 1000mW power in my area.
Simply put, there is no chaos. There isn't a tumor in my brain from all the radiation either (at least not yet;)).
In case you are wondering the police and other emergency workers have 5W-25W handhelds/car radios along with special cell phones (that have priority access in congested nodes) for emergency use.
In my city of 200000 there's no chaos from all this "wild" use of limited spectrum. Here's a free hint why some would like you to believe otherwise: it has got to do with bank accounts and numbers with many 0's after them. A direct result from the quite free use of the spectrum (when compared to USA and most EU countries) is the available commercial broadband options. Here are some of the options I had when I moved to my new place:
1. 12Mbit/6Mbit wireless (limit 250GB upload) 45USD 2. 12Mbit/2Mbit wireless (limit 100GB upload) 30USD 3. 10Mbit/512kbit cable (connection may be "throttled" after 600GB down) 30USD 4. 10Mbit/512kbit cable 77USD (a bit cheaper with cable TV service) 5. 6Mbit/256kbit cable (connection may be "throttled" after 300GB down) 18USD 6. 4Mbit/4Mbit SDSL 40USD 7. 2Mbit/1Mbit ADSL 16USD 8. 24Mbit/2Mbit ADSL (limit 1000GB down, no commercial servers) 45USD 9. 24Mbit/2Mbit ADSL 100USD 10. 100Mbit/100Mbit fiber (limit 2TB/500GB d/u, no limit on local (citywide) transfers) 70USD not available on suburbs 11. 256kbit/128kbit wireless 8USD 12. ?/? satellite 30USD
Free competition=good for the customer? Do you agree? What are the prices and options like when compared to your country?
Unless otherwise noted, all examples have unlimited bandwidth*3.
It's a sunny day outside, I think I'll get my laptop and go browse/. in the park now.. there are tall buildings on the way but if I can't reach my home network at 1.8GHz, I'll try 685MHz, 907MHz or 3.23GHz or join one of the ad hoc networks:) (I have one software WLAN card connected to three antennas, cycling between the four frequencies in 250ms intervals until it hears a transmission with my laptops MAC. No, it's not secure but that's what simple VPN+Privoxy is for. I have an open AP like most others so no need to hack for 'net access anyway).
*1 using a directional antenna places further limits to the transmit power but the increased gain more than makes up for it. This is to done to make
..because that means you are going to be screwed, one way or the another.
In my country the goverment gave the ISPs a long list of "child porn hosting" IP addresses to blackhole (=block without showing any message that the address exists but is intentionally blocked). All had to comply or cease their operations and not surprisingly all complied, starting 2006/01/01.
What I can't figure is why is that list still classified? I mean, all the "nasty sites" are blocked by our new national firewall so I can't view the "nasty stuff" even if I know the IP addresses, do I?
All I know is that a politician waved a large pile of papers in front of TV cameras and said that now children are safer from molestation and the next day the few newspapers that covered this praised the goverment's action without the slightest hint of critique or demands for openness.
But then, who would demand to see what was blocked except a child pornographer?
Next in line is a law to make all digital cameras, both standalone and integrated, to make three loud warning beeps and flash a red light in 1-second intervals before taking the picture - to PROTECT THE CHILDREN from child pornographers!
I quess this one will also pass without opposition.
So, does any industrialized country, with no native Muslim population nor immigration, still exist where I could make TCP/IP connections to any host *I* wish, without anyone watching over my shoulder or recording my actions?
I would prefer a one where I could own and operate a camera too without giving a DNA sample and waiting for the mandatory TLA picture previewers to approve my pictures.
A 512MB DDR2 stick can be easily bought for 30-40 and a 512MB PC3200 (=DDR1) stick for 39-49.
I recently upgraded my laptop with a 1GB DDR2 SODIMM module, total cost: 99.
$200? Nice joke buddy but no cigar! Also, maybe pure MHz hasn't gone up more than 15-20% but pure 'speed', or performance/ has at least tripled. I got my AMD X2 4200+ cheaper than a P4/2533 only a few years ago and the difference in practice in LAME/Xvid/games is on a completely different scale.
No administrator has provided a reasonable answer to this simple question: Why did those site administrators log all downloads and why were the logs kept for months?
One site admin said that all downloads were logged to stop hacking. I don't know what WWW server they used but it must have been unbelievably crappy one if simply downloading served files could have caused a security break. Or why else would he have logged all the downloads and kept them for six months?
Since the site administrators knew that most, if not nearly all material available via their services were not legal to redistribute they must have thought that any log files could be used against their users. Were the logs still made to save their own butts in case they were caught i.e. to rat in order to save their own skin?
To this date, forums that focus on exchanging P2P links downright admit logging all IP addresses and storing even deleted posts (even if this is not specifically mentioned, by default in most databases and even e-mail programs "deleting" a post or other data simply marks it as hidden, the DB needs to be compacted to truly remove "deleted" data).
Since linking to copyright material is considered as copyright infringement with the same (and absolutely insane) penalties at least in the USA and Australia, are there any active projects taken to ensure that for example anonymous posting of ed2k links will be possible?
With the press concentrating more and more on sports, money, scandals affecting at most a couple of people, trifling matters and generally focusing on making more and more money I feel that there must be a secure, anonymous way to share information, even information that the men and women with money don't want to be published.
I will choose to morally object and personally boycot all DRM, no matter if it's from Apple, Microsoft or Sun.
I don't need HDTV or any other new "entertainment" that requires this crap, what I need is more time with my family and friends.
If I wanted to simply sit by my non-DRM monitor and non-DRM speakers there's already more unprotected content in the various P2P networks to outlast me.
Simple,.b and.g have massive overhead (and the promised 11&54Mbps are just lies). Judging from the past signs you can hope to get 40-50Mbps from a "100 Mbps" wireless connection, less with security features enabled and/or more than 20 meters away.
Note that the Ethernet speeds of 10/100/1000Mbps ARE true speeds you can except to achieve with modern hardware.
EVERY CURRENT GAME including HL2 and Doom 3 is playable at 1600x1200 with 8xAA AND 8xAF with good hardware (=3.6GHz CPU or equivalent and GF7800 GT(X) SLI).
If fact, I play older games at 2048x1536. I have two monitors, a 24" CRT and a secondary 19" CRT.
Yes, I did spend a small fortune to a dual-core CPU and SLI (before the 7800GTXs I had dual 6800GTs). No, the cost was much less than a decent home theatre and less then a tenth of a decent car.
My secret? No kids, not buying stuff without a good reason, two adult-household and a bit above average incomes for both. (and most importantly, a GF taht loves gaming as much as I do;))
End result? Absolutely breath-taking graphics and a playing experience par none.
European banks use them almost exclusively, first pad must be personally fetched from the bank; new ones are mailed when 2/3 of the old keys are used.
To make an online transaction one needs to have: user number, PIN and a key from the one-time pad. I can't believe how these scams work so well outside Europe.
Imagine how stupid an average person is. By definition, 50% of people must be even dumber than him/her.
Slashdot Mirror
Even better, a quadruple-resolution screen.
1024 horizontal pixels -> 2048 = 2x resolution horizontally.
768 vertical pixels -> 1536 pixels = 2x resolution vertically.
2+2=4 times the resolution.
(1024*768 = 0,786432 megapixels while 2048*1536 = 3,145728 megapixels, or exactly four times as much).
1. If an electron neutrino can spontaneously transform to a tau neutrino with higher mass, where exactly does the required energy come from? Alternatively, when a tau neutrino transforms to an electron neutrino, where does the extra energy disappear?
2. If neutrinos have mass, then they are restricted to speeds below c. If they are accelerated to near c, then according to the relativistic energy-momentum equations they should have colossal mass, not miniscule (just like electrons, for example). Is there any evidence of observing neutrinos with huge energies?
The Wiki article about neutrino oscillation paints the picture that the oscillation is a pseudo-illusionary quantum mechanical effect, and therefore questions like the two above are meaningless. Smells more like handwavium to me.
Could a real physicist push back the veil of shadows one bit? Pretty please? =)
I created and deleted the directory without any problems in Vista SP0, SP2 and Windows 7.. those who modded you up - on which system did this trick work? You did test it, right?
BTW to disable creating the useless short file names in order to slightly improve performance:
Set NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation to "1" in \HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem and reboot to finally get rid of the cruft from the early 90's.
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.8758
Remember that GPS signals are very, very weak. I have tested one of these, and it completely blocked a very sensitive SirfStar III -based receiver within a 5-meter range. The transmit power is actually much less than in a typical cell phone, so they are legal in my country.
Buy two if you're really paranoid..
The Airbus A330 is a fly-by-wire plane. At no point the crew would have to physically "fight" the controls - it's just a fancy joystick connected with electrical wires to the flight computers!
No force feedback either (except the "stick shaker") :P
Here you can see the last automatically transmitted ACARS messages of AF447:
http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/7547/acarsaf447d.png
Personally, I think this incident was caused by a combination of factors.
ALL speculations tread on thin air before the CVR and FDR are recovered, but based on current data I would QUESS:
-it is a dark, stormy night with no horizon or any landmarks visible
-160km/h updraft brings moist air to a much higher flight level than usual
-this causes sudden icing of the pitot tubes
-this causes the flight computer to think that the plane is in danger of stalling, and it lowers the nose automatically
-the crew switches auto-pilot and flight envelope protection partially off, or a (positive) lightning strike disables them
-the crew has no good idea about the true speed and orientation of the plane
-inside the cumulonimbus' horrible gusts the crew over-stresses the composite flight controls while fighting turbulence
-the place exceeds it's maximum speed and/or structural load (G-) limits
-two-three minutes later the agony of the 228 souls on board finally ends as the slowly disintegrating plane hits the sea near the speed of sound, instantly ripping them to stamp-sized bits
Here's more detailed speculation about possible causes and a crude analysis, taken from Usenet:
1. Terrorism or other malicious use of explosives
A bomb explodes in the cargo hold, crippling the aircraft's control systems or starting a structural break-up that eventually leads to loss of control.
Supportive evidence: According to Wikipedia, a bomb threat had been made on an earlier flight. Lack of communications from the flight crew indicates either a sudden event or something which lead to significant problems that the crew had to focus on. This would be consistent with the effects of a bomb. The automatic messages about computer system failures sent by the aircraft could be interpreted either as indications that the aircraft's movements have exceeded the limits that the systems can handle, or as indications about direct damage to the systems. A flash of light has been seen by other aircraft in the area.
Evidence against: While terrorist organizations exist both in France and Brazil, there has been no recent activity. No organization has claimed responsibility for the act. There is no specific evidence about a bomb. Nothing is known about any individuals or organizations who would have non-terrorism related reasons for malicious acts. It seems too big of a coincidence that a bomb would go off at the same time as the aircraft flies through very rough weather. Finally, what we know about the sequence of ACARS messages indicates that loss of cabin pressure was the last message in the sequence. This appears to rule out an explosion, unless it was contained in the hull and only damaged internal structures and components. This seems unlikely. The flash of light was apparently seen from too far to be caused by AF 447 related problems.
Open questions: Where are the cargo holds that are used to carry the passengers' luggage? Are they physically close to the computer and navigation systems that ACARS messages reported as failing? And obviously, physical evidence would be useful.
Verdict: Can most likely be ruled out
2. Explosion or other rapid, harmful reaction from the cargo
The sequence of events is as in the terrorism theory.
Supportive evidence: The sequence of events fits this theory, as it does the terrorism theory. The cargo might have shifted at the time of turbulence, initiating the reaction.
Evidence against: See the evidence regarding the malicious use of explosives. In addition, there is no information that the cargo could have contained something harmful.
Open questions: More information is needed about what was in the cargo, and who cargo was taken from.
Verdict: Can most likely be ruled out
3. Fire
Fire starts in cargo hold, in sys
This is why I can make a nice living for my entire family just by importing software from the USA.
Shipping costs are very low, and margins are quite high for a computer related product.
I resell most software 10-30% below localized prices, keeping the remaining difference of 10-40% for myself.
So, you can either complain, or profit. I chose the latter after the former didn't change anything.
One point that nobody commented on is that in (parts of?) Europe you can legally resell all software, including the OEM versions, unless you have made a written contract with the other party that says otherwise (if you sign one, you will get discounts).
When Vista came out, I made a small fortune importing a hundred Vista Ultimate licenses from the States, and after adding the VAT (~20%) and my profit margin (~20-25%) they still sold like cold beer on a hot day. (No remarks about Vista vs. your favourite Linux distro here, please.)
They were OEM-versions, but they are completely legal to resell, no matter what the box/DVD/EULA says. They activated just fine, but I could have legally bypassed it, if it had interfered with my rights. Those who bought them can still resell them. They still have high value, unlike in countries where an EULA can forbid you from transferring your legal right to use the software/bought song or video in digital format.
Nowadays, there are so many people reselling imported software (for example English versions from Hong Kong and Singapore) that the profit margins are razor-thin.
By specializing it's still possible to use differences in prices and legal systems to make a nice profit; for example I currently have five Eee PC 901s with OS X installed for sale at a local auction site. The listing is currently at 580EUR (904USD). I have bought legal copies of OS X, and I can legally install them to whatever I want, modify them if necessary to exercise my rights, and (re)sell them.
In a nutshell: ...
1. My rights as a living person >> rights of immaterial corporations.
1b. No need to buy a mouse or motherboard or whatever with OEM software, no need to beg Apple's permission to use paid software,
1c. After taxes, my Blu-ray player was 21% more expensive than at Amazon.com, but it came from the factory both region-free and without HDCP. For me, it was the better deal.
2. Big retailers and official on-line shops charge vastly more than in the US, small shops and resellers barely more and quite often even less after deducting the VAT.
3. Without accounting for PPP corrections, direct price comparisons can be very misleading. In addition, my country's tax percentages look horrible, but in reality there are so many tax brakes and deductions that the real-world rates are very close to the US rates. One difference is that the rich really pay more taxes than the poor (due to higher VAT and progressive taxation).
I apologize if I made wrong claims about the practices at the States, I haven't personally been there since they started fingerprinting foreign travelers.
I have nothing to hide, so nobody has to take a look.
Under WinXP, holding down shift while clicking "no" equals "no to all".
How intuitive..
(If I recall correctly, some early versions of XP had "n" as a keyboard shortcut for "no", and "N" for "no to all". Maybe they still work?)
In Europe, selling OEM versions of ANY software, unless you have personally signed an agreement to give up this right for reasonable compensation, is simply put completely legal.
;)
I have personally sold over 50 XP Home/Pro licences at online auctions and also about 10 Vista licences (half of them OEM).
I buy broken equipment that still has the stickers on, trash or repair the hardware and sell the licences for a nice profit. Sometimes I even get Office XP or older licences for free as long as I take away all the "old junk" myself.
No need to sell mice, motherboards or anything. Also no software patents and I can wipe my ass with EULAs and any other bullshit "agreements" I haven't signed. Too bad our VAT is about 20%...
Hey, maybe some of you could sell me a bunch of Windows/Office licence stickers from outside the European VAT zone? I can pay for shipping
Every time I buy a new laptop it has Windows pre-installed.
My solution is simple: the first thing I do is to put up an online auction with no starting price or reserve price and every single time I've gotten 90% of the official OEM price or better even when there are dozens of sellers.
Then I simply remove the license sticker and mail it to the winner - 'problem' solved.
Getting $100 back from a $600 laptop gives a nice discount too.
Is reselling software forbidden in some countries or why this simple option hasn't come up yet?
Every Intel Apple Mac includes, and actively uses, a TPM chip.
After installing ATITool 0.24 or newer, four clicks is all that it takes to get rid of Macrovision.
Click "Settings", then choose "Miscalleaneous" tab and from there check "Remove Macrovision detection from analog input driver". Now you can use the card's analog inputs and outputs as you wish.
I disabled mine so long ago I don't remember if you'll have to reboot afterwards.
Does anyone know a similiar procedure for Nvidia cards?
I think Linus hit the spot by pointing out that the future of home computing is going to to focus on parallel processing - it's 2006 and all my computers, including my LAPTOP, are dual-processor systems.
By 2010 I suspect at least desktops are 4-CPU systems and as the numbers of cores increase one of the large drawbacks of microkernels raises it's ugly head: microkernels turn simple locking algorithms into distributed computing-style algorithms.
Every game developer tells us how difficult it is to write multi-threaded code for even our monolithic operating systems (Windows, Linux, OSX). In microkernels you constantly have to worry how to share data with other threads as you can't trust them to give even correct pointers! If you would explicitly trust them, then a single failure at any driver or module would bring down the whole system - just like in monolithic kernels but with a performance penalty that scales nicely with the number of cores. What's even worse is that at a multi-core environment you'll have to be very, very careful when designing and implementing the distribution algorithms or a simple user-space program could easily crash the system or gain superuser privileges.
I play everyday on the bus, train and subway. My Centrino/Sonoma laptop has 6.5 hours of battery life when reading ebooks and using Gaim/Winamp, 5.7 hours when playing ePSX continuously (1600x1050 resolution, Ati X700, AC97 sound). An extra battery costs as much as a PSOne if I want to double my playing times.
By the way, why would you like to play when walking around? I sure hope you don't live in a place where's other traffic too..
The best thing about using an emulator with a laptop: not having to buy the games AGAIN.
My reason for always carrying my laptop with me is that I have ALL the books and lecture notes in PDF/PPT.
Just by downloading the books from eMule I've saved more than $500 just in this semester, one third of the cost of my laptop. As a bonus I can chat with cute chicks from other faculties during lunch, on the bus during my 20min commute or even at boring classes ^____^
Intel's WLAN solution used in Centrino laptops, namely the ABG-compliant mini-PCI card has the ability to send and receive in frequencies from 600MHz to 7.2GHz with up to 500mW transmit power.
;)).
/. in the park now.. there are tall buildings on the way but if I can't reach my home network at 1.8GHz, I'll try 685MHz, 907MHz or 3.23GHz or join one of the ad hoc networks :)
However, the open source drivers for Linux are deliberately crippled to very low transmit power (32mW) and narrow frequency bands by forcing Linux users to download and install a closed binary part. This closed DRM part is NOT present in Windows drivers and there exists at least two (albeit very expensive) programs that allow the card to be used as a signal generator with up to 500mW power and any frequency that the card is physically capable of. (please note that some brand name laptops include hardware filters to restrict the frequency range, my Acer does not)
My question is this: usually Open Source drivers allow me MORE control than using Windows so why do did the driver programmers decide to add DRM to the drivers?
Fear of the authorities in some countries? Agreements signed with Intel in exchange for source code?
I think this makes foul of the GPLv2, I could modify the sources all I want but the closed DRM part still enforces arbitrary restrictions for me, so I won't break the rules of some other country's radio spectrum regulatory body.
Where I live I have the legal right to transmit on ANY frequency with up to 1000mW transmit power omnidirectionally*1 on my own property and in public spaces*2 without any licence. Yes, that includes TV, cell phone, commercial radio frequencies. The TV/phone/radio companies have leased monopolies to transmit on those frequencies using OVER 1000mW power in my area.
Simply put, there is no chaos. There isn't a tumor in my brain from all the radiation either (at least not yet
In case you are wondering the police and other emergency workers have 5W-25W handhelds/car radios along with special cell phones (that have priority access in congested nodes) for emergency use.
In my city of 200000 there's no chaos from all this "wild" use of limited spectrum. Here's a free hint why some would like you to believe otherwise: it has got to do with bank accounts and numbers with many 0's after them.
A direct result from the quite free use of the spectrum (when compared to USA and most EU countries) is the available commercial broadband options. Here are some of the options I had when I moved to my new place:
1. 12Mbit/6Mbit wireless (limit 250GB upload) 45USD
2. 12Mbit/2Mbit wireless (limit 100GB upload) 30USD
3. 10Mbit/512kbit cable (connection may be "throttled" after 600GB down) 30USD
4. 10Mbit/512kbit cable 77USD (a bit cheaper with cable TV service)
5. 6Mbit/256kbit cable (connection may be "throttled" after 300GB down) 18USD
6. 4Mbit/4Mbit SDSL 40USD
7. 2Mbit/1Mbit ADSL 16USD
8. 24Mbit/2Mbit ADSL (limit 1000GB down, no commercial servers) 45USD
9. 24Mbit/2Mbit ADSL 100USD
10. 100Mbit/100Mbit fiber (limit 2TB/500GB d/u, no limit on local (citywide) transfers) 70USD not available on suburbs
11. 256kbit/128kbit wireless 8USD
12. ?/? satellite 30USD
Free competition=good for the customer? Do you agree?
What are the prices and options like when compared to your country?
Unless otherwise noted, all examples have unlimited bandwidth*3.
It's a sunny day outside, I think I'll get my laptop and go browse
(I have one software WLAN card connected to three antennas, cycling between the four frequencies in 250ms intervals until it hears a transmission with my laptops MAC. No, it's not secure but that's what simple VPN+Privoxy is for. I have an open AP like most others so no need to hack for 'net access anyway).
*1 using a directional antenna places further limits to the transmit power but the increased gain more than makes up for it. This is to done to make
..because that means you are going to be screwed, one way or the another.
In my country the goverment gave the ISPs a long list of "child porn hosting" IP addresses to blackhole (=block without showing any message that the address exists but is intentionally blocked). All had to comply or cease their operations and not surprisingly all complied, starting 2006/01/01.
What I can't figure is why is that list still classified?
I mean, all the "nasty sites" are blocked by our new national firewall so I can't view the "nasty stuff" even if I know the IP addresses, do I?
All I know is that a politician waved a large pile of papers in front of TV cameras and said that now children are safer from molestation and the next day the few newspapers that covered this praised the goverment's action without the slightest hint of critique or demands for openness.
But then, who would demand to see what was blocked except a child pornographer?
Next in line is a law to make all digital cameras, both standalone and integrated, to make three loud warning beeps and flash a red light in 1-second intervals before taking the picture - to PROTECT THE CHILDREN from child pornographers!
I quess this one will also pass without opposition.
So, does any industrialized country, with no native Muslim population nor immigration, still exist where I could make TCP/IP connections to any host *I* wish, without anyone watching over my shoulder or recording my actions?
I would prefer a one where I could own and operate a camera too without giving a DNA sample and waiting for the mandatory TLA picture previewers to approve my pictures.
What actually happens when an employee looses his/her network access?
Doesn't it fit anymore to his/her computer?
A 512MB DDR2 stick can be easily bought for 30-40 and a 512MB PC3200 (=DDR1) stick for 39-49.
I recently upgraded my laptop with a 1GB DDR2 SODIMM module, total cost: 99.
$200? Nice joke buddy but no cigar!
Also, maybe pure MHz hasn't gone up more than 15-20% but pure 'speed', or performance/ has at least tripled. I got my AMD X2 4200+ cheaper than a P4/2533 only a few years ago and the difference in practice in LAME/Xvid/games is on a completely different scale.
No administrator has provided a reasonable answer to this simple question: Why did those site administrators log all downloads and why were the logs kept for months?
One site admin said that all downloads were logged to stop hacking. I don't know what WWW server they used but it must have been unbelievably crappy one if simply downloading served files could have caused a security break. Or why else would he have logged all the downloads and kept them for six months?
Since the site administrators knew that most, if not nearly all material available via their services were not legal to redistribute they must have thought that any log files could be used against their users. Were the logs still made to save their own butts in case they were caught i.e. to rat in order to save their own skin?
To this date, forums that focus on exchanging P2P links downright admit logging all IP addresses and storing even deleted posts (even if this is not specifically mentioned, by default in most databases and even e-mail programs "deleting" a post or other data simply marks it as hidden, the DB needs to be compacted to truly remove "deleted" data).
Since linking to copyright material is considered as copyright infringement with the same (and absolutely insane) penalties at least in the USA and Australia, are there any active projects taken to ensure that for example anonymous posting of ed2k links will be possible?
With the press concentrating more and more on sports, money, scandals affecting at most a couple of people, trifling matters and generally focusing on making more and more money I feel that there must be a secure, anonymous way to share information, even information that the men and women with money don't want to be published.
I will choose to morally object and personally boycot all DRM, no matter if it's from Apple, Microsoft or Sun.
I don't need HDTV or any other new "entertainment" that requires this crap, what I need is more time with my family and friends.
If I wanted to simply sit by my non-DRM monitor and non-DRM speakers there's already more unprotected content in the various P2P networks to outlast me.
Simple, .b and .g have massive overhead (and the promised 11&54Mbps are just lies). Judging from the past signs you can hope to get 40-50Mbps from a "100 Mbps" wireless connection, less with security features enabled and/or more than 20 meters away.
Note that the Ethernet speeds of 10/100/1000Mbps ARE true speeds you can except to achieve with modern hardware.
EVERY CURRENT GAME including HL2 and Doom 3 is playable at 1600x1200 with 8xAA AND 8xAF with good hardware (=3.6GHz CPU or equivalent and GF7800 GT(X) SLI).
;))
If fact, I play older games at 2048x1536. I have two monitors, a 24" CRT and a secondary 19" CRT.
Yes, I did spend a small fortune to a dual-core CPU and SLI (before the 7800GTXs I had dual 6800GTs). No, the cost was much less than a decent home theatre and less then a tenth of a decent car.
My secret? No kids, not buying stuff without a good reason, two adult-household and a bit above average incomes for both. (and most importantly, a GF taht loves gaming as much as I do
End result? Absolutely breath-taking graphics and a playing experience par none.
European banks use them almost exclusively, first pad must be personally fetched from the bank; new ones are mailed when 2/3 of the old keys are used.
To make an online transaction one needs to have: user number, PIN and a key from the one-time pad.
I can't believe how these scams work so well outside Europe.
Imagine how stupid an average person is. By definition, 50% of people must be even dumber than him/her.