This was my initial review of the XM radio I had bought about a month ago (It is not really a comparison of XM vs Sirius but my initial experience with XM. I listen to XM few hours every day at work and I feel the cost is worth it if you can listen to it for at least an hour a day. Anything less, it is overpriced).
I am copying and pasting the content of my initial review of the Roady XM unit that I had posted on a website:
Great for use at work I got Roady from a local store a few days ago and so far I like it. I looked at all the available models for XM and Sirius and this was the smallest and reasonably priced. I wanted something to be able to listen to the world news and current affairs and technology news at my desk at work in a concrete building (has some glass windows in 15 feet range). I got this unit and also got an AC to DC power adapter and set it to 6V 600 mA. The included omnidirectional antenna gets okay signal (2 to 3 bars) inthe concrete office building (from some glass windows around at about 15-20 feet. I just plugged the regular headphones instead of the car cassette adapter. This way I can listen to it all day at my desk at work. The unit has an audio level setting to adjust the volume digitally instead of using a rotary knob.It serves my purpose well. As far as quality of programming goes, XM has many more channels with commercials compared to Sirius and those commercials on a paid radio are very annoying. If Sirius hada unit this small that I could just hook up to DC power adapter at my desk and listen directly using my headphones at desk, I would get Sirius by paying $3 extra to get more commercial-free channels. Also, XM has lesser number of news channels. I really wished that they had one channel dedicated to covering a wide variety of news from Reuters, AP (Associated Press) etc in addition to something like CNN Headline news that plays like 5 headlines repeatedly all day long and ignoring so much of news happening around the world. BBC world service is little better but if you just listen to CNN or BBC or Fox News on XM radio, you will see that their websites have so much more news coverage. The radio versions just play the same few items over and over and completely ignore so much of news from around the world. And there is CNet Radio (technology news channel that plays same show over and over 24x7. You can read it's schedule on XM's website !! Overall, I bought this unit mainly because of it's small size and small omnidirectional antenna with ability to just plug in DC power adapter and headphones without any extra hookups. Maybe after a year or so when Sirius units are this small and compact, I will switch to Sirius for better news coverage (Sirius has two NPRchannels) and more commercial-free channels. But for now, this unit serves my needs best primarily for compact size and direct power and headphone hookup.
Remember, XM has commercials on some more channels than sirius and some news channels like CNN, FOx News etc have their own commercials that are on both XM and Sirius!
Yah, because if I don't run my Christmas lights tonight, the energy situation on the other side of the globe is going to improve. Right.
No, didn't mean it that way, but moderation is the key... better to have 20,000 or 2,000 lights instead of 200,000. The numbers multiply pretty quick even in a small town of few thousand people.... and wastage is wastage... But for the accident of birth, you could have been in that gas line on the other side of the globe!
Holidays are meant to be enjoyed and celebrated and normal use of lighting etc. is part of the process.
But 200,000 lights ?? Well, If they are LED's it's okay. I didn't STFS (see the freaking site)because it is slashdotted already but if they are not LED's it is a little waste of power.
The precious energy that humankind dearly needs sometimes goes waste. Wars have been fought over it and thousands of people wait in lines for fuel/gas etc. So while some might be just burning away that energy in 200,000 lights, others are starved of that energy!
Pl excuse the typos, grmmer etc, typed it in haste, gotta go shoppin'
As far as I know India doesn't have an H1B equivalent, so even if you are willing to relocate, it is near impossible.
See my earlier post here. All you have to do is find an employer. On the other hand, for H1B, there are many more restrictions like annual limit, prevailing wage determination etc....
No. At least not yet. I would rather get a real living thing instead called a Puppy !! Who will be living with me, play with me, have own emotions, try to please me, communicate with me, and even guard my house !!
But still, a great leap in technological advancement.... kudos to Sony for making Robots a consumer product!
Like everyone else here is saying, why would you pay top $$ for a most recent processor when you could rather upgrage your fast P4 2.4 GHz box with other items that really affect the performance like extra fast SCSI or Serial ATA hard drive, more and faster RAM, faster graphics card etc.... Unless you do something that is very CPU cycle intensive (like graphics editing/encoding etc)....
I have never played sims but it would be neat - Campaign 2004 and if it has florida governor, people who put websites like http://www.awolbush.com, etc it would be even better and more fun. And not to forget, W. Clark who is a great candidate!
I file and archive all my paper bills in folders in the filing cabinet for a year or two [for credit card and bank statements(ok, not a bill)]. So I wouldn't be going to completely paperless billing anytime soon unless I get an option of downloading bills in a format like watermarked PDF softcopy or something like that....
What I want to know is are there any decent multiplayer games that an office of about 4-7 can play, preferably action. The machines that we use are not all that great, P4 1.7Ghz with 2 year old NVidia graphics cards
and you are gonna get paid for those hours ? I want to work for a company like that !!
Time magazine has an exclusive article on initial interrogation of Saddam
I am copying and pasting a portion of it below: Saddam Hussein was captured on Sunday without a fight. But since then, according to a U.S. intelligence official in Iraq, the fallen dictator has been defiant. "He's not been very cooperative," said the official, who read the transcript of the initial interrogation report taken during the first questioning session.
After his capture, Saddam was taken to a holding cell at the Baghdad Airport. He didn't answer any of the initial questions directly, the official said, and at times seemed less than fully coherent. The transcript was full of "Saddam rhetoric type stuff," said the official who paraphrased Saddam's answers to some of the questions. When asked "How are you?" said the official, Saddam responded, "I am sad because my people are in bondage." When offered a glass of water by his interrogators, Saddam replied, "If I drink water I will have to go to the bathroom and how can I use the bathroom when my people are in bondage?"
The interrogators also asked Saddam if he knew about the location of Captain Scott Speicher, a U.S. pilot who went missing during the first Gulf War. "No," replied the former Iraqi president, "we have never kept any prisoners. I have never known what happened."
Saddam was also asked whether Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. "No, of course not," he replied, according to the official, "the U.S. dreamed them up itself to have a reason to go to war with us." The interrogator continued along this line, said the official, asking: "if you had no weapons of mass destruction then why not let the U.N. inspectors into your facilities?" Saddam's reply: "We didn't want them to go into the presidential areas and intrude on our privacy."
The official is doubtful that the U.S. will get a significant amount of intelligence from Saddam's interrogations. "I would be surprised if he gave any info," he said. Other high-ranking regime members, he said, have by and large remained mum. "Tariq Aziz [former deputy prime minister] hasn't really spoken," he said, "and Abid Mahmoud [Saddam's former personal secretary] hasn't really given any information." ............... Along with the $750,000 in cash, two AK 47 machine guns and pistol found with Saddam, the U.S. intelligence official confirmed that operatives found a briefcase with Saddam that contained a letter from a Baghdad resistance leader. Contained in the message, the official said, were the minutes from a meeting of a number of resistance leaders who came together in the capital. The official said the names found on this piece of paper will be valuable and could lead to the capture of insurgency leaders around the Sunni Triangle. ..........
I just checked Amazon.com and it is selling new for $239.80. Who would give me 200 for mine!
I recommend getting a digital camera instead of SLR unless you wanna get a cheapo SLR just to practice various manual options and then switch to an advanced high megapixel digital camera.
For example, the use of leeches in in surgeries where increasing circulation and inhibiting clotting are critical, such as reconstructive surgery after breast cancer. Leeches have a natural anticoagulant in their saliva which increases blood flow through traumatized tissue, helping to keep it alive during lengthy surgeries. Leeches even come with a natural anesthetic and antibiotic to help break down clots and keep the blood flowing.
I use Sprint's unlimited vision plan (professional pack) fopr $15 extra in addition to calling plan. It works great, I have used VPN software to connect to the PPTP VPN at work, even access the server using terminal emulation software and of course, in the included Sprint's business connection software, I can real my work emails, documents on my PC at work etc... and speed is fairly good.
One of the problems I have with getting Bangalored is the fact that I can't go over there and work but they can steal my job with no problem. In a fair market I have no problem with competition as long as it is on a level playing field.
I did a google search and it seems that you can go work in India in a very similar way as Indians come to work here.
You need to get employment visa for India like Indians get employment visa to come to work here.
Copy and paste of the entire text in case of/.ing:
Understanding 'Foreign Accent Syndrome'
News 3 October 2002 Oxford neuropsychologists have located some very small lesions in the brain which can lead to a rare speech disorder known as Foreign Accent Syndrome. This condition, which is usually the result of a stroke or head injury, makes patients change their pronunciation to sound like non-native speakers.
The finding is a further piece in the puzzle which Oxford scientists are trying to solve. Teamwork between Dr Jennifer Gurd at Oxford University's Department of Clinical Neurology and phonetician Dr John Coleman has already led to more precise analyses of the rare symptom which has been a mystery to physicians for a long time.
Cases of Foreign Accent Syndrome differ with respect to both the cause and the nature of the new accent, which could for example be like Spanish or Dutch in a native speaker of English. The syndrome can arise after a stroke or other brain injury, including closed head injury as might happen in a road traffic accident. The kind of accent a patient develops is not dependent on any knowledge of a particular foreign language. It is rather the combination of certain changed features such as lengthening of syllables, altered pitch, or mispronouned sounds, which make a patient's pronunciation sound similar to a particular foreign accent.
Dr Gurd said: 'The way we speak is an important part of our personality and influences the way people interact with us. It is understandably quite traumatic for patients to find that their accent has changed. We are keen to help patients on their road to recovery..
'Patients derive some comfort from knowing more about the causes of their rare condition and many are happy to help scientists to understand better the nature of the brain and its role in human accents.'
Patients who suffer from Foreign Accent Syndrome often get better as the brain heals or other parts of the brain take over the work of the damaged areas. However patients normally need speech therapy to help speed up the healing process and to make sure that any residual speech defects are kept to a minimum.
Dr Gurd added: 'The time-course and pattern of recovery varies depending on the cause of the brain damage. As we investigate new cases, a clearer picture of the syndrome will emerge. This will enable us to help more people in the future. We would welcome further referrals of patients with Foreign Accent Syndrome.'
Download a sample of a patient's speech before (1.3MB) and after (1.1MB) acquiring the syndrome.
For further information please contact the press office on 01865 280528.
Notes to editors:
The first case of Foreign Accent Syndrome was reported in 1941 from Norway, where a young Norwegian woman suffered shrapnel injuries to the brain during an air raid. Initially she had severe language problems from which she eventually recovered but she was left with what sounded like a strong German accent, and was ostracized by her community. The Neuropsychology Centre is part of the department of Clinical Neurology at the University of Oxford. Its cross-disciplinary research seeks to understand the normal cognitive functions of the brain and mind and investigates how these processes break down, change and recover following brain damage. The Phonetics Laboratory, established in 1980, conducts research in speech physiology and acoustics, as well as performing psycholinguistic experiments on speech and phonological competence. Its resources are used by linguists, psychologists and neurologists. A Stroke Prevention Research Unit, led by Dr Pete
Slashdot Mirror
I had piles and piles and bags full of bills and mail until I found the perfect solution to organize my paperwork !!
I ran a simple search on amazon.com. There is a good selection to choose from depending on what you need....
Try it yourself on theor website or here are the links for In-Ear Headphones and Over-Ear Headphones
This was my initial review of the XM radio I had bought about a month ago (It is not really a comparison of XM vs Sirius but my initial experience with XM. I listen to XM few hours every day at work and I feel the cost is worth it if you can listen to it for at least an hour a day. Anything less, it is overpriced).
I am copying and pasting the content of my initial review of the Roady XM unit that I had posted on a website:
Great for use at work
I got Roady from a local store a few days ago and so far I like it. I looked at all the available models for XM and Sirius and this was the smallest and reasonably priced. I wanted something to be able to listen to the world news and current affairs and technology news at my desk at work in a concrete building (has some glass windows in 15 feet range). I got this unit and also got an AC to DC power adapter and set it to 6V 600 mA. The included omnidirectional antenna gets okay signal (2 to 3 bars) inthe concrete office building (from some glass windows around at about 15-20 feet. I just plugged the regular headphones instead of the car cassette adapter. This way I can listen to it all day at my desk at work. The unit has an audio level setting to adjust the volume digitally instead of using a rotary knob.It serves my purpose well. As far as quality of programming goes, XM has many more channels with commercials compared to Sirius and those commercials on a paid radio are very annoying. If Sirius hada unit this small that I could just hook up to DC power adapter at my desk and listen directly using my headphones at desk, I would get Sirius by paying $3 extra to get more commercial-free channels. Also, XM has lesser number of news channels. I really wished that they had one channel dedicated to covering a wide variety of news from Reuters, AP (Associated Press) etc in addition to something like CNN Headline news that plays like 5 headlines repeatedly all day long and ignoring so much of news happening around the world. BBC world service is little better but if you just listen to CNN or BBC or Fox News on XM radio, you will see that their websites have so much more news coverage. The radio versions just play the same few items over and over and completely ignore so much of news from around the world.
And there is CNet Radio (technology news channel that plays same show over and over 24x7. You can read it's schedule on XM's website !!
Overall, I bought this unit mainly because of it's small size and small omnidirectional antenna with ability to just plug in DC power adapter and headphones without any extra hookups.
Maybe after a year or so when Sirius units are this small and compact, I will switch to Sirius for better news coverage (Sirius has two NPRchannels) and more commercial-free channels. But for now, this unit serves my needs best primarily for compact size and direct power and headphone hookup.
Remember, XM has commercials on some more channels than sirius and some news channels like CNN, FOx News etc have their own commercials that are on both XM and Sirius!
Yah, because if I don't run my Christmas lights tonight, the energy situation on the other side of the globe is going to improve. Right.
No, didn't mean it that way, but moderation is the key... better to have 20,000 or 2,000 lights instead of 200,000. The numbers multiply pretty quick even in a small town of few thousand people.... and wastage is wastage... But for the accident of birth, you could have been in that gas line on the other side of the globe!
Holidays are meant to be enjoyed and celebrated and normal use of lighting etc. is part of the process.
But 200,000 lights ?? Well, If they are LED's it's okay. I didn't STFS (see the freaking site)because it is slashdotted already but if they are not LED's it is a little waste of power.
The precious energy that humankind dearly needs sometimes goes waste. Wars have been fought over it and thousands of people wait in lines for fuel/gas etc. So while some might be just burning away that energy in 200,000 lights, others are starved of that energy!
Pl excuse the typos, grmmer etc, typed it in haste, gotta go shoppin'
As far as I know India doesn't have an H1B equivalent, so even if you are willing to relocate, it is near impossible.
See my earlier post here.
All you have to do is find an employer. On the other hand, for H1B, there are many more restrictions like annual limit, prevailing wage determination etc....
Those numbers reported (employed today - 905,370) don't seem to be correct...
Can anyone find a better resource like labor department statistics ?
No. At least not yet. I would rather get a real living thing instead called a Puppy !! Who will be living with me, play with me, have own emotions, try to please me, communicate with me, and even guard my house !!
But still, a great leap in technological advancement.... kudos to Sony for making Robots a consumer product!
Reuters coverage of this story is here
Sig
-- Compare war time president's military record (www.awolbush.com) with Wesley Clark's (Wesley Clark's Army Career)
Like everyone else here is saying, why would you pay top $$ for a most recent processor when you could rather upgrage your fast P4 2.4 GHz box with other items that really affect the performance like extra fast SCSI or Serial ATA hard drive, more and faster RAM, faster graphics card etc.... Unless you do something that is very CPU cycle intensive (like graphics editing/encoding etc)....
Sig
-- Compare war time president's military record (www.awolbush.com) with Wesley Clark's (Wesley Clark's Army Career)
For added realism, players could have cheat codes which allow them to edit the voting machine results:)
Actually, for added realism, players could have cheat codes which allow them to make their brother the governor of Florida!
I have never played sims but it would be neat - Campaign 2004 and if it has florida governor, people who put websites like http://www.awolbush.com, etc it would be even better and more fun.
And not to forget, W. Clark who is a great candidate!
I file and archive all my paper bills in folders in the filing cabinet for a year or two [for credit card and bank statements(ok, not a bill)].
So I wouldn't be going to completely paperless billing anytime soon unless I get an option of downloading bills in a format like watermarked PDF softcopy or something like that....
What I want to know is are there any decent multiplayer games that an office of about 4-7 can play, preferably action. The machines that we use are not all that great, P4 1.7Ghz with 2 year old NVidia graphics cards
and you are gonna get paid for those hours ? I want to work for a company like that !!
Spain and Morocco to build train tunnel under sea
Spain and Morocco plan tunnel link
Tunnel to link Spain and Morocco agreed
Tunnel link for Africa and Europe
Spain, Morocco to build tunnel under Mediterranean Sea
Spain, Morocco plan undersea tunnel
DON'T MOD THIS UP. MY KARMA IS ALREADY EXCELLENT (has been for months!)
Time magazine has an exclusive article on initial interrogation of Saddam
..... ..... .....
..... .....
I am copying and pasting a portion of it below:
Saddam Hussein was captured on Sunday without a fight. But since then, according to a U.S. intelligence official in Iraq, the fallen dictator has been defiant. "He's not been very cooperative," said the official, who read the transcript of the initial interrogation report taken during the first questioning session.
After his capture, Saddam was taken to a holding cell at the Baghdad Airport. He didn't answer any of the initial questions directly, the official said, and at times seemed less than fully coherent. The transcript was full of "Saddam rhetoric type stuff," said the official who paraphrased Saddam's answers to some of the questions. When asked "How are you?" said the official, Saddam responded, "I am sad because my people are in bondage." When offered a glass of water by his interrogators, Saddam replied, "If I drink water I will have to go to the bathroom and how can I use the bathroom when my people are in bondage?"
The interrogators also asked Saddam if he knew about the location of Captain Scott Speicher, a U.S. pilot who went missing during the first Gulf War. "No," replied the former Iraqi president, "we have never kept any prisoners. I have never known what happened."
Saddam was also asked whether Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. "No, of course not," he replied, according to the official, "the U.S. dreamed them up itself to have a reason to go to war with us." The interrogator continued along this line, said the official, asking: "if you had no weapons of mass destruction then why not let the U.N. inspectors into your facilities?" Saddam's reply: "We didn't want them to go into the presidential areas and intrude on our privacy."
The official is doubtful that the U.S. will get a significant amount of intelligence from Saddam's interrogations. "I would be surprised if he gave any info," he said. Other high-ranking regime members, he said, have by and large remained mum. "Tariq Aziz [former deputy prime minister] hasn't really spoken," he said, "and Abid Mahmoud [Saddam's former personal secretary] hasn't really given any information."
Along with the $750,000 in cash, two AK 47 machine guns and pistol found with Saddam, the U.S. intelligence official confirmed that operatives found a briefcase with Saddam that contained a letter from a Baghdad resistance leader. Contained in the message, the official said, were the minutes from a meeting of a number of resistance leaders who came together in the capital. The official said the names found on this piece of paper will be valuable and could lead to the capture of insurgency leaders around the Sunni Triangle.
I just checked Amazon.com and it is selling new for $239.80. Who would give me 200 for mine!
I recommend getting a digital camera instead of SLR unless you wanna get a cheapo SLR just to practice various manual options and then switch to an advanced high megapixel digital camera.
I have a Canon EOS Rebel 2000 that I bought for around $400 but used it only twice.
Instead, I use my digital camera which gives me preview option and no cost of film.
I would sell my Canon EOS Rebel 2000 for about half the price if I could find a buyer!
Developing countries recognize that their economic progress depends on their mastery of information technologies. Open-source software, with its global, free-wheeling, "stone soup" development approach, allows these countries to potentially shave 10 to 15 years off the time it would take them to nurture their own IT sectors at home.
Try typing "miserable failure" in Google
We have so much to learn from nature !!
For example, the use of leeches in in surgeries where increasing circulation and inhibiting clotting are critical, such as reconstructive surgery after breast cancer.
Leeches have a natural anticoagulant in their saliva which increases blood flow through traumatized tissue, helping to keep it alive during lengthy surgeries. Leeches even come with a natural anesthetic and antibiotic to help break down clots and keep the blood flowing.
Corrections:
Replace "fopr" with "for", "real" with "read" etc..
I use Sprint's unlimited vision plan (professional pack) fopr $15 extra in addition to calling plan. It works great, I have used VPN software to connect to the PPTP VPN at work, even access the server using terminal emulation software and of course, in the included Sprint's business connection software, I can real my work emails, documents on my PC at work etc... and speed is fairly good.
Dell overestimated the capacity of its Indian call center when it made the decision to divert U.S. customers to the new support service.
"A lot of [the customers] were moved in one go and that was where some of the complaints had arisen so what they've looked at doing is moving some back and then moving them off in smaller increments," said a spokeswoman
One of the problems I have with getting Bangalored is the fact that I can't go over there and work but they can steal my job with no problem. In a fair market I have no problem with competition as long as it is on a level playing field.
I did a google search and it seems that you can go work in India in a very similar way as Indians come to work here.
You need to get employment visa for India like Indians get employment visa to come to work here.
Here are a couple of links:
See the Employment Visa section
More Details on getting Indian Visas (read till the end of page)
Understanding 'Foreign Accent Syndrome'
Download a sample of a patient's speech before (1.3MB) and after (1.1MB) acquiring the syndrome.
Copy and paste of the entire text in case of
Understanding 'Foreign Accent Syndrome'
News
3 October 2002
Oxford neuropsychologists have located some very small lesions in the brain which can lead to a rare speech disorder known as Foreign Accent Syndrome. This condition, which is usually the result of a stroke or head injury, makes patients change their pronunciation to sound like non-native speakers.
The finding is a further piece in the puzzle which Oxford scientists are trying to solve. Teamwork between Dr Jennifer Gurd at Oxford University's Department of Clinical Neurology and phonetician Dr John Coleman has already led to more precise analyses of the rare symptom which has been a mystery to physicians for a long time.
Cases of Foreign Accent Syndrome differ with respect to both the cause and the nature of the new accent, which could for example be like Spanish or Dutch in a native speaker of English. The syndrome can arise after a stroke or other brain injury, including closed head injury as might happen in a road traffic accident. The kind of accent a patient develops is not dependent on any knowledge of a particular foreign language. It is rather the combination of certain changed features such as lengthening of syllables, altered pitch, or mispronouned sounds, which make a patient's pronunciation sound similar to a particular foreign accent.
Dr Gurd said: 'The way we speak is an important part of our personality and influences the way people interact with us. It is understandably quite traumatic for patients to find that their accent has changed. We are keen to help patients on their road to recovery..
'Patients derive some comfort from knowing more about the causes of their rare condition and many are happy to help scientists to understand better the nature of the brain and its role in human accents.'
Patients who suffer from Foreign Accent Syndrome often get better as the brain heals or other parts of the brain take over the work of the damaged areas. However patients normally need speech therapy to help speed up the healing process and to make sure that any residual speech defects are kept to a minimum.
Dr Gurd added: 'The time-course and pattern of recovery varies depending on the cause of the brain damage. As we investigate new cases, a clearer picture of the syndrome will emerge. This will enable us to help more people in the future. We would welcome further referrals of patients with Foreign Accent Syndrome.'
Download a sample of a patient's speech before (1.3MB) and after (1.1MB) acquiring the syndrome.
For further information please contact the press office on 01865 280528.
Notes to editors:
The first case of Foreign Accent Syndrome was reported in 1941 from Norway, where a young Norwegian woman suffered shrapnel injuries to the brain during an air raid. Initially she had severe language problems from which she eventually recovered but she was left with what sounded like a strong German accent, and was ostracized by her community.
The Neuropsychology Centre is part of the department of Clinical Neurology at the University of Oxford. Its cross-disciplinary research seeks to understand the normal cognitive functions of the brain and mind and investigates how these processes break down, change and recover following brain damage.
The Phonetics Laboratory, established in 1980, conducts research in speech physiology and acoustics, as well as performing psycholinguistic experiments on speech and phonological competence. Its resources are used by linguists, psychologists and neurologists.
A Stroke Prevention Research Unit, led by Dr Pete