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Comments · 27

  1. Fun with alcohol! on Fun Tabletop Games? · · Score: 1

    I've always found that the tabletop can be used for many fun games. A couple such games are beer pong (rules)and flip cup (rules).

  2. Re:The research done for this article is HORRIBLE! on America's Most Connected Campuses · · Score: 3, Informative
    The letter I got back after writing the author:

    Thank you for your recent letter to Forbes.com regarding the "Most Connected Colleges" list.

    The data contained within this list was provided to us by The Princeton Review, therefore, we are unable to elaborate, clarify or alter the information contained therein. If you would like, you may direct your questions, concerns and comments directly to Erik Olson, Director of Guidebook Publications for The Princeton Review, at eriko@review.com. We will also be passing all comments along to the researchers of this list.

    We apologize for not being able to help you further.

    Thank you again for taking the time to write to us, and we hope that you continue to enjoy Forbes.com.

    David M. Ewalt Staff Writer Forbes.com dewalt@forbes.net

  3. The research done for this article is HORRIBLE! on America's Most Connected Campuses · · Score: 4, Insightful
    I'm not sure how they conducted the research for this article, but it wasn't very good. I'm a former student at George Washington University and MOST of the answers for GW are incorrect.

    I really can't tell how they did the research for the article. With so many basic wrong answers for GW, I can't imagine that they surveyed the schools themselves. Some of the questions that were wrong were the first things they tell you about on the tours when you visit; I can't imagine that GW wouldn't tell Forbes what they tell high school seniors. If the writer did the research himself, he needs to think about another career. The same can be said if they had interns doing the work, which is probably the case. But I still don't understand, many of these questions could have been answered by simple searches from GW's homepage.

    Simply said, this article has no founding whatsoever. If other school's information is as wrong as GW's, then this article can't even be taken with a grain of salt.

  4. Re:My Alma Mater did what?! on Napster Strikes Deal With GWU · · Score: 1

    - seas (school of engineering and applied science) was more technically saavy, but since you've left, since you mention pepsi it's been awhile, they've shut off their own email and basically use everything provided by the main university.
    - they went to coke about three years ago.
    - yep, still have fridges/microwaves in every freshman room.
    - fiber in most dorms, but the network still sucks, the people who run it are morons.

  5. Re:school fee's... on Napster Strikes Deal With GWU · · Score: 1

    gw needs to charge the athletic fee. they don't make any money on football games, gw doesn't have a team, or basketball games, students get in for free with their student id.

  6. Re:If not ISOs, .jigdo would be nice on Slackware 10-RC1 Released · · Score: 1
    From the official release announcement, "We will be setting up BitTorrent downloads for the official ISO images."

    Some mirrors put their own ISOs up, but they are not official ISOs from Patrick. Patrick did not release any ISOs on any of the mirrors, but some mirror maintainers probably got the ISOs through bitTorrent, then put them on their FTP sites.

  7. Re:If not ISOs, .jigdo would be nice on Slackware 10-RC1 Released · · Score: 4, Informative

    IIRC, no official FTP sites ever had the ISOs. Patrick did this for a reason, which he explained in great depth when 9.1 came out. I can't remember why, but I'm sure you can find it on the mailing list archives. He chose to release the ISOs using bitTorrent to save all the mirrors' bandwidth. Download yourself a bitTorrent client and point your browser to Slackware's official bitTorrent page. You can get the ISOs that way, like everyone else.

  8. Re:This is /.! on Microsoft WiX Code Released to SourceForge.Net · · Score: 1
    Just a note: "that they will make more money with closed source software. I don't have a problem with that."

    I love open-source as much as the next guy, but I think they're proving that currently they ARE making a lot more money then OSS. Last time I checked, MS had $66billion in the bank, and RedHat had just had their first year in the black.

  9. Re:Down with TLDs! on ICANN to Incorporate TLDs Already In-use? · · Score: 1

    Yeah, but then you run into a problem with virtual hosting! Virtual hosting depends on both the IP sent and the URL sent to fetch certain content. This idea would be disasterous to large hosting companies, and even small companies who host things themselves. A lot of these types of comapanies make money on the fact that they can host multiple sites using one IP.

  10. What a strange turn of events. on Microsoft Eyeing AOL? · · Score: 1
    I still remember seeing the original merger news when I was walking through the airport in Miami. I was waiting for a flight and I heard the story break on CNN. I thought this was HUGE news, and I was interesting especially in who seemed to be buying whom. This wasn't a merger if I recall correctly, it was AOL buying Time Warner.

    But within the past year or so, it seems the tides have turned. AOL, which was at one point the more profitable division, has recently been losing both revenue and customers, while the Time Warner division has been doing relatively well. Since the merger, that have taken AOL out of the name of the new company, and are now trying to sell AOL. This seems stragne for a merger where AOL seemed to be the original power mover in the deal.

  11. Re:AOL a Dog? on Microsoft Eyeing AOL? · · Score: 3, Insightful
    I think before this would ever happen, the US DOJ would have to get involved. Think about it, they would control the two most popular browsers, MSIE and Netscape/Mozilla; they would control the two most popular chat clients, MS Messenger and AOL IM; and they would control two popular music/video clients, Windows Media Player and Winamp.

    Regardless of what has happened in the past with the DOJ and anti-trust cases, there would be no way that these three aspects of any merger would be overlooked. IANAL, but I would almost guarentee that they would be required to spin off at least AOL IM and Netscape/Mozilla.

  12. One more event to add to Engineering 101 disaters on Blackout Cause: Buggy Code · · Score: 2, Informative
    I remember Engineering 101 my first semester in college. It was a general introduction to engineering for the entire engineering school.

    Part of the class was dedicated to ensuring that we learned from the mistakes of the past. They showed us the video of the infamous Takoma Narrows bridge, and several other engineering mishaps. I was a computer science major and most, if not all, of the examples shown in the class, as far as I can remember, were engineering mishaps. I think this is a great example that can be now be added to the list of infamous engineering slip ups. This is a particularly good example for computer science majors, it shows that yes, you really do need good testing, and yes, major disasters can be caused by as little as one line of bad code.

    I always wondered why we CS majors had to sit through that class, but here's a great example why.

  13. Annonymously posting to the internet. on Perens on Patents · · Score: 0, Offtopic
    Whatever happened to the good old days of the underground? You can always upload illegal softwarre to the internet, and if it's useful, then people will use it, regardless of its status. A case in point is the DeCSS code. When it was originally posted, it was on one web site. Then, some other geek thought it was cool, so he put it up on his website, and so on. Then the authorities cracked down, so 10 geeks had it up for a week, then a week later it was 10 other geeks. It's like playing keep away, the people keeping the thing away, in this case the code out there, most always win, because there is so many of them, the authorities can't possibly keep control over ever single one of them.

    People will always be using illegal software, whether it be pirated software or softwarre that infringes on someone else's IP. It all comes down to cost, if someone can't afford it, they'll find some other way to get it. If software is published by only a few large companies that overcharge for their products, people will find other means. It almost reminds me of a quote from Jurrasic Park, "Life will find a way."

  14. Re:I did... on What Has Number Portability Done For You? · · Score: 1

    The upgrade is not really an upgrade, but a rebate. You can get any active rebate on any phone. I basically got a new phone for free.

  15. Re:I did... on What Has Number Portability Done For You? · · Score: 1
    Sprint now offers any existing upgrade to current users if you've had your current phone with them for 18 months. You can go to http://pcshandsetupgrade.sprint.com/ and check to see if youu can get it.

    I just did this. I had an old phone with no real reason to upgrade, but a co-worker of mine is one of those people who knows every Sprint deal and gets a new phone every month, and she told me about it. They make you sign a new contract, but you get any active rebate. It's at least worth it to check it out, it's ammo when you go into the Sprint store.

  16. Re:AFS on Distributed Data Storage on a LAN? · · Score: 1

    I'd have to agree, AFS is a great solution. I actually thought of this about a year ago, and I told a co-worker about it. He told me it had already been implemented, and as it turns out, it was, it's AFS.
    AFS is actually pretty cool. You can run a file server that uses all this disk space of all the client machines. It's a great idea now, especially since most new machines come with 40GB hard drives, and most people don't use anything more then 5GB.
    AFS is a wonderful solution to not only this problem that the poster is talking about, but it can be used in so many other interesting ways.

  17. Re:And I hope... on Ogg Vorbis decoder chip a reality · · Score: 1

    Don't forget to patent that process FIRST!

  18. Re:Sharing.... on House Bill to Make File-Sharing an Automatic Felony · · Score: 1
    Ok, ok, ok... Yes, the difinition about sharing is a little off.

    But what about this situation? I am a small music band/software publisher/home movie enthusiast/anyone who makes their own content and I put up my own works on a shared network, is this a felony? They really need to make the distinction between sharing and copyright abuse. That's the whole debate.

    The courts already decided that the RIAA can't sue Kazaa and Grockster, because they only provide the service (a little different from the Napster defense), so know the RIAA and their politicians are trying to go after the individual users. We've already seen this with the lawsuits of individuals, but now the RIAA is trying to put into law what the courts already said was ok, that is, file sharing. Notice I said file sharing, not piracy. The courts ruled that you can share anything you want, as long as you own the copyright.

    This is just another ploy of the RIAA to control what users can and can't do.

  19. Re:I'm torn on The New Yorker on Business Process Patents · · Score: 1
    Read _The Innovator's Dilemma_. "At the heart of The Innovator's Dilemma is how a successful company with established products keeps from being pushed aside by newer, cheaper products that will, over time, get better and become a serious threat. Christensen writes that even the best-managed companies, in spite of their attention to customers and continual investment in new technology, are susceptible to failure no matter what the industry, be it hard drives or consumer retailing."

    The author takes on this exact question and describes how large companies take time to change, so even if a new idea comes out, it doesn't meen the little guy will get swallowed up before s/he has a chance to succeed (and become the next big guy; remember, even Wal-Mart started out as a little country grocier; I don't think they were the first or largest store, and look at them now).

  20. Re:sociopaths!!!! on Telemarketers Plan Counterattack · · Score: 1

    Obviously. But what about all the non-techies out there who signed up or the list. Most o the people who signed up (I'd say 80 - 90 percent) probably used their own email addresses. That's about as good a list as any marketer is going to get, whether it be an email list or a phone number list.

  21. Re:sociopaths!!!! on Telemarketers Plan Counterattack · · Score: 1
    Sociopaths, but smart sociopaths. The government sets up a do not call list but requires an email address for signup (on-line signup). Hmm, now they have 60 million people who don't want to receive phone calls, but we have their 60 million email address.

    I'll trade you those email addresses for, let's say, 1 MILLION DOLLARS (remember the government is about 3 trillion in debt, and every little bit counts).

    Yes, I know the privacy policy says that they won't give out the email address, but what happens when this things gets hacked by the telemarketers? It won't happen you say? Remember, it's the government that is trying to help the RIAA able to hack into your computers. They obviously really care about your privacy.

  22. Re:Cat5 Cabling Woes on Building A (Serious) Home Network From Scratch · · Score: 1
    Another important thing to remember is the floor surface. I noticed in some of the pictures that in the "lab" he chose to install carpet. This can be dangerous. Static charges love to build up in humans, especially in areas where there is thick carpet.

    If this were my "lab" I would have installed a tile floor. It might not be as pretty, but in the long run it might prove to be worth it. One would assume that he is taking apart machines and working on them. He has to be careful to ground himself, and keep himself grounded, even more so because of the carpet.

  23. Re:tip number one on Building A (Serious) Home Network From Scratch · · Score: 2, Informative

    An even easier way to ensure that your cables are up to spec is to buy one cable from OfficeDepot/buy.com/any other place, and then use that cable as a template. You can see exactly how the cable is to be set up, and you can then compare these two cables side by side.
    I've found it easier to teach people to make cat5 cables by giving them one and telling them to copy it, instead of giving them a picture. If you give them a picture, they inevidably (bad spelling) mess up the cable, usually make it backwards.

  24. Re:Two words: on A Replacement Term for 'Intellectual Property'? · · Score: 1

    If you describe the situation in this way, then when does an idea become IP? When does my idea stop becoming my idea and my IP, if it is a good idea? Who's to say whether or not my idea is good?

  25. Re:whatever on Apple's G5 Speeds Challenged · · Score: 1
    This is a good point. It very well seems that Apple is behind them, because they keep calling OS X Unix.

    Now the argument becomes, is Unix a generic term. You have to think of several non-computing terms to get an understanding of this. Scotch tape, Band-Aids, and Kleenex come to mind. These are all products that were trademarked by their respective companies which became so successful that people just started associated these names with all the other brands of the same type. When was the last time you heard someone say, "Gee, I hurt myself, I need an adhesive bangage." No, they say, "I need a Band-Aid." But yet the respective companies still protect their trademarks. You can't go buy Safeway Band-Aids, you still have to buy Safeway Adhesive Bandages.

    The same can be said for the computing world. Just as you said, many people consider Unix a generic term, but this does not mean that others can use it. Just as Safeway can't call their tissues Kleenex, even though they are the exact same thing and many people call them Kleenex, they still can't do that, similarly, Apple still can't call their product Unix.