I'm still waiting for Mozilla Mail to be more responsive to the mouse.
Start with the focus on another pane/window. Click on a message to select it, immediately shift-click on a message 3 or 4 down to select multiple messages... wait 2 seconds while the UI catches up and watch it clear your selection.
Worse, do the same thing and then mark multiple messages as junk. Watch it move all but one or two to the junk folder, or watch it move random messages to the junk folder.
(This with 1Gb of RAM and a P4M 1.6GHz CPU... I'm *not* starved for power here...)
Even when it gets to be 32-35C here in my home office, my AthlonXP 2600+ never goes over 57C and internal case temperatures are in the 40-45C range. You've got something wrong if your CPU temp is over 60C under that sort of heat wave.
For the record, I have a large copper heatsink installed, with a teeny tiny dab of Arctic Silver (overkill), and a 120mm fan running at 2000rpm attached via an adapter collar.
I think your heatsink is installed incorrectly (or too much thermal paste).
The central concept of reverse-MX solutions is this:
For a domain that I own, I'm allowed in my DNS records to specifically list what servers handle my inbound e-mail traffic (MX records). So why can't I do the same for outbound mail? Right now, I have zero control over my outbound mail flow and no way to tell the world at large what my outbound mail policy is. Anyone can forge my domain on their e-mail, send it from a random IP (*not* under the control of my network), and there's zilch I can do about it.
(Remember, this is a domain that I *own* and that the other folks on the internet would prefer that I take responsibility for. Since I own it, it's perfectly within my rights to set whatever rules I want for my users.)
Right now, I have to whitelist my outbound mail servers with the large ISPs... which means that if I change hosting providers, I get to make the rounds again. It's a lot of duplicated effort by the major ISPs since they don't share server whitelists and a lot of duplicated effort for me.
SPF records allow me to publish, in a single spot, information about my outbound mail servers that the destination can use to determine likelihood of domain forgery. I can be as strict or as lax as I want in my SPF record, except that strictness will probably be rewarded by the community.
The other *big* benny is that it's a *decentralized* system, the SPF record is under the domain owner's control. No need to register in a central database, or pay somebody $$$/year. Destinations can choose to use or ignore the information.
I've run into some very slick voice recognition software -- some of it is in use on telephone navigation systems (rather than having to punch a number). Considering the world-wide nature of one company I found using this, it must be very reliable. (The person I finally ended up talking to said that the system rarely stumbles.)
Verizon Business Internet unit uses voice recognition for their first level of the help system. It asks for your account number (say or key it in) and then attempts to ask you about what sort of issue you are having. Pretty slick, although the voice unit is a bit slow with the script.
Basically, they've replaced their front-line call center as well as the first few minutes of every call with this system. I think you can even get simple information such as dial-up numbers, order status, etc with it.
Still keeps the reps off the phone for another few minutes per call (the "gathering information phase"), which probably pays for itself even without the call routing features.
If whoever had RTFA correctly they would have noticed that it did *not say the new star wars was 378TBs but instead said that in total that is what all the Mac workstations can hold. Conclusion - New Star Wars 378TB
Which isn't all that impressive at all... 378TB / 600 = 0.63TB (645GB) per workstation. Hell, I've got that in my video editing box (3 individual 250GB drives, each holds stuff at various stages of processing).
I also forgot to mention that the 3.0/768k is only avaliable in Verizon "East" areas, or the ex-Bell Atlantic areas, Verizon "West" areas or ex-GTE areas can not get this yet.
FYI, I live in an ex-GTE area and we're part of Verizon "North". (At least, the phone bills get made out to "Verizon North".)
Books aren't being edited like they once were. Major chains are giving shelf space to the next Harry Potter or Da Vinci Code, and don't have the time or energy to edit books that will have far smaller circulations. That being said, authors aren't coming up with work that is both intelligent and massively popular; the last example of that was probably Neuromancer, and maybe Snow Crash.
Um, Snow Crash was a prime example of a book that needed serious editing and reworking. Great concept, flawed execution. As much as I wanted to like it, the problems with the pacing / structure / editing of the story will keep that one in the "read once, throw away" category.
What's more, the CE-SATA standard isn't just about power reduction and connector size, but customizing SATA drives for the unique needs of personal multimedia players. From the article: "The proposed specification could reduce drives' emphasis on correcting errors, which matters much more for banking applications than for serving up video pixels...".
I wanna know what they're smoking if they think that media drives don't need error correcting capabilities. People already complain about CDs getting scratched, DVDs being rendered unusable by normal handling... those are both "media drives".
If the devices prove to be fragile, sales will tank as word gets around. People will get tired of constantly having to either reload data back onto the device or replacing the drive due to bad sectors.
As noted elsewhere... USB pen drives aren't quite cheap enough that you're willing to give them away. Maybe once the 128MB size drops below $5 and the 32MB cards are under $2. Other then that, they're much better the floppies were (but more akin to zip disks where you kept a jealous eye on your media).
Personally, I want a DVD-R type media in a hard plastic shell, about the size of the old 3.5" disks. But I think we're stuck with CD-style optical media for another decade.
Things get even worse when someone registers a domain like "ebay.it" or "citlbank.com". Even many close examinations would fail to note the problem in the URL.
Not to mention foolish companies who create a new top-level domain for every new service that they offer. (e.g. citibankrewards.com instead of rewards.citibank.com)
If I see "rewards.citibank.com", I'm going to be pretty confident that it's an official citibank site (and it also makes it easy to flag it in IE as a trusted area by just doing "*.citibank.com" in my security settings). But how do I know that "citibankrewards.com" is really part of citibank without examining the WHOIS or DNS data?
Dude, don't you watch any of those crime dramas? Digital zoom is the greatest thing since sliced bread. With digital zoom and special software you can enhance a single pixel into the killers face!
Law and Order is usually pretty good about not doing this or using technology for tech's sake. However, Crossing Jordan sometimes comes across as a tech ad, and there have been *numerous* occasions in the past season where they use some magic fairy dust to make tech do things.
But nothing beats the digital zoom magic that the Las Vegas show has. They're off in some fantasy world where the cameras are omniscient and you can change what the camera was looking at when you playback the tape *later on*.
Well, since James Bond's "Man's manness" has already been spoofed in the name of Austin Powers - maybe it's time for a Kirk spoof. . . oh wait, they dun did dat already. . . (can't even remember the NAME of that damn movie).
Galaxy Quest?
(I didn't see that, but the commercials looked like a star trek spoof...)
Yeah, but hard drives have been *stuck* at their current density for about a year now... 250GB and 300GB 3.5" drives have been out for a while now... where are the 500GB drives?
(Yes, I know there are 400GB drives around, but they're just putting more platters into a 250 or 300 enclosure.)
Which is why, for a measly $8, I still buy floppy drives to add to my homebuilt systems. (And if I wasn't fashion conscious, I could probably get a $4 beige one.)
I still find it simpler to install the O/S to the primary IDE interface (that and I have close to a dozen moderate sized IDE drives still). If swap or temporary file is an issue, then I attach a fast SATA and re-assign those functions.
I dunno about that... the rule of thumb for a mid-range PC used to be that every $1000 bought you a year of use (this is back in 1990ish). But ever since the late 90s, that rule of thumb has dropped to only $500/year. Maybe even as low as $300/year now.
It was pretty easy to spend $3k back in 1990 for a mid-range machine, but that price dropped to $1200-$1500 a few years ago and is holding pretty steady.
A good MB is $150, plus $300 for a CPU (anything more expensive is a rip-off for the amount of performance you'll get), and another $400 for 2GB of RAM. Case + misc components won't run you much more then $300, plus another $200 for a hard drive of some sort. Plus the windows tax of $135 (call it $150) and shipping costs of around $100.
I'm only up to $1600 (basically, a 2.4Ghz Opteron system with 2GB of ECC PC3200).
A good 19" CRT is only $300 or $600 for a good LCD. There are very good video cards in the $175-$250 range, or you can spend $400-$500 for the top of the line models. (Bit of a waste, but there you have it.)
So the final cost for a homebuilt gaming rig is somewhere between $2000 and $2700.
For a 17" LCD, I find 1280x1024 to be more than adequate, since I used to run my 17" CRT at 1024x768 and was happy. But to each his own.
I prefer my 14" laptop LCD at 1400x1050 (127ppi), with fonts set to large. Same amount of information on the screen (text-wise), but it's a hell of a lot crisper thanks to the extra pixels.
(Now if I could just get a 17" 1600x1200 LCD display...)
24fps for movies sucks, it's flickery as all get out.
(I'm hopeful that someday they'll switch to a 48fps standard, which can somewhat easily be adjusted for both 50Hz PAL and 60Hz NTSC.)
30fps for a first person view game is pretty close to the minimum acceptable. Try landing a plane in a flight sim at 10-20fps... it's a real PITA. Bump the fps up to 40-60 and it's a lot smoother. The other issue is that some game engines have glitches, where being able to reach a certain fps allows you to jump higher (Quake3 engine @ 125fps).
What makes you think these things happen any more in Walmart than other retailers (including "Mom & Pop" stores)?
It may, but with dozens of smaller stores, it's easier to vote with your feet or seek a job at one of the other stores.
Not so easy if your choice is only work at the mega store or be unemployed.
A bit over-the-top, but the basic point is that when too much power ends up in a single company's hands, consumers and workers usually end up with the short end of the stick.
Here's the simple solution. Ditch the high tech whizbang gift cards, and go back to good old-fashioned paper gift certificates. That would be simple and effective, so it will probably never happen.
Simpler would be:
1) Change the packaging on the gift cards so that they can't be swiped without obvious tampering.
2) Add a printed PIN code to the back of the card and treat them like you would a debit card where you have to enter a PIN to use it.
3) Don't do sequential runs of card numbers.
4) Along with #3, and for the more advanced LP schemes, toss "red flag" card numbers into the database.
Solution #1 would fix a *lot* of the issues, solution #2 would make it a bit better.
Paraphrased, Sam Waltons theory on setting prices is: everyone else charges the maxium possible; We charge the minimum possible to still survive.
Which is fine, so long as Wal*mart wasn't a huge chain with extremely large "buying power" over their suppliers. Before they got that big, they were just another fish in the pond and the suppliers could tell them to go "shove it" if they tried to bully down the price.
I refuse to shop there because they're too big and it's too much power concentrated into too few of hands. (Not to mention the other issues with their employee relations, attitudes towards suppliers, etc.)
I work for one of Wal-Mart's biggest competitors in Canada, and when we build a new store, every square inch of floor space is covered by a camera. About the only places NOT covered are bathrooms and changerooms.
All in all, it really doesn't surprise me.
About 10 years ago, the *cheapest* camera that you could buy was around $500-$1000. Plus the cable run ($500?) and the dedicated VCR ($100) and the tapes (probably another $50/yr). Needless to say, if you wanted 50 or 100 cameras in the store, it was a heck of a lot cheaper to only put in 10 and having 50+ empty bubbles.
Of course, given the wonders of the digital age, cameras now cost under $100 and the results can be stored in a digital format. Probably the only cost that hasn't changed is wiring or labor to install. And if the cameras work over ethernet, even wiring gets cheap if you can tap into an already existing network infrastructure.
Heck, a lot of camera systems are even full-color now because they have the bandwidth and storage for it.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm still waiting for Mozilla Mail to be more responsive to the mouse.
Start with the focus on another pane/window. Click on a message to select it, immediately shift-click on a message 3 or 4 down to select multiple messages... wait 2 seconds while the UI catches up and watch it clear your selection.
Worse, do the same thing and then mark multiple messages as junk. Watch it move all but one or two to the junk folder, or watch it move random messages to the junk folder.
(This with 1Gb of RAM and a P4M 1.6GHz CPU... I'm *not* starved for power here...)
Even when it gets to be 32-35C here in my home office, my AthlonXP 2600+ never goes over 57C and internal case temperatures are in the 40-45C range. You've got something wrong if your CPU temp is over 60C under that sort of heat wave.
For the record, I have a large copper heatsink installed, with a teeny tiny dab of Arctic Silver (overkill), and a 120mm fan running at 2000rpm attached via an adapter collar.
I think your heatsink is installed incorrectly (or too much thermal paste).
The central concept of reverse-MX solutions is this:
For a domain that I own, I'm allowed in my DNS records to specifically list what servers handle my inbound e-mail traffic (MX records). So why can't I do the same for outbound mail? Right now, I have zero control over my outbound mail flow and no way to tell the world at large what my outbound mail policy is. Anyone can forge my domain on their e-mail, send it from a random IP (*not* under the control of my network), and there's zilch I can do about it.
(Remember, this is a domain that I *own* and that the other folks on the internet would prefer that I take responsibility for. Since I own it, it's perfectly within my rights to set whatever rules I want for my users.)
Right now, I have to whitelist my outbound mail servers with the large ISPs... which means that if I change hosting providers, I get to make the rounds again. It's a lot of duplicated effort by the major ISPs since they don't share server whitelists and a lot of duplicated effort for me.
SPF records allow me to publish, in a single spot, information about my outbound mail servers that the destination can use to determine likelihood of domain forgery. I can be as strict or as lax as I want in my SPF record, except that strictness will probably be rewarded by the community.
The other *big* benny is that it's a *decentralized* system, the SPF record is under the domain owner's control. No need to register in a central database, or pay somebody $$$/year. Destinations can choose to use or ignore the information.
I've run into some very slick voice recognition software -- some of it is in use on telephone navigation systems (rather than having to punch a number). Considering the world-wide nature of one company I found using this, it must be very reliable. (The person I finally ended up talking to said that the system rarely stumbles.)
Verizon Business Internet unit uses voice recognition for their first level of the help system. It asks for your account number (say or key it in) and then attempts to ask you about what sort of issue you are having. Pretty slick, although the voice unit is a bit slow with the script.
Basically, they've replaced their front-line call center as well as the first few minutes of every call with this system. I think you can even get simple information such as dial-up numbers, order status, etc with it.
Still keeps the reps off the phone for another few minutes per call (the "gathering information phase"), which probably pays for itself even without the call routing features.
If whoever had RTFA correctly they would have noticed that it did *not say the new star wars was 378TBs but instead said that in total that is what all the Mac workstations can hold. Conclusion - New Star Wars 378TB
Which isn't all that impressive at all... 378TB / 600 = 0.63TB (645GB) per workstation. Hell, I've got that in my video editing box (3 individual 250GB drives, each holds stuff at various stages of processing).
I also forgot to mention that the 3.0/768k is only avaliable in Verizon "East" areas, or the ex-Bell Atlantic areas, Verizon "West" areas or ex-GTE areas can not get this yet.
FYI, I live in an ex-GTE area and we're part of Verizon "North". (At least, the phone bills get made out to "Verizon North".)
Books aren't being edited like they once were. Major chains are giving shelf space to the next Harry Potter or Da Vinci Code, and don't have the time or energy to edit books that will have far smaller circulations. That being said, authors aren't coming up with work that is both intelligent and massively popular; the last example of that was probably Neuromancer, and maybe Snow Crash.
Um, Snow Crash was a prime example of a book that needed serious editing and reworking. Great concept, flawed execution. As much as I wanted to like it, the problems with the pacing / structure / editing of the story will keep that one in the "read once, throw away" category.
What's more, the CE-SATA standard isn't just about power reduction and connector size, but customizing SATA drives for the unique needs of personal multimedia players. From the article: "The proposed specification could reduce drives' emphasis on correcting errors, which matters much more for banking applications than for serving up video pixels...".
I wanna know what they're smoking if they think that media drives don't need error correcting capabilities. People already complain about CDs getting scratched, DVDs being rendered unusable by normal handling... those are both "media drives".
If the devices prove to be fragile, sales will tank as word gets around. People will get tired of constantly having to either reload data back onto the device or replacing the drive due to bad sectors.
As noted elsewhere... USB pen drives aren't quite cheap enough that you're willing to give them away. Maybe once the 128MB size drops below $5 and the 32MB cards are under $2. Other then that, they're much better the floppies were (but more akin to zip disks where you kept a jealous eye on your media).
Personally, I want a DVD-R type media in a hard plastic shell, about the size of the old 3.5" disks. But I think we're stuck with CD-style optical media for another decade.
Darn, I was hoping it was some obscure math joke that I could learn about.
Why 7337?
I could understand 1337...
Things get even worse when someone registers a domain like "ebay.it" or "citlbank.com". Even many close examinations would fail to note the problem in the URL.
Not to mention foolish companies who create a new top-level domain for every new service that they offer. (e.g. citibankrewards.com instead of rewards.citibank.com)
If I see "rewards.citibank.com", I'm going to be pretty confident that it's an official citibank site (and it also makes it easy to flag it in IE as a trusted area by just doing "*.citibank.com" in my security settings). But how do I know that "citibankrewards.com" is really part of citibank without examining the WHOIS or DNS data?
Just my pet nit... careful, it's teething.
From the makers of Return to Castle Wolfenstein!
Call of Duty wasn't made by those folks... but the CoD:United Offensive expansion (releasing next week) is.
Dude, don't you watch any of those crime dramas? Digital zoom is the greatest thing since sliced bread. With digital zoom and special software you can enhance a single pixel into the killers face!
Law and Order is usually pretty good about not doing this or using technology for tech's sake. However, Crossing Jordan sometimes comes across as a tech ad, and there have been *numerous* occasions in the past season where they use some magic fairy dust to make tech do things.
But nothing beats the digital zoom magic that the Las Vegas show has. They're off in some fantasy world where the cameras are omniscient and you can change what the camera was looking at when you playback the tape *later on*.
Well, since James Bond's "Man's manness" has already been spoofed in the name of Austin Powers - maybe it's time for a Kirk spoof. . . oh wait, they dun did dat already. . . (can't even remember the NAME of that damn movie).
Galaxy Quest?
(I didn't see that, but the commercials looked like a star trek spoof...)
Yeah, but hard drives have been *stuck* at their current density for about a year now... 250GB and 300GB 3.5" drives have been out for a while now... where are the 500GB drives?
(Yes, I know there are 400GB drives around, but they're just putting more platters into a 250 or 300 enclosure.)
/shrug
Which is why, for a measly $8, I still buy floppy drives to add to my homebuilt systems. (And if I wasn't fashion conscious, I could probably get a $4 beige one.)
I still find it simpler to install the O/S to the primary IDE interface (that and I have close to a dozen moderate sized IDE drives still). If swap or temporary file is an issue, then I attach a fast SATA and re-assign those functions.
And that's why I don't have cable and have never bothered with pay-per-view or on-demand services.
My price point for something that I can only watch in a 4 hour window is $1.00, maybe $2.00 if I can watch it again and again over the next 48 hours.
Any price higher then that and I'll go to the local video rental where I have 10x the selection for about the same cost.
Sometimes I wonder what they're smoking when they come up with these pricing plans. It's probably MPAA fees.
$4200 used to be a more common price
I dunno about that... the rule of thumb for a mid-range PC used to be that every $1000 bought you a year of use (this is back in 1990ish). But ever since the late 90s, that rule of thumb has dropped to only $500/year. Maybe even as low as $300/year now.
It was pretty easy to spend $3k back in 1990 for a mid-range machine, but that price dropped to $1200-$1500 a few years ago and is holding pretty steady.
A good MB is $150, plus $300 for a CPU (anything more expensive is a rip-off for the amount of performance you'll get), and another $400 for 2GB of RAM. Case + misc components won't run you much more then $300, plus another $200 for a hard drive of some sort. Plus the windows tax of $135 (call it $150) and shipping costs of around $100.
I'm only up to $1600 (basically, a 2.4Ghz Opteron system with 2GB of ECC PC3200).
A good 19" CRT is only $300 or $600 for a good LCD. There are very good video cards in the $175-$250 range, or you can spend $400-$500 for the top of the line models. (Bit of a waste, but there you have it.)
So the final cost for a homebuilt gaming rig is somewhere between $2000 and $2700.
For a 17" LCD, I find 1280x1024 to be more than adequate, since I used to run my 17" CRT at 1024x768 and was happy. But to each his own.
I prefer my 14" laptop LCD at 1400x1050 (127ppi), with fonts set to large. Same amount of information on the screen (text-wise), but it's a hell of a lot crisper thanks to the extra pixels.
(Now if I could just get a 17" 1600x1200 LCD display...)
24fps for movies sucks, it's flickery as all get out.
(I'm hopeful that someday they'll switch to a 48fps standard, which can somewhat easily be adjusted for both 50Hz PAL and 60Hz NTSC.)
30fps for a first person view game is pretty close to the minimum acceptable. Try landing a plane in a flight sim at 10-20fps... it's a real PITA. Bump the fps up to 40-60 and it's a lot smoother. The other issue is that some game engines have glitches, where being able to reach a certain fps allows you to jump higher (Quake3 engine @ 125fps).
What makes you think these things happen any more in Walmart than other retailers (including "Mom & Pop" stores)?
It may, but with dozens of smaller stores, it's easier to vote with your feet or seek a job at one of the other stores.
Not so easy if your choice is only work at the mega store or be unemployed.
A bit over-the-top, but the basic point is that when too much power ends up in a single company's hands, consumers and workers usually end up with the short end of the stick.
Here's the simple solution. Ditch the high tech whizbang gift cards, and go back to good old-fashioned paper gift certificates. That would be simple and effective, so it will probably never happen.
Simpler would be:
1) Change the packaging on the gift cards so that they can't be swiped without obvious tampering.
2) Add a printed PIN code to the back of the card and treat them like you would a debit card where you have to enter a PIN to use it.
3) Don't do sequential runs of card numbers.
4) Along with #3, and for the more advanced LP schemes, toss "red flag" card numbers into the database.
Solution #1 would fix a *lot* of the issues, solution #2 would make it a bit better.
Paraphrased, Sam Waltons theory on setting prices is: everyone else charges the maxium possible; We charge the minimum possible to still survive.
Which is fine, so long as Wal*mart wasn't a huge chain with extremely large "buying power" over their suppliers. Before they got that big, they were just another fish in the pond and the suppliers could tell them to go "shove it" if they tried to bully down the price.
I refuse to shop there because they're too big and it's too much power concentrated into too few of hands. (Not to mention the other issues with their employee relations, attitudes towards suppliers, etc.)
I work for one of Wal-Mart's biggest competitors in Canada, and when we build a new store, every square inch of floor space is covered by a camera. About the only places NOT covered are bathrooms and changerooms.
All in all, it really doesn't surprise me.
About 10 years ago, the *cheapest* camera that you could buy was around $500-$1000. Plus the cable run ($500?) and the dedicated VCR ($100) and the tapes (probably another $50/yr). Needless to say, if you wanted 50 or 100 cameras in the store, it was a heck of a lot cheaper to only put in 10 and having 50+ empty bubbles.
Of course, given the wonders of the digital age, cameras now cost under $100 and the results can be stored in a digital format. Probably the only cost that hasn't changed is wiring or labor to install. And if the cameras work over ethernet, even wiring gets cheap if you can tap into an already existing network infrastructure.
Heck, a lot of camera systems are even full-color now because they have the bandwidth and storage for it.