Sun supporters always come back with: "Ya, but thats list price!, nobody pays list price!" WTF? If no one pays that price, they why do you list it? Fuck that, Ill take Dells iddiot-proof web shopping cart thing any day of the week and twice on Sunday over talking to a Sun sales droid.
Agreed, that's the other half of the equation. Dell's price on the website is the price. None of this nonsense where you have to threaten the salesperson in order to get the best price. If I want to play "guess the price", it isn't going to be over commoditized products like hardware or software.
ACDsee, a well-known and, at one time, free, image viewing and organising app, supports metadata. It puts it in a "descript.ion" text file in each directory
Correction, it used to.
ACDSee 3.1 was quite intelligent, if it found DESCRIPT.ION files, it would automatically load the comments in. When you moved files to another folder, it would automatically create a new DESCRIPT.ION file in the destination folder.
Nice and simple, ne?
But, oh no, that's not good enough for the bright folks at ACDSee. Instead with version 6, you have to manually tell ACDSee to import information out of a DESCRIPT.ION file and manually tell it to export information to a DESCRIPT.ION file.
ACDSee does this. The user still has to go in and identify Suzie by hand of course (at least until they get that pesky telepathic interface worked out) but once done, it doesn't matter where the photo is as long as it is in ACDSee's database you can search by wedding, niece or Suzie.
Except that you're screwed if you move the image to another folder without using ACDSee, or access the files from another computer across the network, or you rebuild your PC. ACDSee is like an informational black hole.
Database-centric solutions where the image is not stored in the database are extremely fragile and prone to failure. As you said, metadata belongs in the data file (e.g. MP3 ID3 tags, which work wonderfully). Second best is to put metadata in the file system, but SAMBA/Windows Networking doesn't support that across the network. Least best is storing metadata in a database that is decoupled from the files.
(I've used ACDSee for a number of years.)
AFAIK, JPEG files have always had the capability of storing textual information within optional blocks. The problem is that most editing programs discard those blocks when they load the image.
There is a huge shift right now in several major companies to build servers with Dell rather than Sun/Solaris. I know a few companies that seem to be ordering 2650's by the truck load these days.
I'll tell you one reason why I'm more likely to buy a Dell for a server:
Web site ease of use.
On the Dell site, it's easy enough to change the configuration around to figure out what your final costs are going to be. Nothing seems "hidden" with regards to what your options are. It only takes me a few minutes to spec out a machine on a "what if" basis.
Most other online stores force me to pick from pre-configured packages, and they do a good job of hiding details about the configurations so I'm not sure what I'll finally end up with.
You're not the only person - the copy protection schemes on the SimCity4 and the CallOfDuty CD seem to be extremely flaky and don't care for my DVD-ROM drive. When starting up those games, 50-50 odds that I'm going to have to reboot (power down / power up).
It's enough that I've started looking into the No-CD cracks (or figure out how to mount the CD in a virtual drive).
Exactly, without negative/positive feedback that's targeted at improving their writing skills, the majority of people will never improve their writing. Most folks are lazy and without external input will do nothing to change.
Indeed, the opposite will happen if their peers give positive feedback for conforming to the bad spelling/grammer (a.k.a. slang) of the group.
actually if they did find infringing code in windows nt they could still sue ibm. windows nt is a derivitive of os/2. when microsoft and ibm broke up microsoft took it's share of the code and called it windows nt. I'm shure that there is some code in there contributed by ibm.
No, WindowsNT is not based on OS/2.
WindowsNT was written from the ground up by some folks that were hired away from DEC. (Some would argue that was its finest hour and it's all been downhill since then once the rest of MS got involved.)
What you're thinking of is the OS/2 1.3 compatibility box/layer that Microsoft included in WinNT 3.x so that customers could run OS/2 1.3 (text-mode only) applications without a recompile.
Storing GPS data in each photo seems like overkill to me. If the subject is distant, like a mountain, the lat/lon won't really convey what you want.
Or add in a simple compass to the camera to record the approximate direction that you were facing when you took the picture. +/- 10 degree accuracy would be plenty.
Actually I like the idea that a photo would be automatically tagged with GPS data along with the date/time/direction facing. I envision a news / historical service where the public can submit images that they choose. With the GPS / time information, it would be easy to pull up related images.
I also wonder if it could be used as some sort of digital signature system where you would have proof that you did indeed take that exact photo at that time and that it hasn't been altered.
This is not a bad idea, make it a separate driving test with more rigourous standards for driving a vehicle over a certain weight. I mean these heavy, high centre of gravity SUV's do require a different set of driving skills to my little ford excort. Reverse parking is a lot more difficult, stopping in a short distance etc., how to prevent roll-over. This has the added advantage of not discriminating to much against the tradesmen and farmers etc. that require pick-up trucks (and the reason trucks and SUV originally were given tax-breaks) once you have the licence your free to drive your SUV, just that you have to get the licence first.
It'll never happen in the US - either the Auto Industry lobbyists or the Auto Union lobbyists would kill any such idea. They want every possible loophole they can get to sell high-profit SUVs.
I submit that the old guy I saw this morning doing 35 mph along the highway, a 65 mph zone, in the center lane no less, was much more of a threat than the guy who passed me on the left hand side (and was obviously speeding since I was moving at or slightly over the limit). People were slamming on their brakes and swerving to get around him, etc..
Around here, he'd be breaking the minimum speed traffic law (in a 55 mph zone, minimum speed allowed is 40 mph, and you'd better have flashers on).
I do agree with you in principle. Rather than a $500 dollar doohickey that tells me when someone is in my blind spot, give me drivers who are smart enough NOT to drive in my blind spot. Hell, it's second nature to me. Pass or back off, shit or get off the pot.. Riding slightly behind and to the side of another vehicle (especially a truck) is just a stupid thing to do.
The most dangerous situation (and frustrating to drivers, which leads to stupid stunts) is traffic where two lanes are in lock-step with each other. Where you're stuck next the same vehicle in the other lane for miles at a time. It breeds complacency because the situation seems to be unchanging, and frustration/danger because there's no way to pass or change lanes.
Good traffic is where the left lane is moving slightly faster then the right lane so that people can change lanes without having to do crazy stuff.
If getting a driver's license were even a fraction as difficult as this, we simply wouldn't have most of the problems we do now. But then everyone would complain about how they "need" a car to get to work, go shopping, etc., and that this would be unfair to people who couldn't get a license. It's unfair to let incompetent people pilot a 6000-lb. weapon??
A few small holes in the theory... airplanes are fairly easily controlled. They can only take-off/land at certain locations (bush planes/pilots not included), they're expensive (nobody sells a $250 plane), and ATC keeps a pretty close eye on anything in the air. In short, much easier to keep an eye on pilots.
Cars, OTOH, can be driven by anybody. You can get away without having a license until you get stopped by a cop. Tags and registration OTOH are a help because they can be checked without stopping the car.
Still, I agree with you that drivers licenses should be a bit more stringent. Written exam at every renewal, quick parking-lot driving test every renewal or a random road-test. Mandatory drivers-ed refresh training if you fail prior to being able to take the tests again (but with a 30-day probationary license for the duration). Ages 16-21 should require annual testing, 65+ should require bi/tri-annual testing unless you start failing often in which case you'd have to come in annually.
In general the well-meant trend towards "safer" vehicles has resulted in faster, less attentive drivers, the result being *less* safety for everyone that's not in a metal cage. But of course, nobody notices, because bike/ped accidents don't make a serious dent in the statistics, because--guess what--more people have just given up on getting around under their own power entirely....
Anti-darwin effects... the more stupid people are protected from their stupidity, the stupider that the general population will become (on average). Half the time, it's not because the person is stupid -- it's because they can get away with being stupid without consequences.
Sometimes you have to wonder whether it's really in society's best long-term intrests to keep stupid folks from offing themselves.
Case in point, on a PalmOS Smartphone, the dialer, the call history, and the address book are separate apps. If you call my phone, and I want to save your number to my address book, I have to: 1) End the call (which is an app), 2) Switch to the call history app and look up the call, 3) Select "copy this number to address book" which inserts the number as a nameless record into the addressbook database, 4) Close call history app by switching to the PalmOS app menu, 5) Select the addressbook app, 5) Find the number and edit it.
Huh, not on my Kyocera QCP6035 PalmOS "smart phone". The phone easily flips between phone/palm mode just by flipping open the keypad. If I want to look something up while on the phone, I either use a headphone or change it to speakerphone mode temporarily.
That could be slimmed way down to: 1) Click "Save this number to addressbook" during the call, which would pop up the addressbook app's new entry form with the current call's number already inserted into it, 2) Enter name / make changes and save.
Hmmm, and I open up my Call History application, scroll down to a phone call from today, click on it and I get (3) options:
- Create address book entry
- Update address book entry
- Create expense record
Dunno what phone you're using, but the Kyocera got it right.
I did a little back-of-the-envelope calculation last week on data security. Basically, if you want secure data, you have to dedicate at least 2GB for every 1Gb of data that you are not willing to lose. More realistic is a 3:1 figure.
2:1 backup to a 2nd disk (10Gb+10Gb), protection against corruption, accidental/malicious deletion/changes or primary disk failure, but requires rebuild of the system.
2.2:1 RAID5 and backup to a 2nd disk (2Gbx6+10Gb), protection against disk failure, still no protection against corruption / deletion / changes, 2.4:1 if you have a hot-spare
3:1 RAID1 and backup to a 2nd disk (10Gb+10Gb, 10Gb), same as RAID5 solution, just a bit less efficient
5.4:1 RAID5 w/ backup to (3) rotated backup drives (2Gbx6+hotspare, 10Gbx3), closest to full security
And of course, all of that ignores the usage of various removable media types (tape / DVD-R) for archival storage, which is a different calculation.
And yes, I know that I could double the cost by buying a second drive to mirror the first, but doing that is noisy and hot. And I'd still have to replace one every times one fails.
Your data, your choice, but I don't think you'd find a 5400 rpm quiet drive to be noisy and hot. 5400rpm drives are great for external USB cases. And typically, the models with 8Mb cache have the 3 year warranty instead of the 1 year warranty on the 2Mb cache models.
Better put a lawyer on retainer with that plan, because guaranteed that you'll be the one left holding the bag should the cops come knocking about kiddie porn, warez, cracker attacks, etc.
So, the spammers have to keep (and update) a word list for EVERY PERSON on their lists.
That's one of the strengths of pushing bayesian filtering to as close to the final recipient as possible. Millions of customized bayesian scoring databases are much more difficult to defeat then a single centralized database. Bayesian databases are pretty much maintenance free, as long as the junk/not-junk/might-be user-interface is intuitive and makes life as easy for the user as possible.
There is some value in putting the bayesian filtering at a workgroup level, where it helps that there's a bit of shared knowledge and everyone in the group pretty much agrees on their personal definition of what is/isn't spam. However, once you get past around 10-25 people, I'd say that bayesian is going to start becoming ineffective due to either over-zealous users, or overly-broad ham/spam classifications.
What I'd be interested in is a bayesian that works both on the individual level and the workgroup level. With some sort of flag/switch/setting that tells the engine how much to consider the workgroup database as opposed to my personal database. This would be useful when adding a new member to the group, initially they'd rely heavily on the groups opinion as to what is ham/spam, but as time goes on it would adapt to their choices (as well as the group database slowly adapting to everyone elses).
Personally, I drink nothing but instant - why? Because I only need to make a mug at a time, and it's easier to toss the mug in the microwave for 2 minutes to heat the water then dump in instant. My current preference is Tasters Choice, followed by Folgers and I usually switch between the two every few weeks. Maxwell House has an "off" taste to me, it doesn't get strong enough like Folgers/TC. I'm also a fan of the instant flavored creamers.
One suggestion is that if you really want to maintain an even flow through the day - only allow yourself two cups/mugs of coffee per day. One in the morning, the other at lunch. The rest of the day, if you want coffee, switch to decaf. You'll find there's still a bit of caffeine in the cup and the sugar (if you take it) will help out a bit. End result is you'll still be awake from the smell of coffee, but without being a wired-out java-freak.
I used to carry my palmpilot around, not just for numbers but also for the datebook, pocket Quicken, and to do list. But I despise having my pockets bulge with electronics, so I started using the datebook on the phone for reminders. Usually this involves entering the info in my palmpilot and then beaming it to the phone, because it's easier to enter. I don't do this often, though, because the datebook and to do list on the phone are very cumbersome.
I have had my eye on the phone/palmpilot combos for some time, but none of them have a decent battery life.
I ended up with the Kyocera QCP6035 (Cell phone with palm OS) a few years ago. Bit big for a phone, but nice not having to carry the Palm PDA as well.
Battery life is quite decent, on standby I can get about a week before it's time to recharge (original battery, probably getting old). Or, with moderate usage, a day or four until I have to plug it in again. Rarely an issue, because when I plug into the hands-free adapter in the car, the battery gets charged up at the same time (or when I put it in the cradle to sync, I just let it sit for an hour or three).
However, if this one breaks, I'm gonna be SOL because my carrier doesn't have a replacement model (their only PDA/cellphone is WinCE... junky and not compatible with my Palm apps).
The cell phone market is slowly evolving, just as the automobile market did.
In the beginning, cars were simple and unreliable. Then lots of extra fancy features got added, but the cars were still unreliable. Finally, the cars got reliable, and now you can get them with or without the fancy features.
Agreed, but we're still in a state of flux with regards to the underlying technology. (2.5G, 3G, 4G?) I know it's gonna come back to haunt me, but I'd say we're probably still one more generation away from a "good enough" system.
And because the cell networks are changing every few years anyway, you're pretty much required to get a new phone every 3-5 years. That's a bit of a push against making the phones reliable instead of cheap/disposable.
So until we hit the point where the underlying tech is pretty stable (e.g. it won't change for 20 years), consumers aren't really going to be looking for long-lasting phones. (Well, they might think they want them, but since they have to change phones so frequently, it's moot.)
I'm guessing that's primarily due to the low-dpi of a computer monitor?
Hopefully that will improve rapidly (e.g. the IBM high-dpi displays). My current laptop is 128dpi, and my next one is around 140dpi. 200-250dpi is what I'm hoping for as a reasonable "good enough" resolution. For a 15" laptop screen, that would be 2048x1536 or 3072x2304 on a 19" CRT.
Slashdot Mirror
Eh. I've got a 15" LCD that does 1600x1200.
What make/model is that? Most of the 15" ones that I've seen are lucky if they're 1280x1024.
Sun supporters always come back with: "Ya, but thats list price!, nobody pays list price!" WTF? If no one pays that price, they why do you list it? Fuck that, Ill take Dells iddiot-proof web shopping cart thing any day of the week and twice on Sunday over talking to a Sun sales droid.
Agreed, that's the other half of the equation. Dell's price on the website is the price. None of this nonsense where you have to threaten the salesperson in order to get the best price. If I want to play "guess the price", it isn't going to be over commoditized products like hardware or software.
ACDsee, a well-known and, at one time, free, image viewing and organising app, supports metadata. It puts it in a "descript.ion" text file in each directory
Correction, it used to.
ACDSee 3.1 was quite intelligent, if it found DESCRIPT.ION files, it would automatically load the comments in. When you moved files to another folder, it would automatically create a new DESCRIPT.ION file in the destination folder.
Nice and simple, ne?
But, oh no, that's not good enough for the bright folks at ACDSee. Instead with version 6, you have to manually tell ACDSee to import information out of a DESCRIPT.ION file and manually tell it to export information to a DESCRIPT.ION file.
Not so nice and very complex, ne?
ACDSee does this. The user still has to go in and identify Suzie by hand of course (at least until they get that pesky telepathic interface worked out) but once done, it doesn't matter where the photo is as long as it is in ACDSee's database you can search by wedding, niece or Suzie.
Except that you're screwed if you move the image to another folder without using ACDSee, or access the files from another computer across the network, or you rebuild your PC. ACDSee is like an informational black hole.
Database-centric solutions where the image is not stored in the database are extremely fragile and prone to failure. As you said, metadata belongs in the data file (e.g. MP3 ID3 tags, which work wonderfully). Second best is to put metadata in the file system, but SAMBA/Windows Networking doesn't support that across the network. Least best is storing metadata in a database that is decoupled from the files.
(I've used ACDSee for a number of years.)
AFAIK, JPEG files have always had the capability of storing textual information within optional blocks. The problem is that most editing programs discard those blocks when they load the image.
There is a huge shift right now in several major companies to build servers with Dell rather than Sun/Solaris. I know a few companies that seem to be ordering 2650's by the truck load these days.
I'll tell you one reason why I'm more likely to buy a Dell for a server:
Web site ease of use.
On the Dell site, it's easy enough to change the configuration around to figure out what your final costs are going to be. Nothing seems "hidden" with regards to what your options are. It only takes me a few minutes to spec out a machine on a "what if" basis.
Most other online stores force me to pick from pre-configured packages, and they do a good job of hiding details about the configurations so I'm not sure what I'll finally end up with.
You're not the only person - the copy protection schemes on the SimCity4 and the CallOfDuty CD seem to be extremely flaky and don't care for my DVD-ROM drive. When starting up those games, 50-50 odds that I'm going to have to reboot (power down / power up).
It's enough that I've started looking into the No-CD cracks (or figure out how to mount the CD in a virtual drive).
Google is a much better dictionary than dictionary.com -- extremely fast, smarter suggested alternatives, and no pop-ups.
Dictionary.com has pop-ups? Where? Oh, wait... I'm using Firebird!
The bigger advantage of Google for me is (a) it loads faster and (b) Firebird has a little Google search box.
The moderation system definitely rewards humor.
If the help file is to be believed, +Funny no longer gains you karma.
That's from Jun2003 (and yes, I realize that other FAQ entries still indicate that +Funny gains you karma).
Exactly, without negative/positive feedback that's targeted at improving their writing skills, the majority of people will never improve their writing. Most folks are lazy and without external input will do nothing to change.
Indeed, the opposite will happen if their peers give positive feedback for conforming to the bad spelling/grammer (a.k.a. slang) of the group.
actually if they did find infringing code in windows nt they could still sue ibm. windows nt is a derivitive of os/2. when microsoft and ibm broke up microsoft took it's share of the code and called it windows nt. I'm shure that there is some code in there contributed by ibm.
No, WindowsNT is not based on OS/2.
WindowsNT was written from the ground up by some folks that were hired away from DEC. (Some would argue that was its finest hour and it's all been downhill since then once the rest of MS got involved.)
What you're thinking of is the OS/2 1.3 compatibility box/layer that Microsoft included in WinNT 3.x so that customers could run OS/2 1.3 (text-mode only) applications without a recompile.
Storing GPS data in each photo seems like overkill to me. If the subject is distant, like a mountain, the lat/lon won't really convey what you want.
Or add in a simple compass to the camera to record the approximate direction that you were facing when you took the picture. +/- 10 degree accuracy would be plenty.
Actually I like the idea that a photo would be automatically tagged with GPS data along with the date/time/direction facing. I envision a news / historical service where the public can submit images that they choose. With the GPS / time information, it would be easy to pull up related images.
I also wonder if it could be used as some sort of digital signature system where you would have proof that you did indeed take that exact photo at that time and that it hasn't been altered.
This is not a bad idea, make it a separate driving test with more rigourous standards for driving a vehicle over a certain weight. I mean these heavy, high centre of gravity SUV's do require a different set of driving skills to my little ford excort. Reverse parking is a lot more difficult, stopping in a short distance etc., how to prevent roll-over. This has the added advantage of not discriminating to much against the tradesmen and farmers etc. that require pick-up trucks (and the reason trucks and SUV originally were given tax-breaks) once you have the licence your free to drive your SUV, just that you have to get the licence first.
It'll never happen in the US - either the Auto Industry lobbyists or the Auto Union lobbyists would kill any such idea. They want every possible loophole they can get to sell high-profit SUVs.
I submit that the old guy I saw this morning doing 35 mph along the highway, a 65 mph zone, in the center lane no less, was much more of a threat than the guy who passed me on the left hand side (and was obviously speeding since I was moving at or slightly over the limit). People were slamming on their brakes and swerving to get around him, etc..
Around here, he'd be breaking the minimum speed traffic law (in a 55 mph zone, minimum speed allowed is 40 mph, and you'd better have flashers on).
I do agree with you in principle. Rather than a $500 dollar doohickey that tells me when someone is in my blind spot, give me drivers who are smart enough NOT to drive in my blind spot. Hell, it's second nature to me. Pass or back off, shit or get off the pot.. Riding slightly behind and to the side of another vehicle (especially a truck) is just a stupid thing to do.
The most dangerous situation (and frustrating to drivers, which leads to stupid stunts) is traffic where two lanes are in lock-step with each other. Where you're stuck next the same vehicle in the other lane for miles at a time. It breeds complacency because the situation seems to be unchanging, and frustration/danger because there's no way to pass or change lanes.
Good traffic is where the left lane is moving slightly faster then the right lane so that people can change lanes without having to do crazy stuff.
If getting a driver's license were even a fraction as difficult as this, we simply wouldn't have most of the problems we do now. But then everyone would complain about how they "need" a car to get to work, go shopping, etc., and that this would be unfair to people who couldn't get a license. It's unfair to let incompetent people pilot a 6000-lb. weapon??
A few small holes in the theory... airplanes are fairly easily controlled. They can only take-off/land at certain locations (bush planes/pilots not included), they're expensive (nobody sells a $250 plane), and ATC keeps a pretty close eye on anything in the air. In short, much easier to keep an eye on pilots.
Cars, OTOH, can be driven by anybody. You can get away without having a license until you get stopped by a cop. Tags and registration OTOH are a help because they can be checked without stopping the car.
Still, I agree with you that drivers licenses should be a bit more stringent. Written exam at every renewal, quick parking-lot driving test every renewal or a random road-test. Mandatory drivers-ed refresh training if you fail prior to being able to take the tests again (but with a 30-day probationary license for the duration). Ages 16-21 should require annual testing, 65+ should require bi/tri-annual testing unless you start failing often in which case you'd have to come in annually.
In general the well-meant trend towards "safer" vehicles has resulted in faster, less attentive drivers, the result being *less* safety for everyone that's not in a metal cage. But of course, nobody notices, because bike/ped accidents don't make a serious dent in the statistics, because--guess what--more people have just given up on getting around under their own power entirely....
Anti-darwin effects... the more stupid people are protected from their stupidity, the stupider that the general population will become (on average). Half the time, it's not because the person is stupid -- it's because they can get away with being stupid without consequences.
Sometimes you have to wonder whether it's really in society's best long-term intrests to keep stupid folks from offing themselves.
Yeah, but M2 doesn't work.
Well, that's rather broad - what, in particular, doesn't work in the meta-mod system?
(Other then possibly the fact that I get meta-mod points just about every other day?)
Case in point, on a PalmOS Smartphone, the dialer, the call history, and the address book are separate apps. If you call my phone, and I want to save your number to my address book, I have to: 1) End the call (which is an app), 2) Switch to the call history app and look up the call, 3) Select "copy this number to address book" which inserts the number as a nameless record into the addressbook database, 4) Close call history app by switching to the PalmOS app menu, 5) Select the addressbook app, 5) Find the number and edit it.
Huh, not on my Kyocera QCP6035 PalmOS "smart phone". The phone easily flips between phone/palm mode just by flipping open the keypad. If I want to look something up while on the phone, I either use a headphone or change it to speakerphone mode temporarily.
That could be slimmed way down to: 1) Click "Save this number to addressbook" during the call, which would pop up the addressbook app's new entry form with the current call's number already inserted into it, 2) Enter name / make changes and save.
Hmmm, and I open up my Call History application, scroll down to a phone call from today, click on it and I get (3) options:
- Create address book entry
- Update address book entry
- Create expense record
Dunno what phone you're using, but the Kyocera got it right.
I did a little back-of-the-envelope calculation last week on data security. Basically, if you want secure data, you have to dedicate at least 2GB for every 1Gb of data that you are not willing to lose. More realistic is a 3:1 figure.
2:1 backup to a 2nd disk (10Gb+10Gb), protection against corruption, accidental/malicious deletion/changes or primary disk failure, but requires rebuild of the system.
2.2:1 RAID5 and backup to a 2nd disk (2Gbx6+10Gb), protection against disk failure, still no protection against corruption / deletion / changes, 2.4:1 if you have a hot-spare
3:1 RAID1 and backup to a 2nd disk (10Gb+10Gb, 10Gb), same as RAID5 solution, just a bit less efficient
5.4:1 RAID5 w/ backup to (3) rotated backup drives (2Gbx6+hotspare, 10Gbx3), closest to full security
And of course, all of that ignores the usage of various removable media types (tape / DVD-R) for archival storage, which is a different calculation.
And yes, I know that I could double the cost by buying a second drive to mirror the first, but doing that is noisy and hot. And I'd still have to replace one every times one fails.
Your data, your choice, but I don't think you'd find a 5400 rpm quiet drive to be noisy and hot. 5400rpm drives are great for external USB cases. And typically, the models with 8Mb cache have the 3 year warranty instead of the 1 year warranty on the 2Mb cache models.
Better put a lawyer on retainer with that plan, because guaranteed that you'll be the one left holding the bag should the cops come knocking about kiddie porn, warez, cracker attacks, etc.
What might work would be a 3.5" bay CD-RW that could read/write the 8cm mini-CDs. Bonus points if it also can handle the mini-DVD media.
So, the spammers have to keep (and update) a word list for EVERY PERSON on their lists.
That's one of the strengths of pushing bayesian filtering to as close to the final recipient as possible. Millions of customized bayesian scoring databases are much more difficult to defeat then a single centralized database. Bayesian databases are pretty much maintenance free, as long as the junk/not-junk/might-be user-interface is intuitive and makes life as easy for the user as possible.
There is some value in putting the bayesian filtering at a workgroup level, where it helps that there's a bit of shared knowledge and everyone in the group pretty much agrees on their personal definition of what is/isn't spam. However, once you get past around 10-25 people, I'd say that bayesian is going to start becoming ineffective due to either over-zealous users, or overly-broad ham/spam classifications.
What I'd be interested in is a bayesian that works both on the individual level and the workgroup level. With some sort of flag/switch/setting that tells the engine how much to consider the workgroup database as opposed to my personal database. This would be useful when adding a new member to the group, initially they'd rely heavily on the groups opinion as to what is ham/spam, but as time goes on it would adapt to their choices (as well as the group database slowly adapting to everyone elses).
Personally, I drink nothing but instant - why? Because I only need to make a mug at a time, and it's easier to toss the mug in the microwave for 2 minutes to heat the water then dump in instant. My current preference is Tasters Choice, followed by Folgers and I usually switch between the two every few weeks. Maxwell House has an "off" taste to me, it doesn't get strong enough like Folgers/TC. I'm also a fan of the instant flavored creamers.
One suggestion is that if you really want to maintain an even flow through the day - only allow yourself two cups/mugs of coffee per day. One in the morning, the other at lunch. The rest of the day, if you want coffee, switch to decaf. You'll find there's still a bit of caffeine in the cup and the sugar (if you take it) will help out a bit. End result is you'll still be awake from the smell of coffee, but without being a wired-out java-freak.
I used to carry my palmpilot around, not just for numbers but also for the datebook, pocket Quicken, and to do list. But I despise having my pockets bulge with electronics, so I started using the datebook on the phone for reminders. Usually this involves entering the info in my palmpilot and then beaming it to the phone, because it's easier to enter. I don't do this often, though, because the datebook and to do list on the phone are very cumbersome.
I have had my eye on the phone/palmpilot combos for some time, but none of them have a decent battery life.
I ended up with the Kyocera QCP6035 (Cell phone with palm OS) a few years ago. Bit big for a phone, but nice not having to carry the Palm PDA as well.
Battery life is quite decent, on standby I can get about a week before it's time to recharge (original battery, probably getting old). Or, with moderate usage, a day or four until I have to plug it in again. Rarely an issue, because when I plug into the hands-free adapter in the car, the battery gets charged up at the same time (or when I put it in the cradle to sync, I just let it sit for an hour or three).
However, if this one breaks, I'm gonna be SOL because my carrier doesn't have a replacement model (their only PDA/cellphone is WinCE... junky and not compatible with my Palm apps).
The cell phone market is slowly evolving, just as the automobile market did.
In the beginning, cars were simple and unreliable. Then lots of extra fancy features got added, but the cars were still unreliable. Finally, the cars got reliable, and now you can get them with or without the fancy features.
Agreed, but we're still in a state of flux with regards to the underlying technology. (2.5G, 3G, 4G?) I know it's gonna come back to haunt me, but I'd say we're probably still one more generation away from a "good enough" system.
And because the cell networks are changing every few years anyway, you're pretty much required to get a new phone every 3-5 years. That's a bit of a push against making the phones reliable instead of cheap/disposable.
So until we hit the point where the underlying tech is pretty stable (e.g. it won't change for 20 years), consumers aren't really going to be looking for long-lasting phones. (Well, they might think they want them, but since they have to change phones so frequently, it's moot.)
As a screen font, yes it is.
I'm guessing that's primarily due to the low-dpi of a computer monitor?
Hopefully that will improve rapidly (e.g. the IBM high-dpi displays). My current laptop is 128dpi, and my next one is around 140dpi. 200-250dpi is what I'm hoping for as a reasonable "good enough" resolution. For a 15" laptop screen, that would be 2048x1536 or 3072x2304 on a 19" CRT.