All in favor say "I' all opposed "Nay"
or place a special camera in front of the the room. Give the students sticks with diodes on one or both ends. The camera scans the room and counts the number of correct/incorrect answers. Neurosurgeons use a similar technology to track their instruments during surgery.
It saves me time. I know that when I wipe a machine for a friend or family member, if I install Windows on that machine it will be so bogged down with virii and spyware that it will need to be wiped again in a few months.
Linux normally has a more involved setup initially but once I get all of their hardware working, it usually stays working. People that I switch to Linux rarely need to call me for anything. If the person is even a little bit computer savvy, the decision is a no brainer. I try to only free a mind when its ready.
You want me to pay you to allow me to write articles for your encyclopedia that you will in turn update and continue to charge me for? I think the only article that I will revise is the one on Microsoft. Let me see what it says...WTF?!?! I can't even view it without being a premium subscriber. No way I'm gonna pay $4.95 for this crap. Wikipedia will do just fine.
I DJ on weekends. Its a fun job and I have a computer based system so I get to put my geek skills to use. There's usually a good meal and open bar and more than a few hot single women at a wedding reception. You probably won't have enough nerve to talk to any of the women, but sometimes they get really really drunk and come on to you. You read Slashdot, so it's not like you're busy on Saturday nights. If you're in the St. Louis area and this sounds interesting, feel free to drop me a line.
I guess you've got to aim for either kids or adults as it would be tough to do both. It appears that these warehouses are gunning for the kids.
2. Abysmal Female/Male Ratio
True its getting better. More and more women are getting into gaming, but everytime I've gone to a LAN Party shop there is at most one girl for every 10 guys. Maybe not a problem for geeks, but a huge problem for the average Joe. You'll have to think of some creative ways to get females to come out. If you build it maybe they'll come though.
3. Ridiculous cost of LCD projector bulbs as compared to CRT monitors.
I'm sure the costs are coming down, but man LCD projectors that stay on 24/7 are gonna be a pain to maintain and operate. If you're lucky enough to get 2000 hrs out of a bulb, its gonna need to be replaced every 80 days or so. That's at least $300 a pop for every projector in the entire place. Probably $.25 of your $5 an hour is gonna go toward projector bulbs alone. Not to mention the labor and downtime needed to replace them.
4. Average players gets creamed by hard core gamers that practically set up shop in the establishment.
There are always gonna be the guys that LIVE in the store and prey on the rookies that come in with their friends and family. So I'm alive for about 16 seconds and the I have to respawn again. I could kick them out of my game, but where's the fun in that?
5. Unlike movies, you can buy games on CD/DVD the very same day they are released.
So people go to movies for a number of reasons. A big reason that people see movies in theaters is that they have a monopoly on first run movies. Nobody has a monopoly on new games, and since broadband is pretty much everywhere in the US they're expecting kids to pay $5 an hour for something that they can do at home. That's like paying to see a movie at the theater that's already out on DVD. People do it, but I wouldn't build my business around it.
Now with all this said, I think that these places are good ideas and will work, but I think that the lure will have to be social as opposed to technical b/c in a few years everybody's going to have the technology, and I'm not sure they'll pay $5 just to sit in front of a projector. The people running these places are gonna have to get creative. Get families in there. Get people in there on dates. Get singles in there looking to mingle and you've got something. Host tournaments. Maybe do a networked speed dating night. The place is in an office park, so if you keep it clean enough you may even be able to set aside a room for companies to do computer training during the day when the kids are at school. A bunch of geeks in a dark room playing the latest FPS. Been there done that!
I am wondering what features of this service (other than logging) require it to be an IM proxy. The other features could be provided by somewhat intelligent bots that have some natural language capabilities. i.e. Yahoo Helper on steroids. How is this service better than a robotic secretary that communicates with you through IM?
I don't see anything in this app that makes me say "I gotta have it!" For David and his friends who are selflessly promoting his app in this discussion, remember that Slashdotters don't bite their tongues. Be grateful for this criticism and use it to make a better app. We are usually the toughest critics but also the earliest adopters.
Also of note..most people that I know using internet proxy sites are doing it to remain anonymous.
Microsoft advised to make better software!
Industry analysts advise Microsoft to make their software more secure and less annoying if they plan to remain profitable in the future.
Hang one of those little trees from the edge of your power supply. Use the same scent in each machine and voila...your whole office smells like new car scent.
They're banking on the dough that they'll get from recycling these things and selling the same camera over and over again for $19.99 a pop. That's a lot to pay for one set of prints. (especially 2 megapixels with a poor zoom) It seems to me like it's just a ploy to get the digital camera generation to spend money at your local drug store's photo lab.
I'm sure these things will be hacked and that will drive sales, but that hacking will kill their revenue stream which is banking on selling them 6-8 times over. I wouldn't be suprised if they put some type of non-tampering clause in with the packaging or stored the pics in some proprietary format. Of course that won't stop anybody from hacking it, but then how do I get the pics to my computer?
By the time these things become popular they'll be obsolete. Being bought out by Kodak (or whomever) is probably the best thing that could happen to these guys.
10 years ago I said the same thing about the floppy, and It doesn't look like magnetic media will be disappearing soon. Once these technologies reach critical mass, there's a huge legacy following that makes them hard to get rid of. Look how many people still use VHS. It may come in a smaller disk or a higher capacity format, but optical media isn't going anywhere anytime soon.
Once you hit 60 G's taxes start to kill you. After taxes, the difference between 60K and say 90K is not as great as you'd think, especially if you're not great at managing money. Point is if you like being a SysAdmin...DO IT! You won't starve.
MythTV setup not for the faint of heart
on
Linux PVRs Highlighted
·
· Score: 3, Informative
But it's well worth it. I've got one running at home, and it is an amazing device with all free software. You'll want to drop $120 to $150 on a Hauppauge WinTV PVR card with remote and your HD will eventually top 100 gigs if it hasn't already. You're looking at about a gig per half hour that you record. What's cool about my box is that in addition to acting as a PVR, it's also an ssh and samba server and its constantly grabbing 3 or 4 bittorrents. Also it can pause and rewind live tv.
I must admit though that I have spent on the order of 30 hours setting it up and just fooling around with it in general. You'll want to be familiar with Linux before you even attempt to set up one of these. If you're looking for an easier way, you may want to try KnoppMyth. It's bootable live CD that installs myth TV. It may require a little tweaking at the end, but it could save you a heck of a lot of time. Of course then you'll realize that there's nothing good on TV anyway but your geeky pride will be stroked.
Slashdot Mirror
All in favor say "I' all opposed "Nay" or place a special camera in front of the the room. Give the students sticks with diodes on one or both ends. The camera scans the room and counts the number of correct/incorrect answers. Neurosurgeons use a similar technology to track their instruments during surgery.
It saves me time. I know that when I wipe a machine for a friend or family member, if I install Windows on that machine it will be so bogged down with virii and spyware that it will need to be wiped again in a few months.
Linux normally has a more involved setup initially but once I get all of their hardware working, it usually stays working. People that I switch to Linux rarely need to call me for anything. If the person is even a little bit computer savvy, the decision is a no brainer. I try to only free a mind when its ready.
You want me to pay you to allow me to write articles for your encyclopedia that you will in turn update and continue to charge me for? I think the only article that I will revise is the one on Microsoft. Let me see what it says...WTF?!?! I can't even view it without being a premium subscriber. No way I'm gonna pay $4.95 for this crap. Wikipedia will do just fine.
tony.stephenson@gmail.com
I DJ on weekends. Its a fun job and I have a computer based system so I get to put my geek skills to use. There's usually a good meal and open bar and more than a few hot single women at a wedding reception. You probably won't have enough nerve to talk to any of the women, but sometimes they get really really drunk and come on to you. You read Slashdot, so it's not like you're busy on Saturday nights. If you're in the St. Louis area and this sounds interesting, feel free to drop me a line.
I guess you've got to aim for either kids or adults as it would be tough to do both. It appears that these warehouses are gunning for the kids.
2. Abysmal Female/Male Ratio True its getting better. More and more women are getting into gaming, but everytime I've gone to a LAN Party shop there is at most one girl for every 10 guys. Maybe not a problem for geeks, but a huge problem for the average Joe. You'll have to think of some creative ways to get females to come out. If you build it maybe they'll come though.
3. Ridiculous cost of LCD projector bulbs as compared to CRT monitors.
I'm sure the costs are coming down, but man LCD projectors that stay on 24/7 are gonna be a pain to maintain and operate. If you're lucky enough to get 2000 hrs out of a bulb, its gonna need to be replaced every 80 days or so. That's at least $300 a pop for every projector in the entire place. Probably $.25 of your $5 an hour is gonna go toward projector bulbs alone. Not to mention the labor and downtime needed to replace them.
4. Average players gets creamed by hard core gamers that practically set up shop in the establishment.
There are always gonna be the guys that LIVE in the store and prey on the rookies that come in with their friends and family. So I'm alive for about 16 seconds and the I have to respawn again. I could kick them out of my game, but where's the fun in that?
5. Unlike movies, you can buy games on CD/DVD the very same day they are released.
So people go to movies for a number of reasons. A big reason that people see movies in theaters is that they have a monopoly on first run movies. Nobody has a monopoly on new games, and since broadband is pretty much everywhere in the US they're expecting kids to pay $5 an hour for something that they can do at home. That's like paying to see a movie at the theater that's already out on DVD. People do it, but I wouldn't build my business around it.
Now with all this said, I think that these places are good ideas and will work, but I think that the lure will have to be social as opposed to technical b/c in a few years everybody's going to have the technology, and I'm not sure they'll pay $5 just to sit in front of a projector. The people running these places are gonna have to get creative. Get families in there. Get people in there on dates. Get singles in there looking to mingle and you've got something. Host tournaments. Maybe do a networked speed dating night. The place is in an office park, so if you keep it clean enough you may even be able to set aside a room for companies to do computer training during the day when the kids are at school. A bunch of geeks in a dark room playing the latest FPS. Been there done that!
Just my 2 cents.
I don't see anything in this app that makes me say "I gotta have it!" For David and his friends who are selflessly promoting his app in this discussion, remember that Slashdotters don't bite their tongues. Be grateful for this criticism and use it to make a better app. We are usually the toughest critics but also the earliest adopters.
Also of note..most people that I know using internet proxy sites are doing it to remain anonymous.
ptel
I'm paying $250K for these things. What a con!
Microsoft advised to make better software! Industry analysts advise Microsoft to make their software more secure and less annoying if they plan to remain profitable in the future.
but the rats kept saving their own kind first and then going back for the humans. Preservation of species I guess. Anybody got an extra Sig I can bum?
I didn't even know Windows kept track of uptime.
You're gonna be the next Mike Rowe Soft.
Hang one of those little trees from the edge of your power supply. Use the same scent in each machine and voila...your whole office smells like new car scent.
Until someone puts this in the queue
"- - - " x 100 copies
Looks like Billy Gates and the XP team watch their fair share of Dave Chappelle.
I'm sure these things will be hacked and that will drive sales, but that hacking will kill their revenue stream which is banking on selling them 6-8 times over. I wouldn't be suprised if they put some type of non-tampering clause in with the packaging or stored the pics in some proprietary format. Of course that won't stop anybody from hacking it, but then how do I get the pics to my computer?
By the time these things become popular they'll be obsolete. Being bought out by Kodak (or whomever) is probably the best thing that could happen to these guys.
How the hell else can you display 3d graphics on a 2d monitor?
10 years ago I said the same thing about the floppy, and It doesn't look like magnetic media will be disappearing soon. Once these technologies reach critical mass, there's a huge legacy following that makes them hard to get rid of. Look how many people still use VHS. It may come in a smaller disk or a higher capacity format, but optical media isn't going anywhere anytime soon.
No really I wish they weren't slashdotted so that I could read more about this awesome technology that won't make them a quarter.
Hmmmm... so that's why the Linux desktops are getting so bloated.
According to some of the industry higher-ups hardware will soon be free anyway.
Once you hit 60 G's taxes start to kill you. After taxes, the difference between 60K and say 90K is not as great as you'd think, especially if you're not great at managing money. Point is if you like being a SysAdmin...DO IT! You won't starve.
But it's well worth it. I've got one running at home, and it is an amazing device with all free software. You'll want to drop $120 to $150 on a Hauppauge WinTV PVR card with remote and your HD will eventually top 100 gigs if it hasn't already. You're looking at about a gig per half hour that you record. What's cool about my box is that in addition to acting as a PVR, it's also an ssh and samba server and its constantly grabbing 3 or 4 bittorrents. Also it can pause and rewind live tv. I must admit though that I have spent on the order of 30 hours setting it up and just fooling around with it in general. You'll want to be familiar with Linux before you even attempt to set up one of these. If you're looking for an easier way, you may want to try KnoppMyth. It's bootable live CD that installs myth TV. It may require a little tweaking at the end, but it could save you a heck of a lot of time. Of course then you'll realize that there's nothing good on TV anyway but your geeky pride will be stroked.
This looks like a job for.......SUPERMAN!
There is a way to check serial numbers. Where's George.com