Yahoo! News covered this yesterday "Music Industry Worried About CD Burning", They're at least 5yrs too late to do anything about this, CD-Rs are too common, sold everywhere at low prices. The public will not accept a price increase or additional tax, think Canadia. I'll make the claim that use of CD-Rs for illegal copying of music CDs is minimal, far behind data backup/storage, games, movies, the 700MB DivX kind, remixes of purchased songs for personal use and the allowed "one backup copy for archival use" I personally make a copy and use the copy and keep the original in a semi-safe place where it won't get scratched. With most of mp3 player market going to the iPod, which for now is a good thing since Apple is allowing the importing of CDs in unrestricted mp3 format. Eventually the masses will realize they're getting ripped off any maybe a big boycott of the RIAA will happen. People didn't want to pay $15 for a CD so they went to a heavily DRM-ed legal download service, what next when people realize that 128kbps is not acceptable? Does anyone remember how 128kbps became the generally accepted encoding? (I think it was the advertising as an mp3 being 1mb/min) I use 320, ipod max, and will not accept anything under 192 for music. I'll buy a used CD and rip it at 320, how long until they want to try to outlaw the resale of media?
ok, there have to be some ads or too many useful sites may have to go subscription only, that ThinkGeek ad up there doesn't look that bad. I wouldn't mind non flashy ads, includes flash and animated GIFs. The semi-tergeted text only and out of the way Google ads are not that much of an eye sore. Ads for something I'm looking for might have the chance of being useful once in a long while. What if browers have a user definable file telling the advertising site the products you're interested in and are looking for a good price before buying. I wouldn't mind seeing a few ads for a good inexpensive 500GB hard drive or $10 DVDs.
Sounds like local politicing and a witch hunt. How much funding does the library get? It's nice for the local politicians to say they want their library to have nice new computers for their constituents to use, but back out when budget time comes and they might give the library enough for the hardware, but not a cent more for upkeep, firewalls and/or filters and/or staff for the computer area.
How long was the content viewed for? Was it something caught by a librarian or other staff or was it noticed during a review of the Internet access logs? If it was caught during one of the "walkthroughs" then the staff did all they could. I work in a college computer lab, and the legal porn is protected free speech, but games are not allowed. It's very easy for someone to sit at the computer in the far corner to see the lab staff coming and close the window, a browers window is a browser window, just as easy to hide/close if it's porn or yahoo games. I'm sure the city knows more about who's a registered offender more than the library and should have informed the library and possibly had their computer or library access monitored, limited or revoked.
Before they try to fire a city worker, librarians are where I am, they had better make sure they had the necessary tools and funding to have been able to do something about it, not one of the "well, if you had 'this thing' it may have been prevented, but we took that line out of their budget"
"The documents describe a "portable, pocked-sized multimedia asset player" that can manipulate MP3 music files."
yes, it would be very nice if the iPod could manipulate MP3s, not just play them. Or at least fast forward/rewind within a song/track, now that would be very nice for longer songs, think those BBC Beethoven tracks, and ebooks when it suddenly gets lound on the train/bus/where ever and you miss something. I'm yet to see a portable device that can do that, but I've only used the iPod mini Zaurus5500 media player and the generic 128mb mp3 player I got for $10.
As a subscriber to what was once considered normal cable I have to ask "how much?" I have a tv card/PVR for recording shows when I'm not home and when I may want to watch them again. I think that makes it legal under fair use because I did the recording myself. There claims that it's slightly less than legal if you're not physically(external drive/DVD-R) obtaining(borrowing) the episodes from someone you know. All the 'on demand' extras have been more expensive than I want to pay and have never bothered to check into it much but it seems to be paying for a subscription to have access to a larger selection of pay-per-view shows. Seems a lot like having to pay at least twice. It's about time they realize that anyone who was going to "pirate" is already doing so, Arrrrg!, and just offer a reasonable price to try to coerce the casual/ non-eye patch wearing "pirates" Yes, This looks just like another corportaion's scheme to squeeze every last penny out of their loyal customers who they see as their mindless herd of cash cows. Ok, not mindless, just being taking advantage of because they don't know they're being charged a probably very high subscription fee for a DVR/PVR they can purchase as stand-alone hardware.
If your job and/or lifestyle has you traveling a lot, wireless if very much a good thing. But for stationary things I'll take a couple wires in exchange for speed and performance. I'll take a wired gigabit network for my desktops over a WLAN we all know only gets maybe 50% of advertised, 54mbits performs at maybe 25 unless you're close enough to the AP to use the 6' cable it came with. I'll take a USB2 mouse and a PS/2 keyboard with a bunch of multi media keys over the waste of batteries bluetooth. A "wireless" connection is only about 5% wireless. Instead of trying for a 60Ghz 500mbits wireless connection, spend a little money to fix TCP/IP, especially the part that says if there's an error resend at 50% speed. That way an 11mbits may be able to perform at what is now a 50mbits connection.
"betamax didn't survive because the tape length wasn't suited for pr0n"
That was one of the unfortunate cases of the higher quality losing to the lower. Betamax had more recording time per tape. On standard play Betamax tapes can record 3hrs while VHS is only 2hrs. If I remember correctly Betamax also had a higher picture quality.
I don't remember exactly why Betamax lost, but my guess is Sony decided to keep it to themselves while whoever developed VHS licensed it. Similar to Apple and IBM, Apple kept the production of hardware and software to themselves and now they have 3%-5% of the market.
"Their solitaire during class was supporting social promotion (grade inflation, etc.)"
I really hated the grade inflation part in my pre-HS days, back when hand written papers were still the standard. It was not a fair practice of teachers in my school giving an automatic 'A' to anyone who's paper was created using a computer, it didn't matter how good the content was or if the assignment as done by the student or parents or older brother. That was pre-1995 and having a computer at home was more of a financial issue, a 100MHz desktop was $2000, than having the skills needed to use MS Word and insert a few pictures. At least teachers are back to grading papers based on content over what it was created on/with. It seems the use of pictures has also dropped off, unless your lab report needs the use of graphs. My brother was accused of cheating because I showed him how to insert a picture in word and have the text wrap around it, taking up less space than- text-blank space-picture-more empty space-back to text. It seems whoever graded it didn't know about putting pictures in a word document and thought he copied a webpage. After hearing about it I, for some reason got involved, fortunately for him they believed the graduating senior in the "advanced" computer class.
As for when to get a kid a computer, it doesn't have to be new, just something with an Internet connection. My 10yr old sister just got use of my 5yr old laptop w/ wnic. She has basic knowledge of MS Word(damn papers) and the use of Yahoo! and Google. I'm sure I'll hear about it being a good thing or not when her classes start again in the fall.
It seems the iPod was mis-classified by its ability to be used as an external hdd. The iPod isn't sold as blank media. It's marketed as a portable media player. It has an OS w/ the ability to dual boot to linux(ipodlinux.org) software, RAM, hdd, audio support, display and input device. It's closer to being a PDA, configured to be very good at playing audio files, than just a blank hdd/cd/dvd and anything else covered by that canadian tax that I know nothing about.
"The tariff was...for non-removable memory"
Depends on how non-removable you consider the ipod memory? There was a post many months ago about removing the microdrive from another audio player and could be used with cameras and PDAs that use microdrive, I think the price of the player was less than that of the flash memory.
"The CPCC got the levy instituted in the first place because it successfully argued that iPod users were making illegal copies of songs, so money should be collected on behalf of the copyright holders."
So one could make that claim, but what about the people with well paying jobs who can afford to and do purchase all the music they own. I have no idea where recording off the radio fits in. Good idea Kanuck RIAA, treat all those high paying customers like criminals. iPods cost a lot more before Dec2003 when the taxation was in effect.
If it were up to me, fortunately for them it's not, I'd make them match the tax refund with an itunes gift card. Their member corporations get more than their share of songs sold on itunes that it wouldn't be a total loss.
The following is just a guess, I've never been to Logan Airport and have no idea of its layout. It seems Continental wants to provide a complementary service to its frequent flyers, (or so says the article) the people who give them a lot of money. If the frequent flyer club is its own room Continental could install a faraday cage around and make it a private network, or the airport can do it if they want to sell a connection to everyone else. Ok, so it's a little overkill.
If Continental has its own area of the terminal then signal strength could be adjusted to prevent overlap or a WEP key could be posted in a n area accessible only to those Continental wants to give the free connection to.
But of course it's all about the MONEY. Free wireless connections are becoming more common, almost to the point of being considered a free resource and Logan is trying to exploit it like any other natural resource, they (may)see those who use their airport as a mindless herd of cash cows. They know many air travelers are probably used to having a connection that they'll be willing to pay for it, esp those traveling on company money and include it in expenses and be compensated for it. People can say it's an outrage and we should boycot Logan's wireless connection, but there will always be those who will continue to pay.
$7.95 per person per day msy be a threat to their financial "security" but not a threat to airport sceurity, unless they have critical systems on the same network, in which case they need to be audited by the Dept of Homeland Security and someone(s) gets a free one way ticket to Gitmo or that secret government prison under the off shore oil platform in Faceoff, the one without the Krusty Burger, and "Wi-Fi not included"
I'm not a physicist or chemist and am too lazy to look for a mirror. How much heat would this produce? Is it enough to heat a room and replace a wood burning fireplace or is it just a piece of *bling* like a hotel novelty fireplace, like the one Side Show Bob wanted to blow up Selma after MacGuyver? (yes, I did say "bling")
I have nothing against the manufacturers, just the retailers when they have excessive markups. Too bad for them, there is no con there, they made an offer and some people accepted. I've sent in hundreds in rebates and had about $50 never show up, not rejected, just nothing. All the contact info was typed except when they require a signature.
No idea, but I'm sure the number went up a lot when the ink content was cut from 42ml to 19ml, at least for HP. People were used to getting 500 pages per cartridge and then when the print quality dropped off after 200 pages, for lack of ink, they simply assumed there was something wrong with the cartridge and returned it as defective. That was very unpublicized it's a safe guess that neither the consumer nor the people getting minimum wage at the store knew about it.
But the BestBuy sales rep, who explained the manf warranty and the return policy and even sold me the BestBuy extended warranty which would be good for a replacement if it broke in 3yrs, told the camera is designed for water skiing/scuba diving/sailing/etc and is waterproof down to 100m.
Unfortunately there is fraud, but there are also customers being lied to by stores desperate to make a sale and a sucker out of the person who if they realized the con noticed only after they brought it home and opened it to read the manual and the warranty card. And can be denied a return because they opened it, damn shrink wrap EULAs. It would be nice to have all the claims made by sales reps in writing and signed by the store manager.
Buy.com may also be doing this. Last week I left a less the positive review for an inexpensive ipod mini case. It had the potental to be good, silicon-rubber with screen cover and dust cover flap cut in the bottom for the dock/cable. Unfortunately the flap was cut off center and prevented the safe use with cable/dock/ac cord, it could be kept in place by brute force. It still says "Be the first to review this item" I wonder if they just rejected mine or there havn't been any positive reviews.
Anyone know of a good ipod mini case for under $10-15, silicon-rubber with screen cover and cut out for the comm port and the belt clip? I've looked but only ones with screen covers or belt clip cut outs, not both.
If I found another planet of course I'd want full credit for myself and everyone else on the project. For something this big I'd also want enough proof to ensure I don't look like an idiot if it turns out to not be a planet, just a large asteroid or planetary fragment. Two years, big deal, if this 'planet' is really 3 times as far from the sun then two earth years is only a day or two for it. Even with the release the press still manages to screw things up, I've read it's size is between 70% and 150% that of Pluto. Back to the only two years thing, FDA drug testing takes longer than two years as does the decision to make and eventual release of Window Vista. It's been at least two years since the announcement of longhord and will probably be at least another two years until it's eventual release. This is NOT a government cover up, it's two independent groups of credible scientists who want to fully test their theory that there's another chunk of rock out there large enough to be considered a planet. If it's released too early and not sufficently confirmed them we'll have another myth to be tested on Mythbusters or Penn&Teller: BullSh*T! just the usual media frenzy, people claiming hoax and conspiracy theorists claiming it's a plot to cover up to the UFO's home planet/base in this galaxy.
I've read a few articles on people charged with stealing someone else's internet connection. Two were of that guy in Florida parked in from of someone else's home with a laptop. One was of some kid connecting to his neighbor's connectionn that he setup and had the pword to, another was the guy posessing a cantenna, possibly pointed at someone else's house, now this one.
NONE are simple cases of WinXP accidentally connecting to the wrong open connection, these people went in search of free internet. If you're driving around in a residental area then chances are the wireless connection is coming from a home, not something given away by a business with a big "FREE WiFi" sign in their lobby.
It's like stealing electricity. Someone's house may have electrical outlets on the exterior but that doesn't mean you can walk up and recharge your laptop. Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the AP use more power the further away the connecting device is? A laptop in the next room requires less power than a laptop in a car parked in front of the house. By connecting to someone else's wireless work, even an open one, is also using their electrical power through the ap, router, cable/dsl modem and can't forget the led on the ups and/or power strip.
If you and your neighbor have home wireless networks that overlap. Your AP is in the back of your house and your neighbor's is in the front. It is possible that your neighbor's signal is stronger than yours in your home and XP might accidentally connect to it at times. This might be able to work as a defence if you live in a packed urban area, apt/condo building or houses with 5' between them and if you also have your own network so you can tell the court under oath that you have your own wireless network and broadband connection and because of the placement of the APs your neighbor's connection is stronger in YOUR home and your XP laptop sometimes accidentally auto connects to it.
I've seen visiting friends with laptops with XP connect to my neighbor's unsecured network, I know because they didn't have to ask for my WEP key.
If you want ideas, just watch more movies and tv: Keymaker: There's a building. Inside this building there's a level where no elevator can go, and no stair can reach. This level is filled with doors. These doors lead to many places, hidden places, but one door is special. One door leads to the Source. This building is protected by a very secure system. Every alarm triggers the bomb.(Matrix Reloaded) ok, so maybe not "the bomb" but exploding bright blue/orange ink/itching powder(Lone Gunmen, Police Academy 7) packets might deter anyone trying ot pick the lock of the server or records room and make them any easy sight for security. And enough UPSs and generators in the isolated area to have everything work even if someone cuts the power to 10(Die Hard) or 27(Matrix: RL)sq blocks, depending which movie your watching but you're still screwed if they use a pinch(Ocean's Eleven). And don't forget the Mission Impossible room with extra large vents. Forget the ventalation shafts large enough for people to crawl through, just use more fans and small vents. And have one enterance into the room with a security desk outside, should deter anyone from sitting there trying to pick the lock. And scanning photo ID cards with finger prints and/or retna scan, just more things someone will have to fake and increases the chance of your armed security officer noticing that the person they've never seen before is taking a lot longer to enter the right codes.
so how long until we have (trans)warp drive or jump engines or FTL jump drive or hyperdrive or slip stream drive or infinite improbability drive etc or something that will allow the sending of a probe(cheaply) out there quickly and into orbit of the big rocks in question and sending back some cool pictures and detailed scans? Right now all people can do is look at it through a really big telescope, it might be a little easier if there's something in orbit relaying lots of data, or even better if there was a real live human in a scout ship. Anyone know what happened with Deep Space 1 and it ion drive? (I'm too lazy to look it up myself)
I know this is old news which I didn't pay much attention to until I got an inexpensive laser printer 2 weeks ago. Does anyone know if the "tracking dots" are also printed on B&W laser printers? I have the Samsung ML-1740 buy.com had for $30 after rebates, I think it's up to 50 after rebated, but it's still a good deal. I remember over hearing the evening news covering this a few weeks ago, yes the common folks news has mentioned this.
Used to convict, used to prove innocents? these dots could be used to discredit someone claiming to have incriminating documents from you, but only if all the papers they have from you but the documents in question match pages you know are from your printer. Then the counter arguement of you know docs can be traced back to printers and you printer that one somewhere else.
It would be nice if printers that did this were clearly labeled as doing so and the manual contained instructions for the end user to find and verify them.
If someone gave me an old document they claim I gave to them, I'd like to be able to confirm that it was from me. In the unlikely event someone claimed to have a document from you, you could confirm it was from you or at least your printer. Just's just as easy to fake email headers as it is to put someone else's name in the from part of a letter and hit print.
my post was "the Zaurus 5500 is great" Get a plain low power 802.11b wireless card, no memory or bluetooth, just wireless. Fancy extra stuff uses too much power and the extra cheap ones use too much power. I got an AmbiCom WL1100C-CF from BestBuy for $45 that gets 2-2.5hrs of wireless depending on signal strength. It's the same with cell phones, lower signal results in the device having to use more power to boost its signal.
Interesting experiences, did you get it new or used? I've had no problems with mine. no speaker- it has a headphone/mic combo jack battery- the manual claims 10hrs, I get 2-2.5hrs with wireless card and have never been away from the docking station long enough to fully drain it with the non-media player apps. The display is clearily visable with the light on setting 2 of 5, saves power. serial- mine has a USB docking station, do you have the SL-5500D the earlier Developer model? crashing- never happened to me, I'm using the v3 Sharp rom
I've had mine for 23months, got it new for $195 It's great, used evey day for scheduling, mini-office apps, email, games, media player(mp3&mpeg1) and wireless connection. I get 2-2.5hrs with the AmbiCom WL110C-CF, make sure you get a low power card or you may end up with only 30min to an hour. There are plenty of accessories; bluetooth, external keyboard, external monitior, gps, make sure they're compatable, SD&CF slots. And more than enough free/low cost software: http://www.killefiz.de/zaurus/
Cons: it's only 206MHz with 32MB each for RAM and internal storage, some apps will only install to internal storage, so got a 1GB SD and 256MB CF cards. But what do you expect from a 4yr old machine?
"...setting up Windows with blank administrator passwords too" or use the defence: so judge/jury/special fed prosecutor, I was searching for information on UFOs with google and one site had a login, but it was 4am and I was tired/eyes fuzzy from hours of video games/drinking and don't remember if I hit Esc or Enter but the site opened and displayed a bunch documents on UFOs and the moon landing being faked. Since I left the usernamme and pword fields blank, I wasn't hacking, it was just a simple type-o, it isn't my fault someone left the password blank. Please don't attach that car battery to my...
TigerDirect lost because they waited too long, until after copies were sent to retail stores and trued to stop the release. The use of "Vista" is being challenged it within a couple hours of it's announcement and if he fights it for the couple years until it's finally eventually released, read: not anytime soon.
"It's doubtful anyone is going to confuse them." how many times have you asked someone which OS they're running and the reply is "XP"? More than I can count, Windows Millenium was commonly refered to as ME and WinXP as XP, it only makes sense that Windows Vista ed. is going to end up being refered to as just "Vista"
I can almost 'see' why they picked vista: Etymology: Italian, sight, from visto, past participle of vedere to see, from Latin vidEre (from m-w.com)
Maybe it will be a see through window, I'm sure it will have enough holes in it until SP10 that you may be able to see through it, almost as if it were, well, a window.
Slashdot Mirror
Yahoo! News covered this yesterday "Music Industry Worried About CD Burning", They're at least 5yrs too late to do anything about this, CD-Rs are too common, sold everywhere at low prices. The public will not accept a price increase or additional tax, think Canadia.
I'll make the claim that use of CD-Rs for illegal copying of music CDs is minimal, far behind data backup/storage, games, movies, the 700MB DivX kind, remixes of purchased songs for personal use and the allowed "one backup copy for archival use" I personally make a copy and use the copy and keep the original in a semi-safe place where it won't get scratched.
With most of mp3 player market going to the iPod, which for now is a good thing since Apple is allowing the importing of CDs in unrestricted mp3 format.
Eventually the masses will realize they're getting ripped off any maybe a big boycott of the RIAA will happen. People didn't want to pay $15 for a CD so they went to a heavily DRM-ed legal download service, what next when people realize that 128kbps is not acceptable?
Does anyone remember how 128kbps became the generally accepted encoding? (I think it was the advertising as an mp3 being 1mb/min) I use 320, ipod max, and will not accept anything under 192 for music. I'll buy a used CD and rip it at 320, how long until they want to try to outlaw the resale of media?
ok, there have to be some ads or too many useful sites may have to go subscription only, that ThinkGeek ad up there doesn't look that bad.
I wouldn't mind non flashy ads, includes flash and animated GIFs. The semi-tergeted text only and out of the way Google ads are not that much of an eye sore.
Ads for something I'm looking for might have the chance of being useful once in a long while. What if browers have a user definable file telling the advertising site the products you're interested in and are looking for a good price before buying. I wouldn't mind seeing a few ads for a good inexpensive 500GB hard drive or $10 DVDs.
interesting, I wonder how I missed it, I didn't skip that much of the manual.
Sounds like local politicing and a witch hunt.
A ID=/20050813/LOCAL/208130332&SearchID=732171503810 16
How much funding does the library get?
It's nice for the local politicians to say they want their library to have nice new computers for their constituents to use, but back out when budget time comes and they might give the library enough for the hardware, but not a cent more for upkeep, firewalls and/or filters and/or staff for the computer area.
How long was the content viewed for? Was it something caught by a librarian or other staff or was it noticed during a review of the Internet access logs? If it was caught during one of the "walkthroughs" then the staff did all they could. I work in a college computer lab, and the legal porn is protected free speech, but games are not allowed. It's very easy for someone to sit at the computer in the far corner to see the lab staff coming and close the window, a browers window is a browser window, just as easy to hide/close if it's porn or yahoo games.
I'm sure the city knows more about who's a registered offender more than the library and should have informed the library and possibly had their computer or library access monitored, limited or revoked.
Before they try to fire a city worker, librarians are where I am, they had better make sure they had the necessary tools and funding to have been able to do something about it, not one of the "well, if you had 'this thing' it may have been prevented, but we took that line out of their budget"
there isn't much easily findable info on this to do anything other than guess. Here's the mentioned "Gainesville Sun" article:
http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?
"The documents describe a "portable, pocked-sized multimedia asset player" that can manipulate MP3 music files."
yes, it would be very nice if the iPod could manipulate MP3s, not just play them. Or at least fast forward/rewind within a song/track, now that would be very nice for longer songs, think those BBC Beethoven tracks, and ebooks when it suddenly gets lound on the train/bus/where ever and you miss something. I'm yet to see a portable device that can do that, but I've only used the iPod mini Zaurus5500 media player and the generic 128mb mp3 player I got for $10.
As a subscriber to what was once considered normal cable I have to ask "how much?" I have a tv card/PVR for recording shows when I'm not home and when I may want to watch them again. I think that makes it legal under fair use because I did the recording myself. There claims that it's slightly less than legal if you're not physically(external drive/DVD-R) obtaining(borrowing) the episodes from someone you know. All the 'on demand' extras have been more expensive than I want to pay and have never bothered to check into it much but it seems to be paying for a subscription to have access to a larger selection of pay-per-view shows. Seems a lot like having to pay at least twice. It's about time they realize that anyone who was going to "pirate" is already doing so, Arrrrg!, and just offer a reasonable price to try to coerce the casual/ non-eye patch wearing "pirates" Yes, This looks just like another corportaion's scheme to squeeze every last penny out of their loyal customers who they see as their mindless herd of cash cows.
Ok, not mindless, just being taking advantage of because they don't know they're being charged a probably very high subscription fee for a DVR/PVR they can purchase as stand-alone hardware.
If your job and/or lifestyle has you traveling a lot, wireless if very much a good thing.
But for stationary things I'll take a couple wires in exchange for speed and performance. I'll take a wired gigabit network for my desktops over a WLAN we all know only gets maybe 50% of advertised, 54mbits performs at maybe 25 unless you're close enough to the AP to use the 6' cable it came with. I'll take a USB2 mouse and a PS/2 keyboard with a bunch of multi media keys over the waste of batteries bluetooth.
A "wireless" connection is only about 5% wireless. Instead of trying for a 60Ghz 500mbits wireless connection, spend a little money to fix TCP/IP, especially the part that says if there's an error resend at 50% speed. That way an 11mbits may be able to perform at what is now a 50mbits connection.
"betamax didn't survive because the tape length wasn't suited for pr0n"
That was one of the unfortunate cases of the higher quality losing to the lower. Betamax had more recording time per tape. On standard play Betamax tapes can record 3hrs while VHS is only 2hrs. If I remember correctly Betamax also had a higher picture quality.
I don't remember exactly why Betamax lost, but my guess is Sony decided to keep it to themselves while whoever developed VHS licensed it. Similar to Apple and IBM, Apple kept the production of hardware and software to themselves and now they have 3%-5% of the market.
"Their solitaire during class was supporting social promotion (grade inflation, etc.)"
I really hated the grade inflation part in my pre-HS days, back when hand written papers were still the standard. It was not a fair practice of teachers in my school giving an automatic 'A' to anyone who's paper was created using a computer, it didn't matter how good the content was or if the assignment as done by the student or parents or older brother. That was pre-1995 and having a computer at home was more of a financial issue, a 100MHz desktop was $2000, than having the skills needed to use MS Word and insert a few pictures. At least teachers are back to grading papers based on content over what it was created on/with.
It seems the use of pictures has also dropped off, unless your lab report needs the use of graphs. My brother was accused of cheating because I showed him how to insert a picture in word and have the text wrap around it, taking up less space than- text-blank space-picture-more empty space-back to text. It seems whoever graded it didn't know about putting pictures in a word document and thought he copied a webpage. After hearing about it I, for some reason got involved, fortunately for him they believed the graduating senior in the "advanced" computer class.
As for when to get a kid a computer, it doesn't have to be new, just something with an Internet connection. My 10yr old sister just got use of my 5yr old laptop w/ wnic. She has basic knowledge of MS Word(damn papers) and the use of Yahoo! and Google. I'm sure I'll hear about it being a good thing or not when her classes start again in the fall.
It seems the iPod was mis-classified by its ability to be used as an external hdd. The iPod isn't sold as blank media. It's marketed as a portable media player. It has an OS w/ the ability to dual boot to linux(ipodlinux.org) software, RAM, hdd, audio support, display and input device. It's closer to being a PDA, configured to be very good at playing audio files, than just a blank hdd/cd/dvd and anything else covered by that canadian tax that I know nothing about.
"The tariff was...for non-removable memory"
Depends on how non-removable you consider the ipod memory? There was a post many months ago about removing the microdrive from another audio player and could be used with cameras and PDAs that use microdrive, I think the price of the player was less than that of the flash memory.
"The CPCC got the levy instituted in the first place because it successfully argued that iPod users were making illegal copies of songs, so money should be collected on behalf of the copyright holders."
So one could make that claim, but what about the people with well paying jobs who can afford to and do purchase all the music they own. I have no idea where recording off the radio fits in. Good idea Kanuck RIAA, treat all those high paying customers like criminals. iPods cost a lot more before Dec2003 when the taxation was in effect.
If it were up to me, fortunately for them it's not, I'd make them match the tax refund with an itunes gift card. Their member corporations get more than their share of songs sold on itunes that it wouldn't be a total loss.
The following is just a guess, I've never been to Logan Airport and have no idea of its layout. It seems Continental wants to provide a complementary service to its frequent flyers, (or so says the article) the people who give them a lot of money. If the frequent flyer club is its own room Continental could install a faraday cage around and make it a private network, or the airport can do it if they want to sell a connection to everyone else. Ok, so it's a little overkill.
If Continental has its own area of the terminal then signal strength could be adjusted to prevent overlap or a WEP key could be posted in a n area accessible only to those Continental wants to give the free connection to.
But of course it's all about the MONEY. Free wireless connections are becoming more common, almost to the point of being considered a free resource and Logan is trying to exploit it like any other natural resource, they (may)see those who use their airport as a mindless herd of cash cows. They know many air travelers are probably used to having a connection that they'll be willing to pay for it, esp those traveling on company money and include it in expenses and be compensated for it.
People can say it's an outrage and we should boycot Logan's wireless connection, but there will always be those who will continue to pay.
$7.95 per person per day msy be a threat to their financial "security" but not a threat to airport sceurity, unless they have critical systems on the same network, in which case they need to be audited by the Dept of Homeland Security and someone(s) gets a free one way ticket to Gitmo or that secret government prison under the off shore oil platform in Faceoff, the one without the Krusty Burger, and "Wi-Fi not included"
I'm not a physicist or chemist and am too lazy to look for a mirror. How much heat would this produce? Is it enough to heat a room and replace a wood burning fireplace or is it just a piece of *bling* like a hotel novelty fireplace, like the one Side Show Bob wanted to blow up Selma after MacGuyver?
(yes, I did say "bling")
I have nothing against the manufacturers, just the retailers when they have excessive markups. Too bad for them, there is no con there, they made an offer and some people accepted. I've sent in hundreds in rebates and had about $50 never show up, not rejected, just nothing. All the contact info was typed except when they require a signature.
No idea, but I'm sure the number went up a lot when the ink content was cut from 42ml to 19ml, at least for HP. People were used to getting 500 pages per cartridge and then when the print quality dropped off after 200 pages, for lack of ink, they simply assumed there was something wrong with the cartridge and returned it as defective. That was very unpublicized it's a safe guess that neither the consumer nor the people getting minimum wage at the store knew about it.
But the BestBuy sales rep, who explained the manf warranty and the return policy and even sold me the BestBuy extended warranty which would be good for a replacement if it broke in 3yrs, told the camera is designed for water skiing/scuba diving/sailing/etc and is waterproof down to 100m.
Unfortunately there is fraud, but there are also customers being lied to by stores desperate to make a sale and a sucker out of the person who if they realized the con noticed only after they brought it home and opened it to read the manual and the warranty card. And can be denied a return because they opened it, damn shrink wrap EULAs. It would be nice to have all the claims made by sales reps in writing and signed by the store manager.
Buy.com may also be doing this.
Last week I left a less the positive review for an inexpensive ipod mini case. It had the potental to be good, silicon-rubber with screen cover and dust cover flap cut in the bottom for the dock/cable. Unfortunately the flap was cut off center and prevented the safe use with cable/dock/ac cord, it could be kept in place by brute force. It still says "Be the first to review this item" I wonder if they just rejected mine or there havn't been any positive reviews.
Anyone know of a good ipod mini case for under $10-15, silicon-rubber with screen cover and cut out for the comm port and the belt clip? I've looked but only ones with screen covers or belt clip cut outs, not both.
If I found another planet of course I'd want full credit for myself and everyone else on the project. For something this big I'd also want enough proof to ensure I don't look like an idiot if it turns out to not be a planet, just a large asteroid or planetary fragment. Two years, big deal, if this 'planet' is really 3 times as far from the sun then two earth years is only a day or two for it. Even with the release the press still manages to screw things up, I've read it's size is between 70% and 150% that of Pluto. Back to the only two years thing, FDA drug testing takes longer than two years as does the decision to make and eventual release of Window Vista. It's been at least two years since the announcement of longhord and will probably be at least another two years until it's eventual release. This is NOT a government cover up, it's two independent groups of credible scientists who want to fully test their theory that there's another chunk of rock out there large enough to be considered a planet.
If it's released too early and not sufficently confirmed them we'll have another myth to be tested on Mythbusters or Penn&Teller: BullSh*T! just the usual media frenzy, people claiming hoax and conspiracy theorists claiming it's a plot to cover up to the UFO's home planet/base in this galaxy.
I've read a few articles on people charged with stealing someone else's internet connection. Two were of that guy in Florida parked in from of someone else's home with a laptop. One was of some kid connecting to his neighbor's connectionn that he setup and had the pword to, another was the guy posessing a cantenna, possibly pointed at someone else's house, now this one.
NONE are simple cases of WinXP accidentally connecting to the wrong open connection, these people went in search of free internet. If you're driving around in a residental area then chances are the wireless connection is coming from a home, not something given away by a business with a big "FREE WiFi" sign in their lobby.
It's like stealing electricity. Someone's house may have electrical outlets on the exterior but that doesn't mean you can walk up and recharge your laptop. Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the AP use more power the further away the connecting device is? A laptop in the next room requires less power than a laptop in a car parked in front of the house. By connecting to someone else's wireless work, even an open one, is also using their electrical power through the ap, router, cable/dsl modem and can't forget the led on the ups and/or power strip.
If you and your neighbor have home wireless networks that overlap. Your AP is in the back of your house and your neighbor's is in the front. It is possible that your neighbor's signal is stronger than yours in your home and XP might accidentally connect to it at times. This might be able to work as a defence if you live in a packed urban area, apt/condo building or houses with 5' between them and if you also have your own network so you can tell the court under oath that you have your own wireless network and broadband connection and because of the placement of the APs your neighbor's connection is stronger in YOUR home and your XP laptop sometimes accidentally auto connects to it.
I've seen visiting friends with laptops with XP connect to my neighbor's unsecured network, I know because they didn't have to ask for my WEP key.
If you want ideas, just watch more movies and tv:
Keymaker: There's a building. Inside this building there's a level where no elevator can go, and no stair can reach. This level is filled with doors. These doors lead to many places, hidden places, but one door is special. One door leads to the Source. This building is protected by a very secure system. Every alarm triggers the bomb.(Matrix Reloaded)
ok, so maybe not "the bomb" but exploding bright blue/orange ink/itching powder(Lone Gunmen, Police Academy 7) packets might deter anyone trying ot pick the lock of the server or records room and make them any easy sight for security. And enough UPSs and generators in the isolated area to have everything work even if someone cuts the power to 10(Die Hard) or 27(Matrix: RL)sq blocks, depending which movie your watching but you're still screwed if they use a pinch(Ocean's Eleven). And don't forget the Mission Impossible room with extra large vents.
Forget the ventalation shafts large enough for people to crawl through, just use more fans and small vents. And have one enterance into the room with a security desk outside, should deter anyone from sitting there trying to pick the lock. And scanning photo ID cards with finger prints and/or retna scan, just more things someone will have to fake and increases the chance of your armed security officer noticing that the person they've never seen before is taking a lot longer to enter the right codes.
so how long until we have (trans)warp drive or jump engines or FTL jump drive or hyperdrive or slip stream drive or infinite improbability drive etc or something that will allow the sending of a probe(cheaply) out there quickly and into orbit of the big rocks in question and sending back some cool pictures and detailed scans? Right now all people can do is look at it through a really big telescope, it might be a little easier if there's something in orbit relaying lots of data, or even better if there was a real live human in a scout ship. Anyone know what happened with Deep Space 1 and it ion drive? (I'm too lazy to look it up myself)
I know this is old news which I didn't pay much attention to until I got an inexpensive laser printer 2 weeks ago. Does anyone know if the "tracking dots" are also printed on B&W laser printers? I have the Samsung ML-1740 buy.com had for $30 after rebates, I think it's up to 50 after rebated, but it's still a good deal. I remember over hearing the evening news covering this a few weeks ago, yes the common folks news has mentioned this.
Used to convict, used to prove innocents?
these dots could be used to discredit someone claiming to have incriminating documents from you, but only if all the papers they have from you but the documents in question match pages you know are from your printer. Then the counter arguement of you know docs can be traced back to printers and you printer that one somewhere else.
It would be nice if printers that did this were clearly labeled as doing so and the manual contained instructions for the end user to find and verify them.
If someone gave me an old document they claim I gave to them, I'd like to be able to confirm that it was from me. In the unlikely event someone claimed to have a document from you, you could confirm it was from you or at least your printer. Just's just as easy to fake email headers as it is to put someone else's name in the from part of a letter and hit print.
my post was "the Zaurus 5500 is great"
Get a plain low power 802.11b wireless card, no memory or bluetooth, just wireless. Fancy extra stuff uses too much power and the extra cheap ones use too much power. I got an AmbiCom WL1100C-CF from BestBuy for $45 that gets 2-2.5hrs of wireless depending on signal strength. It's the same with cell phones, lower signal results in the device having to use more power to boost its signal.
Interesting experiences, did you get it new or used? I've had no problems with mine.
no speaker- it has a headphone/mic combo jack
battery- the manual claims 10hrs, I get 2-2.5hrs with wireless card and have never been away from the docking station long enough to fully drain it with the non-media player apps. The display is clearily visable with the light on setting 2 of 5, saves power.
serial- mine has a USB docking station, do you have the SL-5500D the earlier Developer model?
crashing- never happened to me, I'm using the v3 Sharp rom
I've had mine for 23months, got it new for $195
It's great, used evey day for scheduling, mini-office apps, email, games, media player(mp3&mpeg1) and wireless connection. I get 2-2.5hrs with the AmbiCom WL110C-CF, make sure you get a low power card or you may end up with only 30min to an hour.
There are plenty of accessories; bluetooth, external keyboard, external monitior, gps, make sure they're compatable, SD&CF slots. And more than enough free/low cost software: http://www.killefiz.de/zaurus/
Cons: it's only 206MHz with 32MB each for RAM and internal storage, some apps will only install to internal storage, so got a 1GB SD and 256MB CF cards. But what do you expect from a 4yr old machine?
"...setting up Windows with blank administrator passwords too"
or use the defence:
so judge/jury/special fed prosecutor, I was searching for information on UFOs with google and one site had a login, but it was 4am and I was tired/eyes fuzzy from hours of video games/drinking and don't remember if I hit Esc or Enter but the site opened and displayed a bunch documents on UFOs and the moon landing being faked. Since I left the usernamme and pword fields blank, I wasn't hacking, it was just a simple type-o, it isn't my fault someone left the password blank. Please don't attach that car battery to my...
TigerDirect lost because they waited too long, until after copies were sent to retail stores and trued to stop the release. The use of "Vista" is being challenged it within a couple hours of it's announcement and if he fights it for the couple years until it's finally eventually released, read: not anytime soon.
"It's doubtful anyone is going to confuse them."
how many times have you asked someone which OS they're running and the reply is "XP"? More than I can count, Windows Millenium was commonly refered to as ME and WinXP as XP, it only makes sense that Windows Vista ed. is going to end up being refered to as just "Vista"
I can almost 'see' why they picked vista:
Etymology: Italian, sight, from visto, past participle of vedere to see, from Latin vidEre
(from m-w.com)
Maybe it will be a see through window, I'm sure it will have enough holes in it until SP10 that you may be able to see through it, almost as if it were, well, a window.