I was once installing some hardware at Three Mile Island right after 9/11. It ended up that the hardware arrived unconfigured and without scripts installed.
Normally this would not have been a big deal and it would have taken at most a half hour to configure and install the scripts. I am not sure if it was because of 9/11 or if it was a union thing, but while I was at Three Mile Island, I was not allowed to touch my hardware. I was not allowed to connect my computer to it. I was not allowed to touch any computer connected to my hardware. I was not allowed to touch any wiring. I was not allowed to flip any dip switches. NOTHING.
In order to get this done I had to tell a guy step by step how to connect to the device, and how to configure it. Instead of uploading any scripts, they all had to be manually typed in with me telling him character by character what to type and then it all had to be debugged on the fly. Since this was part of a nuclear reactor (actually just monitoring it), saying anything like "we are just doing this on the fly" is really frowned upon.
This whole process was constantly interrupted with progressively more important people wanting to know what was going on and why we were doing it this way or thinking maybe we should wait until next year's down cycle...
Also, the whole process had to be completed in 24 hours, BUT the guy was union and did not work overtime, so later a NEW guy came in and had to be told what we were doing and why. I had to listen to him gripe and groan all night.
What should have taken 30 minutes, took like 15 hours.
I am not sure it is that simple or that difficult. I mean, basically, they have a big pile of neurons, right? Isn't there also a pile of neurons in a dead person's brain? Having neurons != life. There has to be stimulus to the neurons for anything to happen. Anyway, whatever. I think that this could make for a cool Playstation 4, but not Cyberdyne Systems...
Now, if we could copy a dead persons neurons into hardware, that is a whole other discussion...;)
I have been using the beta and RC1 for some time now and over all it is an improvement. The CSS model for this version is closer to standard and that is a major bonus. The new "broken page" button is useful since it reverts back to the CSS model for IE7. Many sites use a generic conditional to determine if the user is browsing with ANY version of IE and then use that information to override some CSS styles.
This causes problems with IE8 since it is closer to being correct; these "fixes" throw it off. I am sure that sites will begin to change as IE8 use spreads. Until IE6 finally dies (still has 20% market share) though, I am saddened that the world is still suffer with IE hacks.
One bad thing, reverting back to IE7 is pretty much impossible in most cases.
Another, some old Active X controls do not work.
Ok, one more, they use an interconnected process model like Chrome so that the whole world does not crash when one bad page causes problems. Yeah, that is a great idea, but in my experience, it locks your whole machine and crashes every instance. Boo!
MUST READ!
I had this happen and was able to get it fixed for only $50 from some guy on eBay. It was kind of a pain because I had to strip EVERYTHING off of the motherboard and just send that. He got it back to me in about a week though and it has been running like a champ ever since.
Anyway, the company is named First Phase Tech and their eBay auction number for it is 260115063544. ebay username tom1ptech
If you are not willing to send it in, I might be interested in buying the parts from you...
School is fun. That's why there are so many movies about it. It's really not that hard the first year, but if you take off, you will be less likely to go and will likely have a harder time if you do. Most people forget stuff if they do not use it and the "basics" in college are not much harder than high school. If you think that you need time off, just sign up for a couple of basic classes and a couple of others that will let you just try stuff out and "find some direction". Weigh these facts though:
1. When you are in school, you are not "off work" at 5:00 you will have to study. After a while it seems to encompass everything in your life and that sucks. 2. Spring break doesn't mean very much when you aren't in school, except that you get to hang out with your friends that are. 3. There are chicks your age at school. These chicks may be drinking beer. This may lead to precarious situations. 4. Hot chicks need help with math. (not to say that all math chicks are not hot!! Just that dumb chicks tend to be.)
If you are running windows, you do not need a patch cord. All you need to do is double click your "little yellow speaker", go to Options/properties then click the "recording" radio button and select "Wav Out". Click "ok" then select it as your recording source. you can then use recording software like Audacity to record anything that comes out of your comptuers speakers.
The bad thing is that it records everything including any click noises, alert sounds and IM sounds. Also, I am not sure if Audacity has command like switches that you can schedule an AT task with...
Slashdot Mirror
I was once installing some hardware at Three Mile Island right after 9/11. It ended up that the hardware arrived unconfigured and without scripts installed.
Normally this would not have been a big deal and it would have taken at most a half hour to configure and install the scripts. I am not sure if it was because of 9/11 or if it was a union thing, but while I was at Three Mile Island, I was not allowed to touch my hardware. I was not allowed to connect my computer to it. I was not allowed to touch any computer connected to my hardware. I was not allowed to touch any wiring. I was not allowed to flip any dip switches. NOTHING.
In order to get this done I had to tell a guy step by step how to connect to the device, and how to configure it. Instead of uploading any scripts, they all had to be manually typed in with me telling him character by character what to type and then it all had to be debugged on the fly. Since this was part of a nuclear reactor (actually just monitoring it), saying anything like "we are just doing this on the fly" is really frowned upon.
This whole process was constantly interrupted with progressively more important people wanting to know what was going on and why we were doing it this way or thinking maybe we should wait until next year's down cycle...
Also, the whole process had to be completed in 24 hours, BUT the guy was union and did not work overtime, so later a NEW guy came in and had to be told what we were doing and why. I had to listen to him gripe and groan all night.
What should have taken 30 minutes, took like 15 hours.
GAH!!
I am not sure it is that simple or that difficult. I mean, basically, they have a big pile of neurons, right? Isn't there also a pile of neurons in a dead person's brain? Having neurons != life. There has to be stimulus to the neurons for anything to happen. Anyway, whatever. I think that this could make for a cool Playstation 4, but not Cyberdyne Systems...
Now, if we could copy a dead persons neurons into hardware, that is a whole other discussion... ;)
This causes problems with IE8 since it is closer to being correct; these "fixes" throw it off. I am sure that sites will begin to change as IE8 use spreads. Until IE6 finally dies (still has 20% market share) though, I am saddened that the world is still suffer with IE hacks.
One bad thing, reverting back to IE7 is pretty much impossible in most cases.
Another, some old Active X controls do not work.
Ok, one more, they use an interconnected process model like Chrome so that the whole world does not crash when one bad page causes problems. Yeah, that is a great idea, but in my experience, it locks your whole machine and crashes every instance. Boo!
At first glance, I thought this was the research TRAILER park. heh.
The problem really is that they will have to import women not the first aussie town to do that!!
MUST READ! I had this happen and was able to get it fixed for only $50 from some guy on eBay. It was kind of a pain because I had to strip EVERYTHING off of the motherboard and just send that. He got it back to me in about a week though and it has been running like a champ ever since. Anyway, the company is named First Phase Tech and their eBay auction number for it is 260115063544. ebay username tom1ptech If you are not willing to send it in, I might be interested in buying the parts from you...
Russians already tried this
School is fun. That's why there are so many movies about it. It's really not that hard the first year, but if you take off, you will be less likely to go and will likely have a harder time if you do. Most people forget stuff if they do not use it and the "basics" in college are not much harder than high school. If you think that you need time off, just sign up for a couple of basic classes and a couple of others that will let you just try stuff out and "find some direction".
Weigh these facts though:
1. When you are in school, you are not "off work" at 5:00 you will have to study. After a while it seems to encompass everything in your life and that sucks.
2. Spring break doesn't mean very much when you aren't in school, except that you get to hang out with your friends that are.
3. There are chicks your age at school. These chicks may be drinking beer. This may lead to precarious situations.
4. Hot chicks need help with math. (not to say that all math chicks are not hot!! Just that dumb chicks tend to be.)
If you are running windows, you do not need a patch cord. All you need to do is double click your "little yellow speaker", go to Options/properties then click the "recording" radio button and select "Wav Out". Click "ok" then select it as your recording source. you can then use recording software like Audacity to record anything that comes out of your comptuers speakers. The bad thing is that it records everything including any click noises, alert sounds and IM sounds. Also, I am not sure if Audacity has command like switches that you can schedule an AT task with...