We really should have this conversation about something else that is a far more serious problem that could be fought in a similar way. We should ban paid political media ads to cut the cash flow chain of political corruption.
Many serious problems in the world, including the financial crisis, can be traced back to crony capitalism, where money taken in through campaigns or funneled directly to media during campaigns buys influence leading to regulatory changes that are contrary to the public interest. Additionally, misleading ads also distort public perception. An informed public is crucial to the proper functioning of democracy.
Attempts at controlling fund raising have been a dismal failure. What's needed is similar to the what the story here suggests. Ban PAID political advertising in the media, and bring back local media ownership. Controlling what online would be more difficult, but that is needed too. The changes could be done at the FCC level and not involve campaign laws. Media owners would be subject to fairness rules governing informative public service time that the GIVE away.
I was laughingly thinking of something with electronics, where the user might be surprised to find it needed to be stretched to get to the advertised size. But I like the idea of a television that deflates when shot or stabbed...
Will technology help save mankind? Just think of the efficiency of having the homeless earn money as walking video ad platforms using wearable electronics. With more ad area, overweight people might actually prove superior for the task. Methane fuel-cell underwear? Man is not obsolete, people can be productive.
How would the potential customers know about those enterprise apps?
An advertising model that is effective sticks around, even if offensive in various ways. Part of the measure of effectiveness is the cost. Traditional non-net advertising is generally expensive to distribute.
You can avoid looking at ads and filter them, but using search engines to find things you'll buy is also part of the picture. Although largely free services like craigslist have eaten into classified ads, there doesn't seem to be any popular non-commercial alternative for search engines. Perhaps some would be willing to contribute code or operating costs to such an effort? I'm not sure how many would work very hard to produce that for free (to users). Alternatives to Facebook and other services would also need to be built, but even they they'd be data mined externally.
If MS has focused on what USERS wanted, not the paid-ad exploitation side of things, they might have been able to offer a search product that made their OSes or hardware significantly more appealing because it DIDN'T do nasty things to users. That, along with domains that banned external ads and scripts from sites, could make the net experience much different.
i mean, i love my asus tf101, it's awesome, but it always saddens me when there's yet one more cool thing like this that it won't support cause of lack of NEON instructions or limited video memory bandwidth or something like that.
Well hopefully there will be a version supporting whatever features the hardware is capable of. Being open source, motivated individuals could cook up such a build even if it isn't officially supported.
The VLC variable speed playback feature is great for a few of the older movies that move a bit too slowly at times. (many in public domain are available at archive.org)
It's bad enough when a smaller item that doesn't last too long, like a phone, gets obsoleted by software changes. It really hurts when it's a major item. It's a little hard to believe that U.S. HDTV broadcasts and the receivers sold for them are built around MPEG2. If there's also support or a simple (over the air firmware transfer) upgrade path to add h.264 or other codecs I haven't heard about it. I suppose the earlier sets might have lacked the CPU power needed for more advanced codecs, but things really have moved along quickly with small mobile devices able to handle them now.
I don't know what could be worse. Maybe the FCC mandated proprietary codecs in the digital AM/FM broadcasts that very few have any interest in?
I'm pretty sure a black widow is unlikely to keep flying insects in line, given that they live under rocks and in crevices that are too tight for anything to fly through.
That's absurd if you think about it. If spiders didn't have webs in places that would catch something, they'd die. Some do have hiding places off to the edge where they're safer from other predators. If does seem that spiders with big butts, the most visible ones, are the types that hide more. It makes sense they'd need to, yes? Being black, they may also be especially likely to avoid the heating effects of direct sun.
When clearing spiderwebs it is usually easy to tel the difference between those of the black widow and others. Black widows webs stand out as being much more sticky than those of the daddy long legs for instance.
A new spider man movie is in the works. Maybe someone into low budget movie-making can do some good low budget sci-fi based on the abandoned animals (and resident spiders) left behind in the evacuated zone. Some areas that tested moderately low for contamination (for growing rice etc) last year are showing high radiation from leaves and runoff that's since come down from the forests. Sounds like a plot line for a few mutant birds. After some fishermen returned to Japan with severe radiation exposure that occurred during 60's atomic tests in the south pacific, the classic Japanese monster movies were born. It would be fitting to have a new generation of monsters to watch!
In an election year, politicians ought to be interviewed about Zombies rights issues. Death taxes are a hot issue for them, as is health care when body parts fall off. Demand basic inhuman rights today!
This. Punishment should scale so it doesn't just become a slap on the wrist.
It is NOT a punishment. The bond is a form of insurance that a company whose product was blocked from a market will be compensated for the resulting losses if it turns out they were not in the wrong.
Well it could be worse, we could have done away with leap year and leap second by changing the definition of a second. While we're at it, a few other things can be changed. Maybe those silly smaller containers of ice cream at the drug store can redefine the half-gallon?
We could have two time scales, a working reality-distortion-field warped time, and time with seconds of traditional length, but no leaps. It would be a bit like magnetic north and true north.
Traditional time would be used for anything where the physics matters. Warped time would be adjusted for our convenience, and syncing days, seasons etc. When there's a large shockwave from the field-forces of a coronal mass ejection that doesn't hit the Earth square-on, warped time can be adjusted for the small changes in rotational speed.
A third time scale will be available to those who need to adjust the age of the Earth to match their religious texts. But they'll be required to use it consistently and will pay a high price as earning an hours' wage will seem to take forever.
I wonder how many OSes support a correction factor to compensate for slightly off-frequency clock oscillators? If some of those systems didn't bother with leap second and just jumped time on syncing with a server, could that result in a jump in the correction factor that'll require some time to renormalize? That does suggest another way of jumping a second. Change the cock oscillator or correction factor for one day such that the error introduced gives the one second difference.
Well instead of giving CEOs a huge bone us, or a golden parachute when they leave their beleaguered companies, many may find the idea of blasting them into space a refreshing concept.
Where do you get your information? (links?) The local media seem to provide very little detail here, but go heavy on useless opinions. There is more depth elsewhere.
The phrase "However, precautions shall be taken so as not to substantially alter the dynamic characteristics of musical programs" was removed after being in the rules only a short time. Many broadcasters protested, wanting to use very aggressive audio processing. Sometime it was to sound loud than the competition (doesn't work when everyone does it), sometimes it was to help hide the noises present with a marginal signal.
There were past loudness rules for ads. Here are the full details of what's being proposed for DTV now. DTV audio has generally been better and more dynamic. However when programs are dynamic, the average loudness is lower, making commercials stand out even more.
It's not about debt or anything that complicated. Just restoring regulations THAT WE HAD YEARS AGO would help immensely. Same story as with banking. Those regulated pushed to do away with the regulations and then really bad things happened. It's all about greed.
A fair amount of freedom in running businesses and healthy competition is usually good. But the changes made in broadcast ownership REDUCED competition. And if investment bankers want to be involved in high risk investments it should be only with fund owned by those willing to take the risks, not with taxpayer insured depositors money from traditional savings/checking banking.
Broadcasters traditionally have an important role to serve the public interest. If we did away with PAID radio/tv political ads, using only fairly doled out community service time, there'd be far less money inviting corruption in campaigns. Obviously limiting fund-raising has failed. But doing away with a major part of the spending would really help.
Has anyone noticed that Christmas season ads start at Thanksgiving or even Halloween, and they didn't years ago? Blame the FCC rule change on ads. Stations used to voluntarily pick a limit on how many minutes an hour of ads they run, and could exceed that two weeks a year. So ads would go nuts before Christmas (and elections when held). Now that insanely heavy level of ads has become the norm.
I suppose with the proper tuning it could function a bit like the software that identifies sunspots, monitors them, characterizes them, and predicts flares or coronal mass ejaculations. (Maybe some of the existing solar software would work on faces/pimples? Page scripts tied to cameras could bring up ads for pimple products)
Sell bras with a jiggle-optimized damping factor? Detect beer/soda that's gone flat?
A post for some anti-Microsoft tinfoil hat? Must be a slow news day.
Well there is news that is more eye opening or at least entertaining (see below). Maybe combine the stories, list this one as an example of what locked-down keeps out? Or twist it into something more fun, a feature for beta software where the dev breaks in and comments on a feature you're using and offers an improvement or asks you if you'd like source to do it yourself?
Maybe they can make 3D glasses "cool" by making the shutters look like a pair of patches?
It seems like going with excessively expensive tech, probably short-lived at that, discriminates against independent operators having local ownership of theaters in small towns. It smells a bit like combined studio/cable tv ownership choking the programming quality of broadcast tv.
There was a time 60 years or so ago when the film industry and studios went through a big shake up. Many are aware of some of the changes, but somehow forget that it was all about an anti-trust action.
Show me evidence of a glitchy driver causing a loud squealing noise
While I don't see how it could be the same in this case with a LCD screen on a laptop, a video driver can easily cause systems feeding a c.r.t. monitor to drive it with video and sync signals outside the supported frequency range. That sometimes can cause failure, and the horizontal deflection coils or flyback (high voltage and horizontal scan) transformer can indeed make squealing noises. Because operation at unsupported frequencies may cause excessive voltages or currents in the flyback transformer and associated components, operation in possible unsupported modes when testing or configuring should be kept very brief.
In the case here, I'd guess that the problem was related to a malfunction, overload, or bad bypass capacitor with one of the switching power supplies. Except for sleep modes, I doubt that the supply can be influenced by drivers. The wireless section may not have actually failed, but instead quite working due to seeing the wrong supply voltages.
There may be cases where firmware can relate to power supply issues. Many modern boards have switching regulator(s) whose outputs are set to match a particular CPU or RAM option. The optimum voltages required may differ with operating speed and chip production variations. Although systems usually recognize what's installed and adapt automatically, sometimes a firmware change is needed to support a new chip flavor. Some attempts at overclocking result in damage or being stuck in a failed mode. Returns of hardware that result might be a reason for a distributor to be more difficult when it comes to accepting product back when it wasn't used in the usual way.
Returning as-new product for refund, and returning something that has malfunctioned for repair or replacement are two very different things. Hopefully the buyer was honest. If the item is being returned because it isn't compatible with another OS (and wasn't claimed to be), it seems fair that there be a restocking fee or other allowances to cover labor for re-imaging the drive and losses in reselling the unit as refurbished/demo.
I wonder how many of those who had strokes had high blood pressure, or other risk factors not mentioned (not sleeping while high?). Knowing how many smoked, did drugs, had high sodium diets, etc. might give more meaning to the numbers. Since strokes aren't always fatal, blood pressure checks comparing survivors with the general population might be statistically useful. Do people that get laid before sleep have fewer strokes? They probably sleep better. I guess that might count as having more exercise too?
Drug stores sell some very low cost wrist-band blood pressure meters. Those who don't have it done with a routine medical check up might at least consider getting one of those. Some people can sense when their pressure is up, since in some it brings on ringing in the ears.
I believe that some of the people that are described as having a stroke may have actually had an aneurysm, something a bit different that can also lead to bleeding in the brain. Many with that condition don't know it is there, although some experience headaches.
The debris got a pretty good head start on the radioactive leakage, and most of it came from areas quite far from the power plant. You'd very likely experience more radiation from radon in the tap water while taking a shower in Texas than from fish or driftwood and debris on the coast.
I think the people that sunk the ship that floated over here were complete idiots. Shot and sunk it to reduce pollution? As if there wouldn't be fuel leakage with it underwater. It should have been cleaned up and put to use. There might have been people on that ship.
People should show respect when encountering debris. I wouldn't expect radiation in the debris, but there will be some personal possessions, and maybe even partial human remains.
I guess "cloud" at this point means, "Running your programs on a computer with a network connection."
Of course performance may fluctuate with the net. But volunteers may help to smooth things out and perform other tasks such as backups, like the folks at Mitmbs. (Man in the middle buffer service) Just think of the possibilities!
Doesn't Firefox keep a great deal of user data (history, bookmarks, tags, page metadata etc) in MySQL? Couldn't some of these problems potentially affect a huge number of people as a result by extending what might easily be accessed through browser/plugin vulnerabilities and JS features?
Based on this comment you weren't around then. Netscape (now Firefox) was the one breaking all the standards and IE and Opera tried to play nice and according to standards.
Not only did IE break the standards, but Microsoft, as part of licensing IE to ISPs for use in their internet setup kit packages, required ISPs to use non-standard IE features in their pages so that all other browsers would appear broken. Microsoft also used unfair leverage to restrict PC vendors from shipping alternative default browsers. MS had also previously taken steps to break IBMs OS/2, and shipped products using APIs that were undocumented/unsupported for other developers giving an unfair advantage. While calling it recycling, MS and some PC vendors contribute to a bounty on used machines turned in, greatly reducing the numbers being put back into use with Linux or previous versions of Windows. The supply of low cost used computers from large thrift store chains such as Goodwill has been greatly reduced as a result of the bounty turning them to scrap metal instead.
That, from the same company that shipped stolen Quicktime code in what was then called VFW, Video For Windows. Although often spun as some kind of bail out for Apple, part of the settlement for that theft included the $150 million investment in Apple, and agreement to support certain products on the Macintosh for a specified period. As it turned out, the investment in Apple was more profitable then what the same amount in Microsoft stock would have returned.
One could go on at length about MS locking people into OS or application products and costly upgrades through use of proprietary data formats.
While there certainly have been desirable contributions made from Bill Gates, it is noteworthy that some drug lords are quite popular in villages they provide assistance to.
These sorts of stories should be rejected as they push buttons but accomplish little else. The great collective wisdom of Slashdot users shouldn't be sabotaged by flamebait stories pro/con MS/Apple/Linux, evolution/creationist etc. I feel they're a deliberate distraction by paid trolls wishing to dilute the influence of intelligent online communities. There are plenty of important technical and societal issues worthy of our attention and efforts for positive change.
It's worse than that. Imagine the enhanced DRM this would enable. "Sorry, We have detected more than the allotted number of audience members. Your account has been charged $9.99 per extra viewer."
There was a time when F.C.C. rules prevented cable operators from even being able to track what programs were watched. Should we track people to see what channel their watching. The wikidrips guy has a show on RT you know. Some might want to know whether you watch PBS or Fox, or those foreign news channels.
The tech should provide relief to any who find old malware problems boring. Expect that some will create websites with a bunch of video windows showing people watching tv. I bet some people would write that code for free just to thank Intel for their contribution. Candid Camera lives again? What do you do while watching tv? Think of it as reality tv with no ads.
Slashdot Mirror
I wasn't aware ThePirateBay was a "problem"?
We really should have this conversation about something else that is a far more serious problem that could be fought in a similar way. We should ban paid political media ads to cut the cash flow chain of political corruption.
Many serious problems in the world, including the financial crisis, can be traced back to crony capitalism, where money taken in through campaigns or funneled directly to media during campaigns buys influence leading to regulatory changes that are contrary to the public interest. Additionally, misleading ads also distort public perception. An informed public is crucial to the proper functioning of democracy.
Attempts at controlling fund raising have been a dismal failure. What's needed is similar to the what the story here suggests. Ban PAID political advertising in the media, and bring back local media ownership. Controlling what online would be more difficult, but that is needed too. The changes could be done at the FCC level and not involve campaign laws. Media owners would be subject to fairness rules governing informative public service time that the GIVE away.
I was laughingly thinking of something with electronics, where the user might be surprised to find it needed to be stretched to get to the advertised size. But I like the idea of a television that deflates when shot or stabbed...
Will technology help save mankind? Just think of the efficiency of having the homeless earn money as walking video ad platforms using wearable electronics. With more ad area, overweight people might actually prove superior for the task. Methane fuel-cell underwear? Man is not obsolete, people can be productive.
How would the potential customers know about those enterprise apps?
An advertising model that is effective sticks around, even if offensive in various ways. Part of the measure of effectiveness is the cost. Traditional non-net advertising is generally expensive to distribute.
You can avoid looking at ads and filter them, but using search engines to find things you'll buy is also part of the picture. Although largely free services like craigslist have eaten into classified ads, there doesn't seem to be any popular non-commercial alternative for search engines. Perhaps some would be willing to contribute code or operating costs to such an effort? I'm not sure how many would work very hard to produce that for free (to users). Alternatives to Facebook and other services would also need to be built, but even they they'd be data mined externally.
If MS has focused on what USERS wanted, not the paid-ad exploitation side of things, they might have been able to offer a search product that made their OSes or hardware significantly more appealing because it DIDN'T do nasty things to users. That, along with domains that banned external ads and scripts from sites, could make the net experience much different.
i mean, i love my asus tf101, it's awesome, but it always saddens me when there's yet one more cool thing like this that it won't support cause of lack of NEON instructions or limited video memory bandwidth or something like that.
Well hopefully there will be a version supporting whatever features the hardware is capable of. Being open source, motivated individuals could cook up such a build even if it isn't officially supported.
The VLC variable speed playback feature is great for a few of the older movies that move a bit too slowly at times. (many in public domain are available at archive.org)
It's bad enough when a smaller item that doesn't last too long, like a phone, gets obsoleted by software changes. It really hurts when it's a major item.
It's a little hard to believe that U.S. HDTV broadcasts and the receivers sold for them are built around MPEG2. If there's also support or a simple (over the air firmware transfer) upgrade path to add h.264 or other codecs I haven't heard about it. I suppose the earlier sets might have lacked the CPU power needed for more advanced codecs, but things really have moved along quickly with small mobile devices able to handle them now.
I don't know what could be worse. Maybe the FCC mandated proprietary codecs in the digital AM/FM broadcasts that very few have any interest in?
Great. We'll go out to buy a 50" television and when we get home we'll discover the giant box has a 25" and we are expected to stretch it.
Then there are the inflatable robots...
I'm pretty sure a black widow is unlikely to keep flying insects in line, given that they live under rocks and in crevices that are too tight for anything to fly through.
That's absurd if you think about it. If spiders didn't have webs in places that would catch something, they'd die. Some do have hiding places off to the edge where they're safer from other predators. If does seem that spiders with big butts, the most visible ones, are the types that hide more. It makes sense they'd need to, yes? Being black, they may also be especially likely to avoid the heating effects of direct sun.
When clearing spiderwebs it is usually easy to tel the difference between those of the black widow and others. Black widows webs stand out as being much more sticky than those of the daddy long legs for instance.
A new spider man movie is in the works. Maybe someone into low budget movie-making can do some good low budget sci-fi based on the abandoned animals (and resident spiders) left behind in the evacuated zone. Some areas that tested moderately low for contamination (for growing rice etc) last year are showing high radiation from leaves and runoff that's since come down from the forests. Sounds like a plot line for a few mutant birds. After some fishermen returned to Japan with severe radiation exposure that occurred during 60's atomic tests in the south pacific, the classic Japanese monster movies were born. It would be fitting to have a new generation of monsters to watch!
In an election year, politicians ought to be interviewed about Zombies rights issues. Death taxes are a hot issue for them, as is health care when body parts fall off. Demand basic inhuman rights today!
This. Punishment should scale so it doesn't just become a slap on the wrist.
It is NOT a punishment. The bond is a form of insurance that a company whose product was blocked from a market will be compensated for the resulting losses if it turns out they were not in the wrong.
Well it could be worse, we could have done away with leap year and leap second by changing the definition of a second. While we're at it, a few other things can be changed. Maybe those silly smaller containers of ice cream at the drug store can redefine the half-gallon?
We could have two time scales, a working reality-distortion-field warped time, and time with seconds of traditional length, but no leaps. It would be a bit like magnetic north and true north.
Traditional time would be used for anything where the physics matters. Warped time would be adjusted for our convenience, and syncing days, seasons etc. When there's a large shockwave from the field-forces of a coronal mass ejection that doesn't hit the Earth square-on, warped time can be adjusted for the small changes in rotational speed.
A third time scale will be available to those who need to adjust the age of the Earth to match their religious texts. But they'll be required to use it consistently and will pay a high price as earning an hours' wage will seem to take forever.
I wonder how many OSes support a correction factor to compensate for slightly off-frequency clock oscillators? If some of those systems didn't bother with leap second and just jumped time on syncing with a server, could that result in a jump in the correction factor that'll require some time to renormalize?
That does suggest another way of jumping a second. Change the cock oscillator or correction factor for one day such that the error introduced gives the one second difference.
Well instead of giving CEOs a huge bone us, or a golden parachute when they leave their beleaguered companies, many may find the idea of blasting them into space a refreshing concept.
Where do you get your information? (links?) The local media seem to provide very little detail here, but go heavy on useless opinions. There is more depth elsewhere.
http://www.dw.de/dw/article/0,,16006008,00.html
A section of historic FCC rules for radio is here:
http://books.google.com/books?id=Sbw8AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA150&lpg=PA150&dq=steps+shall+be+taken+to+preserve+dynamic+characteristics+of+music&source=bl&ots=B2uXF56uEj&sig=K4gC8p4b1LaXyTTt6VsgnNFpdO4&hl=en
The phrase "However, precautions shall be taken so as not to substantially alter the dynamic characteristics of musical programs" was removed after being in the rules only a short time. Many broadcasters protested, wanting to use very aggressive audio processing. Sometime it was to sound loud than the competition (doesn't work when everyone does it), sometimes it was to help hide the noises present with a marginal signal.
There were past loudness rules for ads. Here are the full details of what's being proposed for DTV now. DTV audio has generally been better and more dynamic. However when programs are dynamic, the average loudness is lower, making commercials stand out even more.
https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2011/06/03/2011-13822/implementation-of-the-commercial-advertisement-loudness-mitigation-calm-act
It's not about debt or anything that complicated. Just restoring regulations THAT WE HAD YEARS AGO would help immensely. Same story as with banking. Those regulated pushed to do away with the regulations and then really bad things happened. It's all about greed.
A fair amount of freedom in running businesses and healthy competition is usually good. But the changes made in broadcast ownership REDUCED competition. And if investment bankers want to be involved in high risk investments it should be only with fund owned by those willing to take the risks, not with taxpayer insured depositors money from traditional savings/checking banking.
Broadcasters traditionally have an important role to serve the public interest. If we did away with PAID radio/tv political ads, using only fairly doled out community service time, there'd be far less money inviting corruption in campaigns. Obviously limiting fund-raising has failed. But doing away with a major part of the spending would really help.
Has anyone noticed that Christmas season ads start at Thanksgiving or even Halloween, and they didn't years ago? Blame the FCC rule change on ads. Stations used to voluntarily pick a limit on how many minutes an hour of ads they run, and could exceed that two weeks a year. So ads would go nuts before Christmas (and elections when held). Now that insanely heavy level of ads has become the norm.
Gas filled balloons perhaps? It sounds like a plot for a movie.
http://archive.org/details/Danger_on_the_Air_movie
(free view or DL, from 1938)
I suppose with the proper tuning it could function a bit like the software that identifies sunspots, monitors them, characterizes them, and predicts flares or coronal mass ejaculations. (Maybe some of the existing solar software would work on faces/pimples? Page scripts tied to cameras could bring up ads for pimple products)
Sell bras with a jiggle-optimized damping factor? Detect beer/soda that's gone flat?
A post for some anti-Microsoft tinfoil hat? Must be a slow news day.
Well there is news that is more eye opening or at least entertaining (see below). Maybe combine the stories, list this one as an example of what locked-down keeps out? Or twist it into something more fun, a feature for beta software where the dev breaks in and comments on a feature you're using and offers an improvement or asks you if you'd like source to do it yourself?
http://arstechnica.com/security/2012/06/hacker-uses-malware-built-in-chat-to-toy-with-researchers/
Maybe they can make 3D glasses "cool" by making the shutters look like a pair of patches?
It seems like going with excessively expensive tech, probably short-lived at that, discriminates against independent operators having local ownership of theaters in small towns. It smells a bit like combined studio/cable tv ownership choking the programming quality of broadcast tv.
There was a time 60 years or so ago when the film industry and studios went through a big shake up. Many are aware of some of the changes, but somehow forget that it was all about an anti-trust action.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Paramount_Pictures,_Inc.
Some of the techs in the industry occasionally try to look back beyond their years for more perspective.
http://www.film-tech.com/cgi-bin/ubb/f1/t011249/p1.html
Show me evidence of a glitchy driver causing a loud squealing noise
While I don't see how it could be the same in this case with a LCD screen on a laptop, a video driver can easily cause systems feeding a c.r.t. monitor to drive it with video and sync signals outside the supported frequency range. That sometimes can cause failure, and the horizontal deflection coils or flyback (high voltage and horizontal scan) transformer can indeed make squealing noises. Because operation at unsupported frequencies may cause excessive voltages or currents in the flyback transformer and associated components, operation in possible unsupported modes when testing or configuring should be kept very brief.
In the case here, I'd guess that the problem was related to a malfunction, overload, or bad bypass capacitor with one of the switching power supplies. Except for sleep modes, I doubt that the supply can be influenced by drivers. The wireless section may not have actually failed, but instead quite working due to seeing the wrong supply voltages.
There may be cases where firmware can relate to power supply issues. Many modern boards have switching regulator(s) whose outputs are set to match a particular CPU or RAM option. The optimum voltages required may differ with operating speed and chip production variations. Although systems usually recognize what's installed and adapt automatically, sometimes a firmware change is needed to support a new chip flavor. Some attempts at overclocking result in damage or being stuck in a failed mode. Returns of hardware that result might be a reason for a distributor to be more difficult when it comes to accepting product back when it wasn't used in the usual way.
Returning as-new product for refund, and returning something that has malfunctioned for repair or replacement are two very different things. Hopefully the buyer was honest.
If the item is being returned because it isn't compatible with another OS (and wasn't claimed to be), it seems fair that there be a restocking fee or other allowances to cover labor for re-imaging the drive and losses in reselling the unit as refurbished/demo.
I wonder how many of those who had strokes had high blood pressure, or other risk factors not mentioned (not sleeping while high?). Knowing how many smoked, did drugs, had high sodium diets, etc. might give more meaning to the numbers. Since strokes aren't always fatal, blood pressure checks comparing survivors with the general population might be statistically useful. Do people that get laid before sleep have fewer strokes? They probably sleep better. I guess that might count as having more exercise too?
Drug stores sell some very low cost wrist-band blood pressure meters. Those who don't have it done with a routine medical check up might at least consider getting one of those. Some people can sense when their pressure is up, since in some it brings on ringing in the ears.
I believe that some of the people that are described as having a stroke may have actually had an aneurysm, something a bit different that can also lead to bleeding in the brain. Many with that condition don't know it is there, although some experience headaches.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aneurism
The debris got a pretty good head start on the radioactive leakage, and most of it came from areas quite far from the power plant. You'd very likely experience more radiation from radon in the tap water while taking a shower in Texas than from fish or driftwood and debris on the coast.
I think the people that sunk the ship that floated over here were complete idiots. Shot and sunk it to reduce pollution? As if there wouldn't be fuel leakage with it underwater. It should have been cleaned up and put to use. There might have been people on that ship.
People should show respect when encountering debris. I wouldn't expect radiation in the debris, but there will be some personal possessions, and maybe even partial human remains.
Maybe those in economics should be given reward futures instead?
I guess "cloud" at this point means, "Running your programs on a computer with a network connection."
Of course performance may fluctuate with the net. But volunteers may help to smooth things out and perform other tasks such as backups, like the folks at Mitmbs. (Man in the middle buffer service) Just think of the possibilities!
http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/blog/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=249
Doesn't Firefox keep a great deal of user data (history, bookmarks, tags, page metadata etc) in MySQL? Couldn't some of these problems potentially affect a huge number of people as a result by extending what might easily be accessed through browser/plugin vulnerabilities and JS features?
Based on this comment you weren't around then. Netscape (now Firefox) was the one breaking all the standards and IE and Opera tried to play nice and according to standards.
Not only did IE break the standards, but Microsoft, as part of licensing IE to ISPs for use in their internet setup kit packages, required ISPs to use non-standard IE features in their pages so that all other browsers would appear broken. Microsoft also used unfair leverage to restrict PC vendors from shipping alternative default browsers. MS had also previously taken steps to break IBMs OS/2, and shipped products using APIs that were undocumented/unsupported for other developers giving an unfair advantage. While calling it recycling, MS and some PC vendors contribute to a bounty on used machines turned in, greatly reducing the numbers being put back into use with Linux or previous versions of Windows. The supply of low cost used computers from large thrift store chains such as Goodwill has been greatly reduced as a result of the bounty turning them to scrap metal instead.
That, from the same company that shipped stolen Quicktime code in what was then called VFW, Video For Windows. Although often spun as some kind of bail out for Apple, part of the settlement for that theft included the $150 million investment in Apple, and agreement to support certain products on the Macintosh for a specified period. As it turned out, the investment in Apple was more profitable then what the same amount in Microsoft stock would have returned.
One could go on at length about MS locking people into OS or application products and costly upgrades through use of proprietary data formats.
While there certainly have been desirable contributions made from Bill Gates, it is noteworthy that some drug lords are quite popular in villages they provide assistance to.
These sorts of stories should be rejected as they push buttons but accomplish little else. The great collective wisdom of Slashdot users shouldn't be sabotaged by flamebait stories pro/con MS/Apple/Linux, evolution/creationist etc. I feel they're a deliberate distraction by paid trolls wishing to dilute the influence of intelligent online communities. There are plenty of important technical and societal issues worthy of our attention and efforts for positive change.
It's worse than that. Imagine the enhanced DRM this would enable. "Sorry, We have detected more than the allotted number of audience members. Your account has been charged $9.99 per extra viewer."
There was a time when F.C.C. rules prevented cable operators from even being able to track what programs were watched. Should we track people to see what channel their watching. The wikidrips guy has a show on RT you know. Some might want to know whether you watch PBS or Fox, or those foreign news channels.
The tech should provide relief to any who find old malware problems boring. Expect that some will create websites with a bunch of video windows showing people watching tv. I bet some people would write that code for free just to thank Intel for their contribution. Candid Camera lives again? What do you do while watching tv?
Think of it as reality tv with no ads.
This is an interesting claim. Do you have a reference for it?
This FAQ mentions fat for absorbing vitamin A.
Perhaps unsaturated fats also work.
http://www.fatfree.com/FAQ/alt-food-fat-free-faq