Maybe a libel suit wouldn't hold up, but the preliminary injunction could easily be reversed. "Your honor, we reverse-engineered this product to see just how it works, and we were surprised to find that Mattel is deceiving their customers by classifying anti-Mattel sites as containing nudity when they do not." If ever there was a case just asking to be a public champion for the pro-reverse-engineering movement, this is it. Mattel shot themselves in the foot by playing the reverse-engineering card and then proceeding to hide undocumented "features" in their encrypted database, and we need to call them on it. This is the perfect example of using reverse-engineering to keep a company in check, to be sure that their product does what they say it does, and a victory here would go a long way towards getting support behind reverse-engineering.
And I'm sure the $3000 cost of the handsets had nothing to do with it, or the very high per minute cost of using the service. European users can pretty much travel throughout Europe and use their GSM handset with no problem. There just wasn't a big market for this service. The Iridium technology is pretty much useless for anyone else since it's obvious that it isn't profitable in it's primary function, and it doesn't handle data well enough to be used for any Teledesic-type of wireless Internet functions. Craig McCaw (of Nextlink, Nextel, and Teledesic fame) was probably their last hope, but he recently decided against bailing them out.
According to this review in USA Today, it is a worthwhile read.
To add my own comment, I purchased the text in Palm format this morning from Peanut Press and had no problems with the download or installation (aside from having to free up some space on my Palm V). $2.50 is a small chunk of change if it will encourage other authors to follow suit. I don't have the time to read King's longer novels, but a 66-page short story that I can carry on my Palm V is right up my alley.
Not exactly, MCSE requires *only* that you pass 6 exams, which at a cost of $100 each equals only a requirement of $600. The optional classes are what is going to cost the biggest chunk of money, but this is also true with Cisco training, Novell training, RedHat training, etc. MCSE classes are not necessary for an admin with half a clue.
Does this teacher do no research or read any current IS news? It's almost impossible to avoid the topic of Linux in even today's mainstream business or computing publications. Heck, even CNN.com runs Linux stories constantly. As someone whose job it is to educate youngsters on computing practices of today and of the future, you'd think that this teacher would have at some point wondered just what this "Linux" thing was that she kept seeing in headlines, on magazine covers, etc. and wondered just how the whole idea of a free operating system worked. Maybe I'm giving teachers too much credit. After all, doesn't the saying go "those who can, do; those who can't, teach"?
I'd imagine most people's complaints about the current cumbersome wireless web interfaces would be solved if more handsets like the Nokia 9110 Communicator were available. This thing is a phone and palm-top rolled into one, and is just about the same size as the Touchpoint. Now if we could get someone to manufacture handsets in this form-factor running something with the application support of the Palm OS, I could toss my Touchpoint and Palm V into the trash, or at least onto EBay. Remember that wireless web access on the phone is in its infancy, much better options will be available down the road. I do find fault with Sprint, however, for pushing this service as something for the general public. It's not even close to being ready for that, and what we'll end up with is a bunch of consumers in a couple of years that want nothing to do with wireless web because they remember how awful it was to use it on their tiny StarTAC display.
How long until every kid is walking around with their required bike helmet, knee pads, elbow pads, Nintendo/jerk-off glove, safety goggles, mouth protector, ear plugs, athletic supporter, etc.? Just yesterday I saw some device being sold in the local sporting goods store that is supposed to protect a child's heart if they are hit in the chest with a baseball. WHAT?? That's why you're wearing a damn glove on your hand! I played baseball from ages 5-22 and never ever heard of anyone dying from this. I have heard of a few freak accidents around the country where this has happened, but it is hardly common enough to warrant selling a shield for it. Back in my youth(says the grumpy old man), I was hit in the mouth, chest, nuts, and just about every other body part with a baseball and saw plenty of other children hit the same, and sure it hurts like hell, but nobody ever died or was seriously injured. If anything, it teaches you to catch the ball, hit the ball, or get the hell out of the way. This "children are weak and must be protected" attitude has really gotten out of hand and is going to result in a generation of people who are very mentally weak. Now we've got a company selling special gloves because excessive video game playing might result in a few blisters. That's so funny I won't even bother commenting. And we wonder why children flip out and shoot up their schools when something or someone hurts their feelings.
AMD held a very brief conference call this morning. I actually got to pretend like I was an important person and listen in. Compaq and Gateway have dibs on all March shipments of 1 Ghz processors. Everyone elso can get them in April. Also, here's the new pricing: 1000 Mhz:$1299 950 Mhz:$999 900 Mhz:$899
I announced that I'll be purposely crashing my '87 Yugo into Lake Erie to avoid hurting my image. Seriously though, what a waste of taxpayer money. There's no other way to avoid Europa?
Many of the big PSX games are actually released in Japan several months before they're available in the US, which is the reason for US demand for PSX games. There are also some Japanese games that are never available in Japan. You'd be surprised how little the actual games are language-specific.
Kenwood recently announced a car MP3 deck in Japan. I can't read Japanese so I have no idea what the specs are. The picture clearly shows an MP3 track being played and displayed. Any of you Japanese-fluent/.'ers care to translate? Support for car MP3 players from Kenwood should mean that the other big audio companies will offer car support as well very soon, meaning price drops and better products.
The Workpad you saw is the C3, which is an IBM-branded Palm. This article is about the z50, which has been discontinued (can't even find a mention at IBM.com) due to the fact that IBM tried to sell them for $1000 when they first came out. Like the original post says, retailers were recently unloading these things for around $250, but demand has since increased the price. Here's a retailer that has a some of the specs listed for the unit. Probably a nice unit under $300, but the current price is a bit much for my blood.
Sure, it's not really worth me going after Spam-Is-Us for $10 alone, but you can bet that there will be some lawyers who begin collecting thousands and thousands of names of people that have been receiving junk from Spam-Is-Us and filing huge class-actions against these spam factories. Most likely we lowly users would be lucky to see a dollar from this type of class-action while the lawyers pocket some nice cash-money, but it would end up being an effective means towards stopping the spammers.
It's the CEO's legal responsability to provide the maximum profit for the company's stockholders.
And the same would hold true for VA, RedHat, and soon Caldera, LinuxCare, and any other public open-source companies. Once a company goes public, their rules have to change. Just because their mission may be something that *you* happen agree with, it doesn't mean they're not crapping on someone's plate in order to maximize profits.
Remember that you are probably taking this trip to see the scenery and enjoy a land that you don't call home. Although your question didn't imply this, it seems like the majority of responses want you to be SuperGeek and maintain a 'Net connection constantly while driving cross country. Forget a cellular modem, a Palm VII, and any other type of wireless, roaming connection. Get an account with a national ISP (Mindspring, AT&T Worldnet, AOHell, etc.), stick a modem in your laptop, and connect from your hotel at the beginning and end of your days. Your trip will be much more enjoyable if you aren't worrying about email and websites while you're traveling. Most of the chain hotels thesedays have data jacks on their digital phones in the room, so dialing via modem shouldn't be a problem. Take care of your email and web surfing at night before bed and in the morning before leaving, and your trip will be much more enjoyable.
Why would anyone want any mini portable music device if it doesn't play MP3s?
Because you can add 74 minutes of music to your player for $2 instead of the $100+ it'll cost in flash RAM for an mp3 player. Minidisc players are very popular almost everywhere in the world except the US. Both minidisc and mp3 players have their pros and cons, but a major pro for portable minidisc (for me anyways) is the ability to inexpensively add capacity that I can carry along with me. And with an optical cable to connect it to my sound card, I can easily record from either my CD collection or mp3 collection. Sharp even has a new portable that includes all the necessary items to record mp3s to the device. By the way, don't count on Sony supporting an open mp3 discman device anytime soon. They're solidly behind ATRAC3 and apparently SDMI.
We now have 2 800 lb Linux gorillas that offer very similar services. RedHat and VA future business looks to revolve mainly around support, and they now both offer a Linux news/portal for the community (RedHat just announced WideOpen News). The main differences are that VA sells top-notch machines while RedHat offers the most popular(?) distribution. Will the ANDN/LNUX deal put pressure on RedHat to further differentiate themselves from the other 800 lb Linux gorilla by snapping up another company (those CORL rumors are popping up again)? I don't think they'll be sitting idle while another major player takes the lead. Interesting note, no mention of the ANDN/LNUX deal on WideOpen News.
Actually I first read of this deal a few minutes before 7 AM EST (more than two and a half hours before/. posted it) on the ANDN message board over at Yahoo. I'm sure there are many, many stockholders of both ANDN and LNUX that read/. first thing in the morning that would have liked to know this news prior to the market opening. According to the VA press release, this was the "most significant transaction in Linux history" yet the leading site for Linux news and information is scooped by the entire Internet. VA's own press release was up for at least a half hour before/. posted the news, surely something could have been said earlier.
So VA Linux would have domain valinux.com istead of linux.com, what's bad?
Your example is bad. While valinux.com points to a website where VA Linux hawks their goods, linux.com is a website that VA Linux runs for the community. Linux.com has Linux news, links to Sourceforge, links to other Linux community websites, links to software, etc. So in this case, VA Linux's purchase of the linux.com domain was a "good thing" since they're using it to give back to the community.
Disney does own ABC, but who owns NBC, CBS, UPN, etc..
UPN and CBS fall under the Viacom umbrella, which includes Paramount Pictures, Paramount Home Video, MTV, VH1, TNN, Showtime, The Movie Channel, Flix, Blockbuster, Nickelodeon, Simon & Schuster, United Cinemas International among other companies.
NBC is owned by General Electric, and other media connections include MSNBC, CNBC, Snap.com, Xoom.com.
Fox is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., whose holdings in the US include 20th Century Fox Studios, Fox Studios, FX, Fox Sports, Fox Family, Fox News, HarperCollins, LA Dodgers, New York Post, TV Guide, and others. News Corp also owns cable company Sky Broadcasting in the UK and many newspapers in the UK and Australia.
And most of us should know the connections that the WB network has considering the coverage the Warner Bros/AOL merger has received in the past few weeks.
IKEA has their own java-based design utility in their website that allows you to design your own Ivar storage system. Looks pretty cool and is completely customizable. I can only imagine what such a thing will cost though.
Reviews like this are amusing for people who know a lot about Linux to read, but we should be getting this sort of information out to the people who don't know a lot about Linux.
You wouldn't consider visitors to LinuxNewbie.com to fit the above description? Aside from some of the bigger general computing sites (ZDNet, Cnet, etc.) I couldn't think of a more fitting site to warn would-be-installers of the potential pitfalls awaiting them if they try to install LOL.
Slashdot Mirror
Maybe a libel suit wouldn't hold up, but the preliminary injunction could easily be reversed. "Your honor, we reverse-engineered this product to see just how it works, and we were surprised to find that Mattel is deceiving their customers by classifying anti-Mattel sites as containing nudity when they do not." If ever there was a case just asking to be a public champion for the pro-reverse-engineering movement, this is it. Mattel shot themselves in the foot by playing the reverse-engineering card and then proceeding to hide undocumented "features" in their encrypted database, and we need to call them on it. This is the perfect example of using reverse-engineering to keep a company in check, to be sure that their product does what they say it does, and a victory here would go a long way towards getting support behind reverse-engineering.
And I'm sure the $3000 cost of the handsets had nothing to do with it, or the very high per minute cost of using the service. European users can pretty much travel throughout Europe and use their GSM handset with no problem. There just wasn't a big market for this service. The Iridium technology is pretty much useless for anyone else since it's obvious that it isn't profitable in it's primary function, and it doesn't handle data well enough to be used for any Teledesic-type of wireless Internet functions. Craig McCaw (of Nextlink, Nextel, and Teledesic fame) was probably their last hope, but he recently decided against bailing them out.
According to this review in USA Today, it is a worthwhile read.
To add my own comment, I purchased the text in Palm format this morning from Peanut Press and had no problems with the download or installation (aside from having to free up some space on my Palm V). $2.50 is a small chunk of change if it will encourage other authors to follow suit. I don't have the time to read King's longer novels, but a 66-page short story that I can carry on my Palm V is right up my alley.
Written Exam: $200
Lab Exam: $1000
Cheaper than MCSE *or* RHCE!
Not exactly, MCSE requires *only* that you pass 6 exams, which at a cost of $100 each equals only a requirement of $600. The optional classes are what is going to cost the biggest chunk of money, but this is also true with Cisco training, Novell training, RedHat training, etc. MCSE classes are not necessary for an admin with half a clue.
Does this teacher do no research or read any current IS news? It's almost impossible to avoid the topic of Linux in even today's mainstream business or computing publications. Heck, even CNN.com runs Linux stories constantly. As someone whose job it is to educate youngsters on computing practices of today and of the future, you'd think that this teacher would have at some point wondered just what this "Linux" thing was that she kept seeing in headlines, on magazine covers, etc. and wondered just how the whole idea of a free operating system worked. Maybe I'm giving teachers too much credit. After all, doesn't the saying go "those who can, do; those who can't, teach"?
I'd imagine most people's complaints about the current cumbersome wireless web interfaces would be solved if more handsets like the Nokia 9110 Communicator were available. This thing is a phone and palm-top rolled into one, and is just about the same size as the Touchpoint. Now if we could get someone to manufacture handsets in this form-factor running something with the application support of the Palm OS, I could toss my Touchpoint and Palm V into the trash, or at least onto EBay. Remember that wireless web access on the phone is in its infancy, much better options will be available down the road. I do find fault with Sprint, however, for pushing this service as something for the general public. It's not even close to being ready for that, and what we'll end up with is a bunch of consumers in a couple of years that want nothing to do with wireless web because they remember how awful it was to use it on their tiny StarTAC display.
How long until every kid is walking around with their required bike helmet, knee pads, elbow pads, Nintendo/jerk-off glove, safety goggles, mouth protector, ear plugs, athletic supporter, etc.? Just yesterday I saw some device being sold in the local sporting goods store that is supposed to protect a child's heart if they are hit in the chest with a baseball. WHAT?? That's why you're wearing a damn glove on your hand! I played baseball from ages 5-22 and never ever heard of anyone dying from this. I have heard of a few freak accidents around the country where this has happened, but it is hardly common enough to warrant selling a shield for it. Back in my youth(says the grumpy old man), I was hit in the mouth, chest, nuts, and just about every other body part with a baseball and saw plenty of other children hit the same, and sure it hurts like hell, but nobody ever died or was seriously injured. If anything, it teaches you to catch the ball, hit the ball, or get the hell out of the way. This "children are weak and must be protected" attitude has really gotten out of hand and is going to result in a generation of people who are very mentally weak. Now we've got a company selling special gloves because excessive video game playing might result in a few blisters. That's so funny I won't even bother commenting. And we wonder why children flip out and shoot up their schools when something or someone hurts their feelings.
AMD held a very brief conference call this morning. I actually got to pretend like I was an important person and listen in. Compaq and Gateway have dibs on all March shipments of 1 Ghz processors. Everyone elso can get them in April. Also, here's the new pricing:
1000 Mhz:$1299
950 Mhz:$999
900 Mhz:$899
I announced that I'll be purposely crashing my '87 Yugo into Lake Erie to avoid hurting my image. Seriously though, what a waste of taxpayer money. There's no other way to avoid Europa?
Many of the big PSX games are actually released in Japan several months before they're available in the US, which is the reason for US demand for PSX games. There are also some Japanese games that are never available in Japan. You'd be surprised how little the actual games are language-specific.
Kenwood recently announced a car MP3 deck in Japan. I can't read Japanese so I have no idea what the specs are. The picture clearly shows an MP3 track being played and displayed. Any of you Japanese-fluent /.'ers care to translate? Support for car MP3 players from Kenwood should mean that the other big audio companies will offer car support as well very soon, meaning price drops and better products.
Wrong WorkPad model, the IBM store sells the Palm-clones, not the z50 that the original post references.
The Workpad you saw is the C3, which is an IBM-branded Palm. This article is about the z50, which has been discontinued (can't even find a mention at IBM.com) due to the fact that IBM tried to sell them for $1000 when they first came out. Like the original post says, retailers were recently unloading these things for around $250, but demand has since increased the price. Here's a retailer that has a some of the specs listed for the unit. Probably a nice unit under $300, but the current price is a bit much for my blood.
Sure, it's not really worth me going after Spam-Is-Us for $10 alone, but you can bet that there will be some lawyers who begin collecting thousands and thousands of names of people that have been receiving junk from Spam-Is-Us and filing huge class-actions against these spam factories. Most likely we lowly users would be lucky to see a dollar from this type of class-action while the lawyers pocket some nice cash-money, but it would end up being an effective means towards stopping the spammers.
And the same would hold true for VA, RedHat, and soon Caldera, LinuxCare, and any other public open-source companies. Once a company goes public, their rules have to change. Just because their mission may be something that *you* happen agree with, it doesn't mean they're not crapping on someone's plate in order to maximize profits.
Remember that you are probably taking this trip to see the scenery and enjoy a land that you don't call home. Although your question didn't imply this, it seems like the majority of responses want you to be SuperGeek and maintain a 'Net connection constantly while driving cross country. Forget a cellular modem, a Palm VII, and any other type of wireless, roaming connection. Get an account with a national ISP (Mindspring, AT&T Worldnet, AOHell, etc.), stick a modem in your laptop, and connect from your hotel at the beginning and end of your days. Your trip will be much more enjoyable if you aren't worrying about email and websites while you're traveling. Most of the chain hotels thesedays have data jacks on their digital phones in the room, so dialing via modem shouldn't be a problem. Take care of your email and web surfing at night before bed and in the morning before leaving, and your trip will be much more enjoyable.
Because you can add 74 minutes of music to your player for $2 instead of the $100+ it'll cost in flash RAM for an mp3 player. Minidisc players are very popular almost everywhere in the world except the US. Both minidisc and mp3 players have their pros and cons, but a major pro for portable minidisc (for me anyways) is the ability to inexpensively add capacity that I can carry along with me. And with an optical cable to connect it to my sound card, I can easily record from either my CD collection or mp3 collection. Sharp even has a new portable that includes all the necessary items to record mp3s to the device. By the way, don't count on Sony supporting an open mp3 discman device anytime soon. They're solidly behind ATRAC3 and apparently SDMI.
We now have 2 800 lb Linux gorillas that offer very similar services. RedHat and VA future business looks to revolve mainly around support, and they now both offer a Linux news/portal for the community (RedHat just announced WideOpen News). The main differences are that VA sells top-notch machines while RedHat offers the most popular(?) distribution. Will the ANDN/LNUX deal put pressure on RedHat to further differentiate themselves from the other 800 lb Linux gorilla by snapping up another company (those CORL rumors are popping up again)? I don't think they'll be sitting idle while another major player takes the lead. Interesting note, no mention of the ANDN/LNUX deal on WideOpen News.
Actually I first read of this deal a few minutes before 7 AM EST (more than two and a half hours before /. posted it) on the ANDN message board over at Yahoo. I'm sure there are many, many stockholders of both ANDN and LNUX that read /. first thing in the morning that would have liked to know this news prior to the market opening. According to the VA press release, this was the "most significant transaction in Linux history" yet the leading site for Linux news and information is scooped by the entire Internet. VA's own press release was up for at least a half hour before /. posted the news, surely something could have been said earlier.
Your example is bad. While valinux.com points to a website where VA Linux hawks their goods, linux.com is a website that VA Linux runs for the community. Linux.com has Linux news, links to Sourceforge, links to other Linux community websites, links to software, etc. So in this case, VA Linux's purchase of the linux.com domain was a "good thing" since they're using it to give back to the community.
Disney does own ABC, but who owns NBC, CBS, UPN, etc..
UPN and CBS fall under the Viacom umbrella, which includes Paramount Pictures, Paramount Home Video, MTV, VH1, TNN, Showtime, The Movie Channel, Flix, Blockbuster, Nickelodeon, Simon & Schuster, United Cinemas International among other companies.
NBC is owned by General Electric, and other media connections include MSNBC, CNBC, Snap.com, Xoom.com.
Fox is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., whose holdings in the US include 20th Century Fox Studios, Fox Studios, FX, Fox Sports, Fox Family, Fox News, HarperCollins, LA Dodgers, New York Post, TV Guide, and others. News Corp also owns cable company Sky Broadcasting in the UK and many newspapers in the UK and Australia.
And most of us should know the connections that the WB network has considering the coverage the Warner Bros/AOL merger has received in the past few weeks.
Check www.wonko.com for a Slash-like system running on Win2000/MSSQL using ASP's.
IKEA has their own java-based design utility in their website that allows you to design your own Ivar storage system. Looks pretty cool and is completely customizable. I can only imagine what such a thing will cost though.
Darn, the italic tag in the first paragraph above didn't take.
Reviews like this are amusing for people who know a lot about Linux to read, but we should be getting this sort of information out to the people who don't know a lot about Linux.
You wouldn't consider visitors to LinuxNewbie.com to fit the above description? Aside from some of the bigger general computing sites (ZDNet, Cnet, etc.) I couldn't think of a more fitting site to warn would-be-installers of the potential pitfalls awaiting them if they try to install LOL.