I was *supposed* to be thinking about how I could link the coffee machine to the a wireless network so I could sync it with my WiFi alarm clock and e-mail program, said the interviewer.
That's just silly - it is an in-car coffee maker, not a self-powered portable coffee maker. The correct answer is:
USB communication over the power connector (or possibly bluetooth, but that re-introduces the authentication problems below) allowing communication with the car's on-board computer. This provides for a single wireless signal for all devices in the car, increasing overall available bandwidth (less interference due to less devices competing for wifi bandwidth) Less interference and bandwidth problems on the freeway (where you might have hundreds of cars armed with many wifi transmitters competing for bandwidth) and a single point of authentication, making it easier to manage remote access to the devices in your car, thus preventing your neighbour from making sure you get cold coffee in the morning (or flattening your battery).
Reducing the number of wireless transmitters in each car is also a friendly move towards your fellow commuters, and other wifi users in general, as they suffer less from your signal interference with their equipment.
This design also reduces the cost of future exansion (you might want coffee in the back).
That answer would probably win me a job in OSS, but obviously not in Microsoft.
Microsoft didnt buy ALL of the makers for unix / linux antivirus. They bought a single one.
Hitler didn't weed out ALL the races he didn't like straight up either - that would have upset too many people at the same time.
It's the best way to start doing something new - start small and work up. Set a precedent with an easy target so you have a better foothold when dealing with larger targets.
If M$ had done this to Symantec or McAffee, the fallout would have been huge. Taking out a large and well-known competitor out is not usually viewed as good by the public, unless that competitor was already in trouble - something that Anti-Virus software companies are never likely to encounter unless all popular OS's start shipping with free AV software..... But by the time that happens, there may be no-one left to speak out.
That aside, what is the best way for MS to push people away from *nix servers? Simple - prevent those servers from protecting the windows boxes from viruses. Not that this will help them much - there are open source anti-virus programs (eg ClamAV) that will make that somewhat difficult, if not impossible.
except the signal is varying strength, position and frequency..... making it much harder to remove.
As for attenuation over distance of the harmonic: the actual frequency is strong enough to be received by an omni-directional antenna just a few feet in length. Most radio telescopes are MUCH larger than this, and designed to receive signals from MUCH longer distances - as a result, if someone actually tried to do it, a large/good radio telescope could probably* detect the EMF from the phone's internal circuitry at several miles, much less the loud "thump" (or any harmonics of it) emitted by the transmitter.
* I'm no electrical engineer, but my very limited knowledge of signal drop with distance says the received signal from an omnidirectional antenna (ie source in space, or your mobile phone) is something like the square of the distance.
aww c'mon - play fair - did you google for the windows or nero method? It can be done.
(hmm, maybe I could have renamed it there and then)
In windows you can (even with mozilla I think because it uses the windows standard open dialog)... in mozilla 1.8/linux I can't (because it uses it's own open dialog) but in konqueror (which uses the standard KDE one I can) - so there's a side-effect/disadvantage of the "multiple window manager options" approach.
Multiple virtual desktops - see powertoys, and some manufacturers video card drivers support this too.
I'm not pro-windoze - I run slackware/KDE:-) (and I'm even pretty pissed at MS software in general just now due to spending all day arguing with some stupid software on an XP box, and finally getting it all going, only to have it crash and burn, requiring a re-install to get winsloth to boot again).
Actually doctors are more like a MS admin - they don't have the source code. fortunately for most of us, a lot of reverse engineering and hacking has been going on and doctors have a pretty good idea, but they don't have anything like the access to the nuts and bolts a unix admin has.
Unfortunately we can't just format and re-install Pat (although I bet he wishes we could). All we can hope is that he finds someone who has hacked about in the right place at some time and can fix it.
Unfortunately the hard drive does not usually contain a file system that can self-repair. For example, if your FAT/FAT32 disk loses data in its index, you lose your data (unless you are very skilled with a disk editor). I've never had to try it with NTFS, but both HPFS (the OS/2 file system) and Ext2/Ext3 can completely re-build themselves (with the aid of fsck) when corrupted - I have seen this first hand on both. Chances are you will lose SOME data, but never ALL data.
Some time ago, my father had a minor stroke during the night, and woke up not remembering the last 10 years. It took us a while to work out what happened, and it was quite frustrating to be talking to him to try and work out what he remembered, then finding he had had a "reset" and forgotten the last half hour completely. We did notice that each reset brought back a large chunk of memory.
By lunch time his brain had finished running fsck, and he had all his memory up to and including the night before (but no memory of that morning).
He had various scans etc to confirm the stroke, but they really just confirmed what happened.
From memory, Creative makes/made a "skin" - a plastic keyboard overlay that looks like a piano keyboard.
I don't think it was terribly successful (serious musicians preferred the greater number of keys and better feel of a real MIDI keyboard.
Re:teh living computer
on
Flying By Brain
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
It's not too difficult to find a source of brains - visit your local abbatoir.
Wouldn't want to use the sheep brains though.... Imagine a "mob" of aircraft playing follow the leader...
Seriously, you would want to use something with a life span of more than a few years - besides, how do you do backups? how do you transfer existing knowledge to the new, untrained brain? (I mean more efficiently than us humans manage to using our existing I/O ports).
Microsoft's best move would be to go into the consulting business in a much bigger way than they are now
What would they move into supporting?
They already do windows... and who in their right mind would hire M$ to support linux based systems?
Yes, maybe in 30 years when windows are once again bits of glass in walls, but until people can be confident that MS don't have a vested interest in screwing up your linux servers so they can sell you windows, they won't get hired.
I think their best move would be to start by porting something like Office to Linux (the OSX port would be most of the way there already), and to support it well (as in with a similar level of competence as they support office on windows)
Mind you, this may prove impossible for microsoft - they do not play well without the option to format and re-install - a concept which is all but unheard of in linux circles.
this isn't a mechanical process like a domain registrar.
oh for the days when com.au required a valid australian business registration with a name similar to the domain requested. (actually, not sure if they still do)
if registrars actually used a real human to check the domains before clearing them, we could get rid of 99% of those dummy domains overnight - think about it, what-a-deal-78.com or hgfoid.com is not likely to be a valid business, so the registrar should ask for some kind of supporting documentation. Likewise paypa1.com or g00gle.com should cause most humans to ask questions.
Really, why don't all registrars do some simple checks, like replace all "0" (zero) with "o" and "1" with "l" before allowing a domain through?
As for.org or.info - most organizations have meetings so a copy of the minutes might count, and many are incorporated or whatever the local laws require - so they have verifiable documentation too..name - drivers licence or birth certificate,.biz - same as.com,.net - originally supposed to be for network providers (ISP) so how about keeping it that way?
This is why domain registrations used to cost money - because the verification was there - you knew that fribble.com.au was a real business, and if someone tried to register fribb1e.com.au it would be rejected. These days you just can't tell.
Slashdot Mirror
I was *supposed* to be thinking about how I could link the coffee machine to the a wireless network so I could sync it with my WiFi alarm clock and e-mail program, said the interviewer.
That's just silly - it is an in-car coffee maker, not a self-powered portable coffee maker. The correct answer is:
USB communication over the power connector (or possibly bluetooth, but that re-introduces the authentication problems below) allowing communication with the car's on-board computer. This provides for a single wireless signal for all devices in the car, increasing overall available bandwidth (less interference due to less devices competing for wifi bandwidth)
Less interference and bandwidth problems on the freeway (where you might have hundreds of cars armed with many wifi transmitters competing for bandwidth) and a single point of authentication, making it easier to manage remote access to the devices in your car, thus preventing your neighbour from making sure you get cold coffee in the morning (or flattening your battery).
Reducing the number of wireless transmitters in each car is also a friendly move towards your fellow commuters, and other wifi users in general, as they suffer less from your signal interference with their equipment.
This design also reduces the cost of future exansion (you might want coffee in the back).
That answer would probably win me a job in OSS, but obviously not in Microsoft.
I think they already tried that.... I wonder if they did better research this time?
It looks like you're trying to browse the web. Would you like me to:
* Throw up annoying windows promoting competitors sites
* Redirect any domains that don't actually exist to MSN Search
* Tell Microsoft where you've been
* Suggest Microsoft products designed for totally unrelated tasks
* Insert banners bagging OSS and linking to bogus Microsoft funded studies
* All of the above
Microsoft didnt buy ALL of the makers for unix / linux antivirus. They bought a single one.
Hitler didn't weed out ALL the races he didn't like straight up either - that would have upset too many people at the same time.
It's the best way to start doing something new - start small and work up. Set a precedent with an easy target so you have a better foothold when dealing with larger targets.
If M$ had done this to Symantec or McAffee, the fallout would have been huge. Taking out a large and well-known competitor out is not usually viewed as good by the public, unless that competitor was already in trouble - something that Anti-Virus software companies are never likely to encounter unless all popular OS's start shipping with free AV software..... But by the time that happens, there may be no-one left to speak out.
That aside, what is the best way for MS to push people away from *nix servers? Simple - prevent those servers from protecting the windows boxes from viruses. Not that this will help them much - there are open source anti-virus programs (eg ClamAV) that will make that somewhat difficult, if not impossible.
damn, now I want a job in military censorship!
I wonder how long before this gets hacked / wiretapped
Apple OSX Intel Inside laptops
I wonder how long before some marketing droid starts pushing that as "Apple IntelX Inside" (say it quickly)...
except the signal is varying strength, position and frequency..... making it much harder to remove.
As for attenuation over distance of the harmonic: the actual frequency is strong enough to be received by an omni-directional antenna just a few feet in length. Most radio telescopes are MUCH larger than this, and designed to receive signals from MUCH longer distances - as a result, if someone actually tried to do it, a large/good radio telescope could probably* detect the EMF from the phone's internal circuitry at several miles, much less the loud "thump" (or any harmonics of it) emitted by the transmitter.
* I'm no electrical engineer, but my very limited knowledge of signal drop with distance says the received signal from an omnidirectional antenna (ie source in space, or your mobile phone) is something like the square of the distance.
viewed as the basic constituent element
:-)
And thus it is as it always was......
DOS is the basic constituent of windows......
g/d/r
actually, I imagine it will more likely be linux-ppc compiled for x86 (more or less)
Apart from some chipset specific stuff, it should be similar inside to a ppc, but will need to be compiled for an x86 instruction set.
I Googled for the linux method
:-)
aww c'mon - play fair - did you google for the windows or nero method? It can be done.
(hmm, maybe I could have renamed it there and then)
In windows you can (even with mozilla I think because it uses the windows standard open dialog)... in mozilla 1.8/linux I can't (because it uses it's own open dialog) but in konqueror (which uses the standard KDE one I can) - so there's a side-effect/disadvantage of the "multiple window manager options" approach.
Multiple virtual desktops - see powertoys, and some manufacturers video card drivers support this too.
I'm not pro-windoze - I run slackware/KDE
(and I'm even pretty pissed at MS software in general just now due to spending all day arguing with some stupid software on an XP box, and finally getting it all going, only to have it crash and burn, requiring a re-install to get winsloth to boot again).
Tell that to my sister who has no hearing in her right ear because we stuck to our local GP.
If he had simply realized the colour of the puss was wrong for what he was diagnosing, it would have been a lot simpler.
Actually doctors are more like a MS admin - they don't have the source code.
fortunately for most of us, a lot of reverse engineering and hacking has been going on and doctors have a pretty good idea, but they don't have anything like the access to the nuts and bolts a unix admin has.
Unfortunately we can't just format and re-install Pat (although I bet he wishes we could). All we can hope is that he finds someone who has hacked about in the right place at some time and can fix it.
actually, linux runs just fine without an MMU - see uclinux
There doesn't seem to be a 2.6 version (only 2.4), but then I'm not sure if 2.6 hasn't had uclinux merged in. (a quick look at the config says no)
Unfortunately the hard drive does not usually contain a file system that can self-repair. For example, if your FAT/FAT32 disk loses data in its index, you lose your data (unless you are very skilled with a disk editor). I've never had to try it with NTFS, but both HPFS (the OS/2 file system) and Ext2/Ext3 can completely re-build themselves (with the aid of fsck) when corrupted - I have seen this first hand on both. Chances are you will lose SOME data, but never ALL data.
Some time ago, my father had a minor stroke during the night, and woke up not remembering the last 10 years. It took us a while to work out what happened, and it was quite frustrating to be talking to him to try and work out what he remembered, then finding he had had a "reset" and forgotten the last half hour completely. We did notice that each reset brought back a large chunk of memory.
By lunch time his brain had finished running fsck, and he had all his memory up to and including the night before (but no memory of that morning).
He had various scans etc to confirm the stroke, but they really just confirmed what happened.
well at least until they "bump" themselves off coarse....
I think my expectations of the world have become so downgraded that I don't even mind evil, as long as it's halfway competent evil.
It's getting so I don't mind ANYTHING that's half-way competent - that seems to put it well above average these days.
Particles such as ethane and even polystyrene have been suggested
It's life Jim, but not as we know it....
Sometimes you can't help what what springs to mind
Property of His/Her Majesty
Prisoner....
or when referring to those still at home - POME - Prisoner Of Mother England
Probably what lost it for them was that the enemy had an almost unlimited supply of "troops" shipped in over a long period.
Imagine if the US could ship people into Iraq at the same rate (ignoring the public outcry of coarse)
From memory, Creative makes/made a "skin" - a plastic keyboard overlay that looks like a piano keyboard.
I don't think it was terribly successful (serious musicians preferred the greater number of keys and better feel of a real MIDI keyboard.
It's not too difficult to find a source of brains - visit your local abbatoir.
Wouldn't want to use the sheep brains though.... Imagine a "mob" of aircraft playing follow the leader...
Seriously, you would want to use something with a life span of more than a few years - besides, how do you do backups? how do you transfer existing knowledge to the new, untrained brain? (I mean more efficiently than us humans manage to using our existing I/O ports).
*** POOF ***
damn, where did I go????
Microsoft's best move would be to go into the consulting business in a much bigger way than they are now
What would they move into supporting?
They already do windows... and who in their right mind would hire M$ to support linux based systems?
Yes, maybe in 30 years when windows are once again bits of glass in walls, but until people can be confident that MS don't have a vested interest in screwing up your linux servers so they can sell you windows, they won't get hired.
I think their best move would be to start by porting something like Office to Linux (the OSX port would be most of the way there already), and to support it well (as in with a similar level of competence as they support office on windows)
Mind you, this may prove impossible for microsoft - they do not play well without the option to format and re-install - a concept which is all but unheard of in linux circles.
this isn't a mechanical process like a domain registrar.
.org or .info - most organizations have meetings so a copy of the minutes might count, and many are incorporated or whatever the local laws require - so they have verifiable documentation too. .name - drivers licence or birth certificate, .biz - same as .com, .net - originally supposed to be for network providers (ISP) so how about keeping it that way?
oh for the days when com.au required a valid australian business registration with a name similar to the domain requested. (actually, not sure if they still do)
if registrars actually used a real human to check the domains before clearing them, we could get rid of 99% of those dummy domains overnight - think about it, what-a-deal-78.com or hgfoid.com is not likely to be a valid business, so the registrar should ask for some kind of supporting documentation. Likewise paypa1.com or g00gle.com should cause most humans to ask questions.
Really, why don't all registrars do some simple checks, like replace all "0" (zero) with "o" and "1" with "l" before allowing a domain through?
As for
This is why domain registrations used to cost money - because the verification was there - you knew that fribble.com.au was a real business, and if someone tried to register fribb1e.com.au it would be rejected. These days you just can't tell.
really! I'm NOT paranoid sir, the MIBs really ARE throwing potatoes at me!