>left Minitel in the dust, and a year later there was Internet.
Agreed, but Minitel is still there, thriving, and making big Euros for France Telecom. On my laswt trip to France last spring, I found Minitel terminals still easy to find in hotels and such both in Paris and out in the country. Many internet cafes had Minitel V23 emulators on their machines. You can download your own emulator here.
Personally, I think Minitel will survive, because it is particularly French. The latest thing seems to be porting it to mobile phones, which seems a perfect fit to me.
was trying out new software and new ways of doing things. Freeware was everywhere, and you could find new programs all the time. I liked Telix for a terminal program, because of its C-like scripting language. You needed a mail reader like SLMR or Bluewave and software for file transfers: xmodem, ymodem, zmodem, and I had a nifty automator for that written by the Byte Brothers.
In addition to the various online games mentioned, I had a cool one called Modem Wars that you played against someone else with a direct one to one dialup connection. It was liek a techie version of Stratego. Great fun.
If all of you Francophobes could untwist your shorts for a minute, you might realize that this is pretty much an updated version of the Minitel, which most geeks thought was pretty damn cool back in the days of expensive 300 baud dialup.
"The number two is impossible," - Isaac Asimov in The Gods Themselves.
The meaning being that there may be none of something in the universe, there may be one of something, but if there are two, there are lots more than two. Actually, in this case he was referring to universes themselves, not just things in the univrerse, but the point is the same.
I'm not always in my nice private home when I want to deal with these things. So I'm supposed to say my "sixteen digit account number" out loud in the fucking airport, train station, office, or whatever? I don't think so. Of course the one's that ask you to punch it in alwas give to some idiot that asks for it again anyway. You can't win.
The only two words I say are "Agent" and "Operator." Grumble, grumble, grumble. Someone else already posted the gethuman database link It's a lifesaver.
>My Jaguar was a beautiful car, but had the most bizarre set of problems I've ever heard of (a door and sunroof that opened only when they were in the right mood, occasionally working headlights, etc.)
I don't know much about the newer models, but this sort of thing is considered normal behavior for British cars of the 50s,60s, and 70s. The proper mental attitude to take is to look on it a charming quirkiness when your headlamps go out at night in a driving rainstorm. Of course, you are already used to the fact that the wipers work beautifully until it starts raining, when they quit. This attitude keeps you from shooting holes in the engine block and setting the thing on fire.
It used to be an article of faith among my fellow Triumph, MG, Austin-Healy and Jaguar drivrers that Lucas electrical systems were designed by Satan. Anything electrical worked on a purely random schedule, perhaps, as you suspect, influenced by the moon. On the bright side, major FUBAR situations could often be remedied by a nice wash and wax or rotating the tires.
I always thought that the British engineers' idea was that their cars were supposed to be fun, but unpredictable. I you wanted dependable transportation, you were supposed to take the train.
There have been any number of pithy comments about the desecration of this purest of sports by the use of a mechanical apparatus. I, for one, am shocked by the inclusion of French components in what should be a purely British endeavour. Granted, the ease of finding a dead Citroen may have contributed to this, but for form's sake I should have thought using an old Anglia transmission would have been a nice touch.
>Well, we 'take' 2 weeks (or 1 week, or whatever) a year.
I earn 22 vacation days a year plus 12 holidays.
>our cultural habits come down to preferring about 2 weeks per year.
I much prefer what I have to "2 weeks per year." Two weeks per year sucks. I know this, because I've had that kind of job. Six weeks would be better. It's like the old saying about having been both rich and poor. Rich is better. I have a strong work ethic, and I love my job, but I also have a life outside of it.
But the headline, "Did Humans Evolve? No, Says (sic) Americans," seems to indicate a profound ignorance of grammar. The results of California's STAR test released today say I should not be surprised.
Right you are. Ash body; maple neck. Back in the day, my rocker buddies always claimed the Strats with the light colored fretboards played better than the ones with the dark necks. I never played well enough to feel the difference. Great sound either way.
Take pictures of it. Print out the link you have in your post and any other documentation you can find on the thing. Ask a community service officer from the police to come out. She will probably be a she. She will probably be young, and since not carrying a gun, will not have spent a bunch of time on the firing range ruining her hearing. She will hear it, and since the docs clearly show it is designed to be annoying, she will be on your side. Probably. Maybe. You can try it and hope, anyway.
Plan B. You like Hendrix, right? With breakfast. Early. Turn it up to eleven.
Randi's "silly excuses" are simply science in action. Extraordinary cliams require extraordinary proof, although in this case, I think what he asks adds up to simply ordinary scientific methods. In order to prove that you have paranormal powers, you have to show that what you are doing is not being done by other means. Randi's challenge simply says that the parameters of the test assure that. For example, claims that a person can turn the page of a book by telekinetic powers never work if the book is inside of a clear plastic box. Strangely, the person who claims these powers will claim that this is unfair. If you need more details, check out the rules.
When you get down to the nut cutting with Occam's Razor, the paranormal claims always fade out. They always reappear with the same claims and no evidence. The credulous will always be with us. The good news is that many of them like to play cards for money.
We here at Sony have no plans for being evil or for implementing this technology. We are merely exploring the technology of being evil for academic and esthetic reasons. Do we look like the kind of company that would use technology against our own customers? Don't worry about this. You should only worry about digital rights management if you actually have any digital rights, and you don't.
Name your latest high tech gadget for a bronze age pirate ship crewed by illiterate drunks and thieves trying to stay one step ahead of that mad bitch Medea. Brilliant!
>Are we also going to do something to prevent this from happening again
No. That would be wrong for the following reasons:
It would require admitting that the existing security system is sub-optimal.
It would imply that the Dear Leader/FBI Director had made a mistake.
Acknowledging that there was a problem would aid terrorists and Democrats.
Creating a culture of accountability would damage agent morale and lead to #3 above.
Sending some wanker consultant to jail makes staff feel good.
The option of sending agents to jail and/or Butte, Montana must be reserved for the serious crime of embarrassing the Dear Leader.
Thank you for asking. However, the fact that you asked shows that you have no possible future with the FBI and are probably a threat to our National Security. We'll be in touch.
I haven't used xcopy in a while. Certainly not on an XP machine. The last time I used it was on a w98 box and it truncated all of the filenames to 8.3 format (7~.3 really). Is there now a version that supports long filenames?
These guys have it all wrong. You can tell the terrorists, criminals, and other defectives by measuring the shape of thier skull. Forensic phrenology also has the advantage of requiring less expensive hardware leaving more of the budget to be spent on comely, scantily-clad lab assistants and an adequate supply of lab alcohol.
Slashdot Mirror
>the new requirement that all people crossing the border hold passports
If you are a US citizen, you still don't need a passport to go to Mexico, but you sure as hell need one to come back.
Nice. However, I didn't notice the monitor in the first picture, and it was clearly in the way in the second. :-)
>left Minitel in the dust, and a year later there was Internet.
Agreed, but Minitel is still there, thriving, and making big Euros for France Telecom. On my laswt trip to France last spring, I found Minitel terminals still easy to find in hotels and such both in Paris and out in the country. Many internet cafes had Minitel V23 emulators on their machines. You can download your own emulator here.
Personally, I think Minitel will survive, because it is particularly French. The latest thing seems to be porting it to mobile phones, which seems a perfect fit to me.
was trying out new software and new ways of doing things. Freeware was everywhere, and you could find new programs all the time. I liked Telix for a terminal program, because of its C-like scripting language. You needed a mail reader like SLMR or Bluewave and software for file transfers: xmodem, ymodem, zmodem, and I had a nifty automator for that written by the Byte Brothers.
In addition to the various online games mentioned, I had a cool one called Modem Wars that you played against someone else with a direct one to one dialup connection. It was liek a techie version of Stratego. Great fun.
Just a guess, but Mandriva is French.
If all of you Francophobes could untwist your shorts for a minute, you might realize that this is pretty much an updated version of the Minitel, which most geeks thought was pretty damn cool back in the days of expensive 300 baud dialup.
Besides, it runs Linux.
"The number two is impossible," - Isaac Asimov in The Gods Themselves.
The meaning being that there may be none of something in the universe, there may be one of something, but if there are two, there are lots more than two. Actually, in this case he was referring to universes themselves, not just things in the univrerse, but the point is the same.
I'm not always in my nice private home when I want to deal with these things. So I'm supposed to say my "sixteen digit account number" out loud in the fucking airport, train station, office, or whatever? I don't think so. Of course the one's that ask you to punch it in alwas give to some idiot that asks for it again anyway. You can't win.
The only two words I say are "Agent" and "Operator." Grumble, grumble, grumble. Someone else already posted the gethuman database link It's a lifesaver.
>My Jaguar was a beautiful car, but had the most bizarre set of problems I've ever heard of (a door and sunroof that opened only when they were in the right mood, occasionally working headlights, etc.)
I don't know much about the newer models, but this sort of thing is considered normal behavior for British cars of the 50s,60s, and 70s. The proper mental attitude to take is to look on it a charming quirkiness when your headlamps go out at night in a driving rainstorm. Of course, you are already used to the fact that the wipers work beautifully until it starts raining, when they quit. This attitude keeps you from shooting holes in the engine block and setting the thing on fire.
It used to be an article of faith among my fellow Triumph, MG, Austin-Healy and Jaguar drivrers that Lucas electrical systems were designed by Satan. Anything electrical worked on a purely random schedule, perhaps, as you suspect, influenced by the moon. On the bright side, major FUBAR situations could often be remedied by a nice wash and wax or rotating the tires.
I always thought that the British engineers' idea was that their cars were supposed to be fun, but unpredictable. I you wanted dependable transportation, you were supposed to take the train.
>gearbox from a Citroen
There have been any number of pithy comments about the desecration of this purest of sports by the use of a mechanical apparatus. I, for one, am shocked by the inclusion of French components in what should be a purely British endeavour. Granted, the ease of finding a dead Citroen may have contributed to this, but for form's sake I should have thought using an old Anglia transmission would have been a nice touch.
>Well, we 'take' 2 weeks (or 1 week, or whatever) a year.
I earn 22 vacation days a year plus 12 holidays.
>our cultural habits come down to preferring about 2 weeks per year.
I much prefer what I have to "2 weeks per year." Two weeks per year sucks. I know this, because I've had that kind of job. Six weeks would be better. It's like the old saying about having been both rich and poor. Rich is better. I have a strong work ethic, and I love my job, but I also have a life outside of it.
But the headline, "Did Humans Evolve? No, Says (sic) Americans," seems to indicate a profound ignorance of grammar. The results of California's STAR test released today say I should not be surprised.
Right you are. Ash body; maple neck. Back in the day, my rocker buddies always claimed the Strats with the light colored fretboards played better than the ones with the dark necks. I never played well enough to feel the difference. Great sound either way.
>An old Heathkit amp with some bad solder joints for extra distortion will help as well.
Anyone with that will also have the requisite ash-fretboard white Strat to really rip the toenails out of it. ('Scuse me while I kiss the sky.)Take pictures of it. Print out the link you have in your post and any other documentation you can find on the thing. Ask a community service officer from the police to come out. She will probably be a she. She will probably be young, and since not carrying a gun, will not have spent a bunch of time on the firing range ruining her hearing. She will hear it, and since the docs clearly show it is designed to be annoying, she will be on your side. Probably. Maybe. You can try it and hope, anyway.
Plan B. You like Hendrix, right? With breakfast. Early. Turn it up to eleven.
Randi's "silly excuses" are simply science in action. Extraordinary cliams require extraordinary proof, although in this case, I think what he asks adds up to simply ordinary scientific methods. In order to prove that you have paranormal powers, you have to show that what you are doing is not being done by other means. Randi's challenge simply says that the parameters of the test assure that. For example, claims that a person can turn the page of a book by telekinetic powers never work if the book is inside of a clear plastic box. Strangely, the person who claims these powers will claim that this is unfair. If you need more details, check out the rules.
When you get down to the nut cutting with Occam's Razor, the paranormal claims always fade out. They always reappear with the same claims and no evidence. The credulous will always be with us. The good news is that many of them like to play cards for money.
>if they can reproduce such a result, it could earn them the $1 million prize long offered by the James Randi Educational Foundation.
Won't happen. Nope. No chance. Randi's money is as safe as if it were in the bank. Safer really, if you think about banks.
We here at Sony have no plans for being evil or for implementing this technology. We are merely exploring the technology of being evil for academic and esthetic reasons. Do we look like the kind of company that would use technology against our own customers? Don't worry about this. You should only worry about digital rights management if you actually have any digital rights, and you don't.
AOL could adopt the motto, "Don't Suck." It wouldn't help, though.
Name your latest high tech gadget for a bronze age pirate ship crewed by illiterate drunks and thieves trying to stay one step ahead of that mad bitch Medea. Brilliant!
>Are we also going to do something to prevent this from happening again
No. That would be wrong for the following reasons:
- It would require admitting that the existing security system is sub-optimal.
- It would imply that the Dear Leader/FBI Director had made a mistake.
- Acknowledging that there was a problem would aid terrorists and Democrats.
- Creating a culture of accountability would damage agent morale and lead to #3 above.
- Sending some wanker consultant to jail makes staff feel good.
- The option of sending agents to jail and/or Butte, Montana must be reserved for the serious crime of embarrassing the Dear Leader.
Thank you for asking. However, the fact that you asked shows that you have no possible future with the FBI and are probably a threat to our National Security. We'll be in touch.I haven't used xcopy in a while. Certainly not on an XP machine. The last time I used it was on a w98 box and it truncated all of the filenames to 8.3 format (7~.3 really). Is there now a version that supports long filenames?
>The release date of this office suite is "When it's done".
The problem with this is that "When it's done" will still include a truly awsome number of bugs.
These guys have it all wrong. You can tell the terrorists, criminals, and other defectives by measuring the shape of thier skull. Forensic phrenology also has the advantage of requiring less expensive hardware leaving more of the budget to be spent on comely, scantily-clad lab assistants and an adequate supply of lab alcohol.
I seem to recall that the Overlords in Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End had this ability. I, for one, welcome our new Overlord overlords.