Ah, the Tandy CoCo 3. Released in 1986, this baby was a beauty. From very simple to highly "scaleable", the machine offered up to 512kB in memory and additional add-ons in hardware to give you true RS-232 serial, "IBM" Floppy controller, SCSI h/d (or whatever) even! The machine was VERY hackable, and many owners have popped the cover several times to do neat tricks, such as upgrade to 2 MB of memory. I learned how digital electronics worked and, for that matter, learned a great deal about how computers work in general.
Anyways, getting back to BBS's and such, The native ColorBASIC DOS that came in ROM in all Coco's was a little lame (neat, easy to program, but limited power), so I decided to check out this "real" O/S that was available for the coco3: OS-9. This is where I first tasted the flavour of UNIX. Imagine a REAL-TIME multiprocessing multiuser O/S on an 1.89 MHz 8-bit MC68B09E machine in 1986!
After several years of obtaining hardware and learning the "ropes",(this was the mid-late-80's; most people using computers for the fun of it had a lot to learn) I learned to program in BASIC, dabbled in ASM, built my own hardware, installed another phone line and.....
ColorNET BBS, 2400 bps(8-N-1)
...powered by OS-9 Level 2, and a Tandy coco3. The software used was CoCo Pro! Software's OS9BBS. Alas, the machine is resting in silence now, and the BBS is long gone...... but it gave me a sense that a computer is only as powerul as its operating system, and while not a true UNIX, OS-9 was very UNIX-like. When I was eventually "forced" into the intel platform, it was quickly decided that MSDOS+Windoze was most definately NOT an improvement over what I had before (functionally speaking) and a look for OS-9ish alternatives was launched. It was 1995. I remember many,many floppies... (guess which distro;-)
For the last several years I have been a B/W darkroom enthusist and have recently invested a couple hundred clams in more film and darkroom supplies. I was thinking why I would even want to bother with processing my own film and prints. Why not just buy a digital cam?
Then it hit me. BW photography is fun, and allows for a large degree of control over the final product, but its archival quality is some of the best in existence. By properly fixing and washing prints and paper, you get a product that, when properly stored, will last for 25 to 50 years. Use a Fiber Base paper and your prints will last for 100+ years with little reduction in quality.
Compare this to eventual bit rot in digital media storage -- about 10 to 20 years life on most magnetic based storage. TO avoid bit rot you need to constantly (every 5 years or so) "refresh" the data, which means the more digital data you have in store, the more maintanance will be required. CD's are notably better but for some data (images) it may make more sense to have a true photo.
Another point to mention is the hardcopy production of such digital data. The quality of the output from printers and such may be good, but what is the lifetime of this media? Will it still be around in 50 years?
MS do not want to outlaw Open Source.
What they have said, is that the government should not encourage it.
Heh, nor should they encourage education about computers and how they work.
If this happens, there is no money to pay programmers. As a result, intelligent people such as myself,
who could command 6 figure salaries in any profession will take different career paths.
With fewer programmers, the result will be less innovation and worse software.
Ah, ha! But how much software is niche, internal, special purpose? These are the programmers that will ALWAYS obtain 5-6 figure salaries, as open source generally serves the "general" software market (web/mail/ftp servers, OS's like Linux, etc..) The real money is often in support and admin anyway, which Open Source can't solve -- you need man-hours instead.
With fewer programmers, the result will be less innovation and worse software.
Unsubstantiated hubris;-)
Furthermore, universities, etc. won't be able to afford to run computing courses, since, as is the stated
aim of many OS people, MS will be dead - and MS funds a lot of universities.
Like this is something that we should be encouraging anyways. Instead of institutions of free-thinking, we need more MS puppets.
Furthermore, the evidence is that open source does not tend to produce new innovation. For example,
desktops such as KDE are based on older products from Apple and MS. When open source is the only
thing remaining, innovation will obviously be reduced.
So if MS dies next year, Gnome and KDE will stop trying to out-do each other?
Finally, the fact is that nothing is truly free, and nothing costs money.
Um, uhhh... I'm confused by this one;P
Furthermore, if you ask an economist to tell you why, they will tell you it's due to IT growth.
Industry produces wealth - they produce the fact that California is the 6-th wealthiest nation worth,
and they help the economy.
Sure, much of the growth was due to IT. So was the ~50% drop to the NASDAQ in the last 6 months. Some even say the whole "internet boom" was hype driven, hence the sudden fall in stock.
Killing this industry will not make everything free, but will rather damage the economy.
Mais, non! Who said anything about killing the IT industry? I thought it was Microsoft wanting to put and end to Open Source!
--
Ah, fear not. I had noticed the misuse of moderation on your post. Some moderators are so infatuated will the idea of being able to moderate posts that they fail to think if they should or how they should moderate.
I would have fixed it myself had I moderator status, but decided to post to it saying it should be back modded up. By the time I hit the link to reply though, it was back to +1. Goes to show some people are thinking......
I do believe moderation needs a bit of a facelift. To CmdrTaco: There have been several occations where I have been browsing/. and there has been awful proof of misrated posts. I suggest that the +1 to karma-wealthy posters be banished, and an improvement to the moderation system by increasing a moderator's "active" time to more than a couple of days, and perhaps a larger moderator pool. --
Truth is, one of the unfortunate byproducts of digital sampling is something called 'aliasing' of frequencies above fN. Think this: a sound byte is sampled at 44100 Hz. The Nyquist is 22050 Hz. A 21000 Hz sine wave will be reproduced alright, but another 24000 Hz sin wave (22050 + 150 Hz) will show up as 21000 (22050 - 150 Hz) in the digital sample upon playback. So when music is digitized, some fancy low-pass filters are required on the input to prevent this aliasing effect.
Now, one of the problems with filters is that 'perfect' filters are somewhat imposible. Even good low-pass filters which must exhibit near -20dB at fN, roll-off about -3dB at fN-10%.
So the whole point of this is that frequencies near the Nyquist must have already been attenuated or discolorization of frequencies above 12kHz or so will occur.
That's why I swear by good vinyl. A good needle/cartridge and amp can give impressive 30kHz results! Ironically, most people can't really hear this anyway, but most audiophiles will agree it makes for a crisp,full sound that sounds dynamic, as opposed to digital, which sounds cold or flat in comparison. Not that records have the best signal/noise ratio stats;-) --
Yeah, tell me about it. Here in Canada, RadioShack has taken on a 'new' business model apparently. Once _THE_ place to purchase run-o-the-mill transistors, diodes, wire, etc..., they seem to be bent on getting into the computer market in a big way. The local RS here in Corner Brook, NF has recently dropped about 2/3 of their in-house electronic parts supply, adding yet more telephones to the sidewalls, pushing their overpriced elec. applinces harder, and filling half of the floor-space with computer displays (mostly pre-fab HP/Dell(?)/Compaq - neither configurable nor totally upgradeable).
The ironic part is, I would consider myself to be a typical RS shopper (heck, I used to be an employee!), buying replacement batteries, 74xx series digital IC's, regulators, capacitors, you name it. Tho, I would never buy a computer from them (unless the price was REALLY right-it rarely is) and their software displays are all 'doze apps.
It seems as if the folks at RatShack have forgotten their raison d'etre. RADIO SHACK! The name almost spells it out -- a place for radio (and other) electronic enthusiasts to gather, exchange ideas, info, and purchase otherwise hard to buy stuff. When was the last time you saw 1N34A's, 2N3055's, and TIP120's at WalMart? Or at your convenience store?
Now, RS wants to alienate this customer base to piss in an already over-crowded marketspace? How many other places can you buy telephones, computers, TV's, and VCR's?
I reckon that if Tandy were alive today, some people would be in the throttling position... --
.... but it is interesting that a company with such a profile is willing to stand up and just say no. Indeed, I encourage ANY company that deals with multimedia (especially audio mm) to follow Creative's lead.
It's one thing to acknowledge the problem of "obtaining copyrighted material illegally", but to stifle an entire sub-set of technology is just backwards. Are these guys really serious about preventing tech. evolution? It cant't work.
--
The only real soverign power that actually "controls" the moon would be the united states. I
don't think anyone would mind too much taking a laser and taking out that server of yours.
ah, but what if the server were on the dark side of the moon? No laser will hurt it there;-) --
I believe the name of first nuclear weapons
project in the US is The Manhattan Project. Trinity was the name of the first
uncontrolled U-235 fission bomb, detonated in New Mexico.
--
Every once in a while you see stories like this where such-n-such technology is being merged into such-n-such a device. As things get more compact, it is tempting to put all the functionality in one box.
However, what if your only device (PDA/cellular/mp3 player all in one) stops working? Is stolen? Batteries die? All of these functions are lost at once.
Personally, I like having smaller and more efficient electronics (anyone remember the cell phones RadioShack used to sell in the 80's?). But I also prefer one function per package - more reliable (if one goes, you have alternatives) and, well, it looks like you have more stuff! --
...and the Buisness department (which CS fell into) had...
Yuck. How do they get of putting Comp Sci into the buisness department. This is insane. It's almost as if the computer was born of the buisness world.
But I can somehow see why this is the paradigm for some administration. When the curricula of many "Computer SCience" high school courses teach WP, Spreadsheets, and the usual fluff, leaving programming, interfacing with electronics (,etc.. The GOOD STUFF) to the very end, if at all. The only real good CS/Tech courses are at the top, and these are sometimes hindered by either lack of a good Tech teacher (ones willing and able to tinker) or a short time period (Here in Newfoundland, CS/Tech courses are usually one-credit, making them 'half-year' courses.) --
Good thing the fuel for this very specailized aircraft also had a very high vapor pressue (it wouldn't evaporate easily at sea level)
What you really mean to say is that the fuel isn't that volatile and has a sufficiently high enough delta-H of vapourization at STP. A fuel with a high vapour pressure means that it will eventually vapourize to a high % of the localized atmosphere. Then you would have the fun that you suggest;-) -- You're still using Windows?
when i was 14 i designed a robot that would sweep a photocell across my room, detect intruders, and alert me via a modem. when i was 16 i used the same system to control an optical fiber-measuring test gear for a science fair. it was an apple II. i haven't seem a more accessible computer since.
Yup. I had a Tandy CoCo3 -- and you could make these son-of-a-guns sing! Hardware interfacing, programming, problem solving, you name it. Even with 'good-ol' Color BASIC, you could manage to get much done. In fact, I distinctly remember learning the abstracts of algebra long before it was taught in Junior High school--simply because it had learned to program my CoCo.
I would even go to the point of saying that todays students don't know ANYTHING about computers with respect to programming, how logic gates work, what an algorithim is, or even what the binary system is anymore. All they really know is the pop-culture type of stuff: Napster, ICQ, surfing, etc. In other words: with all of the emphasis on computers in todays schools, there is virtually no computer SCIENCE being taught. It's as if the tool is no more than a mere toy. -- You're still using Windows?
My experience with Windows (specifically Windows NT 4/2000) dictates otherwise.
At our high school, we use an NT4 server running WinProxy (blech!). I can't say the machine crashes frequently (ie, requiring reboot), but that damn Proxy is unpredictable, not to mention braindead. There are also other administration issues that are questionable in a production environment, such as the daily backup procedure our Sysadmin has scheduled which renders the Network printers unusable, inability to log on the network, etc,etc. This may be happening when school is out for the day, but I (being a teacher) may be in the building 8,9,or 10 pm any given evening, trying to do some prep work, unable to use the computer!
On top of that, when the server seems to be acting reasonably well, everyone (including the sysadmin) is afraid to even touch the machine, or else it mat start acting funny. Does this sound like a machine one could really depend on?
For most school environments, I expect that NT/2000's multi-user support is more than sufficient. What, you didn't think I was talking about Windows 9x, did you?
You are quite right about about NT/2000 being more than sufficient. But not in the pure technical sense. Do you really believe a school full of P150's (or less) with 16MB of RAM (32 if you're lucky) is going to be able to run W2000? Forget the licencing fees (which are also prohibative) -- those machines will be soooo slow that half of the class will be waiting for the computer to boot/start Office/etc.....
This sounds more like a problem with the additional software installed than a problem with Windows. Besides, if you're going to run Windows, shouldn't y'all be running NT/2000? I'm not saying it's a cure-all, but I believe it would be better suited to the task than Windows 9x.
Software (apps) may be buggy, but this should not bring entire computers (or networks even) to it's knees. When an application fails, only it should bomb, not the entire OS and HD data. A buggy app that doesn't work is the app designer's fault. A buggy app that brings down the OS is (in this case) Microsoft's fault.
In my (admittedly limited) experience with computers in schools, 95/98 workstations are misfits that require constant fixing, disinfecting, reconfiguration. In fact, I've postulated that the admin work for Windows machines is close to a linear function for any sufficiently large institute -- requiring roughly one full time position for every 40 to 50 machines. A UNIX environment needs a good qualified sysadmin to get things up and running, but the addition of terminals or workstations is close to trivial. The admin work as a function of # of workstations is much closer to a log function.
And again, I won't even discuss the price issue (Linux workstation == free; W98 workstation =~$150; NT workstation == several hundred $) -- You're still using Windows?
/*Don't know why, and I haven't tested it on a drive with * more than 8 heads, but that is what the bios-listings seem to imply. I * just love not having a manual. */
Tell me about it. One of the things I used to love about purchasing computer parts years ago were the schematics, programming info, etc.....
I used to own a Tandy Color Computer 3 years ago, and it was quite the little workhorse. Small, very modular (tho this was problem if you had floppy,HD,RS-232,controllers,etc... -- thing got messy), and was remarkably easy to program. It had fairly advanced HW for the time (decent MMU; better graphics than CGA and on par with EGA), and was much cheaper than an full 'IBM PC' (remember when?).
One of the killers of this little jewel was the PC/MSDOS hedgemony (later to become Intel/Windows) of software. Many users such as myself were interested in electronics and interfacing, and we loved to use our CoCo's for neat'n'easy projects. This required us to write our own software, interface with hardware at the driver level, and do other hacks to get things to our satisfaction. When we needed to use available hardware for whatever reason, nothing beat a useful manual to help make life much easier. Nothing worse than stabbing in the dark.
Ahh. My CoCo. I truly loved that machine. Anyone else here a former CoCo addict? -- You're still using Windows?
Sounds easy enough until you actually think about it. That's close to 17% of your day just commuting. On top of that you'll have to get a fuel efficient car or you'll spend mucho donero on gas. (Here in Newfoundland, Canada, we spend on average 85cents/litre (over $2Us/gallon!!!)) Driving can be stressful if you have to do much of it (tho MP3 players do help). Finally, statistically speaking, the more driving you do, the higher the likelyhood of you being in a fatal accident.
End result? Long commutes don't really add up. -- You're still using Windows?
Ah... but herein lies the rub. Once MS can no longer bundle OS/server/browser/etc. it would not be in their interests to make other's software incompatible with theirs. A server that only works with their browser means netscape/etc users will find those sites useless. Vice versa: a browser that is incompatible with everything else will be replaced with mozilla/whatever. Users aren't completely stupid - they want to use something that works with everything. Same goes with sys admins. The only reason MS is getting away with it now is due to their market dominace. A breakup will level things out (at least to a certain degree), and people will start using what works best with everything. -- You're still using Windows?
While we're on the topic, we should mention some of Carl Sagan's works. I had to read a couple of titles for an education course last summer, a year after I finished studying a B.Sc. in physics.
Some of this stuff is deep. Good reading -- everyone should read at least one of his essays. -- You're still using Windows?
You know, it would be interesting to see if the marketing boys (and girls) market these new generation of ~1 GHz CPU's as "1000 MHz" blazing speed processors. After all--1000 is larger than one--so a 1000Mhz machine 'sounds' sexier.
Most people don't know what MHz or GHz means anyways--to them it might as well be a model number. -- You're still using Windows?
This is offtopic I know, but I felt I had to share this here.
It looks as if Microsoft is expanding their internationalization of Windows! This should be particularly amusing to East Coast Canadians.
Enjoy! -------------------------------- Notice from Microsoft:
It has come to our attention that a few copies of the Nova Scotia/Newfoundland version of Windows 98 may have accidentally been shipped outside that area. If you have one of these Editions you may need some help understanding the commands.
The "East Coast" Edition may be recognized by looking at the opening screen. It reads WINDAS 98 with a background picture of a Cod fish superimposed on a slice of baloney. It is shipped with a Jimmy Flynn screen saver (Newfoundland versions only) (Nova Scotia versions were shipped with alternating Rita MacNeil/Anne Murray screen savers). As well, disks were packaged in a Windas 98 Sou'wester.
Also note: The "Recycle Bin" is labeled "Frenchies". "My Computer" is called "Dis godamned almighty ting". "Dialup Networking" is called "trawling". "Control Panel" is known as the "de other godamned almighty ting". "Hard Drive" is referred to as "4-Wheel Drive." "Floppies" are "Dem Jesus Little tings."
Other features: Instead of an Error Message you get a pick-up truck, covered with a garbage bag and duct tape and full of broken lobster traps.
Terminology:
OK = right some good. Cancel = oh migod no. Reset = oh my oh my. Yes = wha. No = christ 'n jesus mighty no. Find = ecum secum. Go to = goin' down. Back = arse side. Help = lord tunderin jesus bye. Stop = cod end. Start = anchors away.
Also note that Windas 98 does not recognize capital letters, punctuation marks, spelling or grammar. As well, half the time, it won't work.
We regret any inconvenience it may have caused if you received a copy of the "East Coast" Edition. You may return it to Microsoft for a replacement version. Although, I can't for the life of me figure out why anyone would want to return it, after all it is a genuine real right some good East Coast ting.
Thank you.
May yer cod end be full. Bill Gates -- You're still using Windows?
That's right. Believe it or not, vinyl has better sound reproduction than CD's. It has to do with the fact that CD's are bandlimited at 22.05 kHz and produce greater amounts of distortion as the frequency approaches this figure. Records, however, when manufactured with premium HiFi in mind and when played back using ultra-high quality cartridges and styli can produce freq. up to ~30kHz!
The damn things still get scratched much easier though, and would be a bitch to play in a moving vehicle;-P -- You're still using Windows?
Linux, a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds, has been released to the public domain.
Ahem... I know it is being a little nit-picky, but isn't the formal definition of public domain significantly different from the GNU GPL? It would seem as if the people marketing this need a little course in Linux 101.
I must say, it is alright to see these Linux-as-Windows-apps distributions showing up -- it may kindle a flame with those who would otherwise run screaming from having to do a real install. The problem is they will never get the TRUE (and IMHO-better) Linux experience until they take the plundge, split their windums partition (or scrap it altogether;-), and do a "standard" #include install.
At least it may interest (and educate) several to go 'all the way'! -- You're still using Windows?
Perhaps this should have occured in a US context? Then we could have seen an equally 'retarded' (no offence) judicial outcome. South Park would be considered a threat to the populace of the US, resulting in modern-day Columbine massacres, racism, et al., and may eventually be taken off the air.
Don't think so?
Paul Bernardo is locked up for a loooooong time. Why isn't O.J. Simpson?
--A somewhat irratated Canuck
P.S. why would any _sane_ mother let her children watch South Park anyway? It may be animated, but it ain't no Saturday morning cartoon.
Slashdot Mirror
Anyways, getting back to BBS's and such, The native ColorBASIC DOS that came in ROM in all Coco's was a little lame (neat, easy to program, but limited power), so I decided to check out this "real" O/S that was available for the coco3: OS-9. This is where I first tasted the flavour of UNIX. Imagine a REAL-TIME multiprocessing multiuser O/S on an 1.89 MHz 8-bit MC68B09E machine in 1986!
After several years of obtaining hardware and learning the "ropes",(this was the mid-late-80's; most people using computers for the fun of it had a lot to learn) I learned to program in BASIC, dabbled in ASM, built my own hardware, installed another phone line and.....
ColorNET BBS, 2400 bps(8-N-1)
If there is a book where almost all physical concepts are covered with a good dose of calculus treatment, this is it.
Then it hit me. BW photography is fun, and allows for a large degree of control over the final product, but its archival quality is some of the best in existence. By properly fixing and washing prints and paper, you get a product that, when properly stored, will last for 25 to 50 years. Use a Fiber Base paper and your prints will last for 100+ years with little reduction in quality.
Compare this to eventual bit rot in digital media storage -- about 10 to 20 years life on most magnetic based storage. TO avoid bit rot you need to constantly (every 5 years or so) "refresh" the data, which means the more digital data you have in store, the more maintanance will be required. CD's are notably better but for some data (images) it may make more sense to have a true photo.
Another point to mention is the hardcopy production of such digital data. The quality of the output from printers and such may be good, but what is the lifetime of this media? Will it still be around in 50 years?
Heh, nor should they encourage education about computers and how they work.
If this happens, there is no money to pay programmers. As a result, intelligent people such as myself, who could command 6 figure salaries in any profession will take different career paths. With fewer programmers, the result will be less innovation and worse software.
Ah, ha! But how much software is niche, internal, special purpose? These are the programmers that will ALWAYS obtain 5-6 figure salaries, as open source generally serves the "general" software market (web/mail/ftp servers, OS's like Linux, etc..) The real money is often in support and admin anyway, which Open Source can't solve -- you need man-hours instead.
With fewer programmers, the result will be less innovation and worse software.
Unsubstantiated hubris ;-)
Furthermore, universities, etc. won't be able to afford to run computing courses, since, as is the stated aim of many OS people, MS will be dead - and MS funds a lot of universities.
Like this is something that we should be encouraging anyways. Instead of institutions of free-thinking, we need more MS puppets.
Furthermore, the evidence is that open source does not tend to produce new innovation. For example, desktops such as KDE are based on older products from Apple and MS. When open source is the only thing remaining, innovation will obviously be reduced.
So if MS dies next year, Gnome and KDE will stop trying to out-do each other?
Finally, the fact is that nothing is truly free, and nothing costs money.
Um, uhhh... I'm confused by this one ;P
Furthermore, if you ask an economist to tell you why, they will tell you it's due to IT growth. Industry produces wealth - they produce the fact that California is the 6-th wealthiest nation worth, and they help the economy.
Sure, much of the growth was due to IT. So was the ~50% drop to the NASDAQ in the last 6 months. Some even say the whole "internet boom" was hype driven, hence the sudden fall in stock.
Killing this industry will not make everything free, but will rather damage the economy.
Mais, non! Who said anything about killing the IT industry? I thought it was Microsoft wanting to put and end to Open Source!
--
I would have fixed it myself had I moderator status, but decided to post to it saying it should be back modded up. By the time I hit the link to reply though, it was back to +1. Goes to show some people are thinking......
I do believe moderation needs a bit of a facelift. To CmdrTaco: There have been several occations where I have been browsing /. and there has been awful proof of misrated posts. I suggest that the +1 to karma-wealthy posters be banished, and an improvement to the moderation system by increasing a moderator's "active" time to more than a couple of days, and perhaps a larger moderator pool.
--
Backdoors.
--
Truth is, one of the unfortunate byproducts of digital sampling is something called 'aliasing' of frequencies above fN. Think this: a sound byte is sampled at 44100 Hz. The Nyquist is 22050 Hz. A 21000 Hz sine wave will be reproduced alright, but another 24000 Hz sin wave (22050 + 150 Hz) will show up as 21000 (22050 - 150 Hz) in the digital sample upon playback. So when music is digitized, some fancy low-pass filters are required on the input to prevent this aliasing effect.
Now, one of the problems with filters is that 'perfect' filters are somewhat imposible. Even good low-pass filters which must exhibit near -20dB at fN, roll-off about -3dB at fN-10%.
So the whole point of this is that frequencies near the Nyquist must have already been attenuated or discolorization of frequencies above 12kHz or so will occur.
That's why I swear by good vinyl. A good needle/cartridge and amp can give impressive 30kHz results! Ironically, most people can't really hear this anyway, but most audiophiles will agree it makes for a crisp,full sound that sounds dynamic, as opposed to digital, which sounds cold or flat in comparison. Not that records have the best signal/noise ratio stats ;-)
--
The ironic part is, I would consider myself to be a typical RS shopper (heck, I used to be an employee!), buying replacement batteries, 74xx series digital IC's, regulators, capacitors, you name it. Tho, I would never buy a computer from them (unless the price was REALLY right-it rarely is) and their software displays are all 'doze apps.
It seems as if the folks at RatShack have forgotten their raison d'etre. RADIO SHACK! The name almost spells it out -- a place for radio (and other) electronic enthusiasts to gather, exchange ideas, info, and purchase otherwise hard to buy stuff. When was the last time you saw 1N34A's, 2N3055's, and TIP120's at WalMart? Or at your convenience store?
Now, RS wants to alienate this customer base to piss in an already over-crowded marketspace? How many other places can you buy telephones, computers, TV's, and VCR's?
I reckon that if Tandy were alive today, some people would be in the throttling position...
--
It's one thing to acknowledge the problem of "obtaining copyrighted material illegally", but to stifle an entire sub-set of technology is just backwards. Are these guys really serious about preventing tech. evolution? It cant't work.
--
ah, but what if the server were on the dark side of the moon? No laser will hurt it there ;-)
--
I believe the name of first nuclear weapons project in the US is The Manhattan Project. Trinity was the name of the first uncontrolled U-235 fission bomb, detonated in New Mexico.
--
However, what if your only device (PDA/cellular/mp3 player all in one) stops working? Is stolen? Batteries die? All of these functions are lost at once.
Personally, I like having smaller and more efficient electronics (anyone remember the cell phones RadioShack used to sell in the 80's?). But I also prefer one function per package - more reliable (if one goes, you have alternatives) and, well, it looks like you have more stuff!
--
Yuck. How do they get of putting Comp Sci into the buisness department. This is insane. It's almost as if the computer was born of the buisness world.
But I can somehow see why this is the paradigm for some administration. When the curricula of many "Computer SCience" high school courses teach WP, Spreadsheets, and the usual fluff, leaving programming, interfacing with electronics (,etc.. The GOOD STUFF) to the very end, if at all. The only real good CS/Tech courses are at the top, and these are sometimes hindered by either lack of a good Tech teacher (ones willing and able to tinker) or a short time period (Here in Newfoundland, CS/Tech courses are usually one-credit, making them 'half-year' courses.)
--
What you really mean to say is that the fuel isn't that volatile and has a sufficiently high enough delta-H of vapourization at STP. A fuel with a high vapour pressure means that it will eventually vapourize to a high % of the localized atmosphere. Then you would have the fun that you suggest ;-)
--
You're still using Windows?
Yup. I had a Tandy CoCo3 -- and you could make these son-of-a-guns sing! Hardware interfacing, programming, problem solving, you name it. Even with 'good-ol' Color BASIC, you could manage to get much done. In fact, I distinctly remember learning the abstracts of algebra long before it was taught in Junior High school--simply because it had learned to program my CoCo.
I would even go to the point of saying that todays students don't know ANYTHING about computers with respect to programming, how logic gates work, what an algorithim is, or even what the binary system is anymore. All they really know is the pop-culture type of stuff: Napster, ICQ, surfing, etc. In other words: with all of the emphasis on computers in todays schools, there is virtually no computer SCIENCE being taught. It's as if the tool is no more than a mere toy.
--
You're still using Windows?
At our high school, we use an NT4 server running WinProxy (blech!). I can't say the machine crashes frequently (ie, requiring reboot), but that damn Proxy is unpredictable, not to mention braindead. There are also other administration issues that are questionable in a production environment, such as the daily backup procedure our Sysadmin has scheduled which renders the Network printers unusable, inability to log on the network, etc,etc. This may be happening when school is out for the day, but I (being a teacher) may be in the building 8,9,or 10 pm any given evening, trying to do some prep work, unable to use the computer!
On top of that, when the server seems to be acting reasonably well, everyone (including the sysadmin) is afraid to even touch the machine, or else it mat start acting funny. Does this sound like a machine one could really depend on?
For most school environments, I expect that NT/2000's multi-user support is more than sufficient. What, you didn't think I was talking about Windows 9x, did you?
You are quite right about about NT/2000 being more than sufficient. But not in the pure technical sense. Do you really believe a school full of P150's (or less) with 16MB of RAM (32 if you're lucky) is going to be able to run W2000? Forget the licencing fees (which are also prohibative) -- those machines will be soooo slow that half of the class will be waiting for the computer to boot/start Office/etc.....
This sounds more like a problem with the additional software installed than a problem with Windows. Besides, if you're going to run Windows, shouldn't y'all be running NT/2000? I'm not saying it's a cure-all, but I believe it would be better suited to the task than Windows 9x.
Software (apps) may be buggy, but this should not bring entire computers (or networks even) to it's knees. When an application fails, only it should bomb, not the entire OS and HD data. A buggy app that doesn't work is the app designer's fault. A buggy app that brings down the OS is (in this case) Microsoft's fault.
In my (admittedly limited) experience with computers in schools, 95/98 workstations are misfits that require constant fixing, disinfecting, reconfiguration. In fact, I've postulated that the admin work for Windows machines is close to a linear function for any sufficiently large institute -- requiring roughly one full time position for every 40 to 50 machines. A UNIX environment needs a good qualified sysadmin to get things up and running, but the addition of terminals or workstations is close to trivial. The admin work as a function of # of workstations is much closer to a log function.
And again, I won't even discuss the price issue (Linux workstation == free; W98 workstation =~$150; NT workstation == several hundred $)
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You're still using Windows?
* more than 8 heads, but that is what the bios-listings seem to imply. I
* just love not having a manual.
*/
Tell me about it. One of the things I used to love about purchasing computer parts years ago were the schematics, programming info, etc.....
I used to own a Tandy Color Computer 3 years ago, and it was quite the little workhorse. Small, very modular (tho this was problem if you had floppy,HD,RS-232,controllers,etc... -- thing got messy), and was remarkably easy to program. It had fairly advanced HW for the time (decent MMU; better graphics than CGA and on par with EGA), and was much cheaper than an full 'IBM PC' (remember when?).
One of the killers of this little jewel was the PC/MSDOS hedgemony (later to become Intel/Windows) of software. Many users such as myself were interested in electronics and interfacing, and we loved to use our CoCo's for neat'n'easy projects. This required us to write our own software, interface with hardware at the driver level, and do other hacks to get things to our satisfaction. When we needed to use available hardware for whatever reason, nothing beat a useful manual to help make life much easier. Nothing worse than stabbing in the dark.
Ahh. My CoCo. I truly loved that machine. Anyone else here a former CoCo addict?
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You're still using Windows?
End result? Long commutes don't really add up.
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You're still using Windows?
Ah... but herein lies the rub. Once MS can no longer bundle OS/server/browser/etc. it would not be in their interests to make other's software incompatible with theirs. A server that only works with their browser means netscape/etc users will find those sites useless. Vice versa: a browser that is incompatible with everything else will be replaced with mozilla/whatever. Users aren't completely stupid - they want to use something that works with everything. Same goes with sys admins. The only reason MS is getting away with it now is due to their market dominace. A breakup will level things out (at least to a certain degree), and people will start using what works best with everything.
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You're still using Windows?
Some of this stuff is deep. Good reading -- everyone should read at least one of his essays.
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You're still using Windows?
Most people don't know what MHz or GHz means anyways--to them it might as well be a model number.
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You're still using Windows?
It looks as if Microsoft is expanding their internationalization of Windows! This should be particularly amusing to East Coast Canadians.
Enjoy!
--------------------------------
Notice from Microsoft:
It has come to our attention that a few copies of the Nova Scotia/Newfoundland version of Windows 98 may have accidentally been shipped outside that area. If you have one of these Editions you may need some help understanding the commands.
The "East Coast" Edition may be recognized by looking at the opening screen. It reads WINDAS 98 with a background picture of a Cod fish superimposed on a slice of baloney. It is shipped with a Jimmy Flynn screen saver (Newfoundland versions only) (Nova Scotia versions were shipped with alternating Rita MacNeil/Anne Murray screen savers). As well, disks were packaged in a Windas 98 Sou'wester.
Also note:
The "Recycle Bin" is labeled "Frenchies".
"My Computer" is called "Dis godamned almighty ting".
"Dialup Networking" is called "trawling".
"Control Panel" is known as the "de other godamned almighty ting".
"Hard Drive" is referred to as "4-Wheel Drive."
"Floppies" are "Dem Jesus Little tings."
Other features: Instead of an Error Message you get a pick-up truck, covered with a garbage bag and duct tape and full of broken lobster traps.
Terminology:
OK = right some good.
Cancel = oh migod no.
Reset = oh my oh my.
Yes = wha.
No = christ 'n jesus mighty no.
Find = ecum secum.
Go to = goin' down.
Back = arse side.
Help = lord tunderin jesus bye.
Stop = cod end.
Start = anchors away.
Also note that Windas 98 does not recognize capital letters, punctuation marks, spelling or grammar. As well, half the time, it won't work.
We regret any inconvenience it may have caused if you received a copy of the "East Coast" Edition. You may return it to Microsoft for a replacement version. Although, I can't for the life of me figure out why anyone would want to return it, after all it is a genuine real right some good East Coast ting.
Thank you.
May yer cod end be full.
Bill Gates
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You're still using Windows?
The damn things still get scratched much easier though, and would be a bitch to play in a moving vehicle ;-P
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You're still using Windows?
Linux, a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds, has been released to the public domain.
Ahem... I know it is being a little nit-picky, but isn't the formal definition of public domain significantly different from the GNU GPL? It would seem as if the people marketing this need a little course in Linux 101.
I must say, it is alright to see these Linux-as-Windows-apps distributions showing up -- it may kindle a flame with those who would otherwise run screaming from having to do a real install. The problem is they will never get the TRUE (and IMHO-better) Linux experience until they take the plundge, split their windums partition (or scrap it altogether ;-), and do a "standard" #include install.
At least it may interest (and educate) several to go 'all the way'!
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You're still using Windows?
I see.
Perhaps this should have occured in a US context? Then we could have seen an equally 'retarded' (no offence) judicial outcome. South Park would be considered a threat to the populace of the US, resulting in modern-day Columbine massacres, racism, et al., and may eventually be taken off the air.
Don't think so?
Paul Bernardo is locked up for a loooooong time. Why isn't O.J. Simpson?
--A somewhat irratated Canuck
P.S. why would any _sane_ mother let her children watch South Park anyway? It may be animated, but it ain't no Saturday morning cartoon.