If I rip a CD to WAV, encode it into MP3, and then compare the sound of the WAV vs the MP3, I can hear the difference. It's often subtle, but it's noticeable (my soundcard is a "consumer class" Turtle Beach Montego, which while much better than a lot of consumer cards is still in a "consumer" range of price, and was included in some Dell machines as "premium sound"). Using computer speakers, I doubt one could tell the difference, but even into my Aiwa mini-system or good headphones, there is a difference.
Distinguishing between different codecs can be a little more difficult but not impossible.
I think you nailed the biggest problem with this setup: the extra processors have to use the PCI bus. Which will certainly increase the use of the bus a lot, getting worse the more processors there are. And since the PCI bus is so slow (compared to the system bus the first CPU is using) it will definitely impact performance of the additional processors, as well as likely causing the CPU card and other PCI cards to have to fight for limited PCI bandwith.
This is what the RC5 numbers (that show a near-perfect scaling of performance as the additional CPUs are added) don't tell you. RC5 doesn't require much I/O to/from the CPU. It's mostly just internal number crunching, and at the end spits out the results. Most other apps aren't like this and won't see much (if any) benefit from the setup (in fact, it could decrease overall performance if the CPU card hogs the PCI bus too much).
The thing is it's called Electrical And Computer Engineering. The program here at CMU (I am a junior in ECE, doing the computer engineering side of things) is extremely flexible. The way the program works is this:
You have one intro course (18-100), and two core courses (Fundamentals of EE, and Fundamentals of CE). After that, you pretty much get to choose what area you want to do (electrical, computer, or both). If you want to learn more about the program, check out these two links:
My experience here in the ECE program has been great. The program is nop-notch, and very flexible. Anyway, check the links if you want the details of how the program works.
It seems to me that the problem we have here is not one of race, or even very much of economics. It is a problem of culture.
If you look at it, suppose you're some poor black kid living in the inner city somewhere. Suppose you're sufficiently poor that buying a computer is totally impossible. There are still public libraries that have free Net access, where you can gradually learn how to use the Internet and a PC. If you really want to. But if you'd rather go play basketball on the almost zero chance of getting in the NBA someday, well, that's the choice you make. It's not because of your race, or your lack of money, it's a lack of desire to work at a goal. And that work ethic isn't something the government or whites can force on somebody.
And suppose you're a little better off than that. Suppose you're the average African-American, inner city youth. One of the other/.ers cited a statistic that I will use here: the average black, inner city high-schooler spends $2400 a year on sneakers. That's a lot of money. You could easily spend half of that, still have damn good sneakers, and buy a computer that comes with years of Net access for $1200. And then teach yourself how to use it (I bet most of us/.ers taught ourselves) and the Net. But do we see this happening? Not really.
The important question, I think, is why we don't see this happening. Why don't many blacks go out and use the opportunity to get into the high-paying IT fields? Or even a non-IT field where computer use is a plus?
My suspicion is that the problem is two-fold. First, some people just don't know about the opportunities that this could open up for them. They see the Net as some sort of porn-infested nightmare, since that's about all that public television says about the Internet. They don't see it as a path to success. Thus, learning about computers and the Internet are not a priority. Second, some people know about it but don't have the work ethic to get off their ass and do something to help themselves. They've been in this "I'm a victim" culture so long that they don't necessarily realize nobody's trying to keep them down.
The other interesting question is, what if anything can society do to wake these people up? Computers in schools aren't going to help if nobody uses them. I don't think that much can be done from outside the black communities, for the reason that it is a cultural problem. Black leaders ought to start worrying a little less over whether South Carolina flys the Confederate flag and more over things that matter, like the possibility of blacks getting left behind in the "Information Age". There isn't going to be any sort of economic equality between the races until blacks start taking advantage of the opportunities that are out there. Because it isn't their skin color that's holding them back - it's a cultural bad attitude towards education and computers.
Well, using *that* logic, you could just as easily say:
"Losers whine about 'racism' because even though they have an unfair advantage due to affirmative action, they've still failed to make anything of themselves."
I think you miss the point that we should not tolerate discrimination based upon race/gender/etc., in *any* form. This is a sword that cuts both ways. You can't have "affirmative action" while being against racial discrimination, without being hugely hypocritical. Affirmative action *is* racial discrimination, the only difference being the target of the discrimination, and that it is government-sanctioned. Two wrongs don't make a right.
Whether or not you can hear a difference does depend on several things. How good your hearing is, how good your soundcard is, bitrate/sampling rate, etc. But the type of music you're listening to makes a difference too. Songs with a greater dynamic range tend to take a bigger hit from mp3 other songs, I've noticed. In particular, a lot of classical stuff sounds like total crap on your standard 128kbps/44kHz mp3.
And it's not really a case of *trying* to hear the difference, as just hearing it and occasionally wishing "I wish this sounded a little more like my CD".
Of course, even with the quality degradation of mp3, it *still* sounds much better than the radio;-)
The more a person knows, the more they tend to rely on their own understanding of the world, and dismiss things they don't understand and/or can't explain
Actually, I think the first part of that is true. The more people know, the more they can rely on their own knowledge.
I don't really think that having more knowledge leads to people being more likely to dismiss that which they don't understand. Such behavior, I think, comes from them *thinking* they know a lot, regardless of whether they really do. And this bit of pride/ignorance is as common in the uneducated as the educated, at least in my experience.
My personal suspicion as to why many geeks are non-religious is that intelligent people tend to think for themselves. And often, religion is presented as just the opposite - the masses are told by the clergy just how everything is, what God wants, etc. Go to church, do as the priest says, and all will be good. Doesn't sound all that appealing to someone who is accustomed to independent thinking. And so organized religion comes to be viewed merely as "the opiate of the masses" - great if you want to avoid thinking for yourself, but otherwise kinda useless.
Personally, I make a distinction between organized religion, and religion itself. I myself am a Christian, but I doubt if there is a single branch of Christianity which meshes completely with my beliefs. This is probably because most of my beliefs are my own that I have developed through life, rather than been fed by the Church (in my case, the Roman Catholic Church, of which I am nominally a member)
I've thought about why geeks are typically irreligious. I think it has to do with the fact that geeks are rarely social creatures, and church is a very social atmosphere.
Also, I don't really associate going to church with being religious. I consider myself religious, but don't really go to church all that often (if there was an intelligent discussion of religion going on at church, I'd be there - but to be lectured at is kinda dull) There is probably some truth to the social/church attendance connection, though.
No, the cable networks are privately built/owned by various telecommunications/media companies. And there aren't any laws requiring them to open their networks to competing ISPs (except in a couple of cities). Though AOL and others are pushing to get the law changed so that the cable operators have to allow them to use the cable networks in exchange for some sort of fee. This being due to concern among AOL et al. that the higher-bandwidth cable will attract the customers away from dial-up based AOL.
We US types do learn about the rest of the planet...just not Canada:-)
Seriously, though, I agree that most Americans know very little about Canada. Probably 'cause you're not a pain in the ass like some other countries;-) So, in the interest of educating our fellow Slashdotters, here is my decidedly inexpert guide to Canada (at least, as seen by a resident of Buffalo, New York):
---The Stradivarius Guide to Canada---
Cool things about Canada:
1) Their view of Niagara Falls rocks. 2) The US dollar buys a lot in Canada. 3) They have currency called loonies. Gotta love that:) 4) The drinking age in Ontario is 19. See #2. 5) Toronto has a bunch of cool stuff: the CN Tower, theaters, and Science Museum are among them. 6) The letter 'Z' is pronounced "zed". cool. 7) Canadian bacon:)
Bad things about Canada:
1) You never know what the heck the conversion rate is. The weather on this day in the year 2593 is more predictable:) 2) Those speed-limit signs that read "100". You zip along...until you realize that's km/hr, not mph. 3) It's even colder than in Buffalo. 4) The taxes. 5) The taxes. 6) All those damn Canadian quarters that keep ending up as change in US stores. Can't use 'em for anything unless you go up to Canada, and can't use 'em for much *in* Canada, either. 7) eh?
The thing with the floppy removal wasn't so much that they removed it, but that they didn't include a replacement of some sort (be it a Zip drive or whatever). And somehow, this is supposed to be a "feature". At least that's how I read the issue. It's not like anyone has a great love for floppies, it's just nice to have some sort of removable storage that pretty much any computer can read.
And besides, nobody in the PC industry really planned to support legacy hardware ad infinitum. It's gotta go at some point, after all. The industry was just waiting for the new technologies to be a little more mature (mainly for the hardware makers to make more USB devices for the USB-enabled PCs that have been around for years now) The difference between the PC OEMs and Apple being that Apple touted themselves as being revolutionary for doing what PC makers did two years ago - include USB:)
Apple did do a good job of timing their switch to USB to match when the USB hardware was becoming widely available, and as usual their marketing folks did an excellent job. But it was the people making devices for Wintel machines that are mostly responsible for USB and its growing popularity. So in this case, it is Apple following the industry, not vice versa:)
Apple does have the lead in incorporating FireWire, though I suppose that's to be expected since it is their technology.
There's a good editorial on the San Jose Mercury News about the hypocrisy of both sides in this situation...you can read it here.
Basically, it points out that AOL is rabidly in favor of "open access" on cable networks, but refuses to allow an open system for others to communicate with AOL members (Prodigy, Yahoo, MS get screwed here, so do consumers). MS, on the other hand, wants standards for instant messaging but not in the areas where it already has a dominant position.
as the Register points out, the figures were for a week's time. One week is hardly a statistically significant figure for OS sales, even if TurboLinux did outsell Windows98 (which, as you point out, it really didn't). Let's see some figures for a year, or even one quarter.
I'm sure whatever they run (probably a proprietary embedded OS, but who knows), there must be redundancy like you wouldn't believe. After all, we wouldn't want a computer crash to create a coaster crash.
Darien Lake rocks. One little story about the Superman ride (which I haven't had a chance to go on just yet. Though it's like a half hour drive from my house, so I really ought to go give it a try). There was a minor accident on the ride. Some guy got thrown from the ride and flew a short distance through the air. Superman indeed! What happened was that this 300+ lb. man rode the thing, and when the ride was almost over, and quickly slowing, the combination of his weight and abrupt slowing caused him to fly out of the safety restraints. He's okay, though. I don't remember if this was a manufacturing defect of the coaster, or if the guy's weight exceeded whatever specs the restraints had. But it that was when it first opened, and they've fixed whatever it was.
And they've got the Power Tower now which gives a bigger (and, IIRC, faster) drop than the Demon Drop. Unfortunately, a thunderstorm started when I was about to go on the ride, causing the park to close; so I can't give a real evaluation of the ride. But it *looks* pretty damn cool! And yes, the Magnum and Demon Drop rock too:)
Iron Dragon looks cool but is too tame, the Raptor is a more exciting ride, IMHO.
We all have our OS preferences, but I think m3000 had a point. There are some people who hate MS because it's the big bad wolf, or because they think it's the "cool" thing to be anti-MS. I don't claim they're a majority. In fact, I suspect such people are a minority on Slashdot (where people usually just dislike the often crappy software and/or dubious business practices). But, there are always some irrational people out there (kinda like the ones who think Linux must suck because you don't have to buy it or go to WaReZ sites to get it:)
Yeah, but I can read Office docs in my copy of Lotus SmartSuite, or Corel's WordPerfect Suite (and no doubt other apps, since MS documents the file formats). Yet, nobody but AOL can message people using AOL Instant Messenger. So the two situations are not the same.
Also, I think AOL is guilty of some serious FUD calling MS' actions "hacker"-like. The reason (as I understand it from the news.com article) that the MS client needs the AIM username/password is that the MS client piggybacks on the AIM client in order to allow the MS app to message AIM users. To use the AIM client, you need the AIM username/password. I think AOL is simply trying to scare their AIM users away from the MS client by likening MS to "hackers".
That, and changing the AIM servers specifically to break the MS client is a dirty trick to use on the users of both the MS and AOL programs. Granted, it is a trick from the MS playbook (remember DR-DOS) but it sucks for the end user nonetheless.
Well, I can't speak for the original post, but here are my 2 cents...
It's not just minority cultures in America that have a poor attitude towards education, it's most of America. Black, white, Slashdot-green, whatever. That's why we face some of these problems. As one example, consider how people are perfectly willing to have their tax dollars spent on new sports stadiums, but not on better education for their children. Society in recent times has been putting a lot of emphasis on sports at the expense of intellectual pursuits. Sports are great, but unless you're one of the exceptional few who make it pro you aren't going to make a good living doing it; getting a good education on the other hand gives one much better prospects in life. Yet, the role models in our country are predominantly pro athletes. What kind of message does that send to our children?
That said, each culture does have its own stumbling blocks. Asian-Americans are often cited as the "model" minority. Did anyone ever stop to think why the Asians in this country tend to do much better academically than other races? It's because Asian cultures tend to emphasize the value of hard work and education, whereas many of the other groups in this country simply do not value education as highly. I remember reading a newspaper article a while back, where they mentioned that young black kids who worked hard and did well in school were taunted by their classmates, saying they were "acting white" by studying hard. Attitudes like that are a real impediment to learning. And don't think it's limited to blacks or other minorities. White kids who do good in school get this kind of crap too, the taunts may differ but the message is the same: education isn't cool.
Until America thinks education is "cool", I don't think we're going to see very much progress.
Actually, the winter winds aren't really all that bad (IMHO). What bothers some people more I think is that every once in a while a storm will pass over Lake Erie and dump a couple of feet of snow on us. Which is great for winter sports, btw. The temperatures themselves aren't usually all that bad since the lake tends to moderate the temperatures of the region. And summer is great - hot and dry for the vast majority of the season. I've been to CA, and I really think that western NY has more beautiful scenery, more comfortable summers, and in many ways a higher quality of life (long commutes due to traffic are almost unheard of, real estate prices are reasonable,etc). [end of blatant plug:)]
Also, Buffalo doesn't get earthquakes, floods, huge fires, hurricanes, and other natural disasters that are common in some other areas of the country.:)
I like the "Silicon Icebox" idea. Especially since with all the good schools there are in upstate NY, finding talented people shouldn't be a big problem. There is high tech work in the Buffalo-Rochester area, but more would definitely be a plus.
While to some degree I agree with your comments, I think that your assessment may be a little flawed. Here's why:
You seem to assume that a company making a product will always have, or be able to acquire, enough resources to outlast a competitor who is selling the product below cost (the "predatory pricing"). However, this is not the case. Short-term, this will probably be true. However, investors/banks/whoever are not going to keep throwing money at a company indefinitely. If the company who is selling low has more cash, eventually they will force the other out of business. At which point, the prices will rise due to the new lack of competition. In the end consumers will suffer (though they will benefit from low prices in the short-term). And the whole scenario may very well discourage others from trying to compete with the dominant player. This is why the laws against predatory pricing are there. It is up to the government to make sure it is indeed a case of predatory pricing, not just competition. It's unfortunate that such government regulation is necessary, but is one of those (few) times where government intervention in the economy is warranted.
Dumping is, as you said, the exact same idea, and needs to be protected against for the same reasons.
That said, I do not think that Intel is engaged in "predatory pricing" (i.e. selling below cost). If they can make a profit by selling at prices that AMD can't match, well that's just Intel having good efficiency, and good competition. Similarly, if AMD can sell lower than Intel and still profit, great. AMD has been responsible for the amazing drop in CPU prices by creating competition for Intel. Unfortunately, AMD hasn't been able to profit yet. I hope they do, so that we can continue to enjoy the benefits of competition.
Slashdot Mirror
If I rip a CD to WAV, encode it into MP3, and then compare the sound of the WAV vs the MP3, I can hear the difference. It's often subtle, but it's noticeable (my soundcard is a "consumer class" Turtle Beach Montego, which while much better than a lot of consumer cards is still in a "consumer" range of price, and was included in some Dell machines as "premium sound"). Using computer speakers, I doubt one could tell the difference, but even into my Aiwa mini-system or good headphones, there is a difference.
Distinguishing between different codecs can be a little more difficult but not impossible.
I think you nailed the biggest problem with this setup: the extra processors have to use the PCI bus. Which will certainly increase the use of the bus a lot, getting worse the more processors there are. And since the PCI bus is so slow (compared to the system bus the first CPU is using) it will definitely impact performance of the additional processors, as well as likely causing the CPU card and other PCI cards to have to fight for limited PCI bandwith.
This is what the RC5 numbers (that show a near-perfect scaling of performance as the additional CPUs are added) don't tell you. RC5 doesn't require much I/O to/from the CPU. It's mostly just internal number crunching, and at the end spits out the results. Most other apps aren't like this and won't see much (if any) benefit from the setup (in fact, it could decrease overall performance if the CPU card hogs the PCI bus too much).
The thing is it's called Electrical And Computer Engineering. The program here at CMU (I am a junior in ECE, doing the computer engineering side of things) is extremely flexible. The way the program works is this:
You have one intro course (18-100), and two core courses (Fundamentals of EE, and Fundamentals of CE). After that, you pretty much get to choose what area you want to do (electrical, computer, or both). If you want to learn more about the program, check out these two links:
The CMU ECE Home Page
Overview of the B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering at CMU
My experience here in the ECE program has been great. The program is nop-notch, and very flexible. Anyway, check the links if you want the details of how the program works.
It seems to me that the problem we have here is not one of race, or even very much of economics. It is a problem of culture.
/.ers cited a statistic that I will use here: the average black, inner city high-schooler spends $2400 a year on sneakers. That's a lot of money. You could easily spend half of that, still have damn good sneakers, and buy a computer that comes with years of Net access for $1200. And then teach yourself how to use it (I bet most of us /.ers taught ourselves) and the Net. But do we see this happening? Not really.
If you look at it, suppose you're some poor black kid living in the inner city somewhere. Suppose you're sufficiently poor that buying a computer is totally impossible. There are still public libraries that have free Net access, where you can gradually learn how to use the Internet and a PC. If you really want to. But if you'd rather go play basketball on the almost zero chance of getting in the NBA someday, well, that's the choice you make. It's not because of your race, or your lack of money, it's a lack of desire to work at a goal. And that work ethic isn't something the government or whites can force on somebody.
And suppose you're a little better off than that. Suppose you're the average African-American, inner city youth. One of the other
The important question, I think, is why we don't see this happening. Why don't many blacks go out and use the opportunity to get into the high-paying IT fields? Or even a non-IT field where computer use is a plus?
My suspicion is that the problem is two-fold. First, some people just don't know about the opportunities that this could open up for them. They see the Net as some sort of porn-infested nightmare, since that's about all that public television says about the Internet. They don't see it as a path to success. Thus, learning about computers and the Internet are not a priority. Second, some people know about it but don't have the work ethic to get off their ass and do something to help themselves. They've been in this "I'm a victim" culture so long that they don't necessarily realize nobody's trying to keep them down.
The other interesting question is, what if anything can society do to wake these people up? Computers in schools aren't going to help if nobody uses them. I don't think that much can be done from outside the black communities, for the reason that it is a cultural problem. Black leaders ought to start worrying a little less over whether South Carolina flys the Confederate flag and more over things that matter, like the possibility of blacks getting left behind in the "Information Age". There isn't going to be any sort of economic equality between the races until blacks start taking advantage of the opportunities that are out there. Because it isn't their skin color that's holding them back - it's a cultural bad attitude towards education and computers.
Yep, and that $1300 difference can get one a pretty good computer with a few years of Net access (esp. if you do the CompuServe $400 rebate thing).
Extra sneakers, or a computer I can use to teach myself something? I wonder what the right choice could be?
Well, using *that* logic, you could just as easily say:
"Losers whine about 'racism' because even though they have an unfair advantage due to affirmative action, they've still failed to make anything of themselves."
I think you miss the point that we should not tolerate discrimination based upon race/gender/etc., in *any* form. This is a sword that cuts both ways. You can't have "affirmative action" while being against racial discrimination, without being hugely hypocritical. Affirmative action *is* racial discrimination, the only difference being the target of the discrimination, and that it is government-sanctioned. Two wrongs don't make a right.
As a CMU guy (comp. engineering), I think I speak for the CMU male population when I say, "Hell no!". :-p
Whether or not you can hear a difference does depend on several things. How good your hearing is, how good your soundcard is, bitrate/sampling rate, etc. But the type of music you're listening to makes a difference too. Songs with a greater dynamic range tend to take a bigger hit from mp3 other songs, I've noticed. In particular, a lot of classical stuff sounds like total crap on your standard 128kbps/44kHz mp3.
;-)
And it's not really a case of *trying* to hear the difference, as just hearing it and occasionally wishing "I wish this sounded a little more like my CD".
Of course, even with the quality degradation of mp3, it *still* sounds much better than the radio
Actually, I think all the Matrox cards come with that feature. I used to have a Millennium card and it had virtual desktop features.
I agree.
The more a person knows, the more they tend to rely on their own understanding of the world, and dismiss things they don't understand and/or can't explain
Actually, I think the first part of that is true. The more people know, the more they can rely on their own knowledge.
I don't really think that having more knowledge leads to people being more likely to dismiss that which they don't understand. Such behavior, I think, comes from them *thinking* they know a lot, regardless of whether they really do. And this bit of pride/ignorance is as common in the uneducated as the educated, at least in my experience.
My personal suspicion as to why many geeks are non-religious is that intelligent people tend to think for themselves. And often, religion is presented as just the opposite - the masses are told by the clergy just how everything is, what God wants, etc. Go to church, do as the priest says, and all will be good. Doesn't sound all that appealing to someone who is accustomed to independent thinking. And so organized religion comes to be viewed merely as "the opiate of the masses" - great if you want to avoid thinking for yourself, but otherwise kinda useless.
Personally, I make a distinction between organized religion, and religion itself. I myself am a Christian, but I doubt if there is a single branch of Christianity which meshes completely with my beliefs. This is probably because most of my beliefs are my own that I have developed through life, rather than been fed by the Church (in my case, the Roman Catholic Church, of which I am nominally a member)
I've thought about why geeks are typically irreligious. I think it has to do with the fact that geeks are rarely social creatures, and church is a very social atmosphere.
Also, I don't really associate going to church with being religious. I consider myself religious, but don't really go to church all that often (if there was an intelligent discussion of religion going on at church, I'd be there - but to be lectured at is kinda dull) There is probably some truth to the social/church attendance connection, though.
No, the cable networks are privately built/owned by various telecommunications/media companies. And there aren't any laws requiring them to open their networks to competing ISPs (except in a couple of cities). Though AOL and others are pushing to get the law changed so that the cable operators have to allow them to use the cable networks in exchange for some sort of fee. This being due to concern among AOL et al. that the higher-bandwidth cable will attract the customers away from dial-up based AOL.
We US types do learn about the rest of the planet...just not Canada :-)
;-) So, in the interest of educating our fellow Slashdotters, here is my decidedly inexpert guide to Canada (at least, as seen by a resident of Buffalo, New York):
:) :)
:)
Seriously, though, I agree that most Americans know very little about Canada. Probably 'cause you're not a pain in the ass like some other countries
---The Stradivarius Guide to Canada---
Cool things about Canada:
1) Their view of Niagara Falls rocks.
2) The US dollar buys a lot in Canada.
3) They have currency called loonies. Gotta love that
4) The drinking age in Ontario is 19. See #2.
5) Toronto has a bunch of cool stuff: the CN Tower, theaters, and Science Museum are among them.
6) The letter 'Z' is pronounced "zed". cool.
7) Canadian bacon
Bad things about Canada:
1) You never know what the heck the conversion rate is. The weather on this day in the year 2593 is more predictable
2) Those speed-limit signs that read "100". You zip along...until you realize that's km/hr, not mph.
3) It's even colder than in Buffalo.
4) The taxes.
5) The taxes.
6) All those damn Canadian quarters that keep ending up as change in US stores. Can't use 'em for anything unless you go up to Canada, and can't use 'em for much *in* Canada, either.
7) eh?
The thing with the floppy removal wasn't so much that they removed it, but that they didn't include a replacement of some sort (be it a Zip drive or whatever). And somehow, this is supposed to be a "feature". At least that's how I read the issue. It's not like anyone has a great love for floppies, it's just nice to have some sort of removable storage that pretty much any computer can read.
:)
:)
And besides, nobody in the PC industry really planned to support legacy hardware ad infinitum. It's gotta go at some point, after all. The industry was just waiting for the new technologies to be a little more mature (mainly for the hardware makers to make more USB devices for the USB-enabled PCs that have been around for years now) The difference between the PC OEMs and Apple being that Apple touted themselves as being revolutionary for doing what PC makers did two years ago - include USB
Apple did do a good job of timing their switch to USB to match when the USB hardware was becoming widely available, and as usual their marketing folks did an excellent job. But it was the people making devices for Wintel machines that are mostly responsible for USB and its growing popularity. So in this case, it is Apple following the industry, not vice versa
Apple does have the lead in incorporating FireWire, though I suppose that's to be expected since it is their technology.
There's a good editorial on the San Jose Mercury News about the hypocrisy of both sides in this situation...you can read it here.
Basically, it points out that AOL is rabidly in favor of "open access" on cable networks, but refuses to allow an open system for others to communicate with AOL members (Prodigy, Yahoo, MS get screwed here, so do consumers). MS, on the other hand, wants standards for instant messaging but not in the areas where it already has a dominant position.
as the Register points out, the figures were for a week's time. One week is hardly a statistically significant figure for OS sales, even if TurboLinux did outsell Windows98 (which, as you point out, it really didn't). Let's see some figures for a year, or even one quarter.
I'm sure whatever they run (probably a proprietary embedded OS, but who knows), there must be redundancy like you wouldn't believe. After all, we wouldn't want a computer crash to create a coaster crash.
Darien Lake rocks. One little story about the Superman ride (which I haven't had a chance to go on just yet. Though it's like a half hour drive from my house, so I really ought to go give it a try). There was a minor accident on the ride. Some guy got thrown from the ride and flew a short distance through the air. Superman indeed! What happened was that this 300+ lb. man rode the thing, and when the ride was almost over, and quickly slowing, the combination of his weight and abrupt slowing caused him to fly out of the safety restraints. He's okay, though. I don't remember if this was a manufacturing defect of the coaster, or if the guy's weight exceeded whatever specs the restraints had. But it that was when it first opened, and they've fixed whatever it was.
And they've got the Power Tower now which gives a bigger (and, IIRC, faster) drop than the Demon Drop. Unfortunately, a thunderstorm started when I was about to go on the ride, causing the park to close; so I can't give a real evaluation of the ride. But it *looks* pretty damn cool! And yes, the Magnum and Demon Drop rock too :)
Iron Dragon looks cool but is too tame, the Raptor is a more exciting ride, IMHO.
Overall, a great park.
We all have our OS preferences, but I think m3000 had a point. There are some people who hate MS because it's the big bad wolf, or because they think it's the "cool" thing to be anti-MS. I don't claim they're a majority. In fact, I suspect such people are a minority on Slashdot (where people usually just dislike the often crappy software and/or dubious business practices). But, there are always some irrational people out there (kinda like the ones who think Linux must suck because you don't have to buy it or go to WaReZ sites to get it :)
Yeah, but I can read Office docs in my copy of Lotus SmartSuite, or Corel's WordPerfect Suite (and no doubt other apps, since MS documents the file formats). Yet, nobody but AOL can message people using AOL Instant Messenger. So the two situations are not the same.
Also, I think AOL is guilty of some serious FUD calling MS' actions "hacker"-like. The reason (as I understand it from the news.com article) that the MS client needs the AIM username/password is that the MS client piggybacks on the AIM client in order to allow the MS app to message AIM users. To use the AIM client, you need the AIM username/password. I think AOL is simply trying to scare their AIM users away from the MS client by likening MS to "hackers".
That, and changing the AIM servers specifically to break the MS client is a dirty trick to use on the users of both the MS and AOL programs. Granted, it is a trick from the MS playbook (remember DR-DOS) but it sucks for the end user nonetheless.
damn straight.
Well, I can't speak for the original post, but here are my 2 cents...
It's not just minority cultures in America that have a poor attitude towards education, it's most of America. Black, white, Slashdot-green, whatever. That's why we face some of these problems. As one example, consider how people are perfectly willing to have their tax dollars spent on new sports stadiums, but not on better education for their children. Society in recent times has been putting a lot of emphasis on sports at the expense of intellectual pursuits. Sports are great, but unless you're one of the exceptional few who make it pro you aren't going to make a good living doing it; getting a good education on the other hand gives one much better prospects in life. Yet, the role models in our country are predominantly pro athletes. What kind of message does that send to our children?
That said, each culture does have its own stumbling blocks. Asian-Americans are often cited as the "model" minority. Did anyone ever stop to think why the Asians in this country tend to do much better academically than other races? It's because Asian cultures tend to emphasize the value of hard work and education, whereas many of the other groups in this country simply do not value education as highly. I remember reading a newspaper article a while back, where they mentioned that young black kids who worked hard and did well in school were taunted by their classmates, saying they were "acting white" by studying hard. Attitudes like that are a real impediment to learning. And don't think it's limited to blacks or other minorities. White kids who do good in school get this kind of crap too, the taunts may differ but the message is the same: education isn't cool.
Until America thinks education is "cool", I don't think we're going to see very much progress.
Actually, the winter winds aren't really all that bad (IMHO). What bothers some people more I think is that every once in a while a storm will pass over Lake Erie and dump a couple of feet of snow on us. Which is great for winter sports, btw. The temperatures themselves aren't usually all that bad since the lake tends to moderate the temperatures of the region. And summer is great - hot and dry for the vast majority of the season. I've been to CA, and I really think that western NY has more beautiful scenery, more comfortable summers, and in many ways a higher quality of life (long commutes due to traffic are almost unheard of, real estate prices are reasonable,etc). [end of blatant plug :)]
:)
Also, Buffalo doesn't get earthquakes, floods, huge fires, hurricanes, and other natural disasters that are common in some other areas of the country.
I like the "Silicon Icebox" idea. Especially since with all the good schools there are in upstate NY, finding talented people shouldn't be a big problem. There is high tech work in the Buffalo-Rochester area, but more would definitely be a plus.
While to some degree I agree with your comments, I think that your assessment may be a little flawed. Here's why:
You seem to assume that a company making a product will always have, or be able to acquire, enough resources to outlast a competitor who is selling the product below cost (the "predatory pricing"). However, this is not the case. Short-term, this will probably be true. However, investors/banks/whoever are not going to keep throwing money at a company indefinitely. If the company who is selling low has more cash, eventually they will force the other out of business. At which point, the prices will rise due to the new lack of competition. In the end consumers will suffer (though they will benefit from low prices in the short-term). And the whole scenario may very well discourage others from trying to compete with the dominant player. This is why the laws against predatory pricing are there. It is up to the government to make sure it is indeed a case of predatory pricing, not just competition. It's unfortunate that such government regulation is necessary, but is one of those (few) times where government intervention in the economy is warranted.
Dumping is, as you said, the exact same idea, and needs to be protected against for the same reasons.
That said, I do not think that Intel is engaged in "predatory pricing" (i.e. selling below cost). If they can make a profit by selling at prices that AMD can't match, well that's just Intel having good efficiency, and good competition. Similarly, if AMD can sell lower than Intel and still profit, great. AMD has been responsible for the amazing drop in CPU prices by creating competition for Intel. Unfortunately, AMD hasn't been able to profit yet. I hope they do, so that we can continue to enjoy the benefits of competition.