You know, the Moon Environmental Protection Agency. Surely they're upset about this planned littering of our beloved Moon. Sure it's only a probe now, but that's setting the stage for all sorts of lunar trash. What's next? A satellite? Space shuttle? An entire station?
Can't you just see it? With record labels giving away music, they're taking away market share for RIAA's lawyers. They gotta sue someone or risk losing their jobs, so who else to go after but the record labels?
Re:My OS will learn from past mistakes
on
A New Kind of OS
·
· Score: 4, Funny
Dear User,
A review of your web browsing history reveals a preference towards redheads. For your convinence, the following actions have been completed:
- Your desktop background has changed
- Your password has been changed from "brittany" to "lindsey"
- Your Match.Com Profile has been updated
- Your wife has been alerted
- NetFlix has confirmed shipment of "Porn Wars 3: Revenge of the Angry Redheads"
Whether or not this person was really responsible, we'll never know.
But what I can faithfully say is that she will have no problem finding a job as soon as she's ready to start working again. People in high-profile positions like CTO of a Fortune 500 company don't end up working at McDonald's the next day.
She will likely go to work for a competitor, start her own mega-huge consulting gig, end up in government, or... here's one... become a political lobbiest for privacy!
I think I'm much more likely to trust a non-net version fingerprint reader, like the ones that are shipping with many laptops now.
Many of those have "password managers" that will get you into your money/email/Windows/whatever by swiping your finger, and the fingerprint information never goes across the internet. Plus it has the added bonus of working with a lot more than just these guys' proprietary system.
TFA didn't really tell me anything about what's happening here... but, can't EchoStar legally license the technology from TiVo? I mean, if TiVo wanted them to, of course. Seems to me if I were EchoStar I would really try to do that, rather than piss off tons of customers.
And while I do feel for those customers who are about to lose those services, what else can you do? They don't deserve to be punished, but to let them continue to use something sold to them illegally wouldn't be right either.
Perhaps the solution is for EchoStar to buy all those people a TiVo and gracefully leave the market.
Say what you want about hardware/software, but Microsoft has made great developments in hardware particularly with their mice and keyboards. I don't know if they *invented* the scroll wheel and forward/back buttons, or the natural style of a keyboard, but they certainly popularized it and brought the price point down so everyone can afford one.
Their entry into the wireless market kinda sucked because they were so late, but had they of tried that a few years earlier we probably don't have Linksys or Netgear anymore.
Oh and, that whole X-Box and 360 thing didn't do so bad either.
Please join me in my personal crusade to eliminate the word "incent" and "incentivize" from our culture.
The root word is "incentive" and it wasn't until the last few decades that people came up with "incent", "incentivize", and -- god forbid -- "disincent".
May I suggest these alternate words:
- encourage
- give incentive
- influence
- motivate
- stimulate
Hell, even "prod" is a better word. Now let us raise our torches and pitch forks and put these rogue words to rest.
Getting 640x480 on something that is only 2-3 inches wide is fantastic. If you think about it, that's about 200 dpi, which is pretty darned sharp. (Your average 17" screen is running 1024x768.)
I'd love to see PDAs/Cellphones take advantage of higher resolution displays, too. Though I don't know how that would affect power consumption or processing power.
...But not by Windows. Time Machine goes way beyond Windows' System Restore, and is more similar to VMS's versioning filesystem.
You are confusing System Restore (which has been around on Windows for some time now) with File Versioning. Windows 2003 (and any client connected to it) and Windows Vista introduced this feature. You right-click on a file, hit Properties, and under "Previous Versions" you'll see prior iterations of the file. Apple's Time Machine is a clone of that process, with nifty special effects. And yes, other OSes have had it too, but never an OS with more than 1% market share.
Please know what you're talking about before bashing.
Dude I feel ya. I had vivid memories of Phantasy Star II and a couple of years ago I found it on ROM via some emulator. I loaded it up, expecting to get that awesome music, amazing graphics, great game-play and of course the killer story line that really drew me in some 15 years ago.
Then I launched the emulator. Oh. My. God. THIS is NOT what I remembered!
It is amazing how our minds take the graphics and music and convert it into something that we remember later on as far better.
The same thing happened to me with Final Fantasy VII. A few months ago I popped it back in with all the intention of playing it through. I got as far as an hour and really couldn't get past the crude graphics, despite how great the game was.
...and most recently DualDisc, which plays like a CD on one side and like a DVD on the other. Warner... But the capacity of both the CD and DVD sides of DualDiscs is limited compared to normal CDs and DVDs. In contrast, the storage capacity of the planned Warner DVDs is up to four times what can be held on the DVD side of a DualDisc.
It's a shame that there isn't more use of DualDisc. I thought it was a very cool idea. Unlike this proposed new format, the "music" side of a DualDisc works in any CD player. I saw it as an added bonus that you'd get a few videos and other junk if you popped it into your DVD or computer.
The notion, however, that there isn't enough storage capacity is lame. I've never seen more than a handful of low-resolution videos (at 3-5 minutes each) on a DualDisc. Today they're probably only using 25% of the capacity offered. If they have 4x as much room on the new format, how will that change anything?
That's assuming you're lucky enough to uninstall it.
A client of mine had Norton 2003 on one of her machines and I attepted to get that sucker off so I could install Norton 2005. Hell no. Followed the crazy instructions on their website to the letter.
To this day, whenever they reboot the machine Norton 2003 asks them to register (which it then errors out on). Then Norton 2005 takes over.
(I would format the machine and reinstall, but there's a number of issues there that I won't get into, and the computer is only used a few hours a week.)
So, not being as inclined to go build my own antenna, can anyone recommend a ready-made device that I can install in my car and home that will increase my gain? I've seen such things advertised but have no idea which are gimmicks and which are real.
What I imagine is some antenna that I can plug into an outlet which will then boost the signal for my cell phone within an immediate radius. I'd like one for my car (which has AC power) and home.
I'm using Cingular and whatever frequency they have. I'd be great if it worked with voice as well as SMS and data.
... what we have is high school students who can type 60+ WPM and already understand how to communicate in a non-verbal environment.
They know that inflection doesn't come across in an email (or IM) and can write accordingly.
I would also argue that there are plenty of adults (who grew up without IM) who cannot write a proper sentence and still don't understand what a comma is for. They don't know when to use their or there or they're and think that typing in ALL CAPS is acceptable.
Somewhere in last month's Wired magazine is an article about how the internet (as a distribution medium) is changing this very issue.
Studios who produce a movie take a risk, and as someone else here pointed out that risk needs to yield a high return for the studio. Thus, the piece is generic and aimed for a wide audience. Wider audience = lower risk.
Because of the lower cost of production and distribution associated with the internet, talented people can create movies (and music) without having to go to a studio. Independant movies like Kevin Smith's "Clerks" can be made with very low budgets (I believe Clerks cost $50,000).
The new medium, which we're really about to see explode with new content, is going to allow future Kevin Smiths to make movies aimed at very small audiences with little risk.
This is why sales people are asshats. They're unprofessional non-technical people who sap back the high life while the rest of us have to put up with the mess they create through their daily barrage of verbal diarhea.
Wow. Tell us how you really feel.
You know, a lot of us asshat sales people think that you technical people are a bunch of basement dwelling, Star Wars quoting, self-rightous, introverted, bad-heigene virgins who scoff at any question and make no attempt to educate your users because in your mind there is no possible way they could ever understand the complicated intricities of a computer.
It's supply and demand. There used to be very few people qualified enough to beta test. Over time, that number has grown exponentially. Now it is at the point where people *want* to beta test and in some cases are willing to pay for that opportunity.
For me it's not about hunting bugs, it's about being educated.
Because I want to stay on top of my game, and tell my clients what to expect with the next round of software, I'd be willing to pay, too.
Here's how I look at it... the human eye has a "resolution" far greater than that which any monitor supports, and certainly greater than any streaming video I have ever seen.
Add to that the color depth of the human eye. Granted, not 16 M colors, but still pretty high.
The frame rate of the average human eye is somewhere around 40 fps, I believe. Again, faster than what most streaming videos offer.
Then double all that, 'cause we got two eyes.
I'm pretty sure the "bandwidth" between my eyes and brain is a little faster than even the best ethernet connection.. At least anything that I've seen demonstrated so far.
I recall Starbucks doing something somewhat similar not too long ago. Taking an independant movie that was sure to flop and promoting the heck out of it at its stores.
It's not uncommon for a business to throw some cash at other ventures. Afterall, any smart business person knows that one day their time will come. If they put all of their eggs into one basket, they're doomed. Companies that have died were the ones that could not see this.
Slashdot Mirror
What does the MEPA have to say about this?
You know, the Moon Environmental Protection Agency. Surely they're upset about this planned littering of our beloved Moon. Sure it's only a probe now, but that's setting the stage for all sorts of lunar trash. What's next? A satellite? Space shuttle? An entire station?
Won't somebody PLEASE think of our children's children's children's children's children's children's children's future home?
Next Headline: RIAA Sues Universal
Can't you just see it? With record labels giving away music, they're taking away market share for RIAA's lawyers. They gotta sue someone or risk losing their jobs, so who else to go after but the record labels?
Dear User,
A review of your web browsing history reveals a preference towards redheads. For your convinence, the following actions have been completed:
- Your desktop background has changed
- Your password has been changed from "brittany" to "lindsey"
- Your Match.Com Profile has been updated
- Your wife has been alerted
- NetFlix has confirmed shipment of "Porn Wars 3: Revenge of the Angry Redheads"
Thank you,
NewOS
... or is that just what the hyper-intelligent, pan-dimensional mice WANT us to think?
Whether or not this person was really responsible, we'll never know.
... here's one ... become a political lobbiest for privacy!
But what I can faithfully say is that she will have no problem finding a job as soon as she's ready to start working again. People in high-profile positions like CTO of a Fortune 500 company don't end up working at McDonald's the next day.
She will likely go to work for a competitor, start her own mega-huge consulting gig, end up in government, or
I think I'm much more likely to trust a non-net version fingerprint reader, like the ones that are shipping with many laptops now.
Many of those have "password managers" that will get you into your money/email/Windows/whatever by swiping your finger, and the fingerprint information never goes across the internet. Plus it has the added bonus of working with a lot more than just these guys' proprietary system.
TFA didn't really tell me anything about what's happening here... but, can't EchoStar legally license the technology from TiVo? I mean, if TiVo wanted them to, of course. Seems to me if I were EchoStar I would really try to do that, rather than piss off tons of customers.
And while I do feel for those customers who are about to lose those services, what else can you do? They don't deserve to be punished, but to let them continue to use something sold to them illegally wouldn't be right either.
Perhaps the solution is for EchoStar to buy all those people a TiVo and gracefully leave the market.
Say what you want about hardware/software, but Microsoft has made great developments in hardware particularly with their mice and keyboards. I don't know if they *invented* the scroll wheel and forward/back buttons, or the natural style of a keyboard, but they certainly popularized it and brought the price point down so everyone can afford one.
Their entry into the wireless market kinda sucked because they were so late, but had they of tried that a few years earlier we probably don't have Linksys or Netgear anymore.
Oh and, that whole X-Box and 360 thing didn't do so bad either.
Be careful what you wish for.
Someone advocate might just make a crop circle representation for goatse.cx
What about:
4) Things we won't understand by the time we cease to exist.
Please join me in my personal crusade to eliminate the word "incent" and "incentivize" from our culture.
The root word is "incentive" and it wasn't until the last few decades that people came up with "incent", "incentivize", and -- god forbid -- "disincent".
May I suggest these alternate words:
- encourage
- give incentive
- influence
- motivate
- stimulate
Hell, even "prod" is a better word. Now let us raise our torches and pitch forks and put these rogue words to rest.
Getting 640x480 on something that is only 2-3 inches wide is fantastic. If you think about it, that's about 200 dpi, which is pretty darned sharp. (Your average 17" screen is running 1024x768.)
I'd love to see PDAs/Cellphones take advantage of higher resolution displays, too. Though I don't know how that would affect power consumption or processing power.
You are confusing System Restore (which has been around on Windows for some time now) with File Versioning. Windows 2003 (and any client connected to it) and Windows Vista introduced this feature. You right-click on a file, hit Properties, and under "Previous Versions" you'll see prior iterations of the file. Apple's Time Machine is a clone of that process, with nifty special effects. And yes, other OSes have had it too, but never an OS with more than 1% market share.
Please know what you're talking about before bashing.
Dude I feel ya. I had vivid memories of Phantasy Star II and a couple of years ago I found it on ROM via some emulator. I loaded it up, expecting to get that awesome music, amazing graphics, great game-play and of course the killer story line that really drew me in some 15 years ago.
Then I launched the emulator. Oh. My. God. THIS is NOT what I remembered!
It is amazing how our minds take the graphics and music and convert it into something that we remember later on as far better.
The same thing happened to me with Final Fantasy VII. A few months ago I popped it back in with all the intention of playing it through. I got as far as an hour and really couldn't get past the crude graphics, despite how great the game was.
It's a shame that there isn't more use of DualDisc. I thought it was a very cool idea. Unlike this proposed new format, the "music" side of a DualDisc works in any CD player. I saw it as an added bonus that you'd get a few videos and other junk if you popped it into your DVD or computer.
The notion, however, that there isn't enough storage capacity is lame. I've never seen more than a handful of low-resolution videos (at 3-5 minutes each) on a DualDisc. Today they're probably only using 25% of the capacity offered. If they have 4x as much room on the new format, how will that change anything?
That's assuming you're lucky enough to uninstall it.
A client of mine had Norton 2003 on one of her machines and I attepted to get that sucker off so I could install Norton 2005. Hell no. Followed the crazy instructions on their website to the letter.
To this day, whenever they reboot the machine Norton 2003 asks them to register (which it then errors out on). Then Norton 2005 takes over.
(I would format the machine and reinstall, but there's a number of issues there that I won't get into, and the computer is only used a few hours a week.)
So, not being as inclined to go build my own antenna, can anyone recommend a ready-made device that I can install in my car and home that will increase my gain? I've seen such things advertised but have no idea which are gimmicks and which are real.
What I imagine is some antenna that I can plug into an outlet which will then boost the signal for my cell phone within an immediate radius. I'd like one for my car (which has AC power) and home.
I'm using Cingular and whatever frequency they have. I'd be great if it worked with voice as well as SMS and data.
Anybody got some tips for me?
... what we have is high school students who can type 60+ WPM and already understand how to communicate in a non-verbal environment.
They know that inflection doesn't come across in an email (or IM) and can write accordingly.
I would also argue that there are plenty of adults (who grew up without IM) who cannot write a proper sentence and still don't understand what a comma is for. They don't know when to use their or there or they're and think that typing in ALL CAPS is acceptable.
For the benefit of future article submissions, I've predicted a few headlines from the coming future and offer the required Slashdot twist:
Windows 2010 Ships with IPv6 as Default
- becomes -
Windows 2010 Foresakes Legacy IPs
Microsoft Office 2009 Ships with Photoshop Competitor
- becomes -
Microsoft Cheats Adobe Out of Millions, Again
Microsoft Ergonomic Mouse Helps Corrects Carpal Syndrome
- becomes -
Microsoft Mouse Locks Out Porn
Asheron's Call VII Goes Alpha
- becomes -
700 Bugs Detected in Asheron's Call VII
Please add your own.
Somewhere in last month's Wired magazine is an article about how the internet (as a distribution medium) is changing this very issue.
Studios who produce a movie take a risk, and as someone else here pointed out that risk needs to yield a high return for the studio. Thus, the piece is generic and aimed for a wide audience. Wider audience = lower risk.
Because of the lower cost of production and distribution associated with the internet, talented people can create movies (and music) without having to go to a studio. Independant movies like Kevin Smith's "Clerks" can be made with very low budgets (I believe Clerks cost $50,000).
The new medium, which we're really about to see explode with new content, is going to allow future Kevin Smiths to make movies aimed at very small audiences with little risk.
Wow. Tell us how you really feel.
You know, a lot of us asshat sales people think that you technical people are a bunch of basement dwelling, Star Wars quoting, self-rightous, introverted, bad-heigene virgins who scoff at any question and make no attempt to educate your users because in your mind there is no possible way they could ever understand the complicated intricities of a computer.
It's supply and demand. There used to be very few people qualified enough to beta test. Over time, that number has grown exponentially. Now it is at the point where people *want* to beta test and in some cases are willing to pay for that opportunity.
For me it's not about hunting bugs, it's about being educated.
Because I want to stay on top of my game, and tell my clients what to expect with the next round of software, I'd be willing to pay, too.
It should be noted that subscribers of MSDN and Action Pack were recently shipped DVDs for Office 2006 and Vista, as part of their subscription.
Here's how I look at it... the human eye has a "resolution" far greater than that which any monitor supports, and certainly greater than any streaming video I have ever seen.
Add to that the color depth of the human eye. Granted, not 16 M colors, but still pretty high.
The frame rate of the average human eye is somewhere around 40 fps, I believe. Again, faster than what most streaming videos offer.
Then double all that, 'cause we got two eyes.
I'm pretty sure the "bandwidth" between my eyes and brain is a little faster than even the best ethernet connection.. At least anything that I've seen demonstrated so far.
I recall Starbucks doing something somewhat similar not too long ago. Taking an independant movie that was sure to flop and promoting the heck out of it at its stores.
It's not uncommon for a business to throw some cash at other ventures. Afterall, any smart business person knows that one day their time will come. If they put all of their eggs into one basket, they're doomed. Companies that have died were the ones that could not see this.