It's the same reason that Americans still haven't converted to the metric system.
It's the same reason we still have floppy drives in our computers.
It's the same reason Americans (that is, western hemisphere America in general) drive on the right side of the road and Eastern Hemispherians drive on the left. (Contrary to popular belief, the Coriolis effect has nothing to do with this.)
The reason: there's far too many of the old style in use to be economically feasible or logistically possible to change them all. Besides, we're too stubborn to learn something new.
The "twist-lock" style of connector is an existing NEMA standard and is far safer than the flat-blade two-prong plug we use. But it's not common.
How many electrical engineers does it take to screw in a light bulb?
No, I don't have an answer to that, but Ira Flatow's book They All Laughed has an interesting history on the rivalry between George Westinghouse and Thomas Edison.
Among the information is the tidbit that Westinghouse and Edison had different types of connectors for their light bulbs. Edison being the crafty type gave away adapters so you could insert an Edison bulb into a Westinghouse socket. The genius of it was that the adapter could not be removed once inserted, thereby requiring you to buy Edison's bulbs. That's why we screw in our light bulbs (Not that kind of screw, you perv!) and the connector is called an "Edison" base.
Apologies if this is only slightly correct; I don't have the book in front of me at this moment.
That's the trouble. A lot of bands today churn out one good track and a bunch of Kwality muzik.
To me, one good track plus a bunch of random bits called "music" isn't worth $17.99. Get three or four good ones on that disc and then I'll buy it.
Prime example, back in the day, I thought Backstreet Boys "Millenium" was a good deal, it had several good tracks and sold in the mid-teens price range. The next album, "Back in Black" had one decent track ("Shape of My Heart") plus a bunch of crap. It, too, was priced in the mid-teens and I felt it was a waste of money. Not that I listen to either now; my tastes have changed.
Way too many one-hit-wonders these days in popular music. Not many outfits anymore that can produce a 4 disc boxed set of greatest hits.
A Palladin Tools crimper with RJ-45 die (don't go cheap on a crimper, otherwise you'll be uttering bad words). You might want an RJ-11 die for phone cords, but that's up to you.
A tool to strip the outer jacket of cables
Punchdown tool (for RJ-45 jacks & patch panels)
Screwdrivers: #2 Phillips (you'll probably never use a #1), 3/16" Flat, assorted Torx.
3/16" nutdriver (for those hex standoffs on DB connectors)
Consider the following solutions when you want to find out if static discharge is a concern:
1) Install plush polyester carpeting. Instruct employees to wear wool socks (no shoes). Your employees will appreciate this on those long, cold winter nights.
2) Make sure all screwdrivers are magnetized. This makes assembly SO much easier.
3) Remove all ground wires/straps/conductors. You don't want zaps coming in the back way!
4) Install dehumidifiers to reduce condensation and corrosion on sensitive parts.
5) Wrist straps just get in the way and disgruntle your employees.
6) Pack electronics in styrofoam peanuts (make sure the peanuts are BLOWN thru a plastic hose into the box). Save the planet by not using anti-static bags. (er, um, styrofoam doesn't harm the planet, that's right)
I recall when we first got wall-to-wall carpet in our house, we'd wear wool socks and scuffle along then go and touch something grounded, just to see how big an arc we could get. I think maybe 1/4 inch (1/2cm) was the best we got.
Wondering if they've fixed the extremely annoying habit of Netscape reloading a page from the server every time you resize the window or print it out.
This is my chief complaint against Netscape.
Reloading from the server doesn't do good things when you've filled out some web forms and want to print the page out before you hit "submit."
Why can't the behavior be like IE's where it just re-renders the page from memory cache?
Also, it would be nice if page rendering while printing would be such that the right-hand edge of the page doesn't get cut off (override the page's hard-coded width, for goodness' sake!).
Yes, many self-taught people are extremely capable programmers. I know one who, in one case, produced a software product himself in less than two weeks what a team of certified programmers couldn't do in six months.
However, when someone says "self-taught" there's no guarantee that they know what they are doing, unless they've gone out and taken a battery of exams and received that piece of paper that says "J2EE" or "MCSE" or "RHCE" or "A+" etc. Self-taught is OK, but it means nothing unless that self-taught person is also certified. A bid examiner really doesn't care where you learned your stuff, just so that some examining board (be it Microsoft, Redhat, or some college) says you know your stuff.
Of course, there are many people out there who have letters after their names but couldn't pour water out of a boot if the instructions were printed on the heel. But still, the certification says they know a particular set of stuff; that they have been tested and found to have a particlar level of competency in that subject.
The bid examiner depends on the certification to know if the bidder is qualified.
keyword in above post: probably. You cannot automatically judge proposal "A" as being better than proposal "B"; you have to evaluate the package as a whole.
If a two-developer company presents a better proposal than the five-developer company, the former will get the job. Otherwise it will be the latter.
In Brian's evaluation, it happened to be the larger company that got the job, because of time considerations and, likely, because other points in the proposal were better.
Anytime you add features, you make the usability more complex. Hence, cheap and old things are easier to use.
Think of some of your household items: the broom does one thing, does it well, and any idiot can run it (smart people may have difficulty, after all it's too simple). Or the toilet: a well-developed user interface, with one-click technology (does Amazon.com know about this?).
Now you consider the modern cell phone/pager/web browser/remote control. It's got so many blasted features that when you try to call your Grandmother, there's a high likelihood you'll download dirty pictures to her TV instead. Cripes! Where will it all end?
I recently burned over 500 copies of CD's (Attn. RIAA: content is church services, so no copyright issues here). Equipment included a CD tower with 40x Lite-On drives, media was rated for that speed.
I had three coasters. That is a 99.4% success rate.
So the overall reliability at high speeds is good. You are probably more likely to have coasters when using a CD-R (even the same ones I have) in a computer where demands are made by other processes, hard drives are fragmented, and users are idoiots (j/k).
This very thing, this Internet, which brought about the discussion of Digital Rights, is also the very thing which enables the discussion to take place.
Will it be: this machine builds itself for the sole purpose of destroying itself?
This decision will be thrown out, because the document lists Network Solutions' address as "Hendon, VA". There is no such city; in fact NSI existed in Herndon, VA.
Congressmen don't read form letters. As unfamiliar with the concept as you may be, handwrite it. It will be more believable to them and shows that you care enough to have spent some time on the subject.
A number of posts here re: PXE-type boot, terminal server, etc. That's not what the poster wants.
Think virtual hard drive and controller. Something that FOOLS the OS into thinking there's an actual, physical, grinding, chattering, clunking, blinking, belching, farting hard drive in the computer. Complete with cylinders, heads, sectors, earwax, and belly-button lint. Something that shows up as/dev/sda in *NIX environments. Something that has its own network support so the system can appear as a stand-alone computer if you want it to.
I know of no PXE boot ROM, no terminal service, nothing of that sort that does this. If there is, we want to know!
What's the use for it? Well, I don't really know, and if I had one it would probably be in that big cardboard box in my garage but i'm sure it would be cool, and that's reason enough for me.
Two of my credit card issuers include the credit card number as the account number on my statement. They also want me to write the account number (that is, the credit card number) on my check. So when Vinny comes and rifles thru the mail, not only does he get the CC#, he gets my bank account along with it.
The other issuer smartly uses an account number that is different from the CC#, and the CC# appears nowhere on the statement. Any transactions using the account number must be confirmed with a password which only I and my bank know.
Slashdot Mirror
One word: legacy.
It's the same reason that Americans still haven't converted to the metric system.
It's the same reason we still have floppy drives in our computers.
It's the same reason Americans (that is, western hemisphere America in general) drive on the right side of the road and Eastern Hemispherians drive on the left. (Contrary to popular belief, the Coriolis effect has nothing to do with this.)
The reason: there's far too many of the old style in use to be economically feasible or logistically possible to change them all. Besides, we're too stubborn to learn something new.
The "twist-lock" style of connector is an existing NEMA standard and is far safer than the flat-blade two-prong plug we use. But it's not common.
How many electrical engineers does it take to screw in a light bulb?
No, I don't have an answer to that, but Ira Flatow's book They All Laughed has an interesting history on the rivalry between George Westinghouse and Thomas Edison.
Among the information is the tidbit that Westinghouse and Edison had different types of connectors for their light bulbs. Edison being the crafty type gave away adapters so you could insert an Edison bulb into a Westinghouse socket. The genius of it was that the adapter could not be removed once inserted, thereby requiring you to buy Edison's bulbs. That's why we screw in our light bulbs (Not that kind of screw, you perv!) and the connector is called an "Edison" base.
Apologies if this is only slightly correct; I don't have the book in front of me at this moment.
The boots (to prevent tangling) are easy to come by, but they cost $0.082/pair and that would cut into the cable manufacturer's profits.
That's the trouble. A lot of bands today churn out one good track and a bunch of Kwality muzik.
To me, one good track plus a bunch of random bits called "music" isn't worth $17.99. Get three or four good ones on that disc and then I'll buy it.
Prime example, back in the day, I thought Backstreet Boys "Millenium" was a good deal, it had several good tracks and sold in the mid-teens price range. The next album, "Back in Black" had one decent track ("Shape of My Heart") plus a bunch of crap. It, too, was priced in the mid-teens and I felt it was a waste of money. Not that I listen to either now; my tastes have changed.
Way too many one-hit-wonders these days in popular music. Not many outfits anymore that can produce a 4 disc boxed set of greatest hits.
Nylon cable ties. These are your friends.
My toolkit contains this stuff:
An Ideal Zip-Kit tool bag
A Palladin Tools crimper with RJ-45 die (don't go cheap on a crimper, otherwise you'll be uttering bad words). You might want an RJ-11 die for phone cords, but that's up to you.
A tool to strip the outer jacket of cables
Punchdown tool (for RJ-45 jacks & patch panels)
Screwdrivers: #2 Phillips (you'll probably never use a #1), 3/16" Flat, assorted Torx.
3/16" nutdriver (for those hex standoffs on DB connectors)
Spare parts: RJ-45 connectors, screws (there's 2 sizes in computers, generally), expansion slot blanking plates.
Band-aids. Computers often have sharp edges. A towel to cry in when everything you try doesn't work (j/k).
Pliers: needle-nose, side cutters. Scissors.
Can of compressed air. Tube of heat sink compound. Permanant markers, red & black (Sharpies work well). Roll of electrical tape.
Flashlight. A small LED light on your keychain also works well.
A multi-function tool (like a Leatherman) in your pocket for when your tool bag isn't handy. Mine's lost, if you find it let me know.
A cable tester is nice to have.
CD case for all your utilities discs. A Windows 98 boot floppy. A Linux rescue disk set if you are adventurous.
I lost mine and I miss it sorely. :-(
It had something to do with Adam and Eve.
Consider the following solutions when you want to find out if static discharge is a concern:
1) Install plush polyester carpeting. Instruct employees to wear wool socks (no shoes). Your employees will appreciate this on those long, cold winter nights.
2) Make sure all screwdrivers are magnetized. This makes assembly SO much easier.
3) Remove all ground wires/straps/conductors. You don't want zaps coming in the back way!
4) Install dehumidifiers to reduce condensation and corrosion on sensitive parts.
5) Wrist straps just get in the way and disgruntle your employees.
6) Pack electronics in styrofoam peanuts (make sure the peanuts are BLOWN thru a plastic hose into the box). Save the planet by not using anti-static bags. (er, um, styrofoam doesn't harm the planet, that's right)
I recall when we first got wall-to-wall carpet in our house, we'd wear wool socks and scuffle along then go and touch something grounded, just to see how big an arc we could get. I think maybe 1/4 inch (1/2cm) was the best we got.
Way to test the reload thing: go to this page. (I have no idea whose page this is, I just googled it up and it exibits the behaviour I describe).
Log in to the chat applet with some username. Then resize the window.
If the chat box disappears or logs you out, then it's not fixed. If it keeps you logged in, then it's fixed.
Note that this is not a problem in Internet Exploiter.
Wondering if they've fixed the extremely annoying habit of Netscape reloading a page from the server every time you resize the window or print it out.
This is my chief complaint against Netscape.
Reloading from the server doesn't do good things when you've filled out some web forms and want to print the page out before you hit "submit."
Why can't the behavior be like IE's where it just re-renders the page from memory cache?
Also, it would be nice if page rendering while printing would be such that the right-hand edge of the page doesn't get cut off (override the page's hard-coded width, for goodness' sake!).
Here's my idea for fool-proof copy protection.
Every software license comes with a Mafia thug to watch over it. If you copy, you pay or he shoots.
Seems pretty simple, no? No need for confusing EULA's.
Oh, wait. They do.
Yes, many self-taught people are extremely capable programmers. I know one who, in one case, produced a software product himself in less than two weeks what a team of certified programmers couldn't do in six months.
However, when someone says "self-taught" there's no guarantee that they know what they are doing, unless they've gone out and taken a battery of exams and received that piece of paper that says "J2EE" or "MCSE" or "RHCE" or "A+" etc. Self-taught is OK, but it means nothing unless that self-taught person is also certified. A bid examiner really doesn't care where you learned your stuff, just so that some examining board (be it Microsoft, Redhat, or some college) says you know your stuff.
Of course, there are many people out there who have letters after their names but couldn't pour water out of a boot if the instructions were printed on the heel. But still, the certification says they know a particular set of stuff; that they have been tested and found to have a particlar level of competency in that subject.
The bid examiner depends on the certification to know if the bidder is qualified.
keyword in above post: probably. You cannot automatically judge proposal "A" as being better than proposal "B"; you have to evaluate the package as a whole.
If a two-developer company presents a better proposal than the five-developer company, the former will get the job. Otherwise it will be the latter.
In Brian's evaluation, it happened to be the larger company that got the job, because of time considerations and, likely, because other points in the proposal were better.
Anytime you add features, you make the usability more complex. Hence, cheap and old things are easier to use.
Think of some of your household items: the broom does one thing, does it well, and any idiot can run it (smart people may have difficulty, after all it's too simple). Or the toilet: a well-developed user interface, with one-click technology (does Amazon.com know about this?).
Now you consider the modern cell phone/pager/web browser/remote control. It's got so many blasted features that when you try to call your Grandmother, there's a high likelihood you'll download dirty pictures to her TV instead. Cripes! Where will it all end?
I recently burned over 500 copies of CD's (Attn. RIAA: content is church services, so no copyright issues here). Equipment included a CD tower with 40x Lite-On drives, media was rated for that speed.
I had three coasters. That is a 99.4% success rate.
So the overall reliability at high speeds is good. You are probably more likely to have coasters when using a CD-R (even the same ones I have) in a computer where demands are made by other processes, hard drives are fragmented, and users are idoiots (j/k).
perl refers to the executable, while Perl refers to the religion^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H programming language, which in this case, is a proper noun.
By the same token, it is proper to write "He speaks the english language because he is English." Yes, case makes a difference.
The question should be restated: does anyone care?
This very thing, this Internet, which brought about the discussion of Digital Rights, is also the very thing which enables the discussion to take place.
Will it be: this machine builds itself for the sole purpose of destroying itself?
This decision will be thrown out, because the document lists Network Solutions' address as "Hendon, VA". There is no such city; in fact NSI existed in Herndon, VA.
Congressmen don't read form letters. As unfamiliar with the concept as you may be, handwrite it. It will be more believable to them and shows that you care enough to have spent some time on the subject.
A number of posts here re: PXE-type boot, terminal server, etc. That's not what the poster wants.
/dev/sda in *NIX environments. Something that has its own network support so the system can appear as a stand-alone computer if you want it to.
Think virtual hard drive and controller. Something that FOOLS the OS into thinking there's an actual, physical, grinding, chattering, clunking, blinking, belching, farting hard drive in the computer. Complete with cylinders, heads, sectors, earwax, and belly-button lint. Something that shows up as
I know of no PXE boot ROM, no terminal service, nothing of that sort that does this. If there is, we want to know!
What's the use for it? Well, I don't really know, and if I had one it would probably be in that big cardboard box in my garage but i'm sure it would be cool, and that's reason enough for me.
Posted 40 minutes ago:
:-P
"Has anyone else solved (or thought about) this problem?"
Nope.
First post.
The virus I've had the hardest time getting rid of:
[ ] Nimda
[ ] Klez
[ ] ILoveYou
[ ] Sircam
[ ] Hybris
[ ] Whatever CowboyNeal has
Two of my credit card issuers include the credit card number as the account number on my statement. They also want me to write the account number (that is, the credit card number) on my check. So when Vinny comes and rifles thru the mail, not only does he get the CC#, he gets my bank account along with it.
The other issuer smartly uses an account number that is different from the CC#, and the CC# appears nowhere on the statement. Any transactions using the account number must be confirmed with a password which only I and my bank know.
Why can't ALL credit card companies do this?
"...I leave my crap everywhere"
Man, I hate people who don't flush!