Disclaimer: I've been doing in research on the Canadian Pension Plan and its impact upon the long term savings of Canadians.
There are a few key differences between the CPP and America's Social Security but there is a very misunderstood commonality.
The pay-as-you-go (PAYG) system. The PAYG system dictates that the money taken off your paycheque is not set aside for you. It is directly paid out to the current pensioners. Any surplus is generally invested, with the type of investment varying radically between programs and countries.
The funadmental assumption in the PAYG system is that productivity and population will continue to grow at a sufficient rate to carry the burden of the current pensioners. America's population, while aging, is expected to grow at a a very significant rate. The growing immigrant population has a much higher birth rate as compared to the pre-existing population, which will further reduce this problem.
Canada does not have the same prospects. Our pension plan started later and has had consistently lower returns than our American bretheren. True our population is growing but not nearly at the same rate, overall our population is aging to a greater extent than America as well. In Canada the Quebec Pension Plan (QPP) had a fundamentally different investment priority. The CPP's surplus investments were in the form of very low interest bonds to the provinces. This has had two effects. First the return rate for the first 25 years or so of the CPP program has been very low and simultaneously encouraged provincial debt by providing a lower than market rate for provinces looking to borrow.
The QPP invested specifically to promote provincial growth. While not being perfectly successfull in the long term it has actually resulted in the generation of capital and successfully stimulated significant growth within Quebec over a long period of time. The QPP, due to those much higher returns since the inception of the program, helps ensure that the specific program is much more sustainable in the long term than the CPP. Their is much debate as to whether the CPP has contributed or been a detriment to national savings and capital growth. National savings is different than you or I "saving" for a rainy day. I'm just a Poli Sci M.A. student I'm sure an economics major/professor can explain it a lot better than I can.
Either way. People do not fundamentally understand that their payroll contributions do NOT go to them when they retire. You are counting on the goodwill of tax payers at the time to ensure that you receive your benefits. In Canada it is very likely that contribution rates will continue to rise to address this problem.
This is an interesting post because a year or so ago most people would have been saying the same thing about your FX 5900.
The point is - most people do not have upper teir graphics cards. Just like most people do not run the absolute top of the line AMD & Intel processors. They are too expensive and all about marketing.
Myself with a laptop currently only have a Radeon 7500 onboard. My previous desktop had a Radeon 8500. YOU do not need an SLI or next-gen top teir card because you already have a last gen top teir card.
Those of us, and there are many, who don't do need an upgrade.
Why the SLI thing?
I buy one 6600GT for my motherboard. I'm happy, I like it. 2 years later my games start to suffer, I buy another one. Go look at the benchmarks comparing hte Single to Double... its a 50-100% boost in performance depending on the application. That is really significant and considering where the prices of those cards will be in a year or two - has a lot of bang for the buck.
Your comment about buying a "Monitor" is ridiculous. If you have a 17" and a crappy graphics card and then go buy a 19" and still have that crappy graphics card - you won't be able to take advantage of the higher resolutions availble on that monitor. Yes some monitors just have better picture quality, Mitsubishi Diamondtron comes to mind, but again your argument doesn't make sense.
Yes it searches an index but it does have to create the index which involves 'crawling' the web. And of course an algorithm is not computer code... BUT that does not mean the article does not have something interesting to offer.
But your criticisms clearly show that you have missed the point, and the value of the article.
Not everyone is as technical as the readership of/. is, and not everyone who reads/. is at the same level either. To say 'no more mass media stories' would be incredibly flawed. Yes maybe the mass articles skimp on the detailed technical info but/.'s readership often provides that anyways.
That's kind of a flawed logic because your linking performance directly to MHZ.
I myself went from a 386 SX 20 -> 486 dx2 50 -> Pentium 233 MMX -> Pentium II 300 -> Athlon 850 -> Athlon XP 1800+ -> Centrino (Pentium M) 1.4ghz.
The 486 -> 233 had the level of performance boost you are describing. The Pentium II 300 -> Athlon XP 1800+ Also did.
It wasn't just the mhz. The improvements in architecture (RAM/FSB/Hard Drives themselves, Video Cards, etc)
Myeslf I'm incredibly happy with my little Thinkpad, its quiet, runs forever on batteries, and performs abit better than the Athlon XP 1800+.
You are right in stating that for 'web browsing' and the like a 3ghz+ CPU is not required. But to have a quiet computing environment that runs cool, I'm willing to pay more for that. Making the Pentium M the only Intel chip I'll consider, can't wait for the proper desktop boards with PCI-E to come out.
Either way you must look at all the system variables not simply the MHZ. I'm sure that going to a Dual CPU Athlon64 or even next generation pentium @ 2.5->3.0ghz will provide that significant boost in performance you're looking for. The question really is, whether the apps you are going to use will show it - or whether the apps you use need it.
As well Sasktel offers movies on demand via this service. I can pause, stop, rewind, and watch the show over and over again in a 24 hour period with every rental. Its actually pretty incredible I hope that other providers pickup similar functionality soon.
Sasktel Max Interactive Services I have had 'Sasktel Max' for well over a year. My roomate, whose Dad worked for Sasktel, has had it for about 3 years.
It runs over DSL and you get internet and digital TV on one modem. If you elect to move up to the 5mbps down 768kpbs up Internet service (as I did) you have 2 DSL modems, 1 dedicated for Digital TV and one for Internet. Its interesting that it only requires about 3500kbps to deliver the digital cable.
The price? For 1.5mps down and 384 up with basic cable over DSL= 34.99 above basic monthly telephone fees. God Bless Canada's cheap Internet.
The sad/funny thing is that this service is available to every town larger than 10,000 people in this province of 1,000,000 people. This province is very rural and they are rolling it out to all the smaller communities as well. I find it interesting that Sasktel finds this profitable when so many Americans, in much denser population centres, have such a problem getting similar access.
Sega and other football game makers have a unique opportunity at this time to make really amazing College Football Games. There have been a few on the market but they don't generally have the features or support that the NFL games do.
There is a large playerbase that is actively followed. Gamers will still go where the best game implementation is.
Can you imagine how rich the online play would be with leagues composed of every college team would be? It would be fantastic!
Even if they don't go with colleges they could setup entire virtual leagues. Track stats of a 'fake' league online have a team for every state so that you can have large online leagues. Have web based fantasy games setup for when your at work. It could work and be compelling.
They could even stream nightly gaming updates to your xbox (ala machinma) using the ingame engine.
Maybe people will continue to buy EA's games but if Sega does it right, most football gamers will end up buying both, and perhaps spend more time theirs.
"The reviewer discovers that the unit he had is defective as someone else employs one and there is no hiss issue. Furthermore, the software woes he experienced are related to him employing JAPANESE software on an English operating system. Sonicstage 2.3, which he needs to use the unit, is now available in English."
The original reviewer is employing much higher quality headphones (Shure) than the person who states that he encounters no hiss at all. As well the person in the headfi thread who responds that he has no issues has a different model.
This can mean several things: 1) That the model is particularly sensitive to power line noise. 2) That the better headphones are more sensitive to noise within unit than the lower quality headphones employed within by the other individual. 3) That the model is actually defective.
It does not mean the model 'isn't defective. But the reasons presented within the thread to not 'prove' the model is defective.
Competition is a good thing, obviously resulting in MS deciding it must improve its search capabilities due to pressure from Yahoo and Google. But this is NOT a new feature within Windows or in general. Sherlock anyone?
There already is a search function integrated within Windows. Perhaps it is not as full featured as the MSN Toolbar Suite, but it is reasonably effective as long as you properly specify what you are looking for.
Perhaps this innovation just demonstrates how limited the existing search function is, or how important a 'buzz technology' this has become.
I think that part of the problem surrounding e-mail communication is its instant nature.
In the past if you received a communication from a superior it would be either verbal or written. Written correspondence would take time and likely involve a proofreading by an administrative assistant.
Your response would also take time and go through a similar process.
E-mail allows instantaneous communication. I'm not sure how everyone else on Slashdot feels, but when I receive an e-mail I feel as if it requires my immediate attention. This is a radically different mental process than if I receive physically written correspondence. The extra time and reduction of immediacy ensures that my written correspondence is of a much higher quality than my e-mails.
The immediate nature of e-mail means that our superiors may be expecting an immediate response to their communication. You may simply not feel that you have the time to compose a well written response, and that a timely response is more important than a coherent one.
The audience certainly matters as well. If you are writing a report that will be physically distributed to many people you are more likely to take the necessary time to write a coherent response. Your response, especially if it is going to customers, reflects upon: you, your company, your division within that company, etc.
I do not see the same consideration when mass e-mails are sent out, be they within a specific organization or between various organizations.
These people, probably, know how to write. They just do not feel that they have the time to write properly. If they do not know how to write then the 'remedial' training suggested in the article may be appropriate. If the real issue is time and the culture surrounding e-mail communication, that sort of training is not only inappropriate but demeaning to those individuals.
Brazil'spossiblenuclear capability. It is likely that this capability means that Brazil is capable of delivering a nuclear payload a much longer distance than either Iran or North Korea.
I am not claiming that Brazil should be lumped in with either of these two nations, however it is an interesting opportunity to test a dual purpose launch vehicle and perhaps reflect the first of the 'developing' countries probable intercontinental capabilities.
Given recent trade tensions between Brazil and the USA I have no doubt that this is turning a few heads in the commerce / state department.
I live in Saskatchewan Canada, when it is -40C outside for a significant portion of the winter, unfortunately I'm not kidding, plus add a hefty windchill on that your house will cool down so fast it isn't even funny if its not well insulated and well sealed.
If the house cools off 'sufficiently' in an 8 hour period it isn't going to warm up right away after that. I also think that the original poster estimated a bit on the low side with the 8 hour estimate. In a sustained blizzard over a large area with signficant damage it could take much more than 8 hours to get back up to speed.
This is added by the gas company after its redistributed to the customers, the parent's source of natural gas is right off the well - therefore the mercaptan hasn't been added yet.
1) Submit story to/. 2) Have/. community critque existing Music stores 3) Implement Recommendations 4) Submit story to/. about new music store 5) Profit!
If I recall correctly, ISPs would not be held liable for content traded over P2P networks, recent legal case. But how does this change when the ISP develops a P2P client?
Ultimately if someone really really wants to steal your notebook. They will. There is nothing you can really do.
The one thing I've recommended to friends of mine, and I will be purchasing one myself - is a backpack with a notebook slot. They are a bit less obvious on campus than traditional laptop bags which will reduce your likelihood of someone just walking past and grabbing the bag when your not looking (as they would be expecting textbooks not a laptop in a backpack).
But ultimately you need insurance. I don't know what insurance policies are like around the world, but I'm a unviersity student with 'tenant' insurance, not in dorms though, its only a $500CDN deductible if my laptop gets stolen, be it on campus or from my home. As well it is replacement insurance - not cash value insurance - so that I don't get a lower payout as my laptop depreciates in value - they would be paying for me to replace it with a laptop of equivalent value in the future.
That's what I've done to protect my shiny new IBM Thinkpad T41 that I love so much:). Insurance is frequently overlooked, and while getting your laptop stolen would be shitty - being unable to afford to replace it would be far far worse.
"Around eight that morning, the Belgian relief ship Imo left its mooring in Bedford Basin and headed for open sea. At about the same time, the French ship Mont Blanc was heading up the harbour to moor, awaiting a convoy to accompany her across the Atlantic. A convoy was essential; this small, barely seaworthy vessel was carrying a full cargo of explosives. Stored in the holds, or simply stacked on deck, were 35 tons of benzol, 300 rounds of ammunition, 10 tons of gun cotton, 2,300 tons of picric acid (used in explosives), and 400,000 pounds of TNT."....
"The Mont Blanc drifted by a Halifax pier, brushing it and setting it ablaze. Members of the Halifax Fire Department responded quickly, and were positioning their engine up to the nearest hydrant when the Mont Blanc disintegrated in a blinding white flash, creating the biggest man-made explosion before the nuclear age. It was 9:05am.
Over 1,900 people were killed immediately; within a year the figure had climbed well over 2,000. Around 9,000 more were injured, many permanently; 325 acres, almost all of north-end Halifax, were destroyed.
Much of what was not immediately levelled burned to the ground, aided by winter stockpiles of coal in cellars. As for the Mont Blanc, all 3,000 tons of her were shattered into little pieces that were blasted far and wide. The barrel of one of her cannons landed three and a half miles away; part of her anchor shank, weighing over half a ton, flew two miles in the opposite direction. Windows shattered 50 miles away, and the shock wave was even felt in Sydney, Cape Breton, 270 miles to the north-east."
I'm Probably not the only Canadian who says WHO CARES? Why you say? Well here in Regina Saskatchewan - a city of only 200,000 people. I have 2 options.
1 - Local Cable Company - 5 mbps down / 1 up 29.95CDN [19.1 USD] a month for first 6 months - and then $45CDN [$35USD] a month after that.
2 - Local Telco - 5 mpgs down / 640 up for $49.95CDN [$38.17] a month.
[Conversions done with yahoo Currency Converter]
What I want to know - is how can such a small market like this one have such unbelievable pricing - when such a large market cannot. A larger surprise? The 15,000 (approx) person city in this province has access to the same deal through the Telco..??
People have responded saying that a smaller city it would be easier to implement the technology necessary to rollout DSL. That's probably true - but the amount of customers and capital available within the United States would make such a rollout very viable within a larger community as well so I don't necessarily buy this argument.
Our Telco is also running TV over DSL, and has been since the middle of last year (as a province wide city rollout) and in testing for employees an d a select few for a few years before that!
The same is for long distance & local service. Here local service is bundled into your monthly connection fee so there is no charge for local calls. As well I've been paying $20.00 CDN [$15.28 USD] for unlimited long distance evenings 6pm-8am & weekends nationwide for the last 6 years or so? Why are these plans only now emerging in the United States?
This is very interesting to me, because Canada is a larger country than the United States, with the population of California (a bit less actually) so the rules of the market, and the actual capital that is available within Canada for such initiatives is much smaller than that available to the United States. And yet for long distance, what I deem an essential service we pay and have paid significantly less for years, and for Internet (which is increasingly becoming essential) the same thing has occured.
I guess it all amounts to the American market getting screwed, which is a sad thing because if there were a significantly larger amount of US broadband users, I suspect that broadband content would ramp up to a much higher / faster degree than it is currently.
Did anyone else think of Quiz Show when they saw this guy on the air for the first time? Quiz Show is a bout a game show that was rigged to ensure winners which boosted ratings were on the air for a long period of time... food for thought.
Why ISN'T there copy protection in the USA and UK if there is in the Canadian versions??
If they are concerned about piracy why are they NOT copy protecting in their largest markets? Canada is a radically smaller market than the United States and still significantly smaller than the UK.
Its not like Canadians have a significant advantage in terms of CD-Burner ownership over American or British Users. Are Canadians "more likely" to pirate than our American bretheren? If they are concerned about copy-right legislation here its still illegal for me to 'upload' just not to download.
It doesn't make any sense. As a Canadian I feel royally screwed.
Slashdot Mirror
Disclaimer: I've been doing in research on the Canadian Pension Plan and its impact upon the long term savings of Canadians.
There are a few key differences between the CPP and America's Social Security but there is a very misunderstood commonality.
The pay-as-you-go (PAYG) system. The PAYG system dictates that the money taken off your paycheque is not set aside for you. It is directly paid out to the current pensioners. Any surplus is generally invested, with the type of investment varying radically between programs and countries.
The funadmental assumption in the PAYG system is that productivity and population will continue to grow at a sufficient rate to carry the burden of the current pensioners. America's population, while aging, is expected to grow at a a very significant rate. The growing immigrant population has a much higher birth rate as compared to the pre-existing population, which will further reduce this problem.
Canada does not have the same prospects. Our pension plan started later and has had consistently lower returns than our American bretheren. True our population is growing but not nearly at the same rate, overall our population is aging to a greater extent than America as well. In Canada the Quebec Pension Plan (QPP) had a fundamentally different investment priority. The CPP's surplus investments were in the form of very low interest bonds to the provinces. This has had two effects. First the return rate for the first 25 years or so of the CPP program has been very low and simultaneously encouraged provincial debt by providing a lower than market rate for provinces looking to borrow.
The QPP invested specifically to promote provincial growth. While not being perfectly successfull in the long term it has actually resulted in the generation of capital and successfully stimulated significant growth within Quebec over a long period of time. The QPP, due to those much higher returns since the inception of the program, helps ensure that the specific program is much more sustainable in the long term than the CPP. Their is much debate as to whether the CPP has contributed or been a detriment to national savings and capital growth. National savings is different than you or I "saving" for a rainy day. I'm just a Poli Sci M.A. student I'm sure an economics major/professor can explain it a lot better than I can.
Either way. People do not fundamentally understand that their payroll contributions do NOT go to them when they retire. You are counting on the goodwill of tax payers at the time to ensure that you receive your benefits. In Canada it is very likely that contribution rates will continue to rise to address this problem.
Anyways I thought that might be of interest.
You are bored with your job as a software engineer but you are going back to take a Master's in software engineering?
Are you sure you are in the right field?
This is an interesting post because a year or so ago most people would have been saying the same thing about your FX 5900.
The point is - most people do not have upper teir graphics cards. Just like most people do not run the absolute top of the line AMD & Intel processors. They are too expensive and all about marketing.
Myself with a laptop currently only have a Radeon 7500 onboard. My previous desktop had a Radeon 8500. YOU do not need an SLI or next-gen top teir card because you already have a last gen top teir card.
Those of us, and there are many, who don't do need an upgrade.
Why the SLI thing?
I buy one 6600GT for my motherboard. I'm happy, I like it. 2 years later my games start to suffer, I buy another one. Go look at the benchmarks comparing hte Single to Double... its a 50-100% boost in performance depending on the application. That is really significant and considering where the prices of those cards will be in a year or two - has a lot of bang for the buck.
Your comment about buying a "Monitor" is ridiculous. If you have a 17" and a crappy graphics card and then go buy a 19" and still have that crappy graphics card - you won't be able to take advantage of the higher resolutions availble on that monitor. Yes some monitors just have better picture quality, Mitsubishi Diamondtron comes to mind, but again your argument doesn't make sense.
I mean it just makes sense.... those protective cases would prevent.... contamination...
How important are these criticisms really?
/. is, and not everyone who reads /. is at the same level either. To say 'no more mass media stories' would be incredibly flawed. Yes maybe the mass articles skimp on the detailed technical info but /.'s readership often provides that anyways.
Yes it searches an index but it does have to create the index which involves 'crawling' the web. And of course an algorithm is not computer code... BUT that does not mean the article does not have something interesting to offer.
But your criticisms clearly show that you have missed the point, and the value of the article.
Not everyone is as technical as the readership of
That's kind of a flawed logic because your linking performance directly to MHZ.
I myself went from a 386 SX 20 -> 486 dx2 50 -> Pentium 233 MMX -> Pentium II 300 -> Athlon 850 -> Athlon XP 1800+ -> Centrino (Pentium M) 1.4ghz.
The 486 -> 233 had the level of performance boost you are describing. The Pentium II 300 -> Athlon XP 1800+ Also did.
It wasn't just the mhz. The improvements in architecture (RAM/FSB/Hard Drives themselves, Video Cards, etc)
Myeslf I'm incredibly happy with my little Thinkpad, its quiet, runs forever on batteries, and performs abit better than the Athlon XP 1800+.
You are right in stating that for 'web browsing' and the like a 3ghz+ CPU is not required. But to have a quiet computing environment that runs cool, I'm willing to pay more for that. Making the Pentium M the only Intel chip I'll consider, can't wait for the proper desktop boards with PCI-E to come out.
Either way you must look at all the system variables not simply the MHZ. I'm sure that going to a Dual CPU Athlon64 or even next generation pentium @ 2.5->3.0ghz will provide that significant boost in performance you're looking for. The question really is, whether the apps you are going to use will show it - or whether the apps you use need it.
http://www.sasktel.com/ Is the proper link.
As well Sasktel offers movies on demand via this service. I can pause, stop, rewind, and watch the show over and over again in a 24 hour period with every rental. Its actually pretty incredible I hope that other providers pickup similar functionality soon.
Sasktel Max Interactive Services I have had 'Sasktel Max' for well over a year. My roomate, whose Dad worked for Sasktel, has had it for about 3 years.
It runs over DSL and you get internet and digital TV on one modem. If you elect to move up to the 5mbps down 768kpbs up Internet service (as I did) you have 2 DSL modems, 1 dedicated for Digital TV and one for Internet. Its interesting that it only requires about 3500kbps to deliver the digital cable.
The price? For 1.5mps down and 384 up with basic cable over DSL= 34.99 above basic monthly telephone fees. God Bless Canada's cheap Internet.
The sad/funny thing is that this service is available to every town larger than 10,000 people in this province of 1,000,000 people. This province is very rural and they are rolling it out to all the smaller communities as well. I find it interesting that Sasktel finds this profitable when so many Americans, in much denser population centres, have such a problem getting similar access.
Sega and other football game makers have a unique opportunity at this time to make really amazing College Football Games. There have been a few on the market but they don't generally have the features or support that the NFL games do.
There is a large playerbase that is actively followed. Gamers will still go where the best game implementation is.
Can you imagine how rich the online play would be with leagues composed of every college team would be? It would be fantastic!
Even if they don't go with colleges they could setup entire virtual leagues. Track stats of a 'fake' league online have a team for every state so that you can have large online leagues. Have web based fantasy games setup for when your at work. It could work and be compelling.
They could even stream nightly gaming updates to your xbox (ala machinma) using the ingame engine.
Maybe people will continue to buy EA's games but if Sega does it right, most football gamers will end up buying both, and perhaps spend more time theirs.
"The reviewer discovers that the unit he had is defective as someone else employs one and there is no hiss issue. Furthermore, the software woes he experienced are related to him employing JAPANESE software on an English operating system. Sonicstage 2.3, which he needs to use the unit, is now available in English."
The original reviewer is employing much higher quality headphones (Shure) than the person who states that he encounters no hiss at all. As well the person in the headfi thread who responds that he has no issues has a different model.
This can mean several things:
1) That the model is particularly sensitive to power line noise.
2) That the better headphones are more sensitive to noise within unit than the lower quality headphones employed within by the other individual.
3) That the model is actually defective.
It does not mean the model 'isn't defective. But the reasons presented within the thread to not 'prove' the model is defective.
Competition is a good thing, obviously resulting in MS deciding it must improve its search capabilities due to pressure from Yahoo and Google. But this is NOT a new feature within Windows or in general. Sherlock anyone?
There already is a search function integrated within Windows. Perhaps it is not as full featured as the MSN Toolbar Suite, but it is reasonably effective as long as you properly specify what you are looking for.
Perhaps this innovation just demonstrates how limited the existing search function is, or how important a 'buzz technology' this has become.
I think that part of the problem surrounding e-mail communication is its instant nature.
In the past if you received a communication from a superior it would be either verbal or written. Written correspondence would take time and likely involve a proofreading by an administrative assistant.
Your response would also take time and go through a similar process.
E-mail allows instantaneous communication. I'm not sure how everyone else on Slashdot feels, but when I receive an e-mail I feel as if it requires my immediate attention. This is a radically different mental process than if I receive physically written correspondence. The extra time and reduction of immediacy ensures that my written correspondence is of a much higher quality than my e-mails.
The immediate nature of e-mail means that our superiors may be expecting an immediate response to their communication. You may simply not feel that you have the time to compose a well written response, and that a timely response is more important than a coherent one.
The audience certainly matters as well. If you are writing a report that will be physically distributed to many people you are more likely to take the necessary time to write a coherent response. Your response, especially if it is going to customers, reflects upon: you, your company, your division within that company, etc.
I do not see the same consideration when mass e-mails are sent out, be they within a specific organization or between various organizations.
These people, probably, know how to write. They just do not feel that they have the time to write properly. If they do not know how to write then the 'remedial' training suggested in the article may be appropriate. If the real issue is time and the culture surrounding e-mail communication, that sort of training is not only inappropriate but demeaning to those individuals.
Brazil's possible nuclear capability. It is likely that this capability means that Brazil is capable of delivering a nuclear payload a much longer distance than either Iran or North Korea.
I am not claiming that Brazil should be lumped in with either of these two nations, however it is an interesting opportunity to test a dual purpose launch vehicle and perhaps reflect the first of the 'developing' countries probable intercontinental capabilities.
Given recent trade tensions between Brazil and the USA I have no doubt that this is turning a few heads in the commerce / state department.
Well that depends on where you live doesn't it?
I live in Saskatchewan Canada, when it is -40C outside for a significant portion of the winter, unfortunately I'm not kidding, plus add a hefty windchill on that your house will cool down so fast it isn't even funny if its not well insulated and well sealed.
If the house cools off 'sufficiently' in an 8 hour period it isn't going to warm up right away after that. I also think that the original poster estimated a bit on the low side with the 8 hour estimate. In a sustained blizzard over a large area with signficant damage it could take much more than 8 hours to get back up to speed.
This is added by the gas company after its redistributed to the customers, the parent's source of natural gas is right off the well - therefore the mercaptan hasn't been added yet.
no-text
"The page is on a .jp uni server so they SHOULD be able to handle the herd of rhinos that is ./."
Baby vs Rhino.
That baby... er server doesn't have a prayer.
1) Submit story to /. /. community critque existing Music stores /. about new music store
2) Have
3) Implement Recommendations
4) Submit story to
5) Profit!
"No unreasonable offer refused."
So $5 CDN and you pay shipping?
If I recall correctly, ISPs would not be held liable for content traded over P2P networks, recent legal case. But how does this change when the ISP develops a P2P client?
Ultimately if someone really really wants to steal your notebook. They will. There is nothing you can really do.
:). Insurance is frequently overlooked, and while getting your laptop stolen would be shitty - being unable to afford to replace it would be far far worse.
The one thing I've recommended to friends of mine, and I will be purchasing one myself - is a backpack with a notebook slot. They are a bit less obvious on campus than traditional laptop bags which will reduce your likelihood of someone just walking past and grabbing the bag when your not looking (as they would be expecting textbooks not a laptop in a backpack).
But ultimately you need insurance. I don't know what insurance policies are like around the world, but I'm a unviersity student with 'tenant' insurance, not in dorms though, its only a $500CDN deductible if my laptop gets stolen, be it on campus or from my home. As well it is replacement insurance - not cash value insurance - so that I don't get a lower payout as my laptop depreciates in value - they would be paying for me to replace it with a laptop of equivalent value in the future.
That's what I've done to protect my shiny new IBM Thinkpad T41 that I love so much
Halfiax Explosion Municipal Information Site. CBC Halifax Explosion Info Site.
....
From the first article:
"Around eight that morning, the Belgian relief ship Imo left its mooring in Bedford Basin and headed for open sea. At about the same time, the French ship Mont Blanc was heading up the harbour to moor, awaiting a convoy to accompany her across the Atlantic. A convoy was essential; this small, barely seaworthy vessel was carrying a full cargo of explosives. Stored in the holds, or simply stacked on deck, were 35 tons of benzol, 300 rounds of ammunition, 10 tons of gun cotton, 2,300 tons of picric acid (used in explosives), and 400,000 pounds of TNT."
"The Mont Blanc drifted by a Halifax pier, brushing it and setting it ablaze. Members of the Halifax Fire Department responded quickly, and were positioning their engine up to the nearest hydrant when the Mont Blanc disintegrated in a blinding white flash, creating the biggest man-made explosion before the nuclear age. It was 9:05am.
Over 1,900 people were killed immediately; within a year the figure had climbed well over 2,000. Around 9,000 more were injured, many permanently; 325 acres, almost all of north-end Halifax, were destroyed.
Much of what was not immediately levelled burned to the ground, aided by winter stockpiles of coal in cellars. As for the Mont Blanc, all 3,000 tons of her were shattered into little pieces that were blasted far and wide. The barrel of one of her cannons landed three and a half miles away; part of her anchor shank, weighing over half a ton, flew two miles in the opposite direction. Windows shattered 50 miles away, and the shock wave was even felt in Sydney, Cape Breton, 270 miles to the north-east."
I'm Probably not the only Canadian who says WHO CARES? Why you say? Well here in Regina Saskatchewan - a city of only 200,000 people. I have 2 options.
1 - Local Cable Company - 5 mbps down / 1 up 29.95CDN [19.1 USD] a month for first 6 months - and then $45CDN [$35USD] a month after that.
2 - Local Telco - 5 mpgs down / 640 up for $49.95CDN [$38.17] a month.
[Conversions done with yahoo Currency Converter]
What I want to know - is how can such a small market like this one have such unbelievable pricing - when such a large market cannot. A larger surprise? The 15,000 (approx) person city in this province has access to the same deal through the Telco..??
People have responded saying that a smaller city it would be easier to implement the technology necessary to rollout DSL. That's probably true - but the amount of customers and capital available within the United States would make such a rollout very viable within a larger community as well so I don't necessarily buy this argument.
Our Telco is also running TV over DSL, and has been since the middle of last year (as a province wide city rollout) and in testing for employees an d a select few for a few years before that!
The same is for long distance & local service. Here local service is bundled into your monthly connection fee so there is no charge for local calls. As well I've been paying $20.00 CDN [$15.28 USD] for unlimited long distance evenings 6pm-8am & weekends nationwide for the last 6 years or so? Why are these plans only now emerging in the United States?
This is very interesting to me, because Canada is a larger country than the United States, with the population of California (a bit less actually) so the rules of the market, and the actual capital that is available within Canada for such initiatives is much smaller than that available to the United States. And yet for long distance, what I deem an essential service we pay and have paid significantly less for years, and for Internet (which is increasingly becoming essential) the same thing has occured.
I guess it all amounts to the American market getting screwed, which is a sad thing because if there were a significantly larger amount of US broadband users, I suspect that broadband content would ramp up to a much higher / faster degree than it is currently.
Just some thoughts.
Did anyone else think of Quiz Show when they saw this guy on the air for the first time? Quiz Show is a bout a game show that was rigged to ensure winners which boosted ratings were on the air for a long period of time... food for thought.
Why ISN'T there copy protection in the USA and UK if there is in the Canadian versions??
If they are concerned about piracy why are they NOT copy protecting in their largest markets? Canada is a radically smaller market than the United States and still significantly smaller than the UK.
Its not like Canadians have a significant advantage in terms of CD-Burner ownership over American or British Users. Are Canadians "more likely" to pirate than our American bretheren? If they are concerned about copy-right legislation here its still illegal for me to 'upload' just not to download.
It doesn't make any sense. As a Canadian I feel royally screwed.