Actually, it's even more skewed: of the remaining 11: 6 are for Voinovich for Senate committee, a Republican campaign in Ohio.
1 is to the National Republican Congressional committe.
1 is to the CARE PAC, which seems to support republicans with their money.
There is one to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, and two to the Equipment Leasing Association Committee, which gives contributions to both Dems and Reps. Still, it's blindingly obvious which way Diebold leans.
So I went and searched for 'prostitute', 'hooker', and 'call girl' in my local area - nothing! Just some churches, the district attourney, random businesses, but no jackpot! They expect this thing to be *useful* without giving decent sex results?! Everyone knows search engines are for finding sex!
Although, I'd like to know why 'hooker' came up with the Jewish Student's Union, and why 'call girls' results have the Boys and Girls Club, and Boy Scouts...
Which is probobly why it can print without a PC... This actually sound like an interesting design from a technical point of view, not just an face lift of an ordinary printer.
Okay, it was inevitable that people would make jokes about "pink printers" without following the links, but the translation site seems Slashdotted. I can read Japanese, so here's some of the actual features. There are 12 features listed, but I don't have time to do a full translation - Someone else can do that if they wish. Some of the most interesting features:
1. Even when not connected to a PC, many digital devices can do easy 3WAY Direct Print.
(1) 5 types of memory card slot. Simply put the memoory card in the slot, and use the buttons for easy control of speedy printing.
Memory card types: SD, miniSD*, MMC, CF, Micro Drive, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, Memory Stick Pro Duo*, Memory Stick Duo*, Magic Gate Memory Stick, Smart Media, xD-Picture card
* - requires adapters.
(2)USB Direct-Print. Using PictBridge, directly connect digital cameras with USB cable and print. You can view the pictures on the camera's LCD display while choosing pictures to print. Because it uses PictBridge, the choice of digital cameras is greater.
(3)Optional Infra-Red card, Bluetooth(R) units allow direct wireless printout from digital cameras, camera phones, and PDAs. Choose size and settings on the printer, and transmit data to it. With Bluetooth(R), you can transmit from 10m away. Take a picture away from the printer, start printing, and it will already have started when you get to it.
...
4. Connect to TV with video cable, allowing you to preview photos to print or change settings onscreen. Can show memory card contents without a PC, and do a slideshow of photos.
...
7. USB interface for external perhipherals to connect, for example, MO or CD-R drives. You can print the contents of MO and CD-R drives, as well as move photos from memory card to MO, CD-R drives. Safe backup of your media.
This actually sound like a cool printer, I don't think it's particularly feminine, but shows great industrial design. It's too bad Slashdotters are dissing it, it reminds me of the initial reception of the iPod...
No kidding! Just because it "ships" with linux does not nessecarily mean that all hardware on board will be supported as well as windows, or even at all.
True story that happened to me in the late 90's - I was at Frys, looking for a new network card or two. At the time, I was running either Mandrake or RedHat, as I recall. Anyways, I hadn't brought along a printout of supported cards under linux, because I assumed that they would say on the box whether it was supported by linux. Unfortunately, none of them did, maybe because the drivers were written by 3rd parties. But lo and behold, there was a network card that came with a free CD of TurboLinux! I believe it was an SMC, might've been a D-Link. I assumed that if it came with a copy of linux(even a minor distro like TurboLinux), that it must have hardware support, so I bought two of the things and went home. Only then did I discover that there was no driver for it, and the company had apparently just thrown in TurboLinux as a "freebie" to entice people, with no promise of support. I thought that was somewhat misleading, to say the least - if you're gonna ship an OS with some hardware, it is implied that the hardware is supported by the OS...
Anyways, I doubt HP is pulling a scam like that, but just wanted to warn you just in case. I also don't want to disparage TurboLinux, it's not their fault they got used in such a way. I was just reminded of the story 'cause that's my only previous run-in with TurboLinux.
1) one or two strands of CAT 5 and 1 COAX cable to each room - At least. Make it 3 or 4 for Cat-5.
2) Run CONDUIT everywhere. - Agree.
3) Make sure and put conduit in ceiling locations as well. - Agree. In our case, they put the wiring boards in the attic.
7) Run string in the conduits and tie it off on both ends. - Agree, but use cable or something else that won't rot/break.
8) Run all your conduit to a central location - Definitely agree. Having a centralized location for a patch panel means we can have a lot of flexibility in our network.
My family recently bought a new house, and had a home audio and network installed. Here are my experiencs.
Overall setup:
- 1 Cat-5e outlet in each bedroom, 1 in the living room, all lead to a wiring board in the attic.
- 2 Co-ax outlets in each bedroom, 2 in the living room, all lead to a wiring board in the attic
- Speaker cables for the home audio going to the bedrooms, kitchen, ad living rooms, with controller panel in each room. Speakers have not been installed yet.
- All of this is in the walls bare, not in conduit, because of cost reasons. It was installed by a home audio shop that installs home audio primarily and does network stuff too. Total cost came to be around $5000.
What might we do differently?
- First, the conduit might be a really good idea if you can afford it. It would definitely help to have flexibility and future growth options that don't require ripping out walls.
- Second, *definitely* have more than 2 Cat-5 outlets in each room; I'd recommend 2 outlet plates on oppisite sides of the room, each with 2 jacks. This will give you enough flexibility in placement of computers, and room for 4 in a room if you don't care about wires on the floor.
- Those are about the only things that we might do differently; as a generally we were satisfied with what we got.
As a general thing try to model what the actual use and placement of the network will be beforehand. What is the maximum number of computers you plan to have? To have in one room? Build for that requirement, not the minimum you think you can get away with.
Your contractor might make a difference, too. We used Underground Sound, a area hi-fi audio & home theatre shop. I got the feeling that they were used to getting rich people to buy high-tech toys that they didn't really understand, which I guess is standard in the home theatre buisness;) I think home theatre/audio shops are used to doing home installations, but you might look to see if any computer dealer or repair shops in your area will do the installation. If you do, make sure that you ask them if they have done this kind of thing before, and ask for references if nessecary; you do not want a bunch of guys who don't know building codes and whatnot to mess up your house.
I hope these suggestions help you. Remember - build for the future, not current needs!
Actually, there is a separate flaw with Single Sign-On systems at the conceptual level, which apparently happened here: if the single sign-on solution itself fails, it takes down all the services dependent on it - mail servers, e-cash systems, Slashdot accounts, whatever you have relying on it. Before SSO, if one of those systems had a problem with their login system, it would not break the other, independent systems. However, the whole *point* of SSO is to take formerly independent systems and put them under one yoke, for arguably good reasons(better managebility), but in the end it makes the system more vulnerable.
Look at what you said in your post - MS runs 'independent' passport servers in U.S., Russia, Japan, etc, but because they're all tied together through Passport, one config error brought them all down.
Single sign-on solutions don't make flaws or exploits more likely, but they *do* increase the potential damage from them. It seems that the Hotmail mail servers themselves are runnning just fine, but the broken Passport system won't let users login - do you really think adding an external dependency to mail servers was a good idea?
I usually don't get involved in these kinds of discussions, but I felt I had to add my story.
My grandpa dodged the draft. He got a draft notice just like your grandpa, the difference being that he was 15 and being asked(well, told) to join the Imperial Japanese Army. I don't exactly blame him for dodging that one. Should he have gone to jail?
Now, I agree that the U.S. is more worthy of recieving service than imperial Japan, but I disagree with your argument that one owes one's life to the government. Your argument could just as easily apply to a guy living in Japan, Germany or Iraq as an American. Should an Iraqi who was told to serve Saddam have an obligation to do that or otherwise serve "his country", ie, his government?
I feel that serving the current U.S. government is good, even if I dislike the current president. But the reasons why I think it is good have to do with things like the consent of the governed and freedom to oppose the gov't, things which my grandpa did not have. I think that instituting the draft would undermine the message that the U.S. is trying to send to the world. Right now, they could point at any U.S. soldier and say, he is there because he supports the country, believes in it enought to risk his life. After a draft, all you can say is that he's there because it's better than jail time.
Please think about what they're being told to do - to risk, and possibly give, their lives. Right now all they're doing is asking that you do, but in a draft that request turns into a demand. What right do they have to do that? My grandfather had at least one older brother die in the army - what gave them(the gov't) the right to take that? Because he was born there? Because he benefitted somehow from the gov't?
I feel that serving America is good, but that there is no obligation of service to any government.
That is sort of inevitable, I think, given the post-9-11 power grab and fearmongering we've seen. They'll at least try to ban strong encryption, if not an outright decree to use government-escrowed keys.
It makes me almost glad that we went through the nonsense with encryption during previous administrations - first the Phil Zimmerman prosecution, export controls, and even the Clipper chip attempt. It mobilized & organized a whole lot of pro-encryption people who otherwise would not have cared. The arguments for encryption controls were mostly theoretical and less fear-inducing before the current climate of fear, too. It actually made us stronger, I think. If we had never gone through that and the administration now banned strong encryption, we would be scrambling to come up with good arguments for allowing encryption, and the public hysteria over "secret terrorist messages" would probobly drown us out given the current media climate.
Man, who would've thought during the Clinton administration that we'd be nostalgic for those days? Ah, Janet Reno, Louis Freeh, Phil Zimmerman, Clipper... great times, eh?
This database is huge - 2.5 TB is a LOT of memory. How big is it, you ask?
Well, to put in terms the average Slashdotter can understand: If the database were measured with VW Beetles, it would weigh in at a whopping 128 VW Beetles, assuming each Beetle came with a 20 GB iPod.
I disagree to a certain extent. I was an introverted geek starting around middle school, and I recall that the reason I did not seek out more social contact was not because I didn't care what others thought of me, but just the opposite; I cared deeply what others thought, and I feared that they would look down on or reject me. Middle school is typically when social pressures start getting tough and when hormones start flowing, so maybe it was natural that it would start then. It took me until maybe the last year of high school for me to become a bit outgoing again, and I certainly enjoyed it more than being terrified of others.
The key thing here is that others did not push me away, I pushed myself away from social interactions because I lacked self-confidence and fears I had of other kids. Of corse, there were assholes who treated me badly, like at any school, but I also shyed away from the bright kids and geeks to a large extent because I was afraid that they would see that I really wasn't that smart, or that interesting, and laugh at me. To a geek, I think that rejection from people who you see as smarter than yourself hurts more than being picked on by some bully; that's what I was afraid of most. Lack of self-confidence was what kept me back during those years, and once I gained a bit of it, I found that I really liked socializing, especially with other geeks.
I feel that the Slashdot crowd can over-glorify the loner aspect of geekdom a bit too much. We tend to forget that as smart as we may be, there are always smarter or more knowledgeable people who we can learn a lot from and have fun with. Looking back, I realize that I wasted so much of my time in middle and high school moping and angsting alone, when I could have been hanging out with intelligent, interesting people.
To any young geeks out there, I would give this bit of advice - have some confidence in yourself! Seek out others to talk to, not to join the 'in crowd', but to enrich your life through conversation and shared experiences. Try joining 'geek clubs' like the debate team, drama, chess or computer club, etc. Even athletics might be fun when you aren't forced to do it for PE. Life is too short to be spent constantly trying to please others, but it's also too short to be spent alone.
Its a bunch of kids who's parents are not really involved in their lives, and have nothing better to do than look for a digital mate by typing "A/S/L?!?!??! and talking about their privates.
That pretty much describes most celebritiees these days, except they get laid in real life.
Come to think of it, it would be funny to do a "Real World: H4x0r5" show... "5ee wh4t h@pp3n5 wh3n p33pl3 5t0p b3ing p0li7e..." It could feature a dozen guys in a rented house with a OC3 connection bitching at each other while "hacking". Of course, all the romance would have to be either cyber or gay...
...and the sad part is, if they had priced it wrong, everyone here would be complaining about how overpriced Apple products are. If they had misjudged the market and sold only to a small niche, people here would be complainig about how elitist Apple are...
Instead, we get to hear about how clueless Apple customers are for knowing what they like, and liking based on 'feel' instead of numbers... *sigh*
Autozone has been relatively high-profile in their support of linux. Not only do they use(and pay RedHat for) linux, they host the meetings of the Memphis, Tennessee user's group(GOLUM) at their corporate headquarters in downtown Memphis! I believe Jim Greer, the guy that's being quoted a lot in this thread, is the former secretary of Golum.
So I HIGHLY suspect that this lawsuit has more to do with "punishing" a customer for their vocal support of linux instead of any real damages done to SCO.
If you live in the Memphis, TN area, please think about going to Golum to show your support! Their next meeting is tommorow, March 4th on 7:30pm at AutoZone HQ. Directions and map here. Parking is free, you just pull into their driveway in front of their HQ and park in the garage.
That's "Group Of Linux Users, Memphis", for anyone wondering what Golum is. It's a Linux user's group, basically.
Not only does Autozone host their meetings at their corporate HQ in downtown Memphis, Jim Greer, the guy being quoted in a lot of the postings above, is (or was) the secretary of Golum. I believe he still attends, so if you have time tommorow, go to their next meeting to show your support for AutoZone!
No, that rover/human comparison doesn't make sense, and it annoys me when someone says, "A human can do more on Mars than this rover, ergo we should send a human to Mars."
The current rover is the size of a golf cart, and the spaceship itself smaller than a minivan. We simply could not get a man on Mars for the weight/price of one of these unmanned missions.
To do a rational comparison, you are going to have to compare a manned mission against an unmanned mission of the same size and/or cost. If we assume an Apollo-sized lander with two guys, let me point out that we could probobly fit a fully automated geology and chemistry lab in the space that would otherwise be taken up by crew and their supplies. We could even have more room in a sample return capsule if we didn't also have to bring back two humans with them. If you're going to propose a 1.5-year mission, the weight of all the food and water(or a large hydrophnoics system) we would need to bring along could go to a nuclear reactor or additional rovers & labs that would make the mission even more efficent.
The limitations of the Mars rovers are chiefly that there is a delay in communications, and that there is a bandwidth limit on communications. A manned mission would suffer from both problems.
Come to think of it, the most efficent way to run a mission in terms of science/cost would be a large-scale rover mission with a large sample return system. After all, on the Apollo missions the majority of the science was done after the rocks were brought back to Earth, to be studied by many trained geologists instead of one or two on the moon.
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Okay, I have my duck, and my blankie... now what?
Actually, it's even more skewed: of the remaining 11:
6 are for Voinovich for Senate committee, a Republican campaign in Ohio.
1 is to the National Republican Congressional committe.
1 is to the CARE PAC, which seems to support republicans with their money.
There is one to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, and two to the Equipment Leasing Association Committee, which gives contributions to both Dems and Reps. Still, it's blindingly obvious which way Diebold leans.
So I went and searched for 'prostitute', 'hooker', and 'call girl' in my local area - nothing! Just some churches, the district attourney, random businesses, but no jackpot! They expect this thing to be *useful* without giving decent sex results?! Everyone knows search engines are for finding sex!
Although, I'd like to know why 'hooker' came up with the Jewish Student's Union, and why 'call girls' results have the Boys and Girls Club, and Boy Scouts...
Which is probobly why it can print without a PC... This actually sound like an interesting design from a technical point of view, not just an face lift of an ordinary printer.
Okay, it was inevitable that people would make jokes about "pink printers" without following the links, but the translation site seems Slashdotted. I can read Japanese, so here's some of the actual features. There are 12 features listed, but I don't have time to do a full translation - Someone else can do that if they wish. Some of the most interesting features:
From this page:
1. Even when not connected to a PC, many digital devices can do easy 3WAY Direct Print.
(1) 5 types of memory card slot. Simply put the memoory card in the slot, and use the buttons for easy control of speedy printing. Memory card types: SD, miniSD*, MMC, CF, Micro Drive, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, Memory Stick Pro Duo*, Memory Stick Duo*, Magic Gate Memory Stick, Smart Media, xD-Picture card
* - requires adapters.
(2)USB Direct-Print. Using PictBridge, directly connect digital cameras with USB cable and print. You can view the pictures on the camera's LCD display while choosing pictures to print. Because it uses PictBridge, the choice of digital cameras is greater.
(3)Optional Infra-Red card, Bluetooth(R) units allow direct wireless printout from digital cameras, camera phones, and PDAs. Choose size and settings on the printer, and transmit data to it. With Bluetooth(R), you can transmit from 10m away. Take a picture away from the printer, start printing, and it will already have started when you get to it.
...
4. Connect to TV with video cable, allowing you to preview photos to print or change settings onscreen. Can show memory card contents without a PC, and do a slideshow of photos.
...
7. USB interface for external perhipherals to connect, for example, MO or CD-R drives. You can print the contents of MO and CD-R drives, as well as move photos from memory card to MO, CD-R drives. Safe backup of your media.
This actually sound like a cool printer, I don't think it's particularly feminine, but shows great industrial design. It's too bad Slashdotters are dissing it, it reminds me of the initial reception of the iPod...
I hate sexist jokes as much as any guy can, but DEAR GOD, I hope that's supposed to be THE GUY talking, not the girl...
I know a guy who's really desperate and I told him I would let him have you...
*shudder*
No kidding! Just because it "ships" with linux does not nessecarily mean that all hardware on board will be supported as well as windows, or even at all.
True story that happened to me in the late 90's - I was at Frys, looking for a new network card or two. At the time, I was running either Mandrake or RedHat, as I recall. Anyways, I hadn't brought along a printout of supported cards under linux, because I assumed that they would say on the box whether it was supported by linux. Unfortunately, none of them did, maybe because the drivers were written by 3rd parties. But lo and behold, there was a network card that came with a free CD of TurboLinux! I believe it was an SMC, might've been a D-Link. I assumed that if it came with a copy of linux(even a minor distro like TurboLinux), that it must have hardware support, so I bought two of the things and went home. Only then did I discover that there was no driver for it, and the company had apparently just thrown in TurboLinux as a "freebie" to entice people, with no promise of support. I thought that was somewhat misleading, to say the least - if you're gonna ship an OS with some hardware, it is implied that the hardware is supported by the OS...
Anyways, I doubt HP is pulling a scam like that, but just wanted to warn you just in case. I also don't want to disparage TurboLinux, it's not their fault they got used in such a way. I was just reminded of the story 'cause that's my only previous run-in with TurboLinux.
1) one or two strands of CAT 5 and 1 COAX cable to each room - At least. Make it 3 or 4 for Cat-5.
;) I think home theatre/audio shops are used to doing home installations, but you might look to see if any computer dealer or repair shops in your area will do the installation. If you do, make sure that you ask them if they have done this kind of thing before, and ask for references if nessecary; you do not want a bunch of guys who don't know building codes and whatnot to mess up your house.
2) Run CONDUIT everywhere. - Agree.
3) Make sure and put conduit in ceiling locations as well. - Agree. In our case, they put the wiring boards in the attic.
7) Run string in the conduits and tie it off on both ends. - Agree, but use cable or something else that won't rot/break.
8) Run all your conduit to a central location - Definitely agree. Having a centralized location for a patch panel means we can have a lot of flexibility in our network.
My family recently bought a new house, and had a home audio and network installed. Here are my experiencs.
Overall setup:
- 1 Cat-5e outlet in each bedroom, 1 in the living room, all lead to a wiring board in the attic.
- 2 Co-ax outlets in each bedroom, 2 in the living room, all lead to a wiring board in the attic
- Speaker cables for the home audio going to the bedrooms, kitchen, ad living rooms, with controller panel in each room. Speakers have not been installed yet.
- All of this is in the walls bare, not in conduit, because of cost reasons. It was installed by a home audio shop that installs home audio primarily and does network stuff too. Total cost came to be around $5000.
What might we do differently?
- First, the conduit might be a really good idea if you can afford it. It would definitely help to have flexibility and future growth options that don't require ripping out walls.
- Second, *definitely* have more than 2 Cat-5 outlets in each room; I'd recommend 2 outlet plates on oppisite sides of the room, each with 2 jacks. This will give you enough flexibility in placement of computers, and room for 4 in a room if you don't care about wires on the floor.
- Those are about the only things that we might do differently; as a generally we were satisfied with what we got.
As a general thing try to model what the actual use and placement of the network will be beforehand. What is the maximum number of computers you plan to have? To have in one room? Build for that requirement, not the minimum you think you can get away with.
Your contractor might make a difference, too. We used Underground Sound, a area hi-fi audio & home theatre shop. I got the feeling that they were used to getting rich people to buy high-tech toys that they didn't really understand, which I guess is standard in the home theatre buisness
I hope these suggestions help you. Remember - build for the future, not current needs!
"Hey, there's a Simpsons quote in it! I've never seen that on Slashdot before, it must be newsworthy!" - michael
Actually, there is a separate flaw with Single Sign-On systems at the conceptual level, which apparently happened here: if the single sign-on solution itself fails, it takes down all the services dependent on it - mail servers, e-cash systems, Slashdot accounts, whatever you have relying on it. Before SSO, if one of those systems had a problem with their login system, it would not break the other, independent systems. However, the whole *point* of SSO is to take formerly independent systems and put them under one yoke, for arguably good reasons(better managebility), but in the end it makes the system more vulnerable.
Look at what you said in your post - MS runs 'independent' passport servers in U.S., Russia, Japan, etc, but because they're all tied together through Passport, one config error brought them all down.
Single sign-on solutions don't make flaws or exploits more likely, but they *do* increase the potential damage from them. It seems that the Hotmail mail servers themselves are runnning just fine, but the broken Passport system won't let users login - do you really think adding an external dependency to mail servers was a good idea?
Yeah, watch out, you little punks - I've got a beowulf cluster of tanks, *and* I have a lower Slashdot ID than 3/4 of you! Yeeee- haw....
Sincerely,
George H.W. Bush
President of the United States
I usually don't get involved in these kinds of discussions, but I felt I had to add my story.
My grandpa dodged the draft. He got a draft notice just like your grandpa, the difference being that he was 15 and being asked(well, told) to join the Imperial Japanese Army. I don't exactly blame him for dodging that one. Should he have gone to jail?
Now, I agree that the U.S. is more worthy of recieving service than imperial Japan, but I disagree with your argument that one owes one's life to the government. Your argument could just as easily apply to a guy living in Japan, Germany or Iraq as an American. Should an Iraqi who was told to serve Saddam have an obligation to do that or otherwise serve "his country", ie, his government?
I feel that serving the current U.S. government is good, even if I dislike the current president. But the reasons why I think it is good have to do with things like the consent of the governed and freedom to oppose the gov't, things which my grandpa did not have. I think that instituting the draft would undermine the message that the U.S. is trying to send to the world. Right now, they could point at any U.S. soldier and say, he is there because he supports the country, believes in it enought to risk his life. After a draft, all you can say is that he's there because it's better than jail time.
Please think about what they're being told to do - to risk, and possibly give, their lives. Right now all they're doing is asking that you do, but in a draft that request turns into a demand. What right do they have to do that? My grandfather had at least one older brother die in the army - what gave them(the gov't) the right to take that? Because he was born there? Because he benefitted somehow from the gov't?
I feel that serving America is good, but that there is no obligation of service to any government.
That is sort of inevitable, I think, given the post-9-11 power grab and fearmongering we've seen. They'll at least try to ban strong encryption, if not an outright decree to use government-escrowed keys.
It makes me almost glad that we went through the nonsense with encryption during previous administrations - first the Phil Zimmerman prosecution, export controls, and even the Clipper chip attempt. It mobilized & organized a whole lot of pro-encryption people who otherwise would not have cared. The arguments for encryption controls were mostly theoretical and less fear-inducing before the current climate of fear, too. It actually made us stronger, I think. If we had never gone through that and the administration now banned strong encryption, we would be scrambling to come up with good arguments for allowing encryption, and the public hysteria over "secret terrorist messages" would probobly drown us out given the current media climate.
Man, who would've thought during the Clinton administration that we'd be nostalgic for those days? Ah, Janet Reno, Louis Freeh, Phil Zimmerman, Clipper... great times, eh?
Yes, yes, it's 400GB... but how big is it in units that *I* can understand, pachyderms and volkswagons?
Bah, who cares about meter-precision maps and million-dollar vehicles - I'm betting on the one that has BUDDHA POWER!
This database is huge - 2.5 TB is a LOT of memory. How big is it, you ask?
Well, to put in terms the average Slashdotter can understand: If the database were measured with VW Beetles, it would weigh in at a whopping 128 VW Beetles, assuming each Beetle came with a 20 GB iPod.
I disagree to a certain extent. I was an introverted geek starting around middle school, and I recall that the reason I did not seek out more social contact was not because I didn't care what others thought of me, but just the opposite; I cared deeply what others thought, and I feared that they would look down on or reject me. Middle school is typically when social pressures start getting tough and when hormones start flowing, so maybe it was natural that it would start then. It took me until maybe the last year of high school for me to become a bit outgoing again, and I certainly enjoyed it more than being terrified of others.
The key thing here is that others did not push me away, I pushed myself away from social interactions because I lacked self-confidence and fears I had of other kids. Of corse, there were assholes who treated me badly, like at any school, but I also shyed away from the bright kids and geeks to a large extent because I was afraid that they would see that I really wasn't that smart, or that interesting, and laugh at me. To a geek, I think that rejection from people who you see as smarter than yourself hurts more than being picked on by some bully; that's what I was afraid of most. Lack of self-confidence was what kept me back during those years, and once I gained a bit of it, I found that I really liked socializing, especially with other geeks.
I feel that the Slashdot crowd can over-glorify the loner aspect of geekdom a bit too much. We tend to forget that as smart as we may be, there are always smarter or more knowledgeable people who we can learn a lot from and have fun with. Looking back, I realize that I wasted so much of my time in middle and high school moping and angsting alone, when I could have been hanging out with intelligent, interesting people.
To any young geeks out there, I would give this bit of advice - have some confidence in yourself! Seek out others to talk to, not to join the 'in crowd', but to enrich your life through conversation and shared experiences. Try joining 'geek clubs' like the debate team, drama, chess or computer club, etc. Even athletics might be fun when you aren't forced to do it for PE. Life is too short to be spent constantly trying to please others, but it's also too short to be spent alone.
Its a bunch of kids who's parents are not really involved in their lives, and have nothing better to do than look for a digital mate by typing "A/S/L?!?!??! and talking about their privates.
That pretty much describes most celebritiees these days, except they get laid in real life.
Come to think of it, it would be funny to do a "Real World: H4x0r5" show... "5ee wh4t h@pp3n5 wh3n p33pl3 5t0p b3ing p0li7e..." It could feature a dozen guys in a rented house with a OC3 connection bitching at each other while "hacking". Of course, all the romance would have to be either cyber or gay...
Nevermind.
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...and the sad part is, if they had priced it wrong, everyone here would be complaining about how overpriced Apple products are. If they had misjudged the market and sold only to a small niche, people here would be complainig about how elitist Apple are...
Instead, we get to hear about how clueless Apple customers are for knowing what they like, and liking based on 'feel' instead of numbers... *sigh*
KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!!
Well, at least you didn't find your way onto www.JimGettyse.cx
One wonders what the rest of the "XFree86 XXX" is, though...
Autozone has been relatively high-profile in their support of linux. Not only do they use(and pay RedHat for) linux, they host the meetings of the Memphis, Tennessee user's group(GOLUM) at their corporate headquarters in downtown Memphis! I believe Jim Greer, the guy that's being quoted a lot in this thread, is the former secretary of Golum.
So I HIGHLY suspect that this lawsuit has more to do with "punishing" a customer for their vocal support of linux instead of any real damages done to SCO.
If you live in the Memphis, TN area, please think about going to Golum to show your support! Their next meeting is tommorow, March 4th on 7:30pm at AutoZone HQ. Directions and map here. Parking is free, you just pull into their driveway in front of their HQ and park in the garage.
That's "Group Of Linux Users, Memphis", for anyone wondering what Golum is. It's a Linux user's group, basically.
Not only does Autozone host their meetings at their corporate HQ in downtown Memphis, Jim Greer, the guy being quoted in a lot of the postings above, is (or was) the secretary of Golum. I believe he still attends, so if you have time tommorow, go to their next meeting to show your support for AutoZone!
No, that rover/human comparison doesn't make sense, and it annoys me when someone says, "A human can do more on Mars than this rover, ergo we should send a human to Mars."
The current rover is the size of a golf cart, and the spaceship itself smaller than a minivan. We simply could not get a man on Mars for the weight/price of one of these unmanned missions.
To do a rational comparison, you are going to have to compare a manned mission against an unmanned mission of the same size and/or cost. If we assume an Apollo-sized lander with two guys, let me point out that we could probobly fit a fully automated geology and chemistry lab in the space that would otherwise be taken up by crew and their supplies. We could even have more room in a sample return capsule if we didn't also have to bring back two humans with them. If you're going to propose a 1.5-year mission, the weight of all the food and water(or a large hydrophnoics system) we would need to bring along could go to a nuclear reactor or additional rovers & labs that would make the mission even more efficent.
The limitations of the Mars rovers are chiefly that there is a delay in communications, and that there is a bandwidth limit on communications. A manned mission would suffer from both problems.
Come to think of it, the most efficent way to run a mission in terms of science/cost would be a large-scale rover mission with a large sample return system. After all, on the Apollo missions the majority of the science was done after the rocks were brought back to Earth, to be studied by many trained geologists instead of one or two on the moon.
Hey, you never know when you might need to use a dildo in Target! Those cashiers can be pretty cranky, and it pays to get on their good side...