How about respect for mechanical watches? They are true marvels of engineering and work very well. Just because it's electronic doesn't make it any better.
True. A vintage Tri-Compax with a bazillion dials and windows on the front definitely has some nerd cred.
How about respect for mechanical watches? They are true marvels of engineering and work very well. Just because it's electronic doesn't make it any better.
Actually, yes, it does make it better.
Well, at least, if more accurate, more durable, and radically cheaper add up to "better".
That said, mechanical watches can be very beautiful pieces of precision art. The downside is, you typically have to disassemble the watch to appreciate that hidden art.
Most "analog" watches actually use an electronic (aka quartz) movement, not a mechanical movement. Purely mechanical watches are extremely rare now.
There are some mechanical watches with see-through backs -- and some with see through fronts -- so you can mesmerize your friends with the whirly, clicky stuff going on inside without disassembly.
So outsourcing is dumb if your work is meant to be in any way unique to you. If you're expecting something bog standard for the industry then it offers you something.
There you go, as the MBAs say: "leveraging your core competencies".
They're not providing you with a lower speed just to be dicks. They are using phone lines, and are subject to the condition and distance of the lines between you and your telco's switching office.
The only time you're going to get right up at their max of their top tier service is if you live within a quarter mile or so of the switch. It's all downhill from there. And if you are in an old infrastructure part of town, your crummy old lines, decaying corroded splices, and watery lines are going to reduce the amount of speed they can provide you.
Most respectable ISPs won't allow you to sign up for a service tier that won't get you any more speed than the tier below it. If your part of town is qualified to 768 and you ask for 2mbit, they should tell you that you can't get that there, that 768 is all the faster that the modem is going to negotiate to. I haven't ran into a DSL ISP yet that doesn't offer different speed tiers. Make sure you're in the appropriate tier. This won't make your speed any faster, but could save you some money rather than paying for speed that you can't possibly get.
If you want to improve this you can (A) move or (B) hound the appropriate office at your local telco about upgrading their infrastructure in your part of town. There is no option (C), and just because someone else they serve gets faster service doesn't mean you're entitled to it too.
If you need an analogy, try complaining to ford that you can't get your new mustang to do over 70 on that gravel road to your house. Move, upgrade the road, or switch to a more appropriate product for your situation.
Summary says he's getting much higher speeds in the daytime than the evening. So car analogy says that they pave the road every morning at 5 am and tear it up again at 6pm. No?
You wouldn't mock people for calling their parents to let their kid talk to grandma and grandpa over the phone. Why the special hate for the extra level of closeness?
Actually, the more comments I read here, the more I think they might do just that.
Three-year-olds shouldn't be using Skype at all, and most certainly not unattended. If you're tired of holding the laptop for her, then don't use Skype. It is okay to say "no."
Help her get an actual social life. She'll benefit far more than by talking to the moving pictures on the laptop. In fact, I'd guess she may not even know the difference between the stimulus provided by the laptop and the television.
I'm sorry if this sounds rude, but you're really talking out of your ass, here.
Did you even read this submission? Also, I'd think anyone using Slashdot would know what Skype was, but it doesn't seem like you do. It's sort of a videophone thing. Like a phone, but with video. People use it to talk to each other, except they can also make faces and show off new toys and clothes.
And finally, do you actually have any first-hand experience raising children? Particularly with grandparents living out of town?
Put the laptop on a table, out of arms reach and hold the child on your lap. There. Problem solved. No need for restraining of hands, you just hold the child on your lap as you would any other time.
But from the summary, thats not what the parent wants - he wants to stop several very easily prevented actions, such as touching, ending the call accidentally, drooling on the devices etc. All of those things would not happen if they were there supervising the child during the conversation.
iF i hads athgsd toddler on 2 yasdr lap aright noas the s is aatht you'sda he reading.
No, seriously. And it's not like my kid is especially wiggly, either.
Crazy thing about it, is the people who understand electronics, programming, computers in general, mostly the people who come here, are the ones who are most worried about the move to e-voting. Why would you go with a technology when the "experts" don't trust it.
Here in good 'ol Lincoln, Nebraska, we use old fashioned No. 2 pencils and fill in the oval next to the name or ballot item. Until the Florida 2000 debacle, I had no idea there were even any other ways to cast ballots. I still fail to see why our method here shouldn't be the standard nationwide.
Your ES&S friends in Omaha also make ballot scanning machines, but those are used behind the scenes.
What exactly is it about voting machines that makes it so hard compared to ATMs and every other electronic security device on the planet??! I just don't fucking get it, I'm sorry.
Here's just a couple examples of the problems:
1. ATMs and bank infrastructure is inherently easier to audit, since the records do not need to be kept anonymous. A voting machine that records a secret ballot should not keep a record of who voted which way, just a tally of votes. This makes it harder to double-check the results. You balance your checkbook every month -- or at least you can if you want to.
2. We just have a lot more experience with ATMs, Everybody uses them all the time, probably several times a week. Voting machines get pulled out every 2 years (or whatever the election cycle is where they're used). The more something is used, the more chances you can find problems with it.
I'm not intending to excuse any failure in a voting machine. They should be very accurate if we intend to use them for this purpose. If they aren't or can't be, we should use something else.
It's clear that we hired the wrong people to build our electronic voting machines.
Instead of the guys who build ATMs, we should have hired the guys who build slot machines.
Just FYI, although Diebold makes ATMs, ES&S does not.
Yeah, but if you find yourself in that situation, you screwed up. . ..
You're supposed to be moving that data to the newer formats as they come along, not just dump it in a closet somewhere.
Actually, this makes the "keep a hard copy" argument better than I did. Because among the ways one can "screw up" is to become dead. In a twenty year timespan, this is a non-zero probability. Even less severe effects of time can prevent one from doing these periodic transfers. If you are thinking about preserving photos for future generations, then "just dump it in a closet" has to be a storage option. If you need more maintenance than just keeping the stash from burning down or being exposed to the elements, then you've created a dead-man delete switch.
I can't see the point of this. People no longer keep horses for transportation, we hardly write things down (I've seen graduate research indicating handwriting is ceasing to be relevant), even our books are moving to digital. The proper question would be, "What is the most reliable storage medium for my digital photographs, assuming I need to access them in twenty years?"
If I hand you a working RLL hard disk containing 20 year old GIFs, can you read them? How about a WORM disk? Now, suppose you're not a geek and the question becomes something more like "if I hand you this old electronic thing, what the heck is it?" No guarantee that the son grows up to be a geek, after all.
Now I'm not really asking you to find me an RLL controller and something to plug the RLL controller into. It's a contemporary example. I'm just saying that if I also hand you -- non-geeky you, that is -- a bunch of printed photos, you can "read" those right away with the naked eye, even if they've been degraded.
The not-geeky person might even stop with the hard copies. It might be easier to find someone to scan and digitally restore those than to find someone to connect to the antique technology.
Finding a digital storage medium that you believe will be accessible in 20 years is not a bad idea, but it's even better to hedge your bets.
>>>performing a cover of a pop song for free at a concert is not an issue here either.
Yeah actually it is.
Public performance of copyrighted works, even legal recordings, is forbidden in the U.S. and the RIAA expects other countries to have similar laws.
The scenario, as put forth by the GP, is an issue for ASCAP and/or its international equivalents, not RIAA here.
Ya all the conservative/libertarians are totally for a huge authoritarian state. Give me a break. Read a book.
Conservative/libertarians are totally for a huge authoritarian state: but one that only applies to "them," as in "those other guys". Do you doubt this? How about the Arizona "Papers, please" law? Do you think the transplanted rednecks in favor of this law for a moment felt that they would be detained on the street and asked for proof of citizenship? No, they understand how the law is to be applied. Twelfth generation Hispanic Arizona native? Fair game. White retiree? Not a chance.
There is a weird episode in the Bible where a guy called Onan was boning his brother's wife, and deliberately pulled out and soiled the carpet to avoid getting her pregnant. Got murders him for wasting his seed, despite being generally against adultery...
I know he said "go forth and multiply" but with your sister in law? And why are Catholics so against sex out of marriage when God seems to condone it as long as you try to get her pregnant?
Except God didn't murder him for wasting his seed, but for disobeying the law from Deuteronomy regarding providing an heir for a dead brother. The Catholic interpretation is so inane that it would be risible if it didn't do such harm.
So I contacted her again suggesting that was a pretty poor answer. [...] Her response?
So, you sent her an email that resulted in a form response, then you contacted her again through unspecified means and she responded personally to your complaint.
And you're asking for help with what, exactly?
I think you stopped reading the summary too soon.
"Are there tools out there which a politician can use to identify the incoming group-think blasts and put them to to side? . . . I'm looking for packages already out there that a state-level representative . . . might use to cut through the mess and prioritize communication with constituents who care enough about an issue to draft their own thoughts."
I think the whole Bush/Obama thing is a total distraction - and it works for too many people. It's unfortunate it is in the summary because as I see it what is happening is the that the government is travelling further down the same path - regardless of which party controls which branch. The idea that Obama is better or worse is meaningless, by and large they are exactly the same. And if somehow Romney were to beat Obama in the next election, the largest difference would be the switch in which group was defending and which was attacking the administration -- over the very same actions.
I think if Romney were elected the unaccountable spying and intrusion would get worse. However, if Obama were re-elected, the unaccountable spying and intrusion would get worse. I suppose you're right that the partisan thing is a mere distraction. The problem is that Congress -- whether of the same or different party of the president in power -- absolutely refuses to reign in the White House. Are they lazy? Do they see the trend as a good thing? Do they not care? Has someone got the dirt on them all?
Slashdot Mirror
How about respect for mechanical watches? They are true marvels of engineering and work very well. Just because it's electronic doesn't make it any better.
True. A vintage Tri-Compax with a bazillion dials and windows on the front definitely has some nerd cred.
How about respect for mechanical watches? They are true marvels of engineering and work very well. Just because it's electronic doesn't make it any better.
Actually, yes, it does make it better.
Well, at least, if more accurate, more durable, and radically cheaper add up to "better".
That said, mechanical watches can be very beautiful pieces of precision art. The downside is, you typically have to disassemble the watch to appreciate that hidden art.
Most "analog" watches actually use an electronic (aka quartz) movement, not a mechanical movement. Purely mechanical watches are extremely rare now.
There are some mechanical watches with see-through backs -- and some with see through fronts -- so you can mesmerize your friends with the whirly, clicky stuff going on inside without disassembly.
So outsourcing is dumb if your work is meant to be in any way unique to you. If you're expecting something bog standard for the industry then it offers you something.
There you go, as the MBAs say: "leveraging your core competencies".
The asterisk is part of Diaspora's logo. Like Wal*Mart
I believe they changed it to Walmart*
*The Target down the street is cleaner.
They're not providing you with a lower speed just to be dicks. They are using phone lines, and are subject to the condition and distance of the lines between you and your telco's switching office.
The only time you're going to get right up at their max of their top tier service is if you live within a quarter mile or so of the switch. It's all downhill from there. And if you are in an old infrastructure part of town, your crummy old lines, decaying corroded splices, and watery lines are going to reduce the amount of speed they can provide you.
Most respectable ISPs won't allow you to sign up for a service tier that won't get you any more speed than the tier below it. If your part of town is qualified to 768 and you ask for 2mbit, they should tell you that you can't get that there, that 768 is all the faster that the modem is going to negotiate to. I haven't ran into a DSL ISP yet that doesn't offer different speed tiers. Make sure you're in the appropriate tier. This won't make your speed any faster, but could save you some money rather than paying for speed that you can't possibly get.
If you want to improve this you can (A) move or (B) hound the appropriate office at your local telco about upgrading their infrastructure in your part of town. There is no option (C), and just because someone else they serve gets faster service doesn't mean you're entitled to it too.
If you need an analogy, try complaining to ford that you can't get your new mustang to do over 70 on that gravel road to your house. Move, upgrade the road, or switch to a more appropriate product for your situation.
Summary says he's getting much higher speeds in the daytime than the evening. So car analogy says that they pave the road every morning at 5 am and tear it up again at 6pm. No?
You wouldn't mock people for calling their parents to let their kid talk to grandma and grandpa over the phone. Why the special hate for the extra level of closeness?
Actually, the more comments I read here, the more I think they might do just that.
Three-year-olds shouldn't be using Skype at all, and most certainly not unattended. If you're tired of holding the laptop for her, then don't use Skype. It is okay to say "no." Help her get an actual social life. She'll benefit far more than by talking to the moving pictures on the laptop. In fact, I'd guess she may not even know the difference between the stimulus provided by the laptop and the television.
I'm sorry if this sounds rude, but you're really talking out of your ass, here.
Did you even read this submission? Also, I'd think anyone using Slashdot would know what Skype was, but it doesn't seem like you do. It's sort of a videophone thing. Like a phone, but with video. People use it to talk to each other, except they can also make faces and show off new toys and clothes.
And finally, do you actually have any first-hand experience raising children? Particularly with grandparents living out of town?
Put the laptop on a table, out of arms reach and hold the child on your lap. There. Problem solved. No need for restraining of hands, you just hold the child on your lap as you would any other time.
But from the summary, thats not what the parent wants - he wants to stop several very easily prevented actions, such as touching, ending the call accidentally, drooling on the devices etc. All of those things would not happen if they were there supervising the child during the conversation.
iF i hads athgsd toddler on 2 yasdr lap aright noas the s is aatht you'sda he reading.
No, seriously. And it's not like my kid is especially wiggly, either.
Twenty seconds...that's too much for you to suffer through?
That's a hell of a marketing slogan.
If you're so smart, why aren't you rich?
The wise don't always have food, and the intelligent aren't always rich.
Crazy thing about it, is the people who understand electronics, programming, computers in general, mostly the people who come here, are the ones who are most worried about the move to e-voting. Why would you go with a technology when the "experts" don't trust it.
I don't trust it, and I worked on the ES&S code.
Here in good 'ol Lincoln, Nebraska, we use old fashioned No. 2 pencils and fill in the oval next to the name or ballot item. Until the Florida 2000 debacle, I had no idea there were even any other ways to cast ballots. I still fail to see why our method here shouldn't be the standard nationwide.
Your ES&S friends in Omaha also make ballot scanning machines, but those are used behind the scenes.
What exactly is it about voting machines that makes it so hard compared to ATMs and every other electronic security device on the planet??! I just don't fucking get it, I'm sorry.
Here's just a couple examples of the problems:
1. ATMs and bank infrastructure is inherently easier to audit, since the records do not need to be kept anonymous. A voting machine that records a secret ballot should not keep a record of who voted which way, just a tally of votes. This makes it harder to double-check the results. You balance your checkbook every month -- or at least you can if you want to.
2. We just have a lot more experience with ATMs, Everybody uses them all the time, probably several times a week. Voting machines get pulled out every 2 years (or whatever the election cycle is where they're used). The more something is used, the more chances you can find problems with it.
I'm not intending to excuse any failure in a voting machine. They should be very accurate if we intend to use them for this purpose. If they aren't or can't be, we should use something else.
It's clear that we hired the wrong people to build our electronic voting machines. Instead of the guys who build ATMs, we should have hired the guys who build slot machines.
Just FYI, although Diebold makes ATMs, ES&S does not.
And what was this...?
"Clever".
Yeah, but if you find yourself in that situation, you screwed up. . . .
You're supposed to be moving that data to the newer formats as they come along, not just dump it in a closet somewhere.
Actually, this makes the "keep a hard copy" argument better than I did. Because among the ways one can "screw up" is to become dead. In a twenty year timespan, this is a non-zero probability. Even less severe effects of time can prevent one from doing these periodic transfers. If you are thinking about preserving photos for future generations, then "just dump it in a closet" has to be a storage option. If you need more maintenance than just keeping the stash from burning down or being exposed to the elements, then you've created a dead-man delete switch.
And have them meet your son with the pics at a pre-defined location in the future?
I think your kids would prefer a few disks of files, rather than a steamer trunk of paper.
Either one's a pretty huge task if you've really got eleventy-thousand photos there.
I can't see the point of this. People no longer keep horses for transportation, we hardly write things down (I've seen graduate research indicating handwriting is ceasing to be relevant), even our books are moving to digital. The proper question would be, "What is the most reliable storage medium for my digital photographs, assuming I need to access them in twenty years?"
If I hand you a working RLL hard disk containing 20 year old GIFs, can you read them? How about a WORM disk? Now, suppose you're not a geek and the question becomes something more like "if I hand you this old electronic thing, what the heck is it?" No guarantee that the son grows up to be a geek, after all.
Now I'm not really asking you to find me an RLL controller and something to plug the RLL controller into. It's a contemporary example. I'm just saying that if I also hand you -- non-geeky you, that is -- a bunch of printed photos, you can "read" those right away with the naked eye, even if they've been degraded.
The not-geeky person might even stop with the hard copies. It might be easier to find someone to scan and digitally restore those than to find someone to connect to the antique technology.
Finding a digital storage medium that you believe will be accessible in 20 years is not a bad idea, but it's even better to hedge your bets.
>>>performing a cover of a pop song for free at a concert is not an issue here either.
Yeah actually it is. Public performance of copyrighted works, even legal recordings, is forbidden in the U.S. and the RIAA expects other countries to have similar laws.
The scenario, as put forth by the GP, is an issue for ASCAP and/or its international equivalents, not RIAA here.
Ya all the conservative/libertarians are totally for a huge authoritarian state. Give me a break. Read a book.
Conservative/libertarians are totally for a huge authoritarian state: but one that only applies to "them," as in "those other guys". Do you doubt this? How about the Arizona "Papers, please" law? Do you think the transplanted rednecks in favor of this law for a moment felt that they would be detained on the street and asked for proof of citizenship? No, they understand how the law is to be applied. Twelfth generation Hispanic Arizona native? Fair game. White retiree? Not a chance.
There is a weird episode in the Bible where a guy called Onan was boning his brother's wife, and deliberately pulled out and soiled the carpet to avoid getting her pregnant. Got murders him for wasting his seed, despite being generally against adultery...
I know he said "go forth and multiply" but with your sister in law? And why are Catholics so against sex out of marriage when God seems to condone it as long as you try to get her pregnant?
Except God didn't murder him for wasting his seed, but for disobeying the law from Deuteronomy regarding providing an heir for a dead brother. The Catholic interpretation is so inane that it would be risible if it didn't do such harm.
So I contacted her again suggesting that was a pretty poor answer. [...] Her response?
So, you sent her an email that resulted in a form response, then you contacted her again through unspecified means and she responded personally to your complaint.
And you're asking for help with what, exactly?
I think you stopped reading the summary too soon.
"Are there tools out there which a politician can use to identify the incoming group-think blasts and put them to to side? . . . I'm looking for packages already out there that a state-level representative . . . might use to cut through the mess and prioritize communication with constituents who care enough about an issue to draft their own thoughts."
I think the whole Bush/Obama thing is a total distraction - and it works for too many people. It's unfortunate it is in the summary because as I see it what is happening is the that the government is travelling further down the same path - regardless of which party controls which branch. The idea that Obama is better or worse is meaningless, by and large they are exactly the same. And if somehow Romney were to beat Obama in the next election, the largest difference would be the switch in which group was defending and which was attacking the administration -- over the very same actions.
I think if Romney were elected the unaccountable spying and intrusion would get worse. However, if Obama were re-elected, the unaccountable spying and intrusion would get worse. I suppose you're right that the partisan thing is a mere distraction. The problem is that Congress -- whether of the same or different party of the president in power -- absolutely refuses to reign in the White House. Are they lazy? Do they see the trend as a good thing? Do they not care? Has someone got the dirt on them all?
why not protest this way; boycott air travel
I'm boycotting air travel. Perhaps you've read about me online on seen me on the news.