I took a look at this, and cringed. I knew my stuff was out of date (it was upper-midrange in 2001 when I bought it), but I never thought it was this bad. All my stuff is at or just below the minimums (1.5 Ghz, 128m RAM, GeForce2, more than enough HD space). Unfortunately, it is a Dell, based on RDRAM. I looked around, and the cost just to upgrade the memory would be around $500! I also put together a motherboard/CPU/memory/video card combo (correct me if I would need to replace more of those items to "convert" to DDR SDRAM) for only about $200 more. Please someone tell me I am wrong somewhere here!
Ok, I know I'm getting pretty OT here, but the cannabis thread has been going long enough that I have to speak.
The pro-legalization people have made that point several times that marijuana use is no more dangerous than a bottle of bourbon and a cigar (in fact, probably less dangerous than the bourbon). What most people don't recognize is that this could be a HUGE boost to the government.
Imagine that pot could be rolled, packaged, and sold like cigarrettes (presumably to 21 and over). The cost to produce would be about the same as a pack of smokes (which I don't know, but would estimate around $2). The government would also likely impose a "sin tax" on said cigarrettes. The difference, however, would be on the AMOUNT of the tax. How much would you guys pay for a box of 20 joints, the size of cigarrettes? I'd say at least $20-$25. Thus, Big Brother makes $20 a pack, a new industry is formed, and our other taxes either go down (right) or give us more bang per buck, as they are supplemented with billions of additional income.
(steps down from soap box)
Sorry, just had to say something
Except that what both the poster and the replier don't realize is that industrial-grade hemp is "stone-free." You'd be about as well off smoking a piece of rope or cotton balls.
Which brings me to my worry: The PDAing of the iPod.
I bet Apple will bring this into action once the "iPod fever" dies out. At least it will satisfy everyone that says "Why in god's name do you need 40 GB or space?"
In general, Mac users tended to cluster into the scientific, education, and creative communities. Mac using may be self selecting based on the areas of need for their professional foci.
Very true. I am a music business major, and took a digital design class. This class met in a Mac based lab. The use of Mac is definitly skewed towards the more "artistic academic" side of things, as this was the only Mac lab on campus.
I was indeed constrained to the use of a Mac because, even thought cross compatibility is getting better, there were things that just didn't switch from Mac/PC.
I liked them, except they need more mouse buttons!
Imagine if this works, and catches on with airlines? They suddenly have a way to get more $ per flight, but charging ISPs. They could either use the extra income to hold ticket prices steady against rising costs (right) or just take extra profit.
A guy in my band has an amp that buzzes several seconds before someone's cell phone rings. It does this for many different brands and phone companies. of course, it is a tube amp, and not hardened against RF like aircraft components.
Seems logical to me, especially for multiuser/processor networking. Nature has been "networking" bugs, fish, packs of mammals, etc. for many more years than we've been around. All that extra research time has to count for something. Now that I think about it, a hive of insects are somewhat similar to a group of computers. The individuals posess little (or no) independant thought, only giving responses to electrical or chemical signals. Interesting...
Sony had better beef up their lasers too. My PS2's last an average of a year before they go "blind." I've always wondered if this was an issue on the rest of the next-gen consoles? (too poor/cheap to go get the other 2)
Interesting concept. While I think that media will move more toward this in the future, it will never go all the way. I have a kind of 50/50 split, for backup reasons more than anything else. I archived all my CD's on my hard drive, and keep the originals stacked under my desk. That way, I can loan CD's without worrying that some deadbeat will keep them, and I don't have to worry about my entire music collection being corrupted next time we have a storm (house electrical sucks, I don't know how much more my surge protectors can stand). There is just an intrinsic "safe" feeling about having a copy on physical media. I shuffle files back and forth to school through networks, but for the really important files (major reports, etc.) I always carry a CD copy just in case.
I have video on demand, and there are ups and downs to it. The pay per view stuff is expensive (especially the adult stuff, usually around $15) and highly compressed. On the other hand, we also get free HBO on demand with our HBO subscription. That means at no extra cost, I can watch any movie currently showing, plus a good selection of HBO programs, with all the benefits of VOD. The quality still isn't great, but it isn't costing me anything extra.
Slashdot Mirror
I took a look at this, and cringed. I knew my stuff was out of date (it was upper-midrange in 2001 when I bought it), but I never thought it was this bad. All my stuff is at or just below the minimums (1.5 Ghz, 128m RAM, GeForce2, more than enough HD space). Unfortunately, it is a Dell, based on RDRAM. I looked around, and the cost just to upgrade the memory would be around $500! I also put together a motherboard/CPU/memory/video card combo (correct me if I would need to replace more of those items to "convert" to DDR SDRAM) for only about $200 more. Please someone tell me I am wrong somewhere here!
Ok, I know I'm getting pretty OT here, but the cannabis thread has been going long enough that I have to speak. The pro-legalization people have made that point several times that marijuana use is no more dangerous than a bottle of bourbon and a cigar (in fact, probably less dangerous than the bourbon). What most people don't recognize is that this could be a HUGE boost to the government. Imagine that pot could be rolled, packaged, and sold like cigarrettes (presumably to 21 and over). The cost to produce would be about the same as a pack of smokes (which I don't know, but would estimate around $2). The government would also likely impose a "sin tax" on said cigarrettes. The difference, however, would be on the AMOUNT of the tax. How much would you guys pay for a box of 20 joints, the size of cigarrettes? I'd say at least $20-$25. Thus, Big Brother makes $20 a pack, a new industry is formed, and our other taxes either go down (right) or give us more bang per buck, as they are supplemented with billions of additional income. (steps down from soap box) Sorry, just had to say something
Except that what both the poster and the replier don't realize is that industrial-grade hemp is "stone-free." You'd be about as well off smoking a piece of rope or cotton balls.
Which brings me to my worry: The PDAing of the iPod.
I bet Apple will bring this into action once the "iPod fever" dies out. At least it will satisfy everyone that says "Why in god's name do you need 40 GB or space?"
In general, Mac users tended to cluster into the scientific, education, and creative communities. Mac using may be self selecting based on the areas of need for their professional foci.
Very true. I am a music business major, and took a digital design class. This class met in a Mac based lab. The use of Mac is definitly skewed towards the more "artistic academic" side of things, as this was the only Mac lab on campus.
I was indeed constrained to the use of a Mac because, even thought cross compatibility is getting better, there were things that just didn't switch from Mac/PC.
I liked them, except they need more mouse buttons!
Imagine if this works, and catches on with airlines? They suddenly have a way to get more $ per flight, but charging ISPs. They could either use the extra income to hold ticket prices steady against rising costs (right) or just take extra profit.
A guy in my band has an amp that buzzes several seconds before someone's cell phone rings. It does this for many different brands and phone companies. of course, it is a tube amp, and not hardened against RF like aircraft components.
I call dibs on a window seat. I bet that would be something to watch!
Here's one: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/nm /20040707/music_nm/music_year_dc
Not so much an argument, as a counterargument.
Seems logical to me, especially for multiuser/processor networking. Nature has been "networking" bugs, fish, packs of mammals, etc. for many more years than we've been around. All that extra research time has to count for something. Now that I think about it, a hive of insects are somewhat similar to a group of computers. The individuals posess little (or no) independant thought, only giving responses to electrical or chemical signals. Interesting...
Sony had better beef up their lasers too. My PS2's last an average of a year before they go "blind." I've always wondered if this was an issue on the rest of the next-gen consoles? (too poor/cheap to go get the other 2)
What about "doggy-style?" I'd take that over landing on my feet any day...
Interesting concept. While I think that media will move more toward this in the future, it will never go all the way. I have a kind of 50/50 split, for backup reasons more than anything else. I archived all my CD's on my hard drive, and keep the originals stacked under my desk. That way, I can loan CD's without worrying that some deadbeat will keep them, and I don't have to worry about my entire music collection being corrupted next time we have a storm (house electrical sucks, I don't know how much more my surge protectors can stand). There is just an intrinsic "safe" feeling about having a copy on physical media. I shuffle files back and forth to school through networks, but for the really important files (major reports, etc.) I always carry a CD copy just in case.
I have video on demand, and there are ups and downs to it. The pay per view stuff is expensive (especially the adult stuff, usually around $15) and highly compressed. On the other hand, we also get free HBO on demand with our HBO subscription. That means at no extra cost, I can watch any movie currently showing, plus a good selection of HBO programs, with all the benefits of VOD. The quality still isn't great, but it isn't costing me anything extra.