Debit cards are a wonderful thing. It's a shame more places can't accept them.
Or something like Visa Cash, which was a micropayment system designed by Visa, where you topped up your card (similar to prepay mobile phone) then used it for insignificant payments (such as a newspaper) up to stupidly overpriced payments (such as a latte).
$100 coin is taking the piss, but up to $2 should be fine. It's possible to get legal tender £5 coins, but they're mostly for memorial purposes and are very, very rarely seen in circulation. Everything from £5 up is in note form (up to £50, then you're into bonds etc)
After my recent trip to the US (I live in the UK), I was baffled to why on earth the lowest base denomination was a note (bill) instead of a coin, meaning that vending machines are forced to accept bills *and* coins, unlike in the UK where everything up to £2 (1, 2, 5, 10, 20 and 50 pence, then £1 and £2) are all in coins.
10-15 minutes is an extremely good gap between 12 year olds screaming. The real numbers (after being forced to review the damn thing) are more in the region of every 30-45 seconds.
On the flip side, it's also given us American English, by far the greatest bastardisation of the already established British English yet witnessed by man. It's centRE, and aluminIum. Merely dropping or swapping letters does not a language make.
As for French being cow-sounding and unable to express complex thoughts, have you ever studied it? French is extremely logical and versatile, the pronunciation is mostly elegant, and I had no problems expressing extremely complex thoughts in French.
Nope. Wikipedia is available over HTTP in a much more up-to-date, interactive and dynamic format than DVDs. The whole purpose of the DVD sets is... I don't know. I really don't. but why BitTorrent it when you can just point your browser at wikipedia.com?
I'm with you on this. I have an iPod, I use iTMS and I don't bother stripping the DRM. Why? Because it works for what I do, and until I need to do something else with my music I will refrain from stripping DRM. After all, it's not like it actively stops me from doing work.
Trusted Computing Initiative, on the other hand, would get between me and my work. Who would run TCI? Would Microsoft be responsible for looking after the component database? Or Intel? Perhaps a 3rd party?
I trust Apple, who have the decency to control their format and take the flak if it screws up (There's nobody else to fork the blame onto), more than a badly thought out 'consortium' of companies.
Serious question. I have *never* experienced a problem with any patch under XP. In fact, since 98SE the only problem I've ever had with an MS patch was on an ME (Which is widely regarded as the worst OS on the planet) system.
When I find a Linux distro which lets me do what I need to do with the same ease of use as a Windows box or a Mac, I will switch.
Customers do refuse to switch for software purposes. It's because they don't want to waste time having to recompile something using an obscure library just to make it work with their hardware.
Until the Linux community can agree on some solid standards for interoperability, I'll stick with my XP machine.
I just pulled the update from a subnet of 12 PCs for a group who wanted to check before/after issues (It was a bug in our code if you must know). I can still roll out new updates over the network very easily, but SP2 just isn't installed.
Per *proven* unsolicited mail complaint. Don't forget that many complaints will be received "because your email address was in the 'from' field." Until there's a mail system with verifiable sender, there's a lot which can't be proven.
I have a great method for network security. It's called wired networking.
Not to be awkward, but physical access control is far superior to any form of electronic only (Note: This does not mean don't have decent network security on a wired network).
Our AP is in the firewall's DMZ. If you need net access it works brilliantly, and there's very limited access to some shared folders (non-essential documents), but apart from that it needs serious work to get anything essential. If you want full access, we have sockets around the house. Grab a cable and plug yourself in.
Agreed. Mobile phones are horrible for this. Why should I waste the time assigning a voice command for my inbox then using the 'hold voice key, wait, speak, wait, do something' approach when I can go Menu-1-1-2?
How to Make Things Slightly Better(tm) for Windows users:
1. RTFM. 2. RTFM Again. 3. Read that dialog box. 4. Click 'Windows Update'. 5. RTFM for Windows Update. 6. Click 'Install Updates'. 7. Rinse, Repeat.
Although with a bit of luck, step 7 will be unnecessary because Windows Update will start automating itself. It's really very clever, and does a lot for patching aforementioned holes.
There's still one problem. People don't RTFM. And until they RTFM, you're definately not going to get them onto a different OS (Except possibly a Mac). Microsoft is doing a hell of a lot to make things easy to use and still trying to secure things.
Don't forget, many of the original programmers for Windows may have moved departments, so the current devs are trying to patch old code they don't know what was doing in the first place.
Longhorn *should* (key word) be an improvement since it's a major rewrite, so wait and see. In the meantime, teach people to use updates instead of going "Windows sucks, use Linux it rox!" and walking into the sunset with your nose in the air for being 'technically superior' and leaving someone going "WTF is Linux? The hell with it, instead of spending 3 seconds Googling I'll use this nice toolbar to look for pr0n".
At the time, it was the most advanced telescope. Now it's just collecting dust and getting us some pretty pictures (which can be collected from observatories on Earth with modern corrective technology to compensate for atmospheric interference).
My point still stands, no matter how much hardware you put on a 486 it won't run Doom 3, and no matter how much hardware you dock with/replace on the Hubble, it won't last.
Give your head a shake and join the rest of us in today.
Re:Send rocket up with its own gyros and stabilise
on
Hubble Verdict: De-Orbit
·
· Score: 1, Informative
Much as I admire the effort behind the Hubble project, Hubble is dead. It is gone. And for the cost of keeping it going another 4 years, you could design, build and launch another, lighter, more modern telescope.
It's like trying to run Doom 3 on the latest Alienware retrofitted with a 486, no matter how much you bolt on it still will fail. Sometimes you just need to dump the older bits and upgrade the whole kit. Hell, send up a fleet of new ones and put them at Lagrange points.
Slashdot Mirror
Still, unless you go for a night out and drinks are exactly $1 you're going to end up with change regardless.
Debit cards are a wonderful thing. It's a shame more places can't accept them.
Or something like Visa Cash, which was a micropayment system designed by Visa, where you topped up your card (similar to prepay mobile phone) then used it for insignificant payments (such as a newspaper) up to stupidly overpriced payments (such as a latte).
$100 coin is taking the piss, but up to $2 should be fine. It's possible to get legal tender £5 coins, but they're mostly for memorial purposes and are very, very rarely seen in circulation. Everything from £5 up is in note form (up to £50, then you're into bonds etc)
British currency is stamped, and so are Euros IIRC. Can't say for anything else, but I think stamping makes for much easier conformity of weight.
Yes, but given that most things have to accept coins *and* bills, wouldn't it make more sense to replace low-denomination bills with coins?
Visit somewhere in Europe and see how it makes sense.
After my recent trip to the US (I live in the UK), I was baffled to why on earth the lowest base denomination was a note (bill) instead of a coin, meaning that vending machines are forced to accept bills *and* coins, unlike in the UK where everything up to £2 (1, 2, 5, 10, 20 and 50 pence, then £1 and £2) are all in coins.
10-15 minutes is an extremely good gap between 12 year olds screaming. The real numbers (after being forced to review the damn thing) are more in the region of every 30-45 seconds.
On the flip side, it's also given us American English, by far the greatest bastardisation of the already established British English yet witnessed by man. It's centRE, and aluminIum. Merely dropping or swapping letters does not a language make.
As for French being cow-sounding and unable to express complex thoughts, have you ever studied it? French is extremely logical and versatile, the pronunciation is mostly elegant, and I had no problems expressing extremely complex thoughts in French.
A google is not a 1 followed by 100 zeroes. You're thinking of a googol.
Nope. Wikipedia is available over HTTP in a much more up-to-date, interactive and dynamic format than DVDs. The whole purpose of the DVD sets is... I don't know. I really don't. but why BitTorrent it when you can just point your browser at wikipedia.com?
I'm with you on this. I have an iPod, I use iTMS and I don't bother stripping the DRM. Why? Because it works for what I do, and until I need to do something else with my music I will refrain from stripping DRM. After all, it's not like it actively stops me from doing work.
Trusted Computing Initiative, on the other hand, would get between me and my work. Who would run TCI? Would Microsoft be responsible for looking after the component database? Or Intel? Perhaps a 3rd party?
I trust Apple, who have the decency to control their format and take the flak if it screws up (There's nobody else to fork the blame onto), more than a badly thought out 'consortium' of companies.
What problematic patches?
Serious question. I have *never* experienced a problem with any patch under XP. In fact, since 98SE the only problem I've ever had with an MS patch was on an ME (Which is widely regarded as the worst OS on the planet) system.
When I find a Linux distro which lets me do what I need to do with the same ease of use as a Windows box or a Mac, I will switch.
Customers do refuse to switch for software purposes. It's because they don't want to waste time having to recompile something using an obscure library just to make it work with their hardware.
Until the Linux community can agree on some solid standards for interoperability, I'll stick with my XP machine.
You don't even have to go that far.
d efault.mspx
Allow my to introduce my friend for managing updates over a large Windows domain: SUS.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem/sus/
I just pulled the update from a subnet of 12 PCs for a group who wanted to check before/after issues (It was a bug in our code if you must know). I can still roll out new updates over the network very easily, but SP2 just isn't installed.
Per *proven* unsolicited mail complaint. Don't forget that many complaints will be received "because your email address was in the 'from' field." Until there's a mail system with verifiable sender, there's a lot which can't be proven.
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=21648
Physics to your heart's content.
But hot 'n' horny coeds still suck, right?
I have a great method for network security. It's called wired networking.
Not to be awkward, but physical access control is far superior to any form of electronic only (Note: This does not mean don't have decent network security on a wired network).
Our AP is in the firewall's DMZ. If you need net access it works brilliantly, and there's very limited access to some shared folders (non-essential documents), but apart from that it needs serious work to get anything essential. If you want full access, we have sockets around the house. Grab a cable and plug yourself in.
Read grandparent - he was saying that most sites which make their money from advertising use pop-ups, unlike Google.
I'm worried you knew those ones...
Agreed. Mobile phones are horrible for this. Why should I waste the time assigning a voice command for my inbox then using the 'hold voice key, wait, speak, wait, do something' approach when I can go Menu-1-1-2?
How to Make Things Slightly Better(tm) for Windows users:
1. RTFM.
2. RTFM Again.
3. Read that dialog box.
4. Click 'Windows Update'.
5. RTFM for Windows Update.
6. Click 'Install Updates'.
7. Rinse, Repeat.
Although with a bit of luck, step 7 will be unnecessary because Windows Update will start automating itself. It's really very clever, and does a lot for patching aforementioned holes.
There's still one problem. People don't RTFM. And until they RTFM, you're definately not going to get them onto a different OS (Except possibly a Mac). Microsoft is doing a hell of a lot to make things easy to use and still trying to secure things.
Don't forget, many of the original programmers for Windows may have moved departments, so the current devs are trying to patch old code they don't know what was doing in the first place.
Longhorn *should* (key word) be an improvement since it's a major rewrite, so wait and see. In the meantime, teach people to use updates instead of going "Windows sucks, use Linux it rox!" and walking into the sunset with your nose in the air for being 'technically superior' and leaving someone going "WTF is Linux? The hell with it, instead of spending 3 seconds Googling I'll use this nice toolbar to look for pr0n".
Ditto... but I think that was down to /the/ Enterprise.
*sigh*
At the time, it was the most advanced telescope. Now it's just collecting dust and getting us some pretty pictures (which can be collected from observatories on Earth with modern corrective technology to compensate for atmospheric interference).
My point still stands, no matter how much hardware you put on a 486 it won't run Doom 3, and no matter how much hardware you dock with/replace on the Hubble, it won't last.
Give your head a shake and join the rest of us in today.
Much as I admire the effort behind the Hubble project, Hubble is dead. It is gone. And for the cost of keeping it going another 4 years, you could design, build and launch another, lighter, more modern telescope.
It's like trying to run Doom 3 on the latest Alienware retrofitted with a 486, no matter how much you bolt on it still will fail. Sometimes you just need to dump the older bits and upgrade the whole kit. Hell, send up a fleet of new ones and put them at Lagrange points.