Flash ads flying around, climbing out of the page are the worst. Anyone know of a quick Firefox plugin to turn Flash animations off until I want to actually watch one?
All software continues to evolve. New versions, more features. I can't think of any software that hasn't been discontinued (or maybe the project just died) that doesn't continue to release new versions. Show me some software where the company just decided it's perfect and quit making releases. Just because a developer releases a new version doesn't mean it isn't the best out there. The fact that it isn't the best is covered extensively elsewhere.
If 100s of billions of DVDs are made, and the annual sales were 27.5 billion, doesn't that mean that the DVDs sold for less than a quarter on average? Make that happen and I'm pretty sure that would stop a lot of people from ripping and sharing...
How will this affect Usenet propogation for the rest of us? Let's face it, AOL is big, and what kind of a chunk is it going to take out if they shut all their News Servers down? Corrections welcome if they don't host their own for some reason.
I think you're giving our (US) lawmakers entirely too much credit. The only thing that surprises me anymore is that people are still surprised when the government passes yet another assinine or unenforecable law.
Cellphones Aloft: The Inevitable Is Closer
By KEN BELSON and MICHELINE MAYNARD
Published: December 10, 2004
The day may finally be coming when you will be allowed to make calls on your own cellphone from an airliner. Trouble is, so will the passengers sitting on either side of you, and in front and in back of you, as well.
Federal regulators plan next week to begin considering rules that would end the official ban on cellphone use on commercial flights. Technical challenges and safety questions remain. But if the ban is lifted, one of the last cocoons of relative social silence would disappear, forcing strangers to work out the rough etiquette of involuntary eavesdropping in a confined space.
"For some people, the idea of being able to pick up their phone is going to be liberating; for some it's going to drive them crazy," said Addison Schonland, a travel industry consultant at the Innovation Analysis Group in La Jolla, Calif. "Can you imagine 200 people having a conversation at once? There's going to be a big market for noise-canceling headphones."
The always-on-the-road business travelers may become the worst offenders, predicted Roger Entner, a telecommunications analyst with the Yankee Group and a frequent flier. "Businessmen will now compete with toddlers for the title of 'most annoying in the airplane,' " Mr. Entner said.
It may be years before cellphones become widely used in the skies. To begin with, conventional cellphones, besides raising concerns about interfering with cockpit communications, typically do not work at altitudes above 10,000 feet or so.
But some airlines have already begun their own tests of technology meant to make cellphone use feasible at 35,000 feet. They know that the seatback phones they now offer, costing $1.99 a minute or more, have never really caught on.
The airlines also know that, while illegal, surreptitious cellphone use at lower altitudes is already common. Airline attendants have caught some passengers using cellphones in airplane lavatories, and others have been spotted huddled in their seats, whispering into their cupped hands. For that matter, the use of BlackBerry hand-held e-mail devices is also rampant, if sub rosa, despite their also being banned on airliners.
Famously, some passengers' emergency use of cellphones played a significant role in the final minutes of the hijacked United Airlines Flight 93 before it crashed in a field near Shanksville, Pa., on Sept. 11, 2001.
A major federal effort to revisit the rules will begin next Wednesday at a Federal Communications Commission meeting, where the agency is expected to approve two measures. One, an order that is expected to be adopted, would try to introduce more price competition among phone companies to offer telephone and high-speed Internet services from the seatback and end-of-aisle phones that are now on many planes.
The second measure will begin the regulatory process of considering whether there are technical solutions to some of the current obstacles to passengers' using their own mobile phones on planes.
Safety will be a major consideration in any rule changes. The Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing, the nation's largest builder of airliners, both support the F.C.C.'s ban, arguing that cellphones can interfere with navigation systems.
In fact, European newspapers widely reported that use of a cellphone contributed to the crash of a Crossair commuter plane in 2000. LX Flight 498, carrying 10 passengers and crew members, was bound for Dresden when it crashed outside Zurich minutes after it took off, killing all on board. Officially, the reason for the crash remains unknown. But news reports at the time said a passenger apparently took a cellphone call at the same time that the pilot engaged the autopilot controls. The plane subsequently went into a dive.
Despite such questions, airlines have begun their own tests of whether cellphone use can be made feasib
...where the guy has the giant 3 foot cellphone and shouts into it at public places? I don't think it will be quite that bad, but it'll be annoying. Maybe if everyone put their fingers in their ears and shouts "LA LA LA LA" at the offender it'll get the point across.
Let's face it, for the average user spam is little more than annoying. I understand that it causes a significant amount of network traffic, but I've never had to fix a neighbor or family member's computer because of spam. Viruses, trojans, worms, adware and spyware are a different story. I've never seen spam grind a system to a halt.
Slashdot Mirror
Perhaps this can explain.
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://slashdot.org
Don't imagine the health department takes kindly to lithium-ion french fries.
I don't use my own identity anymore anyway.
You should check out the Archos gmini 400. I'm listening to mine right now and absolutely love it.
Flash ads flying around, climbing out of the page are the worst. Anyone know of a quick Firefox plugin to turn Flash animations off until I want to actually watch one?
Apparently, users have been sitting in front of their TV with a camcorder...
All software continues to evolve. New versions, more features. I can't think of any software that hasn't been discontinued (or maybe the project just died) that doesn't continue to release new versions. Show me some software where the company just decided it's perfect and quit making releases. Just because a developer releases a new version doesn't mean it isn't the best out there. The fact that it isn't the best is covered extensively elsewhere.
If 100s of billions of DVDs are made, and the annual sales were 27.5 billion, doesn't that mean that the DVDs sold for less than a quarter on average? Make that happen and I'm pretty sure that would stop a lot of people from ripping and sharing...
Imagine my disappointment when I misread the title and thought it was some kind of hack for GM cars...
It also can make things more difficult for legitimate developers.
the 7800 didn't play 5200 games
How many did it play?
I could give you a thousand reasons. Give me your email address...
It tags mIRC, so why not bittorrent as well?
How will this affect Usenet propogation for the rest of us? Let's face it, AOL is big, and what kind of a chunk is it going to take out if they shut all their News Servers down? Corrections welcome if they don't host their own for some reason.
WFT? People post without reading the article carefully? The devil, you say!
I think you're giving our (US) lawmakers entirely too much credit. The only thing that surprises me anymore is that people are still surprised when the government passes yet another assinine or unenforecable law.
Please stay tuned for more interesting coverage of the show floor...
...Because we know it couldn't be less interesting than this report.
Dammit. Where's that "Get your refund here" link?
There has to be an implant joke in here someplace...
//Yes, I know silicon != silicone.
Leave some market share for the big guys.
Cellphones Aloft: The Inevitable Is Closer By KEN BELSON and MICHELINE MAYNARD
Published: December 10, 2004
The day may finally be coming when you will be allowed to make calls on your own cellphone from an airliner. Trouble is, so will the passengers sitting on either side of you, and in front and in back of you, as well.
Federal regulators plan next week to begin considering rules that would end the official ban on cellphone use on commercial flights. Technical challenges and safety questions remain. But if the ban is lifted, one of the last cocoons of relative social silence would disappear, forcing strangers to work out the rough etiquette of involuntary eavesdropping in a confined space.
"For some people, the idea of being able to pick up their phone is going to be liberating; for some it's going to drive them crazy," said Addison Schonland, a travel industry consultant at the Innovation Analysis Group in La Jolla, Calif. "Can you imagine 200 people having a conversation at once? There's going to be a big market for noise-canceling headphones."
The always-on-the-road business travelers may become the worst offenders, predicted Roger Entner, a telecommunications analyst with the Yankee Group and a frequent flier. "Businessmen will now compete with toddlers for the title of 'most annoying in the airplane,' " Mr. Entner said.
It may be years before cellphones become widely used in the skies. To begin with, conventional cellphones, besides raising concerns about interfering with cockpit communications, typically do not work at altitudes above 10,000 feet or so.
But some airlines have already begun their own tests of technology meant to make cellphone use feasible at 35,000 feet. They know that the seatback phones they now offer, costing $1.99 a minute or more, have never really caught on.
The airlines also know that, while illegal, surreptitious cellphone use at lower altitudes is already common. Airline attendants have caught some passengers using cellphones in airplane lavatories, and others have been spotted huddled in their seats, whispering into their cupped hands. For that matter, the use of BlackBerry hand-held e-mail devices is also rampant, if sub rosa, despite their also being banned on airliners.
Famously, some passengers' emergency use of cellphones played a significant role in the final minutes of the hijacked United Airlines Flight 93 before it crashed in a field near Shanksville, Pa., on Sept. 11, 2001.
A major federal effort to revisit the rules will begin next Wednesday at a Federal Communications Commission meeting, where the agency is expected to approve two measures. One, an order that is expected to be adopted, would try to introduce more price competition among phone companies to offer telephone and high-speed Internet services from the seatback and end-of-aisle phones that are now on many planes.
The second measure will begin the regulatory process of considering whether there are technical solutions to some of the current obstacles to passengers' using their own mobile phones on planes.
Safety will be a major consideration in any rule changes. The Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing, the nation's largest builder of airliners, both support the F.C.C.'s ban, arguing that cellphones can interfere with navigation systems.
In fact, European newspapers widely reported that use of a cellphone contributed to the crash of a Crossair commuter plane in 2000. LX Flight 498, carrying 10 passengers and crew members, was bound for Dresden when it crashed outside Zurich minutes after it took off, killing all on board. Officially, the reason for the crash remains unknown. But news reports at the time said a passenger apparently took a cellphone call at the same time that the pilot engaged the autopilot controls. The plane subsequently went into a dive.
Despite such questions, airlines have begun their own tests of whether cellphone use can be made feasib
...where the guy has the giant 3 foot cellphone and shouts into it at public places? I don't think it will be quite that bad, but it'll be annoying. Maybe if everyone put their fingers in their ears and shouts "LA LA LA LA" at the offender it'll get the point across.
...system requires less than 128 MB disk space...
...because we wouldn't want it cutting into the gargantuan HDD required to record at around 1 gig/hour.
Let's face it, for the average user spam is little more than annoying. I understand that it causes a significant amount of network traffic, but I've never had to fix a neighbor or family member's computer because of spam. Viruses, trojans, worms, adware and spyware are a different story. I've never seen spam grind a system to a halt.