I'm still a big Nintendo fan. In fact, the only consoles I own are a 8-bit NES and a SNES, and the majority of games I play when I find the time are the old games for those consoles. Even though I've beaten Mario World a zillion times, the last time my niece handed me her GBA with Mario World, I sill managed to waste a few hours playing it.
It just seems that everyone I talk to, even my little 5 through 12 year old nephews and nieces, all want an Xbox or PS2 and don't want anything to do with the Gamecube. That's why I made the comment about Nintendo losing a bunch of respect in the gaming world.
I'm not too familiar with Gamecube, other than wasting many hours playing Super Smash Brothers Melee in college. I prefer simpler arcade style games that involve skills/puzzles and fighting, as opposed to first person shooter games. Most of the PS2/Xbox games I've seen all have pretty much the same style of gameplay with different characters and themes.
My personal opinion is that Nintendo lost a ton of respect in the gaming market with the Gamecube. The gamecube is still a lot of fun, but to me it feels more like a little kids toy as opposed to PS2 or Xbox. Given the choice to buy one single console, I would certainly choose a PS2 or Xbox over a gamecube any day. The gamecube just doesn't cut it for my needs. Let's hope this "revolution" truly is a revolution for Nintendo.
Nintendo got it right with the GBA though. Based on current prices I'd still take that over a DS or PSP.
I've had Verizon DSL for exactly two years and three months and haven't had a single problem. I received my free DSL modem less than a week after I placed my order and when I plugged it in, it worked fine. Their prices have jumped around in the two years I've had service (39.95 then 34.95, and now 37.95) but the service has been the same.
I never had to call customer service, so I can't comment on that aspect. Their service has always worked fine, with no interruptions.
Don't truckers (and trucking companies) pay a significant amount of taxes to various states they drive through? I know little about the trucking industry, however I was under the impression they must pay permit fees to drive on state roads. In addition, there are taxes on the insane amounts of diesel fuel that trucks consume that go to the states.
So even though they might not be paying state income taxes, they're paying taxes which may indirectly fund the wireless access.
I wonder how many truckers actually carry around a laptop with the expectation of accessing the internet.
My biggest fear with my first job was that I would not find something else quickly enough and would forget most of what I learned in college, causing me to be even less appealing to prospective employers. What was even more scary is that everyone else who worked there had been there since college.
Fortunately for me that first 'technician' job was in the defense industry, and I didn't have much of a problem finding something else. That really opened the door for me, even though the work sucked and pay was MISERABLE. Now I'm working for a large respectable company that treats its employees very well.
Yeah, and Uncle Sam gets to collect the interest on your money!
Seriously, the feeling of getting something back instead of having to pay is a lot better. I'm having just the right amount withheld for myself and my wife, but last year my sister-in-law and nephew lived with me so I got to claim them, resulting in a little refund for me
---
currently typing this on an old version of Konqueror because windows is bitching about DHCP
It all depends on what your expectations are. Sure, many of us all have to pay our dues and work our way up, but if you really want a job programming then why settle for less? I could see working a tech support position doing more harm than good in some cases. Work tech support for a year or two, and no one thinks you know how to program making it difficult to transition to what you want really want to do.
This happened to me at my first job out of college - I was an 'electronics' engineer with a degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering. I was basically a system technician responsible for running tests that someone else developed. Despite the fact that I knew more about engineering than anyone I worked with, they thought of me as some workerbee who couldn't think for himself. I quickly found a new job doing some engineering work that forces me to use my brain.
In one of my embedded systems in college, the professor pointed out the differences in flight control design philosophy between Boeing and Airbus commercial jets.
Airbus tends to trust their software more, saying that in the event of an emergency the software is smarter than the pilot and knows how to react correctly and timely.
Boeing gives the pilots more control, assuming that the computer can't possibly know every single variable in an emergency situation.
I'm just repeating what I heard from a professor, and I don't have any hard evidence or articles to back this up, but apparently statistics show that neither manufacturer's design is safer than the other. There are advantages and disadvantages to both, and the statistics prove that they're equal.
The problem is that it's too late. We live in the digital age, where any teenager knows how to download free MP3s from p2p networks. Even if cheap MP3s were available, there would still be a LOT of people who will download them for free.
Just look at videotaped in-theater movies for sale on the streets of New York - the quality is horrible, yet people still buy them. On my commute home, I can't count how many cars I hear blaring a 64kbps MP3 of the latest 50 cent song. I (and probably many slashdotters) have no problem paying for quality music, but there are a lot of people who won't pay if they don't have to.
I just wasted $26 on two crappy CDs - the latest from Judas Priest and Corrosion of Conformity. There are a few good songs on each CD, but overall the complete albums aren't so good. I could have gotten the songs I like from iTunes (if available) but one of my players doesn't know what AAC is.
The only pain with MD players is in making and carrying the MDs. Takes time and space. Usually one converts the favorites into MD's and tugs a couple in pocket - but they're BIG by todays standards. Much easier to keep to collection on puter, then quickly copy some shit on either some portable POS, or keep some stuff on an iPod.
I guess one possibility would be to make a player that uses interchangable XD or SD cards, however with the ever-increasing density of flash chips and the shrinking size of the players there's no need for a removable card. The iPod shuffle isn't much bigger than a minidisc (not the minidisc player but the disc itself)
I often use my MD player to record live DJ sets of myself and friends when we play out. Does anyone make a portable flash recorder that has line inputs? I know my Creative Muvo records, but only through the microphone at terrible quality. Many friends of mine who are also DJs now just bring along a tiny laptop and record continuously to the HD.
One reason I didn't buy an iPod was because it was (or still is) so damn trendy. I didn't want to be seen as some punk who has $400 to drop on a little MP3 player that every 'cool' teenager has. The other reason I didn't buy one was the price.
I love music, but my $59 256MB flash player works just fine for my needs (frequent 3-4 hour flights or a trip to the gym). I recently won a U2 iPod in a contest and though it's nice, I use my flash player more often because it's smaller.
With only 256MB of music, the interface isn't much of an issue because you can easily jump through 40 songs, however when you're dealing with 5GB or more the UI is important, and the iPod has the best interface of all the high capacity HD MP3 players that I've played with.
Commercials for SBC DSL promote the fact that you can download lots of music at high speeds. They don't mention anything about legal downloads, rather their commercials imply that you can download lots of music at very high speeds.
It doesn't haven any more capabilities than most of the competition. The "industry" did not pick Apple's restrictive DRM. The "industry" or better the consumers, do _not_ have a choice with the iPOD on what store to purchase from.
The iPod may not have more capabilities than the competition, however I doubt most people bought it just because it is nice looking. There are many other nicer looking MP3 players, the iPod just happens to have an excellent interface AND it is more heavily marketed than any other player. If you're really concerned about being able to buy your music from various online stores, you should seriously consider this before you buy your player (though I must admit that I don't recall seeing anything in the iPod marketing about not being able to play music from napster or real's stores - you'd have to read the specs of napster, real, and the iPod itself to deterime they're not compatible)
Apple can have their iTMS offer every song in either their restrictive DRM encrusted AAC format, or a non-DRM'ed MP3. See what format sells more. That would be the industry "speaking".
The industry is 'speaking' now with the current setup. If enough people were bothered by protected AAC, then iTunes wouldn't be so popular. I have an iPod, and I don't buy from iTunes because I have another player that doesn't support AAC. I'd rather buy an entire CD and rip the tracks to MP3 so they work with both players (with the added bonus of being able to keep the physical CD in my car).
Flex time can save a considerable amount of fuel and it also increases employee morale (and productivity) in most cases. When I come into work before 7AM it takes me 10-15 minutes. If I leave my house after that, it can take anywhere from 25-30 minutes or more. On a large scale (thousands or even hundreds of thousands of vehicles), there's a lot of fuel wasted by idling in traffic. Of course, hybrid vehicles that shut the engine off while idling achieve the same effect in reducing fuel consumption, but it's even better for me if I don't have to waste my time sitting in traffic.
The city of Portland claims an annual savings of 1.1 million gallons of gasoline. This may even be cheaper to implement than upgrading firmware to handle new rules for Daylight Savings Time.
I think the single biggest improvemtent (though nearly impossible to implement in the current USA culture of excess), would be mandated fuel efficiency standards. You could always argue that more expensive fuel will drive down the sales of large SUVs, however I believe that if you can afford an H2 or Escalade then you can certainly afford to fuel it even with gasoline at $4 a gallon.
West Virginia Wesleyan? I've visited there a few times. I brought my Sprint phone there when I visited and I had a difficult time getting any reception.
I actually stopped by there last night (taking some visiting friends on a tour of LA). It's a pretty interesting setup - I noticed they had a computer set up that had internet access (wireless router nearby?)
There's nothing to indicate they're Star Wars fans. They just look like a bunch of geeks hanging out under a tent on the sidewalk with a computer.
This kind of reminds me of my days in college 'guarding the fence.'
Don't know why you modded me flamebait. I misinterpreted the parent's comment. I thought the parent was implying that by using firefox, you won't be directed to fake sites (which isn't the case because the DNS server is the problem). After getting modded flamebait and reading some of the other comments, I now realize that the parent meant that by using firefox you greatly reduce your chances of getting malware from one of the redirected sites.
I have CNN popups blocked, and I don't have any feature restrictions that I know of. The only CNN popup that I'm aware of is when you first log on to the site, it asks you for US or International edition so it can set a cookie.
I know the chances are slim (you being a/. user) but is it possible that you have spyware on your machine? I still get popups with Firefox 1.0.1 but they're not the search-related popups that you usually get with spyware/adware.
My brothers computer had a nasty spyware/adware app running as a windows service. Every few seconds a popup would appear with search results for any text that was entered no a webpage or in the address bar. All attempts to remove it manually would fail. Since I disabled IE's network access at the soft firewall and installed Firefox, he hasn't gotten any search-related popups.
If Google doesn't find it, then it's not worth looking at...
I know that's not true, but generally if what I'm looking for isn't in the first two or three results pages of Google, then I give up.
This has only happened to me a few times (not finding what I want with Google), however it does bring up an interesting point. I trust Google results so much, is it possible that all the search results can be misleading or wrong information?
Definitely, but only because their "business model" / whole reason for existence is based on piracy. Let's just hope those companies do not set a legal precedence that kill torrent sites as well.
I like how the companies are being sued beause they 'encourage' illegal downloading. Has anyone heard a recent SBC commercial? EVERY single commercial on the radio or television for SBC brags about how you can use their "high speed internet access" to download movies and music. I believe they have songs by Eric Clapton featured in every single one of them, and in one specific commercial a guy is trying to download an Eric Clapton song.
In this case, I think SBC should be liable for illegal downloading since they're directly encouraging it (they don't specifically say to download illegally, but they imply that you can download all the music and movies you want).
Are you referring to the physical dimensions not conforming or the electrical connections being nonstandard (for example, using a strange impedance speaker or by only having 5 volts of power going to the stereo)?
I know that many cars use strange looking stereos that are integrated into the dash, and it's nearly impossible to add an aftermarket one. The Ford Taurus comes to mind - I believe you need a special adapter plate to add a different stereo (all the HVAC controls are on that same plate) and even when you do install the new radio it looks horrible.
My 03 Accord is the same way - there's no clean way to replace the factory stereo. There is a pocket low in the center of a dash that can fit 2 standard sized aftermarket stereos, however I still would need to keep the factory stereo otherwise there'd be a giant hole in my dash.
Slashdot Mirror
It just seems that everyone I talk to, even my little 5 through 12 year old nephews and nieces, all want an Xbox or PS2 and don't want anything to do with the Gamecube. That's why I made the comment about Nintendo losing a bunch of respect in the gaming world.
I'm not too familiar with Gamecube, other than wasting many hours playing Super Smash Brothers Melee in college. I prefer simpler arcade style games that involve skills/puzzles and fighting, as opposed to first person shooter games. Most of the PS2/Xbox games I've seen all have pretty much the same style of gameplay with different characters and themes.
My personal opinion is that Nintendo lost a ton of respect in the gaming market with the Gamecube. The gamecube is still a lot of fun, but to me it feels more like a little kids toy as opposed to PS2 or Xbox. Given the choice to buy one single console, I would certainly choose a PS2 or Xbox over a gamecube any day. The gamecube just doesn't cut it for my needs. Let's hope this "revolution" truly is a revolution for Nintendo.
Nintendo got it right with the GBA though. Based on current prices I'd still take that over a DS or PSP.
I never had to call customer service, so I can't comment on that aspect. Their service has always worked fine, with no interruptions.
So even though they might not be paying state income taxes, they're paying taxes which may indirectly fund the wireless access.
I wonder how many truckers actually carry around a laptop with the expectation of accessing the internet.
Fortunately for me that first 'technician' job was in the defense industry, and I didn't have much of a problem finding something else. That really opened the door for me, even though the work sucked and pay was MISERABLE. Now I'm working for a large respectable company that treats its employees very well.
Yeah, and Uncle Sam gets to collect the interest on your money!
Seriously, the feeling of getting something back instead of having to pay is a lot better. I'm having just the right amount withheld for myself and my wife, but last year my sister-in-law and nephew lived with me so I got to claim them, resulting in a little refund for me
--- currently typing this on an old version of Konqueror because windows is bitching about DHCP
This happened to me at my first job out of college - I was an 'electronics' engineer with a degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering. I was basically a system technician responsible for running tests that someone else developed. Despite the fact that I knew more about engineering than anyone I worked with, they thought of me as some workerbee who couldn't think for himself. I quickly found a new job doing some engineering work that forces me to use my brain.
Airbus tends to trust their software more, saying that in the event of an emergency the software is smarter than the pilot and knows how to react correctly and timely.
Boeing gives the pilots more control, assuming that the computer can't possibly know every single variable in an emergency situation.
I'm just repeating what I heard from a professor, and I don't have any hard evidence or articles to back this up, but apparently statistics show that neither manufacturer's design is safer than the other. There are advantages and disadvantages to both, and the statistics prove that they're equal.
Just look at videotaped in-theater movies for sale on the streets of New York - the quality is horrible, yet people still buy them. On my commute home, I can't count how many cars I hear blaring a 64kbps MP3 of the latest 50 cent song. I (and probably many slashdotters) have no problem paying for quality music, but there are a lot of people who won't pay if they don't have to.
I just wasted $26 on two crappy CDs - the latest from Judas Priest and Corrosion of Conformity. There are a few good songs on each CD, but overall the complete albums aren't so good. I could have gotten the songs I like from iTunes (if available) but one of my players doesn't know what AAC is.
I guess one possibility would be to make a player that uses interchangable XD or SD cards, however with the ever-increasing density of flash chips and the shrinking size of the players there's no need for a removable card. The iPod shuffle isn't much bigger than a minidisc (not the minidisc player but the disc itself)
I often use my MD player to record live DJ sets of myself and friends when we play out. Does anyone make a portable flash recorder that has line inputs? I know my Creative Muvo records, but only through the microphone at terrible quality. Many friends of mine who are also DJs now just bring along a tiny laptop and record continuously to the HD.
I love music, but my $59 256MB flash player works just fine for my needs (frequent 3-4 hour flights or a trip to the gym). I recently won a U2 iPod in a contest and though it's nice, I use my flash player more often because it's smaller.
With only 256MB of music, the interface isn't much of an issue because you can easily jump through 40 songs, however when you're dealing with 5GB or more the UI is important, and the iPod has the best interface of all the high capacity HD MP3 players that I've played with.
Commercials for SBC DSL promote the fact that you can download lots of music at high speeds. They don't mention anything about legal downloads, rather their commercials imply that you can download lots of music at very high speeds.
Is that a true story, or urban legend? I've heard this same story about three or four times, for different military base cities.
The iPod may not have more capabilities than the competition, however I doubt most people bought it just because it is nice looking. There are many other nicer looking MP3 players, the iPod just happens to have an excellent interface AND it is more heavily marketed than any other player. If you're really concerned about being able to buy your music from various online stores, you should seriously consider this before you buy your player (though I must admit that I don't recall seeing anything in the iPod marketing about not being able to play music from napster or real's stores - you'd have to read the specs of napster, real, and the iPod itself to deterime they're not compatible)
Apple can have their iTMS offer every song in either their restrictive DRM encrusted AAC format, or a non-DRM'ed MP3. See what format sells more. That would be the industry "speaking".
The industry is 'speaking' now with the current setup. If enough people were bothered by protected AAC, then iTunes wouldn't be so popular. I have an iPod, and I don't buy from iTunes because I have another player that doesn't support AAC. I'd rather buy an entire CD and rip the tracks to MP3 so they work with both players (with the added bonus of being able to keep the physical CD in my car).
Another relatively simple solution (which may or may not necessarily work) is to synchronize traffic lights. http://www.pova.org/meeting_planners/green_meeting s/portland.html
The city of Portland claims an annual savings of 1.1 million gallons of gasoline. This may even be cheaper to implement than upgrading firmware to handle new rules for Daylight Savings Time.
I think the single biggest improvemtent (though nearly impossible to implement in the current USA culture of excess), would be mandated fuel efficiency standards. You could always argue that more expensive fuel will drive down the sales of large SUVs, however I believe that if you can afford an H2 or Escalade then you can certainly afford to fuel it even with gasoline at $4 a gallon.
West Virginia Wesleyan? I've visited there a few times. I brought my Sprint phone there when I visited and I had a difficult time getting any reception.
There's nothing to indicate they're Star Wars fans. They just look like a bunch of geeks hanging out under a tent on the sidewalk with a computer.
This kind of reminds me of my days in college 'guarding the fence.'
Don't know why you modded me flamebait. I misinterpreted the parent's comment. I thought the parent was implying that by using firefox, you won't be directed to fake sites (which isn't the case because the DNS server is the problem). After getting modded flamebait and reading some of the other comments, I now realize that the parent meant that by using firefox you greatly reduce your chances of getting malware from one of the redirected sites.
I didn't think DNS servers needed web browsers.
Speaking of cars, go check out http://www.nissan.com/. I wonder what will happen with this case now that the ruling in the above article was made.
I have CNN popups blocked, and I don't have any feature restrictions that I know of. The only CNN popup that I'm aware of is when you first log on to the site, it asks you for US or International edition so it can set a cookie.
My brothers computer had a nasty spyware/adware app running as a windows service. Every few seconds a popup would appear with search results for any text that was entered no a webpage or in the address bar. All attempts to remove it manually would fail. Since I disabled IE's network access at the soft firewall and installed Firefox, he hasn't gotten any search-related popups.
I know that's not true, but generally if what I'm looking for isn't in the first two or three results pages of Google, then I give up.
This has only happened to me a few times (not finding what I want with Google), however it does bring up an interesting point. I trust Google results so much, is it possible that all the search results can be misleading or wrong information?
I like how the companies are being sued beause they 'encourage' illegal downloading. Has anyone heard a recent SBC commercial? EVERY single commercial on the radio or television for SBC brags about how you can use their "high speed internet access" to download movies and music. I believe they have songs by Eric Clapton featured in every single one of them, and in one specific commercial a guy is trying to download an Eric Clapton song.
In this case, I think SBC should be liable for illegal downloading since they're directly encouraging it (they don't specifically say to download illegally, but they imply that you can download all the music and movies you want).
I know that many cars use strange looking stereos that are integrated into the dash, and it's nearly impossible to add an aftermarket one. The Ford Taurus comes to mind - I believe you need a special adapter plate to add a different stereo (all the HVAC controls are on that same plate) and even when you do install the new radio it looks horrible.
My 03 Accord is the same way - there's no clean way to replace the factory stereo. There is a pocket low in the center of a dash that can fit 2 standard sized aftermarket stereos, however I still would need to keep the factory stereo otherwise there'd be a giant hole in my dash.