Under Windows, you can use Private Disk (AES 256-bit, with certification from NIST; use multiple encrypted drives simultaneously), it comes with a lot of features, my favourite one being 'Disk Firewall'. This is an application-level filter that doesn't exist in programs like TrueCrypt or BestCrypt, etc. This thing allows you to control which application can access the drive, while the others (i.e. viruses, spyware and other #^!#$^!ware) are rejected.
The program runs off removable drives too (there are certain particularities.. but once you know what you're doing, it works).
You would be right if my intention was to find a replacement-country for the entire outsourcing industry. However, if you look at things from the point of view of an average company that looks for additional labour-force, even Vatican would be good, as long as they offered programmers:-)
+ I am biased towards the country I love, what's wrong with that?
Q:Why outsourcing to Moldova is better than outsourcing to India? A: This is another interesting question, in fact, I believe that any answer to this question will be a biased one, though I will try to come up with a solution.
There are several aspects that have to be taken into account:
1. Cultural
2. Economical
3. Technical
[1]. Thruout history, Moldova has always been at the intersection of various cultures - the place where East met West; the place where Christianity confronted with Islam during the Turkish invasions, etc. The roman and slavic influences made it so that almost everybody in Moldova speaks two languages 'by default' - Romanian and Russian. Moreover, during the years of the Soviet Union, this country was in the lead when it came to the number of university graduates. A consequence is that in addition to the two 'mother' languages, almost everyone is rather skilled in French or English. In other words, it is a common thing for a moldovan to speak three languages. The educational system of today puts some more pressure on the linguistic capabilities, therefore it is not THAT difficult to find a programmer that has mastered several programming languages, as well as several human languages.
The advantages are the following:
- a moldovan programmer is a flexible person, able to easily integrate into a team of foreign programmers; being less likely to be the 'bottleneck' of the team.
- the written code is easily readable - reasonable variable names, error messages, function names, and so on. Moreover, the code turns out to be well-commented.
So, the source code can be easily maintained, this is critical, those who have had the 'honor' to update foreign code will certainly support this argument. Often the conversion of 'bad' code to 'good' code takes the most significant part of the assigned time (and money). To get a better idea of how bad things can be, read some comments related to the following article: "How to write unmaintainable code"
After looking through the comments, you will be convinced that any sane programmer will choose "well-commented code" over "fantastically optimized but entirely obfuscated and non-commented code".
[2] Economically, both Moldova and India are countries that have a long way until they become trully prosperous. So, both states are still in development, and both need foreign investments, and will seek ways to attract foreign capital.
Geographically, Moldova is a much smaller state than India is, therefore it takes less resources to support the economy of the smaller country, therefore the country [meaning 'the entities located in this country'] is more likely to settle for lower prices. Another argument which backs that statement up, is the difference between the GDP of each state:
The relationship between quality of life and average prices is simple: the more advanced a country is, the more money a citizen needs in order to live a decent life [because needs evolve along with the resources]. This argument proves that outsourcing to Moldova can be a good fund saver; while the first one shows that moldovans are, in theory, going to produce better-mantainable code (as the comments of the article point out, this will eventually save a LOT of money too). I have to emphasize, that long-term investments might not be that attractive, but in the long run, they are more efficient.
There are bright minds in India, and there are bright minds in Moldova - there is nothing in this world that can convince a reasonable person that this is not true. So, this issue requ
You have your terrorist ghosts in the middle east, we have ours in the Caucasia. Had them for hundreds of years, to be specific.
Well, 'having them for hundreds of years' is what happens when you invade a foreign land and force your traditions (that also implies religion) and rules upon the locals. I understand that it's tough to live thru the day not having the guarantee that your house is not going to be blown up in the course of the night.
But then, think about all the pain that was caused to the enslaved peoples - did your grandparents and grand-grandparents live with a permanent chance of being deported to Siberia for absolutely no reason? Was there a deadly hunger in Russia caused by someone else except the Russian government itself? Does someone force Russians to learn a foreign language (or worse - substitute their native with an alien one)? [I can make a long list of these]
The Chechens of today are the Russians of yesterday (metaphorically speaking), it's just that new tools are used, and the numbers are different - the essence is the same though - if you attack, you'll get a reply.
Of course people will have differing interpretations of reality. But reality itself is just that: reality.
I think there's a better way to express that: reality is what exists regardless of what you believe/think about it. Everything else is an interpretation/perception.
There is a question that has been bothering me for a while, and now it seems that the context is appropriate for it.
Speaking of colors, let's take RED for example. How can we find out whether each individual [and life form] sees RED as we do?
One way would be to take one's [P1] eyes (i.e. video-input), and connect them to another person's [P2] brain. P2's memory remembers how RED looks like, so if P2 gets to see the world with P1's eyes, he/she will be able to confirm whether everyone sees colors the same way or not.
But since RED is just a name attached to a color, we can't be sure that everyone means _real_RED when they see RED. For instance, take a newborn baby, and teach it that _real_RED is called BLUE. The person will see the same thing as we do, but call it differently. Now look at this example from the other way - people look at the same _real_COLOR, but they perceive it in their own way; and even though everybody calls this color RED, they actually see different things.
I hope I managed to get the message across.
It seems that the above idea is incorrect, because we all know about the impact of colors on a person's mood; for instance, BLUE is relaxing, while RED does the opposite. And if we assume that BLUE is relaxing for everybody, it means that indeed the _real_BLUE matches the BLUE we think is blue. If that wasn't true, then situations like this one would be very frequent: - one guy enters a blue room and feels comfortable - another guy spends some time in the same room, and freaks out:-)
Yet, is there some solid evidence to back up the fact that people see colors in the same way? If we could somehow wiretap the neuro-channels and sniff the traffic, we could do it this way: 1. show a blue light to P1 [see that the person's brain receives a 111001 signal] 2. show a blue light to P2, wiretap, and see if the received signal matches 111001 or not.
I am sure that it is possible to set the dots on 'i' in this matter, but I have no clue how. Can someone shed light on the subject?
I second that. The comments are fantabulous, and I really learned a LOT of new things as a slashdotter. I admit that some of the signatures are great too.
But the comments are the best. There's no place like slashdot!
Hmm.. ok, picture that he's heterosexual. Now, if you were a woman - would you have sex with this guy? [knowing that he was infected, but then got cured]
If I were a chick, no way I'd sleep with that guy.. Fsck it, even if biology proved that he's clean, [probably] any woman would feel psychologycally uncomfortable, because thoughts like "what if the tests weren't correct?" don't vanish that easily.
I think they're making a big mistake by naming it Godzilla. This is non-scientific behaviour. I mean, some people will actually believe that Godzilla [the movie character] existed; and if you tell them that it was just a movie, they'll bring you a book or an issue of Scientific Whatever, where it written, black on white, that Godzilla existed, was 13 feet long, and fed with aquatic beings.
And there will be no way you could prove them wrong because "Scientific Whatever is obviously smarter than you are"....
Now, wait a sec, isn't it the exact same thing we have with religion? Some guy[s] wrote a [series of] book[s] thousands of years ago, and now most of the people take that as absolute truth, without checking the facts. And since those who watched Godzilla seriously outnumber those who really studied the bible... something tells me that this idea about a 'real Godzilla' will definitely stick.
I often encounter such cases... Sure, the translators know grammar and spelling and literature and all the other stuff... but when it comes to hi-tech, they only know what they saw in movies... and they honestly believe that a firewall is a wall of fire thru which viruses cannot pass because they are burnt;-)
Why not go to a 'usual' school, but also do an independent study at home? Why not take additional classes?
If you say you're bored, it means you're not getting much pressure on yourself; but who told you that school is the only pressure-maker?
If you had a shitload of spare time, you could have invested it in other projects, projects you chose YOURSELF (i.e. you're bored with school topics, but you can choose the additional ones yourself). If you didn't do that, then maybe you were lazy?
Either way, I admire the kid's talent; but he should take it easier. I think that if he keeps it that way, it will be great for mankind, but it will make his personal life miserable.
We got a lot of comments about gamers in South Korea, and how 'devastated' they'll feel once Windows is gone. My question is - what will really happen? Do you think that if MS really gets outta there, all the existing copies of Windows will automagically vanish too, and all the gamers will suffocate in agony?
Absolutely not! MS goes, the gamers stay, what's the big deal? Sure, they won't be able to play the newer games... But then, take StarCraft for example - even my grandma's teapot is performant enough to run this one;-)
I think that most likely it will become a legal problem: - assuming Windows is gone; - people stick to it and use pirated copies instead; - MS understands that and asks the South Korean government to take measures [if nothing happens, they'll sue the country, whatever..]... this is obviously not a cheap process.
So, I think MS will stay, but not because of the gamers, but because the country's leaders are smart enough to figure out what's going to happen after a few moves. It'll be much cheaper to stick to Windows rather than try to go against the flow and support all the consequences.
Gamers? give me a break. They'll have to grow up one day.
Your post is one of my favourites in this discussion. I totally agree with you.
There's one thing I have to add though: Make sure you're not going too far with not attributing value to money.
I happen to be one of those who doesn't work for money. I just love my company, and what it does, and my colleagues; we're a well-organized team. I am well-paid, but I'd stay in the company even if I earned less.
Can't say the same about one of my previous jobs: I was then the same person [i.e. working for the sake of doing something for the community, not for the sake of earning money] and... Those fsckers still owe me a 4 months' salary! (Yeah, and there was no real contract, etc.). They simply abused my kindness. Watch out for such assxoles.
And speaking of offices - ours is a big 'open' place with no walls; and I am totally satisfied with it. There's plenty of space for everything, I can see all my colleagues and I'm up to date with everything that is going on in the company. And you know... we actually TALK to each other;-)
Can anyone suggest a site which offers information about the physical reliability of flash disks?
I am interested in a review made by someone who is NOT a manufacturer of these things; with these things included:
- how much damage is caused if I high-heeled lady steps on it with the heel - what happens if you drop it from a certain altitude - in which way humidity influences it - what are the side-effects of excessive temperature etc
A friend of mine went to Egypt. He had a noname USB flash disk with a transparent case. Hell know what happened to it, but he swore it was in the backpack all the time and nobody touched it.. But the flash disk is simply dead, the LED never turns on, and nothing happens when it is plugged in.
So.. maybe the temperature did it, or maybe the fact that it spent so much time in darkness:-)
But come on, a product which stops working after a period of 'doing nothing' is not a good product.
So, does anyone know a place where people can find out how to choose a good usb flash disk, or removable media in general?
Do you think your super-mega broadband connection will still be available if things get screwed up?
When people say that the Internet is non-distructible, this doesn't mean that every terminal attached to is is invulnerable. The main servers will live, but many nodes will go off.
So not only that you might get stuck with your 2.5 Gigs and a dial-up connection; but you might not have Internet at all.
What if years pass and gorillas [or other primates] become more advanced, developing hunting weapons; gathering into groups and building sheds, then simple houses; meanwhile they master fire; and so on.
In other words, what if something speeds up their evolution process, and we - humans realize that if they keep it that way, they will 'step on our territory'. What will our actions B?
[a] Eliminate them right away [b] Cooperate with them by helping them build more reliable huts, more efficient tools [c] Ignore them
* who gives us the right to go for [a]? * what is the ultimate goal of [b]? If we do that, they WILL step on our territory, ask for more, etc... If we do that just for fun, so that our kids can see some 'cool stuff', then why not just go for [a]? * taking the [c] approach means that we have no possibility to influence the outcome. So certainly, ignoring this 'civilization' is not an option.
And one more thing, it is obvious that the apes won't start breaking our doors, taking the keyboard away in order to check their email or open our fridges to get some food... So they're not _our_ competitors. On the other hand, I believe pigmeys and other primitive tribes will see a problem with that.
So let me reformulate: How will the react if apes get more advanced?
They meant that there are two types of tool use, not two instances of tool use in 10 years; i.e. there are many gorillas who do action A and action B, and thruought 10 years nobody noticed them doing action C with a stick.
That's it.
It happens, though they could have avoided it...
on
Palm's Mistakes
·
· Score: 3, Informative
I've only used one Palm, it's an m505, I have it for almost two years, and I must say that this is a very good device, and one of my most precious gadgets.
Those of you who wrote that Palms are great as PIM-tools but they suck at everything else - you're wrong. If you take your time to learn the device's habits, you can become very efficient with it. I understand that some random person in the street might not have the skill needed to become a power-user, but I am absolutely sure that any slashdotter has what it takes.
I use my PDA for these things: - book reading - dictionary - writing articles - schedule/contacts/notes [but this is an obvious one] - mathematical calculations [see EasyCalc on sourceforge] - and as soon as I get a decent mobile, I'll add 'email and websurfing' to the list.
Maybe this is caused by the fact that I am getting along well with computers, but I had absolutely no problem with getting used to grafitti, or the Palm GUI - I just used the tool to do my work, rather than "a lot of work had to be done before the tool became usable".
IMHO, Palm is a perfect example of how mobile devices have to be built. So, did they go wrong from the technical point of view? NO.
Where did they go wrong? Well, I will not say that they weren't wise enough to anticipate the competirors' actions, yada yada... What disappointed me, a dedicated Palm-er, is their attitude towards some customers... The story is below:
Some time ago they announced that PalmOS 4.1 is available as an update, and I told myself that I had to go for it, as I needed to work with memory cards of a capacity which 4.0 couldn't handle properly. Their official updater only worked with English Palms, while I had a multilingual one.
I found a 4.1 ROM somewhere on the web, flashed it, everything worked fine... Until the moment the PDA started crashing out of the blue, when running various applications. I tried this and that, but everything failed. It happened many times that I was writing something for several hours.. and then the whole doc is gone after a crash..
Sure, the flasher told me that the ROM is not designed for the device I have, etc.. but what was I to do?:-) [and yes, I forgot to backup my existing ROM]
Then I decided to switch back to 4.0, screw the new features.. but get my stability back. Nope.. it never happened... I flashed the ROM, but now it keeps crashing anyway. It's not that bad anymore, it only crashes when I'm in DocsToGo, and only when I am editing a WordToGo document. [which still sucks, because this is the application I need most]. So, at the moment, the only explanation I can find is that I need to flash it with a multilingual 4.0 ROM [the 4.0 ROM I used was an English one]... That must be it, as I am very cautious with my devices, I never dropped my PDA, never got water on it, never hit it too hard with the stylus:-) etc
I contacted Palm, via email asking them to provide me a ROM, or some troubleshooting tips - because I could not rely on my PDA anymore. But I got no reply. I used the feedback form on their site - nothing.
Now THAT is what makes Palm not attractive to me anymore. Sure, it could be my fault, but can't they at least explicitly state that, so that I will stop trying to find the non-existing solution and move on to a different device?
So, to summarize, there are two things I don't like about Palm:
1. they let me down from the tech point of view; by designing an instrument which is not entirely fail-safe.
2. and then there's the 'social factor' - their actions can be interpreted as "we don't give a damn about European users" and then they don't even reply to people's emails.
The only reason I am still that supportive, is because I know that it used to be a great company that did a lot of great things. There are many people who chose a Palm over a PocketPC after my 'intervention'... Palm, don't make me feel sorry for supporting you.
The truth is... that my next PDA is still going to be a Palm...
And since I'm here: Could someone with an 'untouched' multilingual m505 please dump their ROM to a file and let me have it? Please?
I thought that natural gas is artificially made to smell; so that one that passes by a leaking source could notice the leak and warn the others/run/take cover/etc
You are not correct. People want to hide things because they need the 'psychological comfort' of knowing that their stuff is safe.
It's like with diaries - people hide them because the pages contain sensitive information. A hidden diary is not something which proves that I murder people and hide the evidence; it's proof of the fact that I am a _normal_ human being with my own fears and feelings.
This is extremely primitive. Multiple dots in a filename could be a sign of "maliciousness", but this does not guarantee that the file _is_ dangerous. They should have simply thrown a warning that says that the file could be dangerous, but not permanently block it.
Moreover, hotmail is a dumb system, if you send an EXE - it's blocked and nothing can be done. But as in the previous case, they should just warn the user (red, bold message in the middle of the screen, so that one cannot miss it). What if I am 100% sure the source is reliable?
Certainly, this does help them avoid some trouble, but it also limits the peoples' freedom. What will they do next? Read my mail for me and simply send me a short notification that says "nothing to see here, move along" ?:-)
Slashdot Mirror
Under Windows, you can use Private Disk (AES 256-bit, with certification from NIST; use multiple encrypted drives simultaneously), it comes with a lot of features, my favourite one being 'Disk Firewall'. This is an application-level filter that doesn't exist in programs like TrueCrypt or BestCrypt, etc. This thing allows you to control which application can access the drive, while the others (i.e. viruses, spyware and other #^!#$^!ware) are rejected.
The program runs off removable drives too (there are certain particularities.. but once you know what you're doing, it works).
You would be right if my intention was to find a replacement-country for the entire outsourcing industry. However, if you look at things from the point of view of an average company that looks for additional labour-force, even Vatican would be good, as long as they offered programmers :-)
+ I am biased towards the country I love, what's wrong with that?
There are several aspects that have to be taken into account:
1. Cultural
2. Economical
3. Technical
[1]. Thruout history, Moldova has always been at the intersection of various cultures - the place where East met West; the place where Christianity confronted with Islam during the Turkish invasions, etc. The roman and slavic influences made it so that almost everybody in Moldova speaks two languages 'by default' - Romanian and Russian. Moreover, during the years of the Soviet Union, this country was in the lead when it came to the number of university graduates. A consequence is that in addition to the two 'mother' languages, almost everyone is rather skilled in French or English. In other words, it is a common thing for a moldovan to speak three languages. The educational system of today puts some more pressure on the linguistic capabilities, therefore it is not THAT difficult to find a programmer that has mastered several programming languages, as well as several human languages.
The advantages are the following:
- a moldovan programmer is a flexible person, able to easily integrate into a team of foreign programmers; being less likely to be the 'bottleneck' of the team.
- the written code is easily readable - reasonable variable names, error messages, function names, and so on. Moreover, the code turns out to be well-commented.
So, the source code can be easily maintained, this is critical, those who have had the 'honor' to update foreign code will certainly support this argument. Often the conversion of 'bad' code to 'good' code takes the most significant part of the assigned time (and money). To get a better idea of how bad things can be, read some comments related to the following article: "How to write unmaintainable code"
After looking through the comments, you will be convinced that any sane programmer will choose "well-commented code" over "fantastically optimized but entirely obfuscated and non-commented code".
[2] Economically, both Moldova and India are countries that have a long way until they become trully prosperous. So, both states are still in development, and both need foreign investments, and will seek ways to attract foreign capital.
Geographically, Moldova is a much smaller state than India is, therefore it takes less resources to support the economy of the smaller country, therefore the country [meaning 'the entities located in this country'] is more likely to settle for lower prices. Another argument which backs that statement up, is the difference between the GDP of each state:
$ 3,319,000,000,000 [India]
$ 8,581,000,000 [Moldova]
The relationship between quality of life and average prices is simple: the more advanced a country is, the more money a citizen needs in order to live a decent life [because needs evolve along with the resources]. This argument proves that outsourcing to Moldova can be a good fund saver; while the first one shows that moldovans are, in theory, going to produce better-mantainable code (as the comments of the article point out, this will eventually save a LOT of money too). I have to emphasize, that long-term investments might not be that attractive, but in the long run, they are more efficient.
There are bright minds in India, and there are bright minds in Moldova - there is nothing in this world that can convince a reasonable person that this is not true. So, this issue requ
You have your terrorist ghosts in the middle east, we have ours in the Caucasia. Had them for hundreds of years, to be specific.
Well, 'having them for hundreds of years' is what happens when you invade a foreign land and force your traditions (that also implies religion) and rules upon the locals. I understand that it's tough to live thru the day not having the guarantee that your house is not going to be blown up in the course of the night.
But then, think about all the pain that was caused to the enslaved peoples - did your grandparents and grand-grandparents live with a permanent chance of being deported to Siberia for absolutely no reason? Was there a deadly hunger in Russia caused by someone else except the Russian government itself? Does someone force Russians to learn a foreign language (or worse - substitute their native with an alien one)? [I can make a long list of these]
The Chechens of today are the Russians of yesterday (metaphorically speaking), it's just that new tools are used, and the numbers are different - the essence is the same though - if you attack, you'll get a reply.
Of course people will have differing interpretations of reality. But reality itself is just that: reality.
I think there's a better way to express that: reality is what exists regardless of what you believe/think about it. Everything else is an interpretation/perception.
There is a question that has been bothering me for a while, and now it seems that the context is appropriate for it.
:-)
Speaking of colors, let's take RED for example. How can we find out whether each individual [and life form] sees RED as we do?
One way would be to take one's [P1] eyes (i.e. video-input), and connect them to another person's [P2] brain. P2's memory remembers how RED looks like, so if P2 gets to see the world with P1's eyes, he/she will be able to confirm whether everyone sees colors the same way or not.
But since RED is just a name attached to a color, we can't be sure that everyone means _real_RED when they see RED. For instance, take a newborn baby, and teach it that _real_RED is called BLUE. The person will see the same thing as we do, but call it differently. Now look at this example from the other way - people look at the same _real_COLOR, but they perceive it in their own way; and even though everybody calls this color RED, they actually see different things.
I hope I managed to get the message across.
It seems that the above idea is incorrect, because we all know about the impact of colors on a person's mood; for instance, BLUE is relaxing, while RED does the opposite. And if we assume that BLUE is relaxing for everybody, it means that indeed the _real_BLUE matches the BLUE we think is blue. If that wasn't true, then situations like this one would be very frequent:
- one guy enters a blue room and feels comfortable
- another guy spends some time in the same room, and freaks out
Yet, is there some solid evidence to back up the fact that people see colors in the same way? If we could somehow wiretap the neuro-channels and sniff the traffic, we could do it this way:
1. show a blue light to P1 [see that the person's brain receives a 111001 signal]
2. show a blue light to P2, wiretap, and see if the received signal matches 111001 or not.
I am sure that it is possible to set the dots on 'i' in this matter, but I have no clue how. Can someone shed light on the subject?
I come to slashdot for the comments.
I second that. The comments are fantabulous, and I really learned a LOT of new things as a slashdotter. I admit that some of the signatures are great too.
But the comments are the best. There's no place like slashdot!
Hmm.. ok, picture that he's heterosexual. Now, if you were a woman - would you have sex with this guy? [knowing that he was infected, but then got cured]
If I were a chick, no way I'd sleep with that guy.. Fsck it, even if biology proved that he's clean, [probably] any woman would feel psychologycally uncomfortable, because thoughts like "what if the tests weren't correct?" don't vanish that easily.
I think they're making a big mistake by naming it Godzilla. This is non-scientific behaviour. I mean, some people will actually believe that Godzilla [the movie character] existed; and if you tell them that it was just a movie, they'll bring you a book or an issue of Scientific Whatever, where it written, black on white, that Godzilla existed, was 13 feet long, and fed with aquatic beings.
And there will be no way you could prove them wrong because "Scientific Whatever is obviously smarter than you are"....
Now, wait a sec, isn't it the exact same thing we have with religion? Some guy[s] wrote a [series of] book[s] thousands of years ago, and now most of the people take that as absolute truth, without checking the facts.
And since those who watched Godzilla seriously outnumber those who really studied the bible... something tells me that this idea about a 'real Godzilla' will definitely stick.
I'm sure the translator didn't do it correctly.
;-)
I often encounter such cases... Sure, the translators know grammar and spelling and literature and all the other stuff... but when it comes to hi-tech, they only know what they saw in movies... and they honestly believe that a firewall is a wall of fire thru which viruses cannot pass because they are burnt
Why not go to a 'usual' school, but also do an independent study at home? Why not take additional classes?
If you say you're bored, it means you're not getting much pressure on yourself; but who told you that school is the only pressure-maker?
If you had a shitload of spare time, you could have invested it in other projects, projects you chose YOURSELF (i.e. you're bored with school topics, but you can choose the additional ones yourself). If you didn't do that, then maybe you were lazy?
Either way, I admire the kid's talent; but he should take it easier. I think that if he keeps it that way, it will be great for mankind, but it will make his personal life miserable.
We got a lot of comments about gamers in South Korea, and how 'devastated' they'll feel once Windows is gone. My question is - what will really happen? Do you think that if MS really gets outta there, all the existing copies of Windows will automagically vanish too, and all the gamers will suffocate in agony?
;-)
... this is obviously not a cheap process.
Absolutely not! MS goes, the gamers stay, what's the big deal? Sure, they won't be able to play the newer games... But then, take StarCraft for example - even my grandma's teapot is performant enough to run this one
I think that most likely it will become a legal problem:
- assuming Windows is gone;
- people stick to it and use pirated copies instead;
- MS understands that and asks the South Korean government to take measures [if nothing happens, they'll sue the country, whatever..]
So, I think MS will stay, but not because of the gamers, but because the country's leaders are smart enough to figure out what's going to happen after a few moves. It'll be much cheaper to stick to Windows rather than try to go against the flow and support all the consequences.
Gamers? give me a break. They'll have to grow up one day.
Your post is one of my favourites in this discussion. I totally agree with you.
;-)
There's one thing I have to add though: Make sure you're not going too far with not attributing value to money.
I happen to be one of those who doesn't work for money. I just love my company, and what it does, and my colleagues; we're a well-organized team. I am well-paid, but I'd stay in the company even if I earned less.
Can't say the same about one of my previous jobs: I was then the same person [i.e. working for the sake of doing something for the community, not for the sake of earning money] and... Those fsckers still owe me a 4 months' salary! (Yeah, and there was no real contract, etc.). They simply abused my kindness. Watch out for such assxoles.
And speaking of offices - ours is a big 'open' place with no walls; and I am totally satisfied with it. There's plenty of space for everything, I can see all my colleagues and I'm up to date with everything that is going on in the company. And you know... we actually TALK to each other
Can anyone suggest a site which offers information about the physical reliability of flash disks?
:-)
I am interested in a review made by someone who is NOT a manufacturer of these things; with these things included:
- how much damage is caused if I high-heeled lady steps on it with the heel
- what happens if you drop it from a certain altitude
- in which way humidity influences it
- what are the side-effects of excessive temperature
etc
A friend of mine went to Egypt. He had a noname USB flash disk with a transparent case. Hell know what happened to it, but he swore it was in the backpack all the time and nobody touched it.. But the flash disk is simply dead, the LED never turns on, and nothing happens when it is plugged in.
So.. maybe the temperature did it, or maybe the fact that it spent so much time in darkness
But come on, a product which stops working after a period of 'doing nothing' is not a good product.
So, does anyone know a place where people can find out how to choose a good usb flash disk, or removable media in general?
Do you think your super-mega broadband connection will still be available if things get screwed up?
When people say that the Internet is non-distructible, this doesn't mean that every terminal attached to is is invulnerable. The main servers will live, but many nodes will go off.
So not only that you might get stuck with your 2.5 Gigs and a dial-up connection; but you might not have Internet at all.
You're right, but since they live near those creatures, they're more likely to interact with them than we are.
In the previous message, 'primitive' meant 'technologically not advanced'.
hmm.. it seems that all the stuff in angular brackets was removed. :|
So here we go again: How will pigmeys and the others react if apes get more advanced?
What if years pass and gorillas [or other primates] become more advanced, developing hunting weapons; gathering into groups and building sheds, then simple houses; meanwhile they master fire; and so on.
:-)
In other words, what if something speeds up their evolution process, and we - humans realize that if they keep it that way, they will 'step on our territory'. What will our actions B?
[a] Eliminate them right away
[b] Cooperate with them by helping them build more reliable huts, more efficient tools
[c] Ignore them
* who gives us the right to go for [a]?
* what is the ultimate goal of [b]? If we do that, they WILL step on our territory, ask for more, etc... If we do that just for fun, so that our kids can see some 'cool stuff', then why not just go for [a]?
* taking the [c] approach means that we have no possibility to influence the outcome. So certainly, ignoring this 'civilization' is not an option.
And one more thing, it is obvious that the apes won't start breaking our doors, taking the keyboard away in order to check their email or open our fridges to get some food... So they're not _our_ competitors. On the other hand, I believe pigmeys and other primitive tribes will see a problem with that.
So let me reformulate: How will the react if apes get more advanced?
Let the extrapolation begin!
They meant that there are two types of tool use, not two instances of tool use in 10 years; i.e. there are many gorillas who do action A and action B, and thruought 10 years nobody noticed them doing action C with a stick.
That's it.
I've only used one Palm, it's an m505, I have it for almost two years, and I must say that this is a very good device, and one of my most precious gadgets.
:-) [and yes, I forgot to backup my existing ROM]
:-) etc
Those of you who wrote that Palms are great as PIM-tools but they suck at everything else - you're wrong. If you take your time to learn the device's habits, you can become very efficient with it. I understand that some random person in the street might not have the skill needed to become a power-user, but I am absolutely sure that any slashdotter has what it takes.
I use my PDA for these things:
- book reading
- dictionary
- writing articles
- schedule/contacts/notes [but this is an obvious one]
- mathematical calculations [see EasyCalc on sourceforge]
- and as soon as I get a decent mobile, I'll add 'email and websurfing' to the list.
Maybe this is caused by the fact that I am getting along well with computers, but I had absolutely no problem with getting used to grafitti, or the Palm GUI - I just used the tool to do my work, rather than "a lot of work had to be done before the tool became usable".
IMHO, Palm is a perfect example of how mobile devices have to be built. So, did they go wrong from the technical point of view? NO.
Where did they go wrong? Well, I will not say that they weren't wise enough to anticipate the competirors' actions, yada yada... What disappointed me, a dedicated Palm-er, is their attitude towards some customers... The story is below:
Some time ago they announced that PalmOS 4.1 is available as an update, and I told myself that I had to go for it, as I needed to work with memory cards of a capacity which 4.0 couldn't handle properly. Their official updater only worked with English Palms, while I had a multilingual one.
I found a 4.1 ROM somewhere on the web, flashed it, everything worked fine... Until the moment the PDA started crashing out of the blue, when running various applications. I tried this and that, but everything failed. It happened many times that I was writing something for several hours.. and then the whole doc is gone after a crash..
Sure, the flasher told me that the ROM is not designed for the device I have, etc.. but what was I to do?
Then I decided to switch back to 4.0, screw the new features.. but get my stability back. Nope.. it never happened... I flashed the ROM, but now it keeps crashing anyway. It's not that bad anymore, it only crashes when I'm in DocsToGo, and only when I am editing a WordToGo document. [which still sucks, because this is the application I need most].
So, at the moment, the only explanation I can find is that I need to flash it with a multilingual 4.0 ROM [the 4.0 ROM I used was an English one]... That must be it, as I am very cautious with my devices, I never dropped my PDA, never got water on it, never hit it too hard with the stylus
I contacted Palm, via email asking them to provide me a ROM, or some troubleshooting tips - because I could not rely on my PDA anymore. But I got no reply. I used the feedback form on their site - nothing.
Now THAT is what makes Palm not attractive to me anymore. Sure, it could be my fault, but can't they at least explicitly state that, so that I will stop trying to find the non-existing solution and move on to a different device?
So, to summarize, there are two things I don't like about Palm:
1. they let me down from the tech point of view; by designing an instrument which is not entirely fail-safe.
2. and then there's the 'social factor' - their actions can be interpreted as "we don't give a damn about European users" and then they don't even reply to people's emails.
The only reason I am still that supportive, is because I know that it used to be a great company that did a lot of great things. There are many people who chose a Palm over a PocketPC after my 'intervention'... Palm, don't make me feel sorry for supporting you.
The truth is... that my next PDA is still going to be a Palm...
And since I'm here:
Could someone with an 'untouched' multilingual m505 please dump their ROM to a file and let me have it? Please?
I thought that natural gas is artificially made to smell; so that one that passes by a leaking source could notice the leak and warn the others/run/take cover/etc
Isn't the natural smell = no smell?
Too bad that I have no mod points to bring your post up... But I would be glad if someone gave an explanation.
Maybe Palm sold them the OS itself, not the company? [though this doesn't match the info from the article]
You are not correct. People want to hide things because they need the 'psychological comfort' of knowing that their stuff is safe.
It's like with diaries - people hide them because the pages contain sensitive information. A hidden diary is not something which proves that I murder people and hide the evidence; it's proof of the fact that I am a _normal_ human being with my own fears and feelings.
I always remove that shortcut from my startup folder. And guess what? It still loads faster. This is a fact.
This is extremely primitive. Multiple dots in a filename could be a sign of "maliciousness", but this does not guarantee that the file _is_ dangerous. They should have simply thrown a warning that says that the file could be dangerous, but not permanently block it.
:-)
Moreover, hotmail is a dumb system, if you send an EXE - it's blocked and nothing can be done. But as in the previous case, they should just warn the user (red, bold message in the middle of the screen, so that one cannot miss it). What if I am 100% sure the source is reliable?
Certainly, this does help them avoid some trouble, but it also limits the peoples' freedom. What will they do next? Read my mail for me and simply send me a short notification that says "nothing to see here, move along" ?