Exactly what I was thinking--does the iPhone 4 have a CDMA and GSM radio in it??
That'd be a boost to its already ridiculous market domination...and might make me consider one when my current Android gives up the ghost...
I'd say the biggest drawback to pot smoking in teenage years is a lack of ability to find and keep a job. Being a loaf isn't conducive to paying the bills, which is the skill teenagers need to learn first and foremost. Self-sufficiency is paramount to heading off to college, or work, or simply moving on in life and I'd wager is more important than grades, social status, or if they are pot-heads or not. Its possible to smoke weed and still have a reasonable income, but the desire to be self-sufficient needs to come first or the stoner mentality wins over.
You're very right. I work in IT at a Land-Grant Research University. Its amazing how much time I spend cleaning up the "CLICK HERE FOR FREE STUFFZ (TM)" kind of virii on the PhD's computers. A brilliant scientific brain/= computer literacy.
I second this comment; I did something similar with my Mom's Dell Laptop a few years back. While on summer vacation with my kids at my mom's house, she asked if I could "speed up" her laptop. Just turning it on was agonizing, 10+ minutes to get the XP desktop through a bunch of popups, "speed optimizers," and other crapware.
I know this is going to sound radical, but I simply fixed it by installing Ubuntu--9.04 at the time IIRC. I just copied her "My Documents" to ~/mom/My Documents and put a shortcut on the desktop, I set the SAME background image, put the Firefox icon on the desktop and restored her Windows profile in to it (she was already a FF user) and installed her copy of Office 2003 with Crossover and put shortcuts for Word and Excel on the desktop too. Done and done. That was 4+ years back and she's still using it--90% of what she does on the computer is in a web-browser, and FF is the same across platforms.
I haven't had a call to fix "XP Antivirus Pro" since.
Well said, I agree completely. I have an old Gateway Solo 2500 333MHz Celeron with 256mb of RAM in my workroom running a stripped down version of XP. I didn't start with NLite either, I just installed stock, ran the updates (119 updates from a base+slipstreamed-SP3 install, not including the.NET stuff), then shut off every program and service I didn't need via MSCONFIG/MMC. IIRC, its only using 9-10 services above and beyond "WORKSTATION" and boots in under 2 minutes to a usable desktop with 120mb of free RAM.
Why XP and not some other OS? 1: XP cuts down to old hardware very well if you're willing to take a bit of time to customize it. 2: This laptop shipped with 98SE that needed a bunch of Gateway Software loaded to run the sound card, NeoMagic video adapter, and USB ports. XP doesn't need ANY extra drivers not even for the old Orinoco PCMCIA WiFi adapter (shoot, neither did ME, but I digress...). 3: Google Chrome works just peachy and my extensions sync fine, even if it is a tad slow. I can happily run WinAMP 2.95 to stream music while I build things, and have a simple Internet terminal to look things up. I also have an older HP scanner that Windows XP detects simply by plugging it in--none of the Macs in our house will work with it, even with HP's OSX drivers.
As a disclaimer, I've run 98SE, ME (for the longest time, maybe 4+ years), RedHat 6, RedHat 7, a few flavors of Fedora, a few flavors of Solaris/OpenSolaris, Windows 2000, and Windows XP all on this laptop over the years. Most recently I used Debian 4.x and XUbuntu 9.1, both worked but neither seemed very responsive when I'd fire up Chrome, even in XFCE. XP gives me the widest range of hardware compatibility for a 12+ year old laptop I use a couple times a week to listen to music or print out schematics. Everything works "out of the box," and since its behind my hardware firewall, I suppose it can run for ever, or until the hardware gives out in that laptop--they just don't build them like they used to.
We have the same problem in our town of 60K; the "big" theater here usually only carries 3D versions of new-releases. Sometimes farther down the release chain the 2D version may show up for very popular movies, or they will be in 2D when they move to the second run theater across town.
I *LIKE* going to the movies, but as has been mentioned so many times above, its much more convenient and affordable to stay home and watch moves on our TV. I don't mind paying $8.50 or $9.50 to see a first run movie on opening weekend, but paying $13.50 for 3D is silly. I'm kind of mixed on 3D, I've seen a few movies in 3D that benefited from the extra dimension, but I've seen quite a few more that the 3D was distracting (Alice in Wonderland 2010, I'm thinking of you). I would prefer to see 2D most of the time, and with 16 screens available don't see why they couldn't run both or interleave them at different times in the same auditorium.
As for cell phones in the theater, they are a bother but I can tone them out--years of practice toning my wife and daughter's texting addictions helps with that. Don't even get me started on the $15 popcorn and soda combo though!
Her MB has a 2.1GHz Core2Duo but when installed, Lion only loaded a 32bit kernel, unlike my MBP with a 2.4GHz Core2Duo that loaded a 64bit kernel. Both had been running 32bit Snow Leopard prior to Lion. Not sure if its a limitation of the hardware, or if Lion decided based on the RAM installed (2Gb in the MB and 4Gb in my MBP).
Far be it from me to say that a/. submitter would rush to publish--but, as of the time of this posting, TBP is not down or offline. I simply stuck the URL in my browser, perhaps too rudimentary a method for testing?
I think this is an excellent use for empty front slots--and also a good idea for a simple DC power source. One could wire a couple direct plug DC charger ports at 12v (even a ciggy lighter to power small car accessories). This could be taken a step farther by building voltage regulators on breadboard mounted in one of the bays to power things at 3.3v, etc. Even a single bay would be able to hold a plethora of connectors.
I did something nearly identical at work. I support research scientists and their staff and you'd be amazed how many virii come up on the machines due to too much social networking (as if there was a lot of time in science for that!). After the 3rd time reloading a PC in our front office because the office manager's kid had infected it with a few trojans, I installed Ubuntu. I put the Firefox icon on the desktop along with Office 2007 running on the LameDuck Free version of Crossover 7.x from a couple years back. I set the office's Laserjet up as the default printer and gave the office manager and staff nearly the exact same instructions, "This is Ubuntu, its like Windows, but not quite--see, there's Firefox, and there's Word/Excel/Etc. It prints with CTRL+P, just like Windows, enjoy."
Been running for over a year now, no issues and it gets MySpaced and Facebooked nearly every day.
...is this really a matter of pressing urgency in California? Wouldn't working towards plugging the state budget gap be a better use of the CA Legislation's time?
...and if you're in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, I'll be your personal Linux tech-support guy. Seriously though, while we do have a few professors who use Linux for web-servers and analytical processing, very few use it as their primary desktop. All of our University's apps are Linux enabled aside from Microsoft Office--this includes UI email VPN, and wireless.
I happen to live in a part of the country (South Eastern Idaho) that has a WiMax provider (Digital Bridge Communications).
They use an Alerion Modem which is extremely painless to set up and as long as it's near a window it gets great reception.
The downside is that the throughput is MUCH less than the 2mb's they actually advertise. I got more like 200k on downloads which made Youtube and the like unusable. For surfing/email/chat it works great, but don't try and download anything large and forget using it for your video game console or streaming movie box.
...on what YOU want to accomplish. I started working as a tech-support rep at a call center and then worked through the ranks in a network admin type position and before I left that company after 10 years I was managing teams of tech's all across the country. During my tenure at that company I earned an A.A. degree in Business through night courses at the local accredited 4 year university, and can say with confidence that it meant nearly NOTHING to my old employer aside from showing my ability to "earn a degree."
However, I left that job last year to take a new position AT a university (also local) and can say in the research and education field, degrees are the deciding factor to how far you can go. My A.A. degree isn't looked on with disdain, rather it's looked at as a starting point and my employer has encouraged (and provided a cheap way to earn) more degrees in any subject I choose. While I still do computer work, the research and education field is literally the polar opposite of the corporate business world. The take home pay is substantially less, but the fringe benefits are better in the long run and the opportunity to earn multiple degrees in subjects I'm actually interested in (and not those I have no choice but to learn in order to get advancement) is WONDERFUL.
My advice would be to try and look at what you'd like to be doing in 10 years. If you're really spectacular at coding and just want a degree to back it up for your job search--a BS/MS from any accredited university who has specialized programs for CS should do the trick. On the other hand if you want to go in to research, a degree from a university like MIT which does ONLY those kind of technical programs might give you the upper hand. Regardless of where your degrees come from (or lack thereof) it will be your performance which will ultimately get you the big $$$. The degrees will get you the interviews, but your mettle will get you the job and your determination will get you the paychecks.
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Oh damn, I meant iPhone 5, obviously.
Exactly what I was thinking--does the iPhone 4 have a CDMA and GSM radio in it?? That'd be a boost to its already ridiculous market domination...and might make me consider one when my current Android gives up the ghost...
I'd say the biggest drawback to pot smoking in teenage years is a lack of ability to find and keep a job. Being a loaf isn't conducive to paying the bills, which is the skill teenagers need to learn first and foremost. Self-sufficiency is paramount to heading off to college, or work, or simply moving on in life and I'd wager is more important than grades, social status, or if they are pot-heads or not. Its possible to smoke weed and still have a reasonable income, but the desire to be self-sufficient needs to come first or the stoner mentality wins over.
Aww, tell us how you really feel....
You're very right. I work in IT at a Land-Grant Research University. Its amazing how much time I spend cleaning up the "CLICK HERE FOR FREE STUFFZ (TM)" kind of virii on the PhD's computers. A brilliant scientific brain /= computer literacy.
As has been mentioned quite a few times before you could use a backport or *gasp* compile the newest 'goodie' from scratch...
Are you sure? I thought the correct answer was "ed."
I second this comment; I did something similar with my Mom's Dell Laptop a few years back. While on summer vacation with my kids at my mom's house, she asked if I could "speed up" her laptop. Just turning it on was agonizing, 10+ minutes to get the XP desktop through a bunch of popups, "speed optimizers," and other crapware. I know this is going to sound radical, but I simply fixed it by installing Ubuntu--9.04 at the time IIRC. I just copied her "My Documents" to ~/mom/My Documents and put a shortcut on the desktop, I set the SAME background image, put the Firefox icon on the desktop and restored her Windows profile in to it (she was already a FF user) and installed her copy of Office 2003 with Crossover and put shortcuts for Word and Excel on the desktop too. Done and done. That was 4+ years back and she's still using it--90% of what she does on the computer is in a web-browser, and FF is the same across platforms. I haven't had a call to fix "XP Antivirus Pro" since.
Erm, 2 finger (right click) and drag works just fine on my Early 2008 MacBook Pro...
I'm with Brian on this--shoot, I watched RevolutionOS last night by some odd duplicitous coincidence...
Well said, wish I had that 5th mod point for this reply...
Well said, I agree completely. I have an old Gateway Solo 2500 333MHz Celeron with 256mb of RAM in my workroom running a stripped down version of XP. I didn't start with NLite either, I just installed stock, ran the updates (119 updates from a base+slipstreamed-SP3 install, not including the .NET stuff), then shut off every program and service I didn't need via MSCONFIG/MMC. IIRC, its only using 9-10 services above and beyond "WORKSTATION" and boots in under 2 minutes to a usable desktop with 120mb of free RAM.
Why XP and not some other OS? 1: XP cuts down to old hardware very well if you're willing to take a bit of time to customize it. 2: This laptop shipped with 98SE that needed a bunch of Gateway Software loaded to run the sound card, NeoMagic video adapter, and USB ports. XP doesn't need ANY extra drivers not even for the old Orinoco PCMCIA WiFi adapter (shoot, neither did ME, but I digress...). 3: Google Chrome works just peachy and my extensions sync fine, even if it is a tad slow. I can happily run WinAMP 2.95 to stream music while I build things, and have a simple Internet terminal to look things up. I also have an older HP scanner that Windows XP detects simply by plugging it in--none of the Macs in our house will work with it, even with HP's OSX drivers.
As a disclaimer, I've run 98SE, ME (for the longest time, maybe 4+ years), RedHat 6, RedHat 7, a few flavors of Fedora, a few flavors of Solaris/OpenSolaris, Windows 2000, and Windows XP all on this laptop over the years. Most recently I used Debian 4.x and XUbuntu 9.1, both worked but neither seemed very responsive when I'd fire up Chrome, even in XFCE. XP gives me the widest range of hardware compatibility for a 12+ year old laptop I use a couple times a week to listen to music or print out schematics. Everything works "out of the box," and since its behind my hardware firewall, I suppose it can run for ever, or until the hardware gives out in that laptop--they just don't build them like they used to.
We have the same problem in our town of 60K; the "big" theater here usually only carries 3D versions of new-releases. Sometimes farther down the release chain the 2D version may show up for very popular movies, or they will be in 2D when they move to the second run theater across town. I *LIKE* going to the movies, but as has been mentioned so many times above, its much more convenient and affordable to stay home and watch moves on our TV. I don't mind paying $8.50 or $9.50 to see a first run movie on opening weekend, but paying $13.50 for 3D is silly. I'm kind of mixed on 3D, I've seen a few movies in 3D that benefited from the extra dimension, but I've seen quite a few more that the 3D was distracting (Alice in Wonderland 2010, I'm thinking of you). I would prefer to see 2D most of the time, and with 16 screens available don't see why they couldn't run both or interleave them at different times in the same auditorium. As for cell phones in the theater, they are a bother but I can tone them out--years of practice toning my wife and daughter's texting addictions helps with that. Don't even get me started on the $15 popcorn and soda combo though!
Her MB has a 2.1GHz Core2Duo but when installed, Lion only loaded a 32bit kernel, unlike my MBP with a 2.4GHz Core2Duo that loaded a 64bit kernel. Both had been running 32bit Snow Leopard prior to Lion. Not sure if its a limitation of the hardware, or if Lion decided based on the RAM installed (2Gb in the MB and 4Gb in my MBP).
You may be happy to know that the Dev Prev of Lion works fine on my wife's 32bit MacBook.
Far be it from me to say that a /. submitter would rush to publish--but, as of the time of this posting, TBP is not down or offline. I simply stuck the URL in my browser, perhaps too rudimentary a method for testing?
I think this is an excellent use for empty front slots--and also a good idea for a simple DC power source. One could wire a couple direct plug DC charger ports at 12v (even a ciggy lighter to power small car accessories). This could be taken a step farther by building voltage regulators on breadboard mounted in one of the bays to power things at 3.3v, etc. Even a single bay would be able to hold a plethora of connectors.
I did something nearly identical at work. I support research scientists and their staff and you'd be amazed how many virii come up on the machines due to too much social networking (as if there was a lot of time in science for that!). After the 3rd time reloading a PC in our front office because the office manager's kid had infected it with a few trojans, I installed Ubuntu. I put the Firefox icon on the desktop along with Office 2007 running on the LameDuck Free version of Crossover 7.x from a couple years back. I set the office's Laserjet up as the default printer and gave the office manager and staff nearly the exact same instructions, "This is Ubuntu, its like Windows, but not quite--see, there's Firefox, and there's Word/Excel/Etc. It prints with CTRL+P, just like Windows, enjoy."
Been running for over a year now, no issues and it gets MySpaced and Facebooked nearly every day.
"It was pure bliss. Like Jesus was just 32 hertz away from me."
Thank you, this is the best post of 2010.
...is this really a matter of pressing urgency in California? Wouldn't working towards plugging the state budget gap be a better use of the CA Legislation's time?
Very well said...too bad the folks who mod'd this informative didn't read what RFC 1149 actually is.
...and if you're in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, I'll be your personal Linux tech-support guy. Seriously though, while we do have a few professors who use Linux for web-servers and analytical processing, very few use it as their primary desktop. All of our University's apps are Linux enabled aside from Microsoft Office--this includes UI email VPN, and wireless.
I happen to live in a part of the country (South Eastern Idaho) that has a WiMax provider (Digital Bridge Communications). They use an Alerion Modem which is extremely painless to set up and as long as it's near a window it gets great reception. The downside is that the throughput is MUCH less than the 2mb's they actually advertise. I got more like 200k on downloads which made Youtube and the like unusable. For surfing/email/chat it works great, but don't try and download anything large and forget using it for your video game console or streaming movie box.
...more tin foil on your hat. That'll keep the thought-police outta your head.
...on what YOU want to accomplish. I started working as a tech-support rep at a call center and then worked through the ranks in a network admin type position and before I left that company after 10 years I was managing teams of tech's all across the country. During my tenure at that company I earned an A.A. degree in Business through night courses at the local accredited 4 year university, and can say with confidence that it meant nearly NOTHING to my old employer aside from showing my ability to "earn a degree."
However, I left that job last year to take a new position AT a university (also local) and can say in the research and education field, degrees are the deciding factor to how far you can go. My A.A. degree isn't looked on with disdain, rather it's looked at as a starting point and my employer has encouraged (and provided a cheap way to earn) more degrees in any subject I choose. While I still do computer work, the research and education field is literally the polar opposite of the corporate business world. The take home pay is substantially less, but the fringe benefits are better in the long run and the opportunity to earn multiple degrees in subjects I'm actually interested in (and not those I have no choice but to learn in order to get advancement) is WONDERFUL.
My advice would be to try and look at what you'd like to be doing in 10 years. If you're really spectacular at coding and just want a degree to back it up for your job search--a BS/MS from any accredited university who has specialized programs for CS should do the trick. On the other hand if you want to go in to research, a degree from a university like MIT which does ONLY those kind of technical programs might give you the upper hand. Regardless of where your degrees come from (or lack thereof) it will be your performance which will ultimately get you the big $$$. The degrees will get you the interviews, but your mettle will get you the job and your determination will get you the paychecks.