It's pretty much a telephone system, except that it's computers calling other computers
The only problem with that analogy is that it doesn't differentiate between a circuit-switched network (phones) and a packet-switched network (the Internet). But, then, maybe it's not really necessary to explain that to a lay person.
Is it just me or are there others out there who are bothered by statements like "three and a half times less likely to fail?" From a statistical standpoint, would it not be better to say "less than one-third as likely to fail?"
Yeah, same here. We have an yellow-headed Amazon and I've been convinced that if he's not a direct descendant of a dinosaur, he must be channeling one. It's an interesting coincidence that parrots are one of the earliest of modern birds to show up in fossil records.
I grew up in that general area and, trust me, there are a hundred thousand banal light industrial buildings just like the one mentioned in TFA, many of which had equally important industrial advances made in them. That hardly merits spending a single dollar to protect any of them. If the building has some architectural significance, it might be worth saving but if it's just another tilt-up/concrete block box, I say go ahead and raze the thing if there's a good reason.
True enough, my last French classes were probably taken years before you were even born. On the other hand, if you'd paid attention, you would have noticed that I already copped to my error.
that's just because long-haul trucking is even more mind-bogglingly idiotic than commuting by car!
It's not idiotic per se. Inefficient, perhaps (okay, for sure) but it's direct and very fast when compared to rail freight.
Railroads prefer to concentrate on long hauls and bulk loads. They have little or no interest in LCL (less than carload) freight or local car spotting since it's a money-losing proposition and besides, they have removed much of their local trackage over the last fifty years. This means that relatively few shippers have direct rail access to their facilities any more. So, even if you ship by rail, your freight ends up on a truck for the first and last portions of the trip anyway. Since it's often cheaper and always faster to ship relatively small loads via truck, why even bother with doing it by rail?
If you want to talk about the environmental costs of trucks vs. rail or federal subsidies of the Interstate Highway System, that's a whole different thing. Looking at it strictly from a shipper's viewpoint, however, there's nothing idiotic about it at all.
I have heard it said that although freight trains travel across the US at up to 60MPH or so, the average container or boxcar spends so much time sitting around in switching yards that its average speed over a long haul may only be 10 or 15MPH.
An 18-wheeler with two drivers running as a team (one in the bunk while the other drives) can get a shipping container from Los Angeles to the NYC area in approximately 52 hours. I know because I've actually done it myself, numerous times. Throw in time for fuel stops and driver swaps (although one co-driver and I experimented sucessfully with rolling swaps, in the end we decided it was probably a bad idea) and you can average a little over 48 MPH.
I love trains, have been across the U.S. on Amtrak several times, but if you want to move freight in batches of 45,000 lbs or less in a hurry, nothing beats a truck.
Yeah, and I'm sticking with steam, too--none of them new-fangled internal combustion engines for me. And solid rubber tires will be around long after them puffed up things are forgotten.
I gave up on CFLs--too many early failures to justify the extra cost, both monetary and envrionmental. I'd like to reduce my energy usage but, for now, I'll stick with incandescent bulbs and turn them off when I'm out of the room.
On the other hand, I bought some LED night lights (my wife suffers from night blindness) to replace the old incandescent units I used to have and not only to they save energy (0.4 Watts each!), they look way cool. Dirt cheap, too, thanks to a subsidy from the local power company.
Well, I was just trying to make a wry observation about the state of the IT in a typical small to medium-sized business, the main point of my post being that my company didn't have a decent IT department. As for creating more work for them, I actually saved them the the continuing trouble of trying to keep the cheap, generic Wintel box I used connected to the Internet properly by plugging in my Mac and doing it myself.
As far as a pink slip goes, there was never any published policy about what we could or couldn't connect to the network. I've since left the company and, as far as I can tell, no one ever noticed my Mac.
the only challenge is making IT to allow this Mac on the network
It's easier to get forgiveness than permission so you can try doing what I did. That is, take your Mac to work and plug it in to the network without telling anybody. If your IT department is anything like the one where I work, they're too overworked to notice. It's been almost a year and no one has said a thing.
Good point about BootCamp. I hadn't thought about it when I made my post but you're right, of course, it's not virtualization at all.
Still, it's unfortunate that if you want to run Vista under Parallels legally, you have to pay through the nose for Vista "Ultimate" even if you don't need all it's other bells and whistles. In my case, for instance, I only need Windows to connect to the company VPN, which hardly justifies the extra expense of "Ultimate." Microsoft never misses a chance to squeeze a buck out of it's customers.
I'll be curious to find out whether WGA has been rewritten to sniff this out.
Boy, if that isn't proof that YMMV--I was gonna post about how I thought the UI on my LG phone really sucked. What constitutes a good interface is largely in the eyes of the beholder and probably has as much to do with what you are used to as anything else.
The Quality of RS Tech Articles is Questionable
on
Apple, the New Microsoft?
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
I came to this conclusion while reading an article on "back-to-school" computers a while back in which a Windows system was recommended for graphic design students with no mention of a Mac. Without getting into the whole Mac -v- Windows debate, I know from experience working in the pre-press business that it's very Mac-centric and anyone sending files created on a Windows machine for output to a Post Script image setter is at a huge disadvantage. Any tech writer who isn't aware of this is either incompetent or biased
Recently, Slashdot cited an article about smaller record labels suing Apple for encrypting their music. The smaller record labels never wanted the music encrypted; yet Apple wouldn't sell their music unless it was
Can you provide a link to the Slashdot citation? I wasn't able to find it.
Hey, since you have parrots, have you ever how saurian those little critters can seem sometimes? I've heard that they are among the earliest of bird species to appear, about 60 million years ago--right around the time the last of the dinosaurs became extinct--and have often felt anyone who doubts that birds are the last remnants of the dinos should spend some time with a parrot. It would change their mind!
Slashdot Mirror
LOL, wish I had mod points for that one...
The only problem with that analogy is that it doesn't differentiate between a circuit-switched network (phones) and a packet-switched network (the Internet). But, then, maybe it's not really necessary to explain that to a lay person.
Is it just me or are there others out there who are bothered by statements like "three and a half times less likely to fail?" From a statistical standpoint, would it not be better to say "less than one-third as likely to fail?"
Nah. When T-Rex wants a cookie he just walks over and takes yours, then dares you to do something about it.
BTW, he's yellow and green.
Yeah, same here. We have an yellow-headed Amazon and I've been convinced that if he's not a direct descendant of a dinosaur, he must be channeling one. It's an interesting coincidence that parrots are one of the earliest of modern birds to show up in fossil records.
I grew up in that general area and, trust me, there are a hundred thousand banal light industrial buildings just like the one mentioned in TFA, many of which had equally important industrial advances made in them. That hardly merits spending a single dollar to protect any of them. If the building has some architectural significance, it might be worth saving but if it's just another tilt-up/concrete block box, I say go ahead and raze the thing if there's a good reason.
True enough, my last French classes were probably taken years before you were even born. On the other hand, if you'd paid attention, you would have noticed that I already copped to my error.
Yeah, checked Wikipedia and I stand corrected. I hate it when that happens...
It's not idiotic per se. Inefficient, perhaps (okay, for sure) but it's direct and very fast when compared to rail freight.
Railroads prefer to concentrate on long hauls and bulk loads. They have little or no interest in LCL (less than carload) freight or local car spotting since it's a money-losing proposition and besides, they have removed much of their local trackage over the last fifty years. This means that relatively few shippers have direct rail access to their facilities any more. So, even if you ship by rail, your freight ends up on a truck for the first and last portions of the trip anyway. Since it's often cheaper and always faster to ship relatively small loads via truck, why even bother with doing it by rail?
If you want to talk about the environmental costs of trucks vs. rail or federal subsidies of the Interstate Highway System, that's a whole different thing. Looking at it strictly from a shipper's viewpoint, however, there's nothing idiotic about it at all.
An 18-wheeler with two drivers running as a team (one in the bunk while the other drives) can get a shipping container from Los Angeles to the NYC area in approximately 52 hours. I know because I've actually done it myself, numerous times. Throw in time for fuel stops and driver swaps (although one co-driver and I experimented sucessfully with rolling swaps, in the end we decided it was probably a bad idea) and you can average a little over 48 MPH.
I love trains, have been across the U.S. on Amtrak several times, but if you want to move freight in batches of 45,000 lbs or less in a hurry, nothing beats a truck.
Yeah, and it ain't Train Grande Vitesse either, it's Tre Grande Vitesse, which means "very great speed."
Hey, you've seen my car? ,-)
Yeah, and I'm sticking with steam, too--none of them new-fangled internal combustion engines for me. And solid rubber tires will be around long after them puffed up things are forgotten.
I gave up on CFLs--too many early failures to justify the extra cost, both monetary and envrionmental. I'd like to reduce my energy usage but, for now, I'll stick with incandescent bulbs and turn them off when I'm out of the room.
On the other hand, I bought some LED night lights (my wife suffers from night blindness) to replace the old incandescent units I used to have and not only to they save energy (0.4 Watts each!), they look way cool. Dirt cheap, too, thanks to a subsidy from the local power company.
Well, I was just trying to make a wry observation about the state of the IT in a typical small to medium-sized business, the main point of my post being that my company didn't have a decent IT department. As for creating more work for them, I actually saved them the the continuing trouble of trying to keep the cheap, generic Wintel box I used connected to the Internet properly by plugging in my Mac and doing it myself.
As far as a pink slip goes, there was never any published policy about what we could or couldn't connect to the network. I've since left the company and, as far as I can tell, no one ever noticed my Mac.
It's easier to get forgiveness than permission so you can try doing what I did. That is, take your Mac to work and plug it in to the network without telling anybody. If your IT department is anything like the one where I work, they're too overworked to notice. It's been almost a year and no one has said a thing.
Good point about BootCamp. I hadn't thought about it when I made my post but you're right, of course, it's not virtualization at all.
Still, it's unfortunate that if you want to run Vista under Parallels legally, you have to pay through the nose for Vista "Ultimate" even if you don't need all it's other bells and whistles. In my case, for instance, I only need Windows to connect to the company VPN, which hardly justifies the extra expense of "Ultimate." Microsoft never misses a chance to squeeze a buck out of it's customers.
I'll be curious to find out whether WGA has been rewritten to sniff this out.
Such as Macs running Windows under Parallels or Boot Camp, perhaps? As I recall, the EULA for Vista prohibits this.
Or just leave some peanut oil in it after you're done whipping up your kung pao chicken.
Their security guides for Vista are among the best Microsoft has ever produced.
That's sort of like saying that the Yugo GVX is the best car that Zastava ever produced. Yes, it may be true, but...
Actually, LG interfaces are pretty good
Boy, if that isn't proof that YMMV--I was gonna post about how I thought the UI on my LG phone really sucked. What constitutes a good interface is largely in the eyes of the beholder and probably has as much to do with what you are used to as anything else.
I came to this conclusion while reading an article on "back-to-school" computers a while back in which a Windows system was recommended for graphic design students with no mention of a Mac. Without getting into the whole Mac -v- Windows debate, I know from experience working in the pre-press business that it's very Mac-centric and anyone sending files created on a Windows machine for output to a Post Script image setter is at a huge disadvantage. Any tech writer who isn't aware of this is either incompetent or biased
Recently, Slashdot cited an article about smaller record labels suing Apple for encrypting their music. The smaller record labels never wanted the music encrypted; yet Apple wouldn't sell their music unless it was
Can you provide a link to the Slashdot citation? I wasn't able to find it.
640 kb to rule them all!!!!!!!!!!
640 KB ???? Why would anyone need more than 512KB?
Got you, and it's a good point.
Hey, since you have parrots, have you ever how saurian those little critters can seem sometimes? I've heard that they are among the earliest of bird species to appear, about 60 million years ago--right around the time the last of the dinosaurs became extinct--and have often felt anyone who doubts that birds are the last remnants of the dinos should spend some time with a parrot. It would change their mind!