I can sort-of understand your defensive stance here, but I feel you really jumped to conclusions. I didn't get the impression that a "let's piss on our troops" tone was intended. What I think the GP was trying to point out is that when you look at our annual defense budget, why does $100bn (which could and probably would be spread throughout the course of several years) seem unreasonable?
BTW, I thought it was EDUCAUSE -- not EDUCASE. Not that it pertains to the parent, but I felt it was worth pointing out. ^_^
Yeah, I'm still hoping for HD-DVD to win out since Sony seems to have quite the track-record in treating its consumers like utter crap. I had previously ranted on how legitimately purchased Sony DVDs didn't play on any of my 3 (admittedly somewhat old) DVD players, one of which is even a Sony player. Meanwhile, Sony's thoughts were along the lines of, "manufacturers of DVD players need to keep up to date with our copy protection mechanisms." I think it's BS, but so I would actually be able to watch Sony DVDs (i.e. Advent Children is especially bad on the older players), and since I wanted my next DVD player to up scale, I purchased an HD-DVD player, which of course plays all those Sony DVDs I purchased very well and upscales them. It did cost a little more than just a DVD player, but not so much more that I felt it was unreasonable to try to support who I think would treat me, the consumer, at least a little better. Besides, the latest bit on Sony saying not to buy Blu-Ray Disc players except the PS3 b/c they won't be updatable over the net only confirms my sour feelings toward Sony. If I do buy a PS3, it'll be more so I can catch up with Final Fantasy (I stopped at FF8 on the original PS) and get any new FF games. If none of this makes sense, please pardon me. I just had some surgery done today and I'm not able to sleep atm, oddly enough.:-)
It's even cheaper to use VPN connectivity from home. ^_^ Also, I may be willing to commute at that time of day of my employer was willing to let me expense my daily toll costs.
Agreed. Your best bet for securing files in various formats is to put them on a secured USB key. Someone here mentioned IronKey (sold at ThinkGeek), but if you need something you can have customized (i.e. have your logo on it) check out someone like SecuTech, who offers a driverless USB key that works on Windows, Linux, and OSX. There are also USB keys that work on most platforms which require drivers, such as Marx.
Well, the beauty of using electric motors is the versatility. You can use anything as a power source. Some other considerations include:
The design is very light-weight, and very simple (much fewer moving/mechanical parts), meaning less points of failure. This dramatically lowers your maintenance costs and increases your sanity. You can argue battery maintenance costs, but the truth is that lithium batteries have a long life-span generally, so I doubt the costs there out-weigh the long-term costs of an exclusively gasoline car
Electric is incredibly powerful and efficient. Want proof? Big terrestrial equipment often uses diesel generators to power electric traction motors. Between the dramatic difference in weight, and the raw torque the electric motors have to offer, they're very fun to drive and very economical.
You also gain the perks of having an electronic speed controller. I imagine the future of electric sports cars may offer a "reduced power mode" (such as for valet parking or beginner kid drivers) electronically (which could be done simply by handing a different "key" over or even password protection to really "open it up").
I've actually been an R/C car enthusiast for a long time now, and I must say that I prefer my electric car over a nitro (gas) car any day. Sure, the nitro guys argue that they can re-fuel and go and that they love the sound, but I find that my car is broken less often, so I end up with more run time overall. Besides - they're really easy to pass thanks to a very nice brushless motor system and some LiPo batteries.;-) Having a gas generator solves the "re-fuel and go" problem with pure electrics for now, and at least opens the door to alternative energy sources in the future. I think what's really important here is to realize that it's not just about global warming. Consider oil (a limited resource) dependence, manufacturing and maintenance costs, etc... More importantly, electric cars can have a major economic benefit overall long-term. The global warming thing is still a plus for electrics though in that if it is a major problem, we can more easily make changes to adjust in light of it.
To add to that, my biggest concern with IE8, should it turn out to be a good browser, is a repeat of history. If IE8 really does turn out to be a really good browser, what happens after it squashes all the other browsers? While I certainly welcome a good, standards conforming version of IE, I'd say we need to be very careful as a web development and end-user community to keep Microsoft on their toes and competitive (by keeping other browsers competitive, of course) to avoid another IE6.
I guess it's a double edged sword. If, for example, my next employer was just a little more informed as a result of seeing this show, and took a little extra time to shred any documents containing any sensitive data about me prior to putting it out to the curb, then it may very well be worth while. We as consumers are also very trusting of the various entities we provide our information to as well, so the same applies to the next medical doctor I might see. I'm cautiously optimistic this will contain more content of what should be common knowledge and practice (and common sense) rather than fear mongering. We'll just have to wait and see though, won't we!
What we've found at the company I work for (which is a small business) is that Dell's price is right if you're willing to wait a little more. So Dell is attractive for our small number of workstations and other small office equipment (computers, monitors, etc...), as we can use backups and spares to get by if the wait is a long one. However, when you have mission critical equipment that must be up 24/7, our experience is that it pays to go through CDW to ensure any replacement items/units are shipped very quickly. The cost of downtime from waiting on Dell can easily cost us much more than the difference in purchase price when we order from CDW. So we use a fairly balanced mix -- we look for bargains (within reason -- we understand quality is important, of course) for anything at our main office, and we generally only use CDW for any mission critical equipment at the data center.
I think the bigger concern is having uncle-dad in the same class. ^_^
All kidding aside, I think a major goal we should set is to better educate parents on school curriculum. It seems very common for a parent to be rusty and out-of-date when it comes down to their child's curriculum. Even a parent with a college degree can get very rusty with basic algebra, for example. Besides, some things do change with time (i.e. common methods/techniques). I think it would be great to help guide the parents via the XO. For example, parents never get the solutions to math problems. Perhaps the XO could prove really helpful in that sense (provided it is implemented correctly, of course). I understand there's no perfect solution here, but I've always felt that parent involvement could be more effective in many cases.
He was actually found in the pocket of another, normal-sized man.
Well, what would you do if some guy was in your pocket? Would you consider envy to be a sufficient excuse, or would you break his spine like in one swift Steven Seagal-like move?
Well, I can't be the only one who would run that sort of thing through the washer and dryer... Perhaps that with a backup/secondary USB key would suffice? Furthermore, people would require some training/guidance on physical security with that sort of thing (i.e. telling them to keep it with their house/car keys). People already write their passwords and leave that on their desk, and leaving the physical usb key on the desk would be no better. What could be really cool, however, is if the device doubled as your key-card to get into the office.
Well, I certainly have not had any issues saving my document in ODT format, then exporting it to a PDF, and sending the PDF file to larger companies. Even if the export feature doesn't work as well as I'd like (which I haven't encountered yet), the CUPS-PDF printer driver works flawlessly. I do understand some still require a DOC file, but a PDF still covers at least 90% of the people out there from my experience.
Good point. I think we can all attest that the 'mpg' analogy isn't so good in its present state, as it has been highly inaccurate in many (if not most) recent cases. Perhaps a simple energy benchmark similar to audio amplifiers would suffice: show me peak & continuous power. If it's on, what does it consume continuously (or as a minimum - i.e. just 'on' but idle), and what is the most it could possibly consume at any given time? I know this doesn't cover efficiency very well (i.e. watts/FLOP); however, efficiency is relative to the application. Let the consumer decide what benefits him/her the best between continuous and peak consumption.
Nothing appeals more to the western world than gadgets and vanity
So I suppose that means we can't afford to have this effort go too well. I mean, if the smug gets any thicker in America, we may soon be unable to see through it! (this is a SouthPark reference, of course)
I don't know if the parent should be mod'd off-topic or funny. This person went from talking about people in the 1950's to justifying why it should be OK to download music illegally on occasion (with several other topics in-between).:-)
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I can sort-of understand your defensive stance here, but I feel you really jumped to conclusions. I didn't get the impression that a "let's piss on our troops" tone was intended. What I think the GP was trying to point out is that when you look at our annual defense budget, why does $100bn (which could and probably would be spread throughout the course of several years) seem unreasonable?
BTW, I thought it was EDUCAUSE -- not EDUCASE. Not that it pertains to the parent, but I felt it was worth pointing out. ^_^
Yeah, I'm still hoping for HD-DVD to win out since Sony seems to have quite the track-record in treating its consumers like utter crap. I had previously ranted on how legitimately purchased Sony DVDs didn't play on any of my 3 (admittedly somewhat old) DVD players, one of which is even a Sony player. Meanwhile, Sony's thoughts were along the lines of, "manufacturers of DVD players need to keep up to date with our copy protection mechanisms." I think it's BS, but so I would actually be able to watch Sony DVDs (i.e. Advent Children is especially bad on the older players), and since I wanted my next DVD player to up scale, I purchased an HD-DVD player, which of course plays all those Sony DVDs I purchased very well and upscales them. It did cost a little more than just a DVD player, but not so much more that I felt it was unreasonable to try to support who I think would treat me, the consumer, at least a little better. Besides, the latest bit on Sony saying not to buy Blu-Ray Disc players except the PS3 b/c they won't be updatable over the net only confirms my sour feelings toward Sony. If I do buy a PS3, it'll be more so I can catch up with Final Fantasy (I stopped at FF8 on the original PS) and get any new FF games. If none of this makes sense, please pardon me. I just had some surgery done today and I'm not able to sleep atm, oddly enough. :-)
It's even cheaper to use VPN connectivity from home. ^_^ Also, I may be willing to commute at that time of day of my employer was willing to let me expense my daily toll costs.
Agreed. Your best bet for securing files in various formats is to put them on a secured USB key. Someone here mentioned IronKey (sold at ThinkGeek), but if you need something you can have customized (i.e. have your logo on it) check out someone like SecuTech, who offers a driverless USB key that works on Windows, Linux, and OSX. There are also USB keys that work on most platforms which require drivers, such as Marx.
Well, the beauty of using electric motors is the versatility. You can use anything as a power source. Some other considerations include:
I've actually been an R/C car enthusiast for a long time now, and I must say that I prefer my electric car over a nitro (gas) car any day. Sure, the nitro guys argue that they can re-fuel and go and that they love the sound, but I find that my car is broken less often, so I end up with more run time overall. Besides - they're really easy to pass thanks to a very nice brushless motor system and some LiPo batteries. ;-) Having a gas generator solves the "re-fuel and go" problem with pure electrics for now, and at least opens the door to alternative energy sources in the future. I think what's really important here is to realize that it's not just about global warming. Consider oil (a limited resource) dependence, manufacturing and maintenance costs, etc... More importantly, electric cars can have a major economic benefit overall long-term. The global warming thing is still a plus for electrics though in that if it is a major problem, we can more easily make changes to adjust in light of it.
They must have used one very large anvil, and then followed up with a few pianos on top of that.
To add to that, my biggest concern with IE8, should it turn out to be a good browser, is a repeat of history. If IE8 really does turn out to be a really good browser, what happens after it squashes all the other browsers? While I certainly welcome a good, standards conforming version of IE, I'd say we need to be very careful as a web development and end-user community to keep Microsoft on their toes and competitive (by keeping other browsers competitive, of course) to avoid another IE6.
I guess it's a double edged sword. If, for example, my next employer was just a little more informed as a result of seeing this show, and took a little extra time to shred any documents containing any sensitive data about me prior to putting it out to the curb, then it may very well be worth while. We as consumers are also very trusting of the various entities we provide our information to as well, so the same applies to the next medical doctor I might see. I'm cautiously optimistic this will contain more content of what should be common knowledge and practice (and common sense) rather than fear mongering. We'll just have to wait and see though, won't we!
What we've found at the company I work for (which is a small business) is that Dell's price is right if you're willing to wait a little more. So Dell is attractive for our small number of workstations and other small office equipment (computers, monitors, etc...), as we can use backups and spares to get by if the wait is a long one. However, when you have mission critical equipment that must be up 24/7, our experience is that it pays to go through CDW to ensure any replacement items/units are shipped very quickly. The cost of downtime from waiting on Dell can easily cost us much more than the difference in purchase price when we order from CDW. So we use a fairly balanced mix -- we look for bargains (within reason -- we understand quality is important, of course) for anything at our main office, and we generally only use CDW for any mission critical equipment at the data center.
I think the bigger concern is having uncle-dad in the same class. ^_^
All kidding aside, I think a major goal we should set is to better educate parents on school curriculum. It seems very common for a parent to be rusty and out-of-date when it comes down to their child's curriculum. Even a parent with a college degree can get very rusty with basic algebra, for example. Besides, some things do change with time (i.e. common methods/techniques). I think it would be great to help guide the parents via the XO. For example, parents never get the solutions to math problems. Perhaps the XO could prove really helpful in that sense (provided it is implemented correctly, of course). I understand there's no perfect solution here, but I've always felt that parent involvement could be more effective in many cases.
Well, what would you do if some guy was in your pocket? Would you consider envy to be a sufficient excuse, or would you break his spine like in one swift Steven Seagal-like move?
I've seen the first one before, but the second one was really well-done. Thanks for the good laugh!
Yes, I can definitely imagine that. Running a large cluster off the hand-cranks would quite a nice exercise routine.
That's why everybody should be required to watch this video before they are hired.
These days, it's generally preferred that there's not even a carpet that needs cleaning.
Well, I can't be the only one who would run that sort of thing through the washer and dryer... Perhaps that with a backup/secondary USB key would suffice? Furthermore, people would require some training/guidance on physical security with that sort of thing (i.e. telling them to keep it with their house/car keys). People already write their passwords and leave that on their desk, and leaving the physical usb key on the desk would be no better. What could be really cool, however, is if the device doubled as your key-card to get into the office.
Maybe they'll cast the Robot Ghost of Christmas Past? In case you don't know who that is, it's the one that really likes watermelon.
Well, I certainly have not had any issues saving my document in ODT format, then exporting it to a PDF, and sending the PDF file to larger companies. Even if the export feature doesn't work as well as I'd like (which I haven't encountered yet), the CUPS-PDF printer driver works flawlessly. I do understand some still require a DOC file, but a PDF still covers at least 90% of the people out there from my experience.
I wonder if it actually craps out after 16535 files...
Good point. I think we can all attest that the 'mpg' analogy isn't so good in its present state, as it has been highly inaccurate in many (if not most) recent cases. Perhaps a simple energy benchmark similar to audio amplifiers would suffice: show me peak & continuous power. If it's on, what does it consume continuously (or as a minimum - i.e. just 'on' but idle), and what is the most it could possibly consume at any given time? I know this doesn't cover efficiency very well (i.e. watts/FLOP); however, efficiency is relative to the application. Let the consumer decide what benefits him/her the best between continuous and peak consumption.
Totally catastophic dude!!1!!11shiftELEVEN!@@!1
So I suppose that means we can't afford to have this effort go too well. I mean, if the smug gets any thicker in America, we may soon be unable to see through it! (this is a SouthPark reference, of course)
A perfect advertisement for this is to show what you might look like while playing this game.
I don't know if the parent should be mod'd off-topic or funny. This person went from talking about people in the 1950's to justifying why it should be OK to download music illegally on occasion (with several other topics in-between). :-)
See, if you had this kid standing at your side, they would have never made such a foolish move.