Just like unpopular speech is still free, Slashdot posts aren't modded up for correctness or popularity. They're modded up for being interesting and well-communicated. Just because someone's wrong doesn't mean they should be modded down. I want to see the comments with which I disagree, so I can argue with them. Which is what happened here. I was actually meta-moderating, and your comment came up. I just had to jump in.
Don't look at them like demo versions, they're more like stripped down versions that don't have all the crap you don't need. I'll take that bargain for a free tool. I use logmein's free version to support clients. I don't need file transfer or printing, I just need an easy-to-set-up remote access product (with no port-forwarding requirements) that's cheap. Free is cheap.
I have the exact same setup -- Compaq iPaq bookshelf PC with a 12-watt Celeron 533 cpu, 500-GB hard drive, running headless with Debian. I use it as a Samba and UPnP media server. Works great, silent, zero problems.
The part I think you're missing is that these dampers are actively computer controlled. Sure, you can tune suspensions to be firmer or softer. However, in a car with fixed damping, whichever way you go, you're stuck with it.
One of the side benefits of this system is that they can change the effective damper valve rate on the fly to best handle the conditions, bumpy vs. smooth, straight ahead vs. turning.
"What would you think of your local Wal-Mart charged you $2 to return a broken item? Would you walk out of the store with a positive smile? Or would you walk out of the store with a negative frown?"
That's what I consider to be the key to this issue. I started with eBay eight years ago, buying and selling onsies-twosies-type stuff. I buy and sell computer gear I pick up here and there. I don't want eBay to be like Wal-Mart. But I guess they've identified that path as their most profitable one. If I buy a used DVD on eBay, I know I'm taking a crapshoot. Even if the seller has 100% positive feedback, and they swear they tested the product. It's still a used DVD. If I need total certainty that a DVD will play properly, I buy a new one at Amazon, or Wal-Mart. If I'm willing to gamble on eBay, I adjust the price I pay accordingly. If it's bad, I try to work it out with the seller, and I also won't buy it if the seller has recent negative feedback for a similar item, or pads their shipping costs. That minimizes the chance that I'll be out money if I need to return the product. The feedback system pre-changes wasn't perfect. I'd like to see blind feedback--I think that would solve the retaliation problem (which I've suffered as a seller, but not a buyer). But the new system hurts the small seller disproportionally.
OK, then if you insist on using this fixed resource for which there is an ever-increasing demand, expect to pay more and more for the privilege. If driving alone gives you that benefit, and it's worth it to you, then I fully support your right to spend the $$$.
Myself, I wouldn't be able to afford it. If they ever implement those kinds of tolls on roads in the DC area, I will probably be forced to carpool, or move away.
The difference is that YOU don't have immediate access into huge databases (at least I hope you don't) that associate those license plates, or maybe even those faces, with names, SSN's, blood types, or DNA sequences. And you aren't on the hook to solve a bunch of crimes where we often have to take your word for it that "that guy did it, because someone else told us so."
And that's the point that I think most people miss here. As demonstrated here constantly on Slashdot, it is incumbent upon the reader to remember that any comment from a person posting anonymously must be dismissed as worthless, without regard to how much we would want to believe it. If it's worth saying, it's worth standing behind.
I think you're right. Anyone remember hockey? Each group with an interest in the sport (players, owners, ???) decided they weren't getting a big enough piece of a wildly overestimated pie, so everyone threw a fit and closed down the sport. And guess what? Nobody cared. Now they're a shadow of their former self. I predict the same for big corporate music. (In fact, big corporate any-kind-of-entertainment appears to be headed down the same drain).
My suspicion is that Dell is aware that they are tiptoeing a fine line by offering Ubuntu at all. They want to sell more boxes, so they need to broaden their product line, but they also need to keep from pissing off the 800-pound gorilla. So Dell tells Canonical, "OK, we'll have this one dance with you, but you better not piss of our boyfriend (MS), so you're going to tell the story loud and clear that Ubuntu isn't cheap Windows, it's a different thing altogether."
OK, so when Linux is actually pushed off OLPC and Dell, we'll believe you. Running around like Chicken Little, in my opinion, plays into Microsoft's hands. Not that I doubt their intentions are just as nefarious as you suggest, I just don't think they can pull these things off.
This is false. You are not allowed to deduct time spent or professional services donated to a non-profit or charity. I don't have time to look up actual tax code, but the google search "IRS Rules donate in kind" returned this among many links: This Link
Re:Will anyone gain anything from this?
on
The End is Nigh for XP
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
You're kidding, right? Someone sitting on an IRC channel helping newbies (like me, who has switched completely to Ubuntu at home), that's one of the pillars of the tech support model for open source software. Someone helps me with a problem, then as I gain experience, maybe I can pay it forward, increasing good will toward FOSS.
Warning--long rant on the new realities of energy prices and cost of living:
I hear what you're saying, and there are many other variables I neglected to mention: Married with 2 young children, we picked our house for the schools in the neighborhood. I wouldn't live in DC proper for just that reason. I'd love to live in Arlington, VA, where my office is, but I can't afford a 0.8 megadollar (and up) house for a family of four + dog. Apartment isn't really an option, we're quite cozy in our current four bedroom 1800-sq-ft house as it is.
Believe me, with the way cost-of-living is going now, we've thought long and hard about alternatives to our current situation. We've gotten some real cost-effective benefit from doing basic insulation improvements on our house, changing to CFL lighting, and optimizing our car use. Still wasn't enough, we've had to turn off cable-TV, eliminate eating out, institute a freeze on buying clothes (we're lucky to have friends with older kids, so they get hand-me-downs, I just have to wear what I have until it falls apart), cancel housecleaning & lawn services, etc. I know, some of these things sound like real luxuries, boo hoo, and they were, so we had to turn them off. And still we're running a slight deficit with the dramatic increases in energy prices and attendant trickle-down effects on food, and other goods and services.
So basically we're treading water, working harder (especially including the domestic work we've had to take on) with what feels like less job security. Once the kids start kindergarten things will improve significantly (cost of private childcare will almost disappear). I hope this all ends up being worth it.
How can you say this is an awesome engine if it hasn't run yet? Can the term vaporware apply to a physical object?
Re:We'll fix that right after we get cold fusion.
on
X Prize For a 100-MPG Car
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
I've owned my house in the suburbs of Washington, DC for 10 years now. I'm on my 3rd job since I bought it. I have to take jobs where I can find them, so my current commute is ~20 miles, takes 45-60 minutes.
If I wanted to live 5 minutes from work I'd have to sell my house every time I changed jobs, which is not possible in the current DC area real estate market.
I don't know if this goes for everyone, but my reality is that I have to be prepared to have a one hour commute if I want to continue living in this major metro area.
My efforts to reduce energy consumption vis à vis commuting: I (try to) ride my bike to work once a week in good weather, and I telecommute one day a week.
Miles per gallon Imperial or American? PS: they don't sell the 325d in the US. PPS: In my town, Diesel costs a little bit more than regular unleaded. Not 10%, but maybe 5%.
I stopped looking, partially out of pessimism about the market, and partially because while my aviation dreams were on hold, life marches on. Had kids, couldn't wait for a pie-in-the-sky dream any more, went back to IT.
Good luck with aviation. I had the same dream, but 9/11 killed aviation hiring (and my dream) for me. My commercial pilot's certificate has been sitting on a shelf for a year.
Slashdot Mirror
Nope, DC and VA both prohibit them, but they're OK in MD.
Why was this modded troll? AC may or may not be demonstrably wrong, but was he trolling?
Just like unpopular speech is still free, Slashdot posts aren't modded up for correctness or popularity. They're modded up for being interesting and well-communicated. Just because someone's wrong doesn't mean they should be modded down. I want to see the comments with which I disagree, so I can argue with them. Which is what happened here. I was actually meta-moderating, and your comment came up. I just had to jump in.
Don't look at them like demo versions, they're more like stripped down versions that don't have all the crap you don't need. I'll take that bargain for a free tool. I use logmein's free version to support clients. I don't need file transfer or printing, I just need an easy-to-set-up remote access product (with no port-forwarding requirements) that's cheap. Free is cheap.
http://xbmc.org/ turns a linux box into a full-screen media player with good usability. Mine has an old NVidia 6200 card, works great. Add a home theater keyboard http://www.walmart.com/ip/SPEC-01027-Wireless-Mini-Trackball-Keyboard-for-HTPC-by-Ergoguys/13215118 and you're set.
I have the exact same setup -- Compaq iPaq bookshelf PC with a 12-watt Celeron 533 cpu, 500-GB hard drive, running headless with Debian. I use it as a Samba and UPnP media server. Works great, silent, zero problems.
I know, feeding the trolls and all, but my kids have 1GHz G4 eMacs with 768MB of RAM. You think Leopard would work well on that?
That's called DRM, and it's been tried, found to be an expensive boondoggle that pushes customers away, and is currently on the way out.
The part I think you're missing is that these dampers are actively computer controlled. Sure, you can tune suspensions to be firmer or softer. However, in a car with fixed damping, whichever way you go, you're stuck with it. One of the side benefits of this system is that they can change the effective damper valve rate on the fly to best handle the conditions, bumpy vs. smooth, straight ahead vs. turning.
That's what I consider to be the key to this issue. I started with eBay eight years ago, buying and selling onsies-twosies-type stuff. I buy and sell computer gear I pick up here and there. I don't want eBay to be like Wal-Mart. But I guess they've identified that path as their most profitable one.
If I buy a used DVD on eBay, I know I'm taking a crapshoot. Even if the seller has 100% positive feedback, and they swear they tested the product. It's still a used DVD. If I need total certainty that a DVD will play properly, I buy a new one at Amazon, or Wal-Mart. If I'm willing to gamble on eBay, I adjust the price I pay accordingly. If it's bad, I try to work it out with the seller, and I also won't buy it if the seller has recent negative feedback for a similar item, or pads their shipping costs. That minimizes the chance that I'll be out money if I need to return the product.
The feedback system pre-changes wasn't perfect. I'd like to see blind feedback--I think that would solve the retaliation problem (which I've suffered as a seller, but not a buyer). But the new system hurts the small seller disproportionally.
OK, then if you insist on using this fixed resource for which there is an ever-increasing demand, expect to pay more and more for the privilege. If driving alone gives you that benefit, and it's worth it to you, then I fully support your right to spend the $$$. Myself, I wouldn't be able to afford it. If they ever implement those kinds of tolls on roads in the DC area, I will probably be forced to carpool, or move away.
Use Firefox. Use the Greasemonkey script Google Groups Killfile to eliminate MI5 and whatever else from Google Groups.
http://www.getfirefox.com/
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/748
http://www.penney.org/ggkiller.html
The difference is that YOU don't have immediate access into huge databases (at least I hope you don't) that associate those license plates, or maybe even those faces, with names, SSN's, blood types, or DNA sequences. And you aren't on the hook to solve a bunch of crimes where we often have to take your word for it that "that guy did it, because someone else told us so."
And that's the point that I think most people miss here. As demonstrated here constantly on Slashdot, it is incumbent upon the reader to remember that any comment from a person posting anonymously must be dismissed as worthless, without regard to how much we would want to believe it. If it's worth saying, it's worth standing behind.
I think you're right. Anyone remember hockey? Each group with an interest in the sport (players, owners, ???) decided they weren't getting a big enough piece of a wildly overestimated pie, so everyone threw a fit and closed down the sport. And guess what? Nobody cared. Now they're a shadow of their former self. I predict the same for big corporate music. (In fact, big corporate any-kind-of-entertainment appears to be headed down the same drain).
My suspicion is that Dell is aware that they are tiptoeing a fine line by offering Ubuntu at all. They want to sell more boxes, so they need to broaden their product line, but they also need to keep from pissing off the 800-pound gorilla. So Dell tells Canonical, "OK, we'll have this one dance with you, but you better not piss of our boyfriend (MS), so you're going to tell the story loud and clear that Ubuntu isn't cheap Windows, it's a different thing altogether."
OK, so when Linux is actually pushed off OLPC and Dell, we'll believe you. Running around like Chicken Little, in my opinion, plays into Microsoft's hands. Not that I doubt their intentions are just as nefarious as you suggest, I just don't think they can pull these things off.
This is false. You are not allowed to deduct time spent or professional services donated to a non-profit or charity. I don't have time to look up actual tax code, but the google search "IRS Rules donate in kind" returned this among many links: This Link
You're kidding, right? Someone sitting on an IRC channel helping newbies (like me, who has switched completely to Ubuntu at home), that's one of the pillars of the tech support model for open source software. Someone helps me with a problem, then as I gain experience, maybe I can pay it forward, increasing good will toward FOSS.
I hear what you're saying, and there are many other variables I neglected to mention: Married with 2 young children, we picked our house for the schools in the neighborhood. I wouldn't live in DC proper for just that reason. I'd love to live in Arlington, VA, where my office is, but I can't afford a 0.8 megadollar (and up) house for a family of four + dog. Apartment isn't really an option, we're quite cozy in our current four bedroom 1800-sq-ft house as it is.
Believe me, with the way cost-of-living is going now, we've thought long and hard about alternatives to our current situation. We've gotten some real cost-effective benefit from doing basic insulation improvements on our house, changing to CFL lighting, and optimizing our car use. Still wasn't enough, we've had to turn off cable-TV, eliminate eating out, institute a freeze on buying clothes (we're lucky to have friends with older kids, so they get hand-me-downs, I just have to wear what I have until it falls apart), cancel housecleaning & lawn services, etc. I know, some of these things sound like real luxuries, boo hoo, and they were, so we had to turn them off. And still we're running a slight deficit with the dramatic increases in energy prices and attendant trickle-down effects on food, and other goods and services.
So basically we're treading water, working harder (especially including the domestic work we've had to take on) with what feels like less job security. Once the kids start kindergarten things will improve significantly (cost of private childcare will almost disappear). I hope this all ends up being worth it.
How can you say this is an awesome engine if it hasn't run yet? Can the term vaporware apply to a physical object?
If I wanted to live 5 minutes from work I'd have to sell my house every time I changed jobs, which is not possible in the current DC area real estate market.
I don't know if this goes for everyone, but my reality is that I have to be prepared to have a one hour commute if I want to continue living in this major metro area.
My efforts to reduce energy consumption vis à vis commuting: I (try to) ride my bike to work once a week in good weather, and I telecommute one day a week.
Miles per gallon Imperial or American? PS: they don't sell the 325d in the US. PPS: In my town, Diesel costs a little bit more than regular unleaded. Not 10%, but maybe 5%.
I stopped looking, partially out of pessimism about the market, and partially because while my aviation dreams were on hold, life marches on. Had kids, couldn't wait for a pie-in-the-sky dream any more, went back to IT.
Good luck with aviation. I had the same dream, but 9/11 killed aviation hiring (and my dream) for me. My commercial pilot's certificate has been sitting on a shelf for a year.