So, I assume that new Athlon 64 laptop of yours has a keyboard with characters that light up in the dark, right?
Built-in wireless G, gigabit ethernet, as well as Firewire 400, 800 and USB 2.0 ports, and a wide-screen display panel?
Just as thin and light weight as an Apple Powerbook? No exposed doors/covers to break off anyplace either, right?
I considered a new PC laptop right around Xmas time.... I looked and looked, and in the end, I bought a Powerbook G4 15". Yeah, it costs more - but there's more to it than just CPU speed.
Then maybe they should *STOP COLLECTING SO MUCH*, and do what sensible people do when they're overloaded with information; prune out everything that's not necessary!
It strikes me that the current FBI mentality is "always push for more abilities to collect/seize information, and more tools to gather it with", coupled with "having too much information just makes it easier to demand and get additional funding to make our organization larger and more powerful".
National fingerprint identification databases containing prints of everyone who has a driver's license, computerized filtering of email traffic over the net, a constant push for wider "wiretapping" capabilities and rights, etc. etc. Yet the only things that really net them the true criminals never really change; good informants and good detective work.
IMHO, law enforcement needs to stop requesting more and more money for gagetry, coupled with broader legal definitions of what isn't "invading privacy" or "trampling on one's individual rights". Instead, work more efficiently with what they've got, and let agents go who can't produce results within the existing framework.
My bank uses ATM machines that suck the card completely into the slot, with only a little bit of a metal guide plate exposed below the slot. (Typically, they have a label with arrows printed on it that's affixed just beneath the slot, as well.) If you tried to add some sort of reader device to the front of the ATM, covering the original slot and plate, it would be fairly obvious it didn't belong there. I'm sure it might fool *some* clueless people - but it would surely be ripped from the machine pretty quickly, as someone a little more clueful realized what was going on. (After all, it would obscure part of the label, making it obvious it wasn't part of the original ATM machine.)
I have a feeling these card skimmers only work on specific models of ATMs (most likely, the little privately owned units you see in restaurants and gas stations, as opposed to actual bank-owned ATMs).
I'd agree with your sentiments, to at least some extent, but I'm already turned off by your tone. Why would someone be a "nut" simply because they ask some tough questions about the possibilities we don't want to consider?
A very real problem with computerizing data into databases has *always* been keeping it secure. The nice thing about traditional methods of filing data (file cabinets full of folders and so on) is it has a certain level of inherent security. (EG. If I waltz in to the police station and try to sift through private file folders, there's a really GOOD chance someone will see me and stop me before I get very far.) When you "virtualize" this information into a computer, people can't immediately see you accessing the data remotely. For that matter, employees using other people's passwords could be accessing files they weren't supposed to access, and it's likely other workers would walk right by them, not realizing anything was "out of place".
Can this technology be implemented so security isn't compromised? Sure.... but it takes some awareness and effort. In a world where most people still think their password should be the name of their pet dog or cat, and it's a "nuisance they'd rather avoid" to force changing a password once every 6 months - there's a very real need to keep questioning the security procedures used!
Yes, I dispute your claim. Your math may be correct, but you're discounting many other valid reasons why someone might want to invest $70 or so to copy their DVD collection.
Primarily, some folks like to take their movies with them - increasing the chances of scratching/damaging the discs. If you have a portable DVD player in your car/van, or even a notebook computer that can play DVDs, you'd probably not really want to tote around your originals and risk them getting lost/stolen/damaged every time.
Actually, if you read the fine print on most class action rulings, the settlements require a specific amount of money to be paid out to the claimants. Anything that's not claimed out of that total has to be spent, one way or the other. (Often, it's ordered to go to a local charity.)
So depending on how much you'd like to see a listed charity or other such organization receive some money, you may just want to participate in a class action that you're entitled to a settlement from. (Whether you participate or not, the company still pays out the same total amount of money. You're not making things "better" for them by opting out.)
I'm totally in agreement about these tech school wasting people's time and money with overblown promises about "high paying computer jobs with your certification!". But equally as bad, IMHO, are the tendencies towards hiring candidates based primarily on past "military service". Not that I'm "military bashing", because there are plenty of good reasons someone might want to join up.... but I've also personally witnessed my share of I.T. workers who could "talk the talk" but not "walk the walk" at all, and the only obvious reason they were hired to begin with was their claim of "having previous computer experience in the military".
These same individuals were typically able to out-earn the salaries of their peers (who generally did a better job!), either through raises or by job hopping, despite showing little interest in taking their I.T. career more seriously.
I'm not convinced that military education in any technical field lends itself that well to skills in the private sector. Unfortunately, the "buddy buddy" system is a powerful thing, and management that served in the military is pretty likely to prefer candidates with a similar background. Furthermore, the military generally turns out folks who speak well, dress neatly when they need to, and can generally "ass kiss" at a top-notch level. So I'm thinking that if you want a good paying I.T. job without really putting in the years of real experience, some military service trumps industry certs.!
PC parts have gotten so inexpensive, you can purchase a spare of all the "likely to fail" parts for not much more money than a software license or two for these "diagnostic" packages.
I've noticed that lately (in the last year or so), most PC problems people have are spyware or virus related. (System runs slowly, freezes up/blue-screens randomly,etc.) Next most common problem is a failing hard drive. A few years ago, bad RAM would often give you intermittent crashes/freezes, but I think the overall quality of memory has gone up from the junk that was being dumped on the market a while back. I just don't see all the RAM related issues I used to see.
There's also a lot of complaining about poor quality power supplies causing instability and crashes, but I rarely see that. More often, an inferior power supply results in a machine that doesn't always power on, or it just dies completely. I've bought quite a few of those $15 AT style power supplies on Pricewatch too - and have yet to see one cause me any random, difficult-to-trace issues. Maybe I'm just lucky though?
Diagnostic software always seemed a bit silly to me. If you have a system that's acting glitchy only on occasion, it's as likely as not it'll just freeze up/hang running the diag. software, so you won't get any useful results back from it!
Perhaps it's relative though? As much as I like getting a "great deal" on things, I'm starting to believe that "PC clone parts are enormously UNDERpriced" these days.
I do on-site PC service and support for a living, and sometimes it really amazes me how cheap a replacement part or upgrade costs. But then, I also look at how often these parts fail and the shoddy workmanship in most "name brand" PCs - and I realize, you still "get what you pay for".
For example, we just recently ordered some cheap 40 gigabyte EIDE hard drives. The labels on them said "BSE Data Systems". Who is that, I wondered? Well, they appear to be OEM'd Maxtor drives - but the quality was awful. Out of 5 we ordered, 3 were DOA and 1 got "S.M.A.R.T failure" messages from the computer's BIOS after only one use. A failure rate of 80%!?!
As prices drop, this only gets worse and worse. Apple is one of the only vendors that still builds a "premium" product, in all respects (yes, including price). I paid more for my Apple Powerbook because I've owned the other stuff already - and I'm tired of cheap plastic doors that snap off, a laptop that weighs about 5lbs. too much and looks like a brick, etc.
Re:Times they are a changin'
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Cell-Phone Wars
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I believe there was an earlier Slashdot story regarding movie theaters considering implementing jamming devices - to stop cellphone interruptions during movies.
(I guess the phone would work normally outside the rooms the movies were actually showing in, though. So in case of emergency, you'd just be forced to go out to the lobby area.)
I agree that an artist making a recording should have say in matters related to "for profit" uses of the entire original work in ways other than originally intended. EG. If a car manufacturer decides they want a Beatles song in the background of one of their commercials, then they should have to get permission to use it in that manner, and have to deal with it if the artist's wishes (in writing) stated the music was not to ever be used for that purpose.
On the other hand, anyone creating new works using samples of other works should be free to do so. I don't see how it makes sense to have it any other way? I realize that currently, the law seems to disagrees with me -- but where are the lines drawn? Do we say "5 seconds of continuous sampling is not ok, but 2 seconds is"? If I sample a distinctive synth riff from a popular rock or dance song and re-use it, who *really* owns the rights to that sound? After all, the original band playing it probably used patches built into a popular synth (say, Korg Triton or Yamaha Motif), which were the intellectual property of the respective synth maker to begin with. (Or do we say "It's only your own original sound if you make parameter changes to the stock patches before playing them."?) The whole thing quickly gets ridiculous.
IMHO, the only "right" way to implement such things as sequencer/synthesizer into a supposedly "live" production is to let humans control it in real time.
If there's a way to let the synth do the work of what formerly took multiple musicians to accomplish, that's fine with me - but it needs to be properly done. Just letting it run through some pre-programmed sequence each night isn't going to impress me. What about developing adaptive software that gets information from the musicians who are playing live instruments, and automatically tailoring the output accordingly? It might be pretty unconventional to wire up the musicians with electrodes and have a MIDI synth reading their heart-rate and the like to alter the intensity it plays with - but *that's* the type of innovation that makes it worth seeing and hearing!
Re:I dont think I would hack my car
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Hack Your Car
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Actually, the so-called "hacks" to the engine computers typically do little more than advance the timing a few degrees. It's the digital equivalent of the "tune ups" many people did with timing lights and a screwdriver before the days of fuel injection and engine computers.
The worst that will happen is you'll get a little worse gas mileage and it may not really give you a performance increase worth the time, effort and expense to do the modification.
Much of this depends on the state the car is in from the factory, though. In general, cars not originally aimed at a crowd seeking "performance" will have a little more room for improvement with computer chip changes. (If the auto maker decides a major design goal of a certain car is good gas mileage, for example, it makes sense they'd program values into the engine computer that sacrifice some power for better mileage. These engines aren't going to "blow up" if you obtain 10 or 15HP extra out of them. In fact, they're basically "de-tuned" from the factory to take away that much HP for the sake of fuel economy.)
Though it's certainly not *always* the case, I'd say it's generally true that American cars are more likely to get a cheap performance boost from changing the computer chip, whereas foreign (especially Japanese) cars benefit more from inexpensive modifications that remove airflow restrictions.
For whatever reasons, the Japanese cars I've seen already have engine computer software that's pretty good at making the right adjustments for a pretty wide range of air/fuel changes. They accomplish their "de-tuning/fuel economy" with restrictive exhaust systems and air intakes that don't get much cool air into the engine. (The computer sees less cool air coming in the intake so it mixes a little less fuel with it, robbing a little power but saving a little gas.)
The hacks that scare me are people who raise or lower their trucks or cars without much knowledge of the handling changes that causes, and the people who have done so much to their engine already that they start needing upgraded fuel injectors and rails. (A fuel rail under high pressure is a dangerous thing if it's not properly designed and installed. You don't want leaks while you're driving around, after all!)
Right.... All along, this has been a mutually beneficial deal for both Apple and VA Tech. I guarantee Apple is giving VA Tech a special deal on this whole upgrade (and gave them a deal on the initial purchase too), because it's excellent publicity for them - and a chance to get real development on clustered computing going on the new G5 systems.
People saying VA Tech "should have just waited for the rack-mount version" don't get it. Apple made it worth their while not to wait, from the beginning....
The problem *really* is, most "marketing" is centered around lying or pushing around half-truths, so people hear only what they want to hear about a given new product.
If "marketing" really equated with "teaching people about the product", advertisements would point out all the pluses AND minuses.
Linux lacking "marketing" is probably partially because open source developers don't stand to benefit in the long run if everyone goes around heralding their unfinished work as the ultimate solution to a problem. Folks find out it's not, and then they're soured to the whole project. Developers, unlike businesses, are just concerned with building the best product they can build. Marketing is about generating *sales* and bringing in the maximum amount of *profit*. These aren't an integral part of the Linux requirements for existance.
I'd say your recommendations are pretty much on the mark.
I did quite a bit of research for the "Best under $1000 camcorder" a couple years ago, and at the time, decided on the Sony TRV-730. I'm not more than an "occasional user", so I may not be the best person to speak for long-term durability of this particular model - but it's always worked well for me. The "Digital 8" format it uses has a nice side-benefit, in that it can play back regular 8mm tapes (allowing easy transfer to VHS tape). Sony's "NightShot" and "Super NightShot" modes are a little cheezy - but they do work extremely well if you add an optional IR light that slides onto the camera's hot-shoe. Sure, it'll film everything in greenish shades - but sometimes that's the effect you're looking for.
The only thing I disliked on this camera was the memory stick for still pictures. Still photos were noticeably darker than anything filmed as a movie to tape. It really needed a flash of some sort unless you were taking the still photos in bright, outdoor lighting.
Overall though, picture quality for video was excellent (best in its class at the time, for a single CCD camera), and it can film for a LONG time on one of the larger, optional battery packs. It's compatible with about every video editing package I've ever tried it with on both my PC and Mac, but has quite a bit of built-in editing capabilities too (which I never really use).
This sort of thing already came up with the last couple rounds of email-borne virii.
It's not necessarily such a great idea, because among other things, one mistake/bug/oversight in the "patch" - and you could start doing damage as bad as or worse than the virus you're attempting to remove. By definition, this "virus fix" would have to be treated as a virus by the anti-virus software authors too. (If it's making changes to PCs without their owners' permission, no matter what the motive, it's viral code, by definition.)
Depending on how "on top of things" the virus author is, there's also a possibility of a new variant being released that would respond in a very nasty way to attempts to disinfect via the circulating "patch".
You know - I tend to agree with you. I love playing online games (typically FPS, but also RTS games like Warcraft 3 or Age of Mythology), but I also have no desire to study all the minute details to the point where it's no longer just casually playing "for the fun of playing".
In Warcraft 3, for example, I almost *always* lose these days - because so many players seem to be hell bent on getting as high a ranking as possible. They practice day in and out, reading up on all the details of exactly what order is "most efficient" to build every structure, and memorize all these little statistics about exactly how many of a certain type of creature you should send out after people, and how many to gather each material... on and on. It reduces what's normally just a fun game to clicking through everything in memorized patterns, as quickly as possible.
Personally, I have more fun just playing and trying out different random things - and yes, losing!
Honestly, I think the *real* question is more about the quality of the "user experience" with a given PDA. On a device that's under $500 or so, and used as a glorified calendar/contact list/address book + way to play with assorted games, calculators, and misc. applets - I'm looking for ease of use, above all else.
If it's open source and has a great user interface, then that's awesome! If it's some commercial, closed-source OS, but still offers the easy to use and friendly UI, plus all the little apps and applets I want, then that's awesome too!
Right now, I find the Windows CE based handhelds to be less desirable than the PalmOS counterparts, but that's really because I've grown so familiar with the PalmOS interface. It does what I want, keeps getting refreshed with new versions, but doesn't make me relearn everything to use the updated devices. If all I owned was WinCE stuff, I'd probably be just as biased towards it.
I'm not opposed to alternatives - but on a PDA, I'm not switching products simply because it offers more "potential" by being "open source". I have to see concrete improvements that are immediately there for me.
Actually, doesn't SpyBot already do this (assuming you have the latest updates applied to it)? I know I've noticed when I've run it lately and it starts fixing problems, it says something on the screen for a second about updating networking components.
Yep - and actually, you might be surprised at how many people holding traditional "mechanical engineering" or "electrical engineering" degrees are spending most of their employed day "slinging code".
The lines between Engineering and I.T. are becoming pretty fuzzy nowdays. Lots of engineers I know do most of their work in a "virtual" environment on a PC, including not only the CAD/CAM stuff, but also building and testing virtual circuits, and being forced to write their own code to make a PC interface with valves, switches, and sensors so it can control equipment on a shop floor or in a lab.
Often times, their bosses push them to learn a programming language (and pay for training for them, if necessary), so they can essentially become a software developer for their own niche needs.
From the little bit of coding I've done (used to write in BASIC, years ago, took a course in C programming in college, etc.), and from all the work I've done along-side software developers while working in I.T. - it seems to me you really can divide programming tasks up into two basic types.
You've got "low level" and "high level". If you aspire to do the "low level" development, that means you're looking at such projects as building device drivers for hardware, code for embedded systems (maybe it's the applet that runs the front panel on a laser printer, or the display and controls on a car stereo or cellphone?), or possibly even developing the compilers themselves.
Meanwhile, the "high level" developers are helping work on larger projects... full-blown applications, front-ends to databases, maybe even computer games (where nowdays, you can basically purchase the whole "engine" from the "low level" guys who did that part for you already).
If you're working on the "low level" stuff, I'd agree that you better learn assembly code, and learn it well!
If you're just doing database front-ends and the like, it's probably not really necessary. I won't argue that people who know assembly understand the real inner workings of the computer better than those who don't. That's probably very true. It's just that sometimes, that's not critically important. (EG. I'd rather have someone with a good eye for color and a good artistic background helping build an action game, especially if I already paid for rights to use the Quake engine or whatever....)
Heh! That is pretty funny. I will say this though. I still use 2-part hand-filled-in forms when I do on-site service work. There's a good reason though. Until I complete a job, I don't usually know how long it will take, or what parts (if any) might be needed to fix something.
All of our copies of these paper forms get entered into the computer system at the end of the day, though, and then they're no longer needed/saved.
(When I have to take a PC or peripheral back with me to work on in the shop, I do bring it back to the customer with a computer-printed receipt for the total.)
Yep! I've been praising SpyBot and recommending it to practically everyone running a PC on the Inet for months now. (As I said in a previous/. thread, I work doing on-site PC service, and this program, alone, cures more PC issues I run into than anything else we use.)
I'll tell you another little tip, though. If SpyBot already claims it's cleaned everything up, but your PC is *still* spontaneously generating pop-up ads on the screen, or running abnormally slow (perhaps you still see odd processes listed as running in the process list?), here's the way to fix it.
Run regedit, and search the entire registry for "run once". There are several "run once" registry keys, with plain old "run" keys directly above each of them. (You're mainly interested in what's in the "run" keys, but searching for "run" will find hundreds of things we're not interested in.) If they're starting up some kind of trojan horse or spyware/adware program on your Windows PC (and assuming it's not simply in the "Startup" program group!), they've got to be doing it in one of these "run" keys. Look for sneaky files in there with names like "windowsupdater.exe" (MS doesn't ever run a file by this name to do the real Windows updates), or just gibberish names like 0br003445l.exe and delete them from the "value" line of the "run" key. I've even seen files in there I wasn't sure about, until I looked in the folder under "Program Files" where it was running from; Then I saw a *documentation* file in the program's folder explaining that the utility was "designed to automatically present advertisements to the computer user at random intervals"!
IMHO, there's really no good reason anyone should need a typewriter for the purpose of filling out purchase orders!
The problem is, your workplace is still using the "old tech" of carbon paper based forms.
The last company I worked for that made us fill out multipart purchase order forms finally phased them out completely. They installed new computer software that let employees complete the whole purchase order online. Sure, a few people complained and moaned about how much harder it made things - but over time, even they started getting used to it. (How often do you re-order something from the same supplier? I bet it happens fairly often. Sure is nice to have the PC fill in the whole address for you when you key in the name of the vendor, because it remembers them all in an address book.)
It's also nice when someone needs to locate an old purchase order to figure out when a warranty expires or what was paid for a product the last time it was purchased. Just do a quick search in the computer, instead of digging through thousands of papers in a filing cabinet!
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So, I assume that new Athlon 64 laptop of yours has a keyboard with characters that light up in the dark, right?
Built-in wireless G, gigabit ethernet, as well as Firewire 400, 800 and USB 2.0 ports, and a wide-screen display panel?
Just as thin and light weight as an Apple Powerbook? No exposed doors/covers to break off anyplace either, right?
I considered a new PC laptop right around Xmas time.... I looked and looked, and in the end, I bought a Powerbook G4 15". Yeah, it costs more - but there's more to it than just CPU speed.
Then maybe they should *STOP COLLECTING SO MUCH*, and do what sensible people do when they're overloaded with information; prune out everything that's not necessary!
It strikes me that the current FBI mentality is "always push for more abilities to collect/seize information, and more tools to gather it with", coupled with "having too much information just makes it easier to demand and get additional funding to make our organization larger and more powerful".
National fingerprint identification databases containing prints of everyone who has a driver's license, computerized filtering of email traffic over the net, a constant push for wider "wiretapping" capabilities and rights, etc. etc. Yet the only things that really net them the true criminals never really change; good informants and good detective work.
IMHO, law enforcement needs to stop requesting more and more money for gagetry, coupled with broader legal definitions of what isn't "invading privacy" or "trampling on one's individual rights". Instead, work more efficiently with what they've got, and let agents go who can't produce results within the existing framework.
My bank uses ATM machines that suck the card completely into the slot, with only a little bit of a metal guide plate exposed below the slot. (Typically, they have a label with arrows printed on it that's affixed just beneath the slot, as well.) If you tried to add some sort of reader device to the front of the ATM, covering the original slot and plate, it would be fairly obvious it didn't belong there. I'm sure it might fool *some* clueless people - but it would surely be ripped from the machine pretty quickly, as someone a little more clueful realized what was going on. (After all, it would obscure part of the label, making it obvious it wasn't part of the original ATM machine.)
I have a feeling these card skimmers only work on specific models of ATMs (most likely, the little privately owned units you see in restaurants and gas stations, as opposed to actual bank-owned ATMs).
I'd agree with your sentiments, to at least some extent, but I'm already turned off by your tone. Why would someone be a "nut" simply because they ask some tough questions about the possibilities we don't want to consider?
A very real problem with computerizing data into databases has *always* been keeping it secure. The nice thing about traditional methods of filing data (file cabinets full of folders and so on) is it has a certain level of inherent security. (EG. If I waltz in to the police station and try to sift through private file folders, there's a really GOOD chance someone will see me and stop me before I get very far.) When you "virtualize" this information into a computer, people can't immediately see you accessing the data remotely. For that matter, employees using other people's passwords could be accessing files they weren't supposed to access, and it's likely other workers would walk right by them, not realizing anything was "out of place".
Can this technology be implemented so security isn't compromised? Sure.... but it takes some awareness and effort. In a world where most people still think their password should be the name of their pet dog or cat, and it's a "nuisance they'd rather avoid" to force changing a password once every 6 months - there's a very real need to keep questioning the security procedures used!
Yes, I dispute your claim. Your math may be correct, but you're discounting many other valid reasons why someone might want to invest $70 or so to copy their DVD collection.
Primarily, some folks like to take their movies with them - increasing the chances of scratching/damaging the discs. If you have a portable DVD player in your car/van, or even a notebook computer that can play DVDs, you'd probably not really want to tote around your originals and risk them getting lost/stolen/damaged every time.
Actually, if you read the fine print on most class action rulings, the settlements require a specific amount of money to be paid out to the claimants. Anything that's not claimed out of that total has to be spent, one way or the other. (Often, it's ordered to go to a local charity.)
So depending on how much you'd like to see a listed charity or other such organization receive some money, you may just want to participate in a class action that you're entitled to a settlement from. (Whether you participate or not, the company still pays out the same total amount of money. You're not making things "better" for them by opting out.)
I'm totally in agreement about these tech school wasting people's time and money with overblown promises about "high paying computer jobs with your certification!". But equally as bad, IMHO, are the tendencies towards hiring candidates based primarily on past "military service". Not that I'm "military bashing", because there are plenty of good reasons someone might want to join up.... but I've also personally witnessed my share of I.T. workers who could "talk the talk" but not "walk the walk" at all, and the only obvious reason they were hired to begin with was their claim of "having previous computer experience in the military".
These same individuals were typically able to out-earn the salaries of their peers (who generally did a better job!), either through raises or by job hopping, despite showing little interest in taking their I.T. career more seriously.
I'm not convinced that military education in any technical field lends itself that well to skills in the private sector. Unfortunately, the "buddy buddy" system is a powerful thing, and management that served in the military is pretty likely to prefer candidates with a similar background. Furthermore, the military generally turns out folks who speak well, dress neatly when they need to, and can generally "ass kiss" at a top-notch level. So I'm thinking that if you want a good paying I.T. job without really putting in the years of real experience, some military service trumps industry certs.!
Yep, this is 100% truth!
PC parts have gotten so inexpensive, you can purchase a spare of all the "likely to fail" parts for not much more money than a software license or two for these "diagnostic" packages.
I've noticed that lately (in the last year or so), most PC problems people have are spyware or virus related. (System runs slowly, freezes up/blue-screens randomly,etc.) Next most common problem is a failing hard drive. A few years ago, bad RAM would often give you intermittent crashes/freezes, but I think the overall quality of memory has gone up from the junk that was being dumped on the market a while back. I just don't see all the RAM related issues I used to see.
There's also a lot of complaining about poor quality power supplies causing instability and crashes, but I rarely see that. More often, an inferior power supply results in a machine that doesn't always power on, or it just dies completely. I've bought quite a few of those $15 AT style power supplies on Pricewatch too - and have yet to see one cause me any random, difficult-to-trace issues. Maybe I'm just lucky though?
Diagnostic software always seemed a bit silly to me. If you have a system that's acting glitchy only on occasion, it's as likely as not it'll just freeze up/hang running the diag. software, so you won't get any useful results back from it!
Perhaps it's relative though? As much as I like getting a "great deal" on things, I'm starting to believe that "PC clone parts are enormously UNDERpriced" these days.
I do on-site PC service and support for a living, and sometimes it really amazes me how cheap a replacement part or upgrade costs. But then, I also look at how often these parts fail and the shoddy workmanship in most "name brand" PCs - and I realize, you still "get what you pay for".
For example, we just recently ordered some cheap 40 gigabyte EIDE hard drives. The labels on them said "BSE Data Systems". Who is that, I wondered? Well, they appear to be OEM'd Maxtor drives - but the quality was awful. Out of 5 we ordered, 3 were DOA and 1 got "S.M.A.R.T failure" messages from the computer's BIOS after only one use. A failure rate of 80%!?!
As prices drop, this only gets worse and worse. Apple is one of the only vendors that still builds a "premium" product, in all respects (yes, including price). I paid more for my Apple Powerbook because I've owned the other stuff already - and I'm tired of cheap plastic doors that snap off, a laptop that weighs about 5lbs. too much and looks like a brick, etc.
I believe there was an earlier Slashdot story regarding movie theaters considering implementing jamming devices - to stop cellphone interruptions during movies.
(I guess the phone would work normally outside the rooms the movies were actually showing in, though. So in case of emergency, you'd just be forced to go out to the lobby area.)
I agree that an artist making a recording should have say in matters related to "for profit" uses of the entire original work in ways other than originally intended. EG. If a car manufacturer decides they want a Beatles song in the background of one of their commercials, then they should have to get permission to use it in that manner, and have to deal with it if the artist's wishes (in writing) stated the music was not to ever be used for that purpose.
On the other hand, anyone creating new works using samples of other works should be free to do so. I don't see how it makes sense to have it any other way? I realize that currently, the law seems to disagrees with me -- but where are the lines drawn? Do we say "5 seconds of continuous sampling is not ok, but 2 seconds is"? If I sample a distinctive synth riff from a popular rock or dance song and re-use it, who *really* owns the rights to that sound? After all, the original band playing it probably used patches built into a popular synth (say, Korg Triton or Yamaha Motif), which were the intellectual property of the respective synth maker to begin with. (Or do we say "It's only your own original sound if you make parameter changes to the stock patches before playing them."?) The whole thing quickly gets ridiculous.
IMHO, the only "right" way to implement such things as sequencer/synthesizer into a supposedly "live" production is to let humans control it in real time.
If there's a way to let the synth do the work of what formerly took multiple musicians to accomplish, that's fine with me - but it needs to be properly done. Just letting it run through some pre-programmed sequence each night isn't going to impress me. What about developing adaptive software that gets information from the musicians who are playing live instruments, and automatically tailoring the output accordingly? It might be pretty unconventional to wire up the musicians with electrodes and have a MIDI synth reading their heart-rate and the like to alter the intensity it plays with - but *that's* the type of innovation that makes it worth seeing and hearing!
Actually, the so-called "hacks" to the engine computers typically do little more than advance the timing a few degrees. It's the digital equivalent of the "tune ups" many people did with timing lights and a screwdriver before the days of fuel injection and engine computers.
The worst that will happen is you'll get a little worse gas mileage and it may not really give you a performance increase worth the time, effort and expense to do the modification.
Much of this depends on the state the car is in from the factory, though. In general, cars not originally aimed at a crowd seeking "performance" will have a little more room for improvement with computer chip changes. (If the auto maker decides a major design goal of a certain car is good gas mileage, for example, it makes sense they'd program values into the engine computer that sacrifice some power for better mileage. These engines aren't going to "blow up" if you obtain 10 or 15HP extra out of them. In fact, they're basically "de-tuned" from the factory to take away that much HP for the sake of fuel economy.)
Though it's certainly not *always* the case, I'd say it's generally true that American cars are more likely to get a cheap performance boost from changing the computer chip, whereas foreign (especially Japanese) cars benefit more from inexpensive modifications that remove airflow restrictions.
For whatever reasons, the Japanese cars I've seen already have engine computer software that's pretty good at making the right adjustments for a pretty wide range of air/fuel changes. They accomplish their "de-tuning/fuel economy" with restrictive exhaust systems and air intakes that don't get much cool air into the engine. (The computer sees less cool air coming in the intake so it mixes a little less fuel with it, robbing a little power but saving a little gas.)
The hacks that scare me are people who raise or lower their trucks or cars without much knowledge of the handling changes that causes, and the people who have done so much to their engine already that they start needing upgraded fuel injectors and rails. (A fuel rail under high pressure is a dangerous thing if it's not properly designed and installed. You don't want leaks while you're driving around, after all!)
Right.... All along, this has been a mutually beneficial deal for both Apple and VA Tech. I guarantee Apple is giving VA Tech a special deal on this whole upgrade (and gave them a deal on the initial purchase too), because it's excellent publicity for them - and a chance to get real development on clustered computing going on the new G5 systems.
People saying VA Tech "should have just waited for the rack-mount version" don't get it. Apple made it worth their while not to wait, from the beginning....
The problem *really* is, most "marketing" is centered around lying or pushing around half-truths, so people hear only what they want to hear about a given new product.
If "marketing" really equated with "teaching people about the product", advertisements would point out all the pluses AND minuses.
Linux lacking "marketing" is probably partially because open source developers don't stand to benefit in the long run if everyone goes around heralding their unfinished work as the ultimate solution to a problem. Folks find out it's not, and then they're soured to the whole project. Developers, unlike businesses, are just concerned with building the best product they can build. Marketing is about generating *sales* and bringing in the maximum amount of *profit*. These aren't an integral part of the Linux requirements for existance.
I'd say your recommendations are pretty much on the mark.
I did quite a bit of research for the "Best under $1000 camcorder" a couple years ago, and at the time, decided on the Sony TRV-730. I'm not more than an "occasional user", so I may not be the best person to speak for long-term durability of this particular model - but it's always worked well for me. The "Digital 8" format it uses has a nice side-benefit, in that it can play back regular 8mm tapes (allowing easy transfer to VHS tape). Sony's "NightShot" and "Super NightShot" modes are a little cheezy - but they do work extremely well if you add an optional IR light that slides onto the camera's hot-shoe. Sure, it'll film everything in greenish shades - but sometimes that's the effect you're looking for.
The only thing I disliked on this camera was the memory stick for still pictures. Still photos were noticeably darker than anything filmed as a movie to tape. It really needed a flash of some sort unless you were taking the still photos in bright, outdoor lighting.
Overall though, picture quality for video was excellent (best in its class at the time, for a single CCD camera), and it can film for a LONG time on one of the larger, optional battery packs. It's compatible with about every video editing package I've ever tried it with on both my PC and Mac, but has quite a bit of built-in editing capabilities too (which I never really use).
This sort of thing already came up with the last couple rounds of email-borne virii.
It's not necessarily such a great idea, because among other things, one mistake/bug/oversight in the "patch" - and you could start doing damage as bad as or worse than the virus you're attempting to remove. By definition, this "virus fix" would have to be treated as a virus by the anti-virus software authors too. (If it's making changes to PCs without their owners' permission, no matter what the motive, it's viral code, by definition.)
Depending on how "on top of things" the virus author is, there's also a possibility of a new variant being released that would respond in a very nasty way to attempts to disinfect via the circulating "patch".
You know - I tend to agree with you. I love playing online games (typically FPS, but also RTS games like Warcraft 3 or Age of Mythology), but I also have no desire to study all the minute details to the point where it's no longer just casually playing "for the fun of playing".
In Warcraft 3, for example, I almost *always* lose these days - because so many players seem to be hell bent on getting as high a ranking as possible. They practice day in and out, reading up on all the details of exactly what order is "most efficient" to build every structure, and memorize all these little statistics about exactly how many of a certain type of creature you should send out after people, and how many to gather each material... on and on. It reduces what's normally just a fun game to clicking through everything in memorized patterns, as quickly as possible.
Personally, I have more fun just playing and trying out different random things - and yes, losing!
Honestly, I think the *real* question is more about the quality of the "user experience" with a given PDA. On a device that's under $500 or so, and used as a glorified calendar/contact list/address book + way to play with assorted games, calculators, and misc. applets - I'm looking for ease of use, above all else.
If it's open source and has a great user interface, then that's awesome! If it's some commercial, closed-source OS, but still offers the easy to use and friendly UI, plus all the little apps and applets I want, then that's awesome too!
Right now, I find the Windows CE based handhelds to be less desirable than the PalmOS counterparts, but that's really because I've grown so familiar with the PalmOS interface. It does what I want, keeps getting refreshed with new versions, but doesn't make me relearn everything to use the updated devices. If all I owned was WinCE stuff, I'd probably be just as biased towards it.
I'm not opposed to alternatives - but on a PDA, I'm not switching products simply because it offers more "potential" by being "open source". I have to see concrete improvements that are immediately there for me.
Actually, doesn't SpyBot already do this (assuming you have the latest updates applied to it)? I know I've noticed when I've run it lately and it starts fixing problems, it says something on the screen for a second about updating networking components.
Yep - and actually, you might be surprised at how many people holding traditional "mechanical engineering" or "electrical engineering" degrees are spending most of their employed day "slinging code".
The lines between Engineering and I.T. are becoming pretty fuzzy nowdays. Lots of engineers I know do most of their work in a "virtual" environment on a PC, including not only the CAD/CAM stuff, but also building and testing virtual circuits, and being forced to write their own code to make a PC interface with valves, switches, and sensors so it can control equipment on a shop floor or in a lab.
Often times, their bosses push them to learn a programming language (and pay for training for them, if necessary), so they can essentially become a software developer for their own niche needs.
From the little bit of coding I've done (used to write in BASIC, years ago, took a course in C programming in college, etc.), and from all the work I've done along-side software developers while working in I.T. - it seems to me you really can divide programming tasks up into two basic types.
You've got "low level" and "high level". If you aspire to do the "low level" development, that means you're looking at such projects as building device drivers for hardware, code for embedded systems (maybe it's the applet that runs the front panel on a laser printer, or the display and controls on a car stereo or cellphone?), or possibly even developing the compilers themselves.
Meanwhile, the "high level" developers are helping work on larger projects... full-blown applications, front-ends to databases, maybe even computer games (where nowdays, you can basically purchase the whole "engine" from the "low level" guys who did that part for you already).
If you're working on the "low level" stuff, I'd agree that you better learn assembly code, and learn it well!
If you're just doing database front-ends and the like, it's probably not really necessary. I won't argue that people who know assembly understand the real inner workings of the computer better than those who don't. That's probably very true. It's just that sometimes, that's not critically important. (EG. I'd rather have someone with a good eye for color and a good artistic background helping build an action game, especially if I already paid for rights to use the Quake engine or whatever....)
Heh! That is pretty funny. I will say this though. I still use 2-part hand-filled-in forms when I do on-site service work. There's a good reason though. Until I complete a job, I don't usually know how long it will take, or what parts (if any) might be needed to fix something.
All of our copies of these paper forms get entered into the computer system at the end of the day, though, and then they're no longer needed/saved.
(When I have to take a PC or peripheral back with me to work on in the shop, I do bring it back to the customer with a computer-printed receipt for the total.)
Yep! I've been praising SpyBot and recommending it to practically everyone running a PC on the Inet for months now. (As I said in a previous /. thread, I work doing on-site PC service, and this program, alone, cures more PC issues I run into than anything else we use.)
I'll tell you another little tip, though. If SpyBot already claims it's cleaned everything up, but your PC is *still* spontaneously generating pop-up ads on the screen, or running abnormally slow (perhaps you still see odd processes listed as running in the process list?), here's the way to fix it.
Run regedit, and search the entire registry for "run once". There are several "run once" registry keys, with plain old "run" keys directly above each of them. (You're mainly interested in what's in the "run" keys, but searching for "run" will find hundreds of things we're not interested in.) If they're starting up some kind of trojan horse or spyware/adware program on your Windows PC (and assuming it's not simply in the "Startup" program group!), they've got to be doing it in one of these "run" keys. Look for sneaky files in there with names like "windowsupdater.exe" (MS doesn't ever run a file by this name to do the real Windows updates), or just gibberish names like 0br003445l.exe and delete them from the "value" line of the "run" key. I've even seen files in there I wasn't sure about, until I looked in the folder under "Program Files" where it was running from; Then I saw a *documentation* file in the program's folder explaining that the utility was "designed to automatically present advertisements to the computer user at random intervals"!
IMHO, there's really no good reason anyone should need a typewriter for the purpose of filling out purchase orders!
The problem is, your workplace is still using the "old tech" of carbon paper based forms.
The last company I worked for that made us fill out multipart purchase order forms finally phased them out completely. They installed new computer software that let employees complete the whole purchase order online. Sure, a few people complained and moaned about how much harder it made things - but over time, even they started getting used to it. (How often do you re-order something from the same supplier? I bet it happens fairly often. Sure is nice to have the PC fill in the whole address for you when you key in the name of the vendor, because it remembers them all in an address book.)
It's also nice when someone needs to locate an old purchase order to figure out when a warranty expires or what was paid for a product the last time it was purchased. Just do a quick search in the computer, instead of digging through thousands of papers in a filing cabinet!