The article quotes Charney as saying "half of all crashes in Windows are caused not by Microsoft code, but third-party code".
It does not say the application takes down the OS. Perhaps if it said "crashes OF Windows" instead of "crashes IN Windows" but I think they are talking about your run-of-the-mill "segmentation fault (core dumped)" kind of events.
Security holes I've discovered, The records of grades are now mine. What once was a one point five average, Is now a three point nine nine!
Huh? Blame the Bush administration?
on
Aral Sea Disappearing
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· Score: 3, Insightful
If anything, the Aral Sea situation shows that these issues are not as simple as environmental extremists would like to make them out to be. Farmers need water. As the article says, their irrigation systems are not efficient, but who will pay for a new one? Perhaps the farmers should be made to pay for such a system, and maybe they should even compensate the fishermen who have lost their livelihoods. But answers that are acceptable to all sides are not so no-brainer obvious.
Ah, but Microsoft's recent license changes says that they will indemnify their customers against such lawsuits. If you are a big company and afraid of such things, a clause like that is very reassuring.
I dunno, maybe I use a different Google. Yesterday I did this Google search for the dfi lanparty pro875 motherboard. I see a lot of reviews but very few places to buy. Unless, of course, I use Froogle but of course that is MEANT to be a shopping engine.
According to Infoworld there were 32.8 million computers shipped in calendar Q2; I don't know how that overlaps with Apple's fiscal Q3 but assuming it does then it gives Apple a 2.3 percent market share.
Here in the States, middle-aged nerds like me think of England mostly in terms of Monty Python. When I heard the name and saw it's Linux based, I immediately thought of the "There's a penguin on the telly" sketch. In this case, there's a penguin IN the Telly!
Re:They used a coolermaster chassi
on
New Linux PVR Box
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· Score: 3, Interesting
It is a very nice looking box, but it is BIG and most likely too noisy to put next to your TV if used with anything but the ITX boards. It's the size of the old desktop PC cases. There are two 5-inch and two 3-inch bays in the thing. If you fill it with peripherals it will generate way too much heat.
The Hush looks like it would be much more compatible with an A/V stack, but notice the price and you'll see that the Telly isn't that far off price-wise. And the hush is "just" a PC with no PVR functionality set up on it!
You have not priced out the components being used. It's a Coolermaster aluminum case for one thing, and includes a very nice wireless mouse and keyboard. So it is NOT a "$200 PC" by any means. The mobo/CPU and TV/video card probably cost that much, then you have to add an 80GB drive and DVD/CD-RW combo drive. And although it does run Linux they have their own (closed-source) software on top of that.
However, I have to agree that it does seem very expensive if you value your time at $0/hr and would prefer to build all the hardware and write/install the software yourself from scratch. At the volumes they are producing they are not getting any better prices than you would if you bought the components yourself.
What I wonder about is how this box would stack up compared to the Pioneer/TiVo boxes annnounced a few weeks ago that were supposed to sell for about $1,000. Those had DVD burning built in, the Telly is promising it as a future enhancement.
Plus, the people who have allowed stupid things to happen (like a single choke point for the information flow of 25 companies) don't like that problem being revealed. I worked for a telecom company in the 1980s that was supposedly providing a redundant link for an AT&T leased line. One day a backhoe cut through the line and our customer found out the ugly secret--we leased OUR line from AT&T, and their "redundant link" went through the same piece of cable!
Instead of hiding this info for "national security" reasons, these maps should be analyzed to death by a program to find and eliminate these kind of problems, or at the very least let companies understand and anticipate these risks.
As long as it's statistical it will tell advertisers a lot. As the article mentions, it's not something the broadcasters want to hear. But if advertisers knew the best time to show ads, maybe we wouldn't get tampon ads during dinner.
I think the Telly comes close to this description, except for the games. It's got the gawd-awful Via integrated video so you aren't likely to be successful playing quick-twitch games on it. Works fine for on-screen menus though.
A set-top box and remote control isn't necessarily the best environment for editing video. Video editing is time consuming work, at minimum 2x the run time of the material you're editing to do a good job. For a lot of video you'd just write it as-is to a DVD and save yourself the effort.
What makes most of them pathetic is the complexity of the software. TiVo's software is limited but does its assigned job well.
If you don't want to build a super-TiVo from scratch but like the idea of hacking your own changes and additions, you may want to look at Telly. It's built off a Linux base but you get the hardware and software package already integrated and ready to go.
Where in the press release did it say you would be able to PLAY BACK the content you recorded on some other device? For all we know this is some sort of closed proprietary format with copy protection.
If I were going to announce a device that is outrageously expensive at $1,200 to $1,800 I would certainly want to promote the ability to create standard VCD, SVCD, and DVD discs that would play in any standard player. Unless it can't do that.
Yes it's a good PR move, especially if it's inevitable, but I think there's more to it. Consumer Reports did a report that gave Verizon top ratings for both service and coverage in most major metropolitan areas. If people can move their numbers they are more likely to move to Verizon.
If the batteries are that old, they most likely are not holding a good charge. I would replace them.
I would stick with batteries that have similar specs.The charging and inverter circuitry on the UPS expects something in that neighborhood. Those are probably gel-cells which are very common for UPS and other applications like alarm systems. Sounds like the two 6V batteries are connected in series, you could go with a 12V battery which may be easier to find. It depends on the physical dimensions.
I changed the batteries in my APC UPS for $50 using two batteries from batteries.com; APC wouldn't even sell me replacement batteries. They wanted to offer a small tradein allowance on a new unit that would have cost me $400.
"I have been programming my entire life and I must say that it is the human factor that makes it interesting. To take all the errors out of programs is to take away something -- and as I have recieved many a bad crash I can't believe I am saying this -- special from it."
Absolutely, these guys are not used to having their authority challenged. Unlike most other workers, I should add. It's fine for tech support staff to have their calls recorded, for employees to have all their emails monitored, and for factory workers to be judged by quantitative productivity standards. But if you start to question the ump, well then that's foul play!
I wonder if certain visual patterns on a uniform could cause the cameras to misread the pitch? Kind of like a radar jammer. I can just see some team coming out with uniforms that have a holographic pattern of a moving ball at chest level.
"But ump, the COMPUTER said it was a strike!"
Re:For those unfortunate times...
on
42-Volt Autos
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· Score: 1
I would think it depends on how the electrical system is set up and *which* battery is dead. For example, my Prius has a high-voltage (~270 volt) battery and a low-voltage (12 volt) battery. The LV battery powers the electronics and most of the standard auto accessories but the HV battery is used for starting and driving the electric motor. If the LV battery goes dead on a Prius, it won't start. But all you need is a small amount of 12V to get the car started, it's not like the cranking amps you need on a normal 12v car. Once the electronics have some juice they'll control the HV battery and turn the engine over. Then the Prius uses a DC/DC converter to recharge the 12V battery (there's no alternator). A "normal" car can jump-start a Prius for that reason.
And if the Prius HV battery is dead? Towing time.
On the new 36/42 systems they might take similar approach. There could be a 12V battery that powers accessories, charged from a DC/DC converter. If it's not a hybrid (the typical case) there would be a 42V alternator to charge the HV battery. That way if you run the battery down it would be like the Prius situation.
So you'd also be okay with the school system selling off the Macs for money and buying Windows PCs with the proceeds? I don't think the donors would like that.
You mean it was a choice between $400K or $43K? In that case it's even more of a no-brainer.:)
If the "free" Macs come in the door, IT will be expected to support and upgrade them. If the school system has a site license for Windows products it won't apply to the Macs and IT will need to purchase compatible software. One or more support people will need to be trained in Macs. Additional hardware may be needed and won't be able to be pulled from their standard PC supply sources.
These are all real costs. It doesn't seem anywhere near $43K in real costs though, and any reasonable organization has to be flexible on policies. I just get tired of Slashdot stories that make it look like there is only one side to the issue.
Slashdot Mirror
The article quotes Charney as saying "half of all crashes in Windows are caused not by Microsoft code, but third-party code".
It does not say the application takes down the OS. Perhaps if it said "crashes OF Windows" instead of "crashes IN Windows" but I think they are talking about your run-of-the-mill "segmentation fault (core dumped)" kind of events.
Security holes I've discovered,
The records of grades are now mine.
What once was a one point five average,
Is now a three point nine nine!
If anything, the Aral Sea situation shows that these issues are not as simple as environmental extremists would like to make them out to be. Farmers need water. As the article says, their irrigation systems are not efficient, but who will pay for a new one? Perhaps the farmers should be made to pay for such a system, and maybe they should even compensate the fishermen who have lost their livelihoods. But answers that are acceptable to all sides are not so no-brainer obvious.
Ah, but Microsoft's recent license changes says that they will indemnify their customers against such lawsuits. If you are a big company and afraid of such things, a clause like that is very reassuring.
I dunno, maybe I use a different Google. Yesterday I did this Google search for the dfi lanparty pro875 motherboard. I see a lot of reviews but very few places to buy. Unless, of course, I use Froogle but of course that is MEANT to be a shopping engine.
According to Infoworld there were 32.8 million computers shipped in calendar Q2; I don't know how that overlaps with Apple's fiscal Q3 but assuming it does then it gives Apple a 2.3 percent market share.
Here in the States, middle-aged nerds like me think of England mostly in terms of Monty Python. When I heard the name and saw it's Linux based, I immediately thought of the "There's a penguin on the telly" sketch. In this case, there's a penguin IN the Telly!
It is a very nice looking box, but it is BIG and most likely too noisy to put next to your TV if used with anything but the ITX boards. It's the size of the old desktop PC cases. There are two 5-inch and two 3-inch bays in the thing. If you fill it with peripherals it will generate way too much heat.
The Hush looks like it would be much more compatible with an A/V stack, but notice the price and you'll see that the Telly isn't that far off price-wise. And the hush is "just" a PC with no PVR functionality set up on it!
You have not priced out the components being used. It's a Coolermaster aluminum case for one thing, and includes a very nice wireless mouse and keyboard. So it is NOT a "$200 PC" by any means. The mobo/CPU and TV/video card probably cost that much, then you have to add an 80GB drive and DVD/CD-RW combo drive. And although it does run Linux they have their own (closed-source) software on top of that.
However, I have to agree that it does seem very expensive if you value your time at $0/hr and would prefer to build all the hardware and write/install the software yourself from scratch. At the volumes they are producing they are not getting any better prices than you would if you bought the components yourself.
What I wonder about is how this box would stack up compared to the Pioneer/TiVo boxes annnounced a few weeks ago that were supposed to sell for about $1,000. Those had DVD burning built in, the Telly is promising it as a future enhancement.
Plus, the people who have allowed stupid things to happen (like a single choke point for the information flow of 25 companies) don't like that problem being revealed. I worked for a telecom company in the 1980s that was supposedly providing a redundant link for an AT&T leased line. One day a backhoe cut through the line and our customer found out the ugly secret--we leased OUR line from AT&T, and their "redundant link" went through the same piece of cable!
Instead of hiding this info for "national security" reasons, these maps should be analyzed to death by a program to find and eliminate these kind of problems, or at the very least let companies understand and anticipate these risks.
This is a very big addition. Some of the intranet sites I use require NTLM to access and I was never able to use Mozilla.
As long as it's statistical it will tell advertisers a lot. As the article mentions, it's not something the broadcasters want to hear. But if advertisers knew the best time to show ads, maybe we wouldn't get tampon ads during dinner.
I think the Telly comes close to this description, except for the games. It's got the gawd-awful Via integrated video so you aren't likely to be successful playing quick-twitch games on it. Works fine for on-screen menus though.
A set-top box and remote control isn't necessarily the best environment for editing video. Video editing is time consuming work, at minimum 2x the run time of the material you're editing to do a good job. For a lot of video you'd just write it as-is to a DVD and save yourself the effort.
What makes most of them pathetic is the complexity of the software. TiVo's software is limited but does its assigned job well.
If you don't want to build a super-TiVo from scratch but like the idea of hacking your own changes and additions, you may want to look at Telly. It's built off a Linux base but you get the hardware and software package already integrated and ready to go.
Where in the press release did it say you would be able to PLAY BACK the content you recorded on some other device? For all we know this is some sort of closed proprietary format with copy protection.
If I were going to announce a device that is outrageously expensive at $1,200 to $1,800 I would certainly want to promote the ability to create standard VCD, SVCD, and DVD discs that would play in any standard player. Unless it can't do that.
Yes it's a good PR move, especially if it's inevitable, but I think there's more to it. Consumer Reports did a report that gave Verizon top ratings for both service and coverage in most major metropolitan areas. If people can move their numbers they are more likely to move to Verizon.
If the batteries are that old, they most likely are not holding a good charge. I would replace them.
I would stick with batteries that have similar specs.The charging and inverter circuitry on the UPS expects something in that neighborhood. Those are probably gel-cells which are very common for UPS and other applications like alarm systems. Sounds like the two 6V batteries are connected in series, you could go with a 12V battery which may be easier to find. It depends on the physical dimensions.
I changed the batteries in my APC UPS for $50 using two batteries from batteries.com; APC wouldn't even sell me replacement batteries. They wanted to offer a small tradein allowance on a new unit that would have cost me $400.
Doesn't this apply to almost any endeavor?
"I have been programming my entire life and I must say that it is the human factor that makes it interesting. To take all the errors out of programs is to take away something -- and as I have recieved many a bad crash I can't believe I am saying this -- special from it."
Absolutely, these guys are not used to having their authority challenged. Unlike most other workers, I should add. It's fine for tech support staff to have their calls recorded, for employees to have all their emails monitored, and for factory workers to be judged by quantitative productivity standards. But if you start to question the ump, well then that's foul play!
I wonder if certain visual patterns on a uniform could cause the cameras to misread the pitch? Kind of like a radar jammer. I can just see some team coming out with uniforms that have a holographic pattern of a moving ball at chest level.
"But ump, the COMPUTER said it was a strike!"
I would think it depends on how the electrical system is set up and *which* battery is dead. For example, my Prius has a high-voltage (~270 volt) battery and a low-voltage (12 volt) battery. The LV battery powers the electronics and most of the standard auto accessories but the HV battery is used for starting and driving the electric motor. If the LV battery goes dead on a Prius, it won't start. But all you need is a small amount of 12V to get the car started, it's not like the cranking amps you need on a normal 12v car. Once the electronics have some juice they'll control the HV battery and turn the engine over. Then the Prius uses a DC/DC converter to recharge the 12V battery (there's no alternator). A "normal" car can jump-start a Prius for that reason.
And if the Prius HV battery is dead? Towing time.
On the new 36/42 systems they might take similar approach. There could be a 12V battery that powers accessories, charged from a DC/DC converter. If it's not a hybrid (the typical case) there would be a 42V alternator to charge the HV battery. That way if you run the battery down it would be like the Prius situation.
So you'd also be okay with the school system selling off the Macs for money and buying Windows PCs with the proceeds? I don't think the donors would like that.
You mean it was a choice between $400K or $43K? In that case it's even more of a no-brainer. :)
If the "free" Macs come in the door, IT will be expected to support and upgrade them. If the school system has a site license for Windows products it won't apply to the Macs and IT will need to purchase compatible software. One or more support people will need to be trained in Macs. Additional hardware may be needed and won't be able to be pulled from their standard PC supply sources.
These are all real costs. It doesn't seem anywhere near $43K in real costs though, and any reasonable organization has to be flexible on policies. I just get tired of Slashdot stories that make it look like there is only one side to the issue.
I know Slashdot is a hotbed of anti-Microsoft bias, but would you be as outraged by these similar stories?
"School may turn down $43K in free Windows PCs; school has a Linux-only (or Mac-only) policy."
"King County WA school may turn down $43K in free Macs; many parents are Microsoft employees and want to support their employer's products."