It isn't that simple. I was getting hundreds of calls a week from robots about somebody else's unpaid bills. They had the same first initial as me, same last name, different first name. Grr. Nobody gets anything from these calls, but robocalls don't cost anything. It's telephone spam, and I expect it to explode in the next year or two.
I've started getting the first clumsy attempts from overseas. A fricking Indian robodialer trying to sell me viagra. No joke. Not to mention the countless "charity" and political robocalls I've been getting. It makes me really upset and there is nothing I can do about it. How can you fight a robot who calls for free and doesn't even live in this country?
The real pisser about these is how dysfunctional they are. When I "prease pless wan to order thees medecines" it rang twice and dropped the call. I just wanted a human to yell at.
I was getting hangup robodialed calls about 10x per day, all hours. Sometimes it would fail over to a recorded message with an 800 number. Once when I was home during the call, I picked up and someone asked for a person with my first initial and last name. Different first name. I was so mad I had my modem dial every 60 seconds for a week while I was out of town. It made me feel good.
Now that robodialers are becoming more and more of a nuisance, I want to enhance my counterattack. Anyone know of a free app that'll dial the offending number and play an audio file of me ranting? Maybe I can robodial every member of congress nonstop until they pass legislation banning robodialers!
Typewriters aren't so great. I learned to type on a manual so I am qualified to make this observation. Corrections are difficult and time-consuming, large corrections require starting the entire page over. You cannot cut and paste without actual paste, there is no changing margins if your paper is too short or too long. No spell check, no ability to save, and if you want a 2nd copy you should have remembered to use carbon paper. I'm glad the manual typewriter is nearing extinction.
I do think learning on a manual makes for a more accurate typing style. It's taken me many years to evolve to the point where my fingers recognize a mistake and auto-backspace. I also miss the mechanical feedback and the sound of the mechanism.
You're absolutely right. In fact, children should be locked in cages until they turn 18 in order to completely prevent any chance of a predator ruining their life.
My DNA has propagated widely, and I don't have to raise kids. I donated sperm to pay for books in college. I probably have hundreds of offspring.
The whole thing is silly anyway. All the shuffling waters your DNA down to nothing in a few generations. Truly superior DNA would losslessly clone itself ad infinitum, like an amoeba. Or a fungus. Fungus can reproduce sexually too, if the mood strikes. Talk about superior.
I know there are freeware options. That isn't the problem.
I want to be able to walk up to a random PC and transfer files. I may not have admin access to the machine, or the owner of the machine may not want me to install an application just so I can manage my device.
My current mp3 player acts like a mass storage device when I plug it into any computer. I can copy files easily, no software required. Why don't other devices give you that freedom?
We need enforced laws about trade. Otherwise, it would be utter chaos. In your "FREE" world, nobody would be sure of what they were getting, what they were paying, and costs would skyrocket while trade would plummet.
Or do you think stores should be encouraged to commit fraud? For real? I have lots of good ideas that would be difficult to notice or prove. I don't want to live in that kind of world.
I had bad experiences with that policy. The last time I shopped there was in the vcr era. They only stocked vcr models that oddly weren't available at other stores. They had all the same features, but it was a different model. What a scam.
I thought you had to sync the player through itunes or whatever. Can you just copy files to it from the command line like the mass-storage USB mp3 players?
The reason I've never been willing to use an ipod or zune is the required software issue. All it would take would be one update to cripple your device or suddenly require drm.
I like mp3 players that are USB-pluggable, no software required. You won't get many features, but the device doesn't get in my way either.
I'm using a jumpgear mp3 which uses separate thumbdrives. You can get the whole deal with 2 gig for under $50. I like being able to have multiple flashdrives for it. I like being able to walk up to any computer running anything and access my drive. I put other files on it, and it is very handy.
The drawback: I've got to put the songs I want to hear on it. No fancy sync function. The interface is clunky, but I'm just listening to music. I don't want it to bake muffins for me. I can read tags & filenames on the display, play, stop, ff, rew, next/prev track, and it even has buggy bookmarks if I'm feeling fancy. I actually prefer this, being an old-fashioned hands-on kind of nerd.
Oh, another thing that I look for in a player: removable batteries. A must for me. I use rechargeable AAA NiMH bats and get 10+ hours. If I'm on a trip or away from civilization or spending the night at a friend's house I can swap batteries if they run out.
I work at a place that has a class b it doesn't need. It would be a disaster to move to a smaller range. Somebody came up with conventions in the 80s on how to hand out addresses and we have some everywhere. We'd have to reconfigure apps, network equipment, tens of thousands of pcs and devices, embedded systems, and so on. It will be very disruptive and will cost our company tens of millions of dollars. It is the kind of thing we will only do once, and it won't be a bandaid.
It's regrettable that immanent and imminent are homophones with quite different meaning, with eminent hovering nearby waiting for the unwary. I would hesitate to use immanent in writing and brace to define it to an unbelieving audience if I dared to use it in speech.
VB.NET is pretty powerful and you can get a complex app done quickly. What are your complaints about VB?
I used to hate vb back when there were very good reasons (1993) but have learned to be more tolerant. Now I'm well paid and part of my duties are performed in VB.NET, both maintaining legacy code and (gasp!) writing new applications.
Basically (heh) I think there are a lot of good languages and IDEs out there. As long as I have a code-aware editor, integrated debugger, and help for function/class definitions and whatnot I can write solid code in any environment.
Why go through life with one hand tied behind your back?
You can disable or customize auto-install, auto-reboot, and the notification. Some of it through the GUI, some of it through the registry. Since you're experienced with linux, you should be able to customize windows enough to make it livable.
On the windows boxes I use, I have auto-download but it asks to install or reboot. It will notify me once a day if it needs attention. That's not annoying at all.
I'll agree that the default settings are retarded.
I just called that number to complain about the vending machine being out of taco pellets. They were very helpful and understanding. They also have a website
I'd like to see some legal rulings on abandonware. Right now copyright is still in effect even if the company is gone and hasn't assigned the rights. In the meantime, a good rule of thumb might be if the software is available on a prominent website and it isn't c&d within several years the rights owners probably don't care. Filesharing is a whole different case since there is no effective way to stamp out every copy on the entire planet. Hm, I wonder if there are any MS-BOB torrents around?
In any case, the OP could have just posted a link. I would have guessed anyone with a MS-BOB CD clock would know about the availability of the code. It's been there in the top few search results for years.
Another thought: I actually owned a copy of MS-BOB when it was current, and I don't think the licensing was as draconian as is fashionable these days. It might be completely legal for me to use.
I'd like for copyright to revert to public domain if the work is not available for purchase for some number of years. We're going to lose a lot of works forever if this issue isn't addressed.
People refer to CDs as lossless because it is the highest quality widely used standard available for consumer purchase. Everything is lossy, from the most audiophile-approved vinyl to microphones to the human ear. Of course when people say lossless they don't mean it literally from the studio. They mean that it hasn't been compressed with a lossy algorithm from the CD standard.
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It isn't that simple. I was getting hundreds of calls a week from robots about somebody else's unpaid bills. They had the same first initial as me, same last name, different first name. Grr. Nobody gets anything from these calls, but robocalls don't cost anything. It's telephone spam, and I expect it to explode in the next year or two.
I've started getting the first clumsy attempts from overseas. A fricking Indian robodialer trying to sell me viagra. No joke. Not to mention the countless "charity" and political robocalls I've been getting. It makes me really upset and there is nothing I can do about it. How can you fight a robot who calls for free and doesn't even live in this country?
The real pisser about these is how dysfunctional they are. When I "prease pless wan to order thees medecines" it rang twice and dropped the call. I just wanted a human to yell at.
I was getting hangup robodialed calls about 10x per day, all hours. Sometimes it would fail over to a recorded message with an 800 number. Once when I was home during the call, I picked up and someone asked for a person with my first initial and last name. Different first name. I was so mad I had my modem dial every 60 seconds for a week while I was out of town. It made me feel good.
Now that robodialers are becoming more and more of a nuisance, I want to enhance my counterattack. Anyone know of a free app that'll dial the offending number and play an audio file of me ranting? Maybe I can robodial every member of congress nonstop until they pass legislation banning robodialers!
Ah yes. Bloodninja, the epitome of selflessness.
There is a dark side of the moon, and a light side of the moon.
The dark side is the side facing away from the sun. It shifts constantly.
La la la, dark side of the moon. I can't see the dark side of the moon. That's because the moon is right about full at the moment.
I miss the days when cellphones were for self-important assholes, cost over a dollar a minute, and the batteries only worked for half an hour.
Typewriters aren't so great. I learned to type on a manual so I am qualified to make this observation. Corrections are difficult and time-consuming, large corrections require starting the entire page over. You cannot cut and paste without actual paste, there is no changing margins if your paper is too short or too long. No spell check, no ability to save, and if you want a 2nd copy you should have remembered to use carbon paper. I'm glad the manual typewriter is nearing extinction.
I do think learning on a manual makes for a more accurate typing style. It's taken me many years to evolve to the point where my fingers recognize a mistake and auto-backspace. I also miss the mechanical feedback and the sound of the mechanism.
You got to shoot guns and play with chainsaws in your living room? Cool!
You're absolutely right. In fact, children should be locked in cages until they turn 18 in order to completely prevent any chance of a predator ruining their life.
My DNA has propagated widely, and I don't have to raise kids. I donated sperm to pay for books in college. I probably have hundreds of offspring.
The whole thing is silly anyway. All the shuffling waters your DNA down to nothing in a few generations. Truly superior DNA would losslessly clone itself ad infinitum, like an amoeba. Or a fungus. Fungus can reproduce sexually too, if the mood strikes. Talk about superior.
I know there are freeware options. That isn't the problem.
I want to be able to walk up to a random PC and transfer files. I may not have admin access to the machine, or the owner of the machine may not want me to install an application just so I can manage my device.
My current mp3 player acts like a mass storage device when I plug it into any computer. I can copy files easily, no software required. Why don't other devices give you that freedom?
We need enforced laws about trade. Otherwise, it would be utter chaos. In your "FREE" world, nobody would be sure of what they were getting, what they were paying, and costs would skyrocket while trade would plummet.
Or do you think stores should be encouraged to commit fraud? For real? I have lots of good ideas that would be difficult to notice or prove. I don't want to live in that kind of world.
I had bad experiences with that policy. The last time I shopped there was in the vcr era. They only stocked vcr models that oddly weren't available at other stores. They had all the same features, but it was a different model. What a scam.
How can you tell what people have? I see a lot of earphones but rarely see the device they're connected to. White used to mean ipod, but not anymore.
I thought you had to sync the player through itunes or whatever. Can you just copy files to it from the command line like the mass-storage USB mp3 players?
The reason I've never been willing to use an ipod or zune is the required software issue. All it would take would be one update to cripple your device or suddenly require drm.
I like mp3 players that are USB-pluggable, no software required. You won't get many features, but the device doesn't get in my way either.
I'm using a jumpgear mp3 which uses separate thumbdrives. You can get the whole deal with 2 gig for under $50. I like being able to have multiple flashdrives for it. I like being able to walk up to any computer running anything and access my drive. I put other files on it, and it is very handy.
The drawback: I've got to put the songs I want to hear on it. No fancy sync function. The interface is clunky, but I'm just listening to music. I don't want it to bake muffins for me. I can read tags & filenames on the display, play, stop, ff, rew, next/prev track, and it even has buggy bookmarks if I'm feeling fancy. I actually prefer this, being an old-fashioned hands-on kind of nerd.
Oh, another thing that I look for in a player: removable batteries. A must for me. I use rechargeable AAA NiMH bats and get 10+ hours. If I'm on a trip or away from civilization or spending the night at a friend's house I can swap batteries if they run out.
I work at a place that has a class b it doesn't need. It would be a disaster to move to a smaller range. Somebody came up with conventions in the 80s on how to hand out addresses and we have some everywhere. We'd have to reconfigure apps, network equipment, tens of thousands of pcs and devices, embedded systems, and so on. It will be very disruptive and will cost our company tens of millions of dollars. It is the kind of thing we will only do once, and it won't be a bandaid.
It's regrettable that immanent and imminent are homophones with quite different meaning, with eminent hovering nearby waiting for the unwary. I would hesitate to use immanent in writing and brace to define it to an unbelieving audience if I dared to use it in speech.
VB.NET is pretty powerful and you can get a complex app done quickly. What are your complaints about VB?
I used to hate vb back when there were very good reasons (1993) but have learned to be more tolerant. Now I'm well paid and part of my duties are performed in VB.NET, both maintaining legacy code and (gasp!) writing new applications.
Basically (heh) I think there are a lot of good languages and IDEs out there. As long as I have a code-aware editor, integrated debugger, and help for function/class definitions and whatnot I can write solid code in any environment.
Why go through life with one hand tied behind your back?
You can disable or customize auto-install, auto-reboot, and the notification. Some of it through the GUI, some of it through the registry. Since you're experienced with linux, you should be able to customize windows enough to make it livable.
On the windows boxes I use, I have auto-download but it asks to install or reboot. It will notify me once a day if it needs attention. That's not annoying at all.
I'll agree that the default settings are retarded.
I just called that number to complain about the vending machine being out of taco pellets. They were very helpful and understanding. They also have a website
I'd like to see some legal rulings on abandonware. Right now copyright is still in effect even if the company is gone and hasn't assigned the rights. In the meantime, a good rule of thumb might be if the software is available on a prominent website and it isn't c&d within several years the rights owners probably don't care. Filesharing is a whole different case since there is no effective way to stamp out every copy on the entire planet. Hm, I wonder if there are any MS-BOB torrents around?
In any case, the OP could have just posted a link. I would have guessed anyone with a MS-BOB CD clock would know about the availability of the code. It's been there in the top few search results for years.
Another thought: I actually owned a copy of MS-BOB when it was current, and I don't think the licensing was as draconian as is fashionable these days. It might be completely legal for me to use.
I'd like for copyright to revert to public domain if the work is not available for purchase for some number of years. We're going to lose a lot of works forever if this issue isn't addressed.
Sorry to crap on your parade, but MS-BOB is abandonware and is freely available here (German page, but ms-bob is in english)
+5 on your first post ever. Well done, and welcome to slashdot!
Pichu was intelligently designed. Pikachu evolves from Pichu, and Raichu evolves from Pikachu. Get your made-up evolutionary pathways right, dammit!
People refer to CDs as lossless because it is the highest quality widely used standard available for consumer purchase. Everything is lossy, from the most audiophile-approved vinyl to microphones to the human ear. Of course when people say lossless they don't mean it literally from the studio. They mean that it hasn't been compressed with a lossy algorithm from the CD standard.