I had a similar incident happen on my '98 Jetta. I was on an interstate with the cruise control on, and it decided to start accelerating for no reason. The best part is that this was one isolated incident for a car in which I logged over 200k miles. By the way, that was an awesome car. I could drive like an old lady and get 45mpg, or (typically) like Mario Andretti and *still* get 43mpg.
In response to the claims of tinkering with the speedometer, both my '98 Jetta and my '08 Mazda3 have always reported the exact same speed on the speedometer as those roadside radar detectors.
The potential benefits of this had me salivating. In four words, I can tell you why: Hulu on my HDTV.
So, my results?
- Well, for starters, Hulu doesn't work, as others here have mentioned. - YouTube works, but was choppy, even though laptops that share the same wireless network don't share the same problem. - Weather.com, on the radar map for my local area, actually ran out of memory while loading. - The whole experience was kind of slow. - Some sites (like YouTube) appear to render themselves specifically for the browser, while others (basically anything less popular) often looked just a little off. - For the record, Slashdot looked pretty nice.
My enjoyment of our Wii doubled when I installed the Homebrew Channel, and I always bring it up when people ask us if we like the system. It's funny that they are in a constant fight to stop stuff that contributes so much to the value of what they're selling to us.
1. As citizens of the United States, we are bound by the Constitution of the United States. 2. The Constitution grants Congress the power to declare war (Article I, Section 8). 3. As a responsible nation, the United States is obligated to conduct war in compliance with the treaties by which it is bound (such as the Geneva Protocol). 4. Such treaties (to my knowledge) do not address so-called "cyberwarfare". 5. Ergo, should Congress declare war on a foreign sovereign nation, I believe our government should consider cyberwarfare to be a potential offensive option.
How it is: 1. Despite not declaring war on any foreign sovereign nation since 1942, our government does whatever it damn well pleases anyway, so what's the difference?
Porting ongoing development efforts to IPv6 doesn't bother me in the least, even when you consider the impact of a non-revenue-generating task to be completed.
What I wonder is what we're going to do with all of that legacy software that's out of its support cycle. As a consumer, I'm worried that I'm going to have replace old, stable, DRM-free, purpose-built, paid-for software with bloated, memory-hogging, DRM-riddled, subscription-based junk just because nobody wants to make the old stuff work on IPv6.
Amen. I've tried several times over the years to run users with stripped-down privileges, going all the way back to NT4, and I've had no success. Even the "Power Users" group is typically insufficient because some piece of junk software or another won't install or run properly.
Unfortunately, it's not so much a technical problem with Microsoft as it is a culture problem with the platform and a technical problem with other software vendors. They have the choice to code their software properly, and don't. And the barn door's been open so long, it's next to impossible to close it now.
Make usage logs available on a web site. Include across-the-board metrics available to everyone and individual logs stored behind proper authentication (staff and parents). Let the 'system' police itself by telling the kids they're on candid camera, and then by backing that up. Also, make any tampering with such a system an offense punishable by evil, draconian measures.
My first computer science course was based on Scheme. It was my first exposure to recursion, and my first encounter with a language that didn't have artificial boundaries (such as the 4-byte integer limit, or the delineation between an integer and a float).
My second was an obligatory introduction to C and Unix.
My third was a completely theoretical course, utilizing only pseudo-code on a whiteboard.
Despite the fact that I wasted the remainder of my post-secondary education on video games and alcohol, I have always found this 'trifecta' to be an excellent introduction. To put it another way:
1. Teach a language that opens up new possibilities (such as Scheme). 2. Then teach a proper baseline (such as C/C++). 3. Then get theoretical.
I've worked for both types as well, and I've become convinced that all organizations lie on a continuum. At one end is a guy in his basement writing the next Napster. At the other end is a publicly-traded Fortune 500 making products for the automotive, financial, and pharmaceutical industries. There's a "sweet spot" somewhere in the middle, but most organizations sail right past it on their way to a bureaucratic nightmare.
I'm also convinced that the sweet spot can never be hit once you fall under Sarbanes-Oxley, 21 CFR Part 11, or QS-9000.
I use Firefox, I've seen the latest Office (and very much prefer my Office 2k to it), and DirectX has been such a non-issue for me that I didn't even realize that the latest version isn't available for 2k. As for security, that's admittedly a tough one, but I haven't been caught with my pants down yet.
Good calls, all of them, but they aren't show-stoppers for me personally.
Newsflash: the Constitution does not stop at the 10th Amendment. You might want to read up on something called the "Commerce Clause".
I'm familiar with the Commerce Clause, and also familiar with the Supreme Court's ridiculous policy in the 20th century of rational basis review, which is a primary reason for how Congress has managed to get us into this mess.
The Commerce Clause gives Congress the power to regulate interstate commerce. It doesn't place into Congress' domain the power to legislate over every single action by the entities that engage in that commerce.
In other words, a $700 billion bailout package that includes tax breaks for manufacturers of childrens' toy arrow shafts in Oregon and Minnesota should not be considered the regulation of commerce among the several states.
"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people." - 10th Amendment to the United States Constitution
All of the actions of the federal government that led to our current economic crisis can be traced to violations of this amendment. All of the 'fixes' - whether they're signed by Obama or McCain - will also most likely violate this same amendment.
My number 1 issue in this election cycle is the people who think that the economy is the number 1 issue in this election cycle. They're being duped by an increasingly oligarchical government, and there's no sign of stopping it.
How much does a cow weigh? If you ask ten people to estimate the average weight of a cow, then the average of their estimates will probably be a little off. If you ask 100 people, you'll get a number that's closer. If you ask 1000, you'll get a number that's even closer. Why? Because, 90% of us (hypothetically) don't know what a cow weighs, so our guess is going to be off. But, statistically, 45% will be too high, and 45% will be too low, so they cancel each other out. That leaves the other 10% who grew up on a farm, or are veterinarians, or for whatever other reason know what a cow weighs. As the sample grows, the correct answer rises to the top.
Which means that, since 90% of us don't know enough about politics to make an informed vote, then the best candidate will rise to the top because the other 10% will know what they're doing.
But that doesn't work, does it? Why not? Because we're not just randomly guessing. We're deliberately choosing the wrong answer - the wrong candidate - based on something other than the facts. Our ignorance is getting in the way.
Prior to UO, there were some other interesting moments in the Ultima series. I remember one, U6 I think, in which all the cute fuzzy little bunnies on Blackthorn's island went Monty Python on you. In an earlier one, though, I seem to recall a room full of trapped children. If they were freed, they'd start attacking you, and you'd have to either run or defend yourself.
Actually, Ralf missed the SAFER barrier. The F1 race runs in the opposite direction of the 500 (and the Brickyard) during the portion that it's on the oval. Coming the 'wrong way' through Turn 1, he hit the wall on the front stretch past the point where the barrier began/ended (depending on your point of view).
To make matters worse, F1 brings their own safety crew to each track, and their regulations prohibited their one safety vehicle from going against traffic. This meant that the safety vehicle had to traverse practically the entire F1 course to get to Schumacher. So Michael got to drive by his brother's smashed car at least once (twice, if I recall) before anyone even showed up to see if he was dead.
When you watch Indy this Sunday (and I strongly recommend it), and there's a wreck, you'll often see the red IRL safety vehicles on camera before the car even slides to a stop.
I point this out because I think there are a lot of parallels between Windows v. Linux and F1 v. IndyCar. Both Windows and F1 are immensely popular compared to their counterparts, despite the fact that Linux and IndyCar are (IMO) better products. All Windows needs is something like that tire incident from a couple years back.
One PC to run Product A, which only works on XP, one PC to run Product B, which only works well on Linux, one PC to run Product C, which crashes the system and needs its own little sandbox, one PC to run Product D...
That's how you end up with 5 computers in your house.
I want one black box that's a cross between a LAMP Server, MythTV, the Wii, and an AM/FM/XM/Satellite/Cable/Whatever's-Next receiver that plugs into my TV and just WORKS! You plug it in, and it WORKS! No driver hunting, no recompiling kernels, no virtual duct tape.
Sorry... my Win2k box blue-screen'd last night... I'm a little bitter...
It's not the year or the genre or anything generalized. Good games have always been good games. Here's my own personal top ten games. Note that there's simply no pattern. Some are old, some new, some famous, some not. But they all were/are a blast to play. By the way, these are in no particular order.
1. Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny 2. Red Storm Rising 3. Indianapolis 500 4. Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield 5. Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn 6. Tecmo Super Bowl 7. SimCity 2000 8. Microsoft Flight Simulator (whatever the latest version is) 9. Grand Prix Racing Online (www.gpro.se) 10. Face Off! by Gamestar
I'd just like to say, on behalf of myself and many other Hoosiers, that all that time our state didn't observe DST was really nice. We enjoyed it. Here's to you, Arizona and Hawai'i.
Slashdot Mirror
I had a similar incident happen on my '98 Jetta. I was on an interstate with the cruise control on, and it decided to start accelerating for no reason. The best part is that this was one isolated incident for a car in which I logged over 200k miles. By the way, that was an awesome car. I could drive like an old lady and get 45mpg, or (typically) like Mario Andretti and *still* get 43mpg.
In response to the claims of tinkering with the speedometer, both my '98 Jetta and my '08 Mazda3 have always reported the exact same speed on the speedometer as those roadside radar detectors.
I'd buy into one... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utility_cooperative
Tell me again why I need to upgrade? Oh yeah, I'm missing a bunch of DRM. And I can't run the latest IE. Hmm... that's a shame...
The potential benefits of this had me salivating. In four words, I can tell you why: Hulu on my HDTV.
So, my results?
- Well, for starters, Hulu doesn't work, as others here have mentioned.
- YouTube works, but was choppy, even though laptops that share the same wireless network don't share the same problem.
- Weather.com, on the radar map for my local area, actually ran out of memory while loading.
- The whole experience was kind of slow.
- Some sites (like YouTube) appear to render themselves specifically for the browser, while others (basically anything less popular) often looked just a little off.
- For the record, Slashdot looked pretty nice.
Overall, I doubt I'm going to be using it much.
My enjoyment of our Wii doubled when I installed the Homebrew Channel, and I always bring it up when people ask us if we like the system. It's funny that they are in a constant fight to stop stuff that contributes so much to the value of what they're selling to us.
How it should be:
1. As citizens of the United States, we are bound by the Constitution of the United States.
2. The Constitution grants Congress the power to declare war (Article I, Section 8).
3. As a responsible nation, the United States is obligated to conduct war in compliance with the treaties by which it is bound (such as the Geneva Protocol).
4. Such treaties (to my knowledge) do not address so-called "cyberwarfare".
5. Ergo, should Congress declare war on a foreign sovereign nation, I believe our government should consider cyberwarfare to be a potential offensive option.
How it is:
1. Despite not declaring war on any foreign sovereign nation since 1942, our government does whatever it damn well pleases anyway, so what's the difference?
Porting ongoing development efforts to IPv6 doesn't bother me in the least, even when you consider the impact of a non-revenue-generating task to be completed.
What I wonder is what we're going to do with all of that legacy software that's out of its support cycle. As a consumer, I'm worried that I'm going to have replace old, stable, DRM-free, purpose-built, paid-for software with bloated, memory-hogging, DRM-riddled, subscription-based junk just because nobody wants to make the old stuff work on IPv6.
Amen. I've tried several times over the years to run users with stripped-down privileges, going all the way back to NT4, and I've had no success. Even the "Power Users" group is typically insufficient because some piece of junk software or another won't install or run properly.
Unfortunately, it's not so much a technical problem with Microsoft as it is a culture problem with the platform and a technical problem with other software vendors. They have the choice to code their software properly, and don't. And the barn door's been open so long, it's next to impossible to close it now.
J
...should use the neighbor's bathroom.
Make usage logs available on a web site. Include across-the-board metrics available to everyone and individual logs stored behind proper authentication (staff and parents). Let the 'system' police itself by telling the kids they're on candid camera, and then by backing that up. Also, make any tampering with such a system an offense punishable by evil, draconian measures.
My first computer science course was based on Scheme. It was my first exposure to recursion, and my first encounter with a language that didn't have artificial boundaries (such as the 4-byte integer limit, or the delineation between an integer and a float).
My second was an obligatory introduction to C and Unix.
My third was a completely theoretical course, utilizing only pseudo-code on a whiteboard.
Despite the fact that I wasted the remainder of my post-secondary education on video games and alcohol, I have always found this 'trifecta' to be an excellent introduction. To put it another way:
1. Teach a language that opens up new possibilities (such as Scheme).
2. Then teach a proper baseline (such as C/C++).
3. Then get theoretical.
J
I've worked for both types as well, and I've become convinced that all organizations lie on a continuum. At one end is a guy in his basement writing the next Napster. At the other end is a publicly-traded Fortune 500 making products for the automotive, financial, and pharmaceutical industries. There's a "sweet spot" somewhere in the middle, but most organizations sail right past it on their way to a bureaucratic nightmare.
I'm also convinced that the sweet spot can never be hit once you fall under Sarbanes-Oxley, 21 CFR Part 11, or QS-9000.
J
I use Firefox, I've seen the latest Office (and very much prefer my Office 2k to it), and DirectX has been such a non-issue for me that I didn't even realize that the latest version isn't available for 2k. As for security, that's admittedly a tough one, but I haven't been caught with my pants down yet.
Good calls, all of them, but they aren't show-stoppers for me personally.
I run Win2k. Half the footprint of XP and I'm out... um... the latest Media Player?
Best part is that it doesn't even have the DRM XP does.
J
This seems like a really outdated topic. After all, we haven't declared war since 1941, right?
J
Newsflash: the Constitution does not stop at the 10th Amendment. You might want to read up on something called the "Commerce Clause".
I'm familiar with the Commerce Clause, and also familiar with the Supreme Court's ridiculous policy in the 20th century of rational basis review, which is a primary reason for how Congress has managed to get us into this mess.
The Commerce Clause gives Congress the power to regulate interstate commerce. It doesn't place into Congress' domain the power to legislate over every single action by the entities that engage in that commerce.
In other words, a $700 billion bailout package that includes tax breaks for manufacturers of childrens' toy arrow shafts in Oregon and Minnesota should not be considered the regulation of commerce among the several states.
"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people." - 10th Amendment to the United States Constitution
All of the actions of the federal government that led to our current economic crisis can be traced to violations of this amendment. All of the 'fixes' - whether they're signed by Obama or McCain - will also most likely violate this same amendment.
My number 1 issue in this election cycle is the people who think that the economy is the number 1 issue in this election cycle. They're being duped by an increasingly oligarchical government, and there's no sign of stopping it.
Amen. I've lived in Indiana my whole life. We switched last year, and I absolutely hate it.
...at http://news.yahoo.com/comics/bloomcounty.
I've been reading the old stuff day-by-day. Some of it is remarkably relevant to current events.
Of course, today's strip is conveniently missing - go figure. Anyway, I thought I'd share the link to a comic that's on my short list.
J
How much does a cow weigh? If you ask ten people to estimate the average weight of a cow, then the average of their estimates will probably be a little off. If you ask 100 people, you'll get a number that's closer. If you ask 1000, you'll get a number that's even closer. Why? Because, 90% of us (hypothetically) don't know what a cow weighs, so our guess is going to be off. But, statistically, 45% will be too high, and 45% will be too low, so they cancel each other out. That leaves the other 10% who grew up on a farm, or are veterinarians, or for whatever other reason know what a cow weighs. As the sample grows, the correct answer rises to the top. Which means that, since 90% of us don't know enough about politics to make an informed vote, then the best candidate will rise to the top because the other 10% will know what they're doing. But that doesn't work, does it? Why not? Because we're not just randomly guessing. We're deliberately choosing the wrong answer - the wrong candidate - based on something other than the facts. Our ignorance is getting in the way.
Yeah, he's probably right... if you include all the vm's we run to sandbox stuff...
J
Prior to UO, there were some other interesting moments in the Ultima series. I remember one, U6 I think, in which all the cute fuzzy little bunnies on Blackthorn's island went Monty Python on you. In an earlier one, though, I seem to recall a room full of trapped children. If they were freed, they'd start attacking you, and you'd have to either run or defend yourself.
Actually, Ralf missed the SAFER barrier. The F1 race runs in the opposite direction of the 500 (and the Brickyard) during the portion that it's on the oval. Coming the 'wrong way' through Turn 1, he hit the wall on the front stretch past the point where the barrier began/ended (depending on your point of view).
To make matters worse, F1 brings their own safety crew to each track, and their regulations prohibited their one safety vehicle from going against traffic. This meant that the safety vehicle had to traverse practically the entire F1 course to get to Schumacher. So Michael got to drive by his brother's smashed car at least once (twice, if I recall) before anyone even showed up to see if he was dead.
When you watch Indy this Sunday (and I strongly recommend it), and there's a wreck, you'll often see the red IRL safety vehicles on camera before the car even slides to a stop.
I point this out because I think there are a lot of parallels between Windows v. Linux and F1 v. IndyCar. Both Windows and F1 are immensely popular compared to their counterparts, despite the fact that Linux and IndyCar are (IMO) better products. All Windows needs is something like that tire incident from a couple years back.
J
One PC to run Product A, which only works on XP, one PC to run Product B, which only works well on Linux, one PC to run Product C, which crashes the system and needs its own little sandbox, one PC to run Product D...
That's how you end up with 5 computers in your house.
I want one black box that's a cross between a LAMP Server, MythTV, the Wii, and an AM/FM/XM/Satellite/Cable/Whatever's-Next receiver that plugs into my TV and just WORKS! You plug it in, and it WORKS! No driver hunting, no recompiling kernels, no virtual duct tape.
Sorry... my Win2k box blue-screen'd last night... I'm a little bitter...
J
It's not the year or the genre or anything generalized. Good games have always been good games. Here's my own personal top ten games. Note that there's simply no pattern. Some are old, some new, some famous, some not. But they all were/are a blast to play. By the way, these are in no particular order.
1. Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny
2. Red Storm Rising
3. Indianapolis 500
4. Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield
5. Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn
6. Tecmo Super Bowl
7. SimCity 2000
8. Microsoft Flight Simulator (whatever the latest version is)
9. Grand Prix Racing Online (www.gpro.se)
10. Face Off! by Gamestar
Now, tell me what these have in common?
J
I'd just like to say, on behalf of myself and many other Hoosiers, that all that time our state didn't observe DST was really nice. We enjoyed it. Here's to you, Arizona and Hawai'i.
J