Try downloading a fairly recent (published after 2000-2002) paper on computer vision or image processing. Most sites need a registration fee and only work with organizations (e.g. http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/freeabs_all.jsp?arnumber=621386). Even some standards can't be downloaded without paying and registration, for example T.38.
The problem I find with IM at work is that some people use it instead of doing their own research. I frequently get IM'd work questions that could have been solved with 1 google search or 30 seconds with the source tree and grep. Instead, because it's so easy, they interrupt me. I really, really hate this - especially because I have to do context switching all the time. And if I'm thinking about a complex problem I can't concentrate properly AND answer the question because I'm still thinking about the problem. I'm seriously thinking about writing a bot that would send an "I'm feeling lucky" result from Google based on an incoming IM that wasn't answered in 30 seconds.
I think Win2k is actually better than XP - it doesn't have activation, but it does everything an operating system should do. And it's more stable and secure than the ancient Win98/ME, as well as being a lot easier to use than WinNT (no plug-n-play or USB mass storage support!).
It's still the DOS-based OS that crashed a lot. I remember upgrading from Win98 to Win2000 and my first impression was "wow, this thing can actually work a whole day without rebooting!"
Some forums, powered by vBulletin, are over 120 kilobytes per page (without images), probably has to do something with badly formatted HTML and a lot of Javascript. Opera's servers compress these to about 6-8 KB, also without images. That's more than 10 times less traffic.
A command line is actually easier to operate with speech than a GUI. In fact I think it's the interface that's closest to human speech. I haven't used any voice recognition systems since Dragon NaturallySpeaking 4.0 (training lasted over an hour!), but I think what they generally do is saing "click ok" "move mouse up" "delete that" etc. A modern app that designed to be voice-operated should work like gvim or Autocad, having a sort of console to type in commands but having voice command substitutions.
A typical distribution contains more than just GNU and Linux, and it's unfair not to name everything included. So Ubuntu should be named GNU/Linux/Debian/Xorg/Gnome:-)
Joysticks are a cheap alternative to racing wheels. And they take up a lot less space, don't obscure the monitor and don't make your computer look like a child's plaything. I've played racing games with a joystick and with the keyboard, the joystick was much better because instead of banging the keys doing something like an discrete amplitude modulation to do slight turns you actually get an analogue controller. It's great when doing difficult turns or driving at a constant speed or using the brake slightly on easy turns and yet having the ability to brake immediately.
WGA made sense in XP when there was a corporate license key that worked without activation. But all Vista keys need activation in some way, either a corporate KMS activation key (which is possible to be recalled), an ordinary key, or an OEM certificate+corresponding SLIC in the BIOS+serial number (which is installed on hundreds of thousands consumer PCs and a key recall is practically impossible). The only way WGA can be triggered is either the KMS key or some hacking scheme of activating one computer with an ordinary key and then activating another one with a simular configuration with the same key. Most cracked Vista copies use the BIOS method which impossible to detect, especially if there's no driver installed and the SLIC is actually patched into the real BIOS.
It depends. I've used both Opera and Firefox and opening a lot of tabs (especially pages with embedded Flash and video, on sites like Youtube) often results in Opera becoming locked up for 5-10 seconds, OTOH Firefox slows down but I can still scroll pages and switch tabs. I've also checked memory usage and it is actually about the same around 90-140 Mb for Firefox and 80-130 Mb for Opera, but Firefox had 15 addons installed while Opera didn't have any. However sometimes Firefox can stop responding after running some badly done Javascript when Opera detects that and asks to terminate all scripts on the page.
A little correction: Netscape discarded their codebase and wrote Netscape 6 from scratch, which shares its codebase with Mozilla Seamonkey. XUL and user extensions appeared at that time. And Firefox it not a complete code rewrite, but rather a cleanup of the bloated Seamonkey. I've used Netscape 6 when it was first released (on a middle-end PC) and it was horribly slow, Netscape 7 was a bit better but still not usable. And Netscape did do a lot for Mozilla, in fact Netscape 6 and 7 were released before Mozilla went out of beta. And Gecko was actively developed by Netscape.
They don't have BIOS, they have EFI instead. And there already exists a bootloader that emulates EFI and allows booting a non-patched OSX installation.
But thanks to Vista, memory prices have dropped even lower than before. I bought 2 gigs (2x1gig) of dual-channel PC6400 DDR2 memory for under $50. And since the 32-bit version can't use more than 3 gigabytes, buying the maximum supported amount of memory is still under $100. And don't forget that the modern computer can do a lot more than a 8088. I remember owning a 133-Mhz 486 with 32 megs of RAM that couldn't run 320x240 videos and decode MP3s in realtime. And even old games like Starcraft ran slowly, I even had to disable most sounds and videos in order to run it at a playable framerate.
XP is a good OS, but most modern hardware needs lots of updates and tricks in order to run it. A modern PC has a SATA HDD and CDROM, which either needs a floppy with drivers on it or switching the controller into IDE-compatible mode (this isn't avaliable on some motherboards and Intel's SATA driver refuses to install on such systems, in order to use native SATA some additional tricks are needed). Modern audio controllers need a patch to use the HDA Bus, otherwise they won't work. Media sharing in UPnP devices needs a Windows Media Player 11 update. XP also has some unfixed bugs, like the vanishing volume icon. And it's less secure than Vista, the whole system can be killed by deleting c:\boot.ini and since nearly everyone runs as root this is very, very easy.
Here in Russia most keyboards have a large left Shift key. Only some Logitech keyboard use the European version, but Wikipedia confirms that the Shift key should be like the European version: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Alphabet#Keyboard_layout
I used the Wireless Optical Desktop Pack 1000, and the keyboard is also "spill-proof". Well, I decided to test it and washed it under running water. It survived, then I tried again, with more water. The keyboard died, then I opened it, removed the batteries and dried with a hairdryer. The batteries didn't survive, but the keyboard actually recovered and its still working. The spill-proof feature is just a few holes on the bottom of the keyboard that act as a drain so that water pours directly on the table before it does any harm inside the keyboard. There's nothing else, the membrane is the same as in any other keyboard, nothing special. And the holes are only in the QWERTY part, so spilling coffee on the numpad or Function-keys is BAD.
Mine is a Wireless Multimedia Keyboard, from the Wireless Optical Desktop Pack 1000. That's probably Microsoft's cheapest model:-) And BTW I've looked inside and it has a controller (or wireless chip?) with Microsoft's logo, so they actually either design their own hardware (maybe even have their own fab!) or at least do some customization.
This reminds me of Apple's Fat Binaries. And at least that's better than 1990-era Wacom tablets that used two ports, COM for data transfer and a pass-through PS2 connector for power.
Most keyboards priced over $10 have some unique feature - like F-keys in groups of three instead of four (Microsoft). Or really weird layouts of Home, End, Delete and other non-letter keys (practically every Microsoft, Genius and Logitech keyboard). And Logitech have the left Shift key split in two parts, the left is Shift and the right is "\", so you have a good chance to miss the Shift key or even press Shift and \ at once. WTF! But I think Microsoft is the winner here: their Wireless keyboard makes F-keys do stuff like forwarding mail and Undo/Redo. There's an F-lock mode that makes them do the right thing, acting like regular F1-F12 keys, which are used in every advanced application or game. But at the same time the Print Screen key starts switches to send the Insert keystroke. So to make a screenshot, you have to 1) Press F-Lock 2) Press Print Screen or Shift+PrintScreen 3) Press F-lock again And these keys are placed "ergonomically" (read: you have to find them every time before using).
If that's the case, Microsoft must be celebrating - first they sold a copy of Vista that nobody wanted in the first place, then they sold a copy of XP to run on the same PC! They should continue this trend and preload new PCs with Vista Starter, that way everyone will buy an additional retail CD, paying at least $99.
I use this thing both at home and at work, and everything's encrypted with a passphrase (separate from the Google Account Password) that's not transmitted to Google, so they aren't able to decrypt the data without using brute force. I once had a funny experience with this thing - one weekend my boss logged in from my (google-synchronized) computer to check his email - well, his Gmail cookie synchronized to my home PC and I was able to read his mail. He hacked his own mailbox and I didn't even need to do anything, just open Gmail from my home account!
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Then why did they report some failures but not others?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Soviet_and_Russian_manned_space_missions
Try downloading a fairly recent (published after 2000-2002) paper on computer vision or image processing. Most sites need a registration fee and only work with organizations (e.g. http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/freeabs_all.jsp?arnumber=621386).
Even some standards can't be downloaded without paying and registration, for example T.38.
I think Win2k is actually better than XP - it doesn't have activation, but it does everything an operating system should do. And it's more stable and secure than the ancient Win98/ME, as well as being a lot easier to use than WinNT (no plug-n-play or USB mass storage support!).
It's still the DOS-based OS that crashed a lot. I remember upgrading from Win98 to Win2000 and my first impression was "wow, this thing can actually work a whole day without rebooting!"
Some forums, powered by vBulletin, are over 120 kilobytes per page (without images), probably has to do something with badly formatted HTML and a lot of Javascript. Opera's servers compress these to about 6-8 KB, also without images. That's more than 10 times less traffic.
A command line is actually easier to operate with speech than a GUI. In fact I think it's the interface that's closest to human speech. I haven't used any voice recognition systems since Dragon NaturallySpeaking 4.0 (training lasted over an hour!), but I think what they generally do is saing "click ok" "move mouse up" "delete that" etc. A modern app that designed to be voice-operated should work like gvim or Autocad, having a sort of console to type in commands but having voice command substitutions.
A typical distribution contains more than just GNU and Linux, and it's unfair not to name everything included. So Ubuntu should be named GNU/Linux/Debian/Xorg/Gnome :-)
It's easier to reboot this way :-)
Joysticks are a cheap alternative to racing wheels. And they take up a lot less space, don't obscure the monitor and don't make your computer look like a child's plaything. I've played racing games with a joystick and with the keyboard, the joystick was much better because instead of banging the keys doing something like an discrete amplitude modulation to do slight turns you actually get an analogue controller. It's great when doing difficult turns or driving at a constant speed or using the brake slightly on easy turns and yet having the ability to brake immediately.
WGA made sense in XP when there was a corporate license key that worked without activation. But all Vista keys need activation in some way, either a corporate KMS activation key (which is possible to be recalled), an ordinary key, or an OEM certificate+corresponding SLIC in the BIOS+serial number (which is installed on hundreds of thousands consumer PCs and a key recall is practically impossible).
The only way WGA can be triggered is either the KMS key or some hacking scheme of activating one computer with an ordinary key and then activating another one with a simular configuration with the same key.
Most cracked Vista copies use the BIOS method which impossible to detect, especially if there's no driver installed and the SLIC is actually patched into the real BIOS.
You mean with Clippy and everything? :-)
It depends. I've used both Opera and Firefox and opening a lot of tabs (especially pages with embedded Flash and video, on sites like Youtube) often results in Opera becoming locked up for 5-10 seconds, OTOH Firefox slows down but I can still scroll pages and switch tabs.
I've also checked memory usage and it is actually about the same around 90-140 Mb for Firefox and 80-130 Mb for Opera, but Firefox had 15 addons installed while Opera didn't have any.
However sometimes Firefox can stop responding after running some badly done Javascript when Opera detects that and asks to terminate all scripts on the page.
A little correction: Netscape discarded their codebase and wrote Netscape 6 from scratch, which shares its codebase with Mozilla Seamonkey. XUL and user extensions appeared at that time. And Firefox it not a complete code rewrite, but rather a cleanup of the bloated Seamonkey.
I've used Netscape 6 when it was first released (on a middle-end PC) and it was horribly slow, Netscape 7 was a bit better but still not usable.
And Netscape did do a lot for Mozilla, in fact Netscape 6 and 7 were released before Mozilla went out of beta. And Gecko was actively developed by Netscape.
They don't have BIOS, they have EFI instead. And there already exists a bootloader that emulates EFI and allows booting a non-patched OSX installation.
But thanks to Vista, memory prices have dropped even lower than before. I bought 2 gigs (2x1gig) of dual-channel PC6400 DDR2 memory for under $50. And since the 32-bit version can't use more than 3 gigabytes, buying the maximum supported amount of memory is still under $100.
And don't forget that the modern computer can do a lot more than a 8088. I remember owning a 133-Mhz 486 with 32 megs of RAM that couldn't run 320x240 videos and decode MP3s in realtime. And even old games like Starcraft ran slowly, I even had to disable most sounds and videos in order to run it at a playable framerate.
XP is a good OS, but most modern hardware needs lots of updates and tricks in order to run it. A modern PC has a SATA HDD and CDROM, which either needs a floppy with drivers on it or switching the controller into IDE-compatible mode (this isn't avaliable on some motherboards and Intel's SATA driver refuses to install on such systems, in order to use native SATA some additional tricks are needed).
Modern audio controllers need a patch to use the HDA Bus, otherwise they won't work.
Media sharing in UPnP devices needs a Windows Media Player 11 update.
XP also has some unfixed bugs, like the vanishing volume icon.
And it's less secure than Vista, the whole system can be killed by deleting c:\boot.ini and since nearly everyone runs as root this is very, very easy.
Here in Russia most keyboards have a large left Shift key. Only some Logitech keyboard use the European version, but Wikipedia confirms that the Shift key should be like the European version: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Alphabet#Keyboard_layout
I used the Wireless Optical Desktop Pack 1000, and the keyboard is also "spill-proof". Well, I decided to test it and washed it under running water. It survived, then I tried again, with more water. The keyboard died, then I opened it, removed the batteries and dried with a hairdryer. The batteries didn't survive, but the keyboard actually recovered and its still working.
The spill-proof feature is just a few holes on the bottom of the keyboard that act as a drain so that water pours directly on the table before it does any harm inside the keyboard. There's nothing else, the membrane is the same as in any other keyboard, nothing special. And the holes are only in the QWERTY part, so spilling coffee on the numpad or Function-keys is BAD.
Mine is a Wireless Multimedia Keyboard, from the Wireless Optical Desktop Pack 1000. That's probably Microsoft's cheapest model :-)
And BTW I've looked inside and it has a controller (or wireless chip?) with Microsoft's logo, so they actually either design their own hardware (maybe even have their own fab!) or at least do some customization.
This reminds me of Apple's Fat Binaries. And at least that's better than 1990-era Wacom tablets that used two ports, COM for data transfer and a pass-through PS2 connector for power.
Most keyboards priced over $10 have some unique feature - like F-keys in groups of three instead of four (Microsoft). Or really weird layouts of Home, End, Delete and other non-letter keys (practically every Microsoft, Genius and Logitech keyboard). And Logitech have the left Shift key split in two parts, the left is Shift and the right is "\", so you have a good chance to miss the Shift key or even press Shift and \ at once. WTF!
But I think Microsoft is the winner here: their Wireless keyboard makes F-keys do stuff like forwarding mail and Undo/Redo. There's an F-lock mode that makes them do the right thing, acting like regular F1-F12 keys, which are used in every advanced application or game. But at the same time the Print Screen key starts switches to send the Insert keystroke. So to make a screenshot, you have to
1) Press F-Lock
2) Press Print Screen or Shift+PrintScreen
3) Press F-lock again
And these keys are placed "ergonomically" (read: you have to find them every time before using).
If that's the case, Microsoft must be celebrating - first they sold a copy of Vista that nobody wanted in the first place, then they sold a copy of XP to run on the same PC! They should continue this trend and preload new PCs with Vista Starter, that way everyone will buy an additional retail CD, paying at least $99.
I use this thing both at home and at work, and everything's encrypted with a passphrase (separate from the Google Account Password) that's not transmitted to Google, so they aren't able to decrypt the data without using brute force.
I once had a funny experience with this thing - one weekend my boss logged in from my (google-synchronized) computer to check his email - well, his Gmail cookie synchronized to my home PC and I was able to read his mail. He hacked his own mailbox and I didn't even need to do anything, just open Gmail from my home account!