I wish my Linux Fund card had a variable 12.44%-17.99%. I'm currently paying 27.95% with MBNA/BoA unwilling to negotiate.
I also have a revolving line of credit at 24% that they will not negotiate because they are no longer affiliated with the company that initiated that account (Gateway computers).
Here is the logic the cable companies use when they are the only cable company available:
x = Bandwidth required for "regular" cable services (basic, extended, digital, on-demand... everything but internet traffic) y = Number of subscribers on the segment z = Total bandwidth for the segment i = Bandwidth for internet
I will agree that the proprietary systems are excellent for business purposes as long as they are still within the warranty phase. The one I am sitting at is 5+ years old now (purchased Oct 2001) and it is still among the newest computers in the company. Every single computer in the company is out of warranty now. If my video card fries, I'm dead in the water. You can't just run out to Best Buy (or any other big box store) and pick up a half-height AGP video card. I could try and find a PCI card, but that's not the point. If the motherboard goes, it's time to buy a new computer. It's all an issue of desktop real estate rather than convenience. I have a nice big ATX case at home that has two thumbscrews to hold the case closed and the mounting screws for the motherboard. Everything else is held in place by clasps. If the hard drive dies in my home computer, I have to unscrew the two thumbscrews and swap the hard drive. If the hard drive dies in my work computer, I have to take the 19" CRT monitor off the top of the case, finesse the case "buttons" to open the hinged case, unplug the hard drive, remove the drive carrier from the case, unscrew the carrier from the drive, replace the drive, and reverse the steps. Oh, and the case needs to be finessed to close properly.
Don't forget about the proprietary motherboard, power supply, and in most cases, drives.
I have an Optiplex GX240 at work. The floppy drive is proprietary, the CD-RW drive is in a standard 5 1/4" with the exception that the bezel has been removed for the "seamless" case look. Oh, and while the video card is not integrated with the motherboard, it is a half-height AGP card.
The only things that are truly upgradeable are the memory and the hard drive.
So, Slashdot readers, tell me... How many Linux enthusiasts would actually consider buying a non-upgradeable machine? (I do realize that when Linux is running as a server, you don't really need to do much to it.)
For instance, cut yourself off from high sugar, caffeine and soda, eat salads and run 5 miles a day for a month and see how much your productivity increases. You'll find that you can do more, you sleep better and feel a lot healthier.
Reminds me of a joke I read:
A 40 year-old man goes to the doctor for a physical. After performing all of the tests, the doctor tells him that he is perfectly healthy and will live to be at least 115 years old, but he wants to ask him a few questions before he leaves.
Doctor: Do you smoke? Patient: Nope D: Do you do drugs? P: Nope D: Do you have frequent, unprotected sex with strangers? P: Nope D: Do you eat red meat? P: Nope D: Do you limit your sugar? P: Yes
D: Why the hell do you want to live to be 115 then?!
We have to bridge both the Analyst and Programmer jobs.
There is actually a job title for that, Programmer Analyst, and supposedly it's the highest paid non-management IT job there is. Of course, I'm not being paid anywhere near what the title should pay, and I also handle desktop support, database administration, security administration, backup administration, report development, systems administration, etc.
I am the highest paid non-management IT worker in my company... but I'm also the ONLY non-management IT worker in my company.
I will agree with you that in most cases, the newer designs are better at protecting the passengers. In this particular case however, the older design protected the passenger more than the newer design would have. This happens to be a rare case where the old design was better.
I also have a friend who flipped his car into a ditch on a rural road (where the ditches are about 4 feet deep). If he had been wearing his seat belt, he would have been killed by the roof caving in. I'm not saying seat belts are bad. In most cases, they protect the passenger very well. This also happens to be a rare case where safety features that usually protect us would actually cause more harm.
I'd like to contest the "safety" statement. My brother-in-law was driving a '78 Lincoln Continental a few years ago, hit a patch of ice that turned the car sideways and was struck by a semi. If he had been driving a newer car made of fiberglass, he would not have survived the accident, let alone walked away without a scratch on him.
On-topic: I want a full-featured HUD on my windshield. We should be able to display all of the relevant information on the windshield without requiring the driver to divert his or her attention from the road ahead.
BTW, the car didn't fare as well as my brother-in-law. The semi reduced the engine compartment (as well as the engine) to about half the width it was originally. Needless to say, the car wasn't worth repairing.
Technically, wouldn't Galileo have been incorrect? The majority of objects falling to the Earth (anything smaller than say... a 50 story building) have a practically insignificant difference in mass, so they fall at pretty much the same speed. However, all matter has gravity, and the more mass an object has, the more gravity it possesses. Therefore, disregarding other forces acting upon them, an object with more mass should (technically) fall faster than an object with less mass.
Disclaimer: This comment is meant to be funny
on
Laptops with Big RAM?
·
· Score: 2, Funny
There's another problem that's not in your list... He's moving to Vista!
(This comment is not meant to inspire hatred of anything. It is meant to make people laugh.)
(Normally, I wouldn't have to explain that... but this is Slashdot!)
To each his own, I suppose. I had bought Daggerfall a long time ago and could not even get out of the starting dungeon (and that was with an edited character). I tried Morrowind, but it was so boring I wanted to gouge my eyes out. I guess they were too open-ended for my tastes (or perhaps I just really suck at playing 1st-person RPGs).
If the desktop computers have network adapters that support booting from the network, you can use PXE to turn the machine into a thin-client.
There is an excellent free utility for setting up the boot image to load from a TFTP server called ThinStation
We have a remote office where I work where everyone connects to a Win2K3 server with Terminal Services. I suggested PXE as a method of connecting rather than having a full-blown copy of Win2K installed just to run the TS client on boot. It worked great but as yet, has not been adopted.
I've looked at Python and Ruby, and both seem rather arcane, not to mention that neither provides a GUI framework. Not everyone produces Web-only apps.
I am a VB6/VB.NET programmer. I have learned C/C++ and Java, but they are largely forgotten now as there was no reason to do the exact same thing at half the development speed.
We live in a world of "I want it now" people, therefore we need to use "I want it now" tools. VB isn't the right tool for every job, and giving a hammer to an idiot doesn't make him a carpenter. If anything, the VB.NET compiler for Mono will be a great thing. There are plenty of competent VB programmers out there that just don't know c/C++ well enough and don't have the time and resources to switch to a more platform-independent language. Now there is a great possibility for apps that were written for Windows will be easily ported to Linux. Reliance on proprietary applications is one of the largest blocks to widespread adoption of Linux. Hopefully, this will be a good thing.
Strange... The only problem I ever had with porting VB6 code to VB.NET was the use of the printer object, but even that has been resolved in the latest update to VB.NET 2005.
Which is why (according to the article) the majority of.NET developers use VB.NET exclusively.
Though often disparaged by developers, Visual Basic remains one of the world's most commonly used programming languages. According to Forrester Research, 37 percent of enterprises use Microsoft Visual Basic.NET for development and maintenance of their in-house applications. What's more, among.NET developers, 59 percent use Visual Basic.NET as their only programming language. Thus, as of 2006, at least 20 percent of all in-house business programs were still being written in Basic, according to the market analyst firm.
Sure, there might be a lot of programmers that came to it, but among.NET developers they are in the minority.
The road analogy is poor though. Programming languages don't have a "capacity" for the number of users.
Yes, I did mean VB.NET. And I consider C# a bastardization of both C++ and VB.NET. It was Microsoft's way of telling Java developers, "Hey, we've got an easy to use language with C-style formatting!" In the grand scheme of things, there was no need to create it.
But now, they are essentially forcing people to switch to it by making the XNA toolkit use C# exclusively.
According to the article, not only does Novell maintain Mono (which was created by Miguel de Icaza, who works at Novell), but Mainsoft (who developed the VB compiler) actually had Microsoft's help in writing it.
So, no, there should not be any problems with the distribution of it.
The only obstacle now, is a good Linux IDE for writing the code.
3. Can I use a compact fluorescent light bulb with a dimmer switch?
To use a compact fluorescent bulb on a dimmer switch, you must buy a bulb that's specifically made to work with dimmers (check the package). GE makes a dimming compact fluorescent light bulb (called the GE Longlife Plus Soft White Energy Saving Bulb) that is specially designed for use with dimming switches. We don't recommend using regular compact fluorescent bulbs with dimming switches, since this can shorten bulb life. (Using a regular compact fluorescent bulb with a dimmer will also nullify the bulb's warranty.)
So, yes, there are actually CFL's that are compatible with rheostats (aka dimmer switches).
If a vigilante group (BayTSP) saw you entering a building that is a known haven for drug dealers/users (BitTorrent) and contacted every cab company (ISP) to blacklist you from taking a taxi.
In these cases, there is no law enforcement activity involved.
Or for another example, if the vigilante group saw you talking to prostitutes and contacted every cab company.
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If you start with a stable plasma, you'll have better luck. Try a lit candle next time.
I wish my Linux Fund card had a variable 12.44%-17.99%. I'm currently paying 27.95% with MBNA/BoA unwilling to negotiate.
I also have a revolving line of credit at 24% that they will not negotiate because they are no longer affiliated with the company that initiated that account (Gateway computers).
Here is the logic the cable companies use when they are the only cable company available:
x = Bandwidth required for "regular" cable services (basic, extended, digital, on-demand... everything but internet traffic)
y = Number of subscribers on the segment
z = Total bandwidth for the segment
i = Bandwidth for internet
if x * y z then [No new segment required]
i = z - (x * y)
If i = 0 then [Do nothing]
If you have the subtitles turned on on the DVD, I believe it shows something to the effect of "[Announcer speaking in Esperanto]"
How about Gattaca? Very sci-fi, few action scenes, excellent story.
And for the really geeky... The announcements in the background are in Esperanto.
I will agree that the proprietary systems are excellent for business purposes as long as they are still within the warranty phase. The one I am sitting at is 5+ years old now (purchased Oct 2001) and it is still among the newest computers in the company. Every single computer in the company is out of warranty now. If my video card fries, I'm dead in the water. You can't just run out to Best Buy (or any other big box store) and pick up a half-height AGP video card. I could try and find a PCI card, but that's not the point. If the motherboard goes, it's time to buy a new computer. It's all an issue of desktop real estate rather than convenience. I have a nice big ATX case at home that has two thumbscrews to hold the case closed and the mounting screws for the motherboard. Everything else is held in place by clasps. If the hard drive dies in my home computer, I have to unscrew the two thumbscrews and swap the hard drive. If the hard drive dies in my work computer, I have to take the 19" CRT monitor off the top of the case, finesse the case "buttons" to open the hinged case, unplug the hard drive, remove the drive carrier from the case, unscrew the carrier from the drive, replace the drive, and reverse the steps. Oh, and the case needs to be finessed to close properly.
Don't forget about the proprietary motherboard, power supply, and in most cases, drives.
I have an Optiplex GX240 at work. The floppy drive is proprietary, the CD-RW drive is in a standard 5 1/4" with the exception that the bezel has been removed for the "seamless" case look. Oh, and while the video card is not integrated with the motherboard, it is a half-height AGP card.
The only things that are truly upgradeable are the memory and the hard drive.
So, Slashdot readers, tell me... How many Linux enthusiasts would actually consider buying a non-upgradeable machine? (I do realize that when Linux is running as a server, you don't really need to do much to it.)
We have to bridge both the Analyst and Programmer jobs.
There is actually a job title for that, Programmer Analyst, and supposedly it's the highest paid non-management IT job there is. Of course, I'm not being paid anywhere near what the title should pay, and I also handle desktop support, database administration, security administration, backup administration, report development, systems administration, etc.
I am the highest paid non-management IT worker in my company... but I'm also the ONLY non-management IT worker in my company.
I will agree with you that in most cases, the newer designs are better at protecting the passengers. In this particular case however, the older design protected the passenger more than the newer design would have. This happens to be a rare case where the old design was better.
I also have a friend who flipped his car into a ditch on a rural road (where the ditches are about 4 feet deep). If he had been wearing his seat belt, he would have been killed by the roof caving in. I'm not saying seat belts are bad. In most cases, they protect the passenger very well. This also happens to be a rare case where safety features that usually protect us would actually cause more harm.
I'd like to contest the "safety" statement. My brother-in-law was driving a '78 Lincoln Continental a few years ago, hit a patch of ice that turned the car sideways and was struck by a semi. If he had been driving a newer car made of fiberglass, he would not have survived the accident, let alone walked away without a scratch on him.
On-topic: I want a full-featured HUD on my windshield. We should be able to display all of the relevant information on the windshield without requiring the driver to divert his or her attention from the road ahead.
BTW, the car didn't fare as well as my brother-in-law. The semi reduced the engine compartment (as well as the engine) to about half the width it was originally. Needless to say, the car wasn't worth repairing.
Technically, wouldn't Galileo have been incorrect? The majority of objects falling to the Earth (anything smaller than say... a 50 story building) have a practically insignificant difference in mass, so they fall at pretty much the same speed. However, all matter has gravity, and the more mass an object has, the more gravity it possesses. Therefore, disregarding other forces acting upon them, an object with more mass should (technically) fall faster than an object with less mass.
There's another problem that's not in your list... He's moving to Vista!
(This comment is not meant to inspire hatred of anything. It is meant to make people laugh.)
(Normally, I wouldn't have to explain that... but this is Slashdot!)
To each his own, I suppose. I had bought Daggerfall a long time ago and could not even get out of the starting dungeon (and that was with an edited character). I tried Morrowind, but it was so boring I wanted to gouge my eyes out. I guess they were too open-ended for my tastes (or perhaps I just really suck at playing 1st-person RPGs).
If the desktop computers have network adapters that support booting from the network, you can use PXE to turn the machine into a thin-client.
There is an excellent free utility for setting up the boot image to load from a TFTP server called ThinStation
We have a remote office where I work where everyone connects to a Win2K3 server with Terminal Services. I suggested PXE as a method of connecting rather than having a full-blown copy of Win2K installed just to run the TS client on boot. It worked great but as yet, has not been adopted.
I've looked at Python and Ruby, and both seem rather arcane, not to mention that neither provides a GUI framework. Not everyone produces Web-only apps.
I am a VB6/VB.NET programmer. I have learned C/C++ and Java, but they are largely forgotten now as there was no reason to do the exact same thing at half the development speed.
We live in a world of "I want it now" people, therefore we need to use "I want it now" tools. VB isn't the right tool for every job, and giving a hammer to an idiot doesn't make him a carpenter. If anything, the VB.NET compiler for Mono will be a great thing. There are plenty of competent VB programmers out there that just don't know c/C++ well enough and don't have the time and resources to switch to a more platform-independent language. Now there is a great possibility for apps that were written for Windows will be easily ported to Linux. Reliance on proprietary applications is one of the largest blocks to widespread adoption of Linux. Hopefully, this will be a good thing.
Strange... The only problem I ever had with porting VB6 code to VB.NET was the use of the printer object, but even that has been resolved in the latest update to VB.NET 2005.
I had more problems with porting before VB6.
The road analogy is poor though. Programming languages don't have a "capacity" for the number of users.
Yes, I did mean VB.NET. And I consider C# a bastardization of both C++ and VB.NET. It was Microsoft's way of telling Java developers, "Hey, we've got an easy to use language with C-style formatting!" In the grand scheme of things, there was no need to create it.
But now, they are essentially forcing people to switch to it by making the XNA toolkit use C# exclusively.
According to the article, not only does Novell maintain Mono (which was created by Miguel de Icaza, who works at Novell), but Mainsoft (who developed the VB compiler) actually had Microsoft's help in writing it.
So, no, there should not be any problems with the distribution of it.
The only obstacle now, is a good Linux IDE for writing the code.
I know I'll probably lose karma for this... but C# is essentially VB with C++ formatting.
(I will concede that there are a number of things that C# has that VB still doesn't, but there are few differences otherwise.)
So, yes, there are actually CFL's that are compatible with rheostats (aka dimmer switches).
Long live the Chenjesu (at least until the Ur-Quan show up and they merge with the Mmrnmhrm to form the Chmmr).
Actually I think a better comparison would be:
If a vigilante group (BayTSP) saw you entering a building that is a known haven for drug dealers/users (BitTorrent) and contacted every cab company (ISP) to blacklist you from taking a taxi.
In these cases, there is no law enforcement activity involved.
Or for another example, if the vigilante group saw you talking to prostitutes and contacted every cab company.