Lego Mindstorm kits are a good way to go, since they require very little to set up, and the graphical programming language is easy to use; there are plenty more advances programming interfaces(nqc, pbforth, legos, and lejos) for the next level student.
Apparently, when auto negotiation was first being standardized, it was crap and most network admins just learned to shut it off and never changed practices as auto negiotiation became more stable. Instead, the "turn it off" wisdom was passed down, normally with vague hand waving about "problems". Today Cisco and Sun (the only companies I researched) recommend auto negotiation. I'll bet those 9 machines failing to auto negotiate is more because of crap components being used than any fault of auto negotiation; this was apparently a known problem, and auto negotiation should have been turned off for those specific machines.
Take a look at the Lego Mindstorm kits http://www.legomindstorms.com/. They're in the $180 to $200 dollar range and come with all the parts your friend would need. Plus, there are several choices for programming the Lego Mindstorms programmable brick on both Windows and Linux, including BrickOS, Lejos(Java), and NQC(Not Quite C).
As someone who sells digital cameras, I can tell you why superdisks and zip disks aren't used more for storage, aside from the fragility of the media. It's because sticking a superdisk drive in a camera makes it huge! The panasonic model people have been mentioning was larger than any of the Sony Mavicas, while everybody else was working on small cameras with compact flash or smart media cards. Not only was the Panasonic much larger, but was twice the price of its smaller brothers, some of which outmatched it in terms of resolution. One of the major problems selling the sony Mavicas, aside from the small number of pictures that can be stored on a floppy, is the size of the unit. Of course, the people I sell to are looking for point and click simplicity, and want a camera that is small and easily portable, and that's where camera design is moving, with things like the microdrive.
Very true, and it is very worrisome. While Disney's influence on cable tv might not be as great, ask any child about their favorite Disney movie. Or better yet, ask them which Disney movies those children own. If it's not all, it's going to be damn close. Disney and Aol/Time-Warner are just as influential, but to different audiences. Who has more power? I'd have to point out that Disney gets to people at a much younger age. How many eight year olds watch Turner Classic Movies? Now how many have seen every Disney movie five times each? This kind of media power isn't anything new. The difference is Disney never tried hard on the internet. They had there own monopoly over children, and stayed there. But even today the number of other animated films that compete successfully with Disney is almost nil. And Disney's influence is just as great, and possibly worse. If and when I go to a Disney movie(occasionally I take my cousin to see one), most of the time I'm pointing out the historical inaccuracies. I had a field day with Hercules. But does my cousin understand that there was an entire religion behind that movie? Nope. Does he understand how many Greek myths were mixed in a pot to get that movie? Nope. Does he care? Nope. Will he(or his parents) buy him the movie, and lots of Hercules related toys? Yep. Except now he has a picture of Greek mythology, when he finds out that's what it is, but it's a picture with the pieces out of order. I'd rather have historical accuracy over marketing, thank you.
I thought it was especially funny to see Disney, another media giant, ask Congress to keep an eye on Aol. That's the same Disney that owns ABC, along with lots of other stuff remember...maybe a bit of jealousy there?
Reading the press release, it's not clear to me as to why Hasbro was suing GT and others. With GT selling games like "Mac-man", Hasbro is within its rights in order to protect their copyright, since such a product would cause confusion in the public mind, yada yada yada. I don't believe Hasbro was suing over the actual gameplay or look and feel. After all, if I make a solitare game and name it Total Annihilation, how long before I end up in court, even though the game itself is completly different?
It seems ironic to say the internet isolates people even more in a forum like/. And I can't think of anything more isolating than reading a book, especially in a library, as least in the libraries I've frequented. I don't think making these books available online would kill off paper books at all. Rather, think of the benefits to people who otherwise would not have been able to use this material. I would love to have the contents of the Library of Congress available for searching, especially as a student. I think the issue is that the internet levels the playing field in terms of information sharing, much the same way the printing press did. Even if you can't afford that thousand dollar set of World Book encyclopedias, you can get a cheap computer for less and browse the Encyclopedia Britannica for free. The technology is not becoming "borg-like," but rather is giving everyone the same access to the same information. Isn't that the purpose of a library, to make information accessable to the public at large? Now that the "public" consists of a global community connected by computer network, only the scope has changed. The internet does not conflict with the library's basic mission, to share information.
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Lego Mindstorm kits are a good way to go, since they require very little to set up, and the graphical programming language is easy to use; there are plenty more advances programming interfaces(nqc, pbforth, legos, and lejos) for the next level student.
o mpetitions.shtml/).
Another good option is to enter some of the various robotic competitions (http://www.rec.ri.cmu.edu/education/Robotics%20C
Actually, nowadays even Cisco recommends trying auto negotiation first, and only hard coding port/speed settings for problem NICs or for other switches, routers, and important servers. Also, with gigabit ethernet, the port speed and other settings like flow control have to be auto negotiated ( http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/switches/ps 663/products_tech_note09186a0080094713.shtml#auto_ neg/).
Apparently, when auto negotiation was first being standardized, it was crap and most network admins just learned to shut it off and never changed practices as auto negiotiation became more stable. Instead, the "turn it off" wisdom was passed down, normally with vague hand waving about "problems". Today Cisco and Sun (the only companies I researched) recommend auto negotiation. I'll bet those 9 machines failing to auto negotiate is more because of crap components being used than any fault of auto negotiation; this was apparently a known problem, and auto negotiation should have been turned off for those specific machines.
Take a look at the Lego Mindstorm kits http://www.legomindstorms.com/. They're in the $180 to $200 dollar range and come with all the parts your friend would need. Plus, there are several choices for programming the Lego Mindstorms programmable brick on both Windows and Linux, including BrickOS, Lejos(Java), and NQC(Not Quite C).
As someone who sells digital cameras, I can tell you why superdisks and zip disks aren't used more for storage, aside from the fragility of the media. It's because sticking a superdisk drive in a camera makes it huge! The panasonic model people have been mentioning was larger than any of the Sony Mavicas, while everybody else was working on small cameras with compact flash or smart media cards. Not only was the Panasonic much larger, but was twice the price of its smaller brothers, some of which outmatched it in terms of resolution. One of the major problems selling the sony Mavicas, aside from the small number of pictures that can be stored on a floppy, is the size of the unit. Of course, the people I sell to are looking for point and click simplicity, and want a camera that is small and easily portable, and that's where camera design is moving, with things like the microdrive.
Very true, and it is very worrisome. While Disney's influence on cable tv might not be as great, ask any child about their favorite Disney movie. Or better yet, ask them which Disney movies those children own. If it's not all, it's going to be damn close. Disney and Aol/Time-Warner are just as influential, but to different audiences. Who has more power? I'd have to point out that Disney gets to people at a much younger age. How many eight year olds watch Turner Classic Movies? Now how many have seen every Disney movie five times each? This kind of media power isn't anything new. The difference is Disney never tried hard on the internet. They had there own monopoly over children, and stayed there. But even today the number of other animated films that compete successfully with Disney is almost nil. And Disney's influence is just as great, and possibly worse. If and when I go to a Disney movie(occasionally I take my cousin to see one), most of the time I'm pointing out the historical inaccuracies. I had a field day with Hercules. But does my cousin understand that there was an entire religion behind that movie? Nope. Does he understand how many Greek myths were mixed in a pot to get that movie? Nope. Does he care? Nope. Will he(or his parents) buy him the movie, and lots of Hercules related toys? Yep. Except now he has a picture of Greek mythology, when he finds out that's what it is, but it's a picture with the pieces out of order. I'd rather have historical accuracy over marketing, thank you.
I thought it was especially funny to see Disney, another media giant, ask Congress to keep an eye on Aol. That's the same Disney that owns ABC, along with lots of other stuff remember...maybe a bit of jealousy there?
Reading the press release, it's not clear to me as to why Hasbro was suing GT and others. With GT selling games like "Mac-man", Hasbro is within its rights in order to protect their copyright, since such a product would cause confusion in the public mind, yada yada yada. I don't believe Hasbro was suing over the actual gameplay or look and feel. After all, if I make a solitare game and name it Total Annihilation, how long before I end up in court, even though the game itself is completly different?
It seems ironic to say the internet isolates people even more in a forum like /. And I can't think of anything more isolating than reading a book, especially in a library, as least in the libraries I've frequented. I don't think making these books available online would kill off paper books at all. Rather, think of the benefits to people who otherwise would not have been able to use this material. I would love to have the contents of the Library of Congress available for searching, especially as a student. I think the issue is that the internet levels the playing field in terms of information sharing, much the same way the printing press did. Even if you can't afford that thousand dollar set of World Book encyclopedias, you can get a cheap computer for less and browse the Encyclopedia Britannica for free. The technology is not becoming "borg-like," but rather is giving everyone the same access to the same information. Isn't that the purpose of a library, to make information accessable to the public at large? Now that the "public" consists of a global community connected by computer network, only the scope has changed. The internet does not conflict with the library's basic mission, to share information.