I noticed a while ago that Google Desktop was preloaded on the Dells we buy. These Dells can wind up in areas that might access patient information. Since this is a major research hospital/medical school, I brought my concerns to the security group (HIPAA laws mandate privacy for patient information). Dell/Google assured us that this was a non-issue.
When it comes to the chips Dell is able to play AMD against Intel. It is in Dell's own interest to have a competition in OS/Office market so that it can play one against another and reduce the cost of computing to its customers so that it can sell more. But Dell buries alternatives deep, makes it difficult to buy the alternatives.
I did find a little interesting the big AMD sticker pasted on the outside of the familiar standard shiiping Dell box. I saw this AMD marked Dell box in the trash as I walked to my train the other day. You don't see an Intel sticker on non-AMD boxes.
Methinks these stickers cost AMD more than a few shekels to Mikey Dell.
It's the music, RIAA! I recently bought an album after hearing it on NPR's World Cafe - Nuclear Daydream by Joseph Arthur.
I never heard of the artist before, but really liked what I heard.
If I like it, I'll buy it.
Simple. My collection spans more than 30 years, mostly CD's now, I sold off most of my LP's during a move once (wish I hadn't). I still listen to new music, but the robot playlists of today's radio are not how I find new music. Most artists now have web sites where you can order directly from the artist - eliminating the traditional distrubution channels.
RIAA - wake up or fade away! Ahh...just go back to sleep, everything will be fine in the morning.
Everyone who NEVER uses any kind of fossil-fuel provided energy to do ANYTHING not absolutely life-or-death, please go track down the Gulfstream owner and do your CO2 rant. The rest of you....
I have to commute to my job, but according to you that's not life or death.
Have to eat and pay the mortgage and support my son. Sorry.
I use a Prius and drive as little as possible, but unless you are a full-time tele-commuter, CO2 will be produced. I'll buy an electric car when the price goes down and the range increases.
Well I am 6 feet three inches tall, and by definition, my height at least puts me in the troll ballpark as far as physical attributes go.
"Troll - a race of giants. They appear in various Northern mythologies. In Norse mythology Trolls are represented as a type of goblin."
I also have been "goblin" my lunch recently - I should slow down and take my time - it's better for digestion.
To papraphrase a movie title - "The Mods Must Be Crazy."
I just found it interesting that the first two Google links talked about a Blackhat convention, and the article on flash BIOS's made me think that it would not be too hard to create an EXE (Dell does this with their BIOS updates) to exploit flash BIOS vulnerabilities.
"ASUS O.C. Profile The motherboard features the ASUS O.C. Profile that allows users to conveniently store or load multiple BIOS settings. The BIOS settings can be stored in the CMOS or a separate file, giving users freedom to share and distribute their favorite overclocking settings.
True dat! Squirt has not yet passed into the lexicon, as Mr. Ballmer would hope. Until it does, maybe "what's your favorite distro?" might weed out the anti-techie types.
Is a high-efficiency filter and heat exchange system. Perspiration passes through the first layer and is gathered in the second. The salt is separated. Breathing and walking provide the pumping action. The reclaimed water circulates to catchpockets from which you can drink through this tube at your neck. Urine and feces are processed in the thigh pads. Should you be in the open desert, remember to breathe in through your mouth, out through the nose tubes.
Should you feel this is a scam, just check the thigh pads. They might be filled sooner than normally.
I went to a MS Vista/Office/Exchange launch event. The presenter, a Michael Murphy, demoed Vista, Office 2007, and Exchange 2007. Each demo took a little less than an hour.The biggest takeaway I remember is his prediction that all software would be delivered in 5 years - ala Google Office.
Also, it's all going happen on a little portable device - the end of computing as we know it. So gather those motherboards while ye may, for the times, they are a changin.
OMG LOLZ! cOMICZ... FREAKIN AWeSOME NOW I FINALLY REALIZE i MUST PAY FOR mY SOFTWARE, OMG LOLZ!!!!!!!!!!!111111
I used to read comic books to escape from reality. The idea of comic books teaching children ethical behavior is pretty lame.
My take on this topic, is pretty simple.
1. Company produces product legally under the laws of the country. 2. Company charges $xxx.xx for product. 3. Company has a right to stop people from using the product unless they pay $xxx.xx. 4. What don't you understand about that? 5. OMG, FReaKIN AWEsome, I DON't WAnt to be EVIL!!!
Okay, maybe number five will never happen. Some kids think that "stealing" stuff is a cool thing to do during a certain phase in their life, being a rebel, rage against the machine, etc. You are forgiven. Go and sin no more. The linux mirrors are waiting for you to put you forever on the path to righteousness.
BTW, I'm attending the Vista launch this Thursday and will get a free copy of Office 2007 for listening to the ways of the Microsoft Jedi Knights- maybe Bill is seeing the light after all!
Please note - all of the above was written under the influence of Dayquil, and may not make any sense to those of you not similarly chemically altered.
I think this dude, along with many others, get paid by the post by ExxonMobil, etc, to respond to anything here with regards to GW. Then again, they could just be uninformed.
BTW, still no skiing on REAL snow in the Poconos, but don't worry, that snow'll be right along.
Don't let those nay-sayer global warming types make this seem like a bad thing. I see a great location for Survivor - but with a twist!
Plop down some contestants on some glacial ice in Greenland. If their piece of ice does not melt, they win! If on the other hand the island appears, those contestants have to swim to the nearest coast, ala polar bears!
Beg to differ. Apple announced a product named iPhone. It's not officially released yet.
If I could walk into a store today or go to a Cingular store and purchase a product that was called iPhone, Cisco would have a case.
They instead have no case, just another pathetic technology lawsuit. I got an email today from Cisco about their 'cutting-edge technology."
This is what Cisco considers cutting-edge technology.
Sue Apple for using a name. Wah, wah, wah.
Crybabies.
Maybe the city of San FranCISCO should sue CISCO for using part of their name without a license. Yeah - that's how Cisco got their name. Very creative - ummm...what do we call our company? Oh look, there's the Golden Gate Bridge! OK - let's call it cisco! Lucky for them they weren't driving near Buttsville, PA.
Then again, they way they reacted, it would have been a more appropriate choice.
Someone at my job also suggested Knoppmyth, so I'll give it a look. I am indeed an "extreme commuter," but I was able to buy a house in the country, my son is in a good school, so it's worth it. Plus, I commute in a Prius, which is cheaper than the two monthly bus tickets my wife and I were buying.
Apple TV looks pretty good, but I'm sure it's not in my budget.
I have d/l the first 2 iso's of Fedora Core 6, so I haven't totally ruled it out. I'll get the rest tonight probably. I have a linux guru at my job, he prefers SUSE. I have no real preference for any distro, but would like it to work without a lot of hassle. It's also true that I would learn a lot if I went the Myth TV route, and there's something to be said for honing my skills.
I currently commute about 5 hours each day, so there's not a whole lot of time left in the day when I get home.
Way out of my budget - especially since I had an old PIV 2.26 system with 2 100 gig drives taking up space in the basement. It's been neglected more and more since I bought a Mac Book Pro last year.
I am in the middle of putting my old motherboard in a "media-case" from Antec. I was looking at Myth TV, but I'm getting a DVR from the cable company. I also read where it took a certified Red Hat engineer 30 hours to get everything working right. I just don't have to time to fiddle - I need it to work, so adios Myth TV.
If surfing the web from the couch is not the way to go, I'll guess I'll just put all my CD's on it and use it for music playback, with occasional surfing, since I have an old wireless card I can use.
Vista Ultimate, which includes the revamped Windows Media Center software, is also a tad too much for me at this point in time. If I can find a discounted OEM WMC 2005 out there, I might pony up for a capture card.
I'm not saying that we aren't the cause, but before the last ice-age this planet was a whole lot warmer than it is right now, and it managed to chill eventually. This whole thing could just be part of the normal geological cycle.
I've read more than a few of these/. debates over whether or not humans might or might not be "responsible" for global warming. What was the human population of the Earth 650,000 years ago? A tiny fraction of what it is today, correct? And were these humans able to do the sort of things that todays humans can do on a global scale, like burning rain forests, pumping huge quantities of CO2 into the atmosphere, hmmm...the short answer is NO!
Going to the wiki, the current population of the world is 6 billion. When I was nine, in 1961, the population was only three billion people - it has doubled in my lifetime.
So it's just a freakin' coincidence that CO2 levels have gone through the roof in the period since the early 1800's?
I got a Razr recently - although I really wanted the Q - (got steered away from it due to a better deal on the Razr).
I bought a 1 gig micro SD card - loaded it up, and found a really annoying trait. During part of my morning commute, I hop on the PATH train into Manhattan. When playing music, the Razr picks up every bit of RF - (think conductor's announcements, doors opening/closing, train sparking as it moves across switches in the tracks), and STOPS PLAYING!
At first I though it might be the MP3's I had copied - since I read that the highest bit rate supported by the Razr was 192, and I had copied a number of 256 bit MP3's. Deleted them all, re-ripped using a G5 Mac at work to 192, but still had the same problem.
A lesser annoyance is the "shuffle" feature on the Razr. It seems to get stuck on an artist, playing numerous songs of one artist in a row - this is not what I call shuffle. All in all, a disappointing music player.
So it's off to froogling any after Christmas sales on an 80 gig iPod...
Slashdot Mirror
I noticed a while ago that Google Desktop was preloaded on the Dells we buy. These Dells can wind up in areas that might access patient information. Since this is a major research hospital/medical school, I brought my concerns to the security group (HIPAA laws mandate privacy for patient information). Dell/Google assured us that this was a non-issue.
The end result was that not much happened.
My take? I still uninstall it whenever I see it.
When it comes to the chips Dell is able to play AMD against Intel. It is in Dell's own interest to have a competition in OS/Office market so that it can play one against another and reduce the cost of computing to its customers so that it can sell more. But Dell buries alternatives deep, makes it difficult to buy the alternatives.
I don't think they are being buried - this link was only one click away from the main www.dell.com page.
I did find a little interesting the big AMD sticker pasted on the outside of the familiar standard shiiping Dell box. I saw this AMD marked Dell box in the trash as I walked to my train the other day. You don't see an Intel sticker on non-AMD boxes.
Methinks these stickers cost AMD more than a few shekels to Mikey Dell.
It's the music, RIAA! I recently bought an album after hearing it on NPR's World Cafe - Nuclear Daydream by Joseph Arthur.
I never heard of the artist before, but really liked what I heard.
If I like it, I'll buy it.
Simple. My collection spans more than 30 years, mostly CD's now, I sold off most of my LP's during a move once (wish I hadn't). I still listen to new music, but the robot playlists of today's radio are not how I find new music. Most artists now have web sites where you can order directly from the artist - eliminating the traditional distrubution channels.
RIAA - wake up or fade away! Ahh...just go back to sleep, everything will be fine in the morning.
Everyone who NEVER uses any kind of fossil-fuel provided energy to do ANYTHING not absolutely life-or-death, please go track down the Gulfstream owner and do your CO2 rant. The rest of you....
I have to commute to my job, but according to you that's not life or death.
Have to eat and pay the mortgage and support my son. Sorry.
I use a Prius and drive as little as possible, but unless you are a full-time tele-commuter, CO2 will be produced. I'll buy an electric car when the price goes down and the range increases.
Well I am 6 feet three inches tall, and by definition, my height at least puts me in the troll ballpark as far as physical attributes go.
"Troll - a race of giants. They appear in various Northern mythologies. In Norse mythology Trolls are represented as a type of goblin."
I also have been "goblin" my lunch recently - I should slow down and take my time - it's better for digestion.
To papraphrase a movie title - "The Mods Must Be Crazy."
I just found it interesting that the first two Google links talked about a Blackhat convention, and the article on flash BIOS's made me think that it would not be too hard to create an EXE (Dell does this with their BIOS updates) to exploit flash BIOS vulnerabilities.
Well, gotta go now - some goats want to cross my bridge" - and it ain't happening!
Searching Google on "skype reads BIOS" turns up some scary hits.
The first is to a Blackhat conference.
The second details how multiple BIOS profiles can be stored on some Asus motherboards -
"ASUS O.C. Profile
The motherboard features the ASUS O.C. Profile that allows users to conveniently store or load multiple BIOS settings. The BIOS settings can be stored in the CMOS or a separate file, giving users freedom to share and distribute their favorite overclocking settings.
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
True dat! Squirt has not yet passed into the lexicon, as Mr. Ballmer would hope. Until it does, maybe "what's your favorite distro?" might weed out the anti-techie types.
Maybe Microsoft's Zune is onto something.
New line in a bar on a Saturday night -
"Squirt me three tunes, and I'll let you know if you can buy me a drink."
So.. MS came up with File, Edit, View and Help... while Apple came up with the GUI and the DESKTOP.
Ummm. Kind of, but not exactly.
He shall know your ways as if born to them.
PAUL
"Your gift is a blessing of the river".
The Freman stillsuit -
Is a high-efficiency filter and heat exchange system. Perspiration passes through the first layer and is gathered in the second. The salt is separated. Breathing and walking provide the pumping action. The reclaimed water circulates to catchpockets from which you can drink through this tube at your neck. Urine and feces are processed in the thigh pads. Should you be in the open desert, remember to breathe in through your mouth, out through the nose tubes.
Should you feel this is a scam, just check the thigh pads. They might be filled sooner than normally.
Hmmm..makes me think of the Fergilicious song - \
Vista-licious!
C'mon Bill G. and Steve B. - ante up and make this the Vista Theme Song - like "Start Me Up" in 1995!
On second thought, don't.
I went to a MS Vista/Office/Exchange launch event. The presenter, a Michael Murphy, demoed Vista, Office 2007, and Exchange 2007. Each demo took a little less than an hour.The biggest takeaway I remember is his prediction that all software would be delivered in 5 years - ala Google Office.
Also, it's all going happen on a little portable device - the end of computing as we know it. So gather those motherboards while ye may, for the times, they are a changin.
Nice black launch t-shirt, though.
OMG LOLZ! cOMICZ ... FREAKIN AWeSOME NOW I FINALLY REALIZE i MUST PAY FOR mY SOFTWARE, OMG LOLZ!!!!!!!!!!!111111
I used to read comic books to escape from reality. The idea of comic books teaching children ethical behavior is pretty lame.
My take on this topic, is pretty simple.
1. Company produces product legally under the laws of the country.
2. Company charges $xxx.xx for product.
3. Company has a right to stop people from using the product unless they pay $xxx.xx.
4. What don't you understand about that?
5. OMG, FReaKIN AWEsome, I DON't WAnt to be EVIL!!!
Okay, maybe number five will never happen. Some kids think that "stealing" stuff is a cool thing to do during a certain phase in their life, being a rebel, rage against the machine, etc. You are forgiven. Go and sin no more. The linux mirrors are waiting for you to put you forever on the path to righteousness.
BTW, I'm attending the Vista launch this Thursday and will get a free copy of Office 2007 for listening to the ways of the Microsoft Jedi Knights- maybe Bill is seeing the light after all!
Please note - all of the above was written under the influence of Dayquil, and may not make any sense to those of you not similarly chemically altered.
I think this dude, along with many others, get paid by the post by ExxonMobil, etc, to respond to anything here with regards to GW. Then again, they could just be uninformed.
BTW, still no skiing on REAL snow in the Poconos, but don't worry, that snow'll be right along.
Don't let those nay-sayer global warming types make this seem like a bad thing. I see a great location for Survivor - but with a twist!
Plop down some contestants on some glacial ice in Greenland. If their piece of ice does not melt, they win! If on the other hand the island appears, those contestants have to swim to the nearest coast, ala polar bears!
Beg to differ. Apple announced a product named iPhone. It's not officially released yet.
If I could walk into a store today or go to a Cingular store and purchase a product that was called iPhone, Cisco would have a case.
They instead have no case, just another pathetic technology lawsuit. I got an email today from Cisco about their 'cutting-edge technology."
This is what Cisco considers cutting-edge technology.
Sue Apple for using a name. Wah, wah, wah.
Crybabies.
Maybe the city of San FranCISCO should sue CISCO for using part of their name without a license. Yeah - that's how Cisco got their name. Very creative - ummm...what do we call our company? Oh look, there's the Golden Gate Bridge! OK - let's call it cisco! Lucky for them they weren't driving near Buttsville, PA.
Then again, they way they reacted, it would have been a more appropriate choice.
For a great early history of the company -
http://pdp10.nocrew.org/docs/cisco.html
Ummm...no, but funny. To clear it this up for the /. ers, OPP = Other Peoples Property.
You could look it up. - Casey Stengel.
Then again, that was the clean version.
Someone at my job also suggested Knoppmyth, so I'll give it a look. I am indeed an "extreme commuter," but I was able to buy a house in the country, my son is in a good school, so it's worth it. Plus, I commute in a Prius, which is cheaper than the two monthly bus tickets my wife and I were buying.
Apple TV looks pretty good, but I'm sure it's not in my budget.
BTW, really nice pictures on your site.
I have d/l the first 2 iso's of Fedora Core 6, so I haven't totally ruled it out. I'll get the rest tonight probably. I have a linux guru at my job, he prefers SUSE. I have no real preference for any distro, but would like it to work without a lot of hassle. It's also true that I would learn a lot if I went the Myth TV route, and there's something to be said for honing my skills.
I currently commute about 5 hours each day, so there's not a whole lot of time left in the day when I get home.
I putting Zalman quiet CPU cooler on my old system. I hope it'll keep the heat down. I think the 50 inch Vizio HD plasma will put out more heat.
B-)
Way out of my budget - especially since I had an old PIV 2.26 system with 2 100 gig drives taking up space in the basement. It's been neglected more and more since I bought a Mac Book Pro last year.
I am in the middle of putting my old motherboard in a "media-case" from Antec. I was looking at Myth TV, but I'm getting a DVR from the cable company. I also read where it took a certified Red Hat engineer 30 hours to get everything working right. I just don't have to time to fiddle - I need it to work, so adios Myth TV.
If surfing the web from the couch is not the way to go, I'll guess I'll just put all my CD's on it and use it for music playback, with occasional surfing, since I have an old wireless card I can use.
Vista Ultimate, which includes the revamped Windows Media Center software, is also a tad too much for me at this point in time. If I can find a discounted OEM WMC 2005 out there, I might pony up for a capture card.
Agree 100% - throw the idiot out now.
I'm bored, so I'll bite.
Artic Ice Shelf collapse (subject) poses risk: (verb) expert (Person who said - Artic ice shelf collapse poses risk.)
Rephrased from the headline - An expert said yesterday that the recent collapse of an ice shelf in the Artic poses a risk to humans.
Headlines - sentences - the former, complete, the latter, succinct.
Got it?
I'm not saying that we aren't the cause, but before the last ice-age this planet was a whole lot warmer than it is right now, and it managed to chill eventually. This whole thing could just be part of the normal geological cycle.
I've read more than a few of these /. debates over whether or not humans might or might not be "responsible" for global warming. What was the human population of the Earth 650,000 years ago? A tiny fraction of what it is today, correct? And were these humans able to do the sort of things that todays humans can do on a global scale, like burning rain forests, pumping huge quantities of CO2 into the atmosphere, hmmm...the short answer is NO!
Going to the wiki, the current population of the world is 6 billion. When I was nine, in 1961, the population was only three billion people - it has doubled in my lifetime.
So it's just a freakin' coincidence that CO2 levels have gone through the roof in the period since the early 1800's?
Yeah. Right.
World Population
1 billion in 1802
2 billion in 1928
3 billion in 1961
4 billion in 1974
5 billion in 1987
6 billion in 1999
6.4 billion NOW
I got a Razr recently - although I really wanted the Q - (got steered away from it due to a better deal on the Razr).
I bought a 1 gig micro SD card - loaded it up, and found a really annoying trait. During part of my morning commute, I hop on the PATH train into Manhattan. When playing music, the Razr picks up every bit of RF - (think conductor's announcements, doors opening/closing, train sparking as it moves across switches in the tracks), and STOPS PLAYING!
At first I though it might be the MP3's I had copied - since I read that the highest bit rate supported by the Razr was 192, and I had copied a number of 256 bit MP3's. Deleted them all, re-ripped using a G5 Mac at work to 192, but still had the same problem.
A lesser annoyance is the "shuffle" feature on the Razr. It seems to get stuck on an artist, playing numerous songs of one artist in a row - this is not what I call shuffle. All in all, a disappointing music player.
So it's off to froogling any after Christmas sales on an 80 gig iPod...
B-)