You can probably get 1.21 jigga^H^H^H^H^Hnanowatts via wireless, if that helps. However, I hear you can get a decent amount of power from a bolt of lightning!
Well, you can, but you're limited to just 15.4W. So, you're going to be stuck with limitations similar to that of USB (although the wattage is a bit higher), plus added problems such as:
* Users being unable to configure network devices
* Security implications - TCP/IP for unsecured attached devices is a really bad thing, pretty much a non-issue for USB
* Additional failure points. Now, if the network hardware screws up (switch, router, etc.) or if the PoE gives out, the device goes down. If your network drivers flake out or if your firewall is misconfigured or suddenly decides the heavy traffic to $EXT_HARD_DRIVE is suspicious, your backup device, recording session, or what have you will be inaccessible. TCP/IP will also add some overhead to the protocol, slowing down transfers.
There is already a plethora of network accessible devices. Why can't keeping a plug and pr^Hlay option for desktops be a viable option? USB is extremely good, and if you insist on using TCP/IP then you could use firewire instead (OK, it was dropped in Vista, but. ..) but it makes little sense since it accomplishes little while increasing CPU utilization and decreases the total possible throughput.
There is a relatively new piercing technique which might be better than these electrodes since it's a bit more permanent; transdermal (or microdermal) implants. Basically, the technique is the same as pocketing, but some implants feature either "hooks" or have a small mesh in the base which causes the body to heal through it, creating a more permanent bond. This would likely be better for someone with disabilities who needs these since the transdermal implants are extremely unlikely to fall off, which would make a disabled person's connecting the equipment a bit easier.
I briefly considered getting microdermals at my temples, but being a business owner, etc. those are just a little too permanent, and I probably have too many piercings already anyhow. heh.
Let's see: Windows 2000 brought the NT kernel with integrated Explorer desktop (and unfortunate MSIE integration) but performed extremely well on single processor and SMP workstations. It was fairly lightweight, and supported everything up to DirectX 9.0c, MSIE 6.0, and Windows Media Player 9. Everyone loved Windows 2000. It also had a very small footprint, considering it supported Win16, Win32s, Win95, NT, OS/2, and POSIX.
Windows XP brought more eye candy, a larger foot print, and some DRM. It ran a bit slower than Windows 2000, but did include a few extra system tools, as well as a command line defrag (let's ignore how pathetic Windows defrag is). Driver availability was a pain in the neck at first, and many Windows 2000 drivers had to be hacked (extracting from CAB files and modifying INF files) to hopefully force driver installs, but eventually everyone started supporting Windows XP. Windows XP was teh devil. However, one thing I have to say is that wireless networking works a lot better in XP than Win2K become it came with an interface that was somewhat standardized, whereas Win2K did not natively understand WiFi. The install footprint was also reasonable, even on a laptop. It was widely regarded as a bloated Win2K with eye candy tossed in to make it saleable. A pig with lipstick.
Windows Vista? It's a huge step backward. Why on God's green earth should Windows' footprint increase to 6GB to 8GB and not even include the features that were to be its biggest selling points, ESPECIALLY WinFS? While NTFS is a good deal better than FAT, there are F/OSS filesystems which are FAR better than NTFS from every perspective. Also, why the heck should listening to MP3s slow network performance by over 90%? Why should "minimum recommended" memory requirements be 1GB? Why is the "3D" desktop limited to the paged task switcher? For all of the hype around aero I was expecting a big change during the beta cycles that would make Vista match or exceed XGL/Beryl/Etc. and OS X, but it basically caught up to OS X circa 2005. It's three years behind the times and rapidly falling behind KDE 4.x, OS X, and Compiz-Fusion. Oh, and the newest revision of the Explorer file manager sucks. Microsoft, check out Konqueror and Dolphin on KDE if you want to get some good file manager ideas, and also glean a few ideas from the Mac's Finder while you're at it. OK, you ripped off Mac OS Classic. We get it. You're still copying a 20+ year old OS. Time to enter the 21st century, guys! Oh, and the BSOD is a thing of the past? Drivers can't crash it like XP? Wrong again. It handles driver and memory faults every bit as poorly.
I do have Vista installed now. I have it installed just for games, and I keep "AndLinux" installed on it to make the environment tolerable (konqueror is hands-down THE best file manager).
Now, this isn't to say that Vista is all bad. Thy now include REALLY good tools on the install CD. They followed Apple's and Linux distros' suits by including not only a memory test utility, but an actual Windows Repair feature which isn't just "install over everything and hope for the best" but a program which checks the registry, file system, MBR, and so forth and intelligently/selectively repairs key boot components. It actually works REALLY well. I just wish the rest of Vista's quality matched that of the install and repair routines. Their release engineers really were on the ball with Vista. Sadly, I can't say the same for their product management and GUI/human factor engineers.
I've been concerned about spyware and viruses on my linux system so I tried to downloaded Spyware Guard 2009 and tried to run it on my Linux system. The darn thing wouldn't run! I tweaked and fiddled with wine for a while then installed Crossover Office, all to no avail. I sent them bug report after bug report about this incompatibility but they never respond. Darn it, I feel left out!;)
It's so pathetic it's hilarious. Apparently some think that "black hole" is a racist term. If you modded me troll for this either you are oblivious to the news, or are like that politically correct moron Judge Thomas Jones.
I don't understand why there are so many bigoted articles on this web site. You guys are a bunch of racist. Why the hell are you all throwing around racist slurs like "black holes?" Good grief. Why can't we simply refer to them as "luminescence-challenged singularities" or something else which isn't so racist? You've offended my hyper-sensitive politically-correct psyche!
I can't speak for anyone else on/. but as far as what I get Internet connectivity for, it's for access to the backbone so I can access services on other providers. Services such as google, youtube, hulu, tvland, amazon, and so forth. I couldn't give a flying leap about Comcast's internet service offerings; in fact, they are inferior to other portals such as yahoo, igoogle, and even msn. I don't want to use Comcast's internet services. I buy internet access to get access to the INTERNET, not Comcast's extranet.
I still say doctrine of first sale should apply here. OS X is a commodity good sold off the shelf, not a work for hire nor is it a rental. In fact it's not even a licensed work, just as a book is not licensed. It is simply a commodity good covered by Copyright. When I buy software, I am buying a tangible good, NOT a contract. If I open the software and see the EULA and reject the "license," I cannot get a refund. So, they take my money and I cannot make use of the product? That's bull crap.
Once you purchase it (as Pystar does) you should (and do) have the legal right to do what you like with that good, including using the DVD as a coaster, a frisbee (er, flying discuss), landfill, decor, or, yes, even install it on a non-Apple-branded peecee or reverse engineer it, regardless of bullshit "for Macintoshes" or "For Apple-branded computers" being listed in the system requirements. As far as the EULA goes - do they (Apple) even accept returns on opened software packages? You don't see the EULA until install time, but again, it's a commodity good, you OWN THAT COPY. The ONLY thing you cannot do is violate the copyright outside of the limited framework allowed by Fair Use. So long as Pystar ships the PCs with legally-purchased OS X media, I fail to see Apple's complaint as anything other than frivolous.
Making prior art smaller should not warrent a patent. The current patent system is completely ridiculous. You know, Starbucks has a venti Mocha. I ought to patent the trenta mocha. I mean, I'm innovating a new coffee, right? And, just to be a little wacky, it'll be 34 ounces instead of the 30 it is named for. Now that's thinking different!
It also detects apache worms. Back in the day SuSE shipped with a vulnerable Apache build and I had to clean a server. ClamAV made it simple to remove the worm, without my having to prune every directory by hand.
Read up on fiat currency sometime. Our currency is based on _debt_ and not anything tangible. That has been the case ever since we came off the gold standard. Wealth (buying power) is generated by creating debt on behalf of others.
The banks were forced into the situation they were in; they were required by law to lend money to those who didn't qualify. The problem is they took that and ran with it in an extremely stupid manner, creating balloon payment mortgages, interest-only mortgages (which you mentioned), and variable-rate mortgages. Actuarial tables ought to have shown that those models were bound to fail, but the banks didn't care because the libs in congress created that brain fart-child Fanny Mae which would buy the risky mortgages.
Do you really think the same Congress that created this mess in the first place can possibly clean it up? We need more than a pooper-scooper we need a revolution, or at least people to use their vote wisely.
You know, I'm usually the first to tell people to get out and vote, but the two presidential candidates (at least the two who had a snowball's chance in hell of winning the election) both so completely disgusted me that I didn't vote. I could not in good conscience vote for either scumbag.
Cars definitely do have personalities. My GMC pickup has all the personality of a donkey: it's slow and stubborn and doesn't want to work and no amount of coaxing (new fuel and ignition systems) will convince it to do what I ask. It also eats and drinks a lot but just barely earns its keep. It also poops a lot (rust)
The MR2 I had was that of a beapoo (a beagle/poodle mix) -- quick on its feet, cozy, cute, and nimble, and didn't eat or drink much. It was also somewhat fragile (a coworker hit it with his truck when he lost control backing down a hill in the parking lot):(
'Vettes - the Stingray is somewhat slow but beautiful, but very reliable, but at the same time very hungry for food (fuel). I'd liken it to a well-bred work horse, but not so stocky and bulky as a draught horse.
The ZR-1 Corvette: it has the personality of a lion. It's very strong and fast, can roar very loudly, holds its course extremely well in turns, but not particularly agile in very tight turns in tight spaces. It roars and is really fast, and can stop on a dime.
The Hyundai Excel had the personality of a gerbil. It was cozy, cuddly, and cute, but also was very prone to being sick.
A Mazda B2000 pickup I had many years ago had the personality of a shetland pony: it was tiny and cute, looked like a truck and wanted to do some work, but totally useless for hauling anything.
Cutlass S: I'd liken it to a draught horse-- OK look at, heavy and stocky, and strong, but also eats and drinks a lot. It also pooped a lot (rust!)
Applications distributed using Autopackage are extremely easy to install. What's the complaint? If your vendor's installer sucks, politely ask them to consider using autopackage, or at least clearly and completely enumerate missing dependencies in a log file.
There needs to be a consistent -- and whenever possible, self-documenting -- configuration system throughout, from the kernel to userland tools and user applications
I know! Let's recreate the windows registry, but this time better!. Yawn.
No kidding.
Need to upgrade/replace a server, or restore the configuration? Just copy over/etc/* and restart. Bang. dead. Done. Need to move the configuration over to a new server? scp over/etc/* and tweak hostname and the network config files. Bang. Dead. Done. You just created a new node in your cluster, skipping the many hours of pain you need with Windows.
He wants a versioning filesystem. Like Windows has. (Does it?) I want a poney.
Hey, I'd like a pony as well!:)
What he wants to be running is VMS. Enjoy the GUI on that.:)
The GUI is anarchic. (I see no black flags).
He should quit running fvwm and use something like KDE, where the configuration is pretty well organized. OpenSUSE and SLED are very well organized, if you're talking system and desktop configuration. for KDE you have the KDE control center (any system with KDE will have this) for the desktop environment, and then there is YaST for system-wide changes, such as network, device management, and so forth. Very well organized indeed.
Now, when it comes to RedHat and derivatives (Centos, WhiteboxLinux, etc.) I might agree with his point, but I use the command line in those environments because I hate their admin guis, plus I'd rather go command line anyway so I can automate maintenance and monitoring.
He wants "commercially hosted backup and restore". Maybe if he thinks there's money in it he should start a company instead of sitting on his fat ass and whining.
ah, now we're back to "I want a pony."
There are commercial backup systems and services for Linux. He just hasn't googled for it yet.
You addressed his points pretty well. I'd do it a little less harshly, but it does reek of Microsoft fanboyism.
USB may not work well under Linux, but it's barely functional under Windows. We're speaking relative terms here, right?
See, the thing is, almost any device I've plugged into Linux systems (aside from PocketPCs/Windows Mobile devices) with storage cards have appeared as mass storage devices - including ipods, iphones, digital cameras, and so forth. Many of the devices that won't/don't appear as mass storage devices under Windows, including UTP cameras (Canon Powershot), are fully automounted by Linux. One shortcome I can find is that NTFS-formatted USB drives won't automount (at least not using ntfs-3g), but then, I haven't fiddled with the automounter to use fuse and ntfs-3g with external drives. I expect that the major distros will script this sooner or later, and what's so hard about doing sudo ntfs-3g/dev/sdj1/mnt/usbdrive ?
Problems I've had with Linux and USB? my eight Netfinity 4000R servers WILL NOT WORK WITH USB. But then, this is true of them with Windows as well. I cannot figure out how to get USB to work on these boxes, and IBM no longer supports them as they sold that division to Lenovo years ago. If there is a BIOS patch/update or a utility boot CD to enable the ports on those servers, I'm SOL since support for them dried up quite a while ago. This is NOT a problem with Linux though. I just thought Linux would work even when Windows doesn't. (on that note anyone have a tip for this)?
Now, USB printers on Linux? Phones? Drives? Here is the great thing: Install a printer/phone/drive/etc. in Linux. Unplug the USB device, plug it into a different USB hub/port segment(?) on the motherboard. It won't reinstall the drivers, or try to recognize it as a brand new device. It Just Works(tm). On Windows, a lot of the time it'll see it as a brand-new unrecognized device, re-enumerate it and reinstall the drivers. WTF? It's a little better under Vista, granted, but still not 100% there. Again, on Linux, it's not so brain dead. It just recognizes the already-configured device on the new port and doesn't try to install $FOO-PRINTER(2) and $FOO-PRINTER(3)
"The sheer breadth of kernel interfaces means it's entirely possible for something to break in a way that might not even show up in a fairly rigorous code review."
Can't and doesn't that happen with Windows? With any program that is much larger than "hello world" you're bound to have a bunch of unresolved defects. What matters is this: how quickly can they be turned around?
With Linux, there is a benefit; IF you have the expertise (I don't) you can debug and fix the bug(s) yourself, and even submit them upstream to the kernel project. Bugs can be turned around anywhere from days down to mere minutes. If you don't have the expertise, submit the bug report and also mention it on a few messageboards. Chances are someone who knows the particular module in question will jump right on it if it's a quick fix.
Microsoft Windows: find a bug, Microsoft's solution will be to either categorically deny the problem exists, or to simply log it and ignore you. If it's security related and serious, they will take anywhere from weeks to a decade to release a fix - if they could even be bothered to. Now, I'm not bashing Microsoft is, it's just the hard sad reality we (you, I, Jane Doe, Joe Sixpack, etc.) deal with when using Microsoft products. Unless there are a lot of people screaming they won't care, because they already have your $90 to $120 for XP or $90 to $300 for Vista. You're not their customer unless you're a reseller. They have their money already and there is no warranty on the product. They are not bound to fix it.
The Linux kernel also comes with no warranty, but the difference is this: the developers behind the project have a passion for quality, and many of them also disapprove of how Microsoft does business so they want to beat Microsoft - not necessarily in terms of dollars and cents, but by producing a better, more stable OS.
Then there is BSD - similar to Linux in terms of passion, and maybe a little slower on turnaround of bugs, but still far faster than Microsoft.
And Apple. Ah yes, Apple. What was it, 10.2 where they completely broke samba with one of their security patches and flat out denied it for a while? They did finally get around to releasing a fix, but if you had applied patches to your box already you were screwed. They would not tell you how to roll it back. On the whole though, they generally are a lot better than Microsoft. They're smaller and they want to knock Microsoft off the top of the hill so they can't display the arrogance that Microsoft does.
You're presuming that their controller/software allows for controlling multiple servos in the camera assembly. Not all camera controllers support sending more than one control code concurrently.
if you do want to couple multiple antennae together, make SURE you get the polarity correct. If you examine many UHF antennae with multiple active elements, you will notice that the conductors coupling the elements are not going straight down, but criss-cross. This is because they are working together to capture more parts of the radio wave. Remember that the theory is that RF has wave characteristics, and those waves have a certain length from peak to peak (hence, wavelength). The elements are paired together to capture as much of the energy as possible, and for corner-reflector dipole antenna, passive elements are introduced to help introduce resonance which uses capacitance to transfer the additional captured RF, which results in higher gain. In fact if you search the USPTO you will see that there are even antennae designs which feature adjustable elements to adjust the capacitance and resonance frequencies.
If you're talking brain _development_, you're talking less than ten thousand years. One day, to be precise.
If you're referring to brain _evolution_, then yeah. Millions of years of evolution.
Just picking a nit. "Development" implies a developer/designer.
But more on topic: those bowtie antennae are GREAT. I grew up in Rhode Island and we didn't have cable - we had a bowtie antenna paired with a yagi+corner/reflector dipole antenna and we were able to pull in 18 stations at any given time, and pulled in stations ranging from Boston, MA to New Haven, CT, to Worcester, MA, and would occasionally even be able to pull in a station or two from NYC (fuzzy but watchable). The amplifiers helped a great deal on most stations, but some stations actually had to be attenuated because the signal was so strong. I never used an antenna with DTV/HDTV (why bother when cable is available?) but DTV is all-or-nothing; you either receive the signal, or you don't. If you're in a fringe area the tuner will lock on for a few ms, then fade out, then lock on, resulting in bad MPEG blocking.
Also keep in mind that antenna positioning is more critical than you might think. In one position, even 10' above your roof, moving an antenna to one side or the other by even a meter may result in a HUGE improvement in signal quality for the stations you want to target. This can be due to many factors, including power line locations (EMI from power lines interfering), metallic structures in your building introducing capacitance, or the new location demanding new cable run location, which can reduce interference from your power lines. Also, make sure you ground your antenna mast; having a proper ground plane can also significantly increase your signal strength (and can also save your structure and even electrical equipment from a lightning strike. We experienced several strikes but the mast was properly grounded and no damage occurred).
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You can probably get 1.21 jigga^H^H^H^H^Hnanowatts via wireless, if that helps. However, I hear you can get a decent amount of power from a bolt of lightning!
Well, you can, but you're limited to just 15.4W. So, you're going to be stuck with limitations similar to that of USB (although the wattage is a bit higher), plus added problems such as:
* Users being unable to configure network devices
* Security implications - TCP/IP for unsecured attached devices is a really bad thing, pretty much a non-issue for USB
* Additional failure points. Now, if the network hardware screws up (switch, router, etc.) or if the PoE gives out, the device goes down. If your network drivers flake out or if your firewall is misconfigured or suddenly decides the heavy traffic to $EXT_HARD_DRIVE is suspicious, your backup device, recording session, or what have you will be inaccessible. TCP/IP will also add some overhead to the protocol, slowing down transfers.
There is already a plethora of network accessible devices. Why can't keeping a plug and pr^Hlay option for desktops be a viable option? USB is extremely good, and if you insist on using TCP/IP then you could use firewire instead (OK, it was dropped in Vista, but. . .) but it makes little sense since it accomplishes little while increasing CPU utilization and decreases the total possible throughput.
Ah, but that is immaterial. Employers should just dock their employees for the boot time. See http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/18/1754236&from=rss
There is a relatively new piercing technique which might be better than these electrodes since it's a bit more permanent; transdermal (or microdermal) implants. Basically, the technique is the same as pocketing, but some implants feature either "hooks" or have a small mesh in the base which causes the body to heal through it, creating a more permanent bond. This would likely be better for someone with disabilities who needs these since the transdermal implants are extremely unlikely to fall off, which would make a disabled person's connecting the equipment a bit easier.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transdermal_implant
http://wiki.bmezine.com/index.php/Transdermal_implant
http://wiki.bmezine.com/index.php/Microdermal
http://www.holeyskin.com/microdermal.htm
http://www.alternativelook.net/microdermal-implants/
I briefly considered getting microdermals at my temples, but being a business owner, etc. those are just a little too permanent, and I probably have too many piercings already anyhow. heh.
Let's see: Windows 2000 brought the NT kernel with integrated Explorer desktop (and unfortunate MSIE integration) but performed extremely well on single processor and SMP workstations. It was fairly lightweight, and supported everything up to DirectX 9.0c, MSIE 6.0, and Windows Media Player 9. Everyone loved Windows 2000. It also had a very small footprint, considering it supported Win16, Win32s, Win95, NT, OS/2, and POSIX.
Windows XP brought more eye candy, a larger foot print, and some DRM. It ran a bit slower than Windows 2000, but did include a few extra system tools, as well as a command line defrag (let's ignore how pathetic Windows defrag is). Driver availability was a pain in the neck at first, and many Windows 2000 drivers had to be hacked (extracting from CAB files and modifying INF files) to hopefully force driver installs, but eventually everyone started supporting Windows XP. Windows XP was teh devil. However, one thing I have to say is that wireless networking works a lot better in XP than Win2K become it came with an interface that was somewhat standardized, whereas Win2K did not natively understand WiFi. The install footprint was also reasonable, even on a laptop. It was widely regarded as a bloated Win2K with eye candy tossed in to make it saleable. A pig with lipstick.
Windows Vista? It's a huge step backward. Why on God's green earth should Windows' footprint increase to 6GB to 8GB and not even include the features that were to be its biggest selling points, ESPECIALLY WinFS? While NTFS is a good deal better than FAT, there are F/OSS filesystems which are FAR better than NTFS from every perspective. Also, why the heck should listening to MP3s slow network performance by over 90%? Why should "minimum recommended" memory requirements be 1GB? Why is the "3D" desktop limited to the paged task switcher? For all of the hype around aero I was expecting a big change during the beta cycles that would make Vista match or exceed XGL/Beryl/Etc. and OS X, but it basically caught up to OS X circa 2005. It's three years behind the times and rapidly falling behind KDE 4.x, OS X, and Compiz-Fusion. Oh, and the newest revision of the Explorer file manager sucks. Microsoft, check out Konqueror and Dolphin on KDE if you want to get some good file manager ideas, and also glean a few ideas from the Mac's Finder while you're at it. OK, you ripped off Mac OS Classic. We get it. You're still copying a 20+ year old OS. Time to enter the 21st century, guys! Oh, and the BSOD is a thing of the past? Drivers can't crash it like XP? Wrong again. It handles driver and memory faults every bit as poorly.
I do have Vista installed now. I have it installed just for games, and I keep "AndLinux" installed on it to make the environment tolerable (konqueror is hands-down THE best file manager).
Now, this isn't to say that Vista is all bad. Thy now include REALLY good tools on the install CD. They followed Apple's and Linux distros' suits by including not only a memory test utility, but an actual Windows Repair feature which isn't just "install over everything and hope for the best" but a program which checks the registry, file system, MBR, and so forth and intelligently/selectively repairs key boot components. It actually works REALLY well. I just wish the rest of Vista's quality matched that of the install and repair routines. Their release engineers really were on the ball with Vista. Sadly, I can't say the same for their product management and GUI/human factor engineers.
I've been concerned about spyware and viruses on my linux system so I tried to downloaded Spyware Guard 2009 and tried to run it on my Linux system. The darn thing wouldn't run! I tweaked and fiddled with wine for a while then installed Crossover Office, all to no avail. I sent them bug report after bug report about this incompatibility but they never respond. Darn it, I feel left out! ;)
Troll? Have you no sense of humor?
In case you missed it, I was alluding to the BS you will see here:
http://cityhallblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2008/07/dallas-county-meeting-turns-ra.html
It's so pathetic it's hilarious. Apparently some think that "black hole" is a racist term. If you modded me troll for this either you are oblivious to the news, or are like that politically correct moron Judge Thomas Jones.
I don't understand why there are so many bigoted articles on this web site. You guys are a bunch of racist. Why the hell are you all throwing around racist slurs like "black holes?" Good grief. Why can't we simply refer to them as "luminescence-challenged singularities" or something else which isn't so racist? You've offended my hyper-sensitive politically-correct psyche!
Now excuse me while I go emo and sulk for a bit.
I can't speak for anyone else on /. but as far as what I get Internet connectivity for, it's for access to the backbone so I can access services on other providers. Services such as google, youtube, hulu, tvland, amazon, and so forth. I couldn't give a flying leap about Comcast's internet service offerings; in fact, they are inferior to other portals such as yahoo, igoogle, and even msn. I don't want to use Comcast's internet services. I buy internet access to get access to the INTERNET, not Comcast's extranet.
I still say doctrine of first sale should apply here. OS X is a commodity good sold off the shelf, not a work for hire nor is it a rental. In fact it's not even a licensed work, just as a book is not licensed. It is simply a commodity good covered by Copyright. When I buy software, I am buying a tangible good, NOT a contract. If I open the software and see the EULA and reject the "license," I cannot get a refund. So, they take my money and I cannot make use of the product? That's bull crap.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-sale_doctrine
Once you purchase it (as Pystar does) you should (and do) have the legal right to do what you like with that good, including using the DVD as a coaster, a frisbee (er, flying discuss), landfill, decor, or, yes, even install it on a non-Apple-branded peecee or reverse engineer it, regardless of bullshit "for Macintoshes" or "For Apple-branded computers" being listed in the system requirements. As far as the EULA goes - do they (Apple) even accept returns on opened software packages? You don't see the EULA until install time, but again, it's a commodity good, you OWN THAT COPY. The ONLY thing you cannot do is violate the copyright outside of the limited framework allowed by Fair Use. So long as Pystar ships the PCs with legally-purchased OS X media, I fail to see Apple's complaint as anything other than frivolous.
How is this anything but:
[$PRIOR_ART], but in a laptop.
Making prior art smaller should not warrent a patent. The current patent system is completely ridiculous. You know, Starbucks has a venti Mocha. I ought to patent the trenta mocha. I mean, I'm innovating a new coffee, right? And, just to be a little wacky, it'll be 34 ounces instead of the 30 it is named for. Now that's thinking different!
It also detects apache worms. Back in the day SuSE shipped with a vulnerable Apache build and I had to clean a server. ClamAV made it simple to remove the worm, without my having to prune every directory by hand.
Read up on fiat currency sometime. Our currency is based on _debt_ and not anything tangible. That has been the case ever since we came off the gold standard. Wealth (buying power) is generated by creating debt on behalf of others.
The banks were forced into the situation they were in; they were required by law to lend money to those who didn't qualify. The problem is they took that and ran with it in an extremely stupid manner, creating balloon payment mortgages, interest-only mortgages (which you mentioned), and variable-rate mortgages. Actuarial tables ought to have shown that those models were bound to fail, but the banks didn't care because the libs in congress created that brain fart-child Fanny Mae which would buy the risky mortgages.
Do you really think the same Congress that created this mess in the first place can possibly clean it up? We need more than a pooper-scooper we need a revolution, or at least people to use their vote wisely.
You know, I'm usually the first to tell people to get out and vote, but the two presidential candidates (at least the two who had a snowball's chance in hell of winning the election) both so completely disgusted me that I didn't vote. I could not in good conscience vote for either scumbag.
Maybe it'll improve if we get into another war?
Oh wait, we've had that since 1991 (Bush I) and 2001 (Bush II).
Cars definitely do have personalities. My GMC pickup has all the personality of a donkey: it's slow and stubborn and doesn't want to work and no amount of coaxing (new fuel and ignition systems) will convince it to do what I ask. It also eats and drinks a lot but just barely earns its keep. It also poops a lot (rust)
The MR2 I had was that of a beapoo (a beagle/poodle mix) -- quick on its feet, cozy, cute, and nimble, and didn't eat or drink much. It was also somewhat fragile (a coworker hit it with his truck when he lost control backing down a hill in the parking lot) :(
'Vettes - the Stingray is somewhat slow but beautiful, but very reliable, but at the same time very hungry for food (fuel). I'd liken it to a well-bred work horse, but not so stocky and bulky as a draught horse.
The ZR-1 Corvette: it has the personality of a lion. It's very strong and fast, can roar very loudly, holds its course extremely well in turns, but not particularly agile in very tight turns in tight spaces. It roars and is really fast, and can stop on a dime.
The Hyundai Excel had the personality of a gerbil. It was cozy, cuddly, and cute, but also was very prone to being sick.
A Mazda B2000 pickup I had many years ago had the personality of a shetland pony: it was tiny and cute, looked like a truck and wanted to do some work, but totally useless for hauling anything.
Cutlass S: I'd liken it to a draught horse-- OK look at, heavy and stocky, and strong, but also eats and drinks a lot. It also pooped a lot (rust!)
Applications distributed using Autopackage are extremely easy to install. What's the complaint? If your vendor's installer sucks, politely ask them to consider using autopackage, or at least clearly and completely enumerate missing dependencies in a log file.
No kidding.
Need to upgrade/replace a server, or restore the configuration? Just copy over /etc/* and restart. Bang. dead. Done. Need to move the configuration over to a new server? scp over /etc/* and tweak hostname and the network config files. Bang. Dead. Done. You just created a new node in your cluster, skipping the many hours of pain you need with Windows.
Hey, I'd like a pony as well! :)
What he wants to be running is VMS. Enjoy the GUI on that. :)
He should quit running fvwm and use something like KDE, where the configuration is pretty well organized. OpenSUSE and SLED are very well organized, if you're talking system and desktop configuration. for KDE you have the KDE control center (any system with KDE will have this) for the desktop environment, and then there is YaST for system-wide changes, such as network, device management, and so forth. Very well organized indeed.
Now, when it comes to RedHat and derivatives (Centos, WhiteboxLinux, etc.) I might agree with his point, but I use the command line in those environments because I hate their admin guis, plus I'd rather go command line anyway so I can automate maintenance and monitoring.
ah, now we're back to "I want a pony."
There are commercial backup systems and services for Linux. He just hasn't googled for it yet.
You addressed his points pretty well. I'd do it a little less harshly, but it does reek of Microsoft fanboyism.
USB may not work well under Linux, but it's barely functional under Windows. We're speaking relative terms here, right?
See, the thing is, almost any device I've plugged into Linux systems (aside from PocketPCs/Windows Mobile devices) with storage cards have appeared as mass storage devices - including ipods, iphones, digital cameras, and so forth. Many of the devices that won't/don't appear as mass storage devices under Windows, including UTP cameras (Canon Powershot), are fully automounted by Linux. One shortcome I can find is that NTFS-formatted USB drives won't automount (at least not using ntfs-3g), but then, I haven't fiddled with the automounter to use fuse and ntfs-3g with external drives. I expect that the major distros will script this sooner or later, and what's so hard about doing sudo ntfs-3g /dev/sdj1 /mnt/usbdrive ?
Problems I've had with Linux and USB? my eight Netfinity 4000R servers WILL NOT WORK WITH USB. But then, this is true of them with Windows as well. I cannot figure out how to get USB to work on these boxes, and IBM no longer supports them as they sold that division to Lenovo years ago. If there is a BIOS patch/update or a utility boot CD to enable the ports on those servers, I'm SOL since support for them dried up quite a while ago. This is NOT a problem with Linux though. I just thought Linux would work even when Windows doesn't. (on that note anyone have a tip for this)?
Now, USB printers on Linux? Phones? Drives? Here is the great thing: Install a printer/phone/drive/etc. in Linux. Unplug the USB device, plug it into a different USB hub/port segment(?) on the motherboard. It won't reinstall the drivers, or try to recognize it as a brand new device. It Just Works(tm). On Windows, a lot of the time it'll see it as a brand-new unrecognized device, re-enumerate it and reinstall the drivers. WTF? It's a little better under Vista, granted, but still not 100% there. Again, on Linux, it's not so brain dead. It just recognizes the already-configured device on the new port and doesn't try to install $FOO-PRINTER(2) and $FOO-PRINTER(3)
"The sheer breadth of kernel interfaces means it's entirely possible for something to break in a way that might not even show up in a fairly rigorous code review."
Can't and doesn't that happen with Windows? With any program that is much larger than "hello world" you're bound to have a bunch of unresolved defects. What matters is this: how quickly can they be turned around?
With Linux, there is a benefit; IF you have the expertise (I don't) you can debug and fix the bug(s) yourself, and even submit them upstream to the kernel project. Bugs can be turned around anywhere from days down to mere minutes. If you don't have the expertise, submit the bug report and also mention it on a few messageboards. Chances are someone who knows the particular module in question will jump right on it if it's a quick fix.
Microsoft Windows: find a bug, Microsoft's solution will be to either categorically deny the problem exists, or to simply log it and ignore you. If it's security related and serious, they will take anywhere from weeks to a decade to release a fix - if they could even be bothered to. Now, I'm not bashing Microsoft is, it's just the hard sad reality we (you, I, Jane Doe, Joe Sixpack, etc.) deal with when using Microsoft products. Unless there are a lot of people screaming they won't care, because they already have your $90 to $120 for XP or $90 to $300 for Vista. You're not their customer unless you're a reseller. They have their money already and there is no warranty on the product. They are not bound to fix it.
The Linux kernel also comes with no warranty, but the difference is this: the developers behind the project have a passion for quality, and many of them also disapprove of how Microsoft does business so they want to beat Microsoft - not necessarily in terms of dollars and cents, but by producing a better, more stable OS.
Then there is BSD - similar to Linux in terms of passion, and maybe a little slower on turnaround of bugs, but still far faster than Microsoft.
And Apple. Ah yes, Apple. What was it, 10.2 where they completely broke samba with one of their security patches and flat out denied it for a while? They did finally get around to releasing a fix, but if you had applied patches to your box already you were screwed. They would not tell you how to roll it back. On the whole though, they generally are a lot better than Microsoft. They're smaller and they want to knock Microsoft off the top of the hill so they can't display the arrogance that Microsoft does.
That keyboard will match my hair nicely.
I know that keyboard is intended to be a gag gift, but if they were to add macro/multimedia buttons, I'd buy one.
You're presuming that their controller/software allows for controlling multiple servos in the camera assembly. Not all camera controllers support sending more than one control code concurrently.
Oh! More info:
if you do want to couple multiple antennae together, make SURE you get the polarity correct. If you examine many UHF antennae with multiple active elements, you will notice that the conductors coupling the elements are not going straight down, but criss-cross. This is because they are working together to capture more parts of the radio wave. Remember that the theory is that RF has wave characteristics, and those waves have a certain length from peak to peak (hence, wavelength). The elements are paired together to capture as much of the energy as possible, and for corner-reflector dipole antenna, passive elements are introduced to help introduce resonance which uses capacitance to transfer the additional captured RF, which results in higher gain. In fact if you search the USPTO you will see that there are even antennae designs which feature adjustable elements to adjust the capacitance and resonance frequencies.
Antennae are neat! :)
If you're talking brain _development_, you're talking less than ten thousand years. One day, to be precise.
If you're referring to brain _evolution_, then yeah. Millions of years of evolution.
Just picking a nit. "Development" implies a developer/designer.
But more on topic: those bowtie antennae are GREAT. I grew up in Rhode Island and we didn't have cable - we had a bowtie antenna paired with a yagi+corner/reflector dipole antenna and we were able to pull in 18 stations at any given time, and pulled in stations ranging from Boston, MA to New Haven, CT, to Worcester, MA, and would occasionally even be able to pull in a station or two from NYC (fuzzy but watchable). The amplifiers helped a great deal on most stations, but some stations actually had to be attenuated because the signal was so strong. I never used an antenna with DTV/HDTV (why bother when cable is available?) but DTV is all-or-nothing; you either receive the signal, or you don't. If you're in a fringe area the tuner will lock on for a few ms, then fade out, then lock on, resulting in bad MPEG blocking.
Also keep in mind that antenna positioning is more critical than you might think. In one position, even 10' above your roof, moving an antenna to one side or the other by even a meter may result in a HUGE improvement in signal quality for the stations you want to target. This can be due to many factors, including power line locations (EMI from power lines interfering), metallic structures in your building introducing capacitance, or the new location demanding new cable run location, which can reduce interference from your power lines. Also, make sure you ground your antenna mast; having a proper ground plane can also significantly increase your signal strength (and can also save your structure and even electrical equipment from a lightning strike. We experienced several strikes but the mast was properly grounded and no damage occurred).
Yes, but is:
[$PRIOR_ART], on a wireless device
sufficient innovation to demand a patent?