I'd prefer IBM buy Novell than Oracle. It'd be nice to see IBM be a software company again, and they have the marketing presence to put a real dent in Microsoft's market share. Once that happens not only will Linux become much better supported by both commercial vendors (I'd LOVE to see the Adobe Creative Suite and Ulead's media suites ported to Linux) and hardware manufacturers (maybe ATI cards will stop sucking, and maybe we'll even see accelerated drivers for the AiW line!). Another benefit is that Microsoft will be once again be forced to compete rather than rest on their laurels; we'll see vast improvements in maintenance scriptability (Don't tell me VBS is a solution; it isn't! VBS is a hack which has had major security holes), better customer support, prices more in line with what they should be charging, and they'll be forced to recognize that when customers buy software, they BUY software and actually DO have the right to sell used licenses on eBay when they decide to quit using it. Everybody wins in that case, whether you want to run Linux or Windows.
Oracle? Oracle appears to be a company that buys companies for the same reason Microsoft does: to kill off any potential competition.
I've been saying that for a while now - courts have been pretty clear since the first cases involving such things (software and media); if it's sold as a commodity item, right of first sale applies. You OWN it and you can resell it, rent it, give it away, shred it, make backup copies in accordance with Fair Use (but if the original changes hand the backups must accompany them or be destroyed), and so forth.
Volume licensing is a contract - you don't buy commodity items when you enter those products, you buy services, one of which is allowing you, for the duration of the contract, to use the software. Transfer of such contracts is a complicated matter (e.g., company foo buys out company bar, lawyers get rich hammering out amendments to contracts for the transfer). Much different than going to Sprawl*Mart and buying commodity goods off the shelf.
Their lower end models and notebooks have been crappy over the years, but their higher end machines are actually quite good (well, aside from the bad run of power supplies in the G5 towers)
It's not that Macs are 50% underpriced but that you're comparing to cheap $299 unreliable SiS chipset-based PCs with a miserable failure rate AND are subsidized by spyware right out of the box.
Feh. The only alternative to Verizon in my town is Adelphia, and Adelphia just jacked their prices for an internet connection up to $45.95/month this month. Hey, coincidentally, Verizon cannot take any more subscribers in Rockland due to a major infrastructure upgrade (rolling out fibre throughout town). Coincidence? I told Adelpha "Thanks, but no thanks" when their telemarketers called me today - I have a business connection at the office and worked too much up to now to make use of a home connection, and while I just cut my hours back to something reasonable (50 or so per week) instead of working 80-100 per week, I think I can wait until Verizon's upgrade is finished before I get an Internet connection at home.
Let me see: $44.95/month for Adelphia broadband throttled to 256k upstream, or. . . $22.95/month for Verizon with 3mbps down, 768K up? Gee, tough decision there.
In the meantime, I have my cellular phone for voice services, and I can use my phone as a modem if I am in a pinch and absolutely have to get online. F*** Adelpha's pricing. I don't think it's a coincidence they jacked up their prices as soon as Verizon started their upgrades and couldn't take on any new subscribers.
What calamity to you blame the floods 100's of years ago, the Ottomans?
Campfires and farting cattle, of course. Oh, and those darn blacksmiths, those capitalist bastids!! It can't possibly be a natural cycle which predates industry.;)
I'm far more worried about mercury and other pollutants in the seafood I eat (I rarely eat beef, pork, or chicken) than about global warming because on a planetary scale what we do to affect the climate is probably less than geological events which we can't control.
I'm not suggesting that we begin to intentionally spew out as much CO2 and sulfur dioxides as possible, but that a balanced approach is possible(responsible use of the environment without slowing progress. Emissions on today's vehicles are great - my 400hp car burns far cleaner than the econoboxes of even the early '80s, and gets similar fuel mileage (well, when driving like a sane person;)). My 1976 car is going to be upgraded to 2005/2006 technology (nice clean burning and about 3x the original power output AND about twice the fuel efficiency) when I put it back on the road. I have oil heat at home (I didn't have any choice in the matter, I rent) but when I can afford to have a house built to my specs I plan to take advantage of both geothermal and solar heating and cooling technologies - it's economically responsible to do so and there are long-term benefits as well. I'll probably have wood or coal stoves as a backup, but modern woodstoves and even coal stoves burn so cleanly that they're preferable to oil burners, since wood is renewable and coal is still extremely plentiful and relatively inexpensive.
Likewise, we should allowing more drilling for oil in Alaska, the gulf, and the east coast and criminal prosecution of executives for things like oil spills should they not clean up after accidents), but also continue to invest in alternative power.
Certain self-proclaimed environmentalists with a NIMBY attitude regarding wind farms and nuclear power should be removed from office (I'm referring to a certain senator here in Massachusetts), and clean power should be a high priority. It shouldn't be federally funded directly, but there should be tax breaks for R&D and more importantly domestic manufacturing of domestic clean power devices, and vehicles, appliances, and other devices which integrate with clean power.
Actually the death of America may predate 9/11/2001. You should read MajestyTwelve sometime, which predates 09/11/2001 by four years. I used to read that stuff as a lark (I got into it after George H.W. Bush referred to the "new world order" and "thousand points of light"), but when the WTC attack happened I remembered reading about using the middle east to squash liberties here in America in a massive power grab in that "wacko conspiracy theory" and thought "Hmmm" - searched for it and re-read it. Strange.
A lot of it comes across as kooky (especially the extraterrestial bullshit), but truth is becoming stranger than fiction here, especially where limiting of the first, fourth, and second amendment "inalienable" rights is supposed to be somehow guaranteeing our freedom.
I wouldn't call that a great place to be, whether it's in the tropics or Antarctica.
I mean, would you want to vacation there? Maybe touring Havana would be nice, but I wouldn't want to do the same in Gitmo. Somehow I don't picture the place as being like a nice resort.
Modern elections for major offices here in America:
Two candidates (well, two that stand any chance of getting elected because the Libertarians are too fragmented)
(presidential debate on television) Jack Johnson: It's time someone had the courage to stand up and say: I'm against those things that everybody hates! John Jackson: I respect my opponent, I think he's a good man, but quite frankly I agree with everything he just said!
(at planet express) Fry: These are the canidates? They sound like clones. Wait a minute. They are clones! Leela: Don't let their identical DNA fool you. They differ on some key issues.
(presidential debate on television) John Jackson: "It's time someone had the courage to stand up and say: I'm against those things that everybody hates." Jack Johnson: "Now, I respect my opponent. I think he's a good man. But quite frankly, I agree with everything he just said." John Jackson: "I say your three cent titanium tax goes too far." Jack Johnson: "And I say your three cent titanium tax doesn't go too far enough."
. . . Or you may want to look for a plastic "cement" (remember plastic models and Testors glue?) which chemically bonds the mating surfaces together rather than relying on a mechanical bond - essentially resulting in a weld.
I think you mean "Duck Tape" and it was designed for sealing ammunition boxes and other containers to keep them waterproof in adverse conditions.
"Duct tape" was what competitors named their products, and they marketed it heavily for use on ducts. The thing is, the constant expansion/contraction of ductwork PLUS the humidity PLUS the hot/cold cycles very quickly break down duck tape and "duct tape" - you're better off using the real "duct tape" which is metal (aluminum, tin) or aliminized mylar with an adhesive backing - or "silver tape" as Chirs (87576) stated in the other reply to your post.
No PCMCIA, no sleeve or sled expansion to add PCMCIA. One could use a CF-> PCMCIA adapter but those things are really fragile plus PCMCIA drives take quite a bit of power. I really like the PCMCIA sleeve for my iPAQ 3670 - it contains a battery for the PCMCIA device, plus I also have the dual PCMCIA sleeve. When I don't need the PCMCIA capability I simply remove the sleeve and then I have a PDA which offers a heck of a lot more functionality than a Palm AND has a better screen, but is only slightly larger. In addition, at the time there were lots of third-party sleeves for the iPAQ, including cellular devices, GPS sleeves (I opted for CF for GPS), and even television tuner/video capture sleeves bundled with tuner and video capture software. Lots of expansion and with that route Compaq was pioneering a laptop replacement.
There is of course the OQO which can run the desktop version of GPS applications on Windows XP and has a much faster CPU, but no CF and no PCMCIA. One could argue that those slots not entirely necessary since it has a 30GB HDD and bluetooth, but I've heard very bad anecdotal reports of the OQO's being horrendously unreliable. If they improve on the OQO that may very well be ny upgrade path, but when you go to a full-scale PC, I would just as soon go with Linux and find a GPS solution for that (are there any Linux GPS apps on par with Teletype and TomTom?)
Uhhh, if it's offshore then the US government has NO business touching it. The next step is jailing Americans for smoking pot in European countries where it's legal.
Slashdot Mirror
I'd prefer IBM buy Novell than Oracle. It'd be nice to see IBM be a software company again, and they have the marketing presence to put a real dent in Microsoft's market share. Once that happens not only will Linux become much better supported by both commercial vendors (I'd LOVE to see the Adobe Creative Suite and Ulead's media suites ported to Linux) and hardware manufacturers (maybe ATI cards will stop sucking, and maybe we'll even see accelerated drivers for the AiW line!). Another benefit is that Microsoft will be once again be forced to compete rather than rest on their laurels; we'll see vast improvements in maintenance scriptability (Don't tell me VBS is a solution; it isn't! VBS is a hack which has had major security holes), better customer support, prices more in line with what they should be charging, and they'll be forced to recognize that when customers buy software, they BUY software and actually DO have the right to sell used licenses on eBay when they decide to quit using it. Everybody wins in that case, whether you want to run Linux or Windows.
Oracle? Oracle appears to be a company that buys companies for the same reason Microsoft does: to kill off any potential competition.
No it hasn't happened, not in the same way because OpenSUSE actually reaches a "stable" release, whereas Fedora is officially perpetually unstable.
Ubuntu will be my distribution of choice, not SuSE.
Hey, morse code communication via blue LED isn't patented, nor is blue OLED. I have to hurry and patent that QUICK.
I wish I had mod points today. . .
I've been saying that for a while now - courts have been pretty clear since the first cases involving such things (software and media); if it's sold as a commodity item, right of first sale applies. You OWN it and you can resell it, rent it, give it away, shred it, make backup copies in accordance with Fair Use (but if the original changes hand the backups must accompany them or be destroyed), and so forth.
Volume licensing is a contract - you don't buy commodity items when you enter those products, you buy services, one of which is allowing you, for the duration of the contract, to use the software. Transfer of such contracts is a complicated matter (e.g., company foo buys out company bar, lawyers get rich hammering out amendments to contracts for the transfer). Much different than going to Sprawl*Mart and buying commodity goods off the shelf.
Or scumbags have skewed search results through cloaking, doorway pages, hidden text, and linkfarms.
And there isn't DRM in the newest Macs?
Now THAT was funny! :)
No solitaire or reversi? What are secretaries,er, I mean receptionista all over the world going to do?
Their lower end models and notebooks have been crappy over the years, but their higher end machines are actually quite good (well, aside from the bad run of power supplies in the G5 towers)
You misspelled "crappy mouse"
(I kid, I kid, I saw the Mighty Mouse upgrade on that page)
It's not that Macs are 50% underpriced but that you're comparing to cheap $299 unreliable SiS chipset-based PCs with a miserable failure rate AND are subsidized by spyware right out of the box.
Feh. The only alternative to Verizon in my town is Adelphia, and Adelphia just jacked their prices for an internet connection up to $45.95/month this month. Hey, coincidentally, Verizon cannot take any more subscribers in Rockland due to a major infrastructure upgrade (rolling out fibre throughout town). Coincidence? I told Adelpha "Thanks, but no thanks" when their telemarketers called me today - I have a business connection at the office and worked too much up to now to make use of a home connection, and while I just cut my hours back to something reasonable (50 or so per week) instead of working 80-100 per week, I think I can wait until Verizon's upgrade is finished before I get an Internet connection at home.
Let me see: $44.95/month for Adelphia broadband throttled to 256k upstream, or. . .
$22.95/month for Verizon with 3mbps down, 768K up? Gee, tough decision there.
In the meantime, I have my cellular phone for voice services, and I can use my phone as a modem if I am in a pinch and absolutely have to get online. F*** Adelpha's pricing. I don't think it's a coincidence they jacked up their prices as soon as Verizon started their upgrades and couldn't take on any new subscribers.
Campfires and farting cattle, of course. Oh, and those darn blacksmiths, those capitalist bastids!! It can't possibly be a natural cycle which predates industry.
Right.
;)). My 1976 car is going to be upgraded to 2005/2006 technology (nice clean burning and about 3x the original power output AND about twice the fuel efficiency) when I put it back on the road. I have oil heat at home (I didn't have any choice in the matter, I rent) but when I can afford to have a house built to my specs I plan to take advantage of both geothermal and solar heating and cooling technologies - it's economically responsible to do so and there are long-term benefits as well. I'll probably have wood or coal stoves as a backup, but modern woodstoves and even coal stoves burn so cleanly that they're preferable to oil burners, since wood is renewable and coal is still extremely plentiful and relatively inexpensive.
I'm far more worried about mercury and other pollutants in the seafood I eat (I rarely eat beef, pork, or chicken) than about global warming because on a planetary scale what we do to affect the climate is probably less than geological events which we can't control.
I'm not suggesting that we begin to intentionally spew out as much CO2 and sulfur dioxides as possible, but that a balanced approach is possible(responsible use of the environment without slowing progress. Emissions on today's vehicles are great - my 400hp car burns far cleaner than the econoboxes of even the early '80s, and gets similar fuel mileage (well, when driving like a sane person
Likewise, we should allowing more drilling for oil in Alaska, the gulf, and the east coast and criminal prosecution of executives for things like oil spills should they not clean up after accidents), but also continue to invest in alternative power.
Certain self-proclaimed environmentalists with a NIMBY attitude regarding wind farms and nuclear power should be removed from office (I'm referring to a certain senator here in Massachusetts), and clean power should be a high priority. It shouldn't be federally funded directly, but there should be tax breaks for R&D and more importantly domestic manufacturing of domestic clean power devices, and vehicles, appliances, and other devices which integrate with clean power.
Actually the death of America may predate 9/11/2001. You should read MajestyTwelve sometime, which predates 09/11/2001 by four years. I used to read that stuff as a lark (I got into it after George H.W. Bush referred to the "new world order" and "thousand points of light"), but when the WTC attack happened I remembered reading about using the middle east to squash liberties here in America in a massive power grab in that "wacko conspiracy theory" and thought "Hmmm" - searched for it and re-read it. Strange.
t m
Check it out:
http://www.hourofthetime.com/majestyt.htm
http://www.puppstheories.com/majesty.htm
http://www.sherryshriner.com/cooper/majestic_12.h
A lot of it comes across as kooky (especially the extraterrestial bullshit), but truth is becoming stranger than fiction here, especially where limiting of the first, fourth, and second amendment "inalienable" rights is supposed to be somehow guaranteeing our freedom.
I wouldn't call that a great place to be, whether it's in the tropics or Antarctica.
I mean, would you want to vacation there? Maybe touring Havana would be nice, but I wouldn't want to do the same in Gitmo. Somehow I don't picture the place as being like a nice resort.
Modern elections for major offices here in America:
Two candidates (well, two that stand any chance of getting elected because the Libertarians are too fragmented)
(presidential debate on television)
Jack Johnson: It's time someone had the courage to stand up and say: I'm against those things that everybody hates!
John Jackson: I respect my opponent, I think he's a good man, but quite frankly I agree with everything he just said!
(at planet express)
Fry: These are the canidates? They sound like clones. Wait a minute. They are clones!
Leela: Don't let their identical DNA fool you. They differ on some key issues.
(presidential debate on television)
John Jackson: "It's time someone had the courage to stand up and say: I'm against those things that everybody hates."
Jack Johnson: "Now, I respect my opponent. I think he's a good man. But quite frankly, I agree with everything he just said."
John Jackson: "I say your three cent titanium tax goes too far."
Jack Johnson: "And I say your three cent titanium tax doesn't go too far enough."
http://www.polywater.com/bonduit.asp but this appears to be a glue, which relies on a mechanical bond. . .
. . . Or you may want to look for a plastic "cement" (remember plastic models and Testors glue?) which chemically bonds the mating surfaces together rather than relying on a mechanical bond - essentially resulting in a weld.
I think you mean "Duck Tape" and it was designed for sealing ammunition boxes and other containers to keep them waterproof in adverse conditions.
"Duct tape" was what competitors named their products, and they marketed it heavily for use on ducts. The thing is, the constant expansion/contraction of ductwork PLUS the humidity PLUS the hot/cold cycles very quickly break down duck tape and "duct tape" - you're better off using the real "duct tape" which is metal (aluminum, tin) or aliminized mylar with an adhesive backing - or "silver tape" as Chirs (87576) stated in the other reply to your post.
You forgot Clowns Per Beetle - if you like circuses this is a critically important unit of measure.
Even more important to slashdotters:
Can this toaster run Linux? FreeBSD? OS X for x86?
Sure they do. You know them abroad as Toyotas and Mitsubishis that haven't been rebranded to GM and Chrysler. ;)
No PCMCIA, no sleeve or sled expansion to add PCMCIA. One could use a CF-> PCMCIA adapter but those things are really fragile plus PCMCIA drives take quite a bit of power. I really like the PCMCIA sleeve for my iPAQ 3670 - it contains a battery for the PCMCIA device, plus I also have the dual PCMCIA sleeve. When I don't need the PCMCIA capability I simply remove the sleeve and then I have a PDA which offers a heck of a lot more functionality than a Palm AND has a better screen, but is only slightly larger. In addition, at the time there were lots of third-party sleeves for the iPAQ, including cellular devices, GPS sleeves (I opted for CF for GPS), and even television tuner/video capture sleeves bundled with tuner and video capture software. Lots of expansion and with that route Compaq was pioneering a laptop replacement.
There is of course the OQO which can run the desktop version of GPS applications on Windows XP and has a much faster CPU, but no CF and no PCMCIA. One could argue that those slots not entirely necessary since it has a 30GB HDD and bluetooth, but I've heard very bad anecdotal reports of the OQO's being horrendously unreliable. If they improve on the OQO that may very well be ny upgrade path, but when you go to a full-scale PC, I would just as soon go with Linux and find a GPS solution for that (are there any Linux GPS apps on par with Teletype and TomTom?)
Uhhh, if it's offshore then the US government has NO business touching it. The next step is jailing Americans for smoking pot in European countries where it's legal.
Vote out incumbents!