I've definitely seen the 'nay sayers' of Linux. I think they are simply a very vocal minority, though. I look at the sheer number of distributions, and the constant posts about 'I switch from X Linux to Y Linux and...' on the internet, and I just can't see Linux users in general as being afraid of change.
Oh, everyone's a LITTLE afraid. Evolution made sure of that. But people that are using Linux came from one of 2 groups: People that had to learn Unix/Linux for work, and people that decided to change (!) from using Windows to using Linux on their own.
Maybe I'm wrong about how many are in that second group. But I think there are a LOT of them now, especially with Ubuntu/Kubuntu making the change pretty doggone easy. (I'm a Kubuntu user now, previously Slackware and Debian.)
I would LOVE to use this system for dealing with photographs or other documents that are easily recognizeable at a glance, but beyond that I don't see any use for it other than 'fun'.
I watched that video and the entire time I thought 'useless' until they showed the photos. There was also once a video of someone using multiple fingers to manipulate photographs, and I thought this would be useful as well. Neither of these systems can do much for me otherwise, though.
As for being Windows-only... I think that shows how short-sited these people are. Linux users are quite a bit more likely to embrace change than Windows users. But, maybe that's to our advantage. We can now design and implement a MUCH better and more useable system that was intelligently designed (I couldn't resist) instead of just what someone thought was cool.
If I had much free time, I would be working on it myself.
I think you've totally misunderstood. He isn't downplaying the jump from VHS to DVD, he's telling you that as exciting/wonderful/amazing as it was, this jump is EVEN BETTER.
Actually, 'release' isn't a magical point where an OS becomes hackable. There's PLENTY of beta copies of vista out there if hackers wanted to play with it.
They haven't told us about any exploits they've found, but some crackers hold their exploit until the day of release and use it on retail, instead of beta. This allows them a '0-day release' that would be impossible otherwise for something with this much 'security'.
Somehow it's the -computer- that's a piece of crap, and yet every other USB device is FINE. This is a wired, a keyboard, a usb hub, a usb wireless adapter and probably other things I've forgotten. They all still work fine. So either my $4 mouse is amazingly good, or my $100 mouse is total piece of crap. Hmm, I know which one it is.
I'm not talking about 45 days with 60 hours a week, slaving to create the new Doom. Anyone crazy enough to do that for contest STILL has enough sense to do it for a contest worth more than $500.
This will NOT produce a 'killer app' homebrew for the PSP. Nobody in their right mind expects it to.
The kind of games that can be devised, programmed, and entered in 45 days are not going to be the gems you're thinking about. They'll be rather quick and easy to make. There may be a few that were already being programmed and this contest came along at just the right time, but for the most part they'll just be quick n dirty jobs.
For that amount of work, $500 in prizes is quite a lot. And if one of the already-being-programmed games wins, they were going to give it away anyhow, so they made out like bandits.
They are simply delisted. Nobody WANTS to search for your crappy 'I'm so awesome' screenshots. All of your stuff can still be accessed, just not by people who don't care.
Unfortunately, that's not the case here. I unplugged his wireless adapter and we ran a line through the wall, thinking it might be that. The receiver was the closest electronic thing to the mouse and eventually we brought it along the floor, over by the table he had the mousepad on... it just kept getting worse.
You know, if it weren't for the fact that he is totally computer illiterate, despite having been an industrial engineer his entire life, I'd agree with you. But he only plays Chainz 2 and Sudoku. Seriously. He's totally helpless with a web-browser, and if ANY error message comes up, he has to have me read it to him. I think he must TRY to not understand.
So the question is... How does a person who only uses a computer for a couple hours a day, max, and only plays 2 games... How does he kill a mouse?
The conclusion I came to was that the USB ports (front and back... we switched after the first mouse) must be slightly over or under-powered. Not enough to kill his keyboard or usb wireless adapter, but enough to kill a total piece of crap logitech mouse.
Ridiculous.
BTW, by 'kill' I mean it doesn't transmit properly. The first one stopped completely. I used my mx1000 on his receiver and it worked fine, but his mouse on my receiver didn't work. When he killed mine, it worked great when you first turn plug it in. Over 10 minutes, the range goes from 6 feet down to about 3 feet. It gets progressively worse the longer it's on until you have to be right up next to the receiver. The tech kept rebooting the computer and it'd be 'fixed' and he almost got off the phone the last time before I stepped in and said it was doing it again, while he was trying to get away from my dad.
I haven't tried a Razor, but Logitech's mice have sucked lately.
I bought an mx1000. I used it almost a year and thought it was okay.
So I bought my Dad one. He kill it in 3 months. I chose that as a sign to upgrade to a G7 and he got my mx1000. He killed it in 3 weeks. My G7 never DID work right. If I plug the dongle into the tower directly, it loses connection ever 5 seconds or so. if I plug it into the extension/charger they provide, I generally get the same thing. (It's closer, so it takes about 10 seconds to disconnect.) If I plug it into the logitech G15 keyboard I have, I get no disconnects and everything is fine... Right up until I reboot. If I reboot with the device in the port, as soon as windows comes up (don't hate me) then the mouse jumps to the top of the screen repeatedly while I'm moving it. If I unplug it and plug it back in, it works. If I leave it out while I boot, it does the jump up thing no matter what I do.
Logitech's tech support sucks as well. I got the guy with the indian accent that disconnected me. The guy who was just hired, has a hick accent, and can't type. (And apparently can't enter information.) I gave up at this point. My dad got the know-nothing that DEMANDED he plug that he use the USB to PS2 converter because 'USB is only for laptops,' the smart aleck that screwed up the RMA again, and finally the manager that fixed the RMA and actually got the item shipped. Mouse 1 done, yay! When he killed the second mouse, more knowledgeable about the RMA process, he managed to RMA the second one he broke. They arrived about the same time.
I've just thrown my G7 to the side and I'm using a 4-5 year old Graphire (not 4, not 2... just Graphire) from wacom and it's not the best gaming mouse, but at least the bloody thing works.
I've given up on Logitech and I was hoping the Copperhead would be for me, but apparently they have issues as well. I think I'll stick with my Graphire until the industry figures out that I'm only willing to pay $80-120 for a GOOD mouse.
You mean, 'except for the entirety of this article.' Plenty of information is being 'released' here including what they THINK it does. And yet they can't release the partial translation of the text.
I'm not saying I wasn't distracting the rest of the class. (Though, as they were all coloring in Honors English, I fail to see how it mattered.) I loved all subjects except History. They simply didn't challenge me.
I wasn't alone. We had an Honors Physics class. We had a group of 4 of us that would play cards the ENTIRE CLASS every day. If there was a lab that was graded, 1 of us would do the lab for the other 3 and they'd pull a 4th from the class to cover the missing person. We'd copy the lab and all get A's, every time. We never studied. We never did anything that wasn't graded. We all got A's.
Did the teacher freak out about this? No, actually, he ignored it. He continued to teach the rest of the class and everyone ignored us like we weren't there.
The only thing I really learned in that class all year was how to play Bridge. (Lousy game. It plays itself if everyone knows the rules. Boring.)
The only excitement was the day that we had a substitute. Unable to comprehend that this was possible, he damanded we not play cards. Ryan laughed out loud in his face. Ryan was actually surprised when he got written up. So we didn't play cards that period. Instead, we did something much, much worse. We asked questions. Lots of them. Every once in a while, the sub would get the answer wrong and we'd correct him. I wonder whatever happened to him.
I've got tons of these stories that happened to me, and they all come down to 1 thing: Don't let A students get bored. You'll regret it. Most of the time the teacher isn't really at fault... They have to cover a certain curriculum and they don't have TIME to add anything to it. They have to spend their time teacher the kids that didn't just understand instantly. (Or worse, read the book at home and already understood.) But the school should deal with these problems.
In elementary school, we had a program that took us out of class 1 day a week. We had to play catch-up the other 4 days in class and we learned new (and usually interesting) things the 5th day. We didn't have time left to be bored.
In middle school, we had a program that took 1 class period every day, so we didn't miss any class. That didn't work quite as well, but at least we looked forward to school every day, instead of dreading the hours and hours of pointless boredom.
We had 'honors' classes in high school, as well as 'dual enrollment' with the college, but they just weren't enough. For one thing, they were designed to taken by the majority of kids, instead of the minority that was bored.
I used to think homeschooling was the answer, but then I met quite a few people that were homeschooled and realized that was worse. You parents have to spend as much time with you as all your teachers combined and you lose the diversity of knowledge.
In short, schools know they need programs for the students who can't keep up. They don't seem to realize they also need programs for those who are already ahead.
Yeah, it does. One known-pirated computer that I know of (I used to work at a computer store) used to have WGA report as valid. A few months later, it reported as pirated (which was true.) So yeah, it does a better job of checking now. How good? I dunno.
When I was in high school, in Honors English one day we had the standard vocab, some other wordy crap to do, and a picture to color. OMFG. Honors English!!!
So I quickly knocked out all 3 in like 15 minutes (was supposed to take the full 50 or so) and ended up bored out of my wits by 25 minutes. I started to talk to people and got written up. Not because I was talking, but because I refused to do my work. The teacher wouldn't even consider listening that I had it done already. I ended up with after school detention, picking up trash. After I got back from the office I very carefully explained (and showed) that I had finished the work LONG before. She tried to rescind, but the vice principal HATED me (maybe because I'd never been written up in 3 years yet?) and said the punishment would stick.
This should be a real eye opener. I was bored in class because I was good at the work. But the teacher (and later the administration) didn't care jack about that. They were there to keep me occupied (with coloring pictures and picking up trash, if need be) rather than teach me anything.
As another point, my high school had 'dual enrollment' where you could take night classes at college for free. I asked to enroll and they wouldn't let me until Jr year. (That's standard, so I didn't fight it too hard.) My sister DID fight it. She enrolled as a freshman. She did 4 years of highschool and 2 years of college in 3 years. It burnt her out, and she just last year went back to college to finish (almost 10 years later) but she DID manage it. I can only see that they did their best to make each of us just stop bothering them.
I've been hard on that school in this post, but there was about 7 teachers who were AWESOME. For a school with only 400-500 student spread over 4 years, that's a huge number of amazing teachers. I wish more students could have those teachers, even if they have to deal with all the other crap I did.
You seriously think it's the school's fault? They failed to 'buy up.org,.com, etc.' ?? Do you KNOW how many domain names are available out there?
When the school says 'You need to stop violating our school policy. You need to stop helping others violate our school policy.' I think maybe you need to do what they say. It doesn't matter WHERE the initial action is done, the proxy is being used AT the school. The simplest way would have been to STOP telling other students about the site. They didn't magically find it after it had been moved. They were told about it.
I think you need to stop and remember why you are in school. It's not to make friends or buck the system. It's to learn enough to get a decent job and not work at McD's the rest of your life.
I used to live in California, and there was a BoA on main street. It was painted this horrid institution green and it was SO depressing in there. On top of that, the people were jerks and they got robbed at LEAST once a month for the entire year and a half I was there.
Right down the road from them, in EASY walking distance was a beautiful Union Bank of California. It was beatiful inside and out, the tellers were extremely friendly (they even OFFERED to fill out my deposit slip when I was too lazy, unlike every other bank that complains bitterly about it) and I think they were only robbed once in the time I was there.
It was a no-brainer which bank I'd choose then, and the BoAs where I live now aren't much better. I finally got my entire family switched away from them and good riddance.
Now to hear that they've stooped to new lows... I'm surprised that it was possible, but not that they managed it if it was.
As said above, requiring you to train someone when you are being fired is ridiculous. (I don't care what anyone says, 'laid off' is the same as fired. You aren't going to get to come back, and you don't have any money while you wait.)
I suspect if I was in that situation, I'd do the 'training' but it would be the worst training anyone ever got. I'd sit at my desk with the 'DnD' on my IM, answer emails only after a full day has passed, and only ever answer questions that were asked with as little information as possible. I'd suck them dry for every penny while training, and while on 'severance'.
I'm not usually a vengeful person, but some things are just overboard. This qualifies.
In 1965, Intel co-founder Gordon Moore saw the future. His prediction, popularly known as Moore's Law, states that the number of transistors on a chip doubles about every two years.
The law itself talks only about the number transistors on a chip.
But Moore's Law also means decreasing costs.
This beauty of a quote was tacked on afterwards. Notice that it doesn't actually MEAN that. The way production works and technology advances are what actually decrease costs, not the number of transistors on a chip.
That's why I can't buy a 386 computer for a few $$, as would be expected from this statement.
The company I work for just bought 2 Dell servers with RedHat. It -does- come pre-installed, and the discs are there, too. (We wiped it and installed it our way, but still.)
The main sysadmin has been ill, so we haven't even taken the second one out of the box, but man, that first one is LOUD when you first turn it on. These are the companies first rack-mount servers and it's been quite an experience.
Totally off-topic, we are dumping most of our Windows machines (there's some software for 1 department that NEEDS windows... bleh) and tech team has always been linux, and the rest of the company will be OSX. I love my job.
Slashdot Mirror
Again, don't let the vocal minority fool you. Just because they are loud doesn't mean they are the majority of the linux users.
I've definitely seen the 'nay sayers' of Linux. I think they are simply a very vocal minority, though. I look at the sheer number of distributions, and the constant posts about 'I switch from X Linux to Y Linux and...' on the internet, and I just can't see Linux users in general as being afraid of change.
Oh, everyone's a LITTLE afraid. Evolution made sure of that. But people that are using Linux came from one of 2 groups: People that had to learn Unix/Linux for work, and people that decided to change (!) from using Windows to using Linux on their own.
Maybe I'm wrong about how many are in that second group. But I think there are a LOT of them now, especially with Ubuntu/Kubuntu making the change pretty doggone easy. (I'm a Kubuntu user now, previously Slackware and Debian.)
I would LOVE to use this system for dealing with photographs or other documents that are easily recognizeable at a glance, but beyond that I don't see any use for it other than 'fun'.
I watched that video and the entire time I thought 'useless' until they showed the photos. There was also once a video of someone using multiple fingers to manipulate photographs, and I thought this would be useful as well. Neither of these systems can do much for me otherwise, though.
As for being Windows-only... I think that shows how short-sited these people are. Linux users are quite a bit more likely to embrace change than Windows users. But, maybe that's to our advantage. We can now design and implement a MUCH better and more useable system that was intelligently designed (I couldn't resist) instead of just what someone thought was cool.
If I had much free time, I would be working on it myself.
You could have just waited until someone posted it on the front page, here, you know. It was just matter of time, now that it's been on Digg.
Well I'll be. I hope that's the first time I've fallen for that. Thanks for pointing that out!
I think you've totally misunderstood. He isn't downplaying the jump from VHS to DVD, he's telling you that as exciting/wonderful/amazing as it was, this jump is EVEN BETTER.
Actually, 'release' isn't a magical point where an OS becomes hackable. There's PLENTY of beta copies of vista out there if hackers wanted to play with it.
They haven't told us about any exploits they've found, but some crackers hold their exploit until the day of release and use it on retail, instead of beta. This allows them a '0-day release' that would be impossible otherwise for something with this much 'security'.
Somehow it's the -computer- that's a piece of crap, and yet every other USB device is FINE. This is a wired, a keyboard, a usb hub, a usb wireless adapter and probably other things I've forgotten. They all still work fine. So either my $4 mouse is amazingly good, or my $100 mouse is total piece of crap. Hmm, I know which one it is.
I'm not talking about 45 days with 60 hours a week, slaving to create the new Doom. Anyone crazy enough to do that for contest STILL has enough sense to do it for a contest worth more than $500.
This will NOT produce a 'killer app' homebrew for the PSP. Nobody in their right mind expects it to.
The kind of games that can be devised, programmed, and entered in 45 days are not going to be the gems you're thinking about. They'll be rather quick and easy to make. There may be a few that were already being programmed and this contest came along at just the right time, but for the most part they'll just be quick n dirty jobs.
For that amount of work, $500 in prizes is quite a lot. And if one of the already-being-programmed games wins, they were going to give it away anyhow, so they made out like bandits.
They are simply delisted. Nobody WANTS to search for your crappy 'I'm so awesome' screenshots. All of your stuff can still be accessed, just not by people who don't care.
Big freaking deal.
Unfortunately, that's not the case here. I unplugged his wireless adapter and we ran a line through the wall, thinking it might be that. The receiver was the closest electronic thing to the mouse and eventually we brought it along the floor, over by the table he had the mousepad on... it just kept getting worse.
You know, if it weren't for the fact that he is totally computer illiterate, despite having been an industrial engineer his entire life, I'd agree with you. But he only plays Chainz 2 and Sudoku. Seriously. He's totally helpless with a web-browser, and if ANY error message comes up, he has to have me read it to him. I think he must TRY to not understand.
So the question is... How does a person who only uses a computer for a couple hours a day, max, and only plays 2 games... How does he kill a mouse?
The conclusion I came to was that the USB ports (front and back... we switched after the first mouse) must be slightly over or under-powered. Not enough to kill his keyboard or usb wireless adapter, but enough to kill a total piece of crap logitech mouse.
Ridiculous.
BTW, by 'kill' I mean it doesn't transmit properly. The first one stopped completely. I used my mx1000 on his receiver and it worked fine, but his mouse on my receiver didn't work. When he killed mine, it worked great when you first turn plug it in. Over 10 minutes, the range goes from 6 feet down to about 3 feet. It gets progressively worse the longer it's on until you have to be right up next to the receiver. The tech kept rebooting the computer and it'd be 'fixed' and he almost got off the phone the last time before I stepped in and said it was doing it again, while he was trying to get away from my dad.
I haven't tried a Razor, but Logitech's mice have sucked lately.
I bought an mx1000. I used it almost a year and thought it was okay.
So I bought my Dad one. He kill it in 3 months. I chose that as a sign to upgrade to a G7 and he got my mx1000. He killed it in 3 weeks. My G7 never DID work right. If I plug the dongle into the tower directly, it loses connection ever 5 seconds or so. if I plug it into the extension/charger they provide, I generally get the same thing. (It's closer, so it takes about 10 seconds to disconnect.) If I plug it into the logitech G15 keyboard I have, I get no disconnects and everything is fine... Right up until I reboot. If I reboot with the device in the port, as soon as windows comes up (don't hate me) then the mouse jumps to the top of the screen repeatedly while I'm moving it. If I unplug it and plug it back in, it works. If I leave it out while I boot, it does the jump up thing no matter what I do.
Logitech's tech support sucks as well. I got the guy with the indian accent that disconnected me. The guy who was just hired, has a hick accent, and can't type. (And apparently can't enter information.) I gave up at this point. My dad got the know-nothing that DEMANDED he plug that he use the USB to PS2 converter because 'USB is only for laptops,' the smart aleck that screwed up the RMA again, and finally the manager that fixed the RMA and actually got the item shipped. Mouse 1 done, yay! When he killed the second mouse, more knowledgeable about the RMA process, he managed to RMA the second one he broke. They arrived about the same time.
I've just thrown my G7 to the side and I'm using a 4-5 year old Graphire (not 4, not 2... just Graphire) from wacom and it's not the best gaming mouse, but at least the bloody thing works.
I've given up on Logitech and I was hoping the Copperhead would be for me, but apparently they have issues as well. I think I'll stick with my Graphire until the industry figures out that I'm only willing to pay $80-120 for a GOOD mouse.
Actually, dictionary.com calls the lie. It's a noun for 'embed.'
Well, duh! Everyone knows Christians are huge proponents of 'Intelligent Design'!
So, basically, you can display ANYTHING you want on it, as long as that thing is perfectly spherical. And you only want to show the surface.
Hope that they got a patent on that. Man, the uses... This will be SO in demand.
You mean, 'except for the entirety of this article.' Plenty of information is being 'released' here including what they THINK it does. And yet they can't release the partial translation of the text.
Sorry, I don't buy that.
I'm not saying I wasn't distracting the rest of the class. (Though, as they were all coloring in Honors English, I fail to see how it mattered.) I loved all subjects except History. They simply didn't challenge me.
I wasn't alone. We had an Honors Physics class. We had a group of 4 of us that would play cards the ENTIRE CLASS every day. If there was a lab that was graded, 1 of us would do the lab for the other 3 and they'd pull a 4th from the class to cover the missing person. We'd copy the lab and all get A's, every time. We never studied. We never did anything that wasn't graded. We all got A's.
Did the teacher freak out about this? No, actually, he ignored it. He continued to teach the rest of the class and everyone ignored us like we weren't there.
The only thing I really learned in that class all year was how to play Bridge. (Lousy game. It plays itself if everyone knows the rules. Boring.)
The only excitement was the day that we had a substitute. Unable to comprehend that this was possible, he damanded we not play cards. Ryan laughed out loud in his face. Ryan was actually surprised when he got written up. So we didn't play cards that period. Instead, we did something much, much worse. We asked questions. Lots of them. Every once in a while, the sub would get the answer wrong and we'd correct him. I wonder whatever happened to him.
I've got tons of these stories that happened to me, and they all come down to 1 thing: Don't let A students get bored. You'll regret it. Most of the time the teacher isn't really at fault... They have to cover a certain curriculum and they don't have TIME to add anything to it. They have to spend their time teacher the kids that didn't just understand instantly. (Or worse, read the book at home and already understood.) But the school should deal with these problems.
In elementary school, we had a program that took us out of class 1 day a week. We had to play catch-up the other 4 days in class and we learned new (and usually interesting) things the 5th day. We didn't have time left to be bored.
In middle school, we had a program that took 1 class period every day, so we didn't miss any class. That didn't work quite as well, but at least we looked forward to school every day, instead of dreading the hours and hours of pointless boredom.
We had 'honors' classes in high school, as well as 'dual enrollment' with the college, but they just weren't enough. For one thing, they were designed to taken by the majority of kids, instead of the minority that was bored.
I used to think homeschooling was the answer, but then I met quite a few people that were homeschooled and realized that was worse. You parents have to spend as much time with you as all your teachers combined and you lose the diversity of knowledge.
In short, schools know they need programs for the students who can't keep up. They don't seem to realize they also need programs for those who are already ahead.
Yeah, it does. One known-pirated computer that I know of (I used to work at a computer store) used to have WGA report as valid. A few months later, it reported as pirated (which was true.) So yeah, it does a better job of checking now. How good? I dunno.
Sadly, this is totally true.
This is a true story.
When I was in high school, in Honors English one day we had the standard vocab, some other wordy crap to do, and a picture to color. OMFG. Honors English!!!
So I quickly knocked out all 3 in like 15 minutes (was supposed to take the full 50 or so) and ended up bored out of my wits by 25 minutes. I started to talk to people and got written up. Not because I was talking, but because I refused to do my work. The teacher wouldn't even consider listening that I had it done already. I ended up with after school detention, picking up trash. After I got back from the office I very carefully explained (and showed) that I had finished the work LONG before. She tried to rescind, but the vice principal HATED me (maybe because I'd never been written up in 3 years yet?) and said the punishment would stick.
This should be a real eye opener. I was bored in class because I was good at the work. But the teacher (and later the administration) didn't care jack about that. They were there to keep me occupied (with coloring pictures and picking up trash, if need be) rather than teach me anything.
As another point, my high school had 'dual enrollment' where you could take night classes at college for free. I asked to enroll and they wouldn't let me until Jr year. (That's standard, so I didn't fight it too hard.) My sister DID fight it. She enrolled as a freshman. She did 4 years of highschool and 2 years of college in 3 years. It burnt her out, and she just last year went back to college to finish (almost 10 years later) but she DID manage it. I can only see that they did their best to make each of us just stop bothering them.
I've been hard on that school in this post, but there was about 7 teachers who were AWESOME. For a school with only 400-500 student spread over 4 years, that's a huge number of amazing teachers. I wish more students could have those teachers, even if they have to deal with all the other crap I did.
You seriously think it's the school's fault? They failed to 'buy up .org, .com, etc.' ?? Do you KNOW how many domain names are available out there?
When the school says 'You need to stop violating our school policy. You need to stop helping others violate our school policy.' I think maybe you need to do what they say. It doesn't matter WHERE the initial action is done, the proxy is being used AT the school. The simplest way would have been to STOP telling other students about the site. They didn't magically find it after it had been moved. They were told about it.
I think you need to stop and remember why you are in school. It's not to make friends or buck the system. It's to learn enough to get a decent job and not work at McD's the rest of your life.
Amen brother.
I used to live in California, and there was a BoA on main street. It was painted this horrid institution green and it was SO depressing in there. On top of that, the people were jerks and they got robbed at LEAST once a month for the entire year and a half I was there.
Right down the road from them, in EASY walking distance was a beautiful Union Bank of California. It was beatiful inside and out, the tellers were extremely friendly (they even OFFERED to fill out my deposit slip when I was too lazy, unlike every other bank that complains bitterly about it) and I think they were only robbed once in the time I was there.
It was a no-brainer which bank I'd choose then, and the BoAs where I live now aren't much better. I finally got my entire family switched away from them and good riddance.
Now to hear that they've stooped to new lows... I'm surprised that it was possible, but not that they managed it if it was.
As said above, requiring you to train someone when you are being fired is ridiculous. (I don't care what anyone says, 'laid off' is the same as fired. You aren't going to get to come back, and you don't have any money while you wait.)
I suspect if I was in that situation, I'd do the 'training' but it would be the worst training anyone ever got. I'd sit at my desk with the 'DnD' on my IM, answer emails only after a full day has passed, and only ever answer questions that were asked with as little information as possible. I'd suck them dry for every penny while training, and while on 'severance'.
I'm not usually a vengeful person, but some things are just overboard. This qualifies.
From that page:
The law itself talks only about the number transistors on a chip.
This beauty of a quote was tacked on afterwards. Notice that it doesn't actually MEAN that. The way production works and technology advances are what actually decrease costs, not the number of transistors on a chip.
That's why I can't buy a 386 computer for a few $$, as would be expected from this statement.
The company I work for just bought 2 Dell servers with RedHat. It -does- come pre-installed, and the discs are there, too. (We wiped it and installed it our way, but still.)
The main sysadmin has been ill, so we haven't even taken the second one out of the box, but man, that first one is LOUD when you first turn it on. These are the companies first rack-mount servers and it's been quite an experience.
Totally off-topic, we are dumping most of our Windows machines (there's some software for 1 department that NEEDS windows... bleh) and tech team has always been linux, and the rest of the company will be OSX. I love my job.