No you don't. We aren't. My family voted. - We are sick of Comcast commercials on comcast provided cable (ask my 8 year old, he hates comcast and doesn't even understand what they sell) - We are sick of the channels we like disappearing (CMT played music videos, that the 4 year old loves). - We are tired of paying $40/month.
We are switching to PCs and the 'net. Most of what we watch is on Hulu and direct from the content providers (Disney).
NASCAR is about the only thing we used to watch that we wont be watching in the future (IRL isn't broadcast anyway). Buying tickets to the local short track will be cheaper than cable anyway.
Sure, but here in Indiana we only pay $0.09/kWh or $4/year/device or just over a penny a day, a penny a day for the convenience of being able to toss the phone on a pad instead of plugging it in. Given my failure rate at actually getting the phone plugged into that darn cable, I'd gladly pay a penny a day for a more reliable convenient method.
Wright-Patterson air force base museum in Dayton OH is great!
Growing up we used to visit the museum 2 or 3 times a year. There is lots and lots of information. There is everything from the history of flight to the latest fighters. You can see the planes, read the history, touch and walk around the planes and jets. There are explanations of the technology from the wright brothers through the stealth planes.
Did you know that we refuel helocopters mid flight?! Have you see an atomic bomb? A B-52? A retired Airforce 1? A space capsule? A glider used by the US in Korea?
There is enough information to occupy 4 days. I last about 6 hours on a trip; 3 hours, eat, 3 hours, drive home.
I've been disappointed by the Smithsonian and Chicago Museum of Science & Industry, because they are tailored to people who aren't techies. I grew up in a science oriented family (we read the encylcopedias for fun kind of family) and always learn something new when I visit WrightPat.
My Ubuntu Dell laptop is an open system of open APIs.
My macbook is a closed system of open APIs. (at least I can guess what is going on, even if I can't change it)
My w2k VM is a blackbox. I don't have a clue what it is doing or why or how to change it. (and that's why it is sandboxed in a VM)
Apple is a step better than microsoft from my perspective and it just works where Linux hasn't. It's been a long time of watching Linux develop and my dell ubuntu box still didn't work when I took it out of the box (I had to upgrade to 8.10 and delete the modem driver to get sound and suspend to work.)
I've "never copied an image from google's image search for a website or powerpoint presentation."
I write software for a living. I expect everyone to play by the rules, so that I can provide for my family. I play be those rules also.
It doesn't matter that it is free. There are many reasons to produce content that result in a benefit to the author other than direct charges. The author (or owner) gets to decide what happens to his property.
[I don't know anything about the status in this particular case.]
I'm ignorant of most of what you describe, but bit depth?! Newspapers are 1 bit. The original NeXT was 2 bit gray and beautiful. Looking at my screen right now, the only color is in my RSS icons, the scroll bar and just a few other hot controls. I remember that making the jump from 2 bit gray on the NeXT to 24 bit color wasn't nearly as useful as we thought it would be. The first time someone showed me a color NeXT and said "Look!", I couldn't figure out what was different.
I thought these epaper devices are reflective and of very high resolution. I would think that those benefits would compensate for a low bit depth.
I'm surprise that today, the low refresh rate is a big deal. Must the device refresh the whole screen? Can it just update changes and if so, does it keep up with typing? Most of what I do is text (code and terminals). A portable device with a reflective screen would let me work as a passenger in a car on a sunny day or at the ball diamond during my son's ball practice.
I'm able to backup my wife's whole XP machine and my OSX home directory every night to the office over a lousy asymmetric cable line. At the same time I back the office up to the house (about a dozen home directories and a w2k machine).
Why mess around with the free version of VMWare? Go ahead and buy a supported version if you are installing $400 worth of software in it ($300 for a non OEM version of XP and $100 for Quicken).
And what will you do when the police come knocking on your door because someone filmed child porn in your backyard?
Why risk it? Put up a 20 foot fence!
What will you do when you find out that a homicide was committed with your hotwired car? How about the death threats made on your phone line (you should have bought a T1 and used encryption back to the CO)? What about the death threats to the president spray painted on your garage? The weed grown by the alley at the back of your lot? etc...
Get real! This is life. The benefits of open WiFi far outweigh the risks. Hell, I've used lots of anonymous connections in a pinch (most recently to look up the default IP of my radio, to configure it).
You drive down the street with a complete strangers approaching with a closing speed of over 110 mph, but you wont leave your internet connection open?!
If you look at the demand for higher education and medical services, the rise in price can be justified through the increased demand and improvement in the delivered product. Comparing todays education and medical services to those from 20 years ago isn't fair.
The difference I have seen is that when gathering constraints, the CS is an optimist and the legal is a pessimist. What I mean is that when there are wholes in a spec/constraints/contract, I, as a designer, assume we'll all just use standards. Lawyers assume someone will use that hole to screw someone else. In design, there is normally an incentive to make it work, not to impede progress. In law, those holes in the constraints can be worth a lot of money.
I'm a Linux guy since 0.12. I really, really, really want a Linux laptop that works. I settled for a Unix laptop that works.
The MacBook was $1300 and features DVD RW, firewire, USB, bluetooth, wifi, a video camera, audio (record and play), a 3d graphics card and a 150 minute battery (for the way I use it). The coolest features are the little things that Apple did right: the magnetic power cord, the simple, sturdy case, the pulsing standby indicator, etc. I install the GNU bits that I need, but most of it is already there. The biggy was MacFuse so I can sshfs back to the office. My most used apps are Mail.app, Skype, ssh, Eclipse, Firefox and OpenOffice. A also use Parallels and an old w2k license to run clients VPN software and remote desktop.
It is a great piece of hardware, but the software really hasn't come that far in the last 10 years. If you have used a NeXT, then you have used OSX.
I always SOCKS proxy over SSH with wireless (I'm on the road) and don't when I'm plugged in (in the office). All my apps other than Firefox figure this out transparently.
I haven't noticed any other problems, but I use Windows, Linux and Mac interchangably everyday. I wouldn't notice any unMac things.
The problem is that you can't get a feel for an applicant's "experience, qualifications, knowledge, education, and willingness to come to an accord as to the working conditions and requirements" in an interview. It will take a couple months of working with that person to know and then it is very difficult to let them go if they don't fit.
To help weed some of that out early everyone tends to profile a bit. The young guy with no kids tends to work more hours than the middle age guy with a family of seven. Men tend to not take maternity leave (duh). Ex military tend to have more respect for the org chart. These perceptions increase the efficiency of the hiring process, but aren't "fair". (I've never seen any of this formalized, it is just a natural reaction)
Yah, and devices like that being given away with every cable connection or DSL connection have raised the floor in 2.4 Ghz noise. Now my WiFi based ISP has a much smaller delivery area. I lost about half my customers due to increased noise. Mission accomplished.
I for one would prefer a Linux laptop built by Apple. I really like my MacBook, but would prefer a working Linux install instead of OSX at this point. By working I mean audio, video, WiFi, Firewire, USB, touch pad, hibernate, power management, etc. I've had my share of Linux laptops, but there were always things that didn't work. This hardware is great, but I'd prefer the flexibility of Linux to OSX.
I agree completely. Before I ever looked up their architecture, I assumed it was distributed and tried to get added to the pool. I would host low priority traffic on my T1 just for the ability to have a fast local copy.
No, the really cool thing about Skype is that it works and works very well.
The audio quality over my MacBook, through a public WiFi network, through a very restrictive firewall, across the net, through another anally restrictive corporate firewall, across a nearly saturated WAN, to my client's desk is much, much better than using my digital mobile phone.
The ease of use is great. We whip together video calls or conference calls all the time and never have to worry about getting a third party involved to set it up for us.
Being able to call out is fabulous also. I've spent a lot of time in ICU's lately where I'm not able to use the mobile phone, but am able to use the WiFi network. It is very neat to be able to phone from an ICU to pretty much anyone (Skype or phone) with the option for video if they are on Skype also.
The Jabber community just hasn't gotten their stuff together quick enough. There was plenty opportunity to beat Skype to market, but no one else, using open protocols, got the job done. I wish they would have.
What if instead of being highly maneuverable, the load was suspended on a maneuverable crane, so the load could be held still relative to the ground, while the ship bobbed in the wind? Use the air ship more like a tractor, than a truck.
Everything within 20 miles was out of power here spring of 2005 for about a week due to an ice storm. Getting gas was a big problem. It took a couple days to get generators to the gas stations. Some carnival ride operators brought in some big generators for the grocery stores. Most of the shops around here couldn't use the registers without power, so you couldn't buy anything even if you had cash.
After about two days, my kids went into TV withdrawal, got the shakes and passed out, so I drove 60 miles to buy a generator off the back of a truck (they were bringing in truck loads at the time).
Well duh. What data structures would you use? May be a circular queue? Use a hoop made out of segments that can be detatched to get to individual CDs or a hoop with a single break that is slick enough to slide around the whole lot of CD to the particular CD you may need to extract. Drop in date tags to keep things straight.
My insurance agent scans every document that comes through the door, then puts the sheet of paper in a box. When the box is full he puts it in storage. After storing documents for some magic duration, he destroys the box. He does back up his database well and in the event of catastraphic failure, he can rebuild the database from the originals.
Slashdot Mirror
No you don't. We aren't. My family voted.
- We are sick of Comcast commercials on comcast provided cable (ask my 8 year old, he hates comcast and doesn't even understand what they sell)
- We are sick of the channels we like disappearing (CMT played music videos, that the 4 year old loves).
- We are tired of paying $40/month.
We are switching to PCs and the 'net. Most of what we watch is on Hulu and direct from the content providers (Disney).
NASCAR is about the only thing we used to watch that we wont be watching in the future (IRL isn't broadcast anyway). Buying tickets to the local short track will be cheaper than cable anyway.
Joe
Sure, but here in Indiana we only pay $0.09/kWh or $4/year/device or just over a penny a day, a penny a day for the convenience of being able to toss the phone on a pad instead of plugging it in. Given my failure rate at actually getting the phone plugged into that darn cable, I'd gladly pay a penny a day for a more reliable convenient method.
[ source http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/epm/table5_6_b.html ]
Joe
Good grief, there must be 6 SR-71s in museums. Think they are permanently retired, or is the Air Force just scamming storage space from the museums?
I prefer the Fort Wayne zoo to Indy. Specifically I was impressed with the kangaroo petting area and classic "monkey island" in Fort Wayne.
Joe
Wright-Patterson air force base museum in Dayton OH is great!
Growing up we used to visit the museum 2 or 3 times a year. There is lots and lots of information. There is everything from the history of flight to the latest fighters. You can see the planes, read the history, touch and walk around the planes and jets. There are explanations of the technology from the wright brothers through the stealth planes.
Did you know that we refuel helocopters mid flight?! Have you see an atomic bomb? A B-52? A retired Airforce 1? A space capsule? A glider used by the US in Korea?
There is enough information to occupy 4 days. I last about 6 hours on a trip; 3 hours, eat, 3 hours, drive home.
I've been disappointed by the Smithsonian and Chicago Museum of Science & Industry, because they are tailored to people who aren't techies. I grew up in a science oriented family (we read the encylcopedias for fun kind of family) and always learn something new when I visit WrightPat.
Joe Batt
er, uhm... 8.04
My Ubuntu Dell laptop is an open system of open APIs.
My macbook is a closed system of open APIs. (at least I can guess what is going on, even if I can't change it)
My w2k VM is a blackbox. I don't have a clue what it is doing or why or how to change it. (and that's why it is sandboxed in a VM)
Apple is a step better than microsoft from my perspective and it just works where Linux hasn't. It's been a long time of watching Linux develop and my dell ubuntu box still didn't work when I took it out of the box (I had to upgrade to 8.10 and delete the modem driver to get sound and suspend to work.)
Joe
I've "never copied an image from google's image search for a website or powerpoint presentation."
I write software for a living. I expect everyone to play by the rules, so that I can provide for my family. I play be those rules also.
It doesn't matter that it is free. There are many reasons to produce content that result in a benefit to the author other than direct charges. The author (or owner) gets to decide what happens to his property.
[I don't know anything about the status in this particular case.]
Joe Batt
Do you have a reference?
I'm ignorant of most of what you describe, but bit depth?! Newspapers are 1 bit. The original NeXT was 2 bit gray and beautiful. Looking at my screen right now, the only color is in my RSS icons, the scroll bar and just a few other hot controls. I remember that making the jump from 2 bit gray on the NeXT to 24 bit color wasn't nearly as useful as we thought it would be. The first time someone showed me a color NeXT and said "Look!", I couldn't figure out what was different.
I thought these epaper devices are reflective and of very high resolution. I would think that those benefits would compensate for a low bit depth.
I'm surprise that today, the low refresh rate is a big deal. Must the device refresh the whole screen? Can it just update changes and if so, does it keep up with typing? Most of what I do is text (code and terminals). A portable device with a reflective screen would let me work as a passenger in a car on a sunny day or at the ball diamond during my son's ball practice.
Joe
I do something similar, but I keep 18 snapshots. Similar files are linked together by using the --link-dest parameter.
This is a little old, but it worked when I wrote it up.
http://battjt.soliddesign.net/ssnap.html
I'm able to backup my wife's whole XP machine and my OSX home directory every night to the office over a lousy asymmetric cable line. At the same time I back the office up to the house (about a dozen home directories and a w2k machine).
Joe
Why mess around with the free version of VMWare? Go ahead and buy a supported version if you are installing $400 worth of software in it ($300 for a non OEM version of XP and $100 for Quicken).
And what will you do when the police come knocking on your door because someone filmed child porn in your backyard?
Why risk it? Put up a 20 foot fence!
What will you do when you find out that a homicide was committed with your hotwired car? How about the death threats made on your phone line (you should have bought a T1 and used encryption back to the CO)? What about the death threats to the president spray painted on your garage? The weed grown by the alley at the back of your lot? etc...
Get real! This is life. The benefits of open WiFi far outweigh the risks. Hell, I've used lots of anonymous connections in a pinch (most recently to look up the default IP of my radio, to configure it).
You drive down the street with a complete strangers approaching with a closing speed of over 110 mph, but you wont leave your internet connection open?!
Joe
If you look at the demand for higher education and medical services, the rise in price can be justified through the increased demand and improvement in the delivered product. Comparing todays education and medical services to those from 20 years ago isn't fair.
Joe
The difference I have seen is that when gathering constraints, the CS is an optimist and the legal is a pessimist. What I mean is that when there are wholes in a spec/constraints/contract, I, as a designer, assume we'll all just use standards. Lawyers assume someone will use that hole to screw someone else. In design, there is normally an incentive to make it work, not to impede progress. In law, those holes in the constraints can be worth a lot of money.
Joe
I'm a Linux guy since 0.12. I really, really, really want a Linux laptop that works. I settled for a Unix laptop that works.
The MacBook was $1300 and features DVD RW, firewire, USB, bluetooth, wifi, a video camera, audio (record and play), a 3d graphics card and a 150 minute battery (for the way I use it). The coolest features are the little things that Apple did right: the magnetic power cord, the simple, sturdy case, the pulsing standby indicator, etc. I install the GNU bits that I need, but most of it is already there. The biggy was MacFuse so I can sshfs back to the office. My most used apps are Mail.app, Skype, ssh, Eclipse, Firefox and OpenOffice. A also use Parallels and an old w2k license to run clients VPN software and remote desktop.
It is a great piece of hardware, but the software really hasn't come that far in the last 10 years. If you have used a NeXT, then you have used OSX.
Joe
YES!
I always SOCKS proxy over SSH with wireless (I'm on the road) and don't when I'm plugged in (in the office). All my apps other than Firefox figure this out transparently.
I haven't noticed any other problems, but I use Windows, Linux and Mac interchangably everyday. I wouldn't notice any unMac things.
Joe
The problem is that you can't get a feel for an applicant's "experience, qualifications, knowledge, education, and willingness to come to an accord as to the working conditions and requirements" in an interview. It will take a couple months of working with that person to know and then it is very difficult to let them go if they don't fit.
To help weed some of that out early everyone tends to profile a bit. The young guy with no kids tends to work more hours than the middle age guy with a family of seven. Men tend to not take maternity leave (duh). Ex military tend to have more respect for the org chart. These perceptions increase the efficiency of the hiring process, but aren't "fair". (I've never seen any of this formalized, it is just a natural reaction)
Yah, and devices like that being given away with every cable connection or DSL connection have raised the floor in 2.4 Ghz noise. Now my WiFi based ISP has a much smaller delivery area. I lost about half my customers due to increased noise. Mission accomplished.
Joe
I for one would prefer a Linux laptop built by Apple. I really like my MacBook, but would prefer a working Linux install instead of OSX at this point. By working I mean audio, video, WiFi, Firewire, USB, touch pad, hibernate, power management, etc. I've had my share of Linux laptops, but there were always things that didn't work. This hardware is great, but I'd prefer the flexibility of Linux to OSX.
I agree completely. Before I ever looked up their architecture, I assumed it was distributed and tried to get added to the pool. I would host low priority traffic on my T1 just for the ability to have a fast local copy.
Joe
No, the really cool thing about Skype is that it works and works very well.
The audio quality over my MacBook, through a public WiFi network, through a very restrictive firewall, across the net, through another anally restrictive corporate firewall, across a nearly saturated WAN, to my client's desk is much, much better than using my digital mobile phone.
The ease of use is great. We whip together video calls or conference calls all the time and never have to worry about getting a third party involved to set it up for us.
Being able to call out is fabulous also. I've spent a lot of time in ICU's lately where I'm not able to use the mobile phone, but am able to use the WiFi network. It is very neat to be able to phone from an ICU to pretty much anyone (Skype or phone) with the option for video if they are on Skype also.
The Jabber community just hasn't gotten their stuff together quick enough. There was plenty opportunity to beat Skype to market, but no one else, using open protocols, got the job done. I wish they would have.
Joe
What if instead of being highly maneuverable, the load was suspended on a maneuverable crane, so the load could be held still relative to the ground, while the ship bobbed in the wind? Use the air ship more like a tractor, than a truck.
Joe
Everything within 20 miles was out of power here spring of 2005 for about a week due to an ice storm. Getting gas was a big problem. It took a couple days to get generators to the gas stations. Some carnival ride operators brought in some big generators for the grocery stores. Most of the shops around here couldn't use the registers without power, so you couldn't buy anything even if you had cash.
After about two days, my kids went into TV withdrawal, got the shakes and passed out, so I drove 60 miles to buy a generator off the back of a truck (they were bringing in truck loads at the time).
Joe
Very smart cookie there. Want a job? :-)
Well duh. What data structures would you use? May be a circular queue? Use a hoop made out of segments that can be detatched to get to individual CDs or a hoop with a single break that is slick enough to slide around the whole lot of CD to the particular CD you may need to extract. Drop in date tags to keep things straight.
My insurance agent scans every document that comes through the door, then puts the sheet of paper in a box. When the box is full he puts it in storage. After storing documents for some magic duration, he destroys the box. He does back up his database well and in the event of catastraphic failure, he can rebuild the database from the originals.