Well, no there probably is not enough data to PROVE it's bunk. But I seriously doubt that it can be anything but. Archeology samples like ice cores and everything are only theorizing what it was like back then. Some assume that the layers are unchanged by years and that they are as they were when they were formed. I am not saying that everyone says that. It's just with the data we have, you can say either way...that the earth is cooling or that the earth is heating up. I also do agree, somewhat with having clean burning fuels. It makes sense not just for the environment but from a energy standpoint as well. A clean burning engine is more efficient then a dirty engine.
Now, the earth has been here for 3 about billion years. Humans have been on the planet a FRACTION of that time. The planet is a BIG place wih lots of sutff happening. No we have some people arrogant/dumb enough to say that we can affect the planet's weather??? I just don't believe that something such as this is possible. Even if it is, according to some the air was supposed to be unbreathable 2-3 years ago. What happened hmm? Us humans like to think we have power. We crave it. The fact is the world is a whole lot bigger then any of us and it is capable from bouncing back from amazing stuff.
Should the average human worry about global warming...well, I don't think so. First off, we already have enough things to worry about like how we are going to pay our bills and crap. Should we just pollute for the heck of it? No. Should we look into alternative fuels? Yes, if they can be done econimically. Soon they will be....even with in our lifetimes. My point is we have time and the earth is a lot more stronger then we are. God gave us oil and the ability to use it. Why aren't we using more or making it available so it can be more affordable? Granted, even at today's prices, gasoline is cheaper then bottled water. Amazing huh?
I did like someone else's idea about using up all of everyone else's oil then go tell the mid east to shove it after we used their stuff up and have ours to ourselves. But I don't think that way. I think in the terms we better use OUR stuff. We buy too much crap from the Japanese and Chinese already!
Um. No. I vehemently disagree with you. Global Warming is bunk. We only have about 100 years worth of weather data. HOW IN THE WORLD CAN YOU SAY HUMANS CAUSE THIS WITH THIS DATA! It isn't enough! The world is around 3 billion years old ( I think that's it....) and we are trying to say that us humans who have only been here part of that time caused this? No, US folks are skeptical of scientists who talk out there butt. Weather patterns are CYCLICAL! Just because I ain't freezing my butt of now and walking thru 10-12 inches of snow does not mean that the globe, as a whole is any warmer. Do you realize that Texas has had more snow then Columbus, OH?? That's almost unheard of. Also, I believe Texas has also been colder then we are too. Some people will say that global warming caused this chaotic pattern. BS. We don't have anywhere near enough data to prove global warming. Any scientist saying we do should tear up his PhD.....now and go start selling burgers at McDonald's.
Also there's no such thing as an unbiased news source. We're humans. We have opinions and try as we might, we can't always suppress them.
Also, an another note, for the freaks who say we don't have enough oil, well, if we'd drill in ANWR we'd stabilize the market. If we get off of our butts and tap the oil in the Gulf of Mexico, we could be self sustaining and not need oil from saudi. This is a fact (wish I could atrribute a source but it's late and I am going to bed after this). Here's an interesting link about ANWR. The reasons these ecological wackos have come up make no sense and have no scientific backing except some crap some scientists who liked the idea has drawn up.
I am not saying we should not explore alternatives that are cleaner then gasoline. Hydrogen and fuel cells hold great promise not just from an environmental sense, but from a business sense as well. Imagine if we all had a fuel cell on our house. We'd no longer be dependent on wires going underground and into our house and no longer would we have to worry about lightening striking the above ground wiring because there would be none. When ever Hydrogen is cheap (it's cheap now...), you'd just fill it up and be good to go. The waste water created by the reaction could be ran through a filter, and used to flush toilets or take showers or heck even drink. Who WOULDN'T want this? Even the big oil would want a piece of this. The good thing is if we actually tap the Gulf adequately, we could be assured we would have enough oil until this stuff is perfected. Right now, if we decided to bomb someone in the middle east, we may as well grab ahold of a bank loan to buy gas cuz it's going to go up. My biggest point here, is that it doesn't have to be this way. it's only this way becase a small MINORITY thinks the sky is falling when it's not.
Oh so true. The whole article shows a lack of knowledge. That and he probably does not have a way to measure SWR at this frequency or even know what SWR is at least before he wrote the article. SWR can kill your radio....literally. Although, the frequency at this wavelength does make it a bit easier to disregard SWR a bit because there are alot of losses just in the feedline (no such thing as a lossless feedline). If your measurements are close to being the right wavelength (1/4, 5/8 or Full Wave), you should be close enough to have a decent SWR. To maxmise your power, you really should look into getting or building a SWR meter.
Oh and several of the people on here mention leagal issues.....yeah there may be some, but I don't think that the equipment you have would do anything to push you close to the ERP. Most wirless networking stuff is pretty low power (come on it's being powered by a laptop....). Probably the most dangerous things from a legal standpoint would be spurious emissions. With a properly tuned antenna, you don't get these and that means a antenna with a good SWR (1:1 is ideal, but 1:2 can be acceptable). When an antenna is not tuned properly you can get harmonics OUTSIDE of the band and those harmonics sould be what causes you trouble.
No such thing as a Yogi.....you mean yagi. The link you have on your post is talking about STACKED Yagi's. By stacked, I mean they take 2 or more yagis and mount them on a boom with the elements paralell to each other and then have a different wiring. A piece of coax comes from each antenna and meets to form one piece of coax that's fed back to the radio. This has a way of increasing your directional gain alot. This is why this config is used for EME work on 2 M woith a 100 wat all mode 2 M rig. It can also be used for satellites.
You may be takling about a log periodic antenna where all elements are the same length, but are connected much differently together.
The O'rielly article is pretty amatuerish for even an amatuer. He stated that a Yagi is hard to build. Yagis are not hard to build, you just have to know what your doing. I can build a yagi for 2m cheap with a good metal hanger. Yagi's for 2.4 GHz are different, but they are doable, even by an amatuer antenna maker. That ARRL antenna book he bought is a good book and it can teach him how to build an antenna that he likes.
If you are just looking at increasing the omni directional range of your 802.11 card, these antennas won't do you any good. They concentrate the signal in a certain direction. They could be used successfully in linking (bridging) parts of a community wide 802.11 network, but where there would be a concentration of people, you would want an omni directional antenna on the AP. a 5/8 wave antenna would be good, but maybe they should look at a full wavelength aerial. At the frequency, it should not be that long (consider that CB'ers use a full wave all of the time on their pick-ups and tractors....).
Hmmm....they must have just recently changed this. I didn't say when I bought the machine;). In any case, they do build decent machines. And, a recovery CD is better then none at all!;) My bro in law worked for Winbook (I believe that's the laptop division of MEI, who owns Micro Center) a bit ago unitl they out sourced the whole thing. I am not sure what he's doing now, but it's an IT job of that I am certain. The recovery CD deal must have started around then.
Um, on the finding out what stuff part, I think it's usually pretty easy to find that out especially since they use standard stuff. Right click on my computer and pick properties bud!;) If that fails, then slide the case off (unless they started getting persnickty about that too). Also, I have noticed that they STILL had support stuff on their website (not support mind you, but docs) for my aged system I bought in 1998. The driver front, well, I am smart enough to figure out where to get that stuff and if the driver is decent, then it does not really need that latest tweak. Only way you should be running the latest driver is if you have a problem with the old one....least that's the process I am following now, for the most part. I don't have time to track every freaing driver on my system and if the old one works why screw with it. Same goes for kernels on Linux too.
Yes. If I had seen hot glue spread all over the cable and on the mainboard, then I would be concerned. No, there was just a teeny spot of hot glue on each side or the connector where it inserts into the drive. In fact, it looked like they used a special tip on the hot glue gun because the spots were smaller then you'd think they be.
In any case, I said yes I would reccomend them. They even included a manual for the mainboard they used. How many companies do that? Actually, there was documentation for every piece of hardware that came with the system, mainboard, zip drive, network card, dvd drive, modem, soundcard....documentation all there as well as standard OEM install CD's for all apps preinstalled on the machine. Granted, this could have change since I bought the machine, but I doubt it. In fact, I even mentioned Linux when I was buying it and he said oh yeah lots of folks are doing that....and really, the only few problems I had with Linux on this machine was the winmodem (lucent chip) and the soundcard (aureal and not their fault that aureal went out of business). Everything else pretty much worked. Sure, not as nice if you had built it yourself, (like what I have now) but nice all the same.
CRAP! That's right crap. I have not heard of anyone else doing this yet. XP has been out long enough that you'd think something would have been said if this was a Microsoft policy. No, this is something that the brain dead drones working for Carly Fiorina has thought up of. If this was the case HP, then how come I see all kinds of OEM CD's on pricewatch being sold;).
This is why I would probably buy from the Powerspec line of PC's at Micro Center. AFAIK, they have and will continue to ship standard OEM CD's and they don't have restore CD's to begin with either. I was also told by a sales guy at Micro Center when I bought my last whole PC that I could upgrade anything I wanted during the warantee period. I didn't end up doing that but when I decided to upgrade a bunch of stuff and move to a new case, they had used hotglue on the IDE cables right where they go into the drives. No big deal but it did kind of suprise me a little. Micro Center also seems to have some decent hardware in their new machines. Not the lastest stuff, but not econo 15 dollar graphics cards either. They models I saw in the paper included Geforce 2 MX based cards, and some even had TV out. Their whole packages and even their external devices and acessories are decently priced, but I find their build it yerself stuff seems to be a bit higher then it should be.
Um, uh, I did not say that it pu tthe code in the public domain. I said/asked if it would become part of public record. Being part of public record and in the public domain are two different things. Things can, as stated in other posts, be part of record, but restricted to only those involved in the case to protect other rights. Also, if it is put in the public record and restricted, how would anyone but Microsoft know if what they want done is possible? What does Microsoft call OS? Is it the DOS kernel or they dos kernel plus all of the stuff around it.
It kind of is like the question what is Linux? Is it the kernel? (yes) Would it be usable without some of the stuff included in most distros? (no). So, in theory, you could (as we all know without the code) say that IE could be removed and everything still work. This is the case thru ME, but would that be the case for Windows XP??
Would the code then not be part of public record?? That should mean anyone should be able to look at it at that point. But I am also hazarding that they may have a problem finding some parts of the code. Almost every mid to large sized company always has something that can't be recompiled.
Hey this is a perfect excuse....you could record a episode of geeks in space as the wedding, and then you could post a ground control with everyone's well wishes being sent in. Oh and one make sme wonder: Do scomputer stores have registeries?? Heh heh. Congrats again!
Serves me right for taking a day off work (where I read Slashdot every free minute I get!;) ). Congrats Rob! Married life is so kewl. But one warning: Sex is a tool....her tool. Anytime she wants you to do something, anything, all she has to do is CUT OFF THE PUSSY!:) Once you do what she want you can have the pussy again!;)
Re:"Netscape-style plug-in modules" - HUH?
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SuSE 7.3 vs XP
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PDF's work, but not all. We have a issue at work where we have a small (1/2 to one page of mostly 10 point text and a small grey bar background) PDF and it will not open in IE at all. Larger ones, even onse of similar page size, but larger because they have more graphics on them print fine, but the small ones don't. It works perfectly in Netscape, but IE it's a mixed bag. We converted the report to HTML instead since most folks look at this report online anyway.
This is not with any specific version of Acrobat either. It's this way on 4 and 5.
Also, I have noticed that once you view a PDF in IE, the acrord32 (I think that's the name) program is still running even after you close the browser. You have to kill it thru the Task manager. This is on 98 and ME anyway. Not sure about XP but I can't see it being any other way.
This goes to show, not that you did this, but I know many who have quit school during the boom because they "thought" they knew enough and they certainly did technology wise, but they were naive. Naive enough to realize they didn't know it all. As much as I would like to feel for some of these folks, I do not. These are the exact people (not all of them, but I am sure a great many) who thinks a programmer does not need to take things such as accounting, business ethics and other courses that round out the education. Even DeVry teaches these course to their tech heavy (or light depending on your opinion)grads. What's worse is the MBA's who all thought they were good enough to be a CEO and start their own company took advantage of techies because of what they could do for them. They inticed them with things like free caffiene (in your favorite form factor), free gourmet lunchrooms, come in any time you want and stay as late as you want, gamerooms with Playstation and Playstation 2 and a DVD player etc etc.... Now, when Wall Street and the rest of the world finally figured out what idiocy these dot commers were doing, then the crap really hit the fan. What is sad is some of the ideas they came up with could have worked, but because they spent their VC money foolishly on things such as Aeron chairs, Heavy Gaming machines for the developers (when a Pentium II 450 would do), the biggest Sun box you can get to run it (with no real tech decision behind it), those kitchens, all of that caffiene..... This means I am supposed to feel sorry for these folks cuz they are off flipping burgers?? No way.
I too took a safe job. I work for a local community college not making all that I could make, but my benefits are pretty good, I can retire at 52 (I think). We are also going to be switching from a mainframe to a UNIX environment and I am going to get the training for AIX that I need. I will have all of this training for free. How bad is that? To me, it's all about happiness anf not how much money can the job get for me. Would I like more money for what I do? (100 percent of people polled will say use to that question!:)) Sure I would love more money but do I need it, well, in some ways I do, but right now, I make do. I don't have a dual proc machine on my desk or at home. I don't have a digital camera. My biggest tv is 35 inches (and Analog). My scanner is a 5 year old paralell port scanner. I also don't have a laptop. Do I feel deprived? Nope. To me, when I FINALLY get that laptop or palmtop I want I really do feel good. If I had the money to go get it whenever I wanted, well, that would be cool, but the feeling would not be there. You see, if I had all kinds of crazy money, it would mean I didn't work for it as much or as hard. I feel better saving up and working towards something then I do about just having it handed to me. Too many kids are being raised that way now a days because the parents don't want to "deprive" the kid. Well, those kids will be loading my groceries trying to pay for their 40 k car in a few years becuse they lost their ultra high paying job and I am still employed because I played it safe. No wait, this already happened!
Lemme see, they say they MAY provide upgrades and patches....etc. How is this "giving" them control of your computer? That's like saying Apt gives the Debian project control over your computer. That makes it sounds like that you can't and don't or won't be able to use your computer. First off, they use the word may. May means that you may do something, you may not. It's up to either party. You have to allow any of those things to happen. You own your hardware, not Microsoft. The EULA changes nothing about who owns your hardware. If Microsoft tries to tell ya in a EULA that you can't delete their product in favor of say Linux or FreeBSD, well, they CAN'T do that either!
EULA's, I have always felt, are unenforceable. Has Microsoft ever won a case or sued someone because they did not follow some obscure portion of the EULA? (Piracy is NOT obscure....piracy is wrong whether you actually read the EULA or not!.)
This is something that, in my opinion, should have never been posted. It's not serious and nothing that is really all that new or interesting. I hate to bring this up as an example, but it's just like the news media saying "Oh May there was another bombing in Isreal". That's news??? It's an everyday occurance there! The same goes for Microsoft trying to do somethign stupid in a EULA.
Honestly, isn't the FPS getting pretty tired now? It's all about pushing polys through DirectX now and haveing all of these freaky features on a graphics card like vertex shaders and other bits most gamers care less about. Games I love now are Roller Coaster Tycoon (all of it's expansions too), The SIMS which pulled off a highly detailed 3-d world WITHOUT needing a 3D card! Oh sure, it does not look exactly like a real person, but who cares! Games should be fun and while I agree there is some sort of stress relief that comes from blowing people away in Q3A or hitting people in GTA, it's just not that fun or addicting like games like SQIII and SQIV were. I remember telling my roomies ok just one more puzzle and I'll turn it off...heh heh. Also, if you notice the latest trend in games, it isn't FPS. Look at the top ten:
The Sims: Hot Date - Electronic Arts
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone - Electronic Arts
The Sims - Electronic Arts
RollerCoaster Tycoon - Infogrames
Zoo Tycoon - Microsoft
Return to Castle Wolfenstein - Activision
The Sims: Livin' Large - Electronic Arts
Empire Earth - Vivendi Universal
Backyard Basketball - Infogrames
Civilization III - Infogrames
How many of these stress or need a good 3d card? Um only one I can think of (Wolfenstein).
This is a plea to Sierra...if you need to make SQVII 3d, don't get crazy with it. Make it work on the LCD(lowest common denominator, not Liquid Crystal Display) system. If you do that, it will sell. Not everyone can afford a 399 Geforce 4ti 4600. Alot of people have Geforce 2's, TNT's and Geforce 3's....not so many have the Geforce 4. Pushing the envelope is cool, but when all the hard work is done in hardware it kind of takes something away from it, in my personal opinion.
If your at a friends house with your laptop and they don't have a network or broadband connection and all they have is a dialup, why don't you just use the dialup with your built in modem?? Most laptops have these built in. If it's a winmodem and doesn't work under linux, external modems are small enough to just stick in your bag as well. You can always cart the WAP in your bag as they aren't that big and if they have broadband, good, if they don't, well use the modem.
I know most hotel rooms if they do have a analog port to plugin to, they are not always in the right spots, especially in a Motel 6, so this may not seem nice, but when are you in a hotel, for business, why are you staying at a hotel that doesn't have a nice desk in the room like a Hilton? (I was at one once and this worked great when I borrowed a department laptop so I can check e-mail when at a conference.....). When on vacation, if I had a laptop, I may surf in the morning looking up local stuff, and maybe check my e-mail, but after that I unplug and remain that way until the next day. Same would go at my parents house. They have a computer and so does my brother for that matter. I can use either in a pinch.
First off, servers belong in a nice server room, not in a closet near the lab. It may be ok for your home network, but for a network at a college or company, this is a must. Also, if you can, have the server room in one building, and labs in others. This way your lab may go up in smoke and your servers will be fine, or your server may get damaged, and your clients are fine. When doing a server room, make sure it has elevated floors (about 1 foot above rest of the floors floor), conveyance trays, redundant air conditioning, FM200 fire supression, TSM or some other backup solution, possible offsite mirroring of servers, NO WINDOWS (the glass kind, not the OS kind), UPS's and if possible, make it a hardened, 1 floor building with the chillers located inside (storms can't rip chiller off ground if they are inside), generator backup and some bathrooms, food storage, and maybe even a shwoer facility if admins must pull an all nighter. This may sound silly for a school, but that depends on how important your data is. We used to have servers serving the labs all over campus, but now they are all centrally located in the data center. Management is easier, but then we have more to loose if our data center is hit. That's why we have a halon fire supression (until new center is built, and it will use FM200) and a disaster recovery plan including a hotsite. Have all of the servers centrally located also assists in running backups either via a networked TSM type solution (Tivoli software, IBM hardware) or individual tapes (not reccomended, but better then nothing).
Hmm....how about....apt-rpm??? The things behind dpkg and all of that sure, they are nice, but how are they all that really different from RPM? I agree that I may not be totally clued in about all aspects of apt, dpkg and all of the other stuff Debian uses, but to say that it's so tied to a packaging format??? Debian is no more tied to it then Redhat is tied to RPM. If they are, then the Debian project made a major mistake! I agree alien can assist in installing RPM's on debian, but will alien, dpkg and the rest of the debian stuff scan for dependency with in the RPM? Vice versa? Also, what's with Debian losing all of these people? Developers are leaving left and right. Also, Redhat, Mandrake SUSE and several others have gotten SEVERAL releases out since Debian released Potato. I am not saying that what they are trying to do isn't noble or right, but rock stable systems are hard to do. Don't get me wrong, I like Debian, and I like the fact that it it does try to do the right thing and the technically right thing as well, but sometimes their approach, while good, adds extra time. Time that, in my opinion, they don't have to waste. Maybe now is the time for Debian to actually form a company or form a different way of making the decisions instead of democracy. Maybe they need to modify the DFSG to be more lienient? I don't know, but there has to be someone who is going to draw a line in the sand and get the volunteers in action and get Woody released (and with a 2.4 kernel as well...). In the future, Debian may die, but the project will have donated alot of stuff to the community that can be used to advance Linux as a whole. Personally, I would like to see everyone unite so Linux can move forward without critics panning it.
LSB is a good thing and their shuld be equal input from everyone. But someone needs to push for adaptation. PHB's and Joe Sixpacks like hearing and seeing commercials like Mandrake Linux is compliant (it isn't but) with the LSB which means no matter where you buy or download your software it will work! I think the LSB folks need someone (besides Caldera or other only Linux companies.....a company with money) like IBM to put up money for a prize. The prize could be x amount of dollars go to the distro who fully complies with the LSB first. Y amount could go to the distro who is second and so on and so on. Everyone would bite, even Debian.
Some people will say well what does this does to debian/apt. I say nothing. Apt is not dependant on using deb as evidenced by apt-rpm. Debian can adapt the Connectiva apt-rpm package and switch to rpm's rather easily (unless they are too pig headed). Also, does LSB compliance not allow you to use other packages as well as accepting RPM's?? That way debian can stick to debs for the short term, and switch to RPM's in the long term. Then at some point in the future, LSB can change the spec and require RPM only.
I would also like to see apt or some advanced package manager included in the spec as well. Apt kicks major booty and takes away the dependency hunt.
That would work if the Potato installer would boot a 2.4 kernel, which I need. I have a ATA/100 drive as my main hard drive and I do believe that 2.2 does not handle it. I can't even play the install on one disk and move to another deal either. When Libranet 2.0 comes out I will check it out because I do love Debian based distros and I don't even have any bitches about Debian's installer either. I need these updates to have a usable system. Plain and simple. Plus, at least with Debian, I can count on them using a kernel that will be usable on most systems. Mandrake and Redhat both have that damn vesafb console crap and neither one of them works on my Nvidia. All I see during a reboot is a blank screen. Debian, I bet, would still use a text console. Sure, the penguin is cool, but why setup a vesafb if you don't need a vesafb (say because you have an unsupported by X video card)? I surely would not set up a vesafb just for the stinking penguin on a text console!
Note I did not say it was impossible to keep a nice filesystem when compiling software and the like, just that it's hard. Tools like apt, RPM and deb's make it easier to install, decide it's crap, then uninstall it. At worst after uninstalling a deb you may have files you created with the package and config files left over. Just rm em. I also did not mean you should not use RPM when doing an embedded system either. I meant that it makes more sense to actually compile a kernel instead of accepting a Red Hat or Mandrake kernel RPM because when your designing an embedded device, it does not make sense to waste space by including things you'd only use on the desktop like parallel port support or support for a usb scanner. Now if you were the compilee, then you could use RPM to package it, if you want. I guess what I am really saying here is that I do not understand what the big deal is to compile your own kernel when standard kernels work too (unless the standard kernel doesn't work then I understand completely!;)). I mean it's not like memory and hard drives are REAL expensive anymore (I know...I hate bloat too....but binary rpm kernel packages ain't that huge).
You need support for buying....a book? Listen, I know sometimes you have to talk to a company especially when things don't go right. But maybe, just maybe, Amazon.com figured out how to design a nice, coherent site and designed a nice, coherent backend to support the site that hardly anything ever goes wrong! Also, if I am buying something online, it only makes too much sense I should be able to get the support online (take that stamps.com....they want you to call to cancel your account...I e-mailed them and got them to do it.....). Also, some of the things the dot coms were trying to hawk online made no sense....groceries? I mean Peapod had it going. It was a neat idea, but they wanted to charge you like 5 bucks extra? No way I will get in my car and put 5 bucks of gas in my tank and do it myself. Besides, do I realy want to trust a 6 dollar an hour clerk to pickout a good tomatoe?
Now Think Geek! There's a place I like. It has a focused product set (geek toys and schwag) and some things they have I can't find anywhere but Think Geek. I have been able to find Penguin Mints at Meijer, but try finding things like Jolt in all of it's flavors, XTZ tea, Hyper Caffinated coffee and computer books all in one place. I have no idea how they are doing, but I do know I occasionally buy stuff from them. I do it because they have unique products I can't find anywhere else. It's just a bonus that it helps Slashdot out.
Which brings the question forth...why, even if it was an accident are people being stupid enough to report that they got a knife thru security? I mean if you got it thru, do you think they are going to do anything to you if you don't report it and they don't know? I mean common, if you made it, you'd be a dumb ass to tell anyone because if it got to the right people you'd be toast!
True story: A guy flying to Columbus, OH from Greenboro, NC thru Pittsburgh called a TALK SHOW from Pittsburgh and said he accidently, non intentionally (he really did not mean to do it) carried a knife on board. Security did not catch it. The funny thing his he could have been fine! But he was a dumb ass and now will probably go to jail just because he got an attack of the stupids. Yeah I think it's stupid now that our government is freaking out over people who have no bad intentions because they are paranoid that this is the way these guys who crashed planes into the WTC acted when they forget the obvious fact that they should have:
1. Never been let in in the first place..
2. Never been here when they were because INS did not deport them in a timely matter as their visa's were expired.
That said, I think it's unlikely that they would let anything such as this on board a jet. Especially when someone eventually trys to use a bic lighter to do something on a plane (instant ban!).
Zero Tolerence rules suck because it discourages people to use common sense!
Actually I trust Mandrake more then the source becasue I trust Mandrake...if you know what I mean. I don't know the guys who did a program originally but have dealt with Mandrake more regularly then the developers. Also, a Kernel is a kernel. Sure, I can compile my own but why? Only reason I see for doing that is a very specific reason. Say to get a certain feature not available in RPM form yet. To fix a rather heinous securty issue until a RPM has been available.....things like that. One other reason is if you were devloping for a embeded device where memory use is an issue. I have found thru experience that RPM can be a friend and an enemy. If you start compiling tarballs and installing over your existing binaries, good luck removing anything! People think Windows is bad...Linux proggies put crap ALL over the file system. I find on a RPM based system it is WAY to easy to fark things up by NOT using RPM. RPM's ain't all that hard to build from source especially if a spec file is in the tarball or it's a source RPM. AT least this way your RPM db does not get hosed too bad and if you install something and it breaks something else, you can easily back it out. For that matter, I like the way Debian lets you do kernels as well through deb's. If you grab the source deb you can build a kernel real easy.
Wel, if it was R....E....A....L...L...Y SLOOOOOW, well, then yeah I would probably pay the bucks. That didn't happen here. Here, it's a MARGINAL comparison and they did not even specify what kernel they were compiling did they? Ok, a 47% increase (that's what is reported).....if gcc took one minute to compile a program, and icc is 47 percent faster at a compile then it would compile the same program in about 30 seconds. Yeah that's faster, but on today's hardware does it really matter? What's the big deal if an employee sits for another 30 seconds? Besides, the best time to compile is when you need to get up and take a break. gcc allows programmers to get mroe rest;).
You'd be surprised where the important things are. I have seen obscene amounts of money being spent on things like hardware, and piddly raises being given out and vice a versa. It all depends on where a companies priorities are at.
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Well, no there probably is not enough data to PROVE it's bunk. But I seriously doubt that it can be anything but. Archeology samples like ice cores and everything are only theorizing what it was like back then. Some assume that the layers are unchanged by years and that they are as they were when they were formed. I am not saying that everyone says that. It's just with the data we have, you can say either way...that the earth is cooling or that the earth is heating up. I also do agree, somewhat with having clean burning fuels. It makes sense not just for the environment but from a energy standpoint as well. A clean burning engine is more efficient then a dirty engine.
Now, the earth has been here for 3 about billion years. Humans have been on the planet a FRACTION of that time. The planet is a BIG place wih lots of sutff happening. No we have some people arrogant/dumb enough to say that we can affect the planet's weather??? I just don't believe that something such as this is possible. Even if it is, according to some the air was supposed to be unbreathable 2-3 years ago. What happened hmm? Us humans like to think we have power. We crave it. The fact is the world is a whole lot bigger then any of us and it is capable from bouncing back from amazing stuff.
Should the average human worry about global warming...well, I don't think so. First off, we already have enough things to worry about like how we are going to pay our bills and crap. Should we just pollute for the heck of it? No. Should we look into alternative fuels? Yes, if they can be done econimically. Soon they will be....even with in our lifetimes. My point is we have time and the earth is a lot more stronger then we are. God gave us oil and the ability to use it. Why aren't we using more or making it available so it can be more affordable? Granted, even at today's prices, gasoline is cheaper then bottled water. Amazing huh?
I did like someone else's idea about using up all of everyone else's oil then go tell the mid east to shove it after we used their stuff up and have ours to ourselves. But I don't think that way. I think in the terms we better use OUR stuff. We buy too much crap from the Japanese and Chinese already!
Um. No. I vehemently disagree with you. Global Warming is bunk. We only have about 100 years worth of weather data. HOW IN THE WORLD CAN YOU SAY HUMANS CAUSE THIS WITH THIS DATA! It isn't enough! The world is around 3 billion years old ( I think that's it....) and we are trying to say that us humans who have only been here part of that time caused this? No, US folks are skeptical of scientists who talk out there butt. Weather patterns are CYCLICAL! Just because I ain't freezing my butt of now and walking thru 10-12 inches of snow does not mean that the globe, as a whole is any warmer. Do you realize that Texas has had more snow then Columbus, OH?? That's almost unheard of. Also, I believe Texas has also been colder then we are too. Some people will say that global warming caused this chaotic pattern. BS. We don't have anywhere near enough data to prove global warming. Any scientist saying we do should tear up his PhD.....now and go start selling burgers at McDonald's.
Also there's no such thing as an unbiased news source. We're humans. We have opinions and try as we might, we can't always suppress them.
Also, an another note, for the freaks who say we don't have enough oil, well, if we'd drill in ANWR we'd stabilize the market. If we get off of our butts and tap the oil in the Gulf of Mexico, we could be self sustaining and not need oil from saudi. This is a fact (wish I could atrribute a source but it's late and I am going to bed after this). Here's an interesting link about ANWR. The reasons these ecological wackos have come up make no sense and have no scientific backing except some crap some scientists who liked the idea has drawn up.
I am not saying we should not explore alternatives that are cleaner then gasoline. Hydrogen and fuel cells hold great promise not just from an environmental sense, but from a business sense as well. Imagine if we all had a fuel cell on our house. We'd no longer be dependent on wires going underground and into our house and no longer would we have to worry about lightening striking the above ground wiring because there would be none. When ever Hydrogen is cheap (it's cheap now...), you'd just fill it up and be good to go. The waste water created by the reaction could be ran through a filter, and used to flush toilets or take showers or heck even drink. Who WOULDN'T want this? Even the big oil would want a piece of this. The good thing is if we actually tap the Gulf adequately, we could be assured we would have enough oil until this stuff is perfected. Right now, if we decided to bomb someone in the middle east, we may as well grab ahold of a bank loan to buy gas cuz it's going to go up. My biggest point here, is that it doesn't have to be this way. it's only this way becase a small MINORITY thinks the sky is falling when it's not.
Oh so true. The whole article shows a lack of knowledge. That and he probably does not have a way to measure SWR at this frequency or even know what SWR is at least before he wrote the article. SWR can kill your radio....literally. Although, the frequency at this wavelength does make it a bit easier to disregard SWR a bit because there are alot of losses just in the feedline (no such thing as a lossless feedline). If your measurements are close to being the right wavelength (1/4, 5/8 or Full Wave), you should be close enough to have a decent SWR. To maxmise your power, you really should look into getting or building a SWR meter.
Oh and several of the people on here mention leagal issues.....yeah there may be some, but I don't think that the equipment you have would do anything to push you close to the ERP. Most wirless networking stuff is pretty low power (come on it's being powered by a laptop....). Probably the most dangerous things from a legal standpoint would be spurious emissions. With a properly tuned antenna, you don't get these and that means a antenna with a good SWR (1:1 is ideal, but 1:2 can be acceptable). When an antenna is not tuned properly you can get harmonics OUTSIDE of the band and those harmonics sould be what causes you trouble.
No such thing as a Yogi.....you mean yagi. The link you have on your post is talking about STACKED Yagi's. By stacked, I mean they take 2 or more yagis and mount them on a boom with the elements paralell to each other and then have a different wiring. A piece of coax comes from each antenna and meets to form one piece of coax that's fed back to the radio. This has a way of increasing your directional gain alot. This is why this config is used for EME work on 2 M woith a 100 wat all mode 2 M rig. It can also be used for satellites.
You may be takling about a log periodic antenna where all elements are the same length, but are connected much differently together.
The O'rielly article is pretty amatuerish for even an amatuer. He stated that a Yagi is hard to build. Yagis are not hard to build, you just have to know what your doing. I can build a yagi for 2m cheap with a good metal hanger. Yagi's for 2.4 GHz are different, but they are doable, even by an amatuer antenna maker. That ARRL antenna book he bought is a good book and it can teach him how to build an antenna that he likes.
If you are just looking at increasing the omni directional range of your 802.11 card, these antennas won't do you any good. They concentrate the signal in a certain direction. They could be used successfully in linking (bridging) parts of a community wide 802.11 network, but where there would be a concentration of people, you would want an omni directional antenna on the AP. a 5/8 wave antenna would be good, but maybe they should look at a full wavelength aerial. At the frequency, it should not be that long (consider that CB'ers use a full wave all of the time on their pick-ups and tractors....).
Hmmm....they must have just recently changed this. I didn't say when I bought the machine ;). In any case, they do build decent machines. And, a recovery CD is better then none at all! ;) My bro in law worked for Winbook (I believe that's the laptop division of MEI, who owns Micro Center) a bit ago unitl they out sourced the whole thing. I am not sure what he's doing now, but it's an IT job of that I am certain. The recovery CD deal must have started around then.
;) If that fails, then slide the case off (unless they started getting persnickty about that too). Also, I have noticed that they STILL had support stuff on their website (not support mind you, but docs) for my aged system I bought in 1998. The driver front, well, I am smart enough to figure out where to get that stuff and if the driver is decent, then it does not really need that latest tweak. Only way you should be running the latest driver is if you have a problem with the old one....least that's the process I am following now, for the most part. I don't have time to track every freaing driver on my system and if the old one works why screw with it. Same goes for kernels on Linux too.
Um, on the finding out what stuff part, I think it's usually pretty easy to find that out especially since they use standard stuff. Right click on my computer and pick properties bud!
Yes. If I had seen hot glue spread all over the cable and on the mainboard, then I would be concerned. No, there was just a teeny spot of hot glue on each side or the connector where it inserts into the drive. In fact, it looked like they used a special tip on the hot glue gun because the spots were smaller then you'd think they be.
In any case, I said yes I would reccomend them. They even included a manual for the mainboard they used. How many companies do that? Actually, there was documentation for every piece of hardware that came with the system, mainboard, zip drive, network card, dvd drive, modem, soundcard....documentation all there as well as standard OEM install CD's for all apps preinstalled on the machine. Granted, this could have change since I bought the machine, but I doubt it. In fact, I even mentioned Linux when I was buying it and he said oh yeah lots of folks are doing that....and really, the only few problems I had with Linux on this machine was the winmodem (lucent chip) and the soundcard (aureal and not their fault that aureal went out of business). Everything else pretty much worked. Sure, not as nice if you had built it yourself, (like what I have now) but nice all the same.
CRAP! That's right crap. I have not heard of anyone else doing this yet. XP has been out long enough that you'd think something would have been said if this was a Microsoft policy. No, this is something that the brain dead drones working for Carly Fiorina has thought up of. If this was the case HP, then how come I see all kinds of OEM CD's on pricewatch being sold ;).
This is why I would probably buy from the Powerspec line of PC's at Micro Center. AFAIK, they have and will continue to ship standard OEM CD's and they don't have restore CD's to begin with either. I was also told by a sales guy at Micro Center when I bought my last whole PC that I could upgrade anything I wanted during the warantee period. I didn't end up doing that but when I decided to upgrade a bunch of stuff and move to a new case, they had used hotglue on the IDE cables right where they go into the drives. No big deal but it did kind of suprise me a little. Micro Center also seems to have some decent hardware in their new machines. Not the lastest stuff, but not econo 15 dollar graphics cards either. They models I saw in the paper included Geforce 2 MX based cards, and some even had TV out. Their whole packages and even their external devices and acessories are decently priced, but I find their build it yerself stuff seems to be a bit higher then it should be.
Um, uh, I did not say that it pu tthe code in the public domain. I said/asked if it would become part of public record. Being part of public record and in the public domain are two different things. Things can, as stated in other posts, be part of record, but restricted to only those involved in the case to protect other rights. Also, if it is put in the public record and restricted, how would anyone but Microsoft know if what they want done is possible? What does Microsoft call OS? Is it the DOS kernel or they dos kernel plus all of the stuff around it.
It kind of is like the question what is Linux? Is it the kernel? (yes) Would it be usable without some of the stuff included in most distros? (no). So, in theory, you could (as we all know without the code) say that IE could be removed and everything still work. This is the case thru ME, but would that be the case for Windows XP??
Would the code then not be part of public record?? That should mean anyone should be able to look at it at that point. But I am also hazarding that they may have a problem finding some parts of the code. Almost every mid to large sized company always has something that can't be recompiled.
Hey this is a perfect excuse....you could record a episode of geeks in space as the wedding, and then you could post a ground control with everyone's well wishes being sent in. Oh and one make sme wonder: Do scomputer stores have registeries?? Heh heh. Congrats again!
Serves me right for taking a day off work (where I read Slashdot every free minute I get! ;) ). Congrats Rob! Married life is so kewl. But one warning: Sex is a tool....her tool. Anytime she wants you to do something, anything, all she has to do is CUT OFF THE PUSSY! :) Once you do what she want you can have the pussy again! ;)
PDF's work, but not all. We have a issue at work where we have a small (1/2 to one page of mostly 10 point text and a small grey bar background) PDF and it will not open in IE at all. Larger ones, even onse of similar page size, but larger because they have more graphics on them print fine, but the small ones don't. It works perfectly in Netscape, but IE it's a mixed bag. We converted the report to HTML instead since most folks look at this report online anyway.
This is not with any specific version of Acrobat either. It's this way on 4 and 5.
Also, I have noticed that once you view a PDF in IE, the acrord32 (I think that's the name) program is still running even after you close the browser. You have to kill it thru the Task manager. This is on 98 and ME anyway. Not sure about XP but I can't see it being any other way.
This goes to show, not that you did this, but I know many who have quit school during the boom because they "thought" they knew enough and they certainly did technology wise, but they were naive. Naive enough to realize they didn't know it all. As much as I would like to feel for some of these folks, I do not. These are the exact people (not all of them, but I am sure a great many) who thinks a programmer does not need to take things such as accounting, business ethics and other courses that round out the education. Even DeVry teaches these course to their tech heavy (or light depending on your opinion)grads. What's worse is the MBA's who all thought they were good enough to be a CEO and start their own company took advantage of techies because of what they could do for them. They inticed them with things like free caffiene (in your favorite form factor), free gourmet lunchrooms, come in any time you want and stay as late as you want, gamerooms with Playstation and Playstation 2 and a DVD player etc etc.... Now, when Wall Street and the rest of the world finally figured out what idiocy these dot commers were doing, then the crap really hit the fan. What is sad is some of the ideas they came up with could have worked, but because they spent their VC money foolishly on things such as Aeron chairs, Heavy Gaming machines for the developers (when a Pentium II 450 would do), the biggest Sun box you can get to run it (with no real tech decision behind it), those kitchens, all of that caffiene..... This means I am supposed to feel sorry for these folks cuz they are off flipping burgers?? No way.
:)) Sure I would love more money but do I need it, well, in some ways I do, but right now, I make do. I don't have a dual proc machine on my desk or at home. I don't have a digital camera. My biggest tv is 35 inches (and Analog). My scanner is a 5 year old paralell port scanner. I also don't have a laptop. Do I feel deprived? Nope. To me, when I FINALLY get that laptop or palmtop I want I really do feel good. If I had the money to go get it whenever I wanted, well, that would be cool, but the feeling would not be there. You see, if I had all kinds of crazy money, it would mean I didn't work for it as much or as hard. I feel better saving up and working towards something then I do about just having it handed to me. Too many kids are being raised that way now a days because the parents don't want to "deprive" the kid. Well, those kids will be loading my groceries trying to pay for their 40 k car in a few years becuse they lost their ultra high paying job and I am still employed because I played it safe. No wait, this already happened!
I too took a safe job. I work for a local community college not making all that I could make, but my benefits are pretty good, I can retire at 52 (I think). We are also going to be switching from a mainframe to a UNIX environment and I am going to get the training for AIX that I need. I will have all of this training for free. How bad is that? To me, it's all about happiness anf not how much money can the job get for me. Would I like more money for what I do? (100 percent of people polled will say use to that question!
Lemme see, they say they MAY provide upgrades and patches....etc. How is this "giving" them control of your computer? That's like saying Apt gives the Debian project control over your computer. That makes it sounds like that you can't and don't or won't be able to use your computer. First off, they use the word may. May means that you may do something, you may not. It's up to either party. You have to allow any of those things to happen. You own your hardware, not Microsoft. The EULA changes nothing about who owns your hardware. If Microsoft tries to tell ya in a EULA that you can't delete their product in favor of say Linux or FreeBSD, well, they CAN'T do that either!
EULA's, I have always felt, are unenforceable. Has Microsoft ever won a case or sued someone because they did not follow some obscure portion of the EULA? (Piracy is NOT obscure....piracy is wrong whether you actually read the EULA or not!.)
This is something that, in my opinion, should have never been posted. It's not serious and nothing that is really all that new or interesting. I hate to bring this up as an example, but it's just like the news media saying "Oh May there was another bombing in Isreal". That's news??? It's an everyday occurance there! The same goes for Microsoft trying to do somethign stupid in a EULA.
All we NEED is another FPS (or Not)......
Honestly, isn't the FPS getting pretty tired now? It's all about pushing polys through DirectX now and haveing all of these freaky features on a graphics card like vertex shaders and other bits most gamers care less about. Games I love now are Roller Coaster Tycoon (all of it's expansions too), The SIMS which pulled off a highly detailed 3-d world WITHOUT needing a 3D card! Oh sure, it does not look exactly like a real person, but who cares! Games should be fun and while I agree there is some sort of stress relief that comes from blowing people away in Q3A or hitting people in GTA, it's just not that fun or addicting like games like SQIII and SQIV were. I remember telling my roomies ok just one more puzzle and I'll turn it off...heh heh. Also, if you notice the latest trend in games, it isn't FPS. Look at the top ten:
The Sims: Hot Date - Electronic Arts
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone - Electronic Arts
The Sims - Electronic Arts
RollerCoaster Tycoon - Infogrames
Zoo Tycoon - Microsoft
Return to Castle Wolfenstein - Activision
The Sims: Livin' Large - Electronic Arts
Empire Earth - Vivendi Universal
Backyard Basketball - Infogrames
Civilization III - Infogrames
How many of these stress or need a good 3d card? Um only one I can think of (Wolfenstein).
This is a plea to Sierra...if you need to make SQVII 3d, don't get crazy with it. Make it work on the LCD(lowest common denominator, not Liquid Crystal Display) system. If you do that, it will sell. Not everyone can afford a 399 Geforce 4ti 4600. Alot of people have Geforce 2's, TNT's and Geforce 3's....not so many have the Geforce 4. Pushing the envelope is cool, but when all the hard work is done in hardware it kind of takes something away from it, in my personal opinion.
If your at a friends house with your laptop and they don't have a network or broadband connection and all they have is a dialup, why don't you just use the dialup with your built in modem?? Most laptops have these built in. If it's a winmodem and doesn't work under linux, external modems are small enough to just stick in your bag as well. You can always cart the WAP in your bag as they aren't that big and if they have broadband, good, if they don't, well use the modem.
I know most hotel rooms if they do have a analog port to plugin to, they are not always in the right spots, especially in a Motel 6, so this may not seem nice, but when are you in a hotel, for business, why are you staying at a hotel that doesn't have a nice desk in the room like a Hilton? (I was at one once and this worked great when I borrowed a department laptop so I can check e-mail when at a conference.....). When on vacation, if I had a laptop, I may surf in the morning looking up local stuff, and maybe check my e-mail, but after that I unplug and remain that way until the next day. Same would go at my parents house. They have a computer and so does my brother for that matter. I can use either in a pinch.
First off, servers belong in a nice server room, not in a closet near the lab. It may be ok for your home network, but for a network at a college or company, this is a must. Also, if you can, have the server room in one building, and labs in others. This way your lab may go up in smoke and your servers will be fine, or your server may get damaged, and your clients are fine. When doing a server room, make sure it has elevated floors (about 1 foot above rest of the floors floor), conveyance trays, redundant air conditioning, FM200 fire supression, TSM or some other backup solution, possible offsite mirroring of servers, NO WINDOWS (the glass kind, not the OS kind), UPS's and if possible, make it a hardened, 1 floor building with the chillers located inside (storms can't rip chiller off ground if they are inside), generator backup and some bathrooms, food storage, and maybe even a shwoer facility if admins must pull an all nighter. This may sound silly for a school, but that depends on how important your data is. We used to have servers serving the labs all over campus, but now they are all centrally located in the data center. Management is easier, but then we have more to loose if our data center is hit. That's why we have a halon fire supression (until new center is built, and it will use FM200) and a disaster recovery plan including a hotsite. Have all of the servers centrally located also assists in running backups either via a networked TSM type solution (Tivoli software, IBM hardware) or individual tapes (not reccomended, but better then nothing).
Hmm....how about....apt-rpm??? The things behind dpkg and all of that sure, they are nice, but how are they all that really different from RPM? I agree that I may not be totally clued in about all aspects of apt, dpkg and all of the other stuff Debian uses, but to say that it's so tied to a packaging format??? Debian is no more tied to it then Redhat is tied to RPM. If they are, then the Debian project made a major mistake! I agree alien can assist in installing RPM's on debian, but will alien, dpkg and the rest of the debian stuff scan for dependency with in the RPM? Vice versa? Also, what's with Debian losing all of these people? Developers are leaving left and right. Also, Redhat, Mandrake SUSE and several others have gotten SEVERAL releases out since Debian released Potato. I am not saying that what they are trying to do isn't noble or right, but rock stable systems are hard to do. Don't get me wrong, I like Debian, and I like the fact that it it does try to do the right thing and the technically right thing as well, but sometimes their approach, while good, adds extra time. Time that, in my opinion, they don't have to waste. Maybe now is the time for Debian to actually form a company or form a different way of making the decisions instead of democracy. Maybe they need to modify the DFSG to be more lienient? I don't know, but there has to be someone who is going to draw a line in the sand and get the volunteers in action and get Woody released (and with a 2.4 kernel as well...). In the future, Debian may die, but the project will have donated alot of stuff to the community that can be used to advance Linux as a whole. Personally, I would like to see everyone unite so Linux can move forward without critics panning it.
LSB is a good thing and their shuld be equal input from everyone. But someone needs to push for adaptation. PHB's and Joe Sixpacks like hearing and seeing commercials like Mandrake Linux is compliant (it isn't but) with the LSB which means no matter where you buy or download your software it will work! I think the LSB folks need someone (besides Caldera or other only Linux companies.....a company with money) like IBM to put up money for a prize. The prize could be x amount of dollars go to the distro who fully complies with the LSB first. Y amount could go to the distro who is second and so on and so on. Everyone would bite, even Debian.
ANYONE start using it! Preferably everyone.
Some people will say well what does this does to debian/apt. I say nothing. Apt is not dependant on using deb as evidenced by apt-rpm. Debian can adapt the Connectiva apt-rpm package and switch to rpm's rather easily (unless they are too pig headed). Also, does LSB compliance not allow you to use other packages as well as accepting RPM's?? That way debian can stick to debs for the short term, and switch to RPM's in the long term. Then at some point in the future, LSB can change the spec and require RPM only.
I would also like to see apt or some advanced package manager included in the spec as well. Apt kicks major booty and takes away the dependency hunt.
That would work if the Potato installer would boot a 2.4 kernel, which I need. I have a ATA/100 drive as my main hard drive and I do believe that 2.2 does not handle it. I can't even play the install on one disk and move to another deal either. When Libranet 2.0 comes out I will check it out because I do love Debian based distros and I don't even have any bitches about Debian's installer either. I need these updates to have a usable system. Plain and simple. Plus, at least with Debian, I can count on them using a kernel that will be usable on most systems. Mandrake and Redhat both have that damn vesafb console crap and neither one of them works on my Nvidia. All I see during a reboot is a blank screen. Debian, I bet, would still use a text console. Sure, the penguin is cool, but why setup a vesafb if you don't need a vesafb (say because you have an unsupported by X video card)? I surely would not set up a vesafb just for the stinking penguin on a text console!
Note I did not say it was impossible to keep a nice filesystem when compiling software and the like, just that it's hard. Tools like apt, RPM and deb's make it easier to install, decide it's crap, then uninstall it. At worst after uninstalling a deb you may have files you created with the package and config files left over. Just rm em. I also did not mean you should not use RPM when doing an embedded system either. I meant that it makes more sense to actually compile a kernel instead of accepting a Red Hat or Mandrake kernel RPM because when your designing an embedded device, it does not make sense to waste space by including things you'd only use on the desktop like parallel port support or support for a usb scanner. Now if you were the compilee, then you could use RPM to package it, if you want. I guess what I am really saying here is that I do not understand what the big deal is to compile your own kernel when standard kernels work too (unless the standard kernel doesn't work then I understand completely! ;)). I mean it's not like memory and hard drives are REAL expensive anymore (I know...I hate bloat too....but binary rpm kernel packages ain't that huge).
You need support for buying....a book? Listen, I know sometimes you have to talk to a company especially when things don't go right. But maybe, just maybe, Amazon.com figured out how to design a nice, coherent site and designed a nice, coherent backend to support the site that hardly anything ever goes wrong! Also, if I am buying something online, it only makes too much sense I should be able to get the support online (take that stamps.com....they want you to call to cancel your account...I e-mailed them and got them to do it.....). Also, some of the things the dot coms were trying to hawk online made no sense....groceries? I mean Peapod had it going. It was a neat idea, but they wanted to charge you like 5 bucks extra? No way I will get in my car and put 5 bucks of gas in my tank and do it myself. Besides, do I realy want to trust a 6 dollar an hour clerk to pickout a good tomatoe?
Now Think Geek! There's a place I like. It has a focused product set (geek toys and schwag) and some things they have I can't find anywhere but Think Geek. I have been able to find Penguin Mints at Meijer, but try finding things like Jolt in all of it's flavors, XTZ tea, Hyper Caffinated coffee and computer books all in one place. I have no idea how they are doing, but I do know I occasionally buy stuff from them. I do it because they have unique products I can't find anywhere else. It's just a bonus that it helps Slashdot out.
Which brings the question forth...why, even if it was an accident are people being stupid enough to report that they got a knife thru security? I mean if you got it thru, do you think they are going to do anything to you if you don't report it and they don't know? I mean common, if you made it, you'd be a dumb ass to tell anyone because if it got to the right people you'd be toast!
True story: A guy flying to Columbus, OH from Greenboro, NC thru Pittsburgh called a TALK SHOW from Pittsburgh and said he accidently, non intentionally (he really did not mean to do it) carried a knife on board. Security did not catch it. The funny thing his he could have been fine! But he was a dumb ass and now will probably go to jail just because he got an attack of the stupids. Yeah I think it's stupid now that our government is freaking out over people who have no bad intentions because they are paranoid that this is the way these guys who crashed planes into the WTC acted when they forget the obvious fact that they should have:
1. Never been let in in the first place..
2. Never been here when they were because INS did not deport them in a timely matter as their visa's were expired.
That said, I think it's unlikely that they would let anything such as this on board a jet. Especially when someone eventually trys to use a bic lighter to do something on a plane (instant ban!).
Zero Tolerence rules suck because it discourages people to use common sense!
Actually I trust Mandrake more then the source becasue I trust Mandrake...if you know what I mean. I don't know the guys who did a program originally but have dealt with Mandrake more regularly then the developers. Also, a Kernel is a kernel. Sure, I can compile my own but why? Only reason I see for doing that is a very specific reason. Say to get a certain feature not available in RPM form yet. To fix a rather heinous securty issue until a RPM has been available.....things like that. One other reason is if you were devloping for a embeded device where memory use is an issue. I have found thru experience that RPM can be a friend and an enemy. If you start compiling tarballs and installing over your existing binaries, good luck removing anything! People think Windows is bad...Linux proggies put crap ALL over the file system. I find on a RPM based system it is WAY to easy to fark things up by NOT using RPM. RPM's ain't all that hard to build from source especially if a spec file is in the tarball or it's a source RPM. AT least this way your RPM db does not get hosed too bad and if you install something and it breaks something else, you can easily back it out. For that matter, I like the way Debian lets you do kernels as well through deb's. If you grab the source deb you can build a kernel real easy.
Wel, if it was R ....E....A....L...L...Y SLOOOOOW, well, then yeah I would probably pay the bucks. That didn't happen here. Here, it's a MARGINAL comparison and they did not even specify what kernel they were compiling did they? Ok, a 47% increase (that's what is reported).....if gcc took one minute to compile a program, and icc is 47 percent faster at a compile then it would compile the same program in about 30 seconds. Yeah that's faster, but on today's hardware does it really matter? What's the big deal if an employee sits for another 30 seconds? Besides, the best time to compile is when you need to get up and take a break. gcc allows programmers to get mroe rest ;).
You'd be surprised where the important things are. I have seen obscene amounts of money being spent on things like hardware, and piddly raises being given out and vice a versa. It all depends on where a companies priorities are at.