I read the glossy article(s?) in IEEE Spectrum. Good read and really puts all the armchair EEs to shame. It's really sad that mythbusters didn't take the time to absorb some of the studies before misinforming so many people.
Anyone who's interested in a sampling from the history of electronic music should check out a CD set called Ohm: The early gurus of electronic music. Well worth the price, I think.
Heisenberg's uncertainty principle doesn't apply to just measurements in the traditional sense that you're probably thinking of. A lot of things that happen are "measurements", such as light passing through a slit (it's a position measurement).
But the fact remains that there's no way to figure out things about a particle without it interacting with something in some way shape or form.
I'm not sure if that's quite the explanation you were looking for, but it's not one of the simpler concepts to explain without some demonstrations and diagrams.
Heat exchangers exist and are being used commonly, hell, I just saw one on This Old House last week. This keeps ventilation up and moisture down while losing much less heat.
Legislation like this is indicitave of a large movement in our government to legislate away whatever someone or another doesn't like. Witness the vilification of "big tobacco" and the BANS of smoking on *private property* owned by businesses in cities like Duluth, MN. "Ohh, the CHILDREN are hurt by secondhand smoke!"
My reponse to that, of course, is, DON'T GO THERE. Don't tell everyone else that they can't smoke in a restaurant unless the restaurant decides that IT wants to ban smoking for themselves!
Gradually things will be targeted that someone objects to, until life is reduced to a plain, bland, pointless existence. Cigarettes, "violent" video games, alcohol, guns, cars that are bigger than a Geo Metro, you name it, they will be chased down by these types of people.
All you who think marijuana should be legal, stick up for the cigarette smokers before cigarettes become illegal.
The slashdot editors just like toys. Palms are too practical for them. They want a device that will play mp3's and crunch seti@home while they walk. Sad but true.
I'm also dubious that Sony will sell an ethernet card which doesn't require Sony ISP service, or some other subscription model... so if the X box is open enough to allow me to hook it up to my home network and play across the Internet I'll consider it a significant improvement over the PS2.
And I'm dubious that Microsoft will allow the X-box to just connect to any ethernet hookup, they could more easily force you to get MSN, after all, they HAVE the infrastructure for MSN in place, whereas Sony does not run an ISP to the best of my knowledge. (Doesn't stop them from using another isp as a partner.)
Personally, I'm waiting to see what comes out with more cool games and the prices to drop below early adopter levels. Until then, my trusty Playstation (original) and N64 and SNES will serve my entertainment needs quite nicely.
Office 95 has some downconverters from office 97 at least...
I remember using the word 97 converter when I still used Office 95. (the last GOOD, FUNCTIONAL version of Office. This is the Office that made Office king.)
Amen to that. I keep seeing the articles on the TV news shows about the Wayne County task force, and every time I see those, I just sit there and think, "This is a sheriff just trying to make a name for himself to seek better political office."
Wayne County, do the rest of the country a favor and get that task force disbanded.
I think everyone is sick of hearing about a sheriff in ONE COUNTY out of THOUSANDS in the country thinking that HIS FORCE will clean up the whole wide world of the Internet. He needs a clue.
There's a big difference between quake and DirecTV. DirecTV is a *service* provided each month to people. Quake is a product that you buy.
By the way, many software programs make efforts to keep cracked versions from playing. It's a fact of life. I don't see how this relates to privacy violations.
Since software doesn't stick around for more than a few years, unlike a satellite dish, there is time for more involved anti-piracy. (especially because the monthly revenue of Hughes comes from these, whereas the software only produces revenue once.)
The obvious problem with your post is that you *don't* have to return a car to the dealer for routine service and it *doesn't* void your warranty. I can go get an oil change at Jiffy Lube or a new set of brakes from Meineke, and it does nothing to shorten the warranty. It's a law that was passed a long time ago.
Oh, but you're on to something with your computer manufacturer idea. Already you're seeing Gateway with their leasing program, having you trade your computer in every 2 years or so.
Privacy Manager is the most asinine piece of shit that Ameritech has ever come up with. They are screwing both ends. The telemarketer pays them to make the call, and then you're paying them to deny it. It should NOT cost money to not get unsolicited phone calls. AND YOU STILL HAVE TO ANSWER THE PHONE, interrupting whatever you were doing anyway. And you can get a little button with a voice chip in it that says "please add me to your do not call list" for a lot cheaper and a single fee.
Honestly.
Besides, it doesn't deal with the issue of slamming. Slamming *IS* illegal, they may NOT change your long distance carrier without your permission, go file a complaint with the state AG, as slamming is getting a lot of attention these days.
Ah, a perfect reply to some of the bad points in JKatz's article. While I agree with most of your points, I have to take a couple to task.
First, praises. This is not a culture gap, and there is no acceptable reason for lawmakers, musicians and other copyright holders to be held hostage by people who don't want to pay for anything. AMEN! My peers annoy me when they deny that things have worth. I believe that everything I buy has worth, otherwise I wouldn't buy it. I am a teen, but I don't belong to the "everything should be free" category.
I also resent the assumption that geeks are not politically active. I plan on voting in my first presidential election in November, and I am following the race and the various stands of the candidates eagerly.
My main point of disagreement is this: What's more, it's ridiculous to cast corporations as an Evil Empire trying to crush the plucky, charming geeks who can see how "culture" is changing around them. Even as the Net lets people express themselves more individually, it also spreads a common culture, full of common language and terms and beliefs which can themselves become tyrannical. Before writing "Geeks," you should have sat down and read some Alexis de Tocqueville. I believe that corporations CAN be bad. I don't recall the exact instance, but I believe Ford made some cars that were prone to fuel tank explosions. Later, it was found that the executives KNEW about the problem, but they decide d it would be cheaper to settle lawsuits from people that were killed than recall and fix the tanks. WHY? The corporation was placing a pittance of a value on human life. One could even argue that their shareholders BOUND them to maximize profits, even at the expense of human life. Why do we have an EPA? Because left to their own devices, producers would harm the general public health with pollutants in order to maximize profits. Why do we have an FDA? Again, left to their own devices, producers may put carcinogenic substances, among others, in our food. In a perfect capitalist world, people would find out about this and they would force the companies to cessate those activities. However, we don't live in a perfect capitalist society. How many people do you know that say they're against sweatshop labor but don't check where their products come from? Corporations MAY be bad guys!
All things told, I prefer to purchase most of my products from small producers, rather than large. But that's a personal choice, I choose with my dollars. There is a place for AOL, as there is a place for a local ISP run by 2 guys in the basement of a realty company.
I totally agree. People seem to constantly forget that there is no such thing as a free lunch. The worst of it all is, the *ultimate* cost of items goes UP as advertising increases. Say that I have one of these accursed cell phones. Say my local computer store decides to broadcast an ad to me on this gadget. It costs them money. However, they pay more money to get me the ad than I would have paid for that chunk of cell time, you're adding middlemen to the broth. Middlemen are the scourge of prices today, and the situation is worsening. The age of factory outlets is dying, folks.
This brings up a question as I just bought a new Athlon system. I got a Microstar 6167 motherboard that doesn't have temperature sensors on it. There's a fan on the cpu, a fan on the power supply, and I just put a fan behind the processor on the case (blow out) and a fan on the front of the case (blow in). Now I'm getting complaints about the noise level of my computer.:P I was thinking of unplugging the front fan to reduce noise a bit. But I don't know how that will affect the temperature of this 650 mhz k7.
I was considering pasting parts of DoubleClick's "privacy" policy and critiquing them, but it's much easier just to opt out of their little cookie system. They replace their userid string in your cookie with a string: OPT_OUT. If enough people do this, their little database scheme will be worthless... muahahah!
As I read through the comments posted on this topic, I see people boast about the amount of MP3's they have. Perhaps there is a dearth of morals at/. I believe that most people want to support the production of music that they like. I certainly do. To those of you who argue that most of my money is going to the big record companies, I say that's OK. Why? Because someone has to take the risk to make the CD's. If an artist isn't making enough money from their label, they are not prevented from moving to another label. (free market economy) There are lots of independent labels out there. As proof that an independent label can "make it" I show Manheim Steamroller. Chip Davis, AFAIK, started American Gramaphone for the group. I have no problems finding American Gramaphone CD's anywhere. To those of you who say that "I'm just one person, what do I matter?" Why do you have such a low sense of self-worth? One person can make a difference. It's just an escape from any moral accountability. Don't make yourself into one of those Script Kiddies that inevitably end up being portrayed as typical geeks in mass media. Show that you will reward the effort of the people who create and bring music to you.
The problem with www.macdonalds.food.us is not that it is hard for geeks to remember, but it is hard for people to remember. There have been comments posted on slashdot in the past about "chunking," the process by which our brain keeps information together. www.company.com is "chunked" and the www and.com are ingrained in people's minds. Getting Joe Blow or my parents to remember.comp.us or.food.us would destroy their chunking, and would destroy the burgeoning growth of the internet because it is (a) innocuous and (b) trendy. www.macdonalds.food.us doesn't have the ring that www.mcwebsite.com has.
I totally agree. What I'm wondering is, is this inevitable with software? Does every software package eventually get the feature creep sickness? Or is it because a certain development model is broken? I don't use TeX at all (mainly because I can't find a book on it.) so I can't speak for any quality of bugfreeness in that. But what seems to me is happening, is that Microsoft is setting the speed for the free developers. They are pushed by some invisible force to keep adding new features, or else people start saying the project is "dead".
I seriously agree with this. Heck, my Apple IIGS upstairs gathering dust had a better case design than my computer that i'm typing this on. The drive cable design is particularly onerous in all the computers i've seen. Some simple standoffs would help tremendously. Just plastic things with cable guides in them or something. The cpu and case fans need to be guarded from being clogged by those cables. Unfortunately, the general feeling in computer design today is "as cheap as possible." That is why we use IDE drives (you all know that SCSI drives would be cheaper if they were produced at the same quantities of IDE ones.) I mean, honestly, people WOULD find computers easier if they had SCSI for scanners, etc, etc.
Slashdot Mirror
I read the glossy article(s?) in IEEE Spectrum. Good read and really puts all the armchair EEs to shame. It's really sad that mythbusters didn't take the time to absorb some of the studies before misinforming so many people.
Anyone who's interested in a sampling from the history of electronic music should check out a CD set called Ohm: The early gurus of electronic music.
. html
Well worth the price, I think.
Review here: http://www.classical-music-review.org/reviews/OHM
Heisenberg's uncertainty principle doesn't apply to just measurements in the traditional sense that you're probably thinking of. A lot of things that happen are "measurements", such as light passing through a slit (it's a position measurement).
But the fact remains that there's no way to figure out things about a particle without it interacting with something in some way shape or form.
I'm not sure if that's quite the explanation you were looking for, but it's not one of the simpler concepts to explain without some demonstrations and diagrams.
Airport extreme cards don't work under linux, I'm told... so you're not much better off there.
Heat exchangers exist and are being used commonly, hell, I just saw one on This Old House last week. This keeps ventilation up and moisture down while losing much less heat.
Legislation like this is indicitave of a large movement in our government to legislate away whatever someone or another doesn't like. Witness the vilification of "big tobacco" and the BANS of smoking on *private property* owned by businesses in cities like Duluth, MN. "Ohh, the CHILDREN are hurt by secondhand smoke!"
My reponse to that, of course, is, DON'T GO THERE. Don't tell everyone else that they can't smoke in a restaurant unless the restaurant decides that IT wants to ban smoking for themselves!
Gradually things will be targeted that someone objects to, until life is reduced to a plain, bland, pointless existence. Cigarettes, "violent" video games, alcohol, guns, cars that are bigger than a Geo Metro, you name it, they will be chased down by these types of people.
All you who think marijuana should be legal, stick up for the cigarette smokers before cigarettes become illegal.
The slashdot editors just like toys. Palms are too practical for them. They want a device that will play mp3's and crunch seti@home while they walk. Sad but true.
I'm also dubious that Sony will sell an ethernet card which doesn't require Sony ISP service, or some other subscription model... so if the X box is open enough to allow me to hook it up to my home network and play across the Internet I'll consider it a significant improvement over the PS2.
And I'm dubious that Microsoft will allow the X-box to just connect to any ethernet hookup, they could more easily force you to get MSN, after all, they HAVE the infrastructure for MSN in place, whereas Sony does not run an ISP to the best of my knowledge. (Doesn't stop them from using another isp as a partner.)
Personally, I'm waiting to see what comes out with more cool games and the prices to drop below early adopter levels. Until then, my trusty Playstation (original) and N64 and SNES will serve my entertainment needs quite nicely.
Office 95 has some downconverters from office 97 at least...
I remember using the word 97 converter when I still used Office 95. (the last GOOD, FUNCTIONAL version of Office. This is the Office that made Office king.)
Whee, you were trolled pretty good there!
Amen to that. I keep seeing the articles on the TV news shows about the Wayne County task force, and every time I see those, I just sit there and think, "This is a sheriff just trying to make a name for himself to seek better political office."
Wayne County, do the rest of the country a favor and get that task force disbanded.
I think everyone is sick of hearing about a sheriff in ONE COUNTY out of THOUSANDS in the country thinking that HIS FORCE will clean up the whole wide world of the Internet. He needs a clue.
There's a big difference between quake and DirecTV. DirecTV is a *service* provided each month to people. Quake is a product that you buy.
By the way, many software programs make efforts to keep cracked versions from playing. It's a fact of life. I don't see how this relates to privacy violations.
Since software doesn't stick around for more than a few years, unlike a satellite dish, there is time for more involved anti-piracy. (especially because the monthly revenue of Hughes comes from these, whereas the software only produces revenue once.)
Ah! I just remembered, I saw it in Linux Journal, I think it was an interview with ESR. Go check their archives.
I think this is old news, I remember seeing speculation about this months ago.
The obvious problem with your post is that you *don't* have to return a car to the dealer for routine service and it *doesn't* void your warranty. I can go get an oil change at Jiffy Lube or a new set of brakes from Meineke, and it does nothing to shorten the warranty. It's a law that was passed a long time ago.
Oh, but you're on to something with your computer manufacturer idea. Already you're seeing Gateway with their leasing program, having you trade your computer in every 2 years or so.
Privacy Manager is the most asinine piece of shit that Ameritech has ever come up with. They are screwing both ends. The telemarketer pays them to make the call, and then you're paying them to deny it. It should NOT cost money to not get unsolicited phone calls. AND YOU STILL HAVE TO ANSWER THE PHONE, interrupting whatever you were doing anyway. And you can get a little button with a voice chip in it that says "please add me to your do not call list" for a lot cheaper and a single fee.
Honestly.
Besides, it doesn't deal with the issue of slamming. Slamming *IS* illegal, they may NOT change your long distance carrier without your permission, go file a complaint with the state AG, as slamming is getting a lot of attention these days.
Ah, a perfect reply to some of the bad points in JKatz's article. While I agree with most of your points, I have to take a couple to task.
First, praises.
This is not a culture gap, and there is no acceptable reason for lawmakers, musicians and other copyright holders to be held hostage by people who don't want to pay for anything. AMEN! My peers annoy me when they deny that things have worth. I believe that everything I buy has worth, otherwise I wouldn't buy it. I am a teen, but I don't belong to the "everything should be free" category.
I also resent the assumption that geeks are not politically active. I plan on voting in my first presidential election in November, and I am following the race and the various stands of the candidates eagerly.
My main point of disagreement is this:
What's more, it's ridiculous to cast corporations as an Evil Empire trying to crush the plucky, charming geeks who can see how "culture" is changing around them. Even as the Net lets people express themselves more individually, it also spreads a common culture, full of common language and terms and beliefs which can themselves become tyrannical. Before writing "Geeks," you should have sat down and read some Alexis de Tocqueville.
I believe that corporations CAN be bad. I don't recall the exact instance, but I believe Ford made some cars that were prone to fuel tank explosions. Later, it was found that the executives KNEW about the problem, but they decide d it would be cheaper to settle lawsuits from people that were killed than recall and fix the tanks. WHY? The corporation was placing a pittance of a value on human life. One could even argue that their shareholders BOUND them to maximize profits, even at the expense of human life. Why do we have an EPA? Because left to their own devices, producers would harm the general public health with pollutants in order to maximize profits. Why do we have an FDA? Again, left to their own devices, producers may put carcinogenic substances, among others, in our food. In a perfect capitalist world, people would find out about this and they would force the companies to cessate those activities. However, we don't live in a perfect capitalist society. How many people do you know that say they're against sweatshop labor but don't check where their products come from? Corporations MAY be bad guys!
All things told, I prefer to purchase most of my products from small producers, rather than large. But that's a personal choice, I choose with my dollars. There is a place for AOL, as there is a place for a local ISP run by 2 guys in the basement of a realty company.
I totally agree. People seem to constantly forget that there is no such thing as a free lunch. The worst of it all is, the *ultimate* cost of items goes UP as advertising increases. Say that I have one of these accursed cell phones. Say my local computer store decides to broadcast an ad to me on this gadget. It costs them money. However, they pay more money to get me the ad than I would have paid for that chunk of cell time, you're adding middlemen to the broth. Middlemen are the scourge of prices today, and the situation is worsening. The age of factory outlets is dying, folks.
This brings up a question as I just bought a new Athlon system. I got a Microstar 6167 motherboard that doesn't have temperature sensors on it. There's a fan on the cpu, a fan on the power supply, and I just put a fan behind the processor on the case (blow out) and a fan on the front of the case (blow in). Now I'm getting complaints about the noise level of my computer. :P
I was thinking of unplugging the front fan to reduce noise a bit. But I don't know how that will affect the temperature of this 650 mhz k7.
Tips/Tricks anyone?
http://www.doubleclick.net/optout/defau lt.asp
As I read through the comments posted on this topic, I see people boast about the amount of MP3's they have. Perhaps there is a dearth of morals at /. I believe that most people want to support the production of music that they like. I certainly do. To those of you who argue that most of my money is going to the big record companies, I say that's OK. Why? Because someone has to take the risk to make the CD's. If an artist isn't making enough money from their label, they are not prevented from moving to another label. (free market economy) There are lots of independent labels out there. As proof that an independent label can "make it" I show Manheim Steamroller. Chip Davis, AFAIK, started American Gramaphone for the group. I have no problems finding American Gramaphone CD's anywhere. To those of you who say that "I'm just one person, what do I matter?" Why do you have such a low sense of self-worth? One person can make a difference. It's just an escape from any moral accountability. Don't make yourself into one of those Script Kiddies that inevitably end up being portrayed as typical geeks in mass media. Show that you will reward the effort of the people who create and bring music to you.
The problem with www.macdonalds.food.us is not that it is hard for geeks to remember, but it is hard for people to remember. There have been comments posted on slashdot in the past about "chunking," the process by which our brain keeps information together. www.company.com is "chunked" and the www and .com are ingrained in people's minds. Getting Joe Blow or my parents to remember .comp.us or .food.us would destroy their chunking, and would destroy the burgeoning growth of the internet because it is (a) innocuous and (b) trendy. www.macdonalds.food.us doesn't have the ring that www.mcwebsite.com has.
I totally agree. What I'm wondering is, is this inevitable with software? Does every software package eventually get the feature creep sickness? Or is it because a certain development model is broken? I don't use TeX at all (mainly because I can't find a book on it.) so I can't speak for any quality of bugfreeness in that. But what seems to me is happening, is that Microsoft is setting the speed for the free developers. They are pushed by some invisible force to keep adding new features, or else people start saying the project is "dead".
I seriously agree with this. Heck, my Apple IIGS upstairs gathering dust had a better case design than my computer that i'm typing this on. The drive cable design is particularly onerous in all the computers i've seen. Some simple standoffs would help tremendously. Just plastic things with cable guides in them or something. The cpu and case fans need to be guarded from being clogged by those cables. Unfortunately, the general feeling in computer design today is "as cheap as possible." That is why we use IDE drives (you all know that SCSI drives would be cheaper if they were produced at the same quantities of IDE ones.) I mean, honestly, people WOULD find computers easier if they had SCSI for scanners, etc, etc.
Just my 2 tenths of ten cents.