Well, you can order NOS slide rules from Faber-Castell in Germany TODAY (via their internet/web storefront no less) so I'm not sure that we can count that particular technology as obsolete just yet.
It has indeed been a while since they were produced, I'll grant you that.
Why hasn't the fax machine died yet? Who is it in the installed base that refuses to move on?
It can't be more reliable or less forgery-prone for medical/legal stuff, can it?
I always wonder about this whenever I absolutely, positively, have to send some dinosaur a fax.
I was just today having the almost-annual conversation with some electronics hobbyists about this. Where do you see their business going? Have you ever been involved in their business other than as an author? (Sorry, two questions in one post.)
And, as so many others have said: thank you for the education and also VERY much for the graph-paper!
Yeah, I just got a little PogoPlug device (Seagate DockStar) off of Woot! for less than $50 shipped, 4 USB ports (for external drives) & 1 Ethernet port, hackable (so I read) - kind of a no brainer. Going to replace a small tower for my BitTorrent serving if I can get it set up right. It'll do file serving right out of the box, both to my LAN and also facing the Internet.
Some folks on Woot! were saying Office Depot has had this as a promotion for ONE dollar.
Agreed, very very much. Netbooks are so handy they will not be going anywhere any time soon - what will happen is cleverer and cleverer geeks will find ways to make them do more and more.
What you wrote was pretty much what I was going to post . . . .
They would have had some decent success with this model in 1995, I think. The horse is WAY out of the barn now.
I've got a metal-envelope RCA 6N7 tube (dual triode with a common cathode) in my stereo system's power amplifier that dates back to the pre-WWII area. And some of the other parts in that amp are of the same vintage, including the power transformer and a few resistors.
I bought a netbook for my wife which had windows pre-loaded, the first thing I did was install Ubuntu on it.
I've booted Windows once since the original install to upgrade firmware, so I guess that netbook is counted in their stats.
I know I had an electric typewriter, that was pretty sexy hardware for 1978.
Nobody had email, that much I'm sure of.
Some of my friends went to Carnegie Mellon, which was considered to be in the forefront, and I think they had to submit their papers electronically, or at least, they did use the comp lab, I remember that much.... feel... old...
I was gonna say harvest the magnets too - nothing like a hard drive magnet to keep stuff from falling off of your fridge! Plus they are weird shapes so they look odd and artistic on the fridge.
On my MacBook, resetting the PMU goes like this:
shut down/
remove AC adapter plug/
remove battery/
hold power button down and count to 30 or so/
put it all back together and start up (and run fsck -fy while you're at it just for shits and giggles)/ Profit!
What are you supposed to do if this model needs resetting? You can't tell me they'd add back a reset button on this gorgeous piece of sculptural aluminum, that'd piss Jobs off something fierce.
Oh my God! I had completely forgotten about the pain in the balls that was Kermit . . . . I had a client I used to have to upload stuff to using Kermit after the close of business. You'd do it the same every time, whether it'd work would seemingly depend on whether she was wearing a skirt or pants.
The light bulbs are used (in series with the AC line) as current limiters - what you are protecting against is sudden current draw due to shorted/leaky capacitors. They work great, are cheap and easy to wire up, come in various ratings, and do something that a voltmeter cannot do.
LOL yourself.
Pick a sample of users - some tech-savvy, some not - who interoperate with others still using microsoftware. A pilot should bring out the most pressing points of contact and show whether or not the compatibility level is adequate.
The best program I've seen started with the teachers - you can't get teachers to build tech-savviness into their lessons overnight. Without that part, the kids will just mess around with the computers mostly and text each other all day like they are already doing on their phones. With some actual tech purpose to the computers, the kids will be a lot more likely to head in an educational direction with the hardware you give them.
So the school got teachers up and running first, and provided lots of PD for them, and supported the coalmine-canaries who went out front with the technology in their classrooms. After a little while, there was a decent-sized tail that wagged the dog pretty well. The Luddite teachers eventually had to come around too because they got a whole culture going.
They way you are talking about doing it is not as good, the way I've described does take a while to come to fruition.
-j
We're way off topic here, but - try being a Math teacher some time. "Oh, I don't know how to add and subtract, my kid does that for me." WTF? Are you kidding me? So you're OK being ignorant?
Gaaaaah!
Slashdot Mirror
No, he's a human being.
Well, you can order NOS slide rules from Faber-Castell in Germany TODAY (via their internet/web storefront no less) so I'm not sure that we can count that particular technology as obsolete just yet. It has indeed been a while since they were produced, I'll grant you that.
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/com...
Why hasn't the fax machine died yet? Who is it in the installed base that refuses to move on? It can't be more reliable or less forgery-prone for medical/legal stuff, can it? I always wonder about this whenever I absolutely, positively, have to send some dinosaur a fax.
I was just today having the almost-annual conversation with some electronics hobbyists about this. Where do you see their business going? Have you ever been involved in their business other than as an author? (Sorry, two questions in one post.) And, as so many others have said: thank you for the education and also VERY much for the graph-paper!
Yeah, I just got a little PogoPlug device (Seagate DockStar) off of Woot! for less than $50 shipped, 4 USB ports (for external drives) & 1 Ethernet port, hackable (so I read) - kind of a no brainer. Going to replace a small tower for my BitTorrent serving if I can get it set up right. It'll do file serving right out of the box, both to my LAN and also facing the Internet. Some folks on Woot! were saying Office Depot has had this as a promotion for ONE dollar.
That color/b&W strip was my all-time favorite - especially when Dad reminds Calvin that many artists are insane. A classic.
Agreed, very very much. Netbooks are so handy they will not be going anywhere any time soon - what will happen is cleverer and cleverer geeks will find ways to make them do more and more.
What you wrote was pretty much what I was going to post . . . . They would have had some decent success with this model in 1995, I think. The horse is WAY out of the barn now.
I've got a metal-envelope RCA 6N7 tube (dual triode with a common cathode) in my stereo system's power amplifier that dates back to the pre-WWII area. And some of the other parts in that amp are of the same vintage, including the power transformer and a few resistors.
I bought a netbook for my wife which had windows pre-loaded, the first thing I did was install Ubuntu on it. I've booted Windows once since the original install to upgrade firmware, so I guess that netbook is counted in their stats.
I know I had an electric typewriter, that was pretty sexy hardware for 1978. Nobody had email, that much I'm sure of. Some of my friends went to Carnegie Mellon, which was considered to be in the forefront, and I think they had to submit their papers electronically, or at least, they did use the comp lab, I remember that much. ... feel ... old ...
I was gonna say harvest the magnets too - nothing like a hard drive magnet to keep stuff from falling off of your fridge! Plus they are weird shapes so they look odd and artistic on the fridge.
He knows not what he's done.
On my MacBook, resetting the PMU goes like this: shut down/ remove AC adapter plug/ remove battery/ hold power button down and count to 30 or so/ put it all back together and start up (and run fsck -fy while you're at it just for shits and giggles)/ Profit! What are you supposed to do if this model needs resetting? You can't tell me they'd add back a reset button on this gorgeous piece of sculptural aluminum, that'd piss Jobs off something fierce.
Both the same article - my wedding announcement.
Oh my God! I had completely forgotten about the pain in the balls that was Kermit . . . . I had a client I used to have to upload stuff to using Kermit after the close of business. You'd do it the same every time, whether it'd work would seemingly depend on whether she was wearing a skirt or pants.
http://www.amazon.com/Mathematicians-Delight-Dover-Science-Books/dp/0486462404 Some great stuff including finite differences that I use in teaching all the time. Sawyer was interested in mechanical representations of mathematical ideas, makes for an interesting slant on things. Anything you can find by Sawyer is worth a look. A Path To Modern Mathematics is also good but harder to find/out of print. http://www.amazon.com/Path-Modern-Mathematics-W-Sawyer/dp/B000GRL6ZA
It's gotten so bad, it's not even any fun to mock them anymore - machine-gunning fish in a barrel is a challenge by comparison.
The light bulbs are used (in series with the AC line) as current limiters - what you are protecting against is sudden current draw due to shorted/leaky capacitors. They work great, are cheap and easy to wire up, come in various ratings, and do something that a voltmeter cannot do. LOL yourself.
In a local establishment: "Unattended children will be given a shot of espresso and a puppy."
Pick a sample of users - some tech-savvy, some not - who interoperate with others still using microsoftware. A pilot should bring out the most pressing points of contact and show whether or not the compatibility level is adequate.
The best program I've seen started with the teachers - you can't get teachers to build tech-savviness into their lessons overnight. Without that part, the kids will just mess around with the computers mostly and text each other all day like they are already doing on their phones. With some actual tech purpose to the computers, the kids will be a lot more likely to head in an educational direction with the hardware you give them. So the school got teachers up and running first, and provided lots of PD for them, and supported the coalmine-canaries who went out front with the technology in their classrooms. After a little while, there was a decent-sized tail that wagged the dog pretty well. The Luddite teachers eventually had to come around too because they got a whole culture going. They way you are talking about doing it is not as good, the way I've described does take a while to come to fruition. -j
We're way off topic here, but - try being a Math teacher some time. "Oh, I don't know how to add and subtract, my kid does that for me." WTF? Are you kidding me? So you're OK being ignorant? Gaaaaah!
. . . than "trial by ordeal" or "death by bulu"?