I had to laugh when someone, years ago, got this watch with LCD simulated 'hands' - there was an hour hand, minute hand and second hand, all simulated in glorious digital LCD display. Yeeetch.
Radio stations today have something called 'cache box' which can take all the small periods of dead air in a talk show and add them up to an extra 4 minutes/hour or so (1 extra minute per 1/4 hr break) - can't find anything about it with Google but, uh, Limbaugh talked about it.
I couldn't live w/o the handy countdown timer
(for muting ads on radio and knowing when to turn it back up. In what I listen to the break for ads are always exactly 4 minutes long) or the stopwatch for benchmarking stuff.
Very Interesting!! Both replies to my post said they would fight back to protect themselves. Seems rather hipicritical to criticize the US taking military action to protect itself now doesn't it?
Last point: Yes, if someone just up and punched me I would like to get the police on it and press charges. But there is no such police in the world between nation-states (other than, appearently, the US, which is to a large extent why we're so much despised I guess).
Or did it? Seems I heard once the IBM got in trouble for their attempts to 'lock in' customers by playing games with connectors, similar to Msft's API's. All I can find is this:
[from: http://163.18.14.55/datapro/06090-1.htm]
"A System/390 plug-compatible system is a mainframe computer or other device (such as a storage or tape subsystem) supplied by a vendor that interfaces to IBM's systems or which can substitute for IBM's equipment and run the same programs and peripherals without modification. The original IBM PCM market was effectively created over 40 years ago with the 1956 Consent Decree--the landmark U.S. antitrust legislation that forced IBM to share its technology with other manufacturers. The terms of that decree were largely revoked in January 1996, however. PCM manufacturers are sometimes called "IBMulators" or software-compatible vendor (SCVs)."
I think that antitrust action is necessary to create an "Msft Compatible Application" MARKET (not "monopoly") which will encourage competition, innovation and ultimately benefit the consumer, similar to action taken with IBM to create the Plug Compatible Mainframe MARKET.
[cut/paste]
What to do if you happen upon a peace rally by stupid, naive hemp-shirt-wearing idiots, to teach them why force is needed:
1) approach dumb rich ignorant person talking about "peace" and saying there should be "no retaliation"
2) have brief conversation, ask if military force is appropriate
3) when he says "No," ask, "Why not?"
4) when he says, "Because that would just cause more innocent deaths, which would be awful, and we should not cause more violence"
5) punch him in the face . . . hard
6) when he gets up to punch you back, point out that it would be a mistake, and contrary to his values ~ to punch you ~ because he would be just increasing the violence.
7) when he agrees that he has pledged not to commit violence, punch him in the face again . . . harder this time.
8) repeat steps 2 through 8 until he understands that sometimes it is necessary to punch back.
That was a network, like Tymnet or something, that sold their after business hours capacity to hobbyists for an affordable price, about 1985-7 or so. With PCPersuit you could expolore the BBS scene in anyone of 35 or so major matropolitan area from any town with an dialup access # w/o running up a huge long distance bill. You connect your 300 baud modem (1200 if your cool) to a local access #, then issue some commands to a dial OUT modem in, say, Atlanta, to connect to a BBS there and viola, your online long distance cheaply, flat rate. Every BBS you find usually had a list of other local BBS's so it was a quickly expanding tree of boards to connect up with.
One time I got a modem in, say, Atlanta to dialup, not a BBS but the PCPersuit access # there, and got dialout in Chicago, connected to the PCP access # in Chicago to connect to Denver, and daisy chained THAT to LA, etc....
Any, for a modest monthy fee it really opened up a huge world of BBS's you could really waste tons of time on...
It sits collecting dust below a table in my partner's cellar. We will never dispose of it.
You might want to make a project of archiving any surviving public discussion boards (and the software to read it!) to a CD or something, just to preserve a backup copy of a 'snapshot' of a time.
I've found some archives of discussions on timeshare systems from around 1980 before - it's an interesting perspective into the events of the day - like what people thought about this new President Reagan guy, 3 Mile Island, Iran, etc;)
This article examines the task of creating a wireless communication system that can survive a catastrophic failure, and still provide basic communication services to its users.
It's called Amateur or 'ham' radio - every year they have an event called 'field day' which is an exercise in taking your gear out and operating on generators, etc. 2 Meter handy talkies can work thru a repeater or direct simplex (peer-to-peer) if the repeater is down.
I'll never forget listening to a ham during hurricane floyd, w/o power, operating on emergency backup power, 80 meter band, crouched in his garage on the NCarolina cost reporting the fierce winds in the night.
Just read on cnet where Ray Noorda of Novell used to call the guys at Msft Bill "Pearly" Gates who promises you the heavens while Steve "The Embalmer" prepares the body for burial.
"Intuitive" is not a scientifically definable absolute independant of the observer, it's a subjective cultural bias in fact. For example, the other day one workstation was bluescreening with disk errors, unable to write to c: After Ghost copying everything to a new disk it did the same, exact thing. The had user put this thing call "Go Back" (from Adaptec) on it so that if any changes to Windows wipes out everything, you can 'go back' to the config you had before it got trashed. Due to many years experience working with Msft prods, my INTUITION says, "This is a software problem". And then I had to use Linux fdisk to delete the GoBack partition because the Win98 fdisk couldn't! (to wipe the disk and reinstall everything) It takes over your disk somehow.
Well, computer security is kinda like airport security - as Bruce Schneier put it, most security being put in place is conspicuous and designed to GET PEOPLE FLYING again, not actually to 'secure' the place. It's all show bisiness in the marketplace, perception is reality and all that. Unless it is 1) legislated mandatory or 2) customers demand it, cash strapped businesses aren't going to implement it.
MacBinary files - What's a "MacBinary file"? I don't know where the "options" are! These new Mac's are way too difficult to use - It was much easier when I had Windows, you just plug it in and USE it without have to mess with all these details - I'm not a 'guru' you know!
That's why I'm very seriously considering having a lawyer draw up a document for any future employers to sign that absolutely absolves ME of any responsibility for damages due to software issues, whether it's my fault or not. If Msft can make bazillions peddling crap with iron clad disclaimers, I want the same deal! I will work hard and to the best of my ability to preserve company data but the extent of any remedy for failure to do so is termination only.
I know it will never work ("We're not signing anything - Next candidate!") , but at least it will demonstrate exactely where I stand on software liability (nobody is responsible, software can do anything). If companies insist on paying Msft and then ALSO paying someone to clean up after Msft then they are just not making good business decisions. But do they have a choice? A lot of business' teetering on the brink of bankruptcy have their testicles in Msft's hands, and there's not much they can do about it.
It's almost like some small town with an evil mechanic - he's a very bad mechanic but people have no choice. If any other car repair shop opens up they have mysterious unfortunate "accidents" and get driven out of town, leaving that one damn mechanic that people have to go to or walk, and there's nothing they can do about it; he's the mayors nephew or something and the corrupt town govt can't do anything either.
newspapers tend to "correct" reality a bit in order to make their articles sound more "strong".
So, shouldn't media be required to publish a little disclaimer somewhere, "The events in these reports have been dramatized for theatrical purposes." I've long been wary of the media's attemps to blur the line between reality and fantasy, particularly in a democracy, and even more so during a crisis. Sure it makes big bucks for Hollywood to get people to suspend disbelief, but that's not appropriate for an organ that claims to be some journal of record.
Slashdot Mirror
I had to laugh when someone, years ago, got this watch with LCD simulated 'hands' - there was an hour hand, minute hand and second hand, all simulated in glorious digital LCD display. Yeeetch.
Radio stations today have something called 'cache box' which can take all the small periods of dead air in a talk show and add them up to an extra 4 minutes/hour or so (1 extra minute per 1/4 hr break) - can't find anything about it with Google but, uh, Limbaugh talked about it.
I might just switch back to a digital.
Timothy doesn't use a digital watch? Why??
I couldn't live w/o the handy countdown timer
(for muting ads on radio and knowing when to turn it back up. In what I listen to the break for ads are always exactly 4 minutes long) or the stopwatch for benchmarking stuff.
Very Interesting!! Both replies to my post said they would fight back to protect themselves. Seems rather hipicritical to criticize the US taking military action to protect itself now doesn't it?
Last point: Yes, if someone just up and punched me I would like to get the police on it and press charges. But there is no such police in the world between nation-states (other than, appearently, the US, which is to a large extent why we're so much despised I guess).
Or did it? Seems I heard once the IBM got in trouble for their attempts to 'lock in' customers by playing games with connectors, similar to Msft's API's. All I can find is this:
[from: http://163.18.14.55/datapro/06090-1.htm]
"A System/390 plug-compatible system is a mainframe computer or other device (such as a storage or tape subsystem) supplied by a vendor that interfaces to IBM's systems or which can substitute for IBM's equipment and run the same programs and peripherals without modification. The original IBM PCM market was effectively created over 40 years ago with the 1956 Consent Decree--the landmark U.S. antitrust legislation that forced IBM to share its technology with other manufacturers. The terms of that decree were largely revoked in January 1996, however. PCM manufacturers are sometimes called "IBMulators" or software-compatible vendor (SCVs)."
I think that antitrust action is necessary to create an "Msft Compatible Application" MARKET (not "monopoly") which will encourage competition, innovation and ultimately benefit the consumer, similar to action taken with IBM to create the Plug Compatible Mainframe MARKET.
Cf. also connector conspiracy.
I was going to post the same thing (and it wouldn't have been good either).
violence is not the answer.
[cut/paste]
What to do if you happen upon a peace rally by stupid, naive hemp-shirt-wearing idiots, to teach them why force is needed:
1) approach dumb rich ignorant person talking about "peace" and saying there should be "no retaliation"
2) have brief conversation, ask if military force is appropriate
3) when he says "No," ask, "Why not?"
4) when he says, "Because that would just cause more innocent deaths, which would be awful, and we should not cause more violence"
5) punch him in the face . . . hard
6) when he gets up to punch you back, point out that it would be a mistake, and contrary to his values ~ to punch you ~ because he would be just increasing the violence.
7) when he agrees that he has pledged not to commit violence, punch him in the face again . . . harder this time.
8) repeat steps 2 through 8 until he understands that sometimes it is necessary to punch back.
That was a network, like Tymnet or something, that sold their after business hours capacity to hobbyists for an affordable price, about 1985-7 or so. With PCPersuit you could expolore the BBS scene in anyone of 35 or so major matropolitan area from any town with an dialup access # w/o running up a huge long distance bill. You connect your 300 baud modem (1200 if your cool) to a local access #, then issue some commands to a dial OUT modem in, say, Atlanta, to connect to a BBS there and viola, your online long distance cheaply, flat rate. Every BBS you find usually had a list of other local BBS's so it was a quickly expanding tree of boards to connect up with.
One time I got a modem in, say, Atlanta to dialup, not a BBS but the PCPersuit access # there, and got dialout in Chicago, connected to the PCP access # in Chicago to connect to Denver, and daisy chained THAT to LA, etc....
Any, for a modest monthy fee it really opened up a huge world of BBS's you could really waste tons of time on...
202 meg WD Caviar and a HUGE 1.275 meg Conner
;)
you mean 1.275 Gig?
It sits collecting dust below a table in my partner's cellar. We will never dispose of it.
You might want to make a project of archiving any surviving public discussion boards (and the software to read it!) to a CD or something, just to preserve a backup copy of a 'snapshot' of a time.
I've found some archives of discussions on timeshare systems from around 1980 before - it's an interesting perspective into the events of the day - like what people thought about this new President Reagan guy, 3 Mile Island, Iran, etc
Right here.
- Blob
- Cluster
- Clump
- Hemos
- Swarm
Yes, I just booted up my FreeBSD disk and it's still running just fine...
Just do like Msft - resort to trickery & deception and preload it at boot time. Then your demo will appear in seconds.
This article examines the task of creating a wireless communication system that can survive a catastrophic failure, and still provide basic communication services to its users.
It's called Amateur or 'ham' radio - every year they have an event called 'field day' which is an exercise in taking your gear out and operating on generators, etc. 2 Meter handy talkies can work thru a repeater or direct simplex (peer-to-peer) if the repeater is down.
I'll never forget listening to a ham during hurricane floyd, w/o power, operating on emergency backup power, 80 meter band, crouched in his garage on the NCarolina cost reporting the fierce winds in the night.
their stock price and business model, Yahoo! should probably change their name to OhShit!
Just read on cnet where Ray Noorda of Novell used to call the guys at Msft Bill "Pearly" Gates who promises you the heavens while Steve "The Embalmer" prepares the body for burial.
So far I count 37 occurances of the word "Hindenburg" in this discussion (39 now!).
"Intuitive" is not a scientifically definable absolute independant of the observer, it's a subjective cultural bias in fact. For example, the other day one workstation was bluescreening with disk errors, unable to write to c: After Ghost copying everything to a new disk it did the same, exact thing. The had user put this thing call "Go Back" (from Adaptec) on it so that if any changes to Windows wipes out everything, you can 'go back' to the config you had before it got trashed. Due to many years experience working with Msft prods, my INTUITION says, "This is a software problem". And then I had to use Linux fdisk to delete the GoBack partition because the Win98 fdisk couldn't! (to wipe the disk and reinstall everything) It takes over your disk somehow.
True story from the McSE file.
"Windows vulnerability" is technically a tautology.
[look that up in your Funk & Wagonals.]
Well, computer security is kinda like airport security - as Bruce Schneier put it, most security being put in place is conspicuous and designed to GET PEOPLE FLYING again, not actually to 'secure' the place. It's all show bisiness in the marketplace, perception is reality and all that. Unless it is 1) legislated mandatory or 2) customers demand it, cash strapped businesses aren't going to implement it.
MacBinary files - What's a "MacBinary file"? I don't know where the "options" are! These new Mac's are way too difficult to use - It was much easier when I had Windows, you just plug it in and USE it without have to mess with all these details - I'm not a 'guru' you know!
I hope it's not where I'm thinking, like how they used to take your temperature as a kid.
of contributing to global worming. They need to cut back their toxic emissions immediately before it's too late to save the planet.
I'd call Legal to have them sue your ass
That's why I'm very seriously considering having a lawyer draw up a document for any future employers to sign that absolutely absolves ME of any responsibility for damages due to software issues, whether it's my fault or not. If Msft can make bazillions peddling crap with iron clad disclaimers, I want the same deal! I will work hard and to the best of my ability to preserve company data but the extent of any remedy for failure to do so is termination only.
I know it will never work ("We're not signing anything - Next candidate!") , but at least it will demonstrate exactely where I stand on software liability (nobody is responsible, software can do anything). If companies insist on paying Msft and then ALSO paying someone to clean up after Msft then they are just not making good business decisions. But do they have a choice? A lot of business' teetering on the brink of bankruptcy have their testicles in Msft's hands, and there's not much they can do about it.
It's almost like some small town with an evil mechanic - he's a very bad mechanic but people have no choice. If any other car repair shop opens up they have mysterious unfortunate "accidents" and get driven out of town, leaving that one damn mechanic that people have to go to or walk, and there's nothing they can do about it; he's the mayors nephew or something and the corrupt town govt can't do anything either.
newspapers tend to "correct" reality a bit in order to make their articles sound more "strong".
So, shouldn't media be required to publish a little disclaimer somewhere, "The events in these reports have been dramatized for theatrical purposes." I've long been wary of the media's attemps to blur the line between reality and fantasy, particularly in a democracy, and even more so during a crisis. Sure it makes big bucks for Hollywood to get people to suspend disbelief, but that's not appropriate for an organ that claims to be some journal of record.