Seriously. If Nintendo decides that it wants to improve upon its current device in a manner that will not change Peter Smith's current DSi in any way that isn't psychological, I have a hard time seeing a problem. I have a friend who still uses the original DS. Playing with his DS convinced me to go out and buy my own which, by that time, was a DS lite and I don't plan on buying another one unless I break this one. Trumping all that, it's a bit silly to get huffy about something that's only speculation anyways.
I had to get both hepatitis and tuberculosis vaccinations back when I was working as a caretaker for developmentally disabled people back in Illinois. I have no idea whether that was a company or a state regulation, but I know it was mandatory as part of the job.
1. Guy writes an article about a product.
2. Guy gets feedback, some of it far less than civil, stating that he was being irresponsible in his product recommendations.
3. Guy, rather than dismissing the issue as no doubt many would, actually does some research and writes a follow up.
I hardly think that this qualifies as "just about the most ignorant, one-sided article" on this topic, at least among those that you've read. This guy isn't a government agency or an academic group tasked with doing research into public safety concerns so it isn't his job to launch a comprehensive study into the issue.
I get that there seem to be some credible concerns, but you aren't going to win anyone over by making hyperbolic claims about anyone that fails to agree with you. Posting "ignorant, one-sided" insult laden posts on Slashdot isn't exactly helping your cause.
A few years ago I worked at Office Depot for about a month while I was looking for other work. I was hired on as a stocker, though they'd occasionally have me cover the computer department when we were short staffed. At our store, management set a quota for each employee for how many service plans we were supposed to sell each week with a required Saturday morning training session for any employee who did not reach their quota where we would do crap like train on these scripts and brainstorm incentive plans on how to motivate us to sell more.
I went to one of these stupid meetings and all I could say for myself is that since I worked as a stocker in office supplies, I didn't even sell anything that I could in theory have pushed a service plan on, even if I didn't think they were crap. They responded that I was mistaken because batteries were in my department and they qualified. WTF? How the hell are you supposed to sell a service plan on a pack of AA batteries? I quit before the next Saturday as I'd found another job, though I probably would have given them notice if it weren't for the crappy work environment.
A number of the founders, Thomas Jefferson included, initially thought that patents were wrong and perhaps even unconstitutional but later came to see that allowing patents to be issued in limited circumstances was beneficial for the development of ideas. However, these patents needed to be restrictive enough so as to prevent the creation of monopolies and also to allow other inventors access, after a reasonable time, to those methods so that they could then continue the process of invention.
It is hard to see how allowing a a company to exist solely to acquire and then license the use of said patents. To do so circumvents the intention of patents by taking what would happen after the expiration of the patent, allowing other inventors to take a crack at the invention and improve upon it, and instead turns it into an odd sort of tightly controlled rental agreement.
They don't even have an actual website. If you go to , all you'll find is an under construction message. Pretty much all you can find about them online is related to suing people. I miss the good ole days of the 1790's when Thomas Jefferson would deny a patent if the inventor couldn't demonstrate a working product.
I'm not an economist so I'll be right out there and say that my eyes glaze over a bit when I'm trying to dig through all of the info on the Bureau of Labor Statistics website about their methodology. Basically, they conduct a survey of 60,000 workers and poll them on their employment status. They then break that info up into six measures which they label as U1-U6.
"Chronically Unemployed" is the wrong term and that's my mistake. The actual term the government uses is "discouraged workers."
The 7.2 figure is the Bureau of Labor Statistics U3 number. There are also a U4, U5, and U6 which are increasingly larger. The U6 figure includes "total unemployed, plus all marginally attached workers, plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all marginally attached workers." And that rate is currently at 13.5 percent.
Yeah...I recall a commentator on NPR the other day saying that there are around 3.3 unemployed workers (general, not IT specific) for every job open right now and that was before the 7.2% unemployment figure was released today. Also, the government does not include the "chronically unemployed" or "underemployed" in their figures.
It can be quite disturbing when suddenly there is bright light in your peripheral vision. If you think the cell phones are bad, though, there was a stupid woman at the theatre a bit ago that had to be asked to stop trying to read her program with an obnoxious green LED flashlight.
As one who grew up on military bases, I can tell you that you generally aren't going to find too many opportunities to park van with tinted windows and a twenty inch dish antenna in front of buildings. Yes, I'm aware that social engineers can accomplish many things and that given enough motivation and resources, there isn't likely anything that can't be broken into. That being said, what was said about unplugging computers from the net is still a good idea because all too often the problems the military is running into these days don't come from advanced espionage groups with large resource pools and dedicated staff, but rather a bored individual with access to kiddie scripts which is fairly embarrassing to them.
The Air Force has announced similar programs to this in the past with little or no actual outcome. Every now and then they have to come out with another program with a spiffy name to distract us from the fact that they can't keep kids from breaking into their networks.
The iPhone comes with a cable to connect its 30 pin proprietary dock with USB. It charges over USB.
While there may have been some fuzzy statements in there, if you reread the beginning of the post you were replying to you'll notice that he said that he'll "ONLY buy devices that use the mini-USB style connectors," and that he selected his ZEN mp3 player because of the fact that it will charge with the same style cable as his phone.
I don't believe that a cable that simply plugs into a USB jack but still takes a proprietary adapter to enable it to do so would conform to his quite narrow standards.
I beg your pardon, but chat rooms? People still use those? I thought those phased out about 10 years ago.... At this point I bet it's nothing but feds posing as kids trying to catch other feds posing as peds. Not a single person in the room isn't drawing a federal paycheck. In the interest of accuracy I submit that there are also bots pitching webcam sex shows.So: Feds posing as kids, Feds posing as peds and Bots posing as hotties pitching sex shows. Sound about right?
The Seattle location is in Belltown at 5th and Denny. It's right across from my work and I generally stop in for a drink in the morning. The exterior was more annoying than anything but I did think the six packs of Buzz were pretty neat looking. Also, I dug the uniform shirts. The location makes sense because all the touristy gawkers already horde through there taking pictures of the Space Needle.
150 sheets? seriously? You can't even get through a single ream without changing the inks? damn. I mean, you'd think they'd design these things so you can buy the two items together... (yes, yes, I know the answer is HP-branded 125 sheet reams...)
They actually do something like that for some photo printers. They're annoying little buggers and I wouldn't refill them because there just aren't enough cores around to keep them stocked and doing custom fills is generally more trouble than it's worth.
Also, keep in mind that when a print company says 150 pages it isn't really 150 pages. It's an estimated 150 pages at 5% page coverage. I've found 5% to be a rather low estimate for the average surface area used in a standard document. If you start printing anything with graphics in it, get ready to toss that figure right out the window.
The printer market is kinda like the fuel market in that the companies know that no matter how much their consumers bitch and moan about the cost of consumables, they're going to keep on buying them because what are you going to do, not print? Right....
But I think the wider issue is, the continuing attempts to prevent 3rd party printer cartridges, shows blatant violation of antitrust laws.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_antitru st_law/
Its about time legal action was taken against these companies.
Yup. Controlling the aftermarket ink and toner cartridges is a blatant violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act.
Also, the standard practice of scaring consumers into thinking that their warranties are going to be voided by even looking at the refilled cartridges is in direct violation of the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act.
So, why are things so screwed up? HP, Lexmark, Canon and Epson have much larger legal departments than remanufacturers.
Everybody, even my grandma, knows that the real cost is in the consumables. People can easily make the calculation, eg: "let me see, I spend $30 more for printer Y but I get to refill, which costs me $15 less each time. Hmmm, what a tricky decision - not!"
How I wish this were true!
As a former remanufacturer of ink and toner cartridges for a national retailer, I can say that all to often isn't the case. Buying a printer is a confusing experience for many consumers. Printer packaging isn't clearly labeled to state anything about cartridge yield and certainly not remanufacturability. Also, that poor minimum wage slave at the big box office store knows next to nothing about the printer that isn't written on the selling points card next to the display model. All too often we would wind up with consumers, often those working in print-driven office environments who would purchase a printer that used low yield cartridges simply because it was on sale. A large chunk of a printer company's profit margin comes directly from the fact that customers don't ask questions.
Take, for instance, the HP 56 and HP 21 cartridges. An HP 56 OEM retails for about $20 at about a 450 page yield while the HP 21 OEM retails at $15 and you're lucky to get the estimated 150 page yield from it. The only difference between these two cartridges is the addition of an internal wall and smaller sponge size on the HP21. In fact, any printer that will print with an HP 56 can also use an HP 21 but the reverse is not true. Why, then, would anyone purchase a printer that uses the HP21? Why would a business outfit their office with a printer that would cause them to go through 8+ cartridges in a week? The answer is simply because HP markets printers that take lower yield versions of their cartridges at $30-$50 less than printers that take the standard yield versions. If your grandmother were shopping for everyone, there wouldn't be printers on the shelf that only take low yield cartridges because they wouldn't be outselling higher yield machines
A big challenge that the remanufacturing industry faces is getting consumers to ask the right questions when doing their shopping. Since we're living in the cell phone age, I generally found it easiest to have consumers call me from the store to go over cartridge costs.
Most of my comfort games are older and the only real rule is that they have to be somewhat simple and mind numbing.
Here are a few of them in no particular order:
Pitfall- This was the first game I really rembember getting into on a console and I always go back to it. I had a copy of it on my last cell phone and was sad to find out that I couldn't get it with my new provider. I don't like any of the sequels to the franchise but Pitfall still rocks out when I just want to relax.
Rogue (and Rougelikes)- This one is the first game I got into on a computer. Lately I've been going for NetHack and I used to be into ADOM.
Age of Empires- There is just something satisfying about making little armies of people go kill other little armies of people for no apparent reason when you're having a bad day.
Black & White- Same as above with the added bonus of being able to screw with your villagers by throwing rocks at them, throwing them off cliffs or praising your animal for pooping on their houses.
Katamari- This game joined my list just recently. Fun and mindless. I can play it for hours.
I first got into The Settlers when a German exchange student friend of mine gave me a copy of Die Siedlers. I didn't know that it was also avaliable in English until a few years later.
Slashdot Mirror
Seriously. If Nintendo decides that it wants to improve upon its current device in a manner that will not change Peter Smith's current DSi in any way that isn't psychological, I have a hard time seeing a problem. I have a friend who still uses the original DS. Playing with his DS convinced me to go out and buy my own which, by that time, was a DS lite and I don't plan on buying another one unless I break this one. Trumping all that, it's a bit silly to get huffy about something that's only speculation anyways.
I had to get both hepatitis and tuberculosis vaccinations back when I was working as a caretaker for developmentally disabled people back in Illinois. I have no idea whether that was a company or a state regulation, but I know it was mandatory as part of the job.
1. Guy writes an article about a product.
2. Guy gets feedback, some of it far less than civil, stating that he was being irresponsible in his product recommendations.
3. Guy, rather than dismissing the issue as no doubt many would, actually does some research and writes a follow up.
I hardly think that this qualifies as "just about the most ignorant, one-sided article" on this topic, at least among those that you've read. This guy isn't a government agency or an academic group tasked with doing research into public safety concerns so it isn't his job to launch a comprehensive study into the issue.
I get that there seem to be some credible concerns, but you aren't going to win anyone over by making hyperbolic claims about anyone that fails to agree with you. Posting "ignorant, one-sided" insult laden posts on Slashdot isn't exactly helping your cause.
Mmmmmm! The sensorily highly acceptable taste can't be beat but the kid in me finds that the microbiologically safe product knocks me off my feet!
Those who don't remember history are doomed to buy Dr. Brush's Magic Tonsil Tonic.
Well, at least we can look forward to the fact that Dr. Brush's Magic Tonsil Tonic is likely to contain either an opiate or cocaine if not both!
A few years ago I worked at Office Depot for about a month while I was looking for other work. I was hired on as a stocker, though they'd occasionally have me cover the computer department when we were short staffed. At our store, management set a quota for each employee for how many service plans we were supposed to sell each week with a required Saturday morning training session for any employee who did not reach their quota where we would do crap like train on these scripts and brainstorm incentive plans on how to motivate us to sell more.
I went to one of these stupid meetings and all I could say for myself is that since I worked as a stocker in office supplies, I didn't even sell anything that I could in theory have pushed a service plan on, even if I didn't think they were crap. They responded that I was mistaken because batteries were in my department and they qualified. WTF? How the hell are you supposed to sell a service plan on a pack of AA batteries? I quit before the next Saturday as I'd found another job, though I probably would have given them notice if it weren't for the crappy work environment.
A number of the founders, Thomas Jefferson included, initially thought that patents were wrong and perhaps even unconstitutional but later came to see that allowing patents to be issued in limited circumstances was beneficial for the development of ideas. However, these patents needed to be restrictive enough so as to prevent the creation of monopolies and also to allow other inventors access, after a reasonable time, to those methods so that they could then continue the process of invention.
It is hard to see how allowing a a company to exist solely to acquire and then license the use of said patents. To do so circumvents the intention of patents by taking what would happen after the expiration of the patent, allowing other inventors to take a crack at the invention and improve upon it, and instead turns it into an odd sort of tightly controlled rental agreement.
Not sure why it cut the link out. It's http://www.saxoninnovations.com/. I probably used an = instead of the :
They don't even have an actual website. If you go to , all you'll find is an under construction message. Pretty much all you can find about them online is related to suing people. I miss the good ole days of the 1790's when Thomas Jefferson would deny a patent if the inventor couldn't demonstrate a working product.
I'm not an economist so I'll be right out there and say that my eyes glaze over a bit when I'm trying to dig through all of the info on the Bureau of Labor Statistics website about their methodology. Basically, they conduct a survey of 60,000 workers and poll them on their employment status. They then break that info up into six measures which they label as U1-U6.
The current chart that shows the breakdown can be found here: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t12.htm
"Chronically Unemployed" is the wrong term and that's my mistake. The actual term the government uses is "discouraged workers."
The 7.2 figure is the Bureau of Labor Statistics U3 number. There are also a U4, U5, and U6 which are increasingly larger. The U6 figure includes "total unemployed, plus all marginally attached workers, plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all marginally attached workers." And that rate is currently at 13.5 percent.
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t12.htm
Yeah...I recall a commentator on NPR the other day saying that there are around 3.3 unemployed workers (general, not IT specific) for every job open right now and that was before the 7.2% unemployment figure was released today. Also, the government does not include the "chronically unemployed" or "underemployed" in their figures.
It can be quite disturbing when suddenly there is bright light in your peripheral vision. If you think the cell phones are bad, though, there was a stupid woman at the theatre a bit ago that had to be asked to stop trying to read her program with an obnoxious green LED flashlight.
I'm a bit sick today and I feel that my sarcasm sensors may very well be out of alignment.
meh
As one who grew up on military bases, I can tell you that you generally aren't going to find too many opportunities to park van with tinted windows and a twenty inch dish antenna in front of buildings. Yes, I'm aware that social engineers can accomplish many things and that given enough motivation and resources, there isn't likely anything that can't be broken into. That being said, what was said about unplugging computers from the net is still a good idea because all too often the problems the military is running into these days don't come from advanced espionage groups with large resource pools and dedicated staff, but rather a bored individual with access to kiddie scripts which is fairly embarrassing to them.
The Air Force has announced similar programs to this in the past with little or no actual outcome. Every now and then they have to come out with another program with a spiffy name to distract us from the fact that they can't keep kids from breaking into their networks.
The iPhone comes with a cable to connect its 30 pin proprietary dock with USB. It charges over USB.
While there may have been some fuzzy statements in there, if you reread the beginning of the post you were replying to you'll notice that he said that he'll "ONLY buy devices that use the mini-USB style connectors," and that he selected his ZEN mp3 player because of the fact that it will charge with the same style cable as his phone.
I don't believe that a cable that simply plugs into a USB jack but still takes a proprietary adapter to enable it to do so would conform to his quite narrow standards.
If he's somehow able to get to a phone before they catch him, at least Hillary will be ready to take his call!
Nope! LJ gives you an edit date option built in.
The Seattle location is in Belltown at 5th and Denny. It's right across from my work and I generally stop in for a drink in the morning. The exterior was more annoying than anything but I did think the six packs of Buzz were pretty neat looking. Also, I dug the uniform shirts. The location makes sense because all the touristy gawkers already horde through there taking pictures of the Space Needle.
They actually do something like that for some photo printers. They're annoying little buggers and I wouldn't refill them because there just aren't enough cores around to keep them stocked and doing custom fills is generally more trouble than it's worth.
Also, keep in mind that when a print company says 150 pages it isn't really 150 pages. It's an estimated 150 pages at 5% page coverage. I've found 5% to be a rather low estimate for the average surface area used in a standard document. If you start printing anything with graphics in it, get ready to toss that figure right out the window.
The printer market is kinda like the fuel market in that the companies know that no matter how much their consumers bitch and moan about the cost of consumables, they're going to keep on buying them because what are you going to do, not print? Right....
Yup. Controlling the aftermarket ink and toner cartridges is a blatant violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act.
Also, the standard practice of scaring consumers into thinking that their warranties are going to be voided by even looking at the refilled cartridges is in direct violation of the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act.
So, why are things so screwed up? HP, Lexmark, Canon and Epson have much larger legal departments than remanufacturers.
How I wish this were true!
As a former remanufacturer of ink and toner cartridges for a national retailer, I can say that all to often isn't the case. Buying a printer is a confusing experience for many consumers. Printer packaging isn't clearly labeled to state anything about cartridge yield and certainly not remanufacturability. Also, that poor minimum wage slave at the big box office store knows next to nothing about the printer that isn't written on the selling points card next to the display model. All too often we would wind up with consumers, often those working in print-driven office environments who would purchase a printer that used low yield cartridges simply because it was on sale. A large chunk of a printer company's profit margin comes directly from the fact that customers don't ask questions.
Take, for instance, the HP 56 and HP 21 cartridges. An HP 56 OEM retails for about $20 at about a 450 page yield while the HP 21 OEM retails at $15 and you're lucky to get the estimated 150 page yield from it. The only difference between these two cartridges is the addition of an internal wall and smaller sponge size on the HP21. In fact, any printer that will print with an HP 56 can also use an HP 21 but the reverse is not true. Why, then, would anyone purchase a printer that uses the HP21? Why would a business outfit their office with a printer that would cause them to go through 8+ cartridges in a week? The answer is simply because HP markets printers that take lower yield versions of their cartridges at $30-$50 less than printers that take the standard yield versions. If your grandmother were shopping for everyone, there wouldn't be printers on the shelf that only take low yield cartridges because they wouldn't be outselling higher yield machines
A big challenge that the remanufacturing industry faces is getting consumers to ask the right questions when doing their shopping. Since we're living in the cell phone age, I generally found it easiest to have consumers call me from the store to go over cartridge costs.
Most of my comfort games are older and the only real rule is that they have to be somewhat simple and mind numbing.
Here are a few of them in no particular order:
Pitfall- This was the first game I really rembember getting into on a console and I always go back to it. I had a copy of it on my last cell phone and was sad to find out that I couldn't get it with my new provider. I don't like any of the sequels to the franchise but Pitfall still rocks out when I just want to relax.
Rogue (and Rougelikes)- This one is the first game I got into on a computer. Lately I've been going for NetHack and I used to be into ADOM.
Age of Empires- There is just something satisfying about making little armies of people go kill other little armies of people for no apparent reason when you're having a bad day.
Black & White- Same as above with the added bonus of being able to screw with your villagers by throwing rocks at them, throwing them off cliffs or praising your animal for pooping on their houses.
Katamari- This game joined my list just recently. Fun and mindless. I can play it for hours.
I first got into The Settlers when a German exchange student friend of mine gave me a copy of Die Siedlers. I didn't know that it was also avaliable in English until a few years later.
Great game.