I've been to a museum (Los Alamos) and a library (Dallas public library) that use parabolic reflectors, mounted above and pointed downwards, to generate very well-defined sound patterns. They're pretty amazing: You hear nothing if you are standing just outside the "pattern." The other plus side is that you can use a low-output speaker, since the reflector will "amplify" the sound by focusing it to a small footprint.
TMDA allows you to specify "keyword" addresses. Simply pick a keyword, and a new e-mail addy is generated. If it gets swamped with spam, put it in your blacklist and get on with life.
It's called "advertising": I have a product I believe is better than the competition. Consumers are provided the option to choose between the two. If the competition is up to the task, then I don't get business. If the competition isn't, then I provide a viable alternative.
It's no more "dirty" than a car commercial comparing themselves to the competition by name.
Actually, I do get most of my hits on my product search term (about a 4% clickthrough rate), so I've accomplished (1). Which means I can safely ignore (2).
What is "interesting" about the parent post? What, exactly, are we suing for? Competitive practices? This is no more a trademark infringement than if I said in ad that "my product is better than product X." Let's put the legal books, because there is really nothing to see here.
Why, exactly, is this "a bit scummy"? It's called competition, my friend, and contrary to what you might believe, it's actually good for the consumer. I do the same thing on AdWords with what I sell, because I believe my product is superior to the competitor's product. If they have a problem with this, then they can either (1) refute the claim, (2) improve their product, or (3) shut the hell up.
There are few things worse than a company that whines because they expect their customers to be handed to them on a silver platter ("I exist, therefore, I deserve").
Or maybe you're hearing the effects of early CD mastering efforts that was the norm in the early years of the CD, especially in comparison to the "clean," almost sterile sound of today's CD. If you don't believe me, listen to an early CD of Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon." You can clearly hear the hiss of the master, along with other artifacts, in the really quiet parts. Later versions of this CD are very sterile-sounding with none of the "warmth" from the original analog master.
So maybe you've gotten so used to the sterility of digitally-mastered CDs that your old Hendrix CDs sound like LPs by comparison.
Just take a look at OpenOffice...look familiar to anyone? Down to the toolbars and icons, it is a clone of Word. By design, to make the transition between the two apps easier.
So it's OK for "our" apps to copy the look and feel of a competitor we don't like, yet not OK for an "outsider" to copy the look and feel of a competitor palatable to many of us?
You missed the point. I wasn't comparing playlists. My point was that the Susquehanna stations try to make their listeners believe they are "independent" in some way, or different from Clear Channel. For instance, the local Susquehanna station here is running ads telling their listeners that their consultants have been "fired" and that they decided to yield to the listeners after all. Right...I don't think it's a big secret that what listeners want is quality music (whatever the genre), and less talk/commercials. Since the talking heads and commercials are still there, I can only assume they haven't listened to their listeners completely.
I would venture to say that if you took two Susquehanna stations with the same format and compared their playlists, they would be indistinguishable. That's simply the nature of the radio business.
They're owned by another corporate entity, Susquehanna. They run the same ads here in Dallas on 93.3 "The Bone" (what a stupid name for a radio station..."keep your bone up" is getting old). I'm sure what you hear on 99X is the same as what is played on every Susquehanna station...
Please don't waste time opening windows! The only way you'll see a radical pressure change is if you're in the vortex. By that time you should already be grabbing your ankles and making promises to your god.
[This has been a public service message from the heart of Tornado Alley.]
That's the euphemistic name for the Texas agency that's reponsible for tracking down those who try to get around Texas' use tax laws. Problem is, they can be very overly aggressive, even when you're in the right.
Case in point: I bought a plane one time, a 1979 Cessna 172, around $40,000. There's exceptions to the use tax law that says if the plane is used for flight instruction, it's exempt from use tax. Well, a few years after my purchase, I received a bill from the state of Texas, somewhere in the vicinity of $5000 (including penalties), along with a threat to put a lien on the aircraft if I didn't pay up. It took several months, copies of my logbooks, certifications from instructors, etc. to finally get the state off my back. (I say that, but I've never been sure if that's the case -- the state simply stopped pursuing me without actually telling me I was in the right.)
The point here is that "data aggregation" will inevitably lead to erroneous assumptions, especially when disparate records are linked together. Unfortunately, the burden of proof will lie with the target to prove they *don't* owe a tax. I can see it now: Driving a lonely stretch of interstate late at night in the middle of nowhere, stopped by a hick sheriff who tells you you'll be spending the night in jail because DMV records indicate you didn't pay sales taxes on all that on-line stuff you've bought over the years.
This is dangerous stuff, and one of the very few areas I believe Congress needs to intervene in to prevent abuse of data that was never meant to be aggregated, linked, and abused.
I still find it funny that the US government pays current American Indians for it's actions in the past.
And the gov't doesn't even recognize all tribes. They have set a very high bar for recognition, one that is too expensive for many tribes to pursue. Some of the richer tribes have taken to lobbying the gov't to prevent recognition of lesser tribes to keep them from enroaching on the fat profits many tribes are making from various endeavors like gambling and tobacco sales.
Of course, this lead to the occasional luser that wouldn't tell us their password when we needed to ID them
Please do everyone a favor and tell us the name of the ISP so we can avoid doing business with this company. Who in their right mind would *ever* ask a user for their password as a means of identification? It's business practices like this that leads to confusion amongst the non-tech masses.
Learn something new every day, don't you? Air traffic controllers are also notorious bullshitters, so I guess I got sucked in on this one. Thanks for setting the record straight.
As for "fucking off and dying," as one respondent so succinctly put it, I would suggest a nice vacation for you...obviously you're way overstressed, way underpaid and/or just outright psychotic.
Some casinos welcome "card counters." I have a friend who lives in Santa Fe and is an extemely good card-counter -- he can memorize cards dealt from a 3-deck shoe. Having a player sitting at a blackjack table raking in chips is a draw...no one wants to play at a "losing" table. So my buddy, he makes money on the side playing blackjack, and even thought the casinos lose on him, they make money on the ones that come over to play at the "hot" table.
The idea that card counters are not welcome at blackjack tables is a myth. Instead of fighting the problem, they now have figured out a way to make money on it.
As an aside, this guy is an air traffic controller (I used to be one as well). Most air traffic controllers develop an incredible short-term memory, being able to memorize 3-D positions of several aircraft at once in conjunction with an in-memory 3-D representation of the surrounding airspace, available for immediate recall. All of this takes place while listening to a steady stream of aircraft identify themselves with 4- or 5-character callsigns, which are queued up for responses in the order they were received, while also monitoring landlines to various other air traffic control facilities. Not to mention being able to monitor the D-side working next to you talking about his hot night out, as well as the supervisor ranting over your shoulder about bullshit you could care less about.
The amount of information retained in short-term memory for a moderate to heavy session of air traffic easily exceeds the 104 discrete pieces of static information memorized from a deck of cards.
Short-term memory only works if it's exercised on a continuous basis. I've been out of that field for several years, and I'm lucky enough to remember a single telephone number at a time.
While the goal is admirable, as many have pointed out here there is nothing to stop losers from "tainting" the wiki with malicious information. Instead of striving to become the primary source of Linux information, this project might instead aim to be a secondary source or repository, with links to the primary sources. A couple of advantages here:
The job of ensuring validity and accuracy of the information would be distributed among the experts, said experts themselves validated by the wiki maintainers.
Linking to the primary sources would lend some integrity to the project. For instance, I would be more likely to trust content posted on a site hosted by the software author rather than by a third-party.
I think in the end, it will boil down to trust: Do I trust this source of information? And if not, how do I verify its validity?
Then again, DMOZ has already done an admirable job in maintaining a moderated link farm...which raises the question: Do we really need another one?
Plus, RH will back me for legal issues if they sent me a bill.
Uh, don't be so sure about that. RH dug their heels in the ground and told us in no uncertain terms "no way" when we asked for indemnification against SCO suing us (a community college district) for using RH in our RedHat Academy.
With (e) I think their effort here is to pick a technologically weak company with shareholders who have less of a technical education.
I wouldn't consider AutoZone "technologicallly weak." You make the mistake of underestimating AZO possibly because it's not a hard-core tech company. One of AZO's divisions, Alldata, is heavily involved with the the digital distribution of automotive information. Their distribution system is considered an industry model for efficiency and automation. It's my belief that AZO will crush SCOX. AZO isn't likely to simply roll over -- they've invested way too much in their infrastructure.
Please, do some research on AZO. I think you'll discover that AZO shareholders are more technologically adept than you give them credit for.
Re:Here's some solutions to help lower the bill:
on
DIY HVAC
·
· Score: 1
I did provide links...browse at +5 and look for them.
Re:Here's some solutions to help lower the bill:
on
DIY HVAC
·
· Score: 1
I agree, the entire approach to the DIY problem as advocated in the SourceForge project is overkill. For those of us who simply can't stand the heat, there are very reasonable do-it-yourself solutions which consume very little energy, provide wireless and RS-232 interfaces for monitoring, and free one's time up for more meaningful projects (I've provided links elsewhere). This project seems to be a solution in search of a problem...
Slashdot Mirror
I've been to a museum (Los Alamos) and a library (Dallas public library) that use parabolic reflectors, mounted above and pointed downwards, to generate very well-defined sound patterns. They're pretty amazing: You hear nothing if you are standing just outside the "pattern." The other plus side is that you can use a low-output speaker, since the reflector will "amplify" the sound by focusing it to a small footprint.
Distrowatch
I'll leave the rest up to you.
Oh, and in case you're wondering: Slack rules them all.
TMDA allows you to specify "keyword" addresses. Simply pick a keyword, and a new e-mail addy is generated. If it gets swamped with spam, put it in your blacklist and get on with life.
Yeah, how could people possibly be skeptical about the possibility of getting something for nothing?
Or even instantaneous communications between two sub-atomic particles? What fools!
It's called "advertising": I have a product I believe is better than the competition. Consumers are provided the option to choose between the two. If the competition is up to the task, then I don't get business. If the competition isn't, then I provide a viable alternative.
It's no more "dirty" than a car commercial comparing themselves to the competition by name.
Actually, I do get most of my hits on my product search term (about a 4% clickthrough rate), so I've accomplished (1). Which means I can safely ignore (2).
What is "interesting" about the parent post? What, exactly, are we suing for? Competitive practices? This is no more a trademark infringement than if I said in ad that "my product is better than product X." Let's put the legal books, because there is really nothing to see here.
Why, exactly, is this "a bit scummy"? It's called competition, my friend, and contrary to what you might believe, it's actually good for the consumer. I do the same thing on AdWords with what I sell, because I believe my product is superior to the competitor's product. If they have a problem with this, then they can either (1) refute the claim, (2) improve their product, or (3) shut the hell up.
There are few things worse than a company that whines because they expect their customers to be handed to them on a silver platter ("I exist, therefore, I deserve").
Or maybe you're hearing the effects of early CD mastering efforts that was the norm in the early years of the CD, especially in comparison to the "clean," almost sterile sound of today's CD. If you don't believe me, listen to an early CD of Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon." You can clearly hear the hiss of the master, along with other artifacts, in the really quiet parts. Later versions of this CD are very sterile-sounding with none of the "warmth" from the original analog master.
So maybe you've gotten so used to the sterility of digitally-mastered CDs that your old Hendrix CDs sound like LPs by comparison.
Just take a look at OpenOffice...look familiar to anyone? Down to the toolbars and icons, it is a clone of Word. By design, to make the transition between the two apps easier.
So it's OK for "our" apps to copy the look and feel of a competitor we don't like, yet not OK for an "outsider" to copy the look and feel of a competitor palatable to many of us?
Give me a break...
You missed the point. I wasn't comparing playlists. My point was that the Susquehanna stations try to make their listeners believe they are "independent" in some way, or different from Clear Channel. For instance, the local Susquehanna station here is running ads telling their listeners that their consultants have been "fired" and that they decided to yield to the listeners after all. Right...I don't think it's a big secret that what listeners want is quality music (whatever the genre), and less talk/commercials. Since the talking heads and commercials are still there, I can only assume they haven't listened to their listeners completely.
I would venture to say that if you took two Susquehanna stations with the same format and compared their playlists, they would be indistinguishable. That's simply the nature of the radio business.
They're owned by another corporate entity, Susquehanna. They run the same ads here in Dallas on 93.3 "The Bone" (what a stupid name for a radio station..."keep your bone up" is getting old). I'm sure what you hear on 99X is the same as what is played on every Susquehanna station...
Please don't waste time opening windows! The only way you'll see a radical pressure change is if you're in the vortex. By that time you should already be grabbing your ankles and making promises to your god.
[This has been a public service message from the heart of Tornado Alley.]
That's the euphemistic name for the Texas agency that's reponsible for tracking down those who try to get around Texas' use tax laws. Problem is, they can be very overly aggressive, even when you're in the right.
Case in point: I bought a plane one time, a 1979 Cessna 172, around $40,000. There's exceptions to the use tax law that says if the plane is used for flight instruction, it's exempt from use tax. Well, a few years after my purchase, I received a bill from the state of Texas, somewhere in the vicinity of $5000 (including penalties), along with a threat to put a lien on the aircraft if I didn't pay up. It took several months, copies of my logbooks, certifications from instructors, etc. to finally get the state off my back. (I say that, but I've never been sure if that's the case -- the state simply stopped pursuing me without actually telling me I was in the right.)
The point here is that "data aggregation" will inevitably lead to erroneous assumptions, especially when disparate records are linked together. Unfortunately, the burden of proof will lie with the target to prove they *don't* owe a tax. I can see it now: Driving a lonely stretch of interstate late at night in the middle of nowhere, stopped by a hick sheriff who tells you you'll be spending the night in jail because DMV records indicate you didn't pay sales taxes on all that on-line stuff you've bought over the years.
This is dangerous stuff, and one of the very few areas I believe Congress needs to intervene in to prevent abuse of data that was never meant to be aggregated, linked, and abused.
I still find it funny that the US government pays current American Indians for it's actions in the past.
And the gov't doesn't even recognize all tribes. They have set a very high bar for recognition, one that is too expensive for many tribes to pursue. Some of the richer tribes have taken to lobbying the gov't to prevent recognition of lesser tribes to keep them from enroaching on the fat profits many tribes are making from various endeavors like gambling and tobacco sales.
Of course, this lead to the occasional luser that wouldn't tell us their password when we needed to ID them
Please do everyone a favor and tell us the name of the ISP so we can avoid doing business with this company. Who in their right mind would *ever* ask a user for their password as a means of identification? It's business practices like this that leads to confusion amongst the non-tech masses.
Learn something new every day, don't you? Air traffic controllers are also notorious bullshitters, so I guess I got sucked in on this one. Thanks for setting the record straight.
As for "fucking off and dying," as one respondent so succinctly put it, I would suggest a nice vacation for you...obviously you're way overstressed, way underpaid and/or just outright psychotic.
SMTP HELO's with names whose IP addresses don't match the originating IP
And all this time I thought HELO DUDE was a perfectly legit way of identifying oneself to an SMTP server...
Some casinos welcome "card counters." I have a friend who lives in Santa Fe and is an extemely good card-counter -- he can memorize cards dealt from a 3-deck shoe. Having a player sitting at a blackjack table raking in chips is a draw...no one wants to play at a "losing" table. So my buddy, he makes money on the side playing blackjack, and even thought the casinos lose on him, they make money on the ones that come over to play at the "hot" table.
The idea that card counters are not welcome at blackjack tables is a myth. Instead of fighting the problem, they now have figured out a way to make money on it.
As an aside, this guy is an air traffic controller (I used to be one as well). Most air traffic controllers develop an incredible short-term memory, being able to memorize 3-D positions of several aircraft at once in conjunction with an in-memory 3-D representation of the surrounding airspace, available for immediate recall. All of this takes place while listening to a steady stream of aircraft identify themselves with 4- or 5-character callsigns, which are queued up for responses in the order they were received, while also monitoring landlines to various other air traffic control facilities. Not to mention being able to monitor the D-side working next to you talking about his hot night out, as well as the supervisor ranting over your shoulder about bullshit you could care less about.
The amount of information retained in short-term memory for a moderate to heavy session of air traffic easily exceeds the 104 discrete pieces of static information memorized from a deck of cards.
Short-term memory only works if it's exercised on a continuous basis. I've been out of that field for several years, and I'm lucky enough to remember a single telephone number at a time.
I think in the end, it will boil down to trust: Do I trust this source of information? And if not, how do I verify its validity?
Then again, DMOZ has already done an admirable job in maintaining a moderated link farm...which raises the question: Do we really need another one?
No, but they might keep you from taking the money and running.
Plus, RH will back me for legal issues if they sent me a bill.
Uh, don't be so sure about that. RH dug their heels in the ground and told us in no uncertain terms "no way" when we asked for indemnification against SCO suing us (a community college district) for using RH in our RedHat Academy.
With (e) I think their effort here is to pick a technologically weak company with shareholders who have less of a technical education.
I wouldn't consider AutoZone "technologicallly weak." You make the mistake of underestimating AZO possibly because it's not a hard-core tech company. One of AZO's divisions, Alldata, is heavily involved with the the digital distribution of automotive information. Their distribution system is considered an industry model for efficiency and automation. It's my belief that AZO will crush SCOX. AZO isn't likely to simply roll over -- they've invested way too much in their infrastructure.
Please, do some research on AZO. I think you'll discover that AZO shareholders are more technologically adept than you give them credit for.
I did provide links...browse at +5 and look for them.
I agree, the entire approach to the DIY problem as advocated in the SourceForge project is overkill. For those of us who simply can't stand the heat, there are very reasonable do-it-yourself solutions which consume very little energy, provide wireless and RS-232 interfaces for monitoring, and free one's time up for more meaningful projects (I've provided links elsewhere). This project seems to be a solution in search of a problem...