Harbor Freight, the "99 cent" store of hardware/tools. They've actually got some ridiculously cheap prices on some items that you just don't need top quality for, as in the GP's link. I wouldn't use them for everything but hell, sometimes they're the best game around. I was going to post that link myself as I hate the expensive sets other places sell.
Not nitpicking; this is an excellent point. I wanted to mention, however, that good mousers often train any kittens they have around. I had a male cats (Himalayan... great cat) that trained all my younger ones. Some took to it better than others but it's not just mothers that'll do it.
Anyhow, on topic a bit, where are these cables running that rats can get to them? If you're replacing them then put them in conduit anywhere outside then seal the darned buildings "properly". Just my 2 cents.
LOL. Yeah, I wish I could get my old UID back. I managed to forget a password or mis-typed it the same twice once a while back, forcing me to make a new UID because I'd also recently dropped the e-mail address I used.:-\ I had a low 6 digit one, too! Not a 2 UID (damn!) but still...
Anyhow, I've been using OpenDNS since Comcast bought out my old ISP. I never really had trouble before that but once Comcast took over I found their DNS servers to be absurdly slow. I tried running my own, which wasn't terribly hard but OpenDNS just works, saving me the hassle. For this convenience, I see some ads now and again. Big deal. I get assaulted by ads going into the grocery store lately (freaking window company hiring people to hassle me).
As an aside, I also like the filtering aspect they offer for some of my clients. Sure, it's bypassed easily enough by those who really want to but it is otherwise effective, requires no software on the system and is platform agnostic to boot.
Once a system has been compromised, the only way to ever trust it again is to wipe the drives and reinstall from known good media.
Truer words have rarely been spoken. I have the hardest time getting some clients to understand that, shy of a wipe and reinstall, I cannot guarantee their system will remain uninfected for X days after I clean it. (One guy wanted a full year guarantee.) That's aside from the fact that my hourly rate makes a reinstall more cost effective for them by far.
Anyhow, sorry for the off topic bit there. I just couldn't resist.
This is very similar to my "normal" point regarding such "wastes" of money when I happen to get into such a discussion. While I stipulate to the wasted resources overall, the money is mine to waste if I so choose and most of my power comes from renewable sources anyhow. Now, it would be great if they'd change this sort of device to save me money but, overall, wasting my time to turn them off and on is often pointless. There are a few items such as cell chargers and such that I'll bother with but these aren't all that common for me compared to, say, my microwave and such.
That said, here's another interesting dilemma I discovered. I have a condo at the beach to which I go whenever possible, albeit less often than I'd like. I used to flip the breakers on my hot water heater and turn the thermostat to 45 degrees F whenever I'd leave since I figured it was pointless to leave them running and would, therefore, waste money. The dual inconveniences of a chilly condo for an hour at most and being unable to shower for a while were minor as I rarely needed a shower when arriving anyhow and chilly isn't a big deal. Well, one time I forgot to do this but didn't know it for a few months until I managed to get some free time and go back down. What I discovered when I looked at the power bill is despite a MUCH higher usage during that time, I still didn't pay more. On investigating, it turns out that there's a minimum charge which I paid regardless and my usage never goes over that and. Now, I still power the hot water tank off as it's just stupid to waste the power but I only drop the heat to 60 degrees F now.
This is only a single anecdote, yes, and only speaks to the money out of my pocket instead of the still-valid point of wasted resources overall. I still find it instructive and hope others may as well.
Actually there's one very major downside: A rural viewer might be watching channel 10 to catch-up on the news, and suddenly the kid next door turns-on his TV Ban/whitespace Device and starts broadcasting over the same channel 10.
Except that the T signal is broadcast on a different part of the radio spectrum, not the one the whitespace device will be on. In addition, the whitespace devices use only UNUSED spectrum, following methods already shown to be effective. Enough astroturfing already.
that if we reomve a dam, as many people think we should do, would that also precipitate an earthquake? After all, we'd be changing the stresses on the fault.
Fascinating subject; I never knew before this that a dam could actually cause an earthquake. Makes sense when you think about it but I never thought about it since I've had little to do with dams aside from getting most of my power from them.
Sure, but you'll need a couple dozen dual layer DVDs to fit it all on. Until we have cheap media that can store a crapton more data than we have now, I think we'll still see separate distros even among the same niche markets (firewall appliances, anyone?). For the Desktop market, my personal thought is that the current repository scheme wrks well but this depends on cheap, nearly limitless bandwidth being available. If the current trend to meter bandwidth continues, I fear what may happen to the average consumer's bill when they need a couple GB worth of updates just for one app.
I'm aware, of course, that I am extrapolating two trends (software bloat and bandwidth caps) to their extremes without evidence but one wonders what will happen. Fun times we'll have if nobody can afford to apply security updates, etc, to their OSs and apps, whether M$ or otherwise.
But as amusing as it is most of the time, it has been dangerous and frustrating at other times. I was once refused admission to an urgent care on the grounds that my medical card had the right name on it, but the wrong gender.
And how long had you been carrying around that card meaning to someday get around to getting ready to get it fixed?
I think you misunderstand the point. The card is accurate but the appearance of the poster is so out of norm that it appears to be the opposite of what the card states. I've known some folks where this could have happened but, one wonders, why not simply explain this to the folks in the facility?
The online resources are giving you off-site storage, redundancy and (most importantly) convenience. To get redundancy with externals, you'd need to make 2 backups then alternate them periodically or use a software RAID that'd do them at the same time, requiring both drives for any backup. To get "proper" off-site storage, you'd need to go to the hassle of transporting the backup media hither and yon. Gnerally, you want a safe place to store the data so you end up with a safe deposit box or something along those lines. That's a cost, albeit minimal.
The real kicker, though, is the convenience factor. With online backup, you no longer have to transport the media and it should be available on many machines all at once, essentially. The other major issue for some businesses is that during transport, the data is subject to loss via theft. This is aleviated as well with online backups, so long as they're encrypted. Granted, offline media should likewise be encrypted but we know how often that happens, right?
The cost of something like S3 is properly compared to enterprise level backup systems. It's not so bad when you look at it from that perspective. Since most home users (aka consumers) don't need all the extra redundancy, etc, the cost compared to a couple of external TB drives doesn't make sense. That's when something like Mozy makes a lot more sense.
Now, the Gdrive isn't just for backup, either. It's essentially giving you a mapped network drive on any device you happen to have. Anyone that's worked at an enterprise with this should see the major benefit of that service. There's going to be a speed issue compared to a USB drive of some kind if you're using it to transfer ISOs or MPGs but for Word docs and such, I'd bet it's minimal.
Depth control consists of him swimming to the surface, filling a bladder with air, and then attaching it to the sub
I didn't see that stated in the article. My impression was more that they'd use some of the compressed air in the scuba tanks, or perhaps a different dedicated tank, to accomplish this. The fact is that wet subs aren't all that uncommon.
Personally, I'd call this one a submersible, rather than a submarine. A submarine is typically much more autonomous than this thing would be (TFA states he'd have a chase boat for air tanks, etc).
The point is that the buoyancy allowed it to float up a bit, causing water to flow over the propulsion surfaces. That flow, however slight, moved the sub forward. That's actually rather impressive, considering most subs sink like a freaking rock or bob like a log (depending on their buoyancy) instead of moving forward while bobbing slightly. The speed of said forward motion wasn't stated that I saw but it speaks to the fact that it ought to work. Now to see if ti works as well as they think it will.
Re:The bells and whistles nobody uses...
on
Less Is Moore
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First, I agree with your point that, regardless of the now-low cost, no app should needlessly waste my resources. That said, however, I disagree with your take on that article. The real point, IMO, is that the 80/20 rule often used to make light apps is flawed. While 80% of a bloated app's users may only use 20% (or less) of the features in said app, this is a different 20% subset for most users.
Thus, the "bloat" in an app for any given user is required in order to have a commercially successful application. This is to ensure that the app covers the needs of most users instead of only a very small subset of potential users.
The article is somewhat flawed inasmuch as the author assumes that the bloat isn't all loaded all the time. In cases such as some versions of AV apps, to pick one common example, or all the bloat is loaded all the time. This makes for a poor user experience overall. In Excel, however, many of the features aren't loaded unless used. At least that was the author's theory in 2001. Whether this was ever accurate or remains so is debatable, IMO. His take on the 80/20 rule is accurate as hell though.
I would hardly call the red dwarf sets elaborate, they look like they are about to fall apart most of the time
That's such a core part of the show's premise, though. For example, when they did the hologram ship, the sets were quite well done.
Wasn't that part of the humour too? You could see the wires holding up the spaceship sometimes!
I always thought that was intentional as well. Sort of a "screw it; nobody has to worry about suspension of disbelief here" moment to poke fun at the special effects based shows/movies.
Not directed at either parent or GP here but I've often wondered how much shows like Red Dwarf spend on the shabby look. Do they have to spend less because it's not "finished" or perhaps more because that un-finished look takes more effort or what?
So I guess one will have to purchase a new converter every time one misplaces the remote.
Yeesh; this is an absurd argument. TiVos also have no controls on them; you have a remote or you're screwed. In reality, however, how freaking hard is it to hang on to a remote control?! Even if one is moving, you just put your remotes in a box and label it properly.
My wife purchased a receiver unit 20 years ago, a few years before I met her. We still use it daily since it to listen to the radio and when we want a movie over more than the TV speakers. We've lived in no fewer than 8 different residences during this time and the remote hasn't been lost. This is just one example out of our obligatory remote control collection.
On a side note, a client that I just saw Tuesday purchased coupon eligible converters which had a remote and controls on the front. Since I was there for her computers, she asked me to plug in the converter boxes also (a common request for me these days). She said she paid nothing out of pocket for them (even sales tax was covered) so they couldn't have been that expensive. I didn't look at the brand but they were in a lime green box and worked pretty well for her TVs. So, if you looked, you could get boxes that had controls on the front under the coupon.
Soldiers, at least non-officers, are trained through very intense programs to always obey orders without question. They are not taught to get in arguments over their orders. What's more, they can face charges for refusing an order.
While this is true, in general, I know from first-hand experience that soldiers also receive instruction in what constitutes an illegal order. We were told in no uncertain terms that certain orders are not legal and, in fact, obeying such orders could lead to charges being filed against us. To say, as you do, that soldiers are trained to obey without thinking is just outright false. What soldiers are trained to do is to know instinctively what is right in any situation they'd be expected to encounter.
Without getting into specifics (some of my training is still classified AFAIK), I know that torture of any sort falls into the category of an illegal order for a soldier. Interrogations are generally not undertaken by enlisted persons anyhow. There are people specifically trained to handle such things (MOS 97E, as I recall). While I was not trained as an interrogator, I did receive some basic instruction in such things. My MOS involved some activity where I may need to ask some basic questions of non-friendly persons. There were very specific limits that were outlined for me, and others in my unit, as to what would be and would not be allowed. It was made very clear that going outside of those limits would never be tolerated no matter who told me to do them. It was specifically stated that no officer outside the Pentagon itself had the authority to override standing orders such as these and, even then, such changes had better be clearly in writing with signatures from the highest levels of the chain of command if we wanted to have any chances of not being prosecuted for obeying an illegal order.
Back on topic, a bit, I suspect that in the case of interrogators at places like Guantanamo Bay, the names and faces of the interrogators are considered classified. That would make it difficult, at best, to produce tapes as were mentioned earlier. That said, once a judge demands something, they should get it as there are processes to deal with such things.
Yea, they may extend the deadline because some idiots didn't get ready for it and might be inconvenienced. And those exact same idiots will not be ready in 3 months, 6 months or 2 years when they eventually get around to doing the analog cut-off.
Yeah. My take on the proposed delay is that the retailers know there'll be a falloff of sales once the artificial frenzy is over. Sure, the broadcasters are blamed for wanting delays but I seriously doubt it's just them.
For the record, I'm a non-poor geek with 2 analog TVs. I have my 2 convertors just in case I can ever convince my wife to drop the freaking cable TV.
Also, I think it's SP3 you mean about the tampering with IE. It'll install IE7 if you want it or not unless you already had it installed.
This is incorrect. I've recently installed SP3 on dozens of PCs. Several of those recently don't have IE7 due to some incompatibility issues with custom apps and they still didn't have IE7 post-SP3. They're still chugging along just fine with IE6 with the warning that they shouldn't use that old POS. Luckily, these rigs aren't used much for Internet browsing but I installed the latest Firefox at the same time just in case.
The only way to uninstall it without going through a big hassle is to have IE7 installed prior to installing SP3 if I remember right.
If you have installed Windows Internet Explorer® 7 or a beta version of Internet Explorer 8, and then install Windows XP SP3, you cannot uninstall Internet Explorer.
To avoid this, ensure Internet Explorer 7 or a beta version of Internet Explorer 8 is not installed before installing Windows XP SP3.
If you have already encountered this issue, uninstall Windows XP SP3, uninstall Internet Explorer, and then reinstall Windows XP SP3.
I can see that. That wouldn't be a problem for me to accept. It's just that I also happen to see trucks as being much better built and ultimately safer to drive.
Agreed but it's also the ability to drive away from an accident that I love. I drive a full size pickup built in '89. It's got just shy of 200k miles on it now and in the last couple of decades, it's been in 3 accidents (considering the hours I tend to be on the road, 3 accidents is rather low, according to my insurance agent). One was an "oh shit" black ice incident at, luckily, 25 MPH or so that made it slide into a semi truck on a side road. Drove away from that one just fine with just a bent front bumper. Both of the other 2 have been rear end collisions. One was in the snow when an idiot was follwoing too close but there was no damage to my truck. The last was while I was stopped at a stoplight just off a freeway exit and the other guy was doing 35 or 40. His car was pretty much totaled but my truck only got a dent in the rear bumper. So many other vehicles would have just been totally unable to be driven at all.
Granted, this is anecdotal but I still think if I were driving anything smaller, it would have been replaced at least twice by now. There's something to be said for being able to drive away from an accident when the other guy totals his car. Now, if only we'd get willing to do something about the asshat drivers on the road, but that's a different topic.
Except in the rational world of facts you'd be wrong, people drive SUVs too fast in wet and icy conditions leading to these top top heavy vehicles rollin over or not stopping in time. SUVs also suck at accident avoidance which is half the battle due to inertia and poor steering compared to smaller more precise cars.
I hear this argument a LOT. The same argument could be used regarding a school bus, however. Yes, a larger vehicle may be dangerous when driven as though it's a sports car. When driven properly, however, they are no less unsafe than any other vehicle. This is a specious argument; the issue here is drivers, not the vehicle.
And as for better built I'd say the average American V8 is very, very lucky to make it to 175,000 miles where as OHC Japanese 4 bangers OFTEN make it to 250,000 and Mercedes diesels and Volvos to 350,000. A heavier car wears out faster due to simply physics even if built to the same build quality standards which American trucks aren't.
I have to say I doubt this to an extent, inasmuch as many people fail to properly maintain their vehicles. A larger vehicle would seem to be less able to handle this than a larger one, I suppose.
I drive a full size truck daily and my wife has a Jeep. I use my truck for hauling bulky items at least weekly in the course of managing our properties. We do actually use the Jeep offroad unlike the majority of Jeep owners around here, according to the dealer; hehe. Both of our vehicles have just shy of 200,000 miles on them and are in essentially flawless mechanical condition because we maintain them. If you don't maintain a vehicle properly, sure it'll fail. Again, the issue here is people, not the vehicle as such.
The thing that bothers me somewhat is the 'herbal = good' message that herbal medicine promotes. Yes, some herbs have medicinal effects. Quite a few of those will also mess you up if you're not careful, and then there's _way_ more 'herbal' substances that are just plain toxic.
Agreed. Incredibly annoying to me is the "it's all natural" crap. I usually point out that crude oil is also completely natural and yet is somehow not used as medication (to my knowledge, anyhow). I usually get a blank stare at that point but sometimes the message gets through.
The "it's herbal so it won't interfere with your medications" argument drives me nuts as well. It's downright dangerous, yet I hear it all the freaking time from some of these essential oil folks. Sure, I recognize that there is value in non-labmade substances but, damnit, if you're saying something you are selling has medicinal value then how the heck can you also argue that it can't possibly interfere with "medicine"?! Gah!
Please don't use the term "PC" when you mean to say "Windows."
I chose not to bring tis up, however, because the writers and editors of the article didn't choose to differentiate. In the context of the article, I believe my comment was on target and my choice of working precise. Had they chosen to review, say, Konqueror then I would have been more specific as to OS.
I'm quite aware of the difference between platform and OS. I have various distros of *nix running on some of my PCs in addition to Windows and even a Mac. I suppose I could point out that Intel based Macs are, in reality, nothing more than a PC running OS X. Heck, even old Macs are essentially PCs. The old PowerPC architecture even says so in its very name, yet Mac fanbois often tried to disclaim that they were PCs and, therefore, akin to Windows at all. Yes, I know that technically the PC in PowerPC stood for "Performance Computing" but try to explain that to the average Joe or Josephine and see ho far you get.
I find it interesting that they checked out 4 for the Mac and only 2 for the PC. Isn't there at least one other PC browser they could have looked at? Maybe not, I'm unsure. Interesting read either way.
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Holy crap, that's only five bucks?
Harbor Freight, the "99 cent" store of hardware/tools. They've actually got some ridiculously cheap prices on some items that you just don't need top quality for, as in the GP's link. I wouldn't use them for everything but hell, sometimes they're the best game around. I was going to post that link myself as I hate the expensive sets other places sell.
As an aside:
I just replied to an AC. I feel dirty.
Not nitpicking; this is an excellent point. I wanted to mention, however, that good mousers often train any kittens they have around. I had a male cats (Himalayan ... great cat) that trained all my younger ones. Some took to it better than others but it's not just mothers that'll do it.
Anyhow, on topic a bit, where are these cables running that rats can get to them? If you're replacing them then put them in conduit anywhere outside then seal the darned buildings "properly". Just my 2 cents.
LOL. Yeah, I wish I could get my old UID back. I managed to forget a password or mis-typed it the same twice once a while back, forcing me to make a new UID because I'd also recently dropped the e-mail address I used. :-\ I had a low 6 digit one, too! Not a 2 UID (damn!) but still ...
Anyhow, I've been using OpenDNS since Comcast bought out my old ISP. I never really had trouble before that but once Comcast took over I found their DNS servers to be absurdly slow. I tried running my own, which wasn't terribly hard but OpenDNS just works, saving me the hassle. For this convenience, I see some ads now and again. Big deal. I get assaulted by ads going into the grocery store lately (freaking window company hiring people to hassle me).
As an aside, I also like the filtering aspect they offer for some of my clients. Sure, it's bypassed easily enough by those who really want to but it is otherwise effective, requires no software on the system and is platform agnostic to boot.
Once a system has been compromised, the only way to ever trust it again is to wipe the drives and reinstall from known good media.
Truer words have rarely been spoken. I have the hardest time getting some clients to understand that, shy of a wipe and reinstall, I cannot guarantee their system will remain uninfected for X days after I clean it. (One guy wanted a full year guarantee.) That's aside from the fact that my hourly rate makes a reinstall more cost effective for them by far.
Anyhow, sorry for the off topic bit there. I just couldn't resist.
This is very similar to my "normal" point regarding such "wastes" of money when I happen to get into such a discussion. While I stipulate to the wasted resources overall, the money is mine to waste if I so choose and most of my power comes from renewable sources anyhow. Now, it would be great if they'd change this sort of device to save me money but, overall, wasting my time to turn them off and on is often pointless. There are a few items such as cell chargers and such that I'll bother with but these aren't all that common for me compared to, say, my microwave and such.
That said, here's another interesting dilemma I discovered. I have a condo at the beach to which I go whenever possible, albeit less often than I'd like. I used to flip the breakers on my hot water heater and turn the thermostat to 45 degrees F whenever I'd leave since I figured it was pointless to leave them running and would, therefore, waste money. The dual inconveniences of a chilly condo for an hour at most and being unable to shower for a while were minor as I rarely needed a shower when arriving anyhow and chilly isn't a big deal. Well, one time I forgot to do this but didn't know it for a few months until I managed to get some free time and go back down. What I discovered when I looked at the power bill is despite a MUCH higher usage during that time, I still didn't pay more. On investigating, it turns out that there's a minimum charge which I paid regardless and my usage never goes over that and. Now, I still power the hot water tank off as it's just stupid to waste the power but I only drop the heat to 60 degrees F now.
This is only a single anecdote, yes, and only speaks to the money out of my pocket instead of the still-valid point of wasted resources overall. I still find it instructive and hope others may as well.
Actually there's one very major downside: A rural viewer might be watching channel 10 to catch-up on the news, and suddenly the kid next door turns-on his TV Ban/whitespace Device and starts broadcasting over the same channel 10.
Except that the T signal is broadcast on a different part of the radio spectrum, not the one the whitespace device will be on. In addition, the whitespace devices use only UNUSED spectrum, following methods already shown to be effective. Enough astroturfing already.
reomve
Yeesh, the one time I don't speel (sic) check. :-\
that if we reomve a dam, as many people think we should do, would that also precipitate an earthquake? After all, we'd be changing the stresses on the fault.
Fascinating subject; I never knew before this that a dam could actually cause an earthquake. Makes sense when you think about it but I never thought about it since I've had little to do with dams aside from getting most of my power from them.
Sure, but you'll need a couple dozen dual layer DVDs to fit it all on. Until we have cheap media that can store a crapton more data than we have now, I think we'll still see separate distros even among the same niche markets (firewall appliances, anyone?). For the Desktop market, my personal thought is that the current repository scheme wrks well but this depends on cheap, nearly limitless bandwidth being available. If the current trend to meter bandwidth continues, I fear what may happen to the average consumer's bill when they need a couple GB worth of updates just for one app.
I'm aware, of course, that I am extrapolating two trends (software bloat and bandwidth caps) to their extremes without evidence but one wonders what will happen. Fun times we'll have if nobody can afford to apply security updates, etc, to their OSs and apps, whether M$ or otherwise.
But as amusing as it is most of the time, it has been dangerous and frustrating at other times. I was once refused admission to an urgent care on the grounds that my medical card had the right name on it, but the wrong gender.
And how long had you been carrying around that card meaning to someday get around to getting ready to get it fixed?
I think you misunderstand the point. The card is accurate but the appearance of the poster is so out of norm that it appears to be the opposite of what the card states. I've known some folks where this could have happened but, one wonders, why not simply explain this to the folks in the facility?
The online resources are giving you off-site storage, redundancy and (most importantly) convenience. To get redundancy with externals, you'd need to make 2 backups then alternate them periodically or use a software RAID that'd do them at the same time, requiring both drives for any backup. To get "proper" off-site storage, you'd need to go to the hassle of transporting the backup media hither and yon. Gnerally, you want a safe place to store the data so you end up with a safe deposit box or something along those lines. That's a cost, albeit minimal.
The real kicker, though, is the convenience factor. With online backup, you no longer have to transport the media and it should be available on many machines all at once, essentially. The other major issue for some businesses is that during transport, the data is subject to loss via theft. This is aleviated as well with online backups, so long as they're encrypted. Granted, offline media should likewise be encrypted but we know how often that happens, right?
The cost of something like S3 is properly compared to enterprise level backup systems. It's not so bad when you look at it from that perspective. Since most home users (aka consumers) don't need all the extra redundancy, etc, the cost compared to a couple of external TB drives doesn't make sense. That's when something like Mozy makes a lot more sense.
Now, the Gdrive isn't just for backup, either. It's essentially giving you a mapped network drive on any device you happen to have. Anyone that's worked at an enterprise with this should see the major benefit of that service. There's going to be a speed issue compared to a USB drive of some kind if you're using it to transfer ISOs or MPGs but for Word docs and such, I'd bet it's minimal.
Depth control consists of him swimming to the surface, filling a bladder with air, and then attaching it to the sub
I didn't see that stated in the article. My impression was more that they'd use some of the compressed air in the scuba tanks, or perhaps a different dedicated tank, to accomplish this. The fact is that wet subs aren't all that uncommon.
Personally, I'd call this one a submersible, rather than a submarine. A submarine is typically much more autonomous than this thing would be (TFA states he'd have a chase boat for air tanks, etc).
The point is that the buoyancy allowed it to float up a bit, causing water to flow over the propulsion surfaces. That flow, however slight, moved the sub forward. That's actually rather impressive, considering most subs sink like a freaking rock or bob like a log (depending on their buoyancy) instead of moving forward while bobbing slightly. The speed of said forward motion wasn't stated that I saw but it speaks to the fact that it ought to work. Now to see if ti works as well as they think it will.
First, I agree with your point that, regardless of the now-low cost, no app should needlessly waste my resources. That said, however, I disagree with your take on that article. The real point, IMO, is that the 80/20 rule often used to make light apps is flawed. While 80% of a bloated app's users may only use 20% (or less) of the features in said app, this is a different 20% subset for most users.
Thus, the "bloat" in an app for any given user is required in order to have a commercially successful application. This is to ensure that the app covers the needs of most users instead of only a very small subset of potential users.
The article is somewhat flawed inasmuch as the author assumes that the bloat isn't all loaded all the time. In cases such as some versions of AV apps, to pick one common example, or all the bloat is loaded all the time. This makes for a poor user experience overall. In Excel, however, many of the features aren't loaded unless used. At least that was the author's theory in 2001. Whether this was ever accurate or remains so is debatable, IMO. His take on the 80/20 rule is accurate as hell though.
I would hardly call the red dwarf sets elaborate, they look like they are about to fall apart most of the time
That's such a core part of the show's premise, though. For example, when they did the hologram ship, the sets were quite well done.
Wasn't that part of the humour too? You could see the wires holding up the spaceship sometimes!
I always thought that was intentional as well. Sort of a "screw it; nobody has to worry about suspension of disbelief here" moment to poke fun at the special effects based shows/movies.
Not directed at either parent or GP here but I've often wondered how much shows like Red Dwarf spend on the shabby look. Do they have to spend less because it's not "finished" or perhaps more because that un-finished look takes more effort or what?
So I guess one will have to purchase a new converter every time one misplaces the remote.
Yeesh; this is an absurd argument. TiVos also have no controls on them; you have a remote or you're screwed. In reality, however, how freaking hard is it to hang on to a remote control?! Even if one is moving, you just put your remotes in a box and label it properly.
My wife purchased a receiver unit 20 years ago, a few years before I met her. We still use it daily since it to listen to the radio and when we want a movie over more than the TV speakers. We've lived in no fewer than 8 different residences during this time and the remote hasn't been lost. This is just one example out of our obligatory remote control collection.
On a side note, a client that I just saw Tuesday purchased coupon eligible converters which had a remote and controls on the front. Since I was there for her computers, she asked me to plug in the converter boxes also (a common request for me these days). She said she paid nothing out of pocket for them (even sales tax was covered) so they couldn't have been that expensive. I didn't look at the brand but they were in a lime green box and worked pretty well for her TVs. So, if you looked, you could get boxes that had controls on the front under the coupon.
Soldiers, at least non-officers, are trained through very intense programs to always obey orders without question. They are not taught to get in arguments over their orders. What's more, they can face charges for refusing an order.
While this is true, in general, I know from first-hand experience that soldiers also receive instruction in what constitutes an illegal order. We were told in no uncertain terms that certain orders are not legal and, in fact, obeying such orders could lead to charges being filed against us. To say, as you do, that soldiers are trained to obey without thinking is just outright false. What soldiers are trained to do is to know instinctively what is right in any situation they'd be expected to encounter.
Without getting into specifics (some of my training is still classified AFAIK), I know that torture of any sort falls into the category of an illegal order for a soldier. Interrogations are generally not undertaken by enlisted persons anyhow. There are people specifically trained to handle such things (MOS 97E, as I recall). While I was not trained as an interrogator, I did receive some basic instruction in such things. My MOS involved some activity where I may need to ask some basic questions of non-friendly persons. There were very specific limits that were outlined for me, and others in my unit, as to what would be and would not be allowed. It was made very clear that going outside of those limits would never be tolerated no matter who told me to do them. It was specifically stated that no officer outside the Pentagon itself had the authority to override standing orders such as these and, even then, such changes had better be clearly in writing with signatures from the highest levels of the chain of command if we wanted to have any chances of not being prosecuted for obeying an illegal order.
Back on topic, a bit, I suspect that in the case of interrogators at places like Guantanamo Bay, the names and faces of the interrogators are considered classified. That would make it difficult, at best, to produce tapes as were mentioned earlier. That said, once a judge demands something, they should get it as there are processes to deal with such things.
Yea, they may extend the deadline because some idiots didn't get ready for it and might be inconvenienced. And those exact same idiots will not be ready in 3 months, 6 months or 2 years when they eventually get around to doing the analog cut-off.
Yeah. My take on the proposed delay is that the retailers know there'll be a falloff of sales once the artificial frenzy is over. Sure, the broadcasters are blamed for wanting delays but I seriously doubt it's just them.
For the record, I'm a non-poor geek with 2 analog TVs. I have my 2 convertors just in case I can ever convince my wife to drop the freaking cable TV.
Also, I think it's SP3 you mean about the tampering with IE. It'll install IE7 if you want it or not unless you already had it installed.
This is incorrect. I've recently installed SP3 on dozens of PCs. Several of those recently don't have IE7 due to some incompatibility issues with custom apps and they still didn't have IE7 post-SP3. They're still chugging along just fine with IE6 with the warning that they shouldn't use that old POS. Luckily, these rigs aren't used much for Internet browsing but I installed the latest Firefox at the same time just in case.
The only way to uninstall it without going through a big hassle is to have IE7 installed prior to installing SP3 if I remember right.
Actually, SP3 will make it impossible to uninstall IE7 without a whole bunch of hassle. This is clearly documented in http://download.microsoft.com/download/c/d/8/cd8cc719-7d5a-40d3-a802-e4057aa8c631/relnotes.htmthe release notes for SP3, right up top. For those who don't feel like clicking, here's the relevant text:
If you have installed Windows Internet Explorer® 7 or a beta version of Internet Explorer 8, and then install Windows XP SP3, you cannot uninstall Internet Explorer.
To avoid this, ensure Internet Explorer 7 or a beta version of Internet Explorer 8 is not installed before installing Windows XP SP3.
If you have already encountered this issue, uninstall Windows XP SP3, uninstall Internet Explorer, and then reinstall Windows XP SP3.
Hope that clarifies things a bit.
I can see that. That wouldn't be a problem for me to accept. It's just that I also happen to see trucks as being much better built and ultimately safer to drive.
Agreed but it's also the ability to drive away from an accident that I love. I drive a full size pickup built in '89. It's got just shy of 200k miles on it now and in the last couple of decades, it's been in 3 accidents (considering the hours I tend to be on the road, 3 accidents is rather low, according to my insurance agent). One was an "oh shit" black ice incident at, luckily, 25 MPH or so that made it slide into a semi truck on a side road. Drove away from that one just fine with just a bent front bumper. Both of the other 2 have been rear end collisions. One was in the snow when an idiot was follwoing too close but there was no damage to my truck. The last was while I was stopped at a stoplight just off a freeway exit and the other guy was doing 35 or 40. His car was pretty much totaled but my truck only got a dent in the rear bumper. So many other vehicles would have just been totally unable to be driven at all.
Granted, this is anecdotal but I still think if I were driving anything smaller, it would have been replaced at least twice by now. There's something to be said for being able to drive away from an accident when the other guy totals his car. Now, if only we'd get willing to do something about the asshat drivers on the road, but that's a different topic.
Except in the rational world of facts you'd be wrong, people drive SUVs too fast in wet and icy conditions leading to these top top heavy vehicles rollin over or not stopping in time. SUVs also suck at accident avoidance which is half the battle due to inertia and poor steering compared to smaller more precise cars.
I hear this argument a LOT. The same argument could be used regarding a school bus, however. Yes, a larger vehicle may be dangerous when driven as though it's a sports car. When driven properly, however, they are no less unsafe than any other vehicle. This is a specious argument; the issue here is drivers, not the vehicle.
And as for better built I'd say the average American V8 is very, very lucky to make it to 175,000 miles where as OHC Japanese 4 bangers OFTEN make it to 250,000 and Mercedes diesels and Volvos to 350,000. A heavier car wears out faster due to simply physics even if built to the same build quality standards which American trucks aren't.
I have to say I doubt this to an extent, inasmuch as many people fail to properly maintain their vehicles. A larger vehicle would seem to be less able to handle this than a larger one, I suppose.
I drive a full size truck daily and my wife has a Jeep. I use my truck for hauling bulky items at least weekly in the course of managing our properties. We do actually use the Jeep offroad unlike the majority of Jeep owners around here, according to the dealer; hehe. Both of our vehicles have just shy of 200,000 miles on them and are in essentially flawless mechanical condition because we maintain them. If you don't maintain a vehicle properly, sure it'll fail. Again, the issue here is people, not the vehicle as such.
The thing that bothers me somewhat is the 'herbal = good' message that herbal medicine promotes. Yes, some herbs have medicinal effects. Quite a few of those will also mess you up if you're not careful, and then there's _way_ more 'herbal' substances that are just plain toxic.
Agreed. Incredibly annoying to me is the "it's all natural" crap. I usually point out that crude oil is also completely natural and yet is somehow not used as medication (to my knowledge, anyhow). I usually get a blank stare at that point but sometimes the message gets through.
The "it's herbal so it won't interfere with your medications" argument drives me nuts as well. It's downright dangerous, yet I hear it all the freaking time from some of these essential oil folks. Sure, I recognize that there is value in non-labmade substances but, damnit, if you're saying something you are selling has medicinal value then how the heck can you also argue that it can't possibly interfere with "medicine"?! Gah!
Ok, I think I'm calm now. *chuckles*
Please don't use the term "PC" when you mean to say "Windows."
I chose not to bring tis up, however, because the writers and editors of the article didn't choose to differentiate. In the context of the article, I believe my comment was on target and my choice of working precise. Had they chosen to review, say, Konqueror then I would have been more specific as to OS.
I'm quite aware of the difference between platform and OS. I have various distros of *nix running on some of my PCs in addition to Windows and even a Mac. I suppose I could point out that Intel based Macs are, in reality, nothing more than a PC running OS X. Heck, even old Macs are essentially PCs. The old PowerPC architecture even says so in its very name, yet Mac fanbois often tried to disclaim that they were PCs and, therefore, akin to Windows at all. Yes, I know that technically the PC in PowerPC stood for "Performance Computing" but try to explain that to the average Joe or Josephine and see ho far you get.
'nuff said, I think.
I find it interesting that they checked out 4 for the Mac and only 2 for the PC. Isn't there at least one other PC browser they could have looked at? Maybe not, I'm unsure. Interesting read either way.
The one flaw I see in your plan is that I'm not a 90-year old man without arthritis. Other than that, your logic is excellent.
{cough}Hugh Hefner{cough}