A lot of posts here are listing why Xohm is good/bad compared to other cell networks but that's not even half of it. Xohm is also trying to enter the home user market, and I think they're going to do well.
I've used Xohm (briefly, at a demo last weekend) and will likely switch to them because although their service is slower than cable (the only option for us Baltimore residents is Comcast), it still plays Youtube videos faster than they play, which is pretty much all I ask for. The best thing about Xohm is it's $25/mo. to start, and then $35/mo. after six months. If you want home + roaming usage it's $55/month. Compare to Comcast's $60 for just home usage (obviously no roaming options available) and you see why I think they'll do well.
There are technical fallbacks to cell networks, but Xohm's coverage is *excellent*, the service is cheap, and although it has yet to be seen, I'll be dollars to doughnuts that Xohm's customer service is better than Comcast. And with Hulu and Netflix, losing TV won't kill me (I should read more anyway...)
Argh - I just threw away all my Bloom County books last month when I moved! The comic was great - I'm 30 so I missed some of the political references when I was younger but I read all the books later and loved those comics. I didn't pick up Opus again even after he was back the last couple of years because it didn't feel the same. I'll be sure to buy the compilation of all the latest ones and enjoy them. Opus certainly had a great run and it's probably time to put him away before he gets too old.
It looks like almost full coverage for downtown, Fells Point/East Baltimore, Charles Villige, etc. Considering Comcast mistakenly physically disconnected my internet on Thursday and I still have no internet, I'm in the mood to switch!
I would have just given the data to MI6. Maybe it's because I'm overly supportive of the intelligence community as a whole due to the nature of my work, but I would think that intelligence officials should be the ones handling this data and would not feel weird about just calling them. This doesn't fall under under police duties, and unless the police have classifications, they shouldn't be handling the data. Obviously, it's 'out there' and the eBay buyer shouldn't be looking at it, but he obviously couldn't help it, and at this point you want to contain the information as much as possible.
Contacting MI6 directly will get the data contained faster, with much better "customer service" than the police. MI6 screwed up, they will want to contain their mistake, and they should certainly recognize that by reporting this leak, you are helpful, not some criminal.
You say that not knowing his specifics or how hard it was to get a job. I started out in Fire Protection Engineering; you know what my first job was? I installed sprinkler systems. I knew I wanted to get into fire protection, so I got a job at one of the only fire protection companies around. They didn't need any engineers (I was just out of high school by the way, and yet to start college, but that just makes me more similar to this guy - he said he got the job before the degree), but they needed field workers. So I humped around and did blue-collar work all summer getting my hands dirty cutting pipe and crawling around rafters.
While I ended up getting out of that type of engineering, I had a (good) job there if I wanted it when I graduated. I worked hard when I was there, the boss liked me, and the professional connection was established 5 years before I even got my degree.
This job was a holdover job - a quick way to make some money to get to school. I don't know anybody who *didn't* have this type of job in college, unless their parents were paying for school. Hell, I was a computer lab proctor at school, and you bet I put that on my first resume.
I found that Sumatra and Foxit didn't render as nicely as Adobe's Reader, which is a shame because I really wanted to use them. But you can make reader as fast as Foxit (actually, a tiny bit faster) by just renaming the "plugins" folder found in the folder where AcroRead.exe resides so it doesn't know where all that code is. It starts up without throwing errors at you too. I ended up putting the search.dll back in, but haven't missed anything else yet.
Should I assume that without all that extra plugin crap, this security issue is null?
That's an excellent point - they're not designed/used to inform the customer. Maybe rate plans should follow want banks have to do in the U.S. - have a summary printed out in plain language that shows how much you're going to pay. The loan paper basically says up front and center your loan amount, how much of that is original and how much is profit for the bank, and your monthly payment and schedule. It's all very easy to see, and was clearly designed to inform customers so they didn't fall victim to loansharks.
For rate plans, a simple 'how much you would pay' for typical usage, as well as say, spending 2 weeks abroad with daily usage. It would cut down on situations like these.
You can also just tell them you travel a lot and to drop the 'protection' altogether the next time you have them on the phone. I've done this and now I never have to worry about getting denied. Someone using my card will be noticed (charges show up online, and I check often) and I (we) are only limited to $50 or so in liability.
Oh, I know the virtues of Linux. I use it, and OS X, at home along with XP, because they all have their own advantages. My comment about the world being nicer was that it would be nice if we lived in a world where MS trusted us (and likewise, we paid for all of our OSes) but that just doesn't happen.
My post was referring to the parent who suggested running WGA was stupid even if you have a legal copy of Windows. I just wanted to get the reasoning behind that, because that means you don't get any updates. As you pointed out, your OS doesn't even play Youtube videos without an update. Installing any flavor and not running apt-get (or whatever) isn't the best advice IMHO.
What's wrong with WGA? I realize the world would be nicer if it wasn't there at all, but MS decided to use it, so now your choice is to use it or not. AFAIK, it's needed to have a patched system. I like the fact that my OS and many of its apps are up to date. MS can have my MAC and GUID if that means they give me free updates every week.
If there is away "around" WGA, have fun with that. But I've already paid for my OS and the stuff I download from MS, and I don't need to waste time running virus-ridden binaries from Limewire or set up my own fake server just to use my computer.
Can any games use over 4GB yet? I'm just curious. Vista64 can handle 8, 16, or 128GB depending on the version, but do games need to be compiled to work with 64-bit instructions/memory use? Maybe the rig mentioned was for right now, and the extra 4 GB being a separate purchase down the road? Of course, this is supposed to be future-proof, isn't it?
One big disadvantage is that e-SATA does not carry power, which limits functionality in small devices. I don't want to have to change batteries in my flash drives - it adds to the cost, complexity, and size. And with devices getting smaller and smaller there is less room for batteries and cord connectors.
That's why I like the Bank of America ATM card - it not only stores language prefs, but also preferences for 'Quick Cash' which knows which account to take from and how much to take out. It also stores receipt preferences. It's pretty fun to go to an ATM and hit 4 numbers for your PIN, then one other button. It even gives you your card while it 'counts' the money so the whole thing is refreshingly quick.
He's doing it to instill fear - it was explained in the first movie that he needs to instill fear to get the job done. As much as I hate that voice (I actually started laughing during TDK) I give it pass for that reason.
There was a (probable, but subtle) allusion to Catwoman in TDK. When Fox gives Batman his new suit, he makes it a point to say it will protect against cats.
ID is not a scientific theory, but it is a theory. The word simply has multiple meanings, and I believe a great deal of confusion comes from this unfortunate fact.
In the vernacular, "theory" is a guess used to explain some event, usually on circumstantial or incomplete evidence - an idea based on speculation. Non-Slashdot nerds use the word all day long to explain things, so it's not a bastardization. A close scientific equivalent is hypothesis.
A scientific theory, is, of course, entirely different. Two meanings, one word, and one horrible coincidence that gives IDers ammunition against us evil Neo-Darwinists:)
While true, I'll throw in the fact that even before Bill was impeached, there was a considerable amount of press talking about bringing the articles of impeachment to the President. So "trying" to impeach Bill before it happened was still on every news channel, whereas this got nothing - I checked CNN and FOX News today and found no mention on the front page.
Glossy screens like mine (or any TruLife, XBRITE, UltraBright, Brightview, etc.) have sharper images, more contrast, and a wider viewing angle than a typical matte screen. Sounds pretty usable to me.
Look, the same light hits the screen no matter what type of screen it is, and some of that is going to get reflected back. The light can be diffused before it's bounced back, which means at any one point, you see less light from the object behind/above you, but you also see reflections from all over the room. The other option is to not diffuse it, in which case you only get reflections from the source right behind/above you. Personally, I like the second option since you can avoid reflections completely by simply moving the screen. Can't do that with matte.
Don't think people that prefer glossy are some sheepish ignorant consumers just because they have different preferences. You go on enjoying your washed out screen while enjoy my great contrast.
It scares me that you assume everyone has to be like you. How can you fail to realize that some people actually enjoy their work. Talk about misplaced priorities! And how long is your commute? My friends that work from home, or don't work at all, would call you an idiot if it's anything over 1 minute.
Even if people don't love their job to commute so much, it's still not a 'waste'. My friend drives 2 hours each way to his job and so he can't do anything productive on the way down. But he makes more money in his 12-hour workday than I do in two days. While money's not everything, he now has enough money to sell his house, quit his job, and get a new place (and a more rewarding job) in an area he's wanted to live in. Me? I'm still renting after being out of school for 7 years.
I saw in another post above this, along with a bit of Googling, that shared driveways or driveways that also provide legal access to public facilities need to named in some states. And shared driveways should be named for emergency services.
I never knew if Comedy Central censoring it was part of the joke or not, but either way, it's not on the online version (it's at the end of the episode 'Cartoon Wars Part II' easily found via the search button on the site.
But Dish and DirecTV are two different companies, and I'm only talking about DirecTV - not satellite DRM overall. It's more like me saying my house is secure and you're saying it's not because my neighbor's door is wide open. I never said all DRM is unhacked - far from it. Just that _some_ companies have made it hard enough to do that it's not widely hacked anymore. Same as if we had big steel doors and bars over our windows. We would have a secure house even though someone could just tear down an entire exterior wall.
And people switching to Netflix because it's cheaper deals with economics, not DirecTV's effective DRM. Some people had access to every single channel ever put out by DirecTV with no DirecTV account. And as soon as the stronger DRM was put into place, such users then switched to Netflix - a testament to how successful DirecTV was.
Well, the poster was absolutely correct - even if it's hard or improbable, it doesn't mean his concept is wrong. All the media companies need to do is make it 'sufficiently hard' and it won't be cracked. Just because you think every DRM in history has been hacked and will be hacked doesn't make it true.
If you knew your recent history about hacking DRM, you would know that DirecTV is a perfect example. Their older cards had a weak DRM scheme where it would validate PPV requests at a certain time in a sequence. If you dropped the voltage at just the right time, you could make the set-top box think your PPV request was valid. There was also an easier way where you could clone a valid card. DirecTV had as many as *1 million* people stealing their service, so they did a 10+ million card swap. Expensive for them, but their new card had a good challenge-response scheme in the chip. Their new chips might be hacked, but not by many. I don't know a single person who hacks DirecTV anymore (and believe me, my nerdy Slashdot-reading 'friend' had a lot of customers). All the old boards like alt.dss.hack are all but dead because most people have just moved on (or starting hacking Dish:P).
So although DirecTV didn't produce an uncrackable system, it's 'sufficiently hard' for most people. Hence, they succeeded.
1915, when Einstein published the Theory of Relativity. His model accounts for c, which negates Newton's classical approach. People will no doubt tell you Newton is "good enough" for non-relativistic speeds, but everything that accelerates or moves is moving *some* fraction of c. So the laws are wrong by a *very* small amount, but they're still wrong in principle.
Slashdot Mirror
A lot of posts here are listing why Xohm is good/bad compared to other cell networks but that's not even half of it. Xohm is also trying to enter the home user market, and I think they're going to do well.
I've used Xohm (briefly, at a demo last weekend) and will likely switch to them because although their service is slower than cable (the only option for us Baltimore residents is Comcast), it still plays Youtube videos faster than they play, which is pretty much all I ask for. The best thing about Xohm is it's $25/mo. to start, and then $35/mo. after six months. If you want home + roaming usage it's $55/month. Compare to Comcast's $60 for just home usage (obviously no roaming options available) and you see why I think they'll do well.
There are technical fallbacks to cell networks, but Xohm's coverage is *excellent*, the service is cheap, and although it has yet to be seen, I'll be dollars to doughnuts that Xohm's customer service is better than Comcast. And with Hulu and Netflix, losing TV won't kill me (I should read more anyway...)
Argh - I just threw away all my Bloom County books last month when I moved! The comic was great - I'm 30 so I missed some of the political references when I was younger but I read all the books later and loved those comics. I didn't pick up Opus again even after he was back the last couple of years because it didn't feel the same. I'll be sure to buy the compilation of all the latest ones and enjoy them. Opus certainly had a great run and it's probably time to put him away before he gets too old.
Ah, thank you - I heard conflicting reports on whether or not XOHM would be available at all in October.
For those that want to check coverage, go here:
http://www.xohm.com/baltimore/
It looks like almost full coverage for downtown, Fells Point/East Baltimore, Charles Villige, etc. Considering Comcast mistakenly physically disconnected my internet on Thursday and I still have no internet, I'm in the mood to switch!
I would have just given the data to MI6. Maybe it's because I'm overly supportive of the intelligence community as a whole due to the nature of my work, but I would think that intelligence officials should be the ones handling this data and would not feel weird about just calling them. This doesn't fall under under police duties, and unless the police have classifications, they shouldn't be handling the data. Obviously, it's 'out there' and the eBay buyer shouldn't be looking at it, but he obviously couldn't help it, and at this point you want to contain the information as much as possible.
Contacting MI6 directly will get the data contained faster, with much better "customer service" than the police. MI6 screwed up, they will want to contain their mistake, and they should certainly recognize that by reporting this leak, you are helpful, not some criminal.
You say that not knowing his specifics or how hard it was to get a job. I started out in Fire Protection Engineering; you know what my first job was? I installed sprinkler systems. I knew I wanted to get into fire protection, so I got a job at one of the only fire protection companies around. They didn't need any engineers (I was just out of high school by the way, and yet to start college, but that just makes me more similar to this guy - he said he got the job before the degree), but they needed field workers. So I humped around and did blue-collar work all summer getting my hands dirty cutting pipe and crawling around rafters.
While I ended up getting out of that type of engineering, I had a (good) job there if I wanted it when I graduated. I worked hard when I was there, the boss liked me, and the professional connection was established 5 years before I even got my degree.
This job was a holdover job - a quick way to make some money to get to school. I don't know anybody who *didn't* have this type of job in college, unless their parents were paying for school. Hell, I was a computer lab proctor at school, and you bet I put that on my first resume.
I found that Sumatra and Foxit didn't render as nicely as Adobe's Reader, which is a shame because I really wanted to use them. But you can make reader as fast as Foxit (actually, a tiny bit faster) by just renaming the "plugins" folder found in the folder where AcroRead.exe resides so it doesn't know where all that code is. It starts up without throwing errors at you too. I ended up putting the search.dll back in, but haven't missed anything else yet.
Should I assume that without all that extra plugin crap, this security issue is null?
That's an excellent point - they're not designed/used to inform the customer. Maybe rate plans should follow want banks have to do in the U.S. - have a summary printed out in plain language that shows how much you're going to pay. The loan paper basically says up front and center your loan amount, how much of that is original and how much is profit for the bank, and your monthly payment and schedule. It's all very easy to see, and was clearly designed to inform customers so they didn't fall victim to loansharks.
For rate plans, a simple 'how much you would pay' for typical usage, as well as say, spending 2 weeks abroad with daily usage. It would cut down on situations like these.
You can also just tell them you travel a lot and to drop the 'protection' altogether the next time you have them on the phone. I've done this and now I never have to worry about getting denied. Someone using my card will be noticed (charges show up online, and I check often) and I (we) are only limited to $50 or so in liability.
Oh, I know the virtues of Linux. I use it, and OS X, at home along with XP, because they all have their own advantages. My comment about the world being nicer was that it would be nice if we lived in a world where MS trusted us (and likewise, we paid for all of our OSes) but that just doesn't happen.
My post was referring to the parent who suggested running WGA was stupid even if you have a legal copy of Windows. I just wanted to get the reasoning behind that, because that means you don't get any updates. As you pointed out, your OS doesn't even play Youtube videos without an update. Installing any flavor and not running apt-get (or whatever) isn't the best advice IMHO.
What's wrong with WGA? I realize the world would be nicer if it wasn't there at all, but MS decided to use it, so now your choice is to use it or not. AFAIK, it's needed to have a patched system. I like the fact that my OS and many of its apps are up to date. MS can have my MAC and GUID if that means they give me free updates every week.
If there is away "around" WGA, have fun with that. But I've already paid for my OS and the stuff I download from MS, and I don't need to waste time running virus-ridden binaries from Limewire or set up my own fake server just to use my computer.
Apparently, yes. But it's not complete ironic as we might imagine, as the uranium nucleus is comparatively larger than other elements:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barn_(unit)
http://www.symmetrymagazine.org/cms/?pid=1000258
Can any games use over 4GB yet? I'm just curious. Vista64 can handle 8, 16, or 128GB depending on the version, but do games need to be compiled to work with 64-bit instructions/memory use? Maybe the rig mentioned was for right now, and the extra 4 GB being a separate purchase down the road? Of course, this is supposed to be future-proof, isn't it?
One big disadvantage is that e-SATA does not carry power, which limits functionality in small devices. I don't want to have to change batteries in my flash drives - it adds to the cost, complexity, and size. And with devices getting smaller and smaller there is less room for batteries and cord connectors.
That's why I like the Bank of America ATM card - it not only stores language prefs, but also preferences for 'Quick Cash' which knows which account to take from and how much to take out. It also stores receipt preferences. It's pretty fun to go to an ATM and hit 4 numbers for your PIN, then one other button. It even gives you your card while it 'counts' the money so the whole thing is refreshingly quick.
He's doing it to instill fear - it was explained in the first movie that he needs to instill fear to get the job done. As much as I hate that voice (I actually started laughing during TDK) I give it pass for that reason.
Also, seeing this hilarious video didn't help with the laughing.
There was a (probable, but subtle) allusion to Catwoman in TDK. When Fox gives Batman his new suit, he makes it a point to say it will protect against cats.
ID is not a scientific theory, but it is a theory. The word simply has multiple meanings, and I believe a great deal of confusion comes from this unfortunate fact.
In the vernacular, "theory" is a guess used to explain some event, usually on circumstantial or incomplete evidence - an idea based on speculation. Non-Slashdot nerds use the word all day long to explain things, so it's not a bastardization. A close scientific equivalent is hypothesis.
A scientific theory, is, of course, entirely different. Two meanings, one word, and one horrible coincidence that gives IDers ammunition against us evil Neo-Darwinists :)
While true, I'll throw in the fact that even before Bill was impeached, there was a considerable amount of press talking about bringing the articles of impeachment to the President. So "trying" to impeach Bill before it happened was still on every news channel, whereas this got nothing - I checked CNN and FOX News today and found no mention on the front page.
Look, the same light hits the screen no matter what type of screen it is, and some of that is going to get reflected back. The light can be diffused before it's bounced back, which means at any one point, you see less light from the object behind/above you, but you also see reflections from all over the room. The other option is to not diffuse it, in which case you only get reflections from the source right behind/above you. Personally, I like the second option since you can avoid reflections completely by simply moving the screen. Can't do that with matte.
Don't think people that prefer glossy are some sheepish ignorant consumers just because they have different preferences. You go on enjoying your washed out screen while enjoy my great contrast.
Even if people don't love their job to commute so much, it's still not a 'waste'. My friend drives 2 hours each way to his job and so he can't do anything productive on the way down. But he makes more money in his 12-hour workday than I do in two days. While money's not everything, he now has enough money to sell his house, quit his job, and get a new place (and a more rewarding job) in an area he's wanted to live in. Me? I'm still renting after being out of school for 7 years.
I saw in another post above this, along with a bit of Googling, that shared driveways or driveways that also provide legal access to public facilities need to named in some states. And shared driveways should be named for emergency services.
I never knew if Comedy Central censoring it was part of the joke or not, but either way, it's not on the online version (it's at the end of the episode 'Cartoon Wars Part II' easily found via the search button on the site.
And people switching to Netflix because it's cheaper deals with economics, not DirecTV's effective DRM. Some people had access to every single channel ever put out by DirecTV with no DirecTV account. And as soon as the stronger DRM was put into place, such users then switched to Netflix - a testament to how successful DirecTV was.
If you knew your recent history about hacking DRM, you would know that DirecTV is a perfect example. Their older cards had a weak DRM scheme where it would validate PPV requests at a certain time in a sequence. If you dropped the voltage at just the right time, you could make the set-top box think your PPV request was valid. There was also an easier way where you could clone a valid card. DirecTV had as many as *1 million* people stealing their service, so they did a 10+ million card swap. Expensive for them, but their new card had a good challenge-response scheme in the chip. Their new chips might be hacked, but not by many. I don't know a single person who hacks DirecTV anymore (and believe me, my nerdy Slashdot-reading 'friend' had a lot of customers). All the old boards like alt.dss.hack are all but dead because most people have just moved on (or starting hacking Dish :P).
So although DirecTV didn't produce an uncrackable system, it's 'sufficiently hard' for most people. Hence, they succeeded.
1915, when Einstein published the Theory of Relativity. His model accounts for c, which negates Newton's classical approach. People will no doubt tell you Newton is "good enough" for non-relativistic speeds, but everything that accelerates or moves is moving *some* fraction of c. So the laws are wrong by a *very* small amount, but they're still wrong in principle.