What's even scarier is the amount of memory we now need. I started off in '81 with a ZX81 (they had a different name in the US, but I can't remember what it was now)which had 1Kb of onboard memory, or a 16Kb add-on pack.
My digital camera now has a 256Mb Xd card, which holds quarter of a million ZX81s on something that's about the size of my thumbnail.
Out of interest, what's the sampling bit-rate? A normal concert lasts a good two hours, and to fit that onto a 128Mb stick is going to take some doing...
Now _that's_ funny. I've worked with so many organisations who think that Excel is a database, and really don't see why they should change to something else, regardless of whether it's Access, MySQL, PostGre, Oracle, or whatever.
It's only once you've shown them a few things that are easier in anything other than Excel that they begin to understand - and in some ways that's why MySQL is useful, it provides a cheap/free alternative to investing in Oracle etc., and is useful for demonstrating the basics of why a DB is better than a spreadsheet.
Maybe so, but it's been available here in the UK for about a year or 18 months now. Dial 2580 (conveniently, the middle column of numbers on most mobile keypads), hold phone to speaker, and it identifies the music. I've used it even in nightclubs etc., and it's pretty much spot on.
As other people have commented, it's not just in LA that people are that dumb.
It's a fairly common occurrence for me to go to the cinema and hear at least one or two phones ringing during the film. And yes, some people answer them. Deeply, deeply annoying.
It's not just TiVo. In the UK, Sky TV has their "red button" interactive service, and I've noticed recently that some adverts now have the "press the red button to see extended footage of this advert".
Adidas has been a case in point for this, having extra footage of their Ali fight ad. etc.
I can't top the original poster, that's for sure. I've had two vile working environments, though.
The first was an office, writing SGML. (Bad enough) The office was actually a corridor, no windows, linoleum floor, and rather than desks, the working area was a length of kitchen worktop down one side of the corridor, where I worked with three others. The corridor had used to be a fire escape, 'til an extension was put on - so at the end of the corridor was a door with a sign on it that read "NO EXIT". Demoralising isn't in it.
Before working in IT, I did some warehouse work. This was the second worst working environment I've dealt with - working for a supermarket chain, this particular warehouse simply cleaned the green plastic trays that held vegetables and fruit in the supermarkets. So yes, there was plenty of opportunity for rotting fruit/veg too.
The actual work consisted of two jobs - you could either load the trays onto the cleaning machine, or load them off the machine and stack them. Soul-destroying.
Because it'd do a Beagle, crash and impact with no sign of recovery.
Re:You know... things just don't amaze me.
on
Message in a Battle
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· Score: 5, Informative
Personally, I think Gollum was utterly believable within the scope of LOTR. OK, not human - but the interaction with surroundings, the characterisation, all seemed pretty much perfect.
Dobby the House Elf in Harry Potter was ground-breaking, but Gollum seems to be a whole generation above that.
I'm left handed, and yet have never experienced getting ink all over my hands. I use a fountain pen every day, but hold the pen high enough up the shaft (fnarr) that I'm not resting my hand on the paper directly where I've written. Hard to describe verbally, but the pen is held in much the same way most right-handers use it - so that you're writing on the row above where your hand rests.
Isn't that why the UK already has things like GCHQ, the infamous listening centre that's now part of the Echelon network?
My understanding was that GCHQ fed information into the US intelligence services, so that it wasn't the US that was technically spying on its own citizens, but instead was simply "sharing the intelligence from NATO"
The same point has been raised by one of the sites I regularly read, d4d, saying some more about MSNs policy etc.. They're reckoning according to some stories that 20% of the people using MSN are spammers, and "a smaller number" are paedophiles.
Nope - the difference is that they can't tell if you simply walk into the store. For the "repeat customer" trigger with a credit card, it's repeat purchases, not just wondering in and out of a store.
Of course it makes it interesting if you're logged each time you go in, wander around and come out without buying anything. Do you then get mailouts etc. offering better deals at that particular store?
Slashdot Mirror
That'd be http://www.marklandtech.com/gasplasma.html, to get to the correct page.
What's even scarier is the amount of memory we now need. I started off in '81 with a ZX81 (they had a different name in the US, but I can't remember what it was now)which had 1Kb of onboard memory, or a 16Kb add-on pack.
My digital camera now has a 256Mb Xd card, which holds quarter of a million ZX81s on something that's about the size of my thumbnail.
Out of interest, what's the sampling bit-rate? A normal concert lasts a good two hours, and to fit that onto a 128Mb stick is going to take some doing...
Now _that's_ funny. I've worked with so many organisations who think that Excel is a database, and really don't see why they should change to something else, regardless of whether it's Access, MySQL, PostGre, Oracle, or whatever.
It's only once you've shown them a few things that are easier in anything other than Excel that they begin to understand - and in some ways that's why MySQL is useful, it provides a cheap/free alternative to investing in Oracle etc., and is useful for demonstrating the basics of why a DB is better than a spreadsheet.
For the gui DB design tool (partic with apache + php) the option of choice would be PhpMyAdmin.
Maybe so, but it's been available here in the UK for about a year or 18 months now. Dial 2580 (conveniently, the middle column of numbers on most mobile keypads), hold phone to speaker, and it identifies the music. I've used it even in nightclubs etc., and it's pretty much spot on.
As other people have commented, it's not just in LA that people are that dumb.
It's a fairly common occurrence for me to go to the cinema and hear at least one or two phones ringing during the film. And yes, some people answer them. Deeply, deeply annoying.
It's not just TiVo. In the UK, Sky TV has their "red button" interactive service, and I've noticed recently that some adverts now have the "press the red button to see extended footage of this advert".
Adidas has been a case in point for this, having extra footage of their Ali fight ad. etc.
The full spec is here http://www.nokia.com/nokia/0,,54665,00.html. Not a bad bit of kit at all.
The rest of the Nokia kit from ceBIT is visible at http://www.nokia.com/cebit2004/new_releases.html
Now that's funny. Thanks for the laugh.
I can't top the original poster, that's for sure. I've had two vile working environments, though.
The first was an office, writing SGML. (Bad enough) The office was actually a corridor, no windows, linoleum floor, and rather than desks, the working area was a length of kitchen worktop down one side of the corridor, where I worked with three others. The corridor had used to be a fire escape, 'til an extension was put on - so at the end of the corridor was a door with a sign on it that read "NO EXIT". Demoralising isn't in it.
Before working in IT, I did some warehouse work. This was the second worst working environment I've dealt with - working for a supermarket chain, this particular warehouse simply cleaned the green plastic trays that held vegetables and fruit in the supermarkets. So yes, there was plenty of opportunity for rotting fruit/veg too.
The actual work consisted of two jobs - you could either load the trays onto the cleaning machine, or load them off the machine and stack them. Soul-destroying.
Well, Liverpool certainly knows what computers are. They're the high-value items that thieving little sods can use to buy drugs.
Because it'd do a Beagle, crash and impact with no sign of recovery.
Personally, I think Gollum was utterly believable within the scope of LOTR. OK, not human - but the interaction with surroundings, the characterisation, all seemed pretty much perfect.
Dobby the House Elf in Harry Potter was ground-breaking, but Gollum seems to be a whole generation above that.
or they'll be in jail for killing someone while driving. (Is there still the charge of vehicular homicide?)
or they'll be dead themselves.
I think the answer to that is the wonderfully quantum "It depends".
Option 1 - Digital Optical - simply measures whether the optical source is on or off
Option 2 - Analog Optical - measures whether the optical source is on or off, and also measures the intensity, say to 50 distinct levels.
Option 3 - Pretty Optical - as well as on, off and intensity, also measures emitted colour as an extra set of data bits.
I've no idea if Option 3 is practical/practicable, but all three sound pretty feasible, to say the least.
I'm left handed, and yet have never experienced getting ink all over my hands. I use a fountain pen every day, but hold the pen high enough up the shaft (fnarr) that I'm not resting my hand on the paper directly where I've written. Hard to describe verbally, but the pen is held in much the same way most right-handers use it - so that you're writing on the row above where your hand rests.
Isn't that why the UK already has things like GCHQ, the infamous listening centre that's now part of the Echelon network?
My understanding was that GCHQ fed information into the US intelligence services, so that it wasn't the US that was technically spying on its own citizens, but instead was simply "sharing the intelligence from NATO"
The same point has been raised by one of the sites I regularly read, d4d, saying some more about MSNs policy etc.. They're reckoning according to some stories that 20% of the people using MSN are spammers, and "a smaller number" are paedophiles.
I was sure Slashdot had covered it when it was first listed as well, but I can't find the link for it.
If only I could think of the right search phrases...
I agree. The joy of no spell-checking on Blogger was that it showed up who could spell vs. those who would normally use a spellchecker.
Now (in theory) blogs will be a lot more literate - or at least slightly less illiterate.
And remember, according to Pratchett (and Sod's Law in general) million-to-one chances (or in this case 1 in 909,000) come up nine times out of ten...
Ah, but perhaps this NEO is the One? *grin*
Nope - the difference is that they can't tell if you simply walk into the store. For the "repeat customer" trigger with a credit card, it's repeat purchases, not just wondering in and out of a store.
Of course it makes it interesting if you're logged each time you go in, wander around and come out without buying anything. Do you then get mailouts etc. offering better deals at that particular store?
Supposedly, Razor-blades are the most shoplifted items in any shop's inventory.
Of course, I've no link to prove that, but I know it's one of those empirical things they like to blether on about every so often.