Silicon Nabiscos
Silicon Nabiscos
(null)Created 20 Feb 2003 at 01:42 UTC by pedro.
URL: http://www.slashdot.org/
Notes: All kinds of weird geeky stuff happen all that time that aren't necessarily "interweb hobo stew material." This is the place to discuss that kind of stuff.
Isn't the Turing Test Neat?
pedro, posted 20 Feb 2003 at 09:04 UTC by inkblot »
(Fixture)
Did you get SNMP and MRTG all hooked up yet?
NOPE, posted 20 Feb 2003 at 09:24 UTC by pedro »
(Tourist)
I haven't started.
cricket!, posted 20 Feb 2003 at 15:15 UTC by elise »
(Fixture)
does anyone still use mrtg?
lots, posted 20 Feb 2003 at 17:03 UTC by pedro »
(Tourist)
of people do.
what are you using, elise?
cricket, posted 20 Feb 2003 at 17:42 UTC by elise »
(Fixture)
at work. no snmp at home.
supports IPv6...does yours?
HEY THEO, posted 23 Feb 2003 at 11:45 UTC by sneakums »
(Fixture)
ha ha IPv6
yeah, posted 23 Feb 2003 at 13:14 UTC by neoacerbitas »
(Fixture)
it was a joke, i mean, i'm serious but, really
Pioneer 10 falls silent after 31 years.
3D ascii art stereograms!
Minnesota Man Powers a Farm and 80 Homes with Cow Dung!
The answer, my friends, is here.
Periodic Table Haiku
Cisco buys Linksys
i just want to give a hearty Beaujolais! to whoever it was who invented the drive sled. maverick's chassis is now home to a second system which i have called neon. this is all made possible by the fact that hda is a hotswap bay, and maverick's and neon's hdas are both in drive sleds...
Beaujolais!
sci-fi schwag, posted 2 Apr 2003 at 13:13 UTC by lukas »
(Fixture)
got cash to spend? You could own Duke Atreide's jumpsuit
or the Klaatu spaceship! My favorite is the B9 robot from Lost in Space.
check out all the auctions. The prices are outrageous and I wonder how much they paid for the stuff originally. They probably rescued it from the trash and now are making an insane fortune off crazed fans.
lead, posted 17 Apr 2003 at 13:02 UTC by lukas »
(Fixture)
so there's a new study out talking about lead and how even really small levels of lead produce drops in IQ. The LA Times has an article about the study and I'm reading it and they are talking about how high lead levels used to be back in the 70's an 80's. Are we all just dumber because we had lots of lead in us? Are the kids of the future going to be super-geniuses because they have unleaded blood? Is it all scam by evian to get us to drink their water? I doubt the house I grew up in head lead paint or pipes, but I bet the big white house i spent my first 3.75 years in had some lead in the pipes or paint. [i posted this here because i figured it was a good place to have a (psuedo)science dicussion]
get smart(er), posted 17 Apr 2003 at 13:05 UTC by baggins »
(Fixture)
listen to the real Led (Zeppelin)
From the LA Times article: "Lead is a potent poison that adversely affects organs throughout the body. Recent studies have shown that higher levels not only reduce intelligence and slow development, but also can lead to behavioral problems, juvenile delinquency and even criminality." [emphasis added]
Give me a friggin' break. Has the notion of personal responsibility been completely removed from society? I'm not disputing the research, I just think the article is hinting at something that the study doesn't prove.
My previous post does more to highlight my personal problems with the litigous nature of our society and it's sometimes backwards judicial system than to actually address the article. That said, citing "recent studies" without naming or linking to them tends to increase my skepticism. As such, I feel that that particular statement is incredibly irresponsible reporting designed to shock readers, not highlight the findings of interesting new research. That said, the rest of the article was very good.
On to the study and lukas' commments...
lukas: Somehow I doubt the lead-free kids of the future are going to be super-geniuses, at least not according to history and the study. Today the average lead level is about 3 micrograms per deciliter, which they are careful to point out is between 10 and 100 times of levels found in preindustrial humans. Were they super-geniuses? Even if we were to lower the average lead level to .003 mcg/dl I really doubt the average IQ would rise by more than a couple of points.
I would be interested to see more research about it's effects on the brain's hormonal processes though.
From a domestic agenda point of view, this study should give cities and states an incentive to make it easy for homeowners to get rid of the lead in their homes. Right now many people hesitiate to do anything about it because in many parts of the country lead paint is prohibitively expensive and difficult to properly remove, so they either just ignore it, or dispose of it improperly, perpetuating the problem.
One more thing, posted 17 Apr 2003 at 17:23 UTC by alaric »
(Fixture)
I will leave it to other readers to either prove or disprove Evian's involvment in these findings. I've written enough about lead for one day.
..., posted 17 Apr 2003 at 18:00 UTC by barefootjumper »
(Fixture)
i thought this entree was about implants. i don't think it is an unforgivable mistake.
what exactly does the item name refer to?
"average IQ would rise by more than a couple of points" <-- nonsense
100 is always the average because that is how the Intelligence Quotient is defined. it is calculated by taking your estimated "intellectual age" dividing it by your physical age, and expressing the resulting quotient as a percentage. the level of intelligence required to achieve a particular "intellectual age" is determined by sampling people who are physically that age, and taking the average. so guess what? if everyone's intelligence jumped up by some fixed amount across the board, so does the average, and consequently, everyone's IQ is the same as it was before.
bearing all this in mind, there are actually two ways to increase your IQ:
- learn faster than your contemporaries
- kill people who are smarter than you
in addition, you can increase your childrens' IQ by encouraging retards to breed.
lol, posted 17 Apr 2003 at 22:44 UTC by baggins »
(Fixture)
a vicious and witty streak emerges inkblot. i like it!
silicon, posted 18 Apr 2003 at 00:35 UTC by inkblot »
(Fixture)
barefootjumper, many electronic components used as building block for complex circuitry are made of silicon and have been for decades. computer chips, printed ciruit boards, transistors, diodes, etc. because so many of the building blocks are made of silicon, the word "silicon" is sort of euphemistic for "technology". that's why they call that place out in california where all the computer geeks hang out and make gadgets "silicon valley".
silicon is used so much in electronics because it can either conduct electricity or not depending on the impurities with which it is composed and the how saturated it is with free electrons. this duality places it in a class of materials called "semiconductors". the ability to conditionally conduct or not conduct makes it useful for building electrical on/off switches that have no moving parts. that's basically all a transistor is. integrated circuits (microchips), are just lots and lots of transistors and other semiconductor-based components all arranged in a circuit on a single wafer of material (usually silicon). a computer's CPU is the most sophisticated such integrated circuit... a pentium 4 contains about 55 million transistors.
also, breast implants are made of silicone (note the 'e'), which is not the same thing as silicon, although it does contain a lot of it.
friendship 7, posted 23 Apr 2003 at 10:34 UTC by lukas »
(Fixture)
I was doing some random googling for pedro today and found the complete recording of the audio from the onboard flight recorder on the Mercury Atlas 6 - Friendship 7. THis was the mission which put the first American in orbit for a little over four hours. So very cool. I'm listening to the second track right now. At about 29 minutes in:
This is Friendship Seven. I'll try to describe what I'm in here. I am in a big mass of some very small particles, that are brilliantly lit up like they're luminescent. I never saw anything like it. They round a little: they're coming by the capsule, and they look like little stars. A whole shower of them coming by.
There is quite a bit of dead air and static but I still enjoy listening to it. It also doesn't include the famous "Godspeed, John Glenn" quote because that was on a different audio loop. I think it's cool that NASA has the entire tape online. I wish had a better audio library with complete tapes from other missions.
Linky: Audio and transcripts. John Glenn's comments on the flight.
There will always be a part of me that longs to be an astronaut.
fun facts, posted 13 May 2003 at 10:38 UTC by lukas »
(Fixture)
from this months harper's index:
Number of new Indonesian islands discovered by satellite analysis in February: 1,000
Pounds of steel discovered to have been eaten away from the head of an Ohio nuclear reactor in February: 70
Thickness in inches of the warped stainless steel that remained to prevent the reactor from rupturing into the air: 3/8
XTC, posted 13 May 2003 at 10:50 UTC by smax »
(Fixture)
As the band XTC points out... "We're the smartest monkeys." Apparently not smart enough.
Nerd tool I've been replacing my old anti-spam javascripts with at work.
oy, posted 13 May 2003 at 11:19 UTC by lukas »
(Fixture)
that's some gnarly javascript
I just happened to fall onto this entree and saw all the stuff about lead. Now here is the scary thing: when I was about 0-3 years old, I slept in an antique crib painted with lead paint. My parents didn't have much money then and they got it at a garage sale or thrift store or whatever. Here's the bad part. The paint was peeling off, and I ATE the paint. All the time. Some of my earliet memories involve laying in my crib, picking the paint off and eating it. My mom finally caught me one day and baout had a heart attack. I also used to eat erasers and other very strange things, but nothing with residual effects excpet the lead. Maybe it explains something...
random thought, posted 2 Jun 2003 at 00:06 UTC by pedro »
(Tourist)
If I ever invent a new kind of database, I'm going to call it cooperdb.
SCO vs. Linux, posted 3 Jun 2003 at 09:55 UTC by pedro »
(Tourist)
Someday, the moutain might get 'em but the law never will.
lol, posted 4 Jun 2003 at 17:12 UTC by neoacerbitas »
(Fixture)
clusterfsck
deleting files, posted 17 Jul 2003 at 10:51 UTC by pedro »
(Tourist)
Magnetic media is insecure -- most of the time when you delete a file on your computer, you're really just deleting the filesystem's record of that file. But the data remains until it is overwritten.
However, some high-tech equipment can even detect the leftover magnetic resonance, so multiple deletes and overwrites are really necessary to completely eradicate the data.
link
ha ha, posted 17 Jul 2003 at 10:53 UTC by lukas »
(Fixture)
classified dust
wired rat-brain makes art
The Debian Project, producers of the operating system (which uses GNU/Linux) that runs flynn and the Diner, turns 10 years old on Friday. Huzzah for Debian!
google rules, posted 13 Aug 2003 at 21:16 UTC by pedro »
(Tourist)
check it
Dude you rock to do that search!
i didn't, posted 14 Aug 2003 at 09:02 UTC by pedro »
(Tourist)
but i wish i did.
ha ha microsoft, posted 15 Aug 2003 at 13:29 UTC by pedro »
(Tourist)
Microsoft.com goes down; WindowsUpdate.com "extinguished"
because of the email that "sclark" sent to northparkers because the exploit has already been used on our campus.
worm, posted 15 Aug 2003 at 18:21 UTC by pedro »
(Tourist)
Well, the worm probably got to campus from a professor's laptop.
so , posted 15 Aug 2003 at 21:29 UTC by neoacerbitas »
(Fixture)
I've been using windows powered handheld devices a lot lately. an iPaq (two different kinds) and this device by Casio called the Cassiopea or something like that. The iPaq are very nice little devices, but this whole "micro-windows" thing really bothers me especially the hand writing recongnition, it chafes me so bad d00ds. That's all that i'm saying, and the need for any handheld device to have 200 megs of ram is just recockulous to me. but that's what the company credit card is for.
Laptops...., posted 18 Aug 2003 at 11:05 UTC by smax »
(Fixture)
Anyone have any strong opinions about laptop brands? I'm looking into the possibility of buying a new one. I've been a little out of the hardware loop and was wondering what the opinions out there were.
dells, posted 18 Aug 2003 at 11:23 UTC by pedro »
(Tourist)
We've been pretty happy with Dells. That is not necessarily a recommendation, but just that they've been generally rugged enough to last their useful lives. It seems to me that some of the cheaper laptops on the market are not as well designed and while they may look cool on the outside, are made of flimsier materials and may not take quite the same beating that a sturdier laptop might take.
Sturdy may not mean heavy though. I've always been impressed with the construction of the IBM laptops, and also of the titanium Macs.
I don't mean to focus on wear and tear -- I'm not reckless with my stuff, but I don't like things to be so fragile that I have to be super gentle with them for fear of bending a hinge or breaking off a port cover or something.
But yeah, if I had to buy a laptop right now, I'd probably either get a Dell or an IBM.
Smax, are you going the Windows route, or are you looking to use Linux or anythign on it? (That does affect decision to a certain extent.)
My two cents, posted 18 Aug 2003 at 11:25 UTC by nutella »
(Fixture)
I bought a refurbished ThinkPad T23 from IBM. Runs Win2kPro and Linux just fine. Good performance/weight/battery life (PIIIM/1.0 GHz). Pretty solidly built (titanium lid and base). I used to have a ThinkPad 500 (486/50) and am completely used to the trackpoint mouse alternative. I think brand new laptops are still horribly overpriced, hence the refurbished version.
This link might show you the current selection.
At work we have nothing but Dell laptops and people are happy with them. I can't comment on any specific models.
mac, posted 18 Aug 2003 at 11:50 UTC by neoacerbitas »
(Fixture)
i suggest the mac. Mine's old as can be and it runs really well. you can get office for 150$ nowadays too, if you knowsomeone that's a student or educator, plus apple includes some pretty decent apps for free, that work with their own operating system (i just had to rebuild my folks' machine because office decided that it didn't want to work anymore). I was actually looking at dell's site the other day and even though they list one of their inspirons as starting around seven hundred, i don't think that includes anything such as a battery or and os, once you add them, it's about 1400 bones, which makes it on par with the macs anyhow.
in all honesty though, i wouldn't buy a computer right now, iwould wait a month at least. wait and see what the deals are for school kids and pick something good, and if you buy new, get a good warranty. I wouldn't suggest getting a "desktop replacement", especially if you plan on carrying it around, my ma got one of those when she went into law school and never took it cause it weighed so damn much. stick to what you need, what's going to help you get the job done. Forget about "incompatabilities" inbetween mac/windows, that's a non-issue anymore. Just say "i'm only going to write sales reports and this is what i need" or "I'm going to store my whole photo/video collection" and this is what i need, that will save you money and time in the long run, at least i think so.
Man I have had nothing but problems with any toshiba latptop I've ever put my hands on. I too am going through the pains of trying to choose a laptop, and a digital camera too (if any of you have recommendations I would love them) and I am leaning on either a Gateway laptop or thinking maybe even going Apple, I do love those darn apple machines. Gateway just because it's easy and you get what you want, any comments from anyone on Gateway machines? Though now that Pedro mentions the IBM laptops I do remember having good experiences with them. Decisions Decisions.
iBook, posted 18 Aug 2003 at 12:02 UTC by lukas »
(Fixture)
it may not have the horsepower you desire, but karna's had a 12" iBook which has seen a lot of use and zero problems. At two years old it still is running great. It does need a new battery since it's seen a lot of use and it traveled in the trunk of the car at below zero temperatures, which was stupid. I've also used the 14" iBook and both get my recommendation although I like the 12" better just because it's small and light which I value in a laptop.
gateway laptops, posted 18 Aug 2003 at 13:25 UTC by pedro »
(Tourist)
The gateway laptops I have seen seemed a little under-constructed to me, but then my aunt has also had very few problems with hers. So maybe they just look flimsy but actually aren't. :) Does anyone else have any experience with them?
Details, posted 18 Aug 2003 at 13:54 UTC by smax »
(Fixture)
Unfortunatly I have to run a windows box... probably 2000. Some of the software I need just plain isn't supported, and probably never will be, by linux or apple. I use some strange development stuff that isn't exactly off the shelf.
I've heard Toshibas have has some issues and mixed reviews. Dell seems like a good co to look into. IBM seems pretty ideal, except price, which is staggaring, thanks, nutella for the link.
Anyone have any expierence with Micron, Gateway or HP?
micron, posted 18 Aug 2003 at 16:48 UTC by neoacerbitas »
(Fixture)
they used to be a big, expensive name, but they're not anymore. Out of those three options i would suggest HP, even though the just "merged" with compaq. I think that gateway is getting a little to out of the market with this whole plasma tv thing, and i don't think that they're doing to well finacially. If you shell out 500 bones for office pro on the mac, you get virtual pc and winxp (i think xp pro) bundled in. But, i wouldn't do it. i personally think that multiple booting and things that are like that suck. I think sony makes good laptops, but they include all kinds of proprietary junk and you can't get their drivers except with the original purchase. (period, i've tried, and they aren't on the windows disk) I hate to say it, but go for the dell, they're pretty good, but i've never seen any outside of NPU that didn't have something broken on them (the latch that holds it closed, the door that covers the ports), and it's a pain in the ass to configure something on their website.
Thanks for the Sony advice tom.. I was looking at them and have heard they can be whiny. I have a Micron that works, and considering how I aquired it that's all I can ask for. Righ now I'm looking at HP, Dell and Micron... so far HP because of the prices I'm finding. The only problem is that they don't have as many multimedia options as other brands. I'd really like to continue with my d. video and sound hobbies. thnks all
HP huh?, posted 19 Aug 2003 at 16:35 UTC by BigJ »
(Fixture)
I'm interested to hear they have the best prices. Mainly I'm looking for a machine to use my digital camera on, burn cds, play games, surf the net, and word process, so nothing all that special, mainly I need memory (and lots of it) so the durability and reliability are the key for me, any computer I buy now will probably be what I use until I have kids that will need a new computer, i.e. many many moons.
ok, posted 27 Aug 2003 at 12:28 UTC by BigJ »
(Fixture)
so anyone got a feelings on Compaq laptops, I'm looking at a pretty nice one, that's in the $1700 range. Let me know what you think about Compaq.
huh, posted 27 Aug 2003 at 12:52 UTC by BigJ »
(Fixture)
Meagan has an old one, and it has never had any problems, well other than the fact than it's slower than a slug, a dead slug actually. The decision to buy one brand over another is so much harder than I thought it was going to be. I've never had any trouble with my compaq computers, until I got to work and the one's we have here are total crap, and now I don't know what to buy anymore. I think it's all the luck of the draw anyway.
I've heard someone complain about every brand of laptops except IBM and Micron. I own a Micron and can't say it's been that bad considering the beating I give it. Maybe it's just because other brands like Dell and HP and the like are cheaper, and more popular, that there are more people messing them up.
IBM, posted 29 Aug 2003 at 10:07 UTC by pedro »
(Tourist)
I think I can honestly say that I've never heard anyone complain about an IBM laptop.
Yeah, posted 29 Aug 2003 at 11:37 UTC by nutella »
(Fixture)
As I mentioned in an earlier post, my only complaint has been the price. Two things I like about my T23; 1) the hard drive is easily upgraded (it came with a 20 Gb, but I pulled that and added a (reasonably priced) 40 Gb so I could dual boot with plenty of space), 2) IBM has a standardised accessory bay for their laptops so I was able to buy a DVD-ROM drive to replace the original CD-ROM (CDRW, and DVD/CDRW drives or a second battery are other options). This bay has been standard since at least 2000 so you can save some money by moving parts from older to newer machines or sharing. They also continue to support and update all drivers.
Again, apart from disliking the touchpad pointing device, folk here at work don't have complaints about their Dells (dude!).
touchpads, posted 29 Aug 2003 at 11:38 UTC by pedro »
(Tourist)
I like the touchpad... my laptop has a trackpoint though, I shoudl try using it.
"has a trackpoint too."
dell, posted 29 Aug 2003 at 13:02 UTC by lukas »
(Fixture)
just don't try to read the license agreements
i tried to hook up my friends ibm laptop to the campus network a few years ago, it didn't work, and nobody in computer services could get it to work either.
but, posted 29 Aug 2003 at 20:22 UTC by neoacerbitas »
(Fixture)
to be completely fair, there have been times when my mac hasn't worked on the network either, but that got fixed when i started carrying around my own hub
PC v. Mac, posted 8 Sep 2003 at 10:14 UTC by BigJ »
(Fixture)
What's everyone's feel on the fight? My step-mom just got a new Mac laptop, and I must admit it's pretty darn nice. But I am so used to using a Windows based system now that I am not sure I can follow in her footsteps and get one too. All I want a computer for is pictures, internet, word processing and some games. Maybe that makes it not matter what I get and I should go for what's good for the money, but still style has got to be put into play somewhere, and the Macs have way much of that. Although I did just spot a Compaq laptop with a 2.66 GhZ Pentium 4, 512 M SDDRAM, 80 G hardrive and a DVD/CDRW drive for $1,399 at Costco and that is mighty tempting, it's hard to even look at a Mac for that price because the hardware just doesn't compare until you are in the $1700 range. Ah I am so confused!
once you have been captured by the steve jobs reality distortion field, there is no turning back.
if you buy a mac, you can be assured that you won't buy any crappy games.
yeah, posted 8 Sep 2003 at 12:07 UTC by BigJ »
(Fixture)
but there are so few games to buy you CAN'T buy crappy games.
is that Steve Jobs distorts reality -- the evidence is the fact that he manages to convince people that Macs make economic sense. I think they're overpriced and overhyped. But Apple makes good computers, and they have a cool operating system, and I don't want to see them fail.
I know, posted 8 Sep 2003 at 13:57 UTC by BigJ »
(Fixture)
it's a catch 22, they have a good system going, and make quality machines, they just cost so damn much!
Yes, according to the numbers, macs are overpriced. But numbers only tell you so much about any given product. The difference between a pc and a mac is similar to the difference between a corvette and a ferrari. If you just wanna go fast, the corvette will do fine. If you wanna go fast in style, you buy the ferrari. You will pay a premium for the ferrari though, just as you do for a mac. Part of that premium is paying for a brand name, but another part is paying for the manufacturer's ongoing design and development costs, which (in both macs and ferraris) have resulted in some very cool products.
I think macs do tend to be overhyped by their more dedicated users, but they are the perfect computers for absolutely everyone's needs. That was a joke. Really, the issue is that macs enjoy a very strong brand loyalty. And just like any number of products that enjoy such loyalty (linux, I think, is a good example), it's loyalists make it out to be the perfect product everyone else, when that simply may not be the case. Unfortunately this is a very common problem in the computer world, but one that could be somewhat remedied if computer advice givers did more listening and less advertising.
actually jack,, posted 8 Sep 2003 at 15:20 UTC by pedro »
(Tourist)
...the difference is that Linux is the perfect product for everyone's needs.
ha ha ha, posted 8 Sep 2003 at 15:31 UTC by BigJ »
(Fixture)
Speaking in all modesty right Pedro? No biases or anything? And still I am left with, what the hell should I buy?
re: macs, posted 8 Sep 2003 at 16:22 UTC by lukas »
(Fixture)
I don't necessarily think macs are all that overpriced. But then again I've got a iBook and a dual G4 plus a 7600 under my desk. Part of what I paid for when I bought those macs was quality hardware and software. Karna's iBook has seen heavy usage for two years and has not had a single problem (other than freezing the battery which was my fault). Light, dependable, fast, plus a bash shell when I want to use it. I've had to spend very little troubleshooting software or worrying about viruses or security exploits. Installing linux isn't quite as easy on a windows box, but it runs quite nicely. Although I happen to like Mac OS X for the most part. Some friends were recently struggling to decide what new laptop to get. I'll ask what they decided on.
macs,, posted 8 Sep 2003 at 20:15 UTC by neoacerbitas »
(Fixture)
startin off, congrats, you read my post. Why would anyone want to develope crappy games for the mac? If a person wanted crap, they wouldn't have bought a mac.
you also don't get bothered by how "slow" they get after having them for awhile, i'm still using a 400mhz 'book and it runs everything that you would need just fine. jack was close, but i think it's more like the difference between a yugo and a honda, the yugo is cheaper, but it doesn't last nearly as long.
my personal opinion is that the windows world has been sucked into a "faster=better" mentality. I mean, sure, you can open your word processor faster than i can, but you still type at the same speed so who cares? very few people actually need a faster computer, that's part of what got me into the "wait three years and buy it cheap" thing. If you wouldn't buy a new car, don't buy a new computer.
anyway, we should all be smarting that to have been sucked into this, it's just like trying to tell liberals why they don't make any sense, talk talk talk and nobody ever agrees, good luck though.
and still, posted 8 Sep 2003 at 20:23 UTC by neoacerbitas »
(Fixture)
if you configure the two lowest end laptop models from dell and apple (as simalarly as possible, duh), they are both within twenty dollars of each other.
true, posted 9 Sep 2003 at 09:55 UTC by BigJ »
(Fixture)
but if I configure the lowest Compaq model it is like $800, and that's cheap! I can get a kick but Compaq for $1300, and a kick butt Mac is like $2300, sure a decent one is like $1500, but I am still torn. I'll probably end up going to the Mac store and falling in love with one, either that or using my stepmom's a few more times and liking it too much to not get one.
mac, posted 9 Sep 2003 at 14:35 UTC by smax »
(Fixture)
I worked in a mac based graphic lab for 4 years. They are comfortable but I will probably never own one. I find I enjoy the possibilities of a pc more.
i agree, posted 9 Sep 2003 at 15:24 UTC by pedro »
(Tourist)
I really don't have anything against mac except for their marketing (style = the best). They really do build great computers and they have a great operating system. I just can't cough up the pricetag and, as smax said, I enjoy the possibilities of a PC more. I guess when it comes down to it though, I'm just stating my opinion and not trying to convince you to do one thing or another.
like what?
..., posted 9 Sep 2003 at 23:02 UTC by pedro »
(Tourist)
like
- hardware
- vendors
- software
- games
...additionally, it has been my experience in the past that the Mac GUI is oversimplified -- this is nice for novice users but can be too reticent for my tastes, especially when something is going wrong. I realize that to a certain extent, these problems have been alleviated with OS X since underlying everything is Unix, and since Apple abandoned their more proprietary hardware for PCI and IDE but hardware is not universally compatible for Macs -- I can go buy a $6 NIC and plug it into any PC I can find. And likewise I have found the command line tools for OS X decidedly unfriendly -- partially because I am not as familiar with the BSD CLI tools, but partially because the tools on a vanilla OS X box are not as nice as the more mature GNU CLI tools -- and afterall, if I was going to use an expensive mac as primarily a shell box I'd just buy a cheaper high end PC and install GNU/Linux instead. Which brings me back to the GUI.
I realize that as long as everything works right, and is not needlessly complicated by choice, a simplified GUI is all you need. But that brings me back to feeling a little locked in to a certain upgrade path because I purchased an Apple rather than a more commodity-based PC.
I didn't even want to have this argument.
Is because I don't care about it like I used to, and I realize it all comes down to choice and preference. I won't say that apples are bad machines (they're not) and I won't say their operating system is bad (it's great). It's just that for the price, and for what I would want to do with them, I don't think it would be the right decision. If comparable apples and PCs were the same price, I might change my tune, because I think Apple is worth supporting and they do make a good product.
But this seemed to belong here.
http://www.flogged.net/media/video/whymacssuck.wmv
thanks dex, posted 11 Sep 2003 at 10:36 UTC by BigJ »
(Fixture)
that was fricken hysterical! And I'm sorry I got you two fighting. I think I will probably end up getting a PC just ebcause that is what I am so used to, and it would be hard to go back to using a Mac when I am not used to it at all. Besides sometimes the cheaper faster thing doesn't hurt.
for pedro, posted 17 Sep 2003 at 09:25 UTC by lukas »
(Fixture)
tron 2.0 video game
linuxmafia, posted 14 Oct 2003 at 15:42 UTC by pedro »
(Tourist)
The Free Software Foundation -- hit men for Linux... er, GNU/Linux
ha!, posted 14 Oct 2003 at 15:50 UTC by baggins »
(Fixture)
i didn't see that link before Dex! it's wonderful!
This is a funny "switch" ad parody -- not so much making fun of the Mac as the ads themselves... if you ask me, this guy has a very benbeckstromian sense of humor.
ha ha, posted 19 Oct 2003 at 19:18 UTC by pedro »
(Tourist)
it's funny because it's true.
NEW YORK - It's only the size of a dishwasher, but it's crammed with 1,024 microprocessors, housed in an innovative slanted cabinet and can perform a whopping 2 trillion calculations per second, ranking it as one of the world's fastest supercomputers. But this computing wonder, being shown off Friday by IBM Corp., is only 1/128th of the finished product. When Blue Gene/L, as the supercomputer is known, is delivered to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory just over a year from now, it will easily rank as the world's fastest supercomputer. Its 130,000 processors will be able to perform up to 360 trillion calculations per second, or 360 teraflops.
The top machine now, the Earth Simulator in Japan, has 5,120 processors and can do about 35 teraflops.
And the Earth Simulator is the size of four tennis courts -- eight times bigger than the projected size of Blue Gene/L, said Jack Dongarra, a University of Tennessee professor who tracks the top 500 supercomputers.
IBM revealed details of Blue Gene/L's design to coincide with the No. 73 ranking the initial segment achieved on Dongarra's latest list. IBM contends that other machines of comparable power are 20 times bigger.
Among the breakthroughs: IBM used chips that combine several supercomputer functions. Designers also slanted the machine's walls 11 degrees to speed the entry of cool air and exit of hot air, slashing the supercomputer's need for electricity-sucking air conditioning.
"Nobody had tilted the walls before," said William Pulleyblank, who heads the project for IBM.
Livermore researchers hope to use Blue Gene/L to simulate and study complex physical phenomena ranging from astronomical events to the behavior of explosives. IBM is due to give that machine and a 100-teraflop supercomputer, ASCI Purple, to Livermore by early 2005 as part of a deal with the Department of Energy (news - web sites) costing up to $267 million.
Now that what I call a spicy meatball!!
to compare, posted 14 Nov 2003 at 10:18 UTC by pedro »
(Tourist)
flynn can do somewere around 33 megaflops -- or 33,000,000 floating-point operations per second. 1 teraflop is 1,000,000,000 floating point operations per second.
I know it's crazy, posted 14 Nov 2003 at 11:27 UTC by BigJ »
(Fixture)
just think about 360 teraflops, that's beyond fast.
someday, posted 14 Nov 2003 at 14:58 UTC by smax »
(Fixture)
And to think, someday there will be a handheld (or something similarly small) with the same processing power. Hech Moore's law dictates that it will be in less than 30 years.
pedro: you left off three zeros (1,000,000,000 is a gigaflop).
I ran across this site a while ago. It's written by a retired systems engineer. Reading it makes me realize how little I know about so much. Anyway, he has some interesting things to say regarding future problems of computer science in this article. Some excerpts:
There exists a general solution for solving parallel problems with a serial computer: timesharing with semaphores, and iteration. And, of course, a fast serial computer is ideal for solving problems which are fundamentally serial. But there are physical limits on how powerful a serial processor can be -- and we're getting close to the theoretical limit.
There are four physical limits which between them impose a ceiling: the speed of light, the size of an atom, the time it takes for an electron to change state, and Planck's constant. The speed of light limits the rate at which signals can propagate. (In half a nanosecond, light travels fifteen centimeters.) The size of an atom imposes a minimum size on a gate. The electron state change time imposes a minimum time that a transistor can take to change state. Planck's constant is also a hard limit but more esoteric, because it controls "tunneling". It forces you against the other three walls.
[...]
For forty years, "Moore's law" has governed the computer industry: Every three years, the speed of computers will double (cumulatively). That will soon end. Current technologies will top out in another factor of ten or so increase in speed (about ten years from now). There is a very speculative technology on the horizon which switches light beams instead of flows of electrons, which may relax some limits and give us as much as three more orders of magnitude in serial computation speed, possibly giving us a picosecond gate. Then it ends. (In one picosecond, light travels 30 microns [.03 millimeter].)
But there is no theoretical limit on the power of a highly parallel computer. The difficulty is that we don't know how to apply the power of a parallel computer to solve serial problems. That is what we must learn.
[...]
Highly parallel computers may also make it possible to solve problems we can't solve at all now with blazingly fast serial systems.
Suppose that we could produce a computer with a clock rate of 2 KHz which had a million million processors. What could we do with it? Well, a lot of things: speech, object recognition from silhouettes, loads of things. Perhaps even intelligence (whatever that is). We know this because we each carry one inside our skulls. 2 KHz is a preposterously slow switching speed; our brains make it up in equally preposterous parallelism. And it is known that our brains use speculative computing, though the details are not understood. But our brains are capable of solving some kinds of extremely sophisticated problems in less than 400 cycles. No-one knows how.
It will be a while before we can produce a parallel computer with only a million processors, but it's also the case that the ones we do produce will be considerably faster and more sophisticated than neurons. (And multi-thousand processor computers exist now.)
The problem is that we only have the most primitive ideas of how to program such a beast, except when taking on problems which are fundamentally parallel anyway. This is the great problem for computer science in the first half of the twenty-first century.
If you're interested in understanding the fundamentals of computing better, read this book. It's short and easy, but incfredibly informative. (thanks, crackmonkey)
The Evils Of IRC, posted 6 May 2004 at 13:08 UTC by pedro »
(Tourist)
AWESOME ARTICLE! High comedy.
Aubrey de Grey, posted 2 Jun 2004 at 11:39 UTC by pedro »
(Tourist)
...wants you to live forever.
I want this shirt
get chipped!, posted 14 Jul 2004 at 09:41 UTC by lukas »
(Fixture)
Mexican Official Gets Chipped
hmm, posted 14 Jul 2004 at 16:52 UTC by baggins »
(Fixture)
seems to me with a physical key to such a program embedded in a person's phyisical being, there might be more incentive to kidnap the officials now. and how are they going to track them if they get all the people with the keys to the program?
yeah, posted 15 Jul 2004 at 10:12 UTC by lukas »
(Fixture)
I'm also assuming that it's close to the skin so it wouldn't be that hard to slice it out. Sounds like something out of an action flick.
You know you're a nerd when you try to install Linux on a dead badger.
this is very jake berendes
(jake berendes)
space tourism, posted 5 Oct 2004 at 13:38 UTC by lukas »
(Fixture)
start saving your money. They were interviewing this dude on NPR about the future of space tourism and he saw the fledgling industry moving towards a cruiseship type business model. So instead of a cruise around the bahamas, you would take a cruise around the moon. I almost peed my pants when I heard that. A cruise around the moon! How freakin rad would that be? I mean you'd spend a week in zero g watching the earth and doing some amazing star gazing. I'd totally bring a laptop and play lunar lander a lot too. I wonder if they'd do excursions to the surface of the moon and you could bounce around on the moon. Probably not, but still orbiting the moon would be cool enough. I get chills just thinking about it. Now I just need to save up a couple hundred thou.
that would be , posted 5 Oct 2004 at 14:00 UTC by baggins »
(Fixture)
a great wedding present/honeymoon. I am serious.
There's drool coming through my monitor! I agree it's a great idea but the potentials for overcoming the Titanic disaster are tremendous, as well.
yeah yeah yeah, posted 5 Oct 2004 at 17:00 UTC by lukas »
(Fixture)
There are certainly some pretty major pieces of the space cruise that are only a pipe dream. But considering we put a man on the moon in 1969 -- THIRTY FIVE YEARS AGO -- it's not like the technology isn't there. Heck, in a few years you can buy a ticket for Virgin Galactic and see the earth from above, for a few minutes. So let's say it takes another thirty five years. I'll be pushing 65 and ready to retire (yeah right) and will be ready to take my retirement cruise, AROUND THE MOON!
Easy,, posted 7 Oct 2004 at 00:31 UTC by lieutenant »
(Fixture)
Ralph Kramdenson....
dell recalled 4.4 million power adapters. see the register for more on that. the article also mentions that ibm had to do the same thing recently, and i certainly remember sending my old powerbook adapter in for an exchange. the connection, they're all made by delta electronics.
ideas..., posted 27 Oct 2004 at 10:09 UTC by smax »
(Fixture)
So. In my current residence there are no ISP options other than dialup. I refuse this... too slow for a nerd like me. Across RT. 80 there is a hotspotz paid place and around the bend there is a free wireless hotspot. Take a gander at the map.
Both locations are just out of reach from home. So I started looking at repeaters and antennas. My first idea was to mount one of these antenas somewhere that it can get a signal. There are cheaper ones on ebay. Then I started podering the use of a repeater... a kind of amplifying device I think. Then I stumbled upon this device, a solar powered repeater, which could make things even easier.
The problem: I have very little expierence with wireless networking, and no expierence with repeaters or antennas. Anyone out there ever play with this stuff? Ideas?
wireless gear, posted 27 Oct 2004 at 21:09 UTC by inkblot »
(Fixture)
i could tell you a lot, but it'd be a lot easier on my wrists if i knew where you needed me to start.
tell me more about the link you're trying to establish. how far is it between the two points? do you have a line of sight from one end to the other? if you have a line of sight, how close are the closest obstructions to that line? can you figure out the transmit power of the other end of the link?
Ok, there are two options, I'll go over the closer/hopefully easier option. Check this out. So the little x is where I live. I'm trying to connect to the wireless point across 80 (the little centrino logo).
The problems. 1. I'm in a basement unit... meaning there's a slight hill in the way of direct line of sight. I might be able to put an antenna/repeater in the stairs, but I'm not counting on it. Even if I'm in the stairwell, because of how the buildings are designed, there is no direct line of sight. The stairs are slightly recessed. 2. I know I can connect from the road labeled 2598 with a strong signal, but I really don't know how good the signal is at legnth. It's a 802.11b signal from hotspotzz.
My first solution idea was to get a decent antenna. I know I can't connect with just my laptop from the stairwell, but I'm hoping one with this antenna I'll be able to get some kind of signal. If not I'm guessing I'll need some kind of repeater. The two options for that are one in the stairwell or a wireless solar powered one on the telephone pole making a kind of around the corner deal. Another idea was to just get a much higher gain antenna. Any other ideas? Am I on crack?
what about, posted 28 Oct 2004 at 11:50 UTC by pedro »
(Tourist)
Burying some coaxial cable and putting your antenna on the hotspotzz side of the hill?
or,, posted 28 Oct 2004 at 11:51 UTC by pedro »
(Tourist)
use coax and put your antenna on top of your house? Then use a wireless bridge inside to give your condo the juice.
Pedro's ideas..., posted 28 Oct 2004 at 14:02 UTC by smax »
(Fixture)
Burying the coaxal to the other side of the hill would involve going under RT. 80. Not going to happen. As for putting an antenna on a roof, I live in a condo, I doubt I could get permission to put anything up there, or run cable. There are 30 other units in my building, I doubt people would like it if I ran cable everywhere.
suggestions, posted 28 Oct 2004 at 20:49 UTC by inkblot »
(Fixture)
if you have to run cabling, try to run cat5 with power-over-ethernet to an 802.11b bridge rather than coax to an antenna. the bridge at the end of the ethernet line will encode the 802.11b signal directly into an antenna, in which case the signal loss between the transceiver and the antenna is negilible. the nocat.net faq has good numbers for signal loss over various microwave-frequency coax (scroll down to the question "What's LMR-200? 400? 600? Why is this cable so thick and expensive?"). note the diameter of those cables, they're a pain to work with. also, microwave frequency coax doesn't come cheap. of course, cat5 and 802.3 signalling (ethernet) also has some associated signal loss and per foot cost, but like most geeks you're probably quite well versed in ethernet lore.
the d-link antenna you linked to a couple of posts ago is an omni-directional antenna. you'll need an omni in your condo for your laptop or whatever to talk to, but nothing very special. a standard 6dbi dipole will suffice. for your purposes, you should be looking at directional antennas to create your link. "can" antennas, yagis, patches, dishes. i have no idea what kind of antenna that hawking antenna is. it looks like it could be a patch. patches tend to be the least intrusive if you are in a situation where you can mount them flat or mostly flat against a surface. they can produce a main radiation lobe as little as 3 degrees wide, which gives you damn good antenna gain. dishes have the best antenna gain, hands down[1], but they're pretty intrusive. remember: antenna gain works both ways... transmission and reception, and does not effect signal to noise ratio.
from your photo and diagram, it looks like you will have to have a repeater. 2.4 Ghz microwave radio is reflected by water, so anything moist (people, leaves, earth) is basically impenetrable (within legal limits on transmit power[2]) if you're trying to link two points at some distance from each other.
as for a solar-powered repeater... you live in the wasatch mountains of utah, good luck keeping the snow off of the solar cells.
[1] fun fact: people often refer to dish antennas as "satellite dishes", when really it's just another type of radio antenna. for a long time, large dish antennas where the only economical way, and are still the most economical way, to pick up the faint signals that we get from satellites. so this is the application that most people are familiar with for dish antennas. because they are more intrusive than other designs, people have generally tried to solve terrestrial transmission problems with other types of directional antennas.
[2] this is a moot point in your situation anyway, since there's no way for you to increase the transmit power of the other end of the link. you're stuck working within the legal limit (1000dbm, effective).
Thanks..., posted 1 Nov 2004 at 15:14 UTC by smax »
(Fixture)
inkblot, thanks. Didn't realize how weak this silly wireless stuff was. A couple more questions if you don't mind. Ideally I'd like to run cable to an ethernet bridge, like you sugggested. However the cable might not be an option (I need to check with the home owners people). Is it possible to have a completely wireless bridge? Would that be the repeater option you mentioned? I agree a solar powered bridge/repeater won't work with the snow here (we're already measuring it in the feet), but I think I found a way to get power at least to a more advantageous place on the building. I might be able to run cable there, but the odds are only 50/50 at best.
I think I need to spend some time wandering around looking for (legal) power sources and maybe talking to some folks. Why couldn't they offer anything but dial-up...
repeaters, posted 3 Nov 2004 at 19:18 UTC by inkblot »
(Fixture)
there are wireless repeaters. putting an access point into infrastructure mode basically make it a repeater. the one possible caveat (which i personally don't know much about) is whether or not two infrastructure mode devices will connect to each other. the reason that i suspect they won't is that there are devices on the market that are advertized specifically as repeaters and others that are advertized as access points. the meshcube is the most flexible device i know of. it can do either, and can also perform a number of other advanced functions.
security, posted 8 Nov 2004 at 19:44 UTC by neoacerbitas »
(Fixture)
what do you guys think about wireless security. I've got my home network setup so that it's firewalled, and on the wireless side, you can't connect unless i've specified your MAC address on the router, plus the whole wireless access code and all that. So, i guess what i'm asking is, is that very secure and, how can it be made more secure?
I would sit outside your house and sniff your packets for your MAC address and then I would spoof your MAC when I wanted to access your network (which would have to be when you weren't using it).
Basically, I think you should keep the machines on your wlan patched... just like you should keep them if they're on this little thing called the INTERWEB. A decent firewall between the net and your computers probably means that, next to spyware and your parents clicking on links to optimize (!) your computer, your next largest weakness is your wireless lan... but then, it's really only as weak as your computers were before you put in the firewall. (I assume you're not running telnet on important servers over your wireless or something insane like that.)
Any truly secret traffic (CC transactions) should use truly strong encryption via the web anyway, which they probably already do. They are not travelling over the wireless in plaintext (since the http traffic is already encrypted between the server and browser), so it doesn't matter as much that your wireless isn't encrypted. Still, if you're looking for more ways to lock it down, can you turn on encryption with your WAP? Wireless encryption is often sub par, but it may keep your local script kiddie out.
Another thing to do is to disable SSID broadcast. This means that you will may have to enter the SSID manually, although XP may ignore that "feature" and offer to connect you anyway. SSIDs are sent in plaintext, so SSID alone is really no security at all (which is why XP might still list your network) -- still, disabling SSID broadcast is at least another step in the right direction.
But if you're truly interested in real security, don't use wireless unless you're encrypting all your traffic with something real (i.e. SSH).
I'm not that crazy about security though... I run wireless, but I firewall what kind of traffic can come over the wireless. Basically you can surf the web and SSH via my access point... but no telnet or SMTP, etc.
oh pedro, posted 8 Nov 2004 at 21:36 UTC by neoacerbitas »
(Fixture)
i'd love to see you parked in front of my house, trying to fend off my neighbors that would either be offering you a meal, calling the police on you (yeah, that kind of neighboors) or unknowingly backing their cars into yours (true story).
security, posted 8 Nov 2004 at 22:08 UTC by inkblot »
(Fixture)
you should assume that any radio broadcast is by default not secure. as for things like wep, i have yet to hear of any wifi media security mechanism that actually secures the network. your best bet is like pedro says... make each network node a fortress. use things like ssl/tls encrypted applications, ssh, ipsec, etc. these are known-good and media-independent.
A friend once told me that the only way to make a wireless network secure was to turn it off. Considering he works for a networking magazine I believe him.
On to the opposite, inkblot thanks for the meshcube link. There are some cheaper versions of that type of repeater out there, probably not as flexable, but I only need a little boost. The amplified antenna I bought does wonders, but is still a little shy of getting anything really useful. It's time for either a repeater or an outside antenna with a decent gain. Time to do some shopping, or really hope that 802.16/wi-max comes out a lot sooner than planned.
wifi voip phone, posted 9 Nov 2004 at 10:55 UTC by inkblot »
(Fixture)
personally, i'd rather see this phone come out of development than 802.16.
yes, i've been messing with internet telephony. it's neat.
ppro, posted 10 Nov 2004 at 17:10 UTC by neoacerbitas »
(Fixture)
pedro, are you still running that dual ppro machine?
anybody in need of an rs/6000 running 16 power2 procs? you can get one on the cheap from iowa state. . .though i don't know how you'd get it anywhere and i don't know any of the other specs.
NO!, posted 10 Nov 2004 at 18:46 UTC by pedro »
(Tourist)
Now I'm running a dual Pentium TWO which is much different than a dual PPRO. Haha.
No thanks on the rs/6000! Neat though.
yeah, posted 10 Nov 2004 at 19:59 UTC by neoacerbitas »
(Fixture)
I don't actually know anyone that could even fit that thing in their house let alone get it there. It makes gumby look like a little slanty-browed twerp.
deep impact, posted 27 Dec 2004 at 13:40 UTC by lukas »
(Fixture)
so i was talking to this friend-of-a-friend who is an astronomy phd student at university of maryland and he was telling me about this project to crash a big spaceship into a comet. it was at a loud bar and it was late so i remember thinking how crazy it was and then i forgot all about it until today.
Really old press release:
Maryland Led Project Takes Big Step Toward 2005 Comet Collision
The Deep Impact project, which will be the first mission to punch a spectacular football field-sized crater seven stories deep into a comet, successfully completed a three-day critical design review last week. After examining details of the mission, three independent review boards concluded that there are no significant flaws in the design and that the project can proceed with building and testing the project's two spacecraft.
Deep Impact web
site
If I remember, I think my friend will get to go to an
observatory in mexico to monitor the impact. Crazy. But this is really the essence of physics...blowing things up and seeing what's inside.
...Borg
entourage, posted 21 Jan 2005 at 23:00 UTC by neoacerbitas »
(Fixture)
i've got this wicked thing happening to me in entourage: I have a rule set up to move all these messages i get from a list to a folder. but the rule doesn't work (anymore, it did last week) so what happens is i get all these emails, and they go into the wrong folder, one i did specify. so i copy them to the folder they should go to, and then ent. goes and moves them back, i though i was crazy for the last few days, but it turns out it wasn't me, it was them!
How come they don't sell these at radio shack?
it looks like most of the manufacturers of consumer wireless gear now also make a full line of high gain antennas and cabling which are compatible with their product lines. i just ordered myself an 18dbi directional patch antenna and a 5ft r-sma(f) to r-sma(f) cable to complement my wge101. should be fun.
free hosting, posted 16 May 2005 at 11:28 UTC by smax »
(Fixture)
Free one gig of hosting with php and mysql = http://www.atgig.com/
Oh and speaking of hi-gain antennas. I have a 19dbi panel antenna if anyone needs one. Cables and stuff too...
TV, posted 27 May 2005 at 10:24 UTC by smax »
(Fixture)
This makes me wish I watched TV. From their interesting site (that is also looking for a PHP mysql person in the Boston area.):
"Announcing a new platform for internet television and video. Anyone can broadcast full-screen video to thousands of people at virtually no cost, using BitTorrent technology."
dude, posted 27 May 2005 at 12:12 UTC by inkblot »
(Fixture)
this totally calls for more helmet cams.
ok, i like macs, i wouldn't go as far as to say i'm a zealot though. Macs on intel c hips seems weird to me, they had this opportunity in the 80s and there's been speculation about it ever since, but i never thought it would happen. Today though, steve jobs announced that macs will begin to transition to intel processors by this time in 2007 and the whole line will be such by the end of that year. I feel like i should sell my ibook now so that i don't get stuck with having old architecture, let alone old hardware. on the other hand i feel like i'm going to buy the most powerful ppc money can buy before the transition happens, but who's going to do that? I thought the switch to ppc was stupid, but that was when i was in 8th/9th grade. I don't think that this is the smartest thing but maybe this is what has to happen. Do people still fall for the megaherts myth?
I had read about this meeting that jobs had with intel execs a few weeks or a month ago, but i thought it was nothing, you can't buy something without intel inside, well, you can but it's hard. Still, i don't know how i should feel about this. I know apple is still going to ship the same closed hardware etc. I guess that this is just going to lower the cost a little bit for them, i just don't want to see a new speed everytime i look at the specs, that always annoyed me about x86, you wake up in the morning and everythings just a touch faster. Anyway, i guess this time next year we can really compare the OSs and not have to bitch about how one has different hardware etc. We could just about sit two machines side by side and do it. hmmm. anyway, i just thought it was interesting.
um, posted 6 Jun 2005 at 18:06 UTC by neoacerbitas »
(Fixture)
to clarify. intel in apple notebooks by this time next year, intel in the whole lineup by the end of 07. I don't know if i put that out kindof weird, but i thought i might have, so i'm clarifying it now.
AMD and others, posted 7 Jun 2005 at 10:22 UTC by smax »
(Fixture)
I mostly find this a bit harsh for chip makers like AMD. How can any other chip maker compete with intel now?
yes, posted 7 Jun 2005 at 11:29 UTC by neoacerbitas »
(Fixture)
that's very true. I'm not certain how much work apple would have to put into it to make OSX run on amd. I know that amd isn't too different from intel, but i know that the way apple is with hardware it was one or the other and so i think that even if they had to choose between the two the probably would have chosen intel because they are more like that standard. That's what i think this is, a move towards a common standard. I'm sure apple wasn't looking forward to make OSX and all their hardware work with amd procs etc. I'd like to think that this means that people could build their own mac next year, but i know apple won't let that happen.
pedro, posted 7 Jun 2005 at 13:52 UTC by neoacerbitas »
(Fixture)
do you still have that laser printer? I'm looking for an ethernet interface for an hp printer...i don't know if you're still trying to get rid of that or if you already have...?
...
they might get the job done
i just thought i'd check. thanks.
oh, posted 7 Jun 2005 at 17:35 UTC by neoacerbitas »
(Fixture)
another thing about intel on mac: it'll be ready by june 6, 2006....6/6/6. that's hilarious. i love rumormongers
product use..., posted 27 Jul 2005 at 16:31 UTC by smax »
(Fixture)
I debated about 5 entrees to put this in...
From boingboing.net today:
Shoot someone? Not Smith & Wesson's fault. Copy a movie? Grokster's fault - Good stuff from Daily Koz.
Regarding Grokster:
"We hold that one who distributes a device with the object of promoting its use to infringe copyright, as shown by clear expression or other affirmative steps taken to foster infringement, is liable for the resulting acts of infringement by third parties," Justice Souter wrote.
Regarding guns:
Senate Republicans on Tuesday moved the National Rifle Association's top priority ahead of a $491 billion defense bill, setting up a vote on legislation to shield firearms manufacturers and dealers from lawsuits over gun crimes.
"The president believes that the manufacturer of a legal product should not be held liable for the criminal misuse of that product by others," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan.
[Senator Larry] Craig said such lawsuits are "predatory and aimed at bankrupting the firearms industry," unfairly blaming dealers and manufacturers for the crimes of gun users.
Link (thanks, Earl!)
registry issues, posted 2 Sep 2005 at 08:21 UTC by BigJ »
(Fixture)
Ok so here's where my computer stands. I scanned it with the register mechanic and it found like 842 files to be fixed or erased, youch. So, I was thinking about actually downloading it for the $30 to have it fix it, what do you think?
Also, for whatever reason my wireless internet comes and goes like crazy, I went into the diagnostic area and found that it is getting a tone of noise with the signal, and am guessing that has something to do with it. But is there maybe something else? It'd be really annoying to have to buy a whole bunch of phone cord and network cabling to be able to use my laptop on the internet.
Otherwise I think the monster is mostly gone. It's still in my register, but when I search my hardrive for file of malware nothing is there. Which I am taking as a good sign. The thing is running slower than normal, but I am also running more diagnostic and proactive software than I was before also. Any advice on speeding the sucker up?
And thank you Pedro and Smax for your advice, you guys are truly awesome. Next time either of you are in chicago let me know, I'll take you out to dinner.
hmmm, posted 2 Sep 2005 at 15:21 UTC by pedro »
(Tourist)
I guess it's probably worth it to download the software... I hope you are burning to CD or saving your login information in case you have to download it again.
Re: wireless -- do you have a new cordless phone? You might see about getting into the config for the wireless gateway and changing the channel to a different one. Our wireless was interfering with the cordless phone significantly until I went in and set it to broadcast on a different channel.
$, posted 3 Sep 2005 at 12:41 UTC by smax »
(Fixture)
Before you go spending money, you should check around for other similar products. I really don't know how reg-mechanic compares to other comm. software. All I know is that it does it fo me, for free. I look at software much differently if I'm paying for it.
I also hope you know to back up now that the big monster is gone. If you don't have a cd burner, I'd recommend one or one of those fancy mega-gig usb drives (stay away from iomega though, mine has crapped out a couple times).
I have backed up, posted 4 Sep 2005 at 20:08 UTC by BigJ »
(Fixture)
I realized that's muy importante. I'll look into other software, but the pc seems to be working pretty well now. Thanks you guys.
ok, posted 5 Sep 2005 at 08:13 UTC by BigJ »
(Fixture)
So, right after I typed that last night a pop up appeared on my computer, so I did another spyware scan, and came up with a bunch, then a virus scan, and came up with a bunch. I am not free!! So, whatever is in my computer installing stuff is not gone. I think I will have to do a factory restore sometime soon. I'm putting it off because I know it will take so much time, but it must be done.
Why on earth do people make these things?
You may have an exploit in your browser. You could also install Firefox (http://www.mozilla.org/) which may help keep down your numbers.
yeah I've updated, posted 6 Sep 2005 at 11:45 UTC by BigJ »
(Fixture)
I think it's just still there. I've thought about installing Firefox, and probably will after I restart, I've heard it's better anyway.
yeah, posted 6 Sep 2005 at 13:26 UTC by pedro »
(Tourist)
But if you are still infected... firefox will probably not stop that.
I figure if I wipe the hard drive and start over again the bugger will be gone. Do you think it could still be there when I restore it? That'd be scary!
your operating system, your applications, your documents, your viruses, and your spyware are all just data on your hard drive. when you wipe all of the data off of your hard drive, all of those things go away. once it's totally clean, you can put back the data that you want to keep, which should be everything except the viruses and spyware.
the system restore will take care of the operating system and whatever applications came with the computer. any other applications that you installed along the way you'll have to go find and reinstall yourself. any documents that you want to keep, you'll have to save somewhere off your computer before wiping.
if viruses and spyware make it back into your system it's going to be because 1) some piece of software you download and install comes with spyware included (it won't say so, either), 2) some of your documents are infected with macro viruses, 3) you don't update your operating system and network applications (e.g. web browsers) with all of the latest security updates as soon as you've installed them, and/or 4) you don't continue to keep those things up-to-date on an ongoing basis.
there are also two very simple things you can do in order to make your system safer from all the bad crap on the internet. first of all, put a cable/dsl router between your internet connection and your computer if you don't have one already. my current favorites are the linksys wrt54gs and its little brother, the wrt54g. second, use firefox instead of internet explorer.
thanks inkblot, posted 7 Sep 2005 at 13:15 UTC by BigJ »
(Fixture)
I figured that. I was also thinking about Firefox. I have not been good about updating in the past, but will be now. I do have a wireless router for my internet, but the wireless part of it has been less than reliable recently. Hopefully after I restore my hard drive and reinstall it it will fix itself. Looks like that's my task for the next two days.
BigJ- If there were a way to never use IE I would avoid it. Firefox is 10x better even without all the neat-o plugins. Use IE for emergencies only (like all the .gov sites that only work with it (well unless you have the neat agent switcher plugin)), people just like exploiting IE too much.
Don't mean to hijack this conversation, but anyone out there have a flavor of linux they're fond of? I was pondering playing with the os again and was thinking of downloading Debian, Caldera or Fedora.
smax, posted 7 Sep 2005 at 19:17 UTC by pedro »
(Tourist)
Debian all the way. Or if you want a little more hand holding, Ubuntu or Knoppix.
Both U and K are Debian based, but have GUIs and installers and stuff built in. Knoppix is actually a "live CD" -- that is a CD that boots up right into an environment, which is cool for showing off. You can then push that image down to your computer and then keep it updated from there using the awesome Debian package management tools.
I installed Fedora Core 4 recently, and it's slick, but I wasn't that impressed. I need to play with it more to really be a fair critic. But if I really liked Fedora Core, I would just install Ubuntu instead.
You can also get a "net install" for Debian, which contains just the bare essentials to get things started -- then it downloads the rest over the net, saving you lots of time. You only download the material once -- rather than downloading the iso, burning it, installing it, and then upgrading all those packages since the iso you just downloaded is invariably out of date.
The really nice thing about Ubuntu or Knoppix is (generally) fool-proof and trouble free X-Window setup. With Debian you pretty much have to get all the pieces right yourself, which is probably the biggest pain of configuring a Linux system. You're also supposed to be able to get Ubuntu installed with their stuff, and then use the Debian repositories to add whatever you want from there, so it's supposed to be a "best of both worlds" kind of thing. I haven't personally played with that much.
I'd be happy to answer any of your questions.
seconded, posted 7 Sep 2005 at 22:32 UTC by inkblot »
(Fixture)
i also recommend debian. also, i have used the installer in the 3.1 release, and it is vastly superior to the 3.0 installer, which may be the last version of debian-installer that pedro used. one thing you should do ahead of time is check whether your hardware is all supported.
Is that with Debian you pretty much have to take care of each step, like partitioning, choosing video hardware, etc... wheras Ubuntu will make those decisions for you (for better or for worse) maybe the new Debian installer makes partitioning less annoying for the uninitiated and now that ext3 is here (journaling filesystems) you don't have a pressing need to make multiple small partitions -- just swap and everything else) (and smax, you probably have no trouble with partitioning, i'm sure). Basically smax, I would say -- if you want to be completely and wonderfully in the drivers seat, pick Debian. If you want a little less of a learning experience (and I mean that without irony), go with Ubuntu.
vastly improved, posted 7 Sep 2005 at 23:14 UTC by inkblot »
(Fixture)
the new debian-installer does all of those things.
that's awesome! Perhaps I'll run that when I reinstall Debian over Ubuntu on mr_roboto.
I don't understand much of the conversation anymore.
But anyway an interesting thing happened last night. I went to wipe everything and start from scratch and realized, I DON'T KNOW HOW! Do you beleive it? My last computer came with a disk that was designed for doing such a thing, I just popped it in and it did all the work, but this computer only came with reinstallation disks, and nothing on them does the trick. I tried calling Dell support and didn't get through.
any thoughts from you all? I have everything I need backed up, and just need to start over again, but try as I might to figure it out I couldn't. It's all very annoying.
shocked, posted 8 Sep 2005 at 12:59 UTC by pedro »
(Tourist)
I would be shocked if your Dell didn't have something like that... lately they have been putting that stuff on a special "invisible" partition on the hard disk and you just need to do something special to make it happen. Try again and see if you can get through to Dell and ask them.
access ibm, posted 8 Sep 2005 at 13:44 UTC by inkblot »
(Fixture)
my new laptop was like that, with a hidden partition that contained all of the wipey reinstall stuff. there is a blue button labelled "access ibm" that i could press when the computer started up that would run that stuff instead of whatever was installed on the machine. yours may have something similar at startup, perhaps using some standard key instead of a special button.
thanks again guys, posted 8 Sep 2005 at 14:28 UTC by BigJ »
(Fixture)
I'm going to try again getting through to Dell, I found a different number than the one I called yesterday. I also found a place to chat with a support person online, which I will do tonight. Gosh this is tedious.
But seriously anytime you guys; pedro, inkblot or smax are in town let me know and I will take you out to dinner, besides I'd just like to hang out with you guys.
8 ball, posted 8 Sep 2005 at 14:42 UTC by inkblot »
(Fixture)
i've been carrying around my pool cue for the last two months looking for an opportunity to shoot a few rounds. i'm in town four days a week. BigJ, are you in?
sure, posted 8 Sep 2005 at 15:38 UTC by BigJ »
(Fixture)
you'll probably kick my butt, but sometimes I get lucky. Where do you usually play?
I work in Lincoln Park, I don't know what's near me, but I'm sure there's something. If not I could always meet you somewhere depending on where you are when you're in town. After we'll get some dinner.
Sometime next week would work for me. Let me know your schedule.
debian it is , posted 8 Sep 2005 at 15:48 UTC by smax »
(Fixture)
Debian it is. I just need to find a net connection to download it. Work is slower than dial-up and my cellphone probably won't let me download an entire iso. Look out library!
it's done!, posted 8 Sep 2005 at 21:21 UTC by BigJ »
(Fixture)
I have wiped it and scrubbed it clean and reinstalled windows. I am now on the internet using my spiffy new Firefox and loving eveyr minute of it. The whole system isn't runnign quite 100% yet, it's just a little hinky, but that should get worked out with some tweeking.
It finally took a call to Dell tech support, they sure don't make the process easy.
yeah, posted 8 Sep 2005 at 22:07 UTC by neoacerbitas »
(Fixture)
i spent a few hours on the phone with dell a month or two ago, the guy tried everything he could to find a way that it was "my" fault that a projector wasn't working, trying to find a way that the bulb was the problem. it wasn't. Lame.
i just made a quake map. the data feed is live, but i am manually running the script that turns it into xml data for the maps.
but for some reason now my computer is pretty slow, and doesn't seem to want to install things properly. Sometimes it works well and seems normal, and then sometimes it's real slow and won't recognize cd's when they're put in, and won't connect with some servers. My recent problem is that it won't install this program the wife needs to run a study aid for Greek. I hit install and it thinks for a while, I hear the cd drive making sounds and then after 4 minutes nothing happens, it's very odd. She's now saying we should take out a student loan and buy a new computer, but this thing is a 2.8 GHz 512 MB RAM machine, but it just ain't running right since I wiped the drive and reinstalled Windows, not that it was running well right before I did it either, but why would it not be running like new again?
I'm really beginning to dislike computers.
I'm not sure if that was a question for help from you computer pros out there, or just a rant of frustration.
And it's still having this problem, I would guess you're having a hardware failure (possibly cdrom or hard drive), you have a boot sector virus, or perhaps your computer got re-infected since you wiped it. A 2.8Ghz chip (must be a PIII or 4) with half a gig of ram should certainly be enough machine for you guys.
hammer, posted 20 Sep 2005 at 17:56 UTC by smax »
(Fixture)
Bigj - My parents cd-dvd drive on their dell just crapped the bed too. I guess it happens. I hope it's covered. If not, at least they're cheap... unfortunatly, they're cheap.
check it out, posted 27 Sep 2005 at 10:35 UTC by BigJ »
(Fixture)
So I thought my computer cdROm was shot, it wasn't in My computer, it was showing a bad river in the Device Manager, I was thinking it was dead. But, I call up Dell yesterday and what do they have me do?
I go into the registry editor and erase some filters from a certain system file and bingo there it is again as good as new! Apparently some programs for some reason set up these filters and then your computer filters out your own CD-Rom. How's that for annoying. The guy said he gets these calls fairly often, especially after a hard drive wipe like I just did, and that this fixes 99% of the cases. A nice turn of events for me as now I have a functioning CD-ROM again.
rok!, posted 27 Sep 2005 at 11:06 UTC by pedro »
(Tourist)
Bigj, posted 12 Oct 2005 at 15:20 UTC by smax »
(Fixture)
A decent article on new registry cleaning stuff.
MP3 players, posted 15 Dec 2005 at 17:04 UTC by BigJ »
(Fixture)
Who's got the scoop on a good one? iPod, IRiver, Creative Labs, Panasonic, Samsung, Sony it seems like everyone makes one now. So, which is the best? I'm currently leaning toward a Creative Lab Zen Sleek with a 20GB drive because it's good storage, crazy small, and only $250 as opposed to the same storage ipod for $300. The ipod nano is nice, but I'm just not sure it's enough memory. Decisions decisions!
i bought the ipod 60 and shuffle. the ipod 20 isn't out anymore the 300$ one is know a 30G video i believe. what ever you deside to buy, i highly recomend buying it from best buy and doing their service plan. for my ipod 60 it was 50 bucks but, i'm covered for 3 years if anything happens to it.
especially given the portability=breakability aspect of the things.
Transparency, posted 22 Dec 2005 at 14:53 UTC by smax »
(Fixture)
If you're a real nerd and want to be able to make your apps have different levels of transparency you can donload this. I'm pretty sure you Mac osX+ people can do this anyway, but I've been wrong before.
I also feel the need to warn people in here to not subscribe to Wired Magazine. It's a long story and it involves a collection agency and some shady practices by Wired. Short: Don't subscribe, it's just a bunch of ads anyway. I can post the longe version if anyone cares.
I got an iRiver off of woot.com for $189 with a $20 rebate. Which is awesome. It's a 20GB player, and that's a killer price. Hey welcome how do you like your iRiver? I know you said you got one a while back, is it still good?
I need an audio utility that will convert from any of the major formats to another, but primarily WAV to mp3 and back. What would you all recommend?
to be fair, posted 27 Feb 2006 at 16:01 UTC by pedro »
(Tourist)
that's really only an mp3<->wav solution. you could add oggenc and ogg123 for ogg files, and flac for... flac. I don't know of any good free utilities for wma.
links, posted 27 Feb 2006 at 16:23 UTC by smax »
(Fixture)
http://www.etree.org/mkw.html
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
http://www.etree.org/
...that I'm running XP. I try to speak Linux, but don't yet.
Just..., posted 27 Feb 2006 at 20:28 UTC by smax »
(Fixture)
Just check out this link on etree. You should find some software that'll convert to and from what you want. I'd bet a quick search on download.com will turn up something good too.
Do you guys know a good, and prefereably free, way to get and send faxes via computer?
http://www.k7.net/
I've used their free voice mail thingy/service.
thanks smax, posted 10 Apr 2006 at 06:40 UTC by BigJ »
(Fixture)
I'll check it out.
Here at the AQ we use FaxPress, by a company called Castille. It's slick as a waxed snake in a garden hose, but it sure doesn't look free.
www.castille.com
Help, posted 28 Jun 2006 at 09:25 UTC by smax »
(Fixture)
I consider this place to be a fairly average group of interweb users. Some folks know way too much, some very little. All a good thing. I'm trying to figure out the popularity of widgets. Anyone out there us any? Are there any that people really like?
widgets?, posted 28 Jun 2006 at 11:04 UTC by baggins »
(Fixture)
wtf is widgets?
a link, posted 29 Jun 2006 at 15:36 UTC by smax »
(Fixture)
Kinda glad you asked that... kinda makes me feel justified in not wanting to make them. They're basically little specialized desktop apps that just kinda hover around your desktop. They're usually things like weather forecasts, stock tickers, sports scores, news readers, etc..
I've made a couple for the Yahoo! widget thingy and they're pretty easy to make. widgets.yahoo.com
ah, posted 30 Jun 2006 at 21:46 UTC by baggins »
(Fixture)
i've never used such a thing. i suppose if i really had a lot of stuff i wanted to keep on top of like that, i might try them. but... i'd rather just actively seek out what i want and forget the rest...
It looks like a blatant rip on Mac OS, which means it might actually be a good system. It makes me nervous though that by the time I buy a new computer (this spring) I might be buying it preloaded with Vista and don't know how it is going to perform.
The required system specs are very high for optimal performance, basically 2.5 GHz processor, 1 GB RAM, 128 MB video card, with recommendation for the premium system being 2 GB RAM, and 224 MB video card. This means if I want to get the most out of the computer that I buy I need to upgrade and spend $1000 on it to use it to its fullest. I mean I will probably do that anyway so that it stays a well performing machine with the software upgrades in the future, but still that's a pretty tall order to run an OS. Makes me question how efficiently it will run and if it's going to just be a system performance killer.
But it sure looks pretty.
No more ms, posted 10 Nov 2006 at 11:31 UTC by smax »
(Fixture)
For this and many other reasons I will never buy a computer with a MSOS ever again. I do a lot of graphics, web work, etc... and I can't think of a single program that I need a MSOS for. Kinda wish I didn't have to at work. They finally "upgraded" me to XP-pro... I am not impressed.
Really I just want to type in the program that I want to run and then have my computer run that program and use all the system power for running that one, maybe two programs, do I need pretty pictures and graphics for just telling my computer to run a program? I think not.
new tv, posted 5 Jan 2007 at 21:04 UTC by neoacerbitas »
(Fixture)
that my dad bought shortly after xmas, i was reading the manual, and in the back right before the index it had a couple of pages entitled "GNU Public License". It also has a serial port on the back and a "cablecard" slot, which i assume is similar in spec to a cardbus slot, if not just in size. How crazy is that? I can't decide if the makers were lazy or creative for building off open source software.
WOW, posted 16 Jan 2007 at 13:24 UTC by inkblot »
(Fixture)
this is the best computer interface ever invented (watch the video... it's about 10 minutes long).
Advice, posted 6 Mar 2007 at 09:49 UTC by smax »
(Fixture)
Over the years I've lost what little hardware nerdness I once had.
Shopping for a new notebook. Found a pretty cheap dell, but am hesitant. Also thinking about a cheaper Averatec, HP and a few other brands. Just wondering is any of my fellow nerds here have any suggestions or warnings. I'm looking for a medium priced and capable box with a 14.1 or less screen.
How much?, posted 6 Mar 2007 at 15:41 UTC by pedro »
(Tourist)
It says $6400 when I look at it!
I have had decent luck with Dells... I am always wary of generic or off-brand laptops especially. I think HP makes good hardware, but most of the laptops of theirs I've seen are "desktop replacement" models, which means big and heavy. Maybe they are making some decent small ones too.
I always get an extended warranty, especially for laptops. If you're planning on using it for 3 years, you might as well have a warranty on it because otherwise, if something breaks (like the screen or the motherboard) you're screwed.
You could also look at the Sony Vaios; they have some very small laptops that are pretty capable.
It depends too on what you mean by capable; a lot of the smaller laptops that are designed for size, weight, etc, use lower-power consumption components, which often translates to less bang, so to speak. But if you'd rather have "all day computing" (whatever that means nowadays) at the expense of some CPU power, that's great.
You could also look at the macbook core duos... they are pretty sweet and you can triple boot them; Mac, Windows, Linux. If you're looking for a laptop to put linux on, you have to be more particular about the hardware to make sure that things like the video and wireless work.
funny error, posted 6 Mar 2007 at 16:17 UTC by smax »
(Fixture)
$6400, damn... that is expensive. Real details:
$850+-
Intel® Core[TM] Duo T2250 (2MB Cache/1.73GHz/533MHz FSB)
LCD PANEL 14.1 inch Wide Screen XGA Display
MEMORY 2GB DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHZ, 2 DIMM
HARD DRIVE 120GB Hard Drive
OPTICAL DRIVE 8X CD/DVD Burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer DVD+R
BATTERIES 85 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
go mac., posted 7 Mar 2007 at 17:26 UTC by barefootjumper »
(Fixture)
you'll never go back.
I just didn't like the thing. I've got a Dell laptop and it works great. I got it about 3 years ago and other than a spyware issue (my fault) haven't had any problems with it.
I'm looking into a HP desktop right now, and they seem to be pretty good. Also, if you purchase a laptop through costco.com (if you have a membership) they extend the manufacturer's warranty to 2 years. Also, their price through their website is a touch better than through the manufacturer's website, good deal.
Mac, posted 8 Mar 2007 at 10:27 UTC by smax »
(Fixture)
I worked in a mac graphics lab for 4 years, used them all through college and a little after. I actually sit next to a nice G5 right now. Can't say I like em, not bad, but I'm just no cool enough. I'm more of a Linux/Irix/Windows (if I have to) kinda guy. Basically any computer I buy will be immediately stripped down and reloaded with Linux.
Costco.com, never would have thought of that. Thanks. The nice thing about Dell is that I get a slight discount through work.
off of Costco.com. Ended up getting a pretty darn good HP desktop with a 19" LCD monitor. I am a little nervous about Windows Vista, but I think it's better to have a machine loaded with it, most of the true horror stories I've heard have been from people who upgraded from XP. I should have it in a few weeks and will report my feelings on Vista. Luckily if it stinks I can return it to Costco anytime for 90 days no questions asked.
people who really understand computers.
i am not one of those people and so i choo-choo-choose mac. me and mac sittin in a tree.
pcs, posted 12 Mar 2007 at 21:25 UTC by inkblot »
(Fixture)
that's a pretty fair assessment.
at least, not all that much. but i have a pc. i've always used one. and i think i would be lost on a mac. or maybe it would feel like cheating.
dirty, posted 13 Mar 2007 at 17:14 UTC by smax »
(Fixture)
I now feel dirty for knowing computers. I think if money wasn't such a big part of my decisions, I'd probably go Apple with linux as a dual boot. I just can't afford a mac with all the software I use.
fun web wandering, posted 5 Apr 2007 at 10:20 UTC by BigJ »
(Fixture)
This makes me excited and This makes me want to learn to fly
laptop, posted 9 May 2007 at 15:59 UTC by blvdgirl »
(Fixture)
I think I am going to get a laptop with wireless capabilities and a digital camera before going to Brazil... Any suggestions?
yes, posted 9 May 2007 at 17:53 UTC by neoacerbitas »
(Fixture)
i would find out if it is difficult to excercise your warranty on new products down there, and if there is a local access number for support. find out if you have anything that's super important that you have to make sure to transfer to your new machine...resume, papers, photos etc. Then think about it. I'd recommend a mac, but you have to remember that they're "more expensive" and you can't play some games, which i'm sure is deal breaker for you. ;)
Now people will tell you why to get a pc.
oooooh, posted 9 May 2007 at 17:55 UTC by neoacerbitas »
(Fixture)
and dont forget that youre an educator, so you get a discount.
i won't., posted 10 May 2007 at 23:20 UTC by barefootjumper »
(Fixture)
get a mac. they are such friendly creatures and pretty hot, too. it's worth the extra expense especially if you know little about computers. what i mean by that is that you won't have to replace it in a year because it decided it didn't feel like working anymore.
there are so many cameras on the market now that will satisfy various needs. i like my lil pentax optio, of which they have upgraded versions now [i believe gary recommended this camera, but i might be wrong - someone on here did]. the thing i don't like about it: indoor, darkly lit photographs NEED the flash and the flash is way too bright and everyone looks like a ghost. best thing: pictures i take from moving cars often turn out as good as any i take standing still.
my roommate just did a bunch of research and bought this one. panasonic with lumix/leica lens. 7.2mp, 10x zoom.
her only complaint is that it's not literally pocket sized. the pictures are amazing and i drool at the sight of it.
lumix, posted 11 May 2007 at 08:09 UTC by lukas »
(Fixture)
i own a panasonic lumix dmc-fz5. which has the lecia lens and 5mp sensor and 12x optical zoom. It's a really fantastic camera that I wish was smaller but takes really amazing pictures. They may have fixed it in newer models but the photos are a little undersaturated and it gets noisy at low light levels. Minor complaints though for such a great camera.
get a mac, posted 11 May 2007 at 15:05 UTC by BigJ »
(Fixture)
for your uses it is by far what you would want.
Also, I like Kodak cameras, but have also used very nice olympus, canon, and nikon digitals.
Basically, find something mid range that comes with a rechargable battery and you think is nice. I would recommend something with more than just 3x optical zoom, but that's me I like nature photography. I have a kodak 4mp with a 10x optical zoom, it's very nice. But not pocket sized. Just don't use the digital zoom EVER, and don't buy a camera that won't recharge it's own internal Lio battery, otherwise you'll do nothing but change batteries.
1 guy sais sony was better, the other said canon was better... more real zoom is better, digital zoom is always bad.... the only thing that would worry me is that their power sys is different, if you got a mac, and this is not a selling point, but the power brick auto converts the power to what the computer uses, you may need a plug adapter. battery charger probably doesnt have this feature...but it could, i don't know. mine surprisingly does. you can tell that it converts if it says "100-240" on it.
simple power stuff
I feel stupid, posted 12 May 2007 at 11:19 UTC by blvdgirl »
(Fixture)
You guys start talking about cameras and my eyes roll back into my head. I appreciate it, though, and I seriously will do my best to understand the lingo. I'm probably not going to be getting either the laptop or the camera until July so I do have some time to figure it all out.
neo- I've definitely thought about the power adapter thing and, obviously, I will do some research and I will drill my salesperson good and proper about those sorts of things...
So yesterday I went to burn a DVD and through my software it said I didn't have a DVD-RW on my computer, but then I popped in a blank DVD and it asked me what I would like to use to burn that DVD. PCs are funny sometimes.
all are the same, posted 15 May 2007 at 13:36 UTC by smax »
(Fixture)
I think all computers have their issues. I've worked in Mac, Linux, Irix and pc labs and they all have their quirks.
Amy, I would recommend a small mac with an educators discount. I seem to remember seeing a link somewhere on the site not too long ago. That said I just bought a Dell 640m and I like it a lot.
Cameras, I like Canons and Nikons, almost exclusively. However I regularly drool over my friend's lumix. I have many reasons for not liking various cameras, but the real brad I can't stand for computers or cameras is Sony. Actually I just can't stand Sony, even though caucasians are just too damn tall.
Free Dell..., posted 18 May 2007 at 10:17 UTC by smax »
(Fixture)
They are giving away a Dell XPS M2010 laptop away each of the next 23 days for their 23rd anniversary.
http://dell.eprize.net/23notebooks23days/index.tbapp
Nerd request..., posted 11 Oct 2007 at 13:47 UTC by smax »
(Fixture)
Anyone ever work with drupal? drupal.org?
sorry, nope..., posted 12 Oct 2007 at 07:26 UTC by pedro »
(Tourist)
"British scientists have discovered a way to turn female bone marrow into sperm, allowing women to reproduce without the need of male companionship. All children born of this method would be female, due the lack Y chromosomes, and there is high chance of birth defects. Eggs also can be created from male bone marrow, but men looking to reproduce would still need to find a surrogate mother to handle the gestation period. I'd like to take a moment to welcome our new amazonian overlords and remind them that men are still very good at mowing lawns and fixing cars."
Pedro, the new google themes and colors have one theme that makes me wonder if you somehow magically had something to do with it.
links, posted 21 Aug 2009 at 20:08 UTC by smax »
(Fixture)
You all saw them as links on facebook, but to be redundant:
I didn't make it pretty, but I made it work, for work:
TheCanyons.com
