The ultimate Palm accessory
Damn the expense; the girl's gotta have it, specifically, the The Ashford Palm case:
Help her remember those special dates with this one of a kind Ashford Palm case. This case is set with over 13 carats of diamonds in 300 grams of platinum. This is sure to put a sparkle in her eye everytime she jots a note or looks up a number.$24,000. Comes with a 30-day warranty and is available for (free!) shipping today.
First spotted by Zannah at /usr/bin/girl, who admits to a fondness for sparkly things.
My, how far we've come
Jeffrey Harrow's entertaining and interesting RCFoC (go there to find out what it stands for), points out the specs for the Digital VAX11/780 minicomputer introduced 23 years ago:A basic system was five feet tall, cost around $150,000, weighed hundreds of pounds, contained less than one megabyte of memory, consumed six kilowatts of power, and often needed special air conditioning and a raised floor. This yielded a then-impressive one million instructions per second (1 MIPS)
Compare that to today's basic desktop PC: For a couple thou, you can get a small box running at 1 GHz (or faster) with 200G-bytes of storage and:
A global communications network that enables average people to access limitless information, and to publish to the world from their homes and small offices -- something that required the resources of a multinational corporation just five years ago.
Harrow follows up with a discussion of plans by a St. Louis company to bring 40M-bit/sec 'Net access into the home. Naysayers might question why the average homeowner would ever need such speed, but Harrow answers:
I remember when 9600 bits/second modems first came on the scene -- for the first time, my VT100 (text terminal) screen filled with is 1,920 characters in the blink of an eye -- far faster than I could read the text. I couldn't imagine needing anything faster. Even if faster modems were possible (improbable), they wouldn't serve any useful purpose!
Another vendor-bashing site
Back in its day, nynexsucks.com was a pioneer. Imagine, a site devoted entirely to trashing a specific company. Today, of course, there are zillions of such site and vendors have learned to buy up *sucks.com domain names before somebody with a grudge can grab them. Oh, and nynexsucks.com is no longer around.Fear not. BellAtlantic/Pathetic has arisen to take its place. It features the Bell Hell forum (just in case our very own Verizon DSL forum isn't enough for ya), "true tales of pain" from BA/Verizon customers and even a tally of how much the site claims to have cost Verizon in lost sales.
12/07/00
Is broadband content doomed to failure?
Yes, we're starting to see Web sites that specialize in high-bandwidth content, such as movies (and even TV commercials).Is it all just smoke and mirrors, though?
On NetSlaves, Steve Baldwin writes:
So-called broadband content sites will face major obstacles until such time as a full broadband network is rolled out. But this rollout will be costly, and most providers are likely to restrict the use of bandwidth and impose data transfer limits. This can be compared to fuel rations and speed limits. The providers have no choice other than to implement these rules or they will pay more bills than they can collect from subscription fees.The whole issue of broadband then becomes a myth, with slow data rates, disconnects and download limits likely to remain an impediment to any effective delivery scheme. ... Ultimately, one of these parties must pay. If the customer pays, in most cases the result is fewer visits, which dooms the site to eventual bankruptcy. If the site pays, these inflated expenditures are even more likely to cause it to go broke.
What do you think?
Another view on HarvardNet's restructuring
You may have read this week about how HarvardNet is getting out of the DSL business (and laying off 280 people in the process.Some people claim they saw it coming, such as the guy who runs Harvardnetsucks.com - who helped put together a whole party of HarvardNet haters just two days ago. And they're all on the page, in photos that show them giving the company the finger.
Spotted on CamWorld.
12/06/00
Read this before you call the DSL support line
Yes, everything you've ever heard about customer help lines is true, at least according to an account in the East Bay Express. Erika Donald recounts her life as a call-center operator for Pacific Bell's consumer DSL service. They're monitored on the time they spend between calls - and in the bathroom. They make up things just to get callers off the line and keep their call times down. An excerpt:Finally, the customer is transferred to me. "Are you a supervisor?" he demands instantly. Since the beginning of the month, everyone in the call center has been transformed into a supervisor. Brian sleeping at his desk is now a supervisor. Ian with purple hair gelled into points is a supervisor. Ron who begged not to be made a supervisor is a supervisor.The saga continues:"Yes, I am a supervisor."
"At last," he sighs. I feel sorry for him: he thinks he’s reached someone in authority. He’s explains that he’s had a red sync light on his DSL modem (indicating a line problem) for two months. He has had no service, yet he’s been billed without interruption. It’s really a phone line issue. I get calls like this at least twenty times a day. Basically there’s nothing we can do. "I can escalate the case for you if you like, but it’s usually more effective if you call our Plant Control Offices directly." We’ve been told to tell customers to call directly. Better they wait on hold than one of us.
Perhaps he’s not mapped correctly on the telco side. I call our Network Data Operations Processing. "I need to escalate a case to see if a customer is mapped correctly," I say."You need to call the tech center," she tells me.
"I’m calling from the tech center," I answer.
"Oh, then you need to go through PCO."
"I’ve gone through the PCO," I persist.
"I’m sorry. I don’t have the authority to transfer you," she insists.
"Let me speak to your supervisor," I demand instantly. "Hold on," she says. I imagine her knocking on a supervisor’s office door. I imagine a man with a tie following her to her phone. She’s probably passing me over to someone just like me.
First spotted on Slashdot.
11/05/00
Doom as a sysadmin tool
Computer Associates makes a big deal of its virtual-reality interface for its network management software.Cool as far as it goes, but flying around filing cabinets gets boring after awhile. What if you combined system administration with, oh, Doom? That's just what Dennis Chao did.
He downloaded the source code "and added a few lines of code that would spawn a new soldier for each process, renice the process when it is wounded, and kill the process when it dies."Chao notes some advantages:
- There is a nice continuum for resource allocation. A user may choose to simply wound processes rather than killing them, which could naturally be translated to renicing them.
- A new sysadmin can be given less power by providing her with a smaller weapon. A rank beginner may not be given a weapon at all and be forced to attack processes with her bare hands. It would take a foolhardy player to attack a room full of monsters, just as a newbie should not kill a bunch of important processes.
- Really crowded systems would regulate their own load because monsters occasionally kill each other.
- Important processes can be instantiated as more powerful monsters. They can then defend themselves against inexperienced sysadmins.
- A team of players can cooperate to take care of a heavily-loaded system, or they can even take out rogue sysadmins who are killing the wrong processes.
He also notes some problems:
- Certain processes are vital to the computer's operation and should not be killed. For example, after I took the screenshot of myself being attacked by csh, csh was shot by friendly fire from behind, possibly by tcsh or xv, and my session was abruptly terminated.
- Mapping processes to appropriate monsters is difficult. Should large processes be mapped to large monsters? Should the monster type reflect the CPU as well as memory usage? Should processes and their children look alike?
- It is difficult to tell if your employees are doing real work or just goofing off when tools and games have the same GUI.
Read more, see screen shots, download the code.
First spotted on /usr/bin/girl.
A computer that never, never crashes?
NASA's taking some time off from building space stations and sending probes to Mars to build a computer that runs perfectly all the time. The San Jose Mercury News reports:To long-suffering computer users worldwide, that concept might seem an oxymoron, a dream as fanciful as everlasting life. Nevertheless, some of Silicon Valley's top names in high technology are getting together under the auspices of NASA/Ames Research Center for a long-term effort to try to figure out how to build and run computers that even people can't screw up.Hmm, maybe they could combine the two and come up with a computer that can figure out how to actually land probes on Mars?
12/04/00
Microsoft can't decide who the better lovers are
There once was a presidential president who had credibility problems. One joke about him went something like "There's just two things wrong with him. His face."Is a Microsoft p.r. firm trying to make the joke reality? Linux Format, a U.K. Web site, reports that the undentified p.r. agency had results of a survey of PC and Mac users. When the agency called up Linux Format, it told the reporter that the survey found that PC users
are 3 times more likely to go out on for a romantic meal as their ideal Saturday night than Mac users."
All well and good, except that the agency then tried pitching the same survey to Mac Format, which it told:
It's official. Mac users are not only more cultured than PC users, but they make better lovers too. Who's making these claims? Apple? Actually, it's PC software giant Microsoft.
'Course, we all know that Unix users make the best lovers...
All out cyberwar
Wired reports that Palestinians appear to be winning a cyberwar against Israel.They've launched denial-of-service attacks against more than 100 Israeli Web sites. They've also unleashed an arsenal of Word macro viruses and Exchange trojans that seem to be doing fairly well even though they're not exactly unknown (Melissa and its ilk).
Wired reports the Israelis might have started it all back in October when an Israeli group started a site to host its own denial-of-service attacks against Palestinian sites.
RELATED LINKS
Compendium archive: Week of 01/21/02 Week of 01/14/02 Week of 01/07/02 Week of 01/02/02 Week of 12/03/01 Week of 11/26/01 Week of 11/19/01 Week of 11/12/01 Week of 11/05/01 Week of 10/29/01 Week of 10/22/01 Week of 10/15/01 Week of 10/08/01 Week of 10/01/01 Week of 9/24/01 Weeks of 9/10/01 - 9/17/01 Week of 9/3/01 Week of 8/27/01 Week of 8/20/01 Week of 8/13/01 Week of 8/6/01 Note: Compendium's entire staff took the week of 7/30 off. Week of 7/23/01 Week of 7/16/01 Week of 7/9/01 Week of 7/2/01 Week of 6/25/01 Week of 6/18/01 Week of 6/11/01 Week of 6/4/01
Tracking down a stolen Mac; Dead C Scrolls; Googlewhacking; How bad is it in the Valley?; Storage lessons from the Wayback Machine; The pub-seeking handheld; Internet gang wars; Outlook XP breaks MIME.
Why should iMac owners have all the eye candy?; Luxo Redux; So you think your job is bad; Google as a DNS replacement? Not so fast; Nokia exec cites stock plunge in speeding-fine appeal; The tragedy of the .coms; The Google parlor game; Some people *like* Steve the Dell Guy; Ban all Microsoft attachments?
Dot-com to bare all; iMac Dance; Wendy's remembers Dave; Search engine bites the dust; Wendy's Web site ignores Dave's death; Geek comic strip; Youngest security expert ever; Spam poetry; Confessions of a hacker; Breathless Apple; Dave Barry does Windows XP.
Dropping everything to vote; The best Apple rumors, ever; Guess Steve Case isn't getting into Harvard; Make your own O'Reilly cover; Boosting your wireless juice; Telnet lives!
This space intentionally left blank (vacation).
The most useless software ever; Is Microsoft getting ready to squash PC vendors?; Excite@Home: The Watergate of the New Economy?; No more 3Com Park. Is CMGI Field next?; Are you an e-bore?; This site'll have you coming and going; Entertainment Weekly's loss of innocence; Ensign Crusher as Entertainer of the Year; Oh, for the old days.
The Museum of Broken Packets; Just in time for Thanksgiving; Tourist Guy found; Why virtual offices suck; A domain ruling that sucks; Hacking the iPod.
Why you shouldn't ship computers via UPS; When .Net requires Java; High-tech grafitti artists; Spam from beyond the grave; New group tries to oversee the whole Internet; Paging Dick Tracy; Students use PDAs to cheat; Windaz for Aussies, Newfies; Another alternative to Passport; A virtual honeynet
Bill Gates: Father of open source; Verizon exec: Monopoly is good; Weird molecule names; E-mail: too much of a good thing?; A cluster of one; More woes for dot-bombers; Spam as weapon in the war on crime; Just when you think the Web can't get any better; Just when you think the Web can't get any worse; More proof I shouldn't be a wiseass; Using your Web logs to ID hacker attacks; Help save the FAQs; Who do you trust, baby?; Powerpuff Girls powerless against virus; Big IP pipe between US, Europe.
The profit of turning thugs into programmers; Work Name Generator; A programmer's lament; The world's best ATM; Are anti-spammers killing people?; Web services and storage; Get your Aerons here; Perl for the XXI-imum century; Microsoft's blocking of non-IE browsers.
Government info taken off the Web since 9/11; Beware hackers who talk too much; A contest you can enter sitting down; Now don't try this in the office; Bob Patterson must die; Finally, a useful 404 page; Tech calls from hell; Teletubbies XP; More XP fun; Anthrax and e-mail; Larry's ID card; World's longest gum-wrapper chain.
Let's drop PDAs on Afghanistan; Voice control? Try grunt control; Spam gets back to business; A content-management portal; Share your system tray with the world; Would you let the recording industry onto your network?; Al Queda's low-tech high tech; 9/11 archive; Shoe company gets open source after all; Pod people, coming soon to a cube near you.
Larry and Scott's dueling ID cards; Cringely: Broadband is dead; The dangers of Photoshop; The dangers of copy protection; Microsoft mining whois for telephone solicitations?; How to REALLY throw a LAN party; Good fences don't make good 'Net neighbors; How Google adapted to 9/11 news; Web services as over-hyped hooey; Why shoe guys shouldn't do open source; Online air hockey.
AT&T waives 9/11 wireless charges for some; Shifting gears; Craig Burton on the Novell/Microsoft suit; In search of the post-PC interface; Vibrating PDAs and wearable phones; Gary Condit's Web site; No, that isn't a real photo of a WTC tourist; How to throw a LAN party; How sucky is your intranet?
For grizzled 'Net veterans; UK ISP forced to pull deceptive ads; Pretty Good encryption controversy; Are you as smart as Miss America?; Really securing your computer; Still lots of insecure IIS servers; Kids, don't try this at home; Anthrax Kills; Larry's national database; Nimda hysteria?
Attack and post-attack items.
999,999,999 bottles of beer on the wall; Finally, a wind-up cell phone; Enough with the ringing!; The VoIP calculator; 802.11b insecurity; Hank the Angry Drunken Dwarf explains IOS DHCP; Is ENUM the mark of the devil?; AOL gives user permanent demerit; The Ballmer music video; Cleveland news flash: Y2K was last year.
Re-routing around censorship; Us vs. them in scripting; The boss button; Fighting off the hackers for fun; Peer computing as a weapon of war; Unix poetry; The Windows Fatal Exception Decoder; New Fusion widget: Getting rid of spyware; The sound of 200 cell phones going off at once; Taleban Web site hacked; Hey, sysadmin, remember Sircam?
On the importance of flame wars; Bill Gates sees dead people?; A markup language for grunts and groans; Is Microsoft leaking those Ballmer dance videos?; Good Samaritan not so good?; Steve Ballmer works up a sweat; Open-source wireless cracking; When technology goes too far; Another dumb computer arrest?; Is Cisco Communist?
Moron marketers threaten 'Net users; Finding free wireless access; Complete wastes of time; OS holy war flares in North Carolina; Are programmers weird?; Somebody actually buys an X10 camera; We're number, uh, two!; Those after-hours computer discussions; An entire city running on Linux; Distributed spam fighter under development; Could a Warhol virus infect the entire 'Net in 15 minutes?; Tell AOL what to do with its CDs.
Fusion shatters a myth; Bridging .Net and Java?; AT&T Broadband cuts off non-IIS servers to fight Code Red; Bluetoothless; Tennessee town bites into Apple; And you thought TI-99/4A fans were over the edge; Biometrics coming to your local supermarket; Steve Ballmer a-hootin' and a-hollerin'; Speaking of Web images; Just how far PC prices have fallen; Does Starbucks' CEO get his own wireless strategy?
Crackers getting more sophisticated; Sex and Microsoft Office; The wonders of science, part MXXII; Finally, a useful virus; A shocking game controller; Big Ball of Mud school of programming; Two vitally important new resources; Adobe: Ooops; Eudora Welty, dead at 92; Centralizing Unix administration in Perl; Spellchecking the entire Web.
Worm turns on Microsoft Web servers; The day the ISP died; Cell-phone users have no shame; Even Internet consultants can screw up the 'Net; Symphony for Dot Matrix Printers; The ultimate cup of coffee; The solar-powered ISP; Everhost; Internet VCer: Oops; The Lego Palm and the pink fuzzy laptop; The Microsoft-English dictionary; Putting a loved one in the home.
Saving those all important VoIP calls; This site is a bright idea; Could wireless end messy divorces?; How much will that software really cost you?; Ghosts of failed dot-coms; The spy's guide to securing your Cisco routers; Oprah for Internet czarina?; What's Microsoft doing at an open-source conference?; Like a big pizza pi; Cyber-bullies; Better check your phone bill; Have some birthday pi.
How HP wastes energy to save energy; New toy for the bored and lonely; Weird programming languages; When sponsors are speakers; The case of the disturbing backwards monitor; Congress to ICANN: Drop dead; Yet another video game made into a movie; Smile, you're on Candid (Police) Camera; High-speed hotels; Network Solutions blocking name transfers?
One of the fathers of Usenet dead at 45; Are you ready for insta-spam?; Diary of a site collapse; Skirting the issue; Assimiliating the Web; Trolling for help; Software wars; Rating the rater; True tales from the help desk; How about spam embedded in your mail?
Unix diapers; A beautiful waste of time; A P2P taxonomy; This page is too stupid; Homeless dot-commer bogus?; Whee, Linux is fun!; Blue Screens everywhere; Forget viruses: This fungus eats CDs; Microsoft revises Smart Tags a bit; Homeless dot-commers.
Slashdot crashes the NSA; They may be Smart Tags, but they're not Original Tags; What open source and California wines have in common; Jakob Nielsen no tyro; How to make Windows 2000 really, really secure; Where the Internet begins; A useful computer bug; The clothes make the geek; The end of the Internet; Why PDF bites; Novel use of a wireless phone; Hidden info; When Web sites tell too much.
DSL modems are so '90s; Bye-bye Netscape; Get ready to upgrade those mail servers; The anti-.Net; The real reason to buy a Palm; Anatomy of a DDoS attack; Pain is good.
