Straight out of high school, I ended up as the first employee of a startup in '82.

Both of the principals were recent college graduates (same school I was headed to), and were quite clear that they would be selling out, as they had "no idea" how to run a large company.

hawk

Ehh, I think that's on Sprint, not Apple . . .

Not that I'm annoyed that I can't get a Sprint signal at my regular courthouse, and end up roaming on Verizon . . .

hawk

I think, but am not certain, that all the MFM were full height. I remember half-height floppies, though.

hawk

Actually, it already happened, with gnu moving first.

RMS *already* demanded that Linux be called "lignux", and changed the code of EMACS at one point to make that, rather than "linux", the target.

hawk

>I don't mind static image ads (although I hate it
>when I purchase something on Amazon and then
>get served Amazon ads for the thing I purchased).
>But if it is not static then I despise it.

It's not just ads; it's *anything* that blinks & runs around while I"m trying to read. In fact, I've never blocked *anything* just for being an ad, and I block much of what sites fancy to be "content."

Stay still, damnit, I'm trying to read!

hawk

the two drive bays were typically side by side in the era of MFM drives. And if they were stacked, and you managed to find a double height drive, you would have had no space for your 5.25" floppy.

And the drives I see listed are something like 41mm, or about a inch and a half--half-height or less..

Full height in this parlance is the old 3.5 or 4" tall, nearly the full height of the PC/XT case.

hawk

>. Likewise MS Office- they change the file formats
>with each release to prevent compatibility with older >versions and especially compatibility with freeware
>office suites.

Now *that* one did not originate with Microsoft. Wordstart and Word Perfect were doing that before MS Word was even released; each coul generally read/export the prior, but not current, version of the other.

Word & Excel (except mac) were distant thirds. Then MS leveraged the dos monopoly to install them on every machine for a minimal royalty at about the time of the 40M hard drive becoming standard, and instead of "$500 for Word Perfect or Word?" it became "Spend another $500 on Word Perfect?"

hawk

And that world has come full circle.

That's not a "double height"; today's bays are half- and third- height.

The last single/full height drive I remember seeing was a 1G scsi in about 96, although I'm certain they continued for at least a feww years after that.

hawk

This is hardly new . . .

I had the original G1, before they were tossing the word "android" around.

It interestingly sprouted a navigation system one day. I thought that was nice, until I tried to use it in general. The "upgrade" needed more cpu power and ram than that thing had.

Add features to use more powerful hardware, and they consume resources on the older phones, too.

The only exception seems to be OSX, which tends to have at least a moderate speed increase for older hardware with each major release.

hawk

>I saw those as a wrap-up, not necessarily a cash-in.

Perhaps more a monument to his ego, with the bizarre attempt to tie in everything he ever wrote.

>They are still good to read.

I forced myself through a couple, and just couldn't do it any more.

hawk

I guess you missed the "cash-in, conglomerate it all!" volumes of his lat career. Foundation XXIV, and so forth . . .

hawk

This bill actually does very little. The DMCA is written very broadly, and has been commonly interpreted as to prohibit cell phone unlocking. Because Congress, in the 90s, when they enacted the stupid thing, was aware that the DMCA could go too far, but didn't want to be cautious or have to keep reexamining the law itself, they gave authority to the Library of Congress to add exceptions to it in specific cases. The process for these exceptions is that every three years, anyone who wants an exception has to plead their case. If found worthy, they get an exception. But the exception only lasts until the next rule making session, three years hence. Then it has to be reargued from scratch or lost.

Two rule making sessions ago, the Library of Congress found that cellphone unlocking was worthy of an exception. But in the most recent rule making session, they did not find it worthy, and the exception was lost; it went back to its default state of being illegal.

This law could have amended the DMCA to permanently allow cellphone unlocking. Or it could've directed the Library of Congress to always find that cellphone unlocking is allowed. But it does neither of these.

Instead it only reinstates the rule from two sessions ago for the remainder of the current session. Next year it will have to be argued again, from scratch, to the Library of Congress, or lost, again. And even if argued, it can be rejected, again.

This is less than useless. It's only a temporary patch, it doesn't even have an iota of long term effect (the rules don't take precedent into account, and this doesn't change it), and we've wasted all this effort getting it instead of something worthwhile.

...and someone else will take his place.

I say, we let them go!

Curiously, 17 of their husbands died in battle after being drafted past the age of 90 . . .

hawk