Check out this fellow:

www.trachtman.org

He built on the efforts of two others to scan old player piano rolls and use software to re-constitute the information as MIDI files. If punch cards can be considered files, player piano rolls can too. He has scanned and converted almost 7000 such rolls.

The MIDI files can be printed out as sheet music on paper or backed up to the latest computer format going forward.

I am not sure when the vintage piano rolls were cut (that people have sent him), but player pianos have been around for decades, and a lot of the files on his site are U.S. public domain (before 1922) music. Check it out!

The article (I read it) said "around 30 MPH", but the car had "35 KMH" printed on it (which is approximately 22 MPH).

Are the reporters bad with numbers or did they forget the metric system?

Number 5 is "a beowulf cluster of these" if I remember correctly. Or number 7.

Norbert Wiener. No question about it.

He survived life despite being the typical "absent minded professor". Official accounts don't give any anecdotes -- consult old editions of Russ Walter's "The Secret Guide to Computers" (current editions might not talk about him much).

I cannot relate to his work in mathematics and cybernetics, since I really don't understand it. But surviving life as a thoroughly absent-minded person? That is what I can relate to and respect. It is a monumental achievement to me.

"Rhetorical trick?" No. Microsoft has earned (and deserves) a poor reputation for security, and I am exposed to it often here on /. The truth repeated often enough meets my personal definition of bashing.

I don't have time to (and I don't care to) quote examples and specifics. The themes I quoted tell my state of mind about their software -- it will probably continue to be insecure.

Security is a reason to upgrade. If I think it is not likely to get better, my statement stands.

"I don't see a reason or a need."

Nice try. Thanks for playing, though.

For quite a while, IE 6 was Microsoft's flagship browser. We knew it was insecure. Somebody (Secunia?) even recommended that we *_strongly_* consider switching away from IE6 to *_any_* other browser.

But important sites like my bank standardized on it. Several years after Firefox came out and Netscape became SeaMonkey, I still got warning pages that "Netscape is not really supported on our site" or similar. Did my bank's web developers fall asleep and miss the name change? Did AOL give the outdated Netscape broswer to their users and this warning was directed at them?

Then Microsoft came out with IE7. Even larger and more complicated (just like the bug-fixes that MS had to follow up with). Then IE 8. More of the same. Microsoft talked about the improved customer experience, but I was more interested in the security settings, and after years of Netscape/Firefox, I barely understand some of them ("medium-high" security, "third-party" cookies, "zones" and so forth).

I don't visit questionable sites, I use the hosts file at hosts-file.net and I don't click on every random e-mail attachment (open it first in linux to verify the audio/video/pdf or whatever), and I use Firefox 99 percent of the time in XP (and 100 percent in linux). And banks don't *_require_* MSIE anymore.

Now, add the usual Microsoft bashing on slashdot ("Seven is just as insecure as Vista", "MS played a role in the SCO affair", "IE is still insecure", "activation/WGA is a hassle", "security features are easily defeated").

Why don't I upgrade? I don't see a reason or a need.

I have a bachelor's degree and some other credentials (also learned HVAC at night school), but not a lot of experience in either field.

I don't "sell myself" well at interviews, but Amazon (and partners) have the web presence (and logistics) to sell stuff efficiently. I'm happy to be here.

If I get more confidence, and the right opening comes along, well....

Oops, sorry. I drive 45 minutes each direction from a HOUSE. And 6 PM until 2:30 AM five nights a week (until 4:30 AM in the busy season) suits me quite well.

Driving 45 minutes each direction (northern KY, near Cincinnati Airport). (And yes, I rode the motorcycle to work Dec. 24 -- just ask Chan, Ian or Jim. They all saw me). Safety tips, announcements, and stretching. And the day begins. I've been there (CVG1) for 18 months, and I'm still amazed at all the products we carry.

I'm making more money than I ever have before (I'm 43), the work is steady, benefits are nice (including the exercise I get working), and everyone has a good sense of professionalism. As for firing you for taking off sick (Huff. Post article), um, sorry, no. Not here. (See, someone does read the articles before posting!) Cheating on overtime? I'm going over my financial records right now, and the occasional mistake does get corrected. And I take off for the Men's room whenever I need to.

Fascinating article, though. Always wondered about our other operations. Sorry some of the campgrounds aren't so nice, hopefully that will improve.

<Yakov Smirnoff>I invented that first! And what a country!</Yakov Smirnoff>

I ran the distributed.net client for a couple of projects because I wanted to help them out. In July 1998 I was still running Windows 3.1 (true story!). Distributed.net didn't have a client for Windows 3.1, I still didn't have Win9x, and their DOS client, well, was unitasking, like DOS. I couldn't enjoy my PC and help them out too. I repartitioned hard drive space and started dual-booting with Caldera 1.2 (kernel 2.0.33).

Ran on a AMD K5-166, 96 or 128 MB RAM. Task switching was so much smoother than Windows (preemptive instead of cooperative multitasking, IIRC). I was hooked!

Today I spend 95% of my time in Linux (and 5% in XP).

<quote><p>I fully expect the next one to revolve around whether or not yo momma is so fat, and how fat she is.</p></quote>

My momma may be fat, but your momma wears COMBAT BOOTS!

(Never figured out why that was supposed to be in insult back in the day, but somebody was bound to say it eventually.)