Maybe Adobe is just doing some long-range financial planning here... Like, driving off all their less-affluent customers, before they finally sell themselves to Apple?

(GIMP is way better than nothing and it has improved a lot in the last couple years--but it is still way behind PS. I have a 15-year-old copy of Paint Shop Pro that has a better UI than the current version of GIMP.... :>| )

If I am looking at the correct location on Google, there is 33 vehicles in the parking lot--and parking space for maybe about three times that much.

Also in any modern implementation, generally all the back-end aspects of the company are tied together in the software: schedules, payroll, HR, ERP, warehouse management, logistics ect. That doesn't come close to comparing with what this ancient meat grinder is probably being used for.

I wish them well and all (they have been around a while) but this simply seems odd in a way that doesn't exactly inspire a lot of confidence.

The main cost of getting off of old systems is usually converting data to a newer format. Is there any bargain-basement way of doing that here? I am thinking of something like, using an arduino connected to the 402's printer port to capture data to a PC, and then having the 402 "print" all the old data. The 402's blazing print speed of "100 (80-column) lines per minute" doesn't sound fast enough to bury an Arduino or even a gen-1 USB connection.

I am not a professional programmer but I think if I knew the guy and liked him I might be willing to help for free--or at least, pretty darn cheap. The money involved has to be part of the issue here. Of course, maybe they only know how to create programs on the 402.... So what they'd really want is a 'virtual' 402 program, where they could change reports by 'wiring up' new on-screen programming boards. :>D

You could also add the Liberty Dollar to that list.

If you have access to such machines, what software are they using already?

You might not want to pay for a full version for hobby use, but if you have to make last-minute adjustments on your files before cutting/printing then you would still want to know how to use what's already there.

It isn't worth bothering trying to give away an old PC.

The local Salvation Army store doesn't want it unless it is 100% working condition, flat screen (no CRTs), Windows OS CD & Windows serial number sticker still intact. Since most off-the-shelf systems don't even have the CD now, they don't take many these days. (they don't take CRT TV's anymore either; any TV donated must be a newer/digital-broadcast one)

If you go to the trouble of wiping and reinstalling it just to offer it for free on Craigslist or whatever the only replies you get is kids wanting to play games on it, that it won't do very well.

"It would run a stripped-down Linux distro pretty well..." -yea, if you knew anyone who wanted to run Linux. Nobody who knows nothing about PCs wants Linux, not even a tiny bit. You might as well brag about how fast it can run Win95.

The concept seems odd (especially knowing what you paid for it :P ) but after a few years, its disposable. Wipe the HD while its still alive and put the thing out with the trash.

I recall reading that bulldozer wheels were rebuilt by wire-welding at least as far back as the 1960's.

As a (steel-track) bulldozer gets used, the dirt between the wheels and tracks causes the wheels to wear down and decrease in diameter. To fix the problem, there are automatic machines that slowly rotate the wheel while running a wire-feed welder back and forth across the worn-down surface. When the wheel's outer diameter has reached a point where it is slightly larger than necessary, the wheel is removed and machined back down to the proper diameter again.

Seems a hassle but apparently it is a lot cheaper than making a whole new wheel.

If you don't have a Bluetooth phone, you can order one online. Just don't accept the package unless you make sure they didn't ........ well f*ck.

Trying to provoke the gun nuts into attacking?

That's not provoking.

An arduino turret that automatically shines a green laser on any nearby helicopters--now that would be provoking. ;>)

After it had been out for a couple months I bought Half-Life 2 on disc (at a local store) as an impulse purchase--even though I had already heard about being able to buy it online/through Steam.

People who bought the game through Steam didn't seem to have the issue. And I understand why they want to force the game to connect now and then, but needing it every time was an amazing annoyance.


I don't own any EA games however.... so I guess EA didn't lose any sales on my account. :|

I have a computer several years old I upgraded to SSD because the mechanical drives were failing. I saw a significant improvement in gaming after the SSD swap: with FPS games, previously I had to turn most of the visual effects off because the video was rather choppy. Now they're all left on and the game still runs just fine.

SSD's don't cure everything, nor do they speed everything up (some stuff takes just as long, because it's set to take X amount of time anyway). But for a lot of things the instant-response is very nice. I have a SSD OS and SSD swap/small storage drive, and I still have a huge archive mechanical drive for less-frequently-used things.

My main complaint after switching to mostly-SSD is that--when starting up in Win7--some programs insist in spinning up ALL the drives before they do their shit. Even when nothing they need at all is on the mechanical drive. (sigh) So it seems you cannot have the maximally-super-fast computer setup until it is cheap enough to switch to all-SSD drives. :\

,,,pedophilia laws are the last bastion of the bureaucratic tyrant.

No amount or type of punishment is too severe or too long, and none of your so-called "rights" should be allowed to stand in the way of such noble efforts.

First off, I never realized that so many people here weren't familiar with the practice of clipping a pet birds flight feathers to prevent them from flying. Get a grip--it isn't painful and isn't even permanent, as the wing feathers do occasionally shed & regrow. If you really want to get worked up over something, go look up why the judges at dog shows always fondle the male dogs' testicles.

Second, Andrew must not have heard the old saying about show business--"never work with kids or animals". . . .
Sorry Andrew.
While the 'autonomous docking mode' is technically impressive, it's much more intriguing to watch the bird drive the thing around. Maybe using tank treads would improve the car a bit--for the bird driver, that is. Make it more stable over rough spots at least.

The store I work at sells some brand of special dietary bread, gluten-free maybe? I forget the brand-name at the moment.... It has a shelf life of three months of something like that.

It isn't even placed with the other bread. It is shelved in one of the dry-goods aisles. We call it the 'zombie bread'.

The reason that you need college for so many jobs in the USA is, , , -they require it.

The reason they require it is because, , , -of a 1972 Supreme Court case, Griggs vs. Duke Power.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griggs_v._Duke_Power_Co.

In summary, what Griggs decided was that if an employer gave ability tests to applicants and the ability tests resulted in racial discrimination, then the company was liable for willfully committing racial discrimination, even if they could show that it was not intentional.

As a result of this case, companies in the USA began to give up doing their own ability testing of applicants, , , and just simply raise the educational requirements instead. "I'm sorry Mr Smith, your resume is excellent but all our cook positions at Burger World require at least a Bachelor's in burger flipping."

In the mean time, US schools began to raise their tuition (as they became the essential gateway into many jobs) and at the same time many began to engage in race-norming (in order to avoid allegations that they were discriminating!) so lower-scoring ethnic applicants were allotted scores that were not justified.


...So now you have US companies that can't do testing on their own (due to the legal hazard) and they raise degree requirements and still complain about idiot graduates, because now college indicates less than it ever did about an applicant's true abilities.