Slashdot Mirror

Good photo group here:

http://flickr.com/groups/paleo-future/pool/

and from Taiwan:

http://flickr.com/photos/cantikfotos/sets/72157594230283909/
and
http://flickr.com/photos/cantikfotos/sets/72157594190669543/

Good photo group here:

http://flickr.com/groups/paleo-future/pool/

and from Taiwan:

http://flickr.com/photos/cantikfotos/sets/72157594230283909/
and
http://flickr.com/photos/cantikfotos/sets/72157594190669543/

What exactly are the two men on the right trying to do in this one?

An image that particularly stood out for me was this one: http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=2059045060&size=o Simply... fantastic! I love science fiction but haven't read
much pulp material. This theme of combining the electronic
with the organic... was it that prevelant in the '50s? I haven't
seen a lot of art like this. The only thing that even comes
close in my memory is perhaps some of the old War of the Worlds
related art: http://drzeus.best.vwh.net/wotw/0009.html Cool stuff.

Go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/eriknitsche, download the original size images, print them up on a wide format printer.

That's ok, the second picture in is highly phallic and suggest the penetration/piercing of a vagina shaped nebula.
I probably wouldn't have noticed but it didn't take much imagination at all.

Looks a bit.. funny Or maybe it's just my dirty fantasy.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2160/2061439676_b4ffcf2dde_o.jpg

This image from the article reminds me of Tintin: Explorers on the Moon published in 1954, a year later.

In http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1128/1058108337_46491e437c_o.jpg, they show North and South America. I would have guessed them showing Eurasia.

The Russians were planning to shoot their own moon landing all along! We just beat them to it! http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2160/2061439676_b4ffcf2dde_o.jpg

One of the people they came across was someone who had fallen asleep. When they woke him up and told him to leave the beach, he was a bit groggy, and slow to gather his stuff, get dressed and leave. ... so they tasered him.

Now, I don't think that a groggy (nearly) naked guy is the kind of situation where use of a baton would be considered reasonable force. I don't even think it would be considered reasonable to use a half-nelson on the guy. Hell, the only thing that they could do for him being too late on the beach was to give him a ticket.

| But he was tasered.

My only explanation is that they intended the tasering exactly as torture -- and an exemplary action to other beach users that you quickly comply with orders to get off the beach at the stroke of sunset or else!

I think you (and most other posters) missed the point by oversimplifying it. I don't think this is a system that gives more frequent customers better treatment, and less-frequent ones worse. Here's why I think that - take a look at this:

Sample table from patent

The system allows them to prioritize delivery methods according to potential goodwill cost. Here's a simple example: Say Amazon has only two customers - you and me. We both frequently buy expensive stuff. I don't really care when it arrives, just so it arrives. You, on the other hand, complain if things arrive late. The system would allow Amazon to know that they should prioritize your shipments over mine.

Now, extend this to many, many customers with widely varying buying habits, and varying attitudes to early, on-time, and late deliveries. It's kind of cool, if you think about it. Say I buy stuff from Amazon very infrequently, but when I do, it's always *really* expensive, and I *hate* it when stuff arrives late. Then there's this other guy who buys less expensive stuff, but buys all the time, and *he* LOOOOOVES it when stuff shows up early, but doesn't much care if it's late. Then there's this chick who buys, on average, one book every month and never says anything positive if it's early, never complains if it's up to a week late, but rants and raves and swears to never buy again from Amazon when something's over a week late...

The system allows Amazon to prioritize shipment plans among their millions of customers, all with varying buying styles and delivery-time cares. They do it because it allows them to maximize their profits, which, it seems, most people on here don't like. But look at the effects - you get, not only *what* you want, but you get it within a timeframe that's acceptable to you!

That having been said, in a very simple sense, you and most others are right that it rewards "frequent customers," but in a limited way. The only way this system gives frequent customers preferential treatment is because frequent purchasers provide more information about buying habits and delivery-time cares to enable Amazon to prioritize. A more accurate statement would be: "This system will give preferential treatment to customers who spend the most money and complain the most if stuff is late and like it when stuff is early." Which makes sense.

Another thing to consider is that Amazon has a limited pool of shipping resources. This system is a method to accurately distribute those resources, but not just according to pure cost - it actually takes into consideration "goodwill cost!" For crying out loud, it takes into account your feelings!

This is an application of free-market principles to an internal resource distribution problem, and it's actually a clever solution. They increase their profit, and you get what you want. I don't see the down side to this. (Other than the patent.)

In response, I ask you to explain why, inspite of the correlation, the number of pirates has no effect on global temperature. I would argue that there is no explanation simpler than causation.

A nice graph showing the correlation: http://static.flickr.com/35/70683016_77704cf15e.jpg

Yes I know this is overused, but its such a wonderful example of how moronic the 'correlation implies causation' argument is.

With all of the hype surrounding hybrid vehicles today, I thought I'd do some research and post my findings on the next generation of fully electric and plug-in hybrids. The fully-electric EV has had a bad name in the past, mostly due to insufficient battery technology, politics, lack of performance models and other factors. Starting this year with the Tesla Roadster, the EV is going to take on a new form in the eyes of John Q Public. Quiet, efficient EVs will start to become commonplace in the next few years as major manufacturers go into production with the newest generation of vehicle sporting more powerful motors, efficient generators and the latest battery technology.

The big change will be the introduction of full EVs and plug-in hybrids. Full EVs are as one would expect: A fully electric vehicle that uses no other fuels. A plug-in hybrid is a vehicle that uses electricity as its primary power source and is equipped with a generator that supplements electricity as-needed. Many of the plug-in hybrids have an electric-only range of 30-60 miles with an extended range of 400-700 miles. The difference to the consumer is the way in which the vehicle is charged. Traditional hybrids are powered primarily by gas and thus need to be refueled regularly. Plug-in hybrids plug in at home and to most people that means they park the car at home, plug it in overnight and it's ready to go the next morning. This means that if you're driving less than your EV range each day, you'll never need to put a drop of gas into the car. How nice does that sound?

The following table is a consolidation of data collected from many different sources, cited at the bottom of this article. It has many key points that the average person may be interested in. Much of the data is still not readily available due to the pre-production and concept status of some of the models. I will do my best to keep this chart up-to-date.

(Copy of the chart)

As you can see from the production dates, four out of six of the vehicles are scheduled to be in production in 2010 but the other two, the Tesla Roadster and Aptera are scheduled for production in 2008. Both companies are currently taking pre-orders. Estimated production numbers are difficult to find but Chevy has claimed 60,000 in the first year.

Performance is a hot issue with EVs and this generation is no doubt going to address that. I calculated a figure where applicable which divides the vehicles weight in pounds into its peak power rating. The resulting number gives an indication for how well the vehicle should be able to accelerate. While numbers are only available for a few cars, the Tesla Roadster easily takes the lead with a a 0-60 of 4 seconds and a 68.5 Watt/Pound ratio. This should prove to many that EVs are now capable of being mainstream performance cars.

Most of these plug-in hybrids are expected to have a 3-cylinder turbo diesel or gasoline generator which usually produces slightly more than the continuous power rating of the car. Translation: You can drive as far as you want with this car only refueling and not having to recharge. This alone should resolve many people's fears of range with EVs.

The Aptera is one of the most interesting vehicles here with its very aerodynamic, futuristic design and high range specifications. It comes in two models: Fully EV and Hybrid. The Full EV model is estimated to be $26,900 and the Hybrid at $29,900.

The Mitsubishi MiEV Sport is supposed to compete with the Tesla Roadster but currentl

http://flickr.com/map/?&fLat=38.896868&fLon=-77.036422&zl=1 Page three looks interesting.

You took the words right out of my mouth. One of my favorite comics.

"I will own up to being a book freak"

maaaan... you need a 12-step book program... Hello, my name is ZOT and I have a book problem...

Basically zero. They generally don't change reflectivity/brightness very fast, on purpose. A static electrical charge will keep them in a particular display state, at least the ones I've read about. Saves energy. A good thing for these designs.

However, at $400 a pop, I think this is another "Segway" of e-books. Sell the reader for $9.99 and make up the cost on the media, then you've got something. $400? Heck, I could drop $400 on one just because I wanted to, but I won't. Doesn't feel like I'm doing anything to do with books at $400. I like books, anyway. They're tough, you own them, you can do the usual things as compared to any physical possession, and they have a delightful physicality to them.

The experience of an e-book is no foreign thing, either; I've got numerous volumes in PDF on my laptop, full color illustrations, etc... just isn't the same.

I will own up to being a book freak, though. The next generation may completely lack my preference for the real thing. We'll see.

...discovers Vonage.

Hey; where's my user id? I can't feel my user id!!!!

There seems to be quite a bit of interest in this, rapidly closing in on 4,000 views as of 8pm, so I'll just point out a couple of other "bare camera" shots of the night sky; I've been experimenting as to what you can capture with just a camera - no telescope - here are some of the results:

• Andromeda galaxy
• The nebula at Orion's Kneecaps
• Here's something in orbit - I caught it by accident
• Here's the moon, but with a 600mm telephoto, so not quite so bare. Still, no telescope, per se.

And with the right lens, you can go a good distance the other way. this fellow is about 1/20th of an inch across; found him on our aquarium wall. :-)

There seems to be quite a bit of interest in this, rapidly closing in on 4,000 views as of 8pm, so I'll just point out a couple of other "bare camera" shots of the night sky; I've been experimenting as to what you can capture with just a camera - no telescope - here are some of the results:

• Andromeda galaxy
• The nebula at Orion's Kneecaps
• Here's something in orbit - I caught it by accident
• Here's the moon, but with a 600mm telephoto, so not quite so bare. Still, no telescope, per se.

And with the right lens, you can go a good distance the other way. this fellow is about 1/20th of an inch across; found him on our aquarium wall. :-)

There seems to be quite a bit of interest in this, rapidly closing in on 4,000 views as of 8pm, so I'll just point out a couple of other "bare camera" shots of the night sky; I've been experimenting as to what you can capture with just a camera - no telescope - here are some of the results:

• Andromeda galaxy
• The nebula at Orion's Kneecaps
• Here's something in orbit - I caught it by accident
• Here's the moon, but with a 600mm telephoto, so not quite so bare. Still, no telescope, per se.

And with the right lens, you can go a good distance the other way. this fellow is about 1/20th of an inch across; found him on our aquarium wall. :-)

There seems to be quite a bit of interest in this, rapidly closing in on 4,000 views as of 8pm, so I'll just point out a couple of other "bare camera" shots of the night sky; I've been experimenting as to what you can capture with just a camera - no telescope - here are some of the results:

• Andromeda galaxy
• The nebula at Orion's Kneecaps
• Here's something in orbit - I caught it by accident
• Here's the moon, but with a 600mm telephoto, so not quite so bare. Still, no telescope, per se.

And with the right lens, you can go a good distance the other way. this fellow is about 1/20th of an inch across; found him on our aquarium wall. :-)

There seems to be quite a bit of interest in this, rapidly closing in on 4,000 views as of 8pm, so I'll just point out a couple of other "bare camera" shots of the night sky; I've been experimenting as to what you can capture with just a camera - no telescope - here are some of the results:

• Andromeda galaxy
• The nebula at Orion's Kneecaps
• Here's something in orbit - I caught it by accident
• Here's the moon, but with a 600mm telephoto, so not quite so bare. Still, no telescope, per se.

And with the right lens, you can go a good distance the other way. this fellow is about 1/20th of an inch across; found him on our aquarium wall. :-)

So if it's bigger that Sol, does it look as big as Luna from Terra?

It looks exactly like this.

That's a shot with a 50mm portrait lens - no telescope, no magnification, nothing. The comet is plainly visible as an orb, yes, just as the sun is.

I took a picture of the comet just yesterday. Posted here.

In fact, I have several photos of the comet taken over the past few weeks. They're not all cropped the same, but it's still quite apparent how much the comet is expanding. One of these days I plan to put together a composite photo, fixing the stars in place, and showing not only the expansion of the comet but also its motion relative to the stars.

I took a picture of the comet just yesterday. Posted here.

In fact, I have several photos of the comet taken over the past few weeks. They're not all cropped the same, but it's still quite apparent how much the comet is expanding. One of these days I plan to put together a composite photo, fixing the stars in place, and showing not only the expansion of the comet but also its motion relative to the stars.

That's ridiculous. My flickr account also required me to change over to a yahoo ID a while back; took a few minutes, and it was no trouble at all. Also, it is trivial to make private albums, photos, etc. I've used that capability from both sides, as an invited guest and as a provider of restricted material. It works fine and is no problem to use or manage. These accusations are just nonsensical FUD, motive unknown.

I have a lot of fun with my flickr account; I share pics with my family, with random strangers, people in groups that share various interests, I even manage some groups myself. There are things that could certainly be improved, but all in all, it is a useful, interesting service and really doesn't deserve to be knocked by a bunch of uninformed untruths.

Slashdot needs a "-1, FUD" mod. :-/

Um, what? You can do exactly that on Flickr - it's called a Guest Pass:

http://www.flickr.com/help/guestpass/

So much for your little conspiracy theory that Flickr intentionally isn't implementing a wanted feature in order for Yahoo to gain more accounts.

Just create a "guest pass," and they won't need to sign up: http://www.flickr.com/help/guestpass/

The catch is that your friends & family have to register with yahoo.

Not completely true. You can give friends and family special "guest pass" urls that allow them to look at non-public photos of your choice without needing to register with flickr/Yahoo.

Linky

Of course, they can't comment etc. unless they register. They can only view.

But Flickr just got its two billionth picture.

Seriously, the difference between "races" is hardly so vast that the algorithms will have to be rewritten from scratch. In fact, they probably won't have to be rewritten at all. Are there really any facial feature that are unique to geographic regions?

First of all, are you really so PC that you need to put "races" in quotes, as if you doubt the fact that different races even exist?

Second, while it may not be politically correct to say, it's pretty obvious that there are visual differences between races. Most of these differences we can all agree on - Caucasians generally have lighter skin than those of African descent, Asians have a different eye shape (and really a different eyelid structure), as well as thinner eyebrows. Other differences are more subtle, but they still exist - I think it's pretty much conventional wisdom that Asians also "look younger" at any given age than whites. I put that in quotes because nobody can ever seem to pinpoint why, but different types of skin do have different properties and it could partially be a relative lack of wrinkles until reaching a more advanced age. Asian skin is different than Caucasian or other races' skin. Different races have evolved in different climates.

One example - how old is this girl?

Another shot of the same girl.

What would you guess? 15? 16 at most?

She's 23. And she's even half-Caucasian.

How about these girls?

Most people here seem to think they're still teenagers. But as of this magazine cover, one was 33 and the other was 32.

This is not uncommon - in fact I'd say it's more common than not. My wife is also from Japan - she's 35, and most people here think she's at least 10 years younger. (Of course, in Japan, people think she's 35.)

So any age recognition software is definitely going to have to take that into account. The Japanese know it too; it's not just us, they think we look old as hell at any given age. (That's probably closer to the truth - we look old, they look normal. Some of it is probably based on our unhealthy diets.)

I don't see how this machine could work reliably in the first place, but it would definitely need to be re-tuned for any use in the west, if it's even going to have a chance.

I'm a big fan of this particular control, mostly because of the "Engine Working Wrong" setting. I often wish I had that on my PC...

We used Bluetooth for tracking people across London Bridge & displaying the results on Tower Bridge as part of a 1-week lighting festival earlier this year - info at http://www.whitewing.co.uk/switchedon.html I was also recently involved in installng a permanent Bluetooth-responsive light artwork in a bench outside ASDA in Poole, Dorset - this generates colour waves moving along the bench in response to people walking past, using relative signal strengths from 2 sensors to determine direction. (pic at http://www.flickr.com/photos/mannmade/1432286282/)

Isn't that a bit like coming in first place at the Special Olympics? You've "won", but you're still retarded.

Meh, I hope you recycle your trash as well as you recycle jokes.

There is no chance that the average person can fly or control anything other than a balloon without being a menace to themself; other fliers; and people, property, and livestock on the ground.

Holy shit! That gives me a fantastic idea...

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you: The Flying Car!

Sorry, I was just responding to the issue of attribution. They seem to have done the right thing there, according to the requirements of the Creative Commons license.

I have to admit that I don't know much about Australian law, but under the (possibly flawed) assumption that it's similar to US and UK law, they really should have investigated the privacy issues some more. Given the inherent difficulty of suing someone in another country, they'll presumably get away with it, but it's fairly obviously incorrect behavior, nonetheless.

For those of you following along. There's a Flickr discussion about this issue here:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/central/discuss/72157600541608353/

One of the links currently lurking in that discussion is to:
http://www.4020.net/words/photorights.php

Which is an Australian solicitor's attempt to explain the legal rules covering candid photography in Australia. He actually addresses this particular case (search for "Virgin").

His conclusion is that, because the pictures Virgin Mobile used weren't taken in Australia, and the people pictured weren't Australians, they narrowly avoided falling under the jurisdiction of Australian law. Had those pictures been taken in Australia, or of Australian citizens, they absolutely would have needed model releases. There's no way they could have known ahead of time that none of the pictures were of Australians, so they basically got lucky.

Nevertheless, they really should have known better. Skating around the edges of the law like that is not very responsible behavior for a corporation to engage in. They've since abandoned that advertising campaign, presumably because someone with a clue looked into it and decided it was a really bad idea. Who knows? Maybe the bad publicity on the Internet contributed to the decision.

No, I think it was zombie pirates. Like this one here.

teh new hotness(tm) is mini-itx or even smaller.

I called the local walmart to see if they had that cheapie pc in stock. they didn't. I didn't want to wait and I wanted to see what all this low-power VIA stuff was about.

so I got a true mini-ITX system which is using the same c7 cpu: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2010/1890660635_273662e3c9_o.jpg

note, it DOES RUN HOT. I am not kidding. I bought it as a fanless system to run myth-tv back-end on. it does - and it captures 2 HD streams ok over 10/100 VIA ethernet. but the heatsink runs VERY hot to the touch. no way could I even use a cover on that system for more than 15 minutes before it overheats.

if you plan to use that c7 cpu in something 'real', you better have good cooling.

It's a nice day, so I went and took a picture regardless. Here it is.

The nearest Borg building I've seen is this one, (another pic). Looks awesome at night too!

It's the Faculty Building at Imperial College, unfortunately not a datacentre :-(

Imagine having your password be a graffiti-laden alteration of your favorite politician[']s campaign photo..."

Certainly there's some truth there, but digital photography has shown us that more accessibility to "professional" tools generally means more beautiful art being produced by "amateurs". I'm sure if you look at the average flickr submission, there are plenty of awful photographs, but if you look at the photos that others have found most interesting, or head over to photo.net and look at their Top Photos [Warning: Occasional Boobies!], you can see that there is a vast pool of outstanding photographic talent that has been unlocked by digital photography.

Certainly cheap HD video equipment will lead to a lot of high resolution crap, but I'll bet that a lot of fantastic footage will come out of it as well, along with the tools (a la photo.net) to find that fantastic footage.

I still have both the 320x240 and 640x480 Casio cameras; in fact, I have all my digital cameras. Must be twelve... maybe as many as fifteen of them. This is an area where up until recently, resale value just can't compete with technology. So everything got shelved and basically forgotten. Currently, I have a Canon EOS 40D, and that baby is fun !

Probably going to be stuck with Canon for a while too, lenses make the investment fairly specific. I just bought my first cadioptric lens, basically a reflector telescope (500 mm, fixed 1/f8) which also works for close focus macros. I have a 2x (to 1000 mm) converter for it, too. I bought it after a friend let me borrow his 600 mm Sigma cadioptric and I was able to easily, nay, trivially, shoot this picture of the moon. Haven't tried my new one on that yet, it's solid overcast here. Sigh.

This is my favorite:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2195/1800753160_71d62ad944_o.jpg