Slashdot Mirror

how about Quake outdoors?
arquake

ey also do things in small enough increments to make sure things don't blow up (like Vista: it's always a risk when you make too many changes).

Right because the switch to intel and mac os X were small increments? I'm no fan of vista, I recommend everybody i know to stick with xp, but the changes in the security and driver model were well overdue and needed, much like mac osX was and the change to intel.

Sort of, but if all you are doing is fixing bugs, what's the point of having a new version? Why not just stay with your old version, which people kind of like?

All the features were added pre beta, which is how you do it, well you normally let people miss their deadlines and slip them in to beta 2/3 if their worth it.

The main difference I see between Microsoft and Apple is that Microsoft is directionless.

What direction is apple heading in? every release requires more resources and sells more hardware but i can't think of any features that has really blown me away recently, even linux distros (since compiz) have really failed to do anything beyond improve/reduce performance/stability/security (ofc with Linux you do have upstream developments like, wireless mesh netowrking, mpx, mousegestures on most touchpads, but nothing is that impressive)

This reminds me of the Altered Reality Quake suit that was mentioned in a 2002 slashdot article.

http://wearables.unisa.edu.au/mpx/ Multi-pointer X server. Next question!

You are thinking of Multi-Pointer X. I can't remember if it was included in the last x.org release, or if it's scheduled for inclusion in the next one. With MPX, you can have an arbitrary number of input devices and input loci, and you can combine this with something like Xnest or (ideally) Xephyr to have multiple active sessions at the same time. Use a non-overlapping window manager in the main X server and something a bit more friendly in the Xephyr instances.

"i've been asking questions on the ubuntu forums"

Why not directly contact the developers?

To try MPX you have to

* Download
* configure the X Server and
* start MPX

Microsoft is always late.. And when they finally made it, they act like they were the first. ROFTL

Linux (and not only) supports multi-input on X for at least two years. You can run whatever multitouch device you want with it.

Check out the multi-input X project website at http://wearables.unisa.edu.au/mpx/

The best Linux development I know of for multitouch seems to be MPX. It would be nice to know if there is something more common, like something GTK apps can use.

Thousand Parsec (a game framework for turn based strategy games) was one of the mentor organisations last year.

The effect on our project was really huge, not only did the students do some very cool work. We now have the creditability to approach Universities and help get their students involved with our project.

We already have one student working on Thousand Parsec as part of a high school internship and two students from the University of South Australia working on a Java MIDP client.

Thanks a huge amount to Google and the Summer of Code team, hopefully we can get in again this year and have even more fun!

You're thinking along the lines of augmented reality (which is pretty cool).
A bunch of guys at the University of South Australia had a little project going called ARQuake where they overlaid a render of Quake on VR glasses.
http://wearables.unisa.edu.au/projects/ARQuake/www/index.html

I can't believe I'm the only person who sees the infinite applications of this!
If this code were ported to Linux (which it will be soon) and you were using MPX, you could have a multi input computer!

The thing about this is that now there is ONLY software standing between me and this!

A calorie of protein does not equal a calorie of sugar, for example, because insulin ignores protein.

By *definition* it surely does. You put 1 gram of protein into a bomb calorimeter, blow it up, and measure the heat absorbed by the water. The amount of heat gained by the system is from the oxidation of the substance. The # you get is the number of calories/joules in that substance.

Also, where does that protein go when you eat it? Let me show you....

As you see, those carbon skeleton's get fed into the same TCA cycle as fats, and sugars. It all ends up in the TCA cycle and ox-phos pathway. On the way, you generate some nasty intermediates -----> ammonia-->ammonium-->urea-->urine

As you also see, protein can be used to *make* glucose. Insulin might "ignore" protein, but your brain and RBC's run on *glucose* if you don't have it, you will make it, be it from glycogen breakdown or muscle breakdown, or fat breakdown.

Now, does a high protein diet make you lose more fluid? Yes. Does it leave you in a relative ketotic state which suppresses appetite? Yes. Does it put an increased demand on your liver and kidneys? Yes.

1. http://www.biocarta.com/pathfiles/alaninePathway.asp
2. http://193.131.223.76/e-books/pdf/717.pdf
3. http://www.biocarta.com/pathfiles/glucogenicPathway.asp
4. http://www.biocarta.com/pathfiles/krebPathway.asp

You mean something like this?

I think MPX is doing the X side of it. I don't think that multi input and multi cursurs would be that off.

http://wearables.unisa.edu.au/mpx/

If they copied from the multiple pointer X?
they have patented it?

http://wearables.unisa.edu.au/mpx/?q=screenshots

Didn't you see parents link?

At the university of South Australia they've made a whole virtual world based on their campus where people go round in VR headsets on the campus groups shooting each other. It's understood that these people are not just training to switch to real weapons.

http://wearables.unisa.edu.au/projects/ARQuake/www /

It may be possible to get ARToolkit to do this. It's dual-licensed under the GPL so it's OSS. If you want to play with it just get a v4l video capture device and print out the squares.

ARToolkit's been used by the University of South Australia to create ARQuake which is a lot of fun to use with the actual wearable computer :) Thanks Wayne Piekarski from UniSA for letting me play ARQuake on that thing at linux.conf.au in 2003.

I'm not sure if they used ARToolkit or something more in-house to make Tinmith, that looks really sweet.

Not the same project AFAIK, but this was on Slashdot a while ago: Augmented Reality Quake.

I personally can't think of any use for it but a Multi-Pointer X Server already exists:
http://wearables.unisa.edu.au/mpx/

Lowfat is interesting, but the MPX it runs on is fucking godlike.

MPX should have an army of top teir coders supported by massive grants. It is the only innovative desktop project being coded right now.

There are some augmented reality things being developed, where you impose images on top of what is reality.

I saw one where you have to shoot aliens, but can't find the link now.

http://wearables.unisa.edu.au/projects/ARQuake/www /

This magiquest could be modded / homebrew for ren fairs. Pay $20 to get a wand and cloak to wear, then wander around in the woods looking for clues the same way. A single quest could not be that hard to develop. The wand basically was some sort of IR device with a motion sensor inside. You could just go with a remote, point and shoot. Sensors and devices can be simplistic, and you could link them with WIFI if you need networking...

I *definately* want one of those!
I've always dreamed about having my own personal HUD. I've always drooled at that old Augmented Reality Quake thingy.

Yeah, like AR Quake, which was made by the same people as the stuff I linked to before.

Actually, Quake's been done this way too.

http://wearables.unisa.edu.au/projects/ARQuake/www /

Kinda like this?

The ARQuake project, on just such an idea, was presented at the Australian 2003 Linux Conference. See this abstract.

http://wearables.unisa.edu.au/projects/ARQuake/www /videos/index.html check it out

I believe you are confusing the Nyquist Theorem with Shannon's Law.

Shannon's Law states the maximum error free digital bandwidth b bits/s of an a slice of spectrum c Hz wide is:

b = c.log2(1+s)

Where s is the signal-to-noise ratio. Thus, in this case, where b=300000000 and c=100000000 s = 7, or 8.5dB, not an unrealistic expectation.

Of course, no current form of error correction coding approaches the ideal Shannon's Law, however reasonably recently developed Turbo Codes have come reasonably close.

The sort of modulation/multiplexing technique they would be using is a Wideband CDMA technique, similar to that used by UMTS and CDMA2000 wideband technologies.

Putting it simply, the bits are mapped onto a constellation in the complex plane which rotates and changes the amplitude of the carrier. The signal is spread using 2 codes - an Orthogonal code which has poor autocorrelation properties (but ideal cross-correlation properties across codes - hence the orthogonal term), and finally a PN sequence which has excellent autocorrelation properties.

I'm not too familiar with this technology, but I can make some guesses how they might have gained speed improvements over UMTS would be:

- Very wideband - 100MHz vs 5MHz
- More precise QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation) - UMTS allows upto QPSK (2 bits per symbol) or QAM-16 (4 bits per symbol). Perhaps this technology has extended this QAM-64 (6 bits per symbol).

One option would be to use Xerox's Flowport. You would have to check what is available to you locally - but I can tell you that making a PDF with a Xerox copier and Flowport of 100 pages is a few minutes of work.

Reminds me of this... Reality Quake

...but perhaps in a future VM version [Java] will allow primitive generics (obviously forcing a bytecode regeneration)

Allowing primitive type arguments in generics would not necessarily require any changes to the VM or bytecode.

The Java 1.5 implementation of generics is substantially based on the Pizza compiler, which allowed primitive type arguments without requiring boxing (links: the pizza compiler, the GJ compiler it evolved into, some academic papers about the compilers).

If I remember correctly, the pizza compiler generates separate classes for the different primitive types. It needs a different class loader, but generates classes for an ordinary VM.

Human Pac Man is cool but I want Human Doom, [...]

check out ARQuake - http://wearables.unisa.edu.au/projects/ARQuake/www /

Is there some kind of financial relationship between Wired's owners (Conde Nast publications) and the Australian voting company?

For the record, No.

BTW Software Improvements isn't a "voting company", we do stuff like Satellite Avionics etc. Like the software on FedSat, which recently rode out the biggest solar storm in recorded history. As you can see live on the web.

<sarcasm>Of course our greatest achievement is our Time Machine.</sarcasm> eVACS was first used in 2000, before the Diebold controversy erupted. So much for us trying to cash in on it.

Finally, if you think the system's out to bamboozle people - why not tell us exactly how? The Operating System, the Compiler, and the Code are all Open Source and available for all to criticise. An independant lab "fact-checked our asses", you can too. In fact, if you read some previous /. posts, you've been able to for some time.

Finally, a disclaimer. I work for Software Improvements, along with Matt Quinn. He's an unregenerate Leftie, I'm a Right-Wing Neocon Deathbeast. We keep each other honest.

It's good to see Java following Microsoft's lead...

While Java is definitely borrowing from C# when it comes to autoboxing and enums, the generics work shouldn't be credited to MS. It came from a Java variant called GJ that was first written in 1998 as a collaboration between Sun and the University of SouthAustralia. Guy Steele was a champion, and there have been plans to get into Java ever since, and they have taken quite a while to get it out. I was hoping to see it way back in 1.3.

Lol, I'd be willing to bet if Sun went under there would be some major difficulties in the industry.

How much money are you willing to lose on that bet?

There are plenty of free or open source and third party sources for Java compilers, JVMs, bytecode compilers, class libraries and related apps.

Sun could disappear tomorrow and Java would continue.

http://wearables.unisa.edu.au/arquake/

AFAIK all the changes in Java 1.5 are in the compiler - the bytecode has the same format as before. (At least this is the impression I get from the Slashdot comments.) So it's not a question of whether to change the JVM.

What's interesting is that many of the new features were already available in other languages that compile down to JVM bytecode, such as Generic Java and Nice. But people seem reluctant to use new features until they're in an officially blessed Sun release, even if the generated code is 100% Java-compatible.

(Excuse my whoring, but Sun's link to GJ was 404.)

Interested in Generics?
A Compiler for generic Java has been available for years:
You can check out Pizza/GJ here or here

The 3G model is based on two permanetish assumptions -- one, that users have an unlimited demand for data while traveling, and two, that once they get used to using data on their phone, they will use it everywhere. Both assumptions are wrong.

Now they are, yes, but augmented reality (AR) could change that. AR is pretty much the killer app for mobile internet. When HUDs are small enough to clip on a pair of glasses, you'll want constant internet access.

Of course, this doesn't automatically make 3G the winner but it weakens both of Shirkys assumptions.

I'm not a language designer, but it seems to me that what is needed is some kind of a compromise or hybrid between the intended Java approach to templates/generics and the C++ approach.

If memory serves, Java templates are going to be implemented by erasure, a la GJ. The point behind this is that Java needs bytecode backwards compatibility, so it can't adopt parametric types into the runtime language.

Basically, the compiler will use generics to figure out whether or not operations are guaranteed type-safe and then do the casting for you. (Not sure if it's bright enough to pull off making the cast cheap once it's known to be safe; also not sure if this is safe during reflection. Check out this comment and the discussion surrounding it for more.)

Anyway, if erasure can be made cheap (i.e., without the cost of <dynamic_cast>) then doing (at least basic) templates with erasure could resovle some of the issues with #define templatizing. So you could leave the truly hairy stuff with C++ style templates and simple collection manipulation with erasure-templates.

Now I'll wait for someone to tell me why this is a horrible idea.

check out this extension:

http://www.cis.unisa.edu.au/~pizza/gj/

It'll be enlightening for people to just go there and read your information in context anyway, plus there are links to papers and stuff. You shoulda posted the link!!

Templates are called generics and available as an extension to Java: GJ. This implementation (or at least something very similar) will probably be included in a next version of Java.

BTW. If you are a member of Sun's Java Developer Connection (free), you can vote for the features and bugs you want them to work on. Vote for Generics! Of course, sharing memory between JVM instances is also a good feature to vote for. It has been proven to be possible already (MacOS X' JVM), so they just need a kick in the ass.

Things like Pizza and GJ for example. The restriction is that Java is trademarked by Sun, so the extensions can't call themselves Java, which is quite reasonable.

Why don't you try to do a little backup search next time you motherfucking troll whore.