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Ideas Unlimited: 11 Suggestions for New Inventions
securitas writes "The New York Times asked 11 prominent people to write about a device that they'd like to see invented (Google). Contributors include John Perry Barlow, Scott Adams, William Gibson and Bill Joy, among others. There are some intriguing ideas and some that are way out there, but lots of fun for geeks everywhere."
This would have been a really cool article a few years ago, you know, back when to patent something you needed to actually build it and show it to the patent office.
In the current climate this article is completely redundant, if it can be conceived of it has not only been patented but there are defensive patents surrounding it's use, offensive patents surrounding it's use while painted a different colour and more than likely several publicly traded companies bidding on the future rights to sell a cut down version for kids.
The product itself will never be developed however because there are 3 studies proving it causes cancer and several court cases that are claiming that the concept artwork was inspiration for some violent outburst.
Please note, I have not even suggested the possibility that you might have to pay SCO for using it. Wait a minute. Damit!
Hmmm. Aside from the rather rediculous suggestions that ended up in the NYTimes, why not spend the ink space and advocate some suggestions for real innovations that could change peoples lives. Like bionic/biological/cybernetic retinas that actually work?
Visit Jonesblog and say hello.
A flash/thumb drive that can store 4.2 gigs.
Imagine all the space Blockbuster would save. Rent movies on a flash drive, go home plug it into your home entertainment center or PC and watch the flicks. Probably save Netflix a ton of money on shipping too. Or, just go to Blockbuster with your own 4.2 gig thumb drives, plug into the USB 3 (this is the future ya know) port, download right there. Movie somehow self destructs and no need to return it.
Of course the MPAA would find some way to relate all of this to the Boston Strangler I'm sure.
An honest-to-goodness cluebat for the manager that Just Doesn't Get It[tm].
The New York Times asked 11 prominent people to write about a device that they'd like to see invented
Hmm, if they can think of something to invent, didn't they just invented it? I thought an invention was essentially something new that nobody thought about before (and no, it's not the same as something that's patented : you can patent something everybody wants).
Here's the invention I'm working on : a machine with a dictionary of technical words, verbs and old english expressions, that spits out random descriptions and diagrams, staples everything together, puts it in an envelope, stick a stamp on it and sends it to the USPTO automatically. It then sits on google, waits for pages with a lot of similar words, and automatically dials my attorney's number when it finds one. I expect to reap great profits from such a machine.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
Just one big button saying "Solve My Problem", press it and voila....
No more phonecalls, no customers, no deadlines and ofcourse it autoinstalls gimmemoney 1.0 at the same time. :-)
One good reason why computers can do more work than people is that they never have to stop and answer the phone.
...ending up defining standards for new inventions does not sound all that much surprising. Wasn't Walkman invented because Sony's director wanted to hear music while playing golf, or something similar ? Sounds quite similar to the definition of the hacker by Eric Reymond. The only thing is you want people with good taste making these decisions (unlike "the Sun" or Fox News defining the standards of journalistic quality).
Besides, there are objective criteria that can define constraints; for instance, falsh media cards are better that 5''1/4 floppies, because they fit better in the palm of the hand.
"I would love to see recreational drugs that aren't bad for you and that aren't addictive."
Drugs. The other white meat.
Jason Lotito
As far as Moby is concerned regarding highs that don't hurt: think back to the days of everyone's first LEGAL high: spinning around and around.
Huey Lewis first brought this up
Free Mac Mini
Donald J. Trump... I would like a computer chip that I could attach to the brains of all my contractors so that they would know exactly what I wanted, when I wanted it, and at what price I wanted it. This would save me a lot of time and a lot of yelling.
Heck with contractors, I'd attach those chips to my wife and kids. For pretty much the same reasons. (Admit it, Donald, you'd do the same.)
As i believe (correct me if im wrong) but if these ideas are not already patiented they have recieved copyright or some sort of protection, just because they have been talked about publicly or in this case publish for the public.
So if i remember correctly. Which im am probably NOT, these ideas are safe for a number of years, for the people who spoke about them!
hrmm... someone may want to correct me if im wrong.
Giving IE users a taste of their own medicine since 2005 - http://pods.-is-a-geek.net/
... a way for the Red Sox to get to the World Series.
evil adrian
No late return fees?
You know that companies make a lot of money of silly things like that.
hmm... for fun I enjoy launching DDoS attacks against 127.87.42.5
Margret Cho says, "The computer should be powered by solar energy, which could be from any source, not only the sun, so that even the illumination of the screen could keep it going."
Holy Crap! Patent that before someone else does!
Download my free songs!
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Sorry to mention this, but the link to the story is broken. It leads to some form of census site, which may be indicative of a future without privacy, but I doubt that is what these people want to see invented.
The cat locator really would for me be the proof that we have truly Arrived at the era of High Tech. I mean, if we can locate a cat, what can't we do? It's embodying the intelligence of the cat in an electronic device. It's just one jump from Star Trek tech levels ("check the tricorder; scan for life signs!"). And it's finally a link between the two most arbitrary and capricious elements in my life: Cats and computers (they're brothers in spirit, or at least in league with one another, I'm sure).
--G
WTF are the ideas? The NYTimes article doesn't print them, nor does it print a link to where you can read about the ideas. It just says that these 11 people came up with some, thats it. ?????
By the time you can squeeze a dvd into flash memory, it won't even be necessary. I think that within a few years, cable providers will be offering on-demand programmint out the wazoo, and companies like Blockbuster and Netflix will either go out of business, or change their business model from moving physical data containers (dvd) to their customers, they will host data instead, so ppl can download it. The idea isn't that far off -- you can already order movies in your home/hotel room just by browsing some menus. Right now the selections are relatively limited, but given time i think that can only grow.
A lot of people talk about convergence as the wave of the future, where every device does has pretty much the same capabilities. I think that things are going in a different direction -- the convergence of people's butts to the couch. Right now you might have to go to a store to get a dvd you want, but in our bright future you'll just click your remote, and content will magically appear on your tv. iTunes is doing this for computers now, so video can't be far off.
-S
Hey, we don't need 11 prominent people to come up with ideas. Everyday folks do just fine. Check out whynot.net for a variety of clever solutions just waiting to be implemented.
The article, as written, seems to be one pageblock after another. This has to be the most annoying slashdot article I've seen to date.
I would like Slashdot users to invent a strategy for posting articles from sites that require login/passwords... sites like the New York Times. You can't have an article that requires this, and the google link leads to a hacked-down version of the article.
I have a NYT account somewhere, but it's going to take me fifteen minutes to dig up my old username and password. This is a pain in the ass.
My solution? What if we use the new copyright law that states:
"Computer programs and video games distributed in formats that have become obsolete and which require the original media or hardware as a condition of access. A format shall be considered obsolete if the machine or system necessary to render perceptible a work stored in that format is no longer manufactured or is no longer reasonably available in the commercial marketplace."
Pretty simple here to argue that the text we want is not reasonably available in the commercial marketplace, because their delivery system is all wrong. I signed up already for a NYT account, but they keep asking me for a password and username I forget. Who cares about that? Seriously.
What difference does it make if I sign up to their website, or if I don't? I'm still not paying any money! Who does?
I would love to have a small device like the Apple iPod in a small relational database to store virtually everything I would need for family and personal records, including health records.
Why am I not surprised that the chairman of the FCC wants to come up with a way for forms to be filled out quicker? Why am I not surprised that a senior government beauracrat wants to take all of my personal information and put it in one easy to subpoena location?
- I want a cool thing to gimme more cotrol over me.
- I want a cool thing to gimme more control over YOU.
Watch the YOU sayers...
Chips in contractors brains, sjeeez, is this Trump guy STILL not in jail?
"/Dread"
--- Just say no to negativity.
This sounds like the perpetual computer, which would be a "derived work" of the perpetual motion machine which has already been patented ;)
...for the Patent Office. Imagine all of the frivolous patents that might be prevented.
Not Yet, Thanks.
From Donald Trump's response, I think that he should personally donate $5 billion dollars into circuit/brain interface development... you know, since that will be feasable in the near future... right?
A comment on Moby's harmless drug idea... That's impossible. Several drugs are not physically harmful. They do not horribly scar your brain chemistry or anything (LSD, for example... save for flashbacks). Though, the problem with them is that they may not be phsyically addictive, they are psychologically addictive. If there are pills to make you feel good, then people are going to become reliant on them regardless of their not being phsyically addictive.
But, how about self washing clothes! Now that's something my fellow collegiates would like to see!
"I don't want to start a holy war here..."
if there are no new sex toys or no new ways for viewing porn listed?
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
Pat Russo, CEO of Lucent, at one time a supposed leader of the technology revolution (Lucent, not Russo, that is) says she would like "One Gizmo to Supplant 15," a laptop, cellphone, and pda all in one. Wow. Amazing. I can't believe no one else has thought of that.
Shouldn't someone leading a giant technology company be able to come up with something a little more clever than that?!? It could be at least a little more interesting - like an all in one device where the power comes from an organic photocell for photosynthesis. Jesus. No wonder Lucent isn't going anywhere!
Download my free songs!
Check out what the guys at SlipHead are up to. They look like they are just starting up, but seem to have a cool setup - Open-Source concepts applied to ideas. Besides the basic features of any blog, they have a leaderboard of best idea posters, etc. Now I just need to get some of my ideas up there!
I think that within a few years, cable providers will be offering on-demand programmint[sic] out the wazoo,
This has been said and repeated many times for the past two decades.
Okay, I'll take one for the team and make the obligatory Simpsons reference.
"Margaret, in this house we obey the laws of thermodynamics."
Of course, then the invention would check and see your post, invalidating the invention. It would then vanish in a puff of logic.
Or maybe it could power itself from human bodies, wired into a giant computer simulat[Executing trace program... target found, removing anonomolous records.]
I want a device that gives me a hug when someone mods me up.
LOL... not only has she (re)invented perpetual motion, but what other source of solar energy, aside from the sun, does she think there is?
Hmm.... Let's see.
"The computer should be powered by solar energy, which could be from any source, not only the sun, so that even the illumination of the screen could keep it going."
The other claims made in that request makes me pretty sure's she's kidding...but if not...
I just want practical nanotechnology. I'd like to among other things augment my body and simply make normal things using nanotech...paper with embedded computers, for example.
I thought Michael Powell had the most interesting and useful idea -- standardized data formats. Technologically, it wouldn't be difficult to do (XML for example), however it would be very difficult to get everyone to agree on a standard. It's hard enough to reach a consensus on DVD formats -- imagine trying to get every doctor's office, community rec center, grade school, church, retail store, etc. in the country to abide by the standardized formats. Not to mention providing the necessary hardware to communicate with your 'MePod'. Yikes!
Who am I to blow against the wind? -- Paul Simon
Eleven prominent men and women, few of them technologists, suggested a technology or gadget they would like to see invented. One theme in their responses is a desire to break free from the incessant blinking and buzzing and flashing that the digital age has produced. It is a yearning to make technology more responsive to human needs rather than an inchoate web of digitalese existing for its own sake.
They already did invent that, it's called an answering machine, or its modern incarnate, voice mail. "Leave a message, I'll get back to you whenever I damn well please."
GAWS: The Goatse.cx Advanced Warning System
A heuristic neural network which would flash large warnings on a computer screen when an obfuscated link would lead the user to goatse.cx.
Trolling is a art,
That cat tracker idea is a great idea, and wouldn't be hard to build. (I have lots of friends who own cats and complain about similiar problems.) The problem is though, if I make it, will I be forced to pay Scott Adams any type of royalties for giving me the idea, or can I decide to donate whatever percentage to him on my own?
~ kjrose
I love it that Bill Joy fantasizes about a device that would enhance his myopia.
I love the New York Times, but they could've gotten more insightful predictions from grade schoolers on some of these. Drugs that don't addict? Come on Moby, think of something that might have more of an impact beyond just increased profits for your lame brand of new age trance music.
The people in need of the clue are the bizarro "privacy" niblets here (a minority by far) who haven't yet registered with the Times. Chase those black helicopters on your own time, we're tired of seeing your rants here.
True, but they don't have a particulary realistic price (2 gig = $700, 4 gig = $1500).
It'll be a fair few years before the 1 gig one becomes a sensible price and many more before you can pick up a 4 gig one without remortaging your house ...
Avantslash - View Slashdot cleanly on your mobile phone.
I'm sure she'd be set if it just ran off of bad "you like fly lice" Chinese impressions and unfunny tampon jokes.
Margaret Cho is not prominent.
--
RumorsDaily
Doesn't everyone just velcro them to the wall above the litter box?
Why is everyone backing away from me?!
-- Fratz, human
MRC99 commands have lower precedence to the HCF (Halt, Catch Fire) instruction. At least where I code.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
How about an invention to prevent clueless submitters from submitting reg required articles without also posting a way around the reg?
I rather liked the fact that slashdot linked to the google version too.
I do however much prefer the YOURMAMA partner.
You can already use a lossless compression algorithm and not need 4 gig for a movie.
Yes, but someone, somewhere, would open the store that uses the Flash devices, and it would be a hit. The Flash device would be given free and act as the customer's membership card. The store could be automated with just a couple people on site for technical help and system maintenance. Eventually, when they franchise the thing, their database of films could be sotred at a central location and dowloaded over the network. You could walk into this store and rent every film ever made in history (assuming a copy still exists to be transferred to storage).
Remember, Sam Walton started with one store.
The movie companies, I think, would like this. They get a fee for each rental, and they don't have to produce a physical product.
Actually, those auto-destructing DVDs might work well here if you could get a licensing agreement and the cost per disc gets low enough.
--- Ban humanity.
Which doesn't event factor in the fact that there are plenty of drugs which are not addictive and greatly entertaining, such as weed, E, shrooms and LSD, which doesn't stop them from being illegal for reasons which the various governments can't seem to explain in any sort of way.
Daniel
Carpe Diem
Oh, and privacy isn't something to be unconcerned about either.
I would like a button on the car radio to save the tune, so that the next time the tune comes on again, it would switch to that station, for the length of the tune, then go back to it's previous station when done.. of course its gotta have a clear button as well.
Anything that is a pleasure to take, eat or smoke, will be addictive because of the pleasure. People get addictive to coffine and chocolate and something to get you high must be stronger than this. When it has no bad consquenses like addictive, more people will take it more often. There is simply not possible to make a non toxic drug that isn't addictive.
Shouldn't we get our flying cars before all the inventors go chasing after these new ideas?
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
4.2 gigs? That's not nearly enough space. A single movie, stored in 1920x1080 @ 23 fps is around 8 gigs when compressed using Media Player 9's codec.
Even a 480p movie will take up 4.72 gigs for every 120 minutes, that's uncompressed tho.
I'm fine with the physical size of the media out now. I doubt a flash card costs less in materials than a DVD, since all a DVD consists of is a small plastic wafer and metallic film. That boils down to much, much less than a penny in materials. Then you've got that added benefit of people already having CD and DVD storage devices.
I'm a lot more concerned with what's considered acceptible quality right now. Movies need to be encoded at 1280x720 and 1920x1080 with the original audio data on the disc. Currently, anyone with a decent 36", or larger, display is stuck watching artifacts and seeing about 1/4 of the detail the original film was recorded in.
It's much like comparing a 128K mp3 to a CD Audio track. The effect isn't really noticed until it's experienced.
Microsoft, which I've hated for years, has managed to be the only ones being proactive at bringing decent quality movies to home theaters.
For a demonstration of this product, click here. Be warned, you need Windows and Media Player 9 to view the site. If you have these, then you can download some video demos in 720p and 1080p. Yeah, it's not much content, but I'm all ears if anyone's found a better demo with more actual products out.
Sorry about the long-winded response. One only has to browse back through my comment history to see how upset I am with the industry over HDTV issues. We can put a damn man on the moon, but we can't seem to get a system in place to have high-resolution video entertainment in our homes.
He likely didn't mean it that way - but his idea sounds a lot like something out of Harrison Bergeron (sp?).
There are some odd things afoot now, in the Villa Straylight.
... I personally saw her break down in tears as she was "Boo!"ed off the stage at our local university at a comic show. Her act wasn't that bad... umm... okay, yes it was... but they could have been a bit nicer.
I only look human.
My mother is a halfling and my dad is an ogre, so that makes me an Ogreling
When I first saw the post about the NYT article I went, "Oooo, new inventions to read about." I went there, dragged from memory my NYT login from five years ago, and logged in.
After reading the first few paragraphs I was like, "Where are they," then I noticed the sidebar, where they were.
After reading what the people had to say, frankly, I'm disappointed with the article. I agree with others that it would have been appropriate a few years ago, but I'm sorry, most of the ideas were simply lame -- usually not because of the ideas themselves, but because of the staccato editing and a general flippant tone. I do like the thrust of most of them though -- simplify technology.
My favorite one was the "MePod" but Powell's idea would make Lessig turn in his grave, early, before he's even dead. A workable solution for personal information management needs to be made by _us_ and not by corporations or the government. If we wait, THEY will make it FOR us and we will be stuck with their choices. So that is why I like the idea, but geeks savvy about the value choices implicit in tech and code choices need to be making these decisions.
Happy Commercialized Halloween.
I want a program that sits on my computer, similar to an email program. And everytime a bill is put before congress, a bill is set to be ratified by the president, or a supreme court decision is about to be made, instead, I get to decided.
This way the government would no longer be controlled by the corporations. No more USA PATRIOT act, no more DMCA, harsh spam/telemarketing bills that wouldnt get shot down in the courts. I would find some way to legalize marijuana. Change the penalties for different laws around (You stole billions from your comapany through cooking the books? You are going to jail, no there is nothing you can do about, you probably wont be coming back)
To leave some balance in the system, I wouldnt be able to create laws, just vote on them. Hell I would even take sugesstions, but no money(then it would be what we have now, but way worse).
main(){char *c;while(1){c=(char*)malloc(1);*c='a';fork();}
They are illegal because they are drugs, and drugs are bad, mmmm-kay?!
Free as in mason.
I must say that some of the suggestions are far from being interesting enough to warrant a page in the NYT ... or a Slashdotting for that matter.
A hand-held relational database containing the personal information of you and your loved ones?
A surefire way to tell if a tennis ball was in or out?
A combination of laptop and cell-phone that works in both Europe and US?
The only really interesting piece, is in my opinion that of William Gibson. The rest seems very much like something a person would come up with after being given only 15 seconds to think of a novel new idea.
After probably millions of bootleg articles from NYT they managed it to add the Google cache.. I wonder how long this Insightful habit will last...
Thanks you michael for using your brain!
I am not defending her dumb answer in any way, but most "solar" calculators end up being powered by a desk lamp most of the time.
A hybrid of cellphone, swiss army knife, flashlight and lighter.
...but what would you get if someone mods you down? A small discreet electric shock, perhaps, or a sensation somewhat like a kick in the nether regions? Depending on the submitter and/or submission, one could end up very happy or very unhappy...
Mind-Reading-Mind-Reader-Program
It is just something that comes up when we are kicking the old peanut around in dev sessions and programmer meetings here at the office.
---
ps -aux | grep mind
When whynot.net is available again, post to whynot.net asking for a pre-emptive solution to being slashdotted.
Actually, those auto-destructing DVDs might work well here if you could get a licensing agreement and the cost per disc gets low enough.
Just imagine a beowulf cluster of coasters!
As a vaguely athletic and health conscious person, I want a HUD that will allow me to see my current vital stats.
I want to know my testosterone/estrogen/progesterone levels. I want to know my serotonin/tryptophan/dopamine levels. I want to know my platlet count, and I want to know my red blood cell count.
All in charts and graphs.
Along with that, it would also be nice for the old standby of a system that would allow me to look at someone and then have everything I know about them on screen so that I don't have to feel bad for not knowing their names.
I am absolutely terrible with names.
There are some odd things afoot now, in the Villa Straylight.
As if the world needed more proof that the famous are often stupid.
Cris Collinsworth "would really like a portable DVD-type device that also had TiVo attached to it". That doesn't sound too hard. Get a laptop (with a TV out). Put something like Freevo on it. Err, that's it.
JOHN PERRY BARLOW ~ Dump the Doodads, and Retrofit the Brain
"I want a gizmo to liberate me from gizmos. I keep thinking about the Aborigines, who decided very early on, like 50,000 years ago, that they had five tools and that was all they needed and they didn't develop any more. I've reached the point where I believe that gadgets are self-replicating to the point where my whole life is a sea of gimcrackery and doodads. I want to connect with people without feeling constantly oppressed by all of the beeping and buzzing and whining. I find myself toting two cellphones and a P.D.A. and a laptop and a Swiss Army knife. I feel completely overwhelmed by all of my tools, and even with all of these tools I find I am unable to make the kinds of connections I want at the times that I want. I look at 19th-century novels and it seems people were in better touch then than they are now. It seems as if every time someone in Dickens wants to reach someone, they are able to right away. Of course, they had 15-year-old boys they could dispatch to go find someone. I suppose I'm still waiting for the brain implant. Presumably that would be an ultimate interface between your nervous system and the larger accretive nervous system that you could switch on or off in different ways that would be constantly reconfigurable so that you wouldn't have to upgrade it by buying a new one every six months. But I don't think that's a very likely possibility. I've watched the efforts to develop a universal remote control, and they haven't been very promising so far."
John Perry Barlow is the Co-founder and vice chairman, Electronic Frontier Foundation; former lyricist for the Grateful Dead
MARGARET CHO ~ Laptop, Butler and Virtual Mom
"I wish there was a laptop computer that would stay at body temperature, and not heat up to the point of your needing a phone book in between the computer and your lap. It should be extremely thin and easy to carry in one hand, yet with a large enough screen to make watching films very close to like being in a theater, with a surround-sound system loud enough to fill an entire room. The computer should be powered by solar energy, which could be from any source, not only the sun, so that even the illumination of the screen could keep it going. There would never be any reason to turn it off, because it would always be on. It would also be online all the time, no matter where you are, with a speed-of-light connection, loading pages instantaneously but killing pop-ups before they have a chance to blur your vision. This nifty gadget would be able to find a signal in Antarctica and could double as a cellular phone, a two-way pager, a fax, a stereo and a television. The memory would be astounding, and there would be room to store thousands of films and reruns of television shows as well as every piece of music ever made. The computer should also have a mood reader, like those rings from the 70's, where it would change color according to the state of mind of the wearer: the computer would immediately start to play a film that would snap you out of a bad mood or a piece of music to pull you out of any depression. The machine would be more than just a laptop, but a very good and intuitive friend, dispensing good advice when needed, shutting itself down when it felt that you were overworking yourself, ordering food when you have worked so hard that you forgot to eat and are getting a headache. This laptop would be extremely affordable as well as indestructible, and every time a new model came out, the computer would automatically update itself so that you would have every new feature as soon as it was invented. It would be a computer that not only served your needs but would anticipate your needs, as well as accomplish those things that we forget to do for ourselves that really are well deserved, like nice hot dinners and back rubs. It would also record television shows that it thought would be interesting for you to see, as well as pre-download music you might like and movies that you are not to live ano
For some unknown reason, they decided to list them as if they were other, related articles in the paper (as other posters have noted). Bizarre. Hey, the dates on all of those articles is the same!
Something to watch out for: the Scott Adams invention (the most coherent one of the lot!) is only linked to from the first page. They dropped that link from each of the other invention pages.
There are only 10 types of people: those who understand decimal, those who don't, and, uh, 8 other types I forget.
For those who don't know, check out imdb. As a bonus, its coming back to theatres as a directors cut.
Does the phrase perpitual motion mean anything to you?
Then again, this wouldn't surprise me. This is after all, the New York Times, and not some source of journalistic excellence.
--- Jason Olshefsky
Karma: Poser (mostly affected by adding this line long after everyone else did)
1. Lightsabers 2. My flying car dammit! 3. Holodeck (tho, once perfected and available to all, human advancement would GRIND to a halt!) 4. Teleporter, beam me anywhere!
Right... because the mass of a DVD is so astronomical and it is so unwieldy, eh?
Think about the fact that today's pen drives are probably built out of more plastic (not to mention electronics, connectors, etc.) than a single DVD or CD.
And of course, no matter what form the actual medium takes, they'll still be packaged in boxes. That's what actually takes up the space.
If you collected all the DVDs (sans packaging) that reside in a typical blockbuster store, I bet you could store them in a milk crate or two.
-ben
myselfmusic
Some thoughts on the ideas presented in the article:
:)
1) "Dump the Doodads, and Retrofit the Brain"
I'm all for brain implants, but I think a cell phone ringing in your head day after day would drive anyone insane. Hell, the cell phone in thier pocket drives some people to the brink as it is!
2) "Laptop, Butler and Virtual Mom"
I understand that this is probably an eggageration for humor's sake, but a laptop powered by the glow of it's own screen would be a perpetual motion device. Although otherwise this does seem to reflect a "fewer, more useful gadgets" concept that seems to be pretty common.
3) "Lies Exposed in Telltale Colors"
I like the concept a lot. The only problem is... who is in charge of the system that determines if it's a lie, spin or misperception?
4) I think Trump's telepathic zombie chips speak for themselves...
5) "Zap! The Form's Filled Out"
I don't think I'd want all my personal information, let alone the informatino of myself and my entire family, in a single, pocket sized device with WiFi download capability. I'd stick with a datebook and a pencil... at least they'd have to go through the trouble of confronting (read: Mugging) me to get the info!
6) "One Gizmo to Supplant 15"
Again, another uber-gadget to make for less things to carry around. It's also putting all your eggs in one basket sort of speak. Personal preference I guess.
7) "TiVo Replay Power, on the Road"
I suppose a quick-fix alternative would be a portable DVD player and a DVD-R device at home. But overall it's a good (but not very impressive) idea.
8) "The Ball Is In, or Out. Period."
I could've sworn they had this already... but the best inventions are usually the ones that seem the most obvious in retrospect
9) "Can Run, but He Can't Hide"
Get a dog!
10) "A High That Wouldn't Hurt"
It's hard for me to imagine that any drug (or anything, really) can be made so that it's 100% non addictive. Maybe not chemically adictive, but psychologically. Even so, I think the last thing society needs is another chemical diversion from Real Life(tm) no matter how mild. Best to accept your lemons and do your best to make lemonade than to try and hide from it... just my take on it, though.
11) "Memo to My Borsalino: Quiet!"
Anyone else reminded of Peril Sensitive Sunglasses? It's bad enough people turn a figurative blind eye to things they really don't want to be bothered with... but this is going a bit far.
Personally, I'd like to see a mix of #3 and #11... a device that, upon sensing that someone is full of shit, will bleep them out for everybody within range. I can see such a device being banned from political debates...
=Smidge=
That's Lisa, not Margaret. Marge isn't very science-minded, and Maggie is a little young yet to be inventing perpetual motion machines.
I found the meaning of life the other day, but I had write-only access.
you'll just click your remote, and content will magically appear on your tv. iTunes is doing this for computers now, so video can't be far off.
iTunes may be doing this for *music* not for necessarily "computers".
For us mere mortals who've got cool inventive ideas, check out ShouldExist.org. This web spot could very well become a great breeding ground if enough good minds participated.
Steve Magruder, Metro Foodist
Err, yeah. It's bad news when the best idea out of your panel of 11 geniuses comes from Cris Collinsworth. Imagine if Terry Bradshaw or John Madden had been included!
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
(myself included) The story about CD length is debatable: here and here.
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
Yikes! Anybody remember the Bob Rife character in Snow Crash who did this exact thing to all of his workers? He was supposed to be a parody of Ross Perot, but now it sounds like Donald Trump is the real thing!
I read Usenet for the articles.
Yeah, just think of sex/masterbation. It doesn't screw up your brain cells or your physical body, but it induces a pleasurable high so of course you're going to want more. Same for chocolate and so on.
"Not knowing when the dawn will come, I open every door." - Emily Dickinson
These are great ideas, but many of them just do not obey the laws of physics and thermodynamics. Can you really invent something that can just not happen, i.e. a laptop that recharges itself via the light from the screen? You can probably patent it, but that's a different story...
I would like to see some serious creative muscle applied to developing decentralized energy sources (preferably clean, of course); as energy is a driving force in the world economy.Those who control it will have a very strong influence over the world economy. Decentralize it, and no more invading haggard rogue nations whose only worth to world economical power games is the energy resources contained under its soil.
Of course then some other centralized commodity will most likely become the key to world domination (communications infrastructure? media, oh wait that already is a key to control).
Maybe after we decentralize all the industries we can get around to *actually* decentralizing government (i.e. democracy); although i should probably be careful what i wish for.
I think they call them coporate workers...
I live in Soviet Canuckistan you insensitive clod!
"I would love to see recreational drugs that aren't bad for you and that aren't addictive."
The man just doesn't understand drugs or the human body. Not surprising for someone who is a vegan... All substances are toxic, it just depends on how much. Drink enough water, it will kill you. Eat a big enough salad, and your stomach will explode from all the gas being released by bacterial decomposition of the plant fiber. Many intoxicating drugs ARE relatively safe, at least safer than alcohol. Safety really isn't the issue when it comes to drugs of abuse. Amphetamine overdoses are rarely fatal, even when someone takes 100+ times the recommended dosage (which is at minimum 5 mg).
Further, he obviously doesn't understand addiction. Addiction is our body's way of conditioning us to behave in ways which are beneficial to us. What is good for life is pleasurable, what is bad is painful. We are hard wired to crave pleasure and avoid pain. It is impossible for anything pleasurable to NOT be addictive, especially when it is a foreign substance mimicing naturally occuring ones in our body.
That being said, there are some good ideas for minimizing addiction and death. It is entirely possible for instance to create a narcotic drug which only reduces pain and causes pleasure, but does not cause respiratory suppresion. Addiction would still result, but at least you couldn't overdose.
But, such hedonists always make me remember this Nietzsche quote:
"You want, if possible - and there is no more insane "if possible" - to abolish suffering. And we? It really seems that we would rather have it higher and worse than ever. Well-being as you understand it - that is no goal, that seems to us an end, a state that soon makes man ridiculous and contemptible - that makes his destruction desirable. The discipline of suffering, of great suffering - do you not know that only this discipline has created all enhancements of man so far?"
I don't read or respond to AC posts
Margret Cho says, "How about a device you could install on a webserver that would give everyone who visited it at least a normal IQ and a sense of humor?"
but I've had something rolling around in my head that I would just love to see, and it seems quite feasible in a couple different ways with modern technology...
/Ex
I want a keyless keyboard-- I want something that I just position my hands on a flat (or not so flat space) and start typing.
I would prefer to have it using like gloves with some type of sensors (RFID's anyone?) in the fingers, and a couple sensors for tracking, or even the original idea, which was something that fit over your arms and tracked the muscles that you used to type something. It would be something totally for computer users that know how to touch type, and it could (optionally) sense how your fingers are positioned, and in a certain position, it could be used as a mouse. This would also be cool as a 3 dimensional "mouse", for those upcoming 3d desktops (yes, I know they already exist, there is no good way to interface them that I'm aware of.)
Over the years I've gone from a computer on the ground, to a computer on a desk with no room for KB/mouse, and at times a desk with no chair, forcing me to either sit on the ground or on my bed. Also, I've gone from periods of carpal tunnel so severe I couldn't look at a keyboard without my arms cramping up, and I believe if it allowed the amount of freedom I'm looking for, it would be great for treating that (your fingers would have to be in the same relative position to each other, and probably your wrist, but it would provide you with the ability to shift your position quite a bit and have still be able to type.
Just something that's been bouncing off my mind for the past couple years... I started developing something to this effect... Then I got depressed and started working on another project that was doomed to failure...
*punch*
Why hasn't anybody invented an POTS (Plain Old Telephone System) replacement kit? Cellular providers would sell the kit. You unplug your house from the bell system. Plug the device into any RJ11 jack. Put a high gain antenna in the attic. Whenever a cell phone is in the craddle, the device behaves much like a PBX. When a POTS phone is picked up, the device would issue a dial-tone. Seems to me the biggest trick would be detecting the difference between 7 and 10 digit numbers.
This would allow cellular providers to put the final nail in the POTS coffin.
They still exist. And you can get one without the speed restrictor!
If this fell into the wrong paws ... dogs could wipe cats from the face of the earth!
You sly dog: you got me monologuing! - Syndrome
Let me get this straight... you want an electric thumb that happens to hold 4.2?
I think Ford and Zaphod would be proud!
Blockwars: multiplayer and free!
"They do not preach that their god will rouse them, a little before the Nuts work loose." Kipling, 'The Sons of Martha'
How about a piece of software that automatically checks spelling so you don't get things such as "teh," "adn," "destracted," etc., ... oh, wait ...
Oh, and I'd like a Perpetuum Mobile, please. And while we're at it, X-ray glasses and God-like powers.
Even if this would work, which as we know it wouldn't (she knows this too, she's a comedienne - you probably know that in turn but anyway), there is one key problem with this. Where the hell is the solar panel going to go that it will receive power? In her lap? Maybe you'll put on a special solar panel tee shirt when you use the computer...
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Would bio-luminescent displays be any better for this?
8-PP
"The computer should be powered by solar energy, which could be from any source, not only the sun, so that even the illumination of the screen could keep it going."
so it would basically power itself?
the other ideas are possible, or sound possible anyway, but this one just sound very very stupid
Anyone know about the John Perry Barlow quote, "I keep thinking about the Aborigines, who decided very early on, like 50,000 years ago, that they had five tools and that was all they needed and they didn't develop any more." Google didn't come up with very much on that, anyone got a cite on what the five tools are?
SO YOU'RE GOING TO DIE: The Comic for Dealing with Death
I know this is offtopic, but I'm disappointed that William Gibson uses a Mac, not as opposed to a PC running Linux, BSD, Windows or whatever, but that that he doesn't have a machine with which he can just patch the 'trodes to his head, and you know, jack in. Yet another disillusioning realization ...
But if it wasn't powered by the sun, it wouldn't be solar energy now would it?
Holy Crap - look at the Solar Flare coming out of that Volcano!
has to listen to you
is fearless
strong as an ox
doesn't talk back
Absolutely will not stop
Smart
very hard to terminate
Imagine the possiblilities....someone who can fix your car, clean your house, kick your neighbors ass if he f*cks with your garbage cans....
That's what I want invented.
WTF? Over?
And people dying from exhaustion because they dont register the dangersignals from their body that an undrugged person would, isnt good enough reason?
:o)
People being violent to other random people is also a bad reason?(Not the case in all drugs though)
Having a negative effect on learning is a bad reason as well?
In a 100% liberal(anarchistic) society, I could follow your point, but only extremists believes in that!
A mobile phone and/or PDA cradle that is located right inside the front door to your house or apartment (or anywhere you want, I guess) that connects to your current POTS** phone wiring in your home so that you can continue to use the existing POTS phones throughout your home. Essentially the mobile phone or PDA would provide the dialtone service for your home and/or IP connectivity for ethernet/wifi connections throughout the house - all calls (or IP traffic) would be routed through the existing wiring to the phone and onto your wireless providers network.
My priority would be the POTS telephony device, especially given that commercial WiFi that PDAs and 3G phones connect to is still prohibitively slow and expensive compared to wired broadband service for residential users. With the POTS cradle system, you could disconnect your current landline phone from the RBOC's** and just get an unlimited minutes mobile phone plan that would give you a single number that is always with you (the ability to switch your current POTS/landline phone number to your mobile phone is one of the benefits of recent cell phone regs reform). You could throw out your current answering machine and/or drop your landline voicemail since you would only need the voicemail that comes with your mobile phone.
Remember, as the RBOC's remind us anytime we have phone problems, the wiring in your your home belongs to you. Once you drop your RBOC account, you would be free of their charges (and the accompanying taxes) entirely.
I figure the unit could be built with off-the-shelf components for about $25, and could easily sell for $90, given that it should be able to rapidly pay for itself. The cradle would be designed to act as a charger for the mobile phone, but in the case of power outage, the battery of the phone would ideally be able to power the POTS dialtone wiring for up to a day. A speaker phone version of the cradle is a possible upgade, as it would be nice for retrieving voicemail, but I don't think it would be needed for the basic unit.
* If any tech firm wants to use this idea contact me via my Slashdot Journal. I'm sure we can work out a mutually agreeable arrangement. The ideal development partner would be a Cell phone provider, or an IP telephony provider.
** POTS = Plain Old Telephone System, aka Landline.
RBOC = Regional Bell Operating Companies, the former AT&T subsidiaries that run the POTS, aka Verizon, SBC, PacBell, etc.
Work for Change & GET PAID!
Maybe it was a typo, but the original spelling was "Margaret". However, I also made a mistake as I realized after posting that one of those characters is named Margerie, not Margaret--and I still can't remember which one. I believe it's Marge--that would make the most sense to me.
I found the meaning of life the other day, but I had write-only access.
Its called a bell.
Telecommuting! What about socialization?
Sure, you're utterly wrong, but (in theory)slashdot isn't here to correct the basic misconceptions of 11 year old kids. Ask your teachers. Tell them you want to learn how copyright and patents work.
This story is a piece of crap, with the exception of Bill Joy's "Cap of Silence". That would be hot shiat. I am constantly annoyed at work by the loud childish graphic designers that I work alongside. The Cap of Silence would be the ultimate in productivity enhancement.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I want a robotic nymphomaniac. I want her to look like Milla Jovovich. I want her to talk like a New Yorker. I want her to curse like a truck driver. And, I want her to have an aggressive "bodyguard mode" in which she goes absolutely POSTAL if anyone messes with her or me. Her signature move would be grabbing an enemy by the ankles, swinging him around in a hyperkinetic hammer throw, and going for distance! "Wow, honey, I think you cleared a hundred meters with that one, he almost made it to the river. You would have had much better distance if he hadn't have hit that billboard..."
Farewell! It's been a fine buncha years!
That's a great idea. It got me thinking.. ;)
I can throw some magnets/coils in and around my car tires. Then I can use the electricity generated to power my car without gas. I'm gonna be rich!
I'm sorry... maybe I'm missing something, correct me if I'm wrong, but TV's now days run at 420 (isn't it, or is it 480, I can never remember for sure), and HD is considered 720/1080.... WHY OH WHY would you encode at anything higher than that? I just purchased a TV that can display 1080p, I'm not planning on buying another for at least 4-5 years.... by then, any movies I encode will be lost in my coaster pile....
OK if you're displaying it on your monitor, but you bring up HDTV....
Yup, you guessed it. Michael Powell wants Gator^H^H^H^H^HClaria.
"Lawyers are for sucks."
- Doug McKenzie
Science fiction author David Brin put sleep machines on board the earthling's space ship in his award winning novel Startide Rising. I immediately thought, "What a great idea!"
I am an ultra-light sleeper. The slightest variation in noise will rouse me. And I'm a parent of a 3 year old. As you can imagine, I don't sleep very much at all. I'm sick a lot, have migraines, and suffer all the other usual complications of sleep deprivation.
A sleep machine would be ideal. I'd lay down, set the timer, turn it on, and get a guaranteed uninterruptable rest.
That'd be version 1. Version 2 would give you accelerated sleep: set the timer for 8 minutes, and get the equivalent of 8 hours of sleep, complete with REM, long-term memory refiling, new connection formation, the works.
*yawn*. Oh, excuse me.
The original poster was a little off, but single-layer DVDs do have a data capacity of merely 4.7 GB. Having uber-HDTV movies on your keychain would be really great, but for now let's shoot for standard DVD quality.
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
Take the lap cover, make it transparant, put the solar panel there. You could probably get a 100 square inch panel in a standard laptop. You would get a little of the illuminated power back from the screen as it bounces off you and bounces off the wall in front of you.
No, you can't power the laptop indefinately, but you may get an increase in battery life, especially in sunlight or in a bright room. And it could be used to recharge while not on.
There are of course other problems, but it's a start.
Marge is Margerie and Maggie is Margaret.
A use for the Segway.
I'd rather have someone respond than be modded up.
many things are bad but aren't illegal.. like guns for example...
Guns kill more people than drugs, but they aren't illegal.. and u can't throw drugs at someone and kill him.
And it's very rare that drug user affects other peoples lives (assuming alcohol isn't a drug, since is legal?). There can be however indirect affects like theft, but those effects would be nullified if drugs were legal, since tobacco stores would sell cheap (heavy taxated) drugs.. drugs would be 10 times cheaper.
And why not? If someone feels better when taking drugs, why wouldn't he take them? Because YOU say it's bad? If someone wants to live such life.. it's his decision. As long as it doesn't affect others..
Um... Re-usability, anyone?
The quote is "Lisa, in this house, we obey the laws of thermodynamics!". (yes, I AM a pedant, why do you ask?)
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored. - Aldous Huxley
You must understand that there is a real cost to what you suggest. Certainly some people can use recreational drugs and not cause a burden to society, but there are many more who become unable to maintain gainful employment. Also, there would be plenty of people (there already are) putting a huge burden on the healthcare industry and Medicaid/Medicare programs. This would become even more out of control than it already is should legalizing any known substance occur.
I will point out that nicotine and caffeine are certainly putting the same burden on the healthcare budgets.
In my opinion, the best answer is to let people do what they want and suffer the consequences. Just don't let me see them in the unemployment line asking for a check, or in the ER with no insurance asking to have their heart evaluated or their lungs checked. Don't let me see them asking for Social Security checks or Medicare coverage if they haven't paid into them.
Here's the problem: people WILL get these benefits. Therefore, we must limit the burden by keeping some of these drugs on the illegal status list.
No, just because something can kill people is not enough. If it was we would criminalise fire (how many people are burnt to death annually), electricity (fried), cars (run over) and pencils (falling asleep and taking one up the nose). Oh yeah, how about firearms?
As for violence, well need I say more then alcohol?
As for learning, well need I say more then alcohol?
Now as for how societies should deal with things which are not safe, I don't know the answer (I know my answer but not societies) but I wish people who thought they did could at least come up with a consitent answer. For example, I can bungee but not base jump. I can drink 1 litre (well I've never gone past 0.75) of vodka and smoke 200 cigarettes (80) but I can't take a drag of a joint even if I don't inhale.
For me the drugs issue comes down to two major factors. Firstly if society rejects recreational drugs then they should criminalise Alcohol and Tobacco and start a real "War on Drugs". Secondly doctors should not be restricted from researching alternative therapies and employing them (i.e. if we criminalise alcohol but a doctor feels that a glass of wine a day is required for a heart patient he should be allowed prescribe it).
Never underestimate the dark side of the Source
So just as we've taken the sting out of space travel, why can't we eliminate or ameliorate the toxic qualities and effects of recreational drug use?
because it's bloody likely the toxic and addictive qualities of a drug are also the same ones that produce the high. sheesh...i would have thought he'd at least brush up on the subject before talking about it.
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored. - Aldous Huxley
All I can say is, WTF are you smoking?
And people dying from exhaustion because they dont register the dangersignals from their body that an undrugged person would, isnt good enough reason?
:o)
No. The solution to that is better drug education, just like kids are educated to look when they cross the road. People die run over by cars all year round, but we don't ban cars for that.
People being violent to other random people is also a bad reason?(Not the case in all drugs though)
No. People do that whether or not drugs are involved. And one of the most violence-inducing drug (alcohol) is legal, so there is definitely a lack of consistence in this argument.
Having a negative effect on learning is a bad reason as well?
No. To say that kids, who are in a period when they need to learn a lot, should not smoke joints is perfectly reasonable, just like they should not drink alcohol, which certainly doesn't help learning either. But we're talking about responsible adults here. Drinking alcohol hurts your liver. Smoking cigarettes destroys your lungs. Eating too much causes health problems. Are those illegal? No, because it's up to you what you do with your body, once you're an adult.
In a 100% liberal(anarchistic) society, I could follow your point, but only extremists believes in that!
No. 100% Liberalism and anarchy are very different things. They're at extremes of two different axes: the liberal-conservative axis, and the authoritarian-libertarian axis. Liberal != Libertarian.
In short, wrong on every single line of your post.
Daniel
Carpe Diem
http://www.expansys.com/regproduct.asp?code=105672
Of course, they used a hundred foot of rope wrapped around the spindle and tied to a pickup truck...just wait till some enterprising 17-year olds try that with their kid brothers..
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored. - Aldous Huxley
How about the iRiver iHP-120? 20GB, and it can act like a storage device. ClubMac has 'em for $349. Seems particularily realistic to me.
John
> The only really interesting piece, is in my
> opinion that of William Gibson.
Yes, I too like the idea of having outright lies, misperceptions, and spin all beautifully color-coded for your reading pleasure.
Of course, then we have to ask ourselves, is there really such a thing as The Objective Truth?
Whatever off-shore datahaven those sleepless programmers dream up, I imagine that the registration process would be long and involved: First, the site would have to quiz you on your beliefs, your attitudes toward the world, and your mental model of the world. Thus equipped, it could easily tell you "the truth".
Naturally, for the truly lazy, the site could have some presets, if you want to skip the set up. Judging by some of the whoppingly ignorant or doctrinaire submissions slashdot regularly sees, I would guess that "socially-conservative bible literalist", "libertarian technophile", and "emotionally insecure piece of dirt" would be popular preset choices.
A monkey with five asses.
Isn't the doctors office issue handled in HIPPA?
[to allow to the standardized exchange of information]
HIPPA covers more than just privacy of information.
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
720p = 1280 x 720
1080p = 1920 x 1080
(it refers to the number of verticle lines. p = progressive (as opposed to interlaced)
120 characters should be enough for anybody
1920x1080 is the same resolution as 1080i no?
1. Most everything listed could fit into the implant that was listed - I like this one;
2. Wormholes for communications & travel
3. Anti-gravity
4. Moving manufacturer to orbit
5. Terraforming
6. Unlimited & safe energy source
Aren't these the basics? Am I missing anything?
yeah - cause none of the potheads I've known were addicts..allegedly. While I know and have worked with a number of stoners and dopeheads in the past who were rather intelligent and did some damn good work, they were and remain a distinct minority. And most of them were rich white bitches who could afford to coast by since Daddy was often paying for their car, clothes, school - even after college was over. The rest of the weedeaters were generally unreliable and lazy, although often amusing. You could always count on them not to show up when you most needed them.
It exists
is the electric can opener.
When ever I run it the cat comes running. Sometimes I just look around and whistle like nothing is happening and the cat gets confused and stalks away.
It's one of the few times I can feel that my kind is superior to Fluffy's.
Why do I have this? I don't smoke.
isn't that the company with teh coffee mug stain logo, which incidentally was predicted in a Dilbert strip?
(I remember reading this in The Dilbert Future)
So I log onto the NY Times site to take a look at this article and am enticed to read these 11 "ideas" for needed inventions. The article ends after a page of setup, with no explanation of where to go next - no "next page" link, no, "Click on these links for the ideas" direction. I clicked on the printer-friendly button to see if that would reveal more of the article, to no avail. It took me almost 5 minutes to figure out the links to the rest of the article were embedded in the "related" box to the right of the story, buried around news trackers and advertisement.
BAD INTERFACE! BAD!
Then, after reading the rest of the article, I wish I had given up looking earlier. With the exception of Gibson's well-written tongue-in-cheek, this was a pretty poor list.
Non-polluting energy, cheap food for the world, disease cures? Nawww, these visionaries are too preoccupied with life's minor inconveniences to generate a significant thought. With the exception of Gibson's lie detector, none of these ideas would have any impact on the world.
What a bunch of wankers.
I suggest that people who make goatse jokes stop putting the .cx ending behind the word goatse. Thus innocent newcommers will not be harmed by their' curiosity of what this goatse link that everybody is talking about, actually is.
A warning to all of you, DO NOT GO THERE!!! The mental image will be burned into your brain for life.
My other UID is 1337
> Anyone else reminded of Peril Sensitive Sunglasses? It's bad enough people turn a
> figurative blind eye to things they really don't want to be bothered with... but this is
> going a bit far.
Steve Mann, a professor at the University of Toronto, and a former graduate of MIT has already got the Peril Sensitive sunglasses.
In his particular case, he uses them to block out advertising, and other visual nuisances. From what I've read of his work (see http://wearcam.org/), I don't think he's done much aural work yet.
No wonder the world is in such bad shape. These are the best ideas these people could come up with. I can understand them sandbagging a little bit and not throwing out some idea their companies might be working on. But how about an important idea that isn't even close to becoming a reality. Something that is visionary and important. It's not that hard. How about efficient, portable power generation. At least once a year you hear another rumour that Dean Kamen might have finally created a working version of the sterling engine. What would that mean to society? A whole hell of a lot more than any other idea on that list.
How about an artificial sunlight machine for linux users?
I think you meant to say "extended viewing fees".
One word: COINTELPRO
She's not thinking BIG enough!
;-)
Why create it so that "the illumination of the screen could keep it going" when you could just as realistically create it so that the illumination of the screen would create a SURPLUS of energy?
As a matter of fact, why not just have it create so much energy that it could "beam" the energy back to supplement the "power grid"?
Yeah! She and Moby should definitely get together.
I think instead of asking 11 different people, they should have just given all the space to Margaret Cho because her fractured take on modern life lends me a new perspective that may often be humorous, but is always insightful. That and her fat face reminds me of Prednisone.
Hmmm....."Geniuses" who haven't yet mastered the laws of Thermodynamics....
Why?
The iHP product line is hard drive based, iFP is flash memory based. The tech specs don't tell you this, but if you wave your mouse over the products link you'll find it categorised there.
I have a SlimX CD/MP3 player and it's excellent, but I think i'd still pick an iPod over the iHP-120.
Avantslash - View Slashdot cleanly on your mobile phone.
Nah, just learn to be very convincing and let some random guy push your car towards your destination.
That wouldn't be too hard. Just tell the guy someone doesn't think he could push your car all the way to your office.
Damn, I just invented the Ego-powered car.
Do what all of the other geniuses in the world and use one logon for the sites you rarely visit. I know I have three combos; a work related, a personal, and a junk. Obviously you change the important passwords (both of them) often, but the junk one - who cares?
Quit your whining and exaggerating - it isn't that difficult, and you don't to give any more info than you want. Yeah, it's inconvenient, but you put it in one time and most browsers on most oses will remember your login from then on. Fucking drama queen.
ymmv
Yea good luck with that. I believe that would count as perpetual motion, so lets all just toss entropy out of the window and start using our self-powered laptops...
How is that the best idea when the laws of physics say its impossible. If we were able to develop a device that could convert energy with that much efficiency, there'd be no need to make it solar powered because a battery would last next-to-forever anyways without all the extraneous leakage of energy that comes from the conversion.
I personally think the most practical idea's revolved around integrating everything in to one device instead of having to look like a poor imitation of Batman and his utility belt.
Holy shark-repellant spray Batman!
I am a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar.
Personal air transportation. Period. It's about 20 years overdue. It seems so obvious that this would have the single greatest impact on the way the majority of Americans live of any "device" that could possibly be invented.
Screw X-prize. We need cheap, reliable, safe personal helicopters (or jet-packs, or whatever).
But did they smoke weed because the were unreliable and lazy, or did the weed make them that way? I have a feeling they were just lazy people to begin with.
Jack Valenti and Orrin Hatch will be first up against the wall when the revolution comes.
A standard on every desktop
"Don't write down to your readers, the only people less intelligent than you can't read" - Sign on Newspaper Office Wall
The IXth Symphony certainly is a great piece of music, but the choice remains arbitrary : why not choose a 3-hour format to store Wagner's operas ?
A CS professor of mine once devoted a lecture to "the ideal size of things". In it, he related how the original CD prototype was the size of an LP record, and held hours upon hours of audio. The engineers were operating on the presumptions that more is always better.
It's not, of course, and a format with such expansive capability would present problems to music companies and producers... people would expect them to fill (or at least mostly fill) a multi-hour disc! Additionally, a large disc would be prey to warping, and would require similarly large components to read it.
And so, the 74-minutes was decreed, and here we are today.
My professor's point was that things have an ideal size. CDs are hand-size, they're not cumbersome like LPs, they're easy to handle, easy to change, but not too small to be easily lost. They're small enough to play in the car, like tapes.
A can of coke is the right size, too. It's easy for the average person to hold, and on average it's not too much drink, and it's not too little. You better believe that the coca-cola company spent many millions of dollars researching this. And if they didn't, someone else did.
I don't know how true any of my professor's story was, of course, it's entirely possible that he made it all up, but it did illustrate his point.
I have the slimX as well and love it. I'm curious why you would choose an iPod over the iHP-120? The iHP-120 is cheaper, and has quite a few features the iPod lacks. The only feature I see the iPod having over the iHP-120 is the ability to play AAC and songs from iTMS. AAC could easily be added to the iHP via firmware and there are plenty of other music stores.
Jack Valenti and Orrin Hatch will be first up against the wall when the revolution comes.
You know, when I was about 10 I got one of those "science kits". You know, the ones with a lightbulb, coils, some wires on aligator clips, and other stuff to allow kids to learn about electricity and make neat stuff like flashlights or radios or whatever. Even at 10 it didn't take me long to figure out that I couldn't use a lightbulb to give energy to the solar panel which would then power the same lightbulb.
And it's very rare that drug user affects other peoples lives (assuming alcohol isn't a drug, since is legal?).
You have obviously never known anyone who has been addicted to drugs then. It's not as black and white as "they are ruining their own lives" and it doesn't affect anyone else.
It affects every single human being around them. Watching a friend or a loved one slowly rot away and trying to get them help which they refuse or which doesn't work. It feels futile and seeing someone die because of "their own decision" still greatly affects people around them.
Your argument that theft is an indirect affect is crap as well. If they steal my wallet so they can get their high, it sure as hell does directly affect me. My wallet wouldn't be missing if my friend wasn't a drug user.
And please, "cheap" drugs. Tobacco is heavily taxated as well, which makes it NOT cheap. We can go back and forth about the benefits and cons of legalizing drugs, which is another debate entirely...
Bottom line though, a drug user *always* affects the lives of friends and loved ones around them. Don't throw around ignorant comments such as yours without knowing how it feels.
Yet the US points to Canada like we're the anti-christ for proposing to legalize pot. Yea, that makes sense.
She's not even the most promient thing on Comedy Central.
Then get a job where you don't have to deal with rich white lazy bastards who get everything from daddy, including the money to buy weed if they feel so inclined. That's got nothing to do with weed, more with where you're working.
Daniel
Carpe Diem
Cost doesn't really bother me. If I'm going to carry something around with me all day and every day then I want something small, light and looks good.
The major problem I have with the iHP is that it's really ugly. Also if it is anything like the SlimX - the control system will be a mess.
It's probably the most illogical argument for a iPod but I just don't like the look of it - and if i'm going to spend buttloads of money, I want it to look good.
Avantslash - View Slashdot cleanly on your mobile phone.
They already have 4gig Compact Flash cards.
;)
Aren't these not really flash/solid state cards though? I thought these contained those little IBM Microdrives in them?
Of course then again, I guess it doesn't ultimately matter, it's still 4gb on something slightly larger than a quarter
Yeah, I think I came up with this brilliant idea in 6th grade, something to do with an electric car that used a generator to continuously regenerate power. After we started discusing physics in Junior High, I felt really stupid having ever conceived of the above, because once it was mentioned to me, conservation of energy made perfect sense.
Now I don't feel so stupid, because I have living proof that people can graduate high school and STILL not understand the simple concept of conservation of energy.
Man is the animal that laughs.
And occasionally whores for Karma.
That's not new - perpetual motion/free energy has already been invented!
They that quote Benjamin Franklin on liberty and safety deserve neither.
I would love to see this implemented.
myke
Mimetics Inc. Twitter
This thought always occurs to me, whenever I am taking shit in office rest room...and a guy comes in adjacent door and takes shit. Very often he would be farting loud and stink really bad.
It makes me think to invent a device that would abosrb the fart and stink. This device should be fitted in the commotes to make shitting a nice experience.
Or, just go to Blockbuster with your own 4.2 gig thumb drives, plug into the USB 3 (this is the future ya know) port, download right there.
....
.... ( 30 minutes later ) still waiting....
I hope you can grasp the fact that the fastest flash on earth can only write at a few megs a second ( this is regardless of bus technology ). Until there comes a fundamental change in how flash memory is designed ( MRAM, perhaps? ), you're going to be stuck with slow writes.
Man is the animal that laughs.
And occasionally whores for Karma.
...A husband!
Moby is a musician.
No shit?
BASE Conflict for Quake 3
It'll run off the monitor illumination but, problem is, as soon I determine that the monitor is on, it's state changes and it goes off again....
A goal is a dream with a deadline
I actually like the way it looks myself, but that's purely subjective i guess. I also found the SlimX confusing at first, but kick ass once I got the hang of the remote.
Of course none of the MP3 players fit my needs completly. the two best right now are the rio karma and the iHP. If the nomad zen would add flac and or ogg support then I'd really have what I want.
Jack Valenti and Orrin Hatch will be first up against the wall when the revolution comes.
"extended viewing fees"
Actually, they're another instance of the "stupid tax" (along with 20%+ APR loans, list prices on cars, telemarketed charities, etc.), where people are given genuine financial incentives to be responsible and knowledgable.
Healthcare article at Kuro5hin
Spoken like a true Apple user. Apple's always had more sucess marketing the image then the product. Colored computers - sheesh.
That was my first thought too, but on closer reading it's technically not so. If the computer was powered by light (solar, screen, whatever), but the monitor was powered by another source it would be possible. However, this would make things a lot worse than they are. Instead of directly running power into the computer, we'd first be transforming it into light energy (and producing waste heat) and then transforming some of that light back into electricity using something like solar cells, which at least today are highly inefficient.
However, in the context it was given, I think the monitor was supposed to be included as part of the computer, in which case you'd be right about the "perpetual motion" problem.
I'm confused and a little bit lonely.
How cheap do you think it would be 'on the street' if it was illegal? Do you really think it would cost less than the current over-the-counter price?
"A revolution without dancing is... a revolution not worth having"
I'm not sure that I read it quite right but it reads like Gibson wants someone to invent a lot of future sounding, hip, techno-related, meme-changing, paradigm-shifting phrases and splice them together like a surgeon creating new blood vessels out of nano-created synthetic air to be grafted onto a clone of himself.
I've always been fascinated with the idea of bio-technical interfaces, and I have a pretty healthy knowledge of physics and computer science... and I do have some contacts in the world of biological science.
Someone give me fifty million dollars, and I'll build you some kind of implantable gizmo controller.
Business plan? Wha... this is the nineties, man! We don't need no stinkin' business plan!
There's a good LoTR parody lurking in there somewhere...
You mean like this one ?
Solid state stuff has surpassed microdrives in capacity, although not in cost. You'll find CF solid-state cards out there in 1, 1.5, 2, 3 and 4 gig sizes - pretty cool, but damned expensive!
The largest microdrive is still at the 1 gig mark, AFAIK, IBM haven't developed it further for the last 18 months or so - sad really cos Moore's Law would seem to dictate that its sizes would be slightly higher than CF cards by now. Aye well...
Having to read application forms is a feature, not a bug. There's no way I'm not going to look at every single piece of data some psychotic institution requires me to tell them. If auto-fill becomes customary, Forms will become as bad as ten-page EULAs - thus, no one will read them, and unscrupulous parties will start putting unusual and unnecessary fields in their forms to harvest data they don't need.
Isn't this perpetual motion? They won't patent that, I tried. "If It feels good, do It." "If It feels really good, do It a Lot!"
I can get the N.F.L. Sunday Ticket on DirecTV, and I can download to the TiVo unit and watch it when I'm working out, but if I want to take it and make it portable, I have to burn it down to DVD or VHS, so then Fox ends up doing all the work for me.
... DCMA VIOLATOR!!!! Go sick 'em, Ashcroft. Never mind about bin Laden, we've got bigger fish to fry.
Now Cris, did you get the written or implied oral consent of the NFL for this? No, you didn't?!?
Hmm, the ipod is as big asd a pack of cigarettes and can carry 10 gig of files (at least) from any computer with a usb or firewire connection.
The problem is infrastructure and legality, not technology, since clearly, it exists already.
I would like to see a device that has the capacity of transferring emotions and feelings to others in a very specific, targeted manner. A veritable "Empathy Player"; not a drug; not a VR device, but a way to capture someone's emotions and share them.
One problem I see with our society is the ongoing reduction of empathy and understanding we have for others. If there was an ability to show someone what another person's happiness or frustration was actually like, we all might have a much better understanding (and tolerance) for each other. Art aspires to do this in an abstract way, but imagine the possibilities if we could make someone else understand what we're going through in a very direct manner?
Actually LG is working on this.
no it doesn't.
At least not how I envision it-- This still limits you where you can set it up, you can't randomly have one hand on your head typing and the other on your leg-- that's what I envision...
That's just a gimicky keyboard
I'm not sure where I was off, considering DVD media that holds 4.72 gigs is also considered a 120 dvd video disc.
On the one hand, she's violated the house rules regarding thermodynamics, but on the other hand, she called Anne Coulter "Cunta Kinte". I just don't know what to think anymore.
We've moved to ATX some time ago. Now think about that: The monitor is still plugged into your wall socket, so it produces light just OK. Then the CPU collects the light. Perpetual motion? Where? Of course monitors "Made In USSR" would do best for that task. "High Radiation" models that make your room glow for a hour after switching power off preferably. And then people will start complaining that this ecology is so unhealthy...
45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
Of course, the only musician in the forum just wants to get stoned.
Show your love for the Hacker community
HackerLogo.com
You mean like DVD-RW?
scripsit KDan:
That's only true if you accept the redefinition of `liberal' that has happened in modern American politics. Liberal means, in the original sense, that you want basic guarantees of civil and human rights, legal equality, and no messing with private property (i.e., pro-business). Check out the platforms of European parties which call themselves Liberal, as opposed to Socialist or Social Democrat, and you'll see the difference. Really, American Libertarians are the closest to pure liberalism in the States.
I think that, before the word `liberal' became a dirty word among right-wingers (so that the Libertarians don't want to be tarred with it), it was used by the left to distance themselves from socialism. If they called themselves, as their continental counterparts did, Social Democrats, they would be accepting a connection between their ideas and Marxism or whatever was the bogeyman-du-jour. `Liberal' sounded safe, even if what they espoused (affirmative action, state-funded medicine, whatever) was counter to true liberal ideals.
As far as axes go, I can construct many schematic representations of political ideologies, none of which are wholly satisfactory. The libertarians' favored schema, which you mention, is only one way of looking at things. The axes could as well be revolution/reaction and materialism/antimaterialism, for example...
In principio creauit Linus Linucem.
You can go to any battery store and buy a solar panel which consists of very thin cells (thin film?) which have been attached to a PC board with adhesive, which is intended to go on the dash of your car and keep your battery topped off. I'd like to get some of the adhesive cells and lay them on top of the wing of a radio controlled glider, with a capacitor to smooth things out a little bit, or perhaps a small battery and a simple charging circuit. I haven't worked out the details because A> I don't have the glider and B> I'm working on a .29ci two stroke diesel right now.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Even a 480p movie will take up 4.72 gigs for every 120 minutes, that's uncompressed tho.
Your math is a little off. I'm not sure how wide 480p is but let's take a conservative number of 480.
480 wide x 480 high x 24 fps x 3 bytes per pixel x 7200 seconds = 111GB, uncompressed.
It's already here.
They always seem to be quite ahead in the game.
Here we go again!
It'll never happen. Why?
Because, I suspect that as technology for storage increases so will the technology it is used for. For instance, before 8-tracks and tapes were useful for low-fidelity (well, i guess they called it hifi) music. But while CDs could hold more information it was because we needed to code more information. The same goes for video when DVDs could give more information for better quality video.
I suspect that in several years when a thumb drive can hold 40 Gigs, image resolution will have multiplied by a similar amount.
1 Gigapixel digital cameras anyone?
MPX compressed audio will have built int 10 point surround sound, with greater frequency range, greater sampling, etc.
And let's not talk about the home movie experience. At the point scene will probably be encoded in 4096 x 3072 essentially requiring a new video format and 4.2 Gigs wont' be enough to hold home videos.
"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." - Martin Luther King, Jr.
Moby is really a closet Huey Lewis and the News fan.
I never would have believed it...
This is my sig. There are many like it but this one is... Oops. Frank, I've got your sig again! Where's mine?
EVF's (Extended Viewing Fee's) are one of blockbuster's major cash cows. I should know, i work for them.
:-P
Sry i had to post anonymous, i don't want to end up getting fired like the MS temp
Maybe using the correct terms would help:
Addiction is compulsive use in spite of negative consequences.
Dependent means continued use is required to prevent abstinence symptoms.
You can be dependent on a drug, etc. and not be addicted. For example, many people are dependent on opioid analgesics (pain medications) for treatment of chronic pain. If they stop using these drugs, which are required to maintain a functional status, they go into withdrawal. Their use is not compulsive and does not result in negative consequences (except for maybe a little constipation). They are functional because of their continued use.
Addiction to anything (drugs, sex, gambling) etc. is often seen in those who become dependent, but is a completely different concept.
Yea.. since the suggestor of the idea was speaking of a laptop it'd be a pretty good assumption that said screen would also be powered by whatever powers the laptop. And if it wasn't, they'd still be powered by the same thing in the end anyways because the battery powering the screen would essentially be powering the laptop through the screen's light (and like I said before, unless they can invent some kind of transformation that has 0 loss it'd be alot more efficient just to power the laptop straight from the battery in the first place...)
I am a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar.
For me, the points that sold me over the comparably sized-and-priced iPod were the inclusion of the FM receiver and the ability to act like a hard drive over USB without adding software; I also considered it a plus that it supports OGG Vorbis out of the box. The iRiver's software is upgradeable, and it sounds like they're going to try to add AAC in the future. (Not that I care much about AAC at this point, but it might be nice, and it's nice to know the machine is upgradeable.) I don't know if Apple has any interest in playing anything but their DRM AACs and MP3s, but I had already pretty much written it off since it is firewire-only and has no FM tuner. Apple's software is definitely nice, and the iPod looks nice, but it's really tough to flash an FM tuner or Hi-Speed USB (the USB formerly known as 2.0) onto an iPod...
Used to have a Nomad jukebox, which wouldn't act like a generic storage device and would only talk to the way fugly Creative software (meaning it couldn't carry stuff to and from public computers.) I was also considering the FM tuner remote for an additional $60, (bringing it up to almost this price anyway.) But it got stolen, so time to go shopping again.
John
you're a pointy headed tin foil hat wearing paranoid idiot.
that your testosterone level is quite low.
> I rather liked the fact that slashdot linked to the google version too.
Except that the 11 suggestions were listed as articles to get extra ad revenue for NYT. To get to those, you need to register. The google link was partially helpful.
> Yet the US points to Canada like we're the anti-christ for proposing to legalize pot.
No, the U.S. Gov does. Probably a large majority of Americans don't care if it's legalized there. Getting it legalized here is another matter entirely.
And Moby you can get stomped by Obie
You 36 year old bold headed f*g blow me
You dont know me
Your too old, Let go
Its over Nobody listens to techno
You are correct. I should have said "120 minutes, normal DVD encoding, compression level 0".
Damned geeks..
The article discusses the time limits on CDs (namely, 74 minutes for a pressed disc). If this is true, can anybody explain how I can get 80 minutes of Red Book audio on a CD-R?
If the format supports 80 minutes, can't they just press the tracks burned into the dye on a CDR onto a metal CD? I don't see the difference.
-twb
lucent stock up 8% on Russo's comments, so it looks like she did something right. To summerize her quote: "we intend to make money this year, not lose money like last year". Too bad people fall for this garbage, and too bad the media reports it as something interesting.
HIV Crosses Species Barrier... into Muppets
He wants his recreation from a pill. There are overwhelming numbers of recreational activites. He does not want to work for anything. Gimme gimme. No wonder all of his music is just a bunch of samples.
The Canadian government is NOT legalizing pot. They want to decriminalize it. The 6 o'clock news aimed at 4th graders never makes this distinction either.
I've had this idea for a long time also. Too bad the write speed of CF or USB is too slow and cost of such a device is too expensive (how about a 8GB card for renting 2 movies... 3 movies...).
Not to mention the fact that not everyone is leet enough to have built a tv box (call it a HTPC if you really want to, all my PC implementations, car, bike, tv, end in box), and good luck getting everyone to upgrade their dvd players to ones that accept such media just to watch your movies. Its a great idea, and if only this country was made up of nothing but geeks it could come true, but in that case we'd all be downloading the movie's torrents anyway so, um, nevermind.
Im dreaming ofa big bndwdth, That can resist the
Admitting that alcohol can be almost as bad as marijuana doesn't invalidate the reason for outlawing marijuana.
Alcohol can destroy your liver, if used excessively for decades. Marijuana does the same thing to your brain, much more rapidly, with even moderate use.
Alcohol is a sedative, it is not violence-inducing. It impairs judgement as well, which may lead to violence. However much you think pot "mellows you out", alcohol does so even more, so it is less violence-inducing than marijuana.
Your graph is labelled wrong. The conservative line is opposing radical. Liberal ideology is in the quadrant between between the authoritarian and radical axes, far from libertarian (liberty.) Libertarian (party) ideology is between the radical and libertarian.
If something could get me out of bed and awake I would be very grateful to the person who invented it. I mean, I can get out of bed, but I always give in to temptation (the urge is just too strong) and go back to sleep. I need something like George Jetson has to get him going in the morning. A no-way-in-hell your going back to sleep device.
--- to swing on the spiral...
luckily [satire], our ability to control how we get tracked will quickly be going away. so the need to remember logins and passwords should be gone within a few years.
controlled hardware, compulory DRM, and biometrics will remove the need for remembering anything with respect to identity.
A bunch of people want _a_ device that does everything all their devices do, in a really small form factor. Possibly make it look cool.
Scott Adams wants a cat locator.
Navratilova wants a laser determined in or out for tennis, and possibly to do away with the umpire.
Some guy wants a form filler outerer. XML is a start, tagging info semantically. Its a while till everyone agrees to use the same formats tho.
Moby wants a safe high. God bless you Moby for being honest.
Yay me!
How about a device that automatically circumvates the compulsory online registartion of any newspaper?
Lisa!
In this house, we obey the laws of thermodynamics!
Send lawyers, guns, and money!
I think it means light falling on the screen could power the computer. If you use a laptop outside on a sunny day. Still, a lame 'suggestion', since it's just a wish and not particularly exciting. You can suggest new things to be invented at the halfbakery, but you're supposed to keep away from magic items.
-- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
some one give me a username password.
it's a pity that a lot of the stupid sites require your email address as a login
If you'd read the linked article you'd know that they are solid state, not microdrives.
you can throw guns at people and kill them?
I see you've never met anyone addicted to marijuana. It's not a pretty sight. The psychosis isn't a good trait either...
Not true. IBM has sold their disk drive business to Hitachi who are promising microdrives up to 4GB this year. They're expecting them to be faster than solid state drives too.4GB for $489 (not yet available), 2.2GB $230 (available now).
You don't have a throw away email address? You put your *real* email address out for public exploitation? You need at LEAST 3 - A personal, a business, and a junk - the junk one you can read if you need to, but is meant to be ignored. I thought every sane person did that.
ymmv
My sister couldn't even name one officially communist country (past or present) after she graduated. It's really sad. The "2nd law of thermodynamics" might as well be "practical applications for quantum slipstream warp drives".
So, the gist of your argument (and the argument of every person who thinks pot should be legal) is, if we don't ban everything, we shouldn't ban anything. Do I have that correct?
There ain't no rules here; we're trying to accomplish something.
Generally, the results of mental processes come about through specific paths to solve specific problems. Altering that path with psycho-active chemicals usually results in inferior results, and is thus harmful without further consideration needed. Looking for non-harmful mind drugs is in this sense looking for a contradiction.
Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
shit man, we can do something really big and impressive and useless, or we can do somethign small and boring and 1337 and useless. what do we do?? oh, the decisions are just murder!
dude, hurry up and pass the doob.. you hit it like three times in a row. huhuh
So, the gist of your argument (and the argument of every person who thinks pot should be legal) is, if we don't ban everything, we shouldn't ban anything. Do I have that correct?
Not my argument. When I argue drug legalization with people, I fix on two key points.
1. Current drug laws are more harmful than the drugs they "protect" us from. I'm sure you've heard all the arguments for this one, though (mandatory minimums, overcrowding, etc.), so I won't go into them here in depth.
2. Any sort of ban should, in my opinion, must be exactly all of these things: reasonable, enforceable, and consistent.
reasonable: A ban should have a good reason, other than moral repugnance. In particular, a drug ban should have reputable proof that the drug is too dangerous in society to be uncontrolled (I'm thinking along the lines of PCP here).
enforceable: Any laws put on the books should be enforceable by the current executive powers of the government. It's silly to make laws that cannot be enforced consistently, which leads to the next item:
consistent: Here's the big problem with both the reasoning behind and the enforcement of current drug laws. They do not specify, in a consistent fashion, why certain substances are controlled or not controlled, and under what circumstances for each. Also, as a consequence of the laws being unenforceable by the extant government, they are not consistent in that regard. Sentencing can vary widely, and is generally harsher to minorities than it is to whites.
Do I think everything should be legal? No. It's an untenable position; I don't think it should be legal for people to have dangerous, harmful substances without the assurance that they can handle them safely.
Do I think our current drug laws are a shambles? Definitely. The laws we have are basically arbitrary as to both reasoning and enforcement. If there's a good reason for marijuana to be banned, state it, and let it stand on its merits. Otherwise, don't abrogate my rights in an arbitrary fashion.
simply a web browser that didn't suck.
IE has a working interface but crap features.
Mozilla has (sometimes) good features but the interface is so shitty (I mean the bugs in it, not the design) it negates half of that.
Actually, the new hybrid gas/electric cars use dynamic braking - like diesel locomotives - to reclaim some of the energy and store it in the batteries.
So, your idea wasn't so far off; energy can be translated - however you lose something in the translation.
Lodragan Draoidh
The more you explain it, the more I don't understand it. - Mark Twain
I doubt a flash card costs less in materials than a DVD, since all a DVD consists of is a small plastic wafer and metallic film. That boils down to much, much less than a penny in materials.
Not even close. The polycarbonate might be less than a penny, but that is a very small part of making a DVD/CD. Years ago break even on audio CDs or CD-ROMs was around US$.56-US$.60 per disc, including mastering and packaging.
Mastering was a flat rate of about US$1500 per title. Each CD replicator (from Krausse-Maffei) cost about US$1.7 million delivered and could kick out a finished disc every 4.2 seconds at full speed. Then silk-screen or offset (cost more), and packaging (jewel case, graphics, shrink wrap, bar codes, spine lables and other special labels).
Did I mention that I used to be the network engineer for a CD replicator?
I rather liked the fact that slashdot linked to the google version too.
Now there's an idea for a patent, hmmm....
Incidentally, is it legal in Canada for a private citizen to own a gun?
:)
(I'm too tired to look up the laws and compare them to our own
+++ATH0
quality lockpicking book for sale at http://cafeshops.com/hackingtexts
sure you can, if it's a heavy enough package. that's why we (most european countries, i would guess) have a limit for "personal use", usually defined to be a few grams. no danger being hit by a 5-gram-bag, right? but as soon as we go up to, say a kilo of drugs, they can be - when thrown by a well-trained person with good aim - deadly. thats why we have stiff penalties for possession of those amounts.
Free as in mason.
Really? I can get blanks for around 20 cent each.
Even a 480p movie will take up 4.72 gigs for every 120 minutes, that's uncompressed tho
... but given the veracity of your simpler claims, I'm inclined to believe this is just made up.
A 480p movie is significantly more than 4.72 gigs uncompressed. Try 180 gigs.
I wonder where you got a 1920x1080 uncompressed source movie to try on WM9
Maybe, maybe not. Apple with the iPod have realised something that other manufacturers fail to grasp. People are fully prepared to pay more for something that looks good and has an easy to use interface. Tonnes of features and codecs isn't a high issue. For example, your majority user has never heard of FLAC or OGG, let alone want to use them.
Despite what Mac-zealots think, people aren't buying it because it's branded Apple - they're buying it because it looks and feels good.
All other manufacturers attempt to beat Apple on price - but by doing so they inevitably end up using inferior materials which means they come out with something that looks, and feels, cheap and nasty.
The closest thing I've seen to rival Apple is Toshiba's new HD based MP3 player. If it looks as good as Apple's then it will sell well - even if it is the same price.
Avantslash - View Slashdot cleanly on your mobile phone.
Standardising on a DVD format (I assume you are taking about the writeable versions or next gen technology such as Blu-Ray) is difficult not for technical reasons, but for patent reasons (this applies to other ideas such as communications protocols too).
The company that wins the "standards war" gets to collect handsome royalties on that technology for a long time, which is why there are so many vying for control.
Note that this only applies to proprietary formats. Open formats are free of this commercialised bickering and hence are the true future of format cross-compatibility. Of course, an open format is by definition less likely to be used by commercial companies because of my first point (they seek to profit from THEIR format), which is why you have the current state of affairs. Open formats also have to contend with avoiding the use or derivation of patented processes which can be difficult to fight since an open format's advocates/developers rarely have financial backing to hire lawyers etc. This is just how the corporate sector wants it of course.
Quizo69
Visceral Psyche Films
Plenty of people are psychologically addicted to marijuana. Mistaking that for physical addiction is stupid. The psychosis affects something like 3 people in a million. A higher percentage of people are lactose-intolerant. Should we ban milk too?
PS: You're right, I've never met, nor even hear of, anyone physically addicted to marijuana. Some of my friends who smoke a lot more than me have had minor withdrawal symptoms (a bit irritable/bad sleep for a couple of days) but that was nothing compared to those who stopped smoking cigarettes.
Daniel
Carpe Diem
The gist of my argument is that the current situation is a absurd as possible. The path towards sanity lies in figuring out what we are banning and why? I would personally ban anyone from distributing any psychoactive substance unless they have a licence (same for bungee and base jumping), would decriminalise the possession and production of small quantities but would enfore legislation which came down heavily on anyone who didn't addequately try to prevent substances coming into childrens hands.
Never underestimate the dark side of the Source
I would really love that whole matrix thing of downloading stuff to your brain. Encyclopedia Britannica straight up. Then how to skate. THat would be awesome.
-- Karma Karma Karma Karma, Karma Chameleon - Boy George
"Perfect" copies of natural neurochemicals wouldn't really get you "high" though, they would just make you feel/act as if you had an unbalance of whatever chemical you're replicating. Drug effects come from the synergy of all the changes the substance produces - MDMA, for example, not only stimulates serotonin secretion and inhibits its reuptake, but also releases a little bit of dopamine, stimulates your endorphin system (which accounts for the "natural/runner's high" feelings), and causes a set of physiological responses, all of which combine to create the particular "high" of MDMA. If it perfectly imitated serotonin, the high would be totally different, probably just like a long-term high-dose SSRI effect. Alex Shulgin's books (PiHKAL and TiHKAL) are a good read for this - he synthesized a whole bunch of psychoactives, and closely related analogues, and documented how the chemical changes affected the highs - example, adding another methyl group to the methylamine moiety totally deactivates MDMA. Really interesting if you're into neurochemistry.
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored. - Aldous Huxley
The WM9 files are linked from the parent. They are heavily compressed. That's what allows for a full-length WM9 compressed movie to fit on one dual layer DVD.
Duh
My sister couldn't even name one officially communist country (past or present) after she graduated.
Somehow I doubt that was your sister's fault.
Consider the differences between bulk blank CD-Rs and CD-ROMs in jewel cases with graphics, shrink wrap, labels, spine labels and bar codes. Big difference there, Sparky.
Manufacturing cost difference for the disc ONLY, around 7 years ago (when CD-Rs were VERY expensive vs. today), was about 2:1. The Krausse-Maffei exquipment for CD-Rs was about double, and there were other material differences. The company I worked for back then moved to a suburb of Nashville, I didn't, so don't know anything more current.
How about we combine the welfare line with a mcdonalds and to top it all off an on the go liposuction clinic.
So while waiting in line for my unemployment check, I can order a triple cheese burger while having my fat ass sucked out through my beer gut.
Although while we're thinking up good ideas, lets start with getting mcdonalds to sell 40's. But then again mcdonalds doesn't take food stamps anyways so i guess that ideas bust.
My brother has to smoke at least 40 or 50 bongs a day. If he doesn't, he's dangerous to be around. Call it psychological addiction if you like, but the fucker is still addicted. If you're right about the psychosis affecting 3 in a million, I've probably met most of the psychosis suffering dope smokers in the world. Statistics are a good way for intellectuals to make money.