"Lobsters", the short story which became the first chapter of Charlie Stross's Accelerando was short-listed in the short story category for both the Hugo and Nebula Awards of 2002. This was not a one-off, he has been nominated in this years Hugos for Best Novel with "Iron Sunrise" and twice in the Novella category for "The Concrete Jungle" and "Elector". I can heartily recommend Accelerando, it makes Neuromancer look like a pastoral fantasy.
Sky are planning to start HDTV broadcasts in the UK in 2006, using the 1080i format (1080x1920 pixels), though the word is that the initial service will just be movies. Also they'll be using HDCP (High Bandwidth Content Protection) encyption, no idea how easy that is to crack. The uploaded versions of UK broadcast TV programs are not HDTV. Anything you see marked as HDTV will have come from a US source. I download Alias, West Wing, and Enterprise which are all rips of US HDTV broadcasts, but the final resolution is smaller, 352x624. The uploaded Stargates and Battlestar Galactica, where the UK is ahead of the US, are rips of standard definition broadcasts.
Because by the time it is operational the United States is looking to have the capability, and the policy of taking out any other nations near-Earth resources whenever it likes. The following EE Times article gives an overview of the National Reconnaissance Offices' principle of "negation". The article quotes NRO Director Peter Teets as saying,
Beginning next year, NRO will be in charge of the new Offensive Counter-Space program, which will come up with plans to specifically deny the use of near-Earth space to other nations
and also quoted Air Force secretary James Roche as saying,
If allies don't like the new paradigm of space dominance, said Air Force secretary James Roche, they'll just have to learn to accept it. The allies, he told the symposium, will have "no veto power."
So unless the EU wants to build anti-anti-satellite defences as well, they better make sure insurance on the Galileo system covers them for acts of war.
There has been a cheaper wind-up cell phone charger available in the UK for a while, I've seen ads for months. I can't find a web site, but there is a product page for it on the Carphone Warehouse site. At £9.99 I suspect it lacks the extras of the Freeplay FreeCharge such as the built battery and added torch, but it does the job, and it is available for more than just Motorola phones, it will charge Nokia, Siemens and Ericsson phones as well.
As I recall, the Nescafe can hold 210ml of coffee, so the size comparison would be, Ontro can, volume 16 fl.oz./454ml, fluid 10 fl. oz./284ml (62.5%) Nescafe can, volume 11.6 fl.oz./330ml, fluid 7.4 fl.oz./210ml (63.6%) Personally I would prefer the larger can size, and a black coffee option, not that I usually drink coffee that way, but because I think it is re-heating the creamer which gives the Nescafe product its "burnt" flavour. I find buying the product at a station is a good thing, because on the occasions I bought them, I ended up tossing them in my backpack and drinking them days later while waiting on a windswept station platform on a winters evening when everything is shut. Which is when the cans feature of staying warm for 20 minutes after also comes in useful.
The "Ace" Roberts character in Koman's novel is fairly clearly based on Robert C. Truax, the rocket pioneer who started off building rocket motors in the 30's for the US Navy, went on to work on the Thor, Polaris, Seabee, Sea Horse, Sea Dragon, Delta, Thor/Agena, Titan, Atlas/Agena, Douglas D-558, X-15, and NERVA programmes. Back in the 70's Truax started building his own sub-orbital one-man rocket from salvaged parts. This was an inspiration for the short-lived Salvage 1 SF TV series. He also built Evel Knievel's Sky-Cycle.
Halo Data Devices are introducing a 250Mb microdrive in a type I compact flash format. Small enough to fit in loads of devices, not least my trusty Psion 5.
Actually Marty isn't the only one to have submitted this story before, I did as well when I came across the original Bloor Research paper. Bloor are a fairly well known and respected IT market research comapny in the UK, specialising in comparative reports of software and systems. However, their reports are always charged for (last one I bought cost £300, say $480), and it is only until they are about a year or so old that they release the material in a less detailed format for free (like this current article).
The BBC isn't having problems appealing to it's audiences, it's having trouble appealing to ITV's audience. ITV is putting out lowest common denominator trash like "Who wants to be a Millionaire", and is consequently leading in the peak time viewing ratings (although the BBC still has the highest rated show on UK TV). The BBC has not outsourced most of its programme making, it originally outsourced 25 per cent, when that was the target set by the last Tory government, and although that proportion has risen since then, it's still not most. By coincidence, this proposed programme will be one of those outsourced programmes. The production company World of Wonder has made a number of TV programmes for Channel 4 and Channel 5 in the UK, and for HBO in the US. These include,
101 Rent Boys, The Adam And Joe Show, Daily Planet, The Divine David Presents, Drop Dead Gorgeous, God In The House, Hollywood Fashion Machine, Hot Property, Juror #5 - the OJ civil trial, Party Monster, The Real Ellen Story, The RuPaul Show, Shock Video 6: Turn On TV '98, Takeover TV, The Eyes of Tammy Faye, Tickled Pink, TV Afrika, TV Latino, TV Pizza, Viva Espana, Wrinklyvision
As you can guess from the titles alone, we are not talking the height of serious television here.
The attitude of doing everything on the cheap is one more endemic to the independent TV production companies than to the BBC itself. Don't think TV companies skimp on research because it is expensive, research is cheap, studio time, production crews, talent, and the rest is expensive. Research is often not done properly solely due to pressure of time, which is more of an issue with the structure of the commissioning process. You're view of TV production as some Dibert-esque corporate approach is almost laughable. Independent TV companies will look to save money on everything whatever the subject matter, and are going to be more concerned on being able to sell an idea, than any short cuts they might well make.
The BBC have made a few good TV programmes on the Internet, such as Tales from the Net, and the magazince show The Net, but these have been made by the BBC Education division. These programmes don't get peak time slots, and even if they did, they would get lousy ratings. That is not the point. They were intelligent TV shows, which appealed to a niche audience. The fact that they got made at all, was purely down to "the unique way the BBC is funded", in other words, if the BBC were trying operate as a purely commercial venture, much of their best programmes would be ditched for stuff with higher ratings, and lower production values. I don't blame the BBC for not producing populist programmes that will trounce ITV's peak time offerings in the ratings, that is not what they are there for. The BBC should be concentrating on quality, and breadth of subject matter. I only hope they haven't made an unwise choice in the selection of this particular company to produce one of their new programmes, since their main oeuvre seems to be cheap TV.
If they want to get a more interesting name than "Excellent" they should ask Iain M. Banks to supply them with a few choices. His ship names include GSV No More Mr Nice Guy, GSV So Much For Subtlety, Superlifter Kiss My Ass, GCU I Thought He Was With You, GCU What Are The Civilian Applications? and GCU Funny, It Worked Last Time..., so I'm sure he could come up with a suitable alternative. As for the basic plot line the article describes, well there are plenty of reasons why the Federation might not decide to send in the hordes of ships, such as having just got over 2-3 wars in recent years, and hence a shortage of ships and personnel, not wishing to lose Federation personnel in a 'foreign' war, lukewarm support in the Federation Council, etc. The interesting thing about this kind of storyline, is that it gives a chance to have an extended storyline, with some real plot development, and get away from the 'alien/spatial anomoly of the week then hit the reset button' type of episode.
I don't want a Linux for the masses, I want a Linux for me. Interface design will ultimately fail if it only caters for the 'masses', and ignores the fact that with time, help and practice, even the most technophobic user can become proficient, or at least familiar with a product. Drop down menus may be easy to use when you don't know where something is, but after a couple of dozen times scrolling down the same list, you start to wish for a button or short command. To design everything for a lowest common denominator user is to ignore the needs of those whose require speed, flexibility and control and are willing to invest the time and effort to learn a difficult but powerful interface. This idea of having a single, consistant interface, so easy your mother can use it seems to go against the trends in modern product design towards customisablility and uniqueness. I'm quite happy for people to design interfaces easy enough for my mother to use, but why does it have to be Linux? After all, she can always buy an iMac. I'm all for designing easy to use interfaces, as long as lurking behind that easy to use, bland, facade is a potent penguin with attitude.
Bloatware as a national characteristic?
on
All Hail Bloatware
·
· Score: 1
I think one of the interesting points made in the article was when he said "Bloat is the American dream: bigger, better, and everywhere all at once. Supersize it!". Are Microsoft making bloatware because they see that as what the American consumer wants? The thing is, they're selling into a global market which doesn't necessarily share the same values. Certainly here in Europe the market is one which drives small cars not huge ones, one that produces browsers like Opera and not IE5, and that doesn't supersize it! I don't want more, I want better.
You can already buy the modern equivalent of the Tulip bulb, it's called the Internet Stock. I can't lay claim to the analogy, it's been around a while, see Of Tulip Bulbs and Professional Ignorance by Kevin Prigel Cheers, Eddie
There is a site collecting articles by Richard Hull explaining how to build a fusor at Jochen Kronjaegers High Voltage Page. Also Tom Ligon, who wrote the Analog article you mention, produced a supplement to that article which points out many of the safety issues with building these things.
Slashdot Mirror
"Lobsters", the short story which became the first chapter of Charlie Stross's Accelerando was short-listed in the short story category for both the Hugo and Nebula Awards of 2002. This was not a one-off, he has been nominated in this years Hugos for Best Novel with "Iron Sunrise" and twice in the Novella category for "The Concrete Jungle" and "Elector".
I can heartily recommend Accelerando, it makes Neuromancer look like a pastoral fantasy.
Still available at http://www.rofl.name/allyourbase
Sky are planning to start HDTV broadcasts in the UK in 2006, using the 1080i format (1080x1920 pixels), though the word is that the initial service will just be movies. Also they'll be using HDCP (High Bandwidth Content Protection) encyption, no idea how easy that is to crack.
The uploaded versions of UK broadcast TV programs are not HDTV. Anything you see marked as HDTV will have come from a US source. I download Alias, West Wing, and Enterprise which are all rips of US HDTV broadcasts, but the final resolution is smaller, 352x624. The uploaded Stargates and Battlestar Galactica, where the UK is ahead of the US, are rips of standard definition broadcasts.
I've got a 512k connection at home and a much faster connection at work and I *always* get this problem on Slashdot with Firefox.
and also quoted Air Force secretary James Roche as saying,
So unless the EU wants to build anti-anti-satellite defences as well, they better make sure insurance on the Galileo system covers them for acts of war.
There has been a cheaper wind-up cell phone charger available in the UK for a while, I've seen ads for months. I can't find a web site, but there is a product page for it on the Carphone Warehouse site. At £9.99 I suspect it lacks the extras of the Freeplay FreeCharge such as the built battery and added torch, but it does the job, and it is available for more than just Motorola phones, it will charge Nokia, Siemens and Ericsson phones as well.
As I recall, the Nescafe can hold 210ml of coffee, so the size comparison would be,
Ontro can, volume 16 fl.oz./454ml, fluid 10 fl. oz./284ml (62.5%)
Nescafe can, volume 11.6 fl.oz./330ml, fluid 7.4 fl.oz./210ml (63.6%)
Personally I would prefer the larger can size, and a black coffee option, not that I usually drink coffee that way, but because I think it is re-heating the creamer which gives the Nescafe product its "burnt" flavour. I find buying the product at a station is a good thing, because on the occasions I bought them, I ended up tossing them in my backpack and drinking them days later while waiting on a windswept station platform on a winters evening when everything is shut. Which is when the cans feature of staying warm for 20 minutes after also comes in useful.
The "Ace" Roberts character in Koman's novel is fairly clearly based on Robert C. Truax, the rocket pioneer who started off building rocket motors in the 30's for the US Navy, went on to work on the Thor, Polaris, Seabee, Sea Horse, Sea Dragon, Delta, Thor/Agena, Titan, Atlas/Agena, Douglas D-558, X-15, and NERVA programmes.
Back in the 70's Truax started building his own sub-orbital one-man rocket from salvaged parts. This was an inspiration for the short-lived Salvage 1 SF TV series. He also built Evel Knievel's Sky-Cycle.
Halo Data Devices are introducing a 250Mb microdrive in a type I compact flash format. Small enough to fit in loads of devices, not least my trusty Psion 5.
Actually Marty isn't the only one to have submitted this story before, I did as well when I came across the original Bloor Research paper. Bloor are a fairly well known and respected IT market research comapny in the UK, specialising in comparative reports of software and systems. However, their reports are always charged for (last one I bought cost £300, say $480), and it is only until they are about a year or so old that they release the material in a less detailed format for free (like this current article).
The attitude of doing everything on the cheap is one more endemic to the independent TV production companies than to the BBC itself. Don't think TV companies skimp on research because it is expensive, research is cheap, studio time, production crews, talent, and the rest is expensive. Research is often not done properly solely due to pressure of time, which is more of an issue with the structure of the commissioning process. You're view of TV production as some Dibert-esque corporate approach is almost laughable. Independent TV companies will look to save money on everything whatever the subject matter, and are going to be more concerned on being able to sell an idea, than any short cuts they might well make.
The BBC have made a few good TV programmes on the Internet, such as Tales from the Net, and the magazince show The Net, but these have been made by the BBC Education division. These programmes don't get peak time slots, and even if they did, they would get lousy ratings. That is not the point. They were intelligent TV shows, which appealed to a niche audience. The fact that they got made at all, was purely down to "the unique way the BBC is funded", in other words, if the BBC were trying operate as a purely commercial venture, much of their best programmes would be ditched for stuff with higher ratings, and lower production values. I don't blame the BBC for not producing populist programmes that will trounce ITV's peak time offerings in the ratings, that is not what they are there for. The BBC should be concentrating on quality, and breadth of subject matter. I only hope they haven't made an unwise choice in the selection of this particular company to produce one of their new programmes, since their main oeuvre seems to be cheap TV.
If they want to get a more interesting name than "Excellent" they should ask Iain M. Banks to supply them with a few choices. His ship names include GSV No More Mr Nice Guy, GSV So Much For Subtlety, Superlifter Kiss My Ass, GCU I Thought He Was With You, GCU What Are The Civilian Applications? and GCU Funny, It Worked Last Time..., so I'm sure he could come up with a suitable alternative. As for the basic plot line the article describes, well there are plenty of reasons why the Federation might not decide to send in the hordes of ships, such as having just got over 2-3 wars in recent years, and hence a shortage of ships and personnel, not wishing to lose Federation personnel in a 'foreign' war, lukewarm support in the Federation Council, etc. The interesting thing about this kind of storyline, is that it gives a chance to have an extended storyline, with some real plot development, and get away from the 'alien/spatial anomoly of the week then hit the reset button' type of episode.
I don't want a Linux for the masses, I want a Linux for me. Interface design will ultimately fail if it only caters for the 'masses', and ignores the fact that with time, help and practice, even the most technophobic user can become proficient, or at least familiar with a product. Drop down menus may be easy to use when you don't know where something is, but after a couple of dozen times scrolling down the same list, you start to wish for a button or short command. To design everything for a lowest common denominator user is to ignore the needs of those whose require speed, flexibility and control and are willing to invest the time and effort to learn a difficult but powerful interface. This idea of having a single, consistant interface, so easy your mother can use it seems to go against the trends in modern product design towards customisablility and uniqueness. I'm quite happy for people to design interfaces easy enough for my mother to use, but why does it have to be Linux? After all, she can always buy an iMac. I'm all for designing easy to use interfaces, as long as lurking behind that easy to use, bland, facade is a potent penguin with attitude.
I think it is Catherine Cookson.
I think one of the interesting points made in the article was when he said "Bloat is the American dream: bigger, better, and everywhere all at once. Supersize it!". Are Microsoft making bloatware because they see that as what the American consumer wants? The thing is, they're selling into a global market which doesn't necessarily share the same values. Certainly here in Europe the market is one which drives small cars not huge ones, one that produces browsers like Opera and not IE5, and that doesn't supersize it! I don't want more, I want better.
You can already buy the modern equivalent of the Tulip bulb, it's called the Internet Stock. I can't lay claim to the analogy, it's been around a while, see Of Tulip Bulbs and Professional Ignorance
by Kevin Prigel
Cheers, Eddie
There is a site collecting articles by Richard Hull explaining how to build a fusor at Jochen Kronjaegers High Voltage Page. Also Tom Ligon, who wrote the Analog article you mention, produced a supplement to that article which points out many of the safety issues with building these things.