Hi, I work as a graphic designer and I can tell you making a really good UI design is tough. Just try to keep it as simple as possible and make sure that absolutely everything on your page is there for a purpose.
I would go with the "pay a graphic design student to do it" route if you can (talk to the teachers at your local school. A lot of students will do this kind of work for free to help them complete course work.)
If you do it yourself this book might help. "Homepage Usability 50 websites deconstructed" by Jakob Neilsen & Marie Tahir (ISBN: 0-7357-1102-x) It is a bit dated but goes into detail about how successful websites breakdown things like screen real estate and use of effective graphics.
Ok, a google search for "cool names" gave me a link to the top 100 cool dog names http://www.dog-names-and-more.com/Cool-Dog-Names.html Some of the better ones that I saw include: Adonis abracadabra cruton jalapeno jitterbug zigzag Maybe Nasa should just pick one at random. Or if they really want some media coverage they could call it Britney Spears.
I tip my hat to you sir, I was just going to post the same thing. I read the summary and thought to myself, "does this work with piss?" I am sorry that you managed to post about it first.
Seriously, though, this could be a very revolutionary technology for areas that have a lot of rainfall and not much sun. I my area you could put rings of this stuff under the trees and power the whole place.
Maybe iRobot will put this into their Roombas and allow us to get rid of some of the IR gates that they use now. I don't know how many times I've stepped on one of them after they migrate to the center of the room in the dead of night.
Also, does anyone else find it disturbing that they also make military robots?
OK, I had to go into (ugh) a Wal-mart just a few hours ago (in my town they are literally the only store open before 9AM, that sells any kind of car products. Unless I want to pay a gas station $100 dollars a gallon for oil.)
I was lured into the electronics dept. by a big wall of shiny things. I happened to notice that they had their HD-DVD and Blu-Ray movies set up on the end of one of the isles. I asked one of the passing mouth-breathers with a wally world badge if this was all of the HD movies they had, to which he replied that this was indeed the entire selection.
The display consisted of about 8 columns and and 10 rows, I think. Blu-Ray had fully 6 of the columns and part of another. HD-DVD shared the rest of the space with some valentines day movies.
I decided to look at the selection of hardware that was available for each format. There were two Blu-Ray players (three if you count the PS3's in the video game section.) HD-DVD had exactly one player on offer. They did not even carry the Xbox 360 add on HD-DVD drive anymore. It was true that the HD-DVD player had had its price slashed, but I noticed that the Sony Blu-Ray player had also been marked down by $100.
The point of this little story is that unfortunately Wal-Mart has a huge influence on the average American. I know a lot of people that spend most of their shopping dollars at the store (not because they like it, but because they have shitty jobs that don't pay them enough to shop anywhere else.) If either of these two formats is ever going to become more than a niche product it becomes very very important for them to have the support of the large retailers. The fact that it looks like Wal-Mart is squeezing HD-DVD off the shelves means that if the format isn't dead already then it is not too healthy.
Of course the Blu-Ray section was not too large either, unless you count the PS3 games (they are Blu-Ray discs, do we have to count them?)
OK, I got a PS3 just after they started making the 80GB model. I bought it primarily as a game system (mainly because I like the PS controller. It's just personal preference, don't kill me.) After about a week I removed the DVD player from the entertainment center and have just been using the PS3 for all of my non-PC media needs (also have most of my music moved over now.)
I am really surprised how fast the thing became the default media player in the living room. My wife loves it because she can watch movies, play music, watch Youtube and do a bit of light web surfing without changing the video/audio settings on the stereo or TV (something she hated.)
It does a fine job of playing both DVD and blu-ray movies. We can keep using our existing DVD collection (we are heavily invested in the format with over 3000 discs) and also have the option to watch Blu-ray discs. We have not bought any Blu-ray discs and only own the free ones that came with the system, but we have been renting alot of them from blockbuster. We do the whole Blockbuster online thing instead of Netflix because you get the free in-store rentals with your mail rentals. We only rent new releases from the store and tend to go every Tuesday. Alot of the time the movies we like (you know the ones that make you think or have less than 1 fart joke per minute) are already rented on DVD by the time we make it to the store. so, we have been getting the movies on blu-ray instead as these are more often still on the shelves (our blockbuster stores rent blu-ray exclusively. I do not know if this is a nationwide policy. It is also odd that they do not rent PS3 games.)
So, after a few months of owning a PS3 I think that I will probably be pretty happy with the Blu-ray format.
Another thing that most people don't seem to be talking about is the fact that as far a Sony is concerned Blu-ray disc sales are not necessarily tied to movie sales. The game discs for the PS3 are ALL Blu-ray, even stuff that doesn't need to be. Oblivion is a good example. The PC DVD has about 8GB or so on it. It would have fit on a DVD for the PS3 as well, but it's on a BD instead. All of the movie sales could go away and Sony would still have a market for the BD discs (they would not be very happy as they would have to pay the rest of the Blu-ray group for the use of the tech, but they would still be selling millions of the discs as long as the PS3 was still going. I don't think HD-DVD has this kind of alternate market going for it (I know they have PC(BTW when I say PC I mean personal computer, not Windows machine, I don't care what OS you use) drives, but the market for these must be pretty small.)
I think it's because most Mac users that buy the new stuff are actually, literally, made of money. They think of it as getting rid of some dead skin instead of overpaying.
Just so everyone knows I do have a Mac, and use it, but it's old enough that I only have to have money dandruff.
Well, it finally happened. I am going to rant about some obscure bit of scifi on slashdot.
The rough storyline for the machine part of the dune books was: Man creates thinking machines as servants -> man becomes idle and lets the machines do all the work -> Bad men (The Titans) Create a computer virus/rewrite of the central machine intelligence (The Evermind) to take control of the machines and thereby mankind -> The Evermind is given too much control because the Titans are lazy too and it takes over for itself with the goal of making everything in the universe run in synchronized harmony (it's not allowed to kill the Titans, but it uses logic to just enslave them instead) -> Man get some religious fervor and destroys the machines (The Butlurian Jihad) (or so they think) -> Man outlaws all thinking machines -> lots of time and spice stuff happens including the breeding of super humans -> The machines, which have been hiding out beyond the range of human colonization come back to destroy/enslave man. They have also infiltrated mankind with shape changers who have re-introduced thinking machines for use in mans warships, leaving man seemingly defenseless when the machines take control of the ships -> Really super-duper-superman saves both machines and man so that they can all play nice together.
Sorry, it just seemed like some people hadn't really even read the books at all. Also I left out most of the detail for thousands of years of the timeline.
I think one of the best marketing directions for this ship(if it works) would be a kind of "Sky Cruise Ship." Lots of people would probably pay to be able to take slow cruises over land and sea. think of the great views as you cruise over the Caribbean and then later over South American jungles and then on to Hawaii or Alaska. Nice trip, I think.
I can see this being huge if the company can get a deal to add these to laptops. I would love to have a tiny projector built into my laptop. No more carrying around all those cords to hook up to someone else's TV/projector for a presentation.
On the other hand I would not want to see an office meeting with 10+ of these. It's hard enough to get that many people to share one screen already, just imagine if they all had a projector to throw up their power point vomit with.
Yes, NBC, CBS, ABC, etc do not yet transmit in digital here. They all share one tower up on the top of the one of the local mountains. I don't know who owns the tower, but I believe it is a private venture, as we all keep getting letters threatening to cut off service if we don't all pay fees to the owners. I go up there all the time in the summer and the thing looks like it has been sitting waiting to fall apart for about 40 years. the public station (PBS aka OPB/Create) Is actually the only one that has put any money into the area in recent years. they built a brand new tower and installed quite a large roomful of networking equipment at the local university.
I have had a digital tuner for about two years now. I was really jazzed when i heard that the networks were going to start transmitting in digital and/or HD. I ran out got the tuner for my HDTV and waited for something to watch. To date the only channels i get are the two OPB (Oregon public Broadcasting) channels. I have looked into it and from what I have heard none of the other networks plan on upgrading the transmission equipment in the area. So, it looks like I will not have anything to watch even after 2009. Anyone else have this problem in rural areas?
Ok, where does this "fry's is too expensive" thing come from. I live in near a fry's and have lived near two others, they always have a better (or at least the same price) on everything I am looking for. This, of course, only covers prices from other brick and mortars. I can usually find a better price online, but when I need something fast they seem to be one of the best choices. And the fact that they have some really really obscure stuff that I would have to go to two or three other places to get at the same time (ingredients for a blenderphone? what other store has bread boards, blenders, LEDs, and a phone.) I think the key to surviving the place is to go in knowing what you are looking for. Also, the store is big, but not that big. i go in about five times a year and know pretty much exactly where everything is. the only exception are the ad items, which are always place at seemingly random locations. (like a geek treasure hunt:) Just my thoughts on the subject.
Well another year gone and no flying cars (at least none I can afford.) I was promised flying cars by this time, can't they at least get me a rocket pack:)
Ok, kidding aside. The statement about Linux gaining some ground is not totally out of line (although i don't think MS or Apple are quaking in their boots.) I have noticed a higher than normal percentage of people that hang out at our local library and browse the internet on a laptop all day using some variety of Linux. I have asked a few of them why they are using it and the main answer does seem to be that it is free and "surfs" the interwebs.
I used to play eve and from what I remember they run two server clusters. One is the test cluster where all the new patches/content/whatever is tested by players and devs before it's added to the regular cluster. So it seems to me that the bug must have been added to the new patch after testing was done. The test server was populated by mostly hard core/ tech savvy eve fans who's main goal in life was to be the first to report any and all bugs, so I can't imagine something like this making it far on the test cluster.
I have at various times been both a Verizon and a Comcast customer. I must say that having to choose between the two for fast internet service is like being give the choice of having you right arm and leg cut off or your left arm and leg (not talking price per say.) You are pretty screwed no matter what you pick.
Any body else have the dubious honor of having been with both of these companies?
I remember watching a documentary that came out sometime in the late 80's/90's called "From Star Wars to Jedi." In it Lucas said that the reason that the first (IV, V, VI) three movies were so good was that so much time was spent developing the story and characters instead of on the visual effects.
Fast forward to Episode I and it becomes clear that Lucas has been replaced by an opposite version of himself from an alternate universe. There is no more storytelling and most of the movie is spent zooming around expensive CG settings.
Yay, I mixed a Star Trek reference into a gripe about Star Wars episode I:)
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but it was my understanding that e-paper couldn't handle video yet. So isn't the refresh rate one frame every time you hit the next page button? Makes it even easier to use the lens.
You could use just about any kind of halfway decent digital camera to take long exposures (when I say long I mean 1/5 of a second or so.) You get the same image as then scanner and there would be no way for the E-paper to tell what was soaking up all the photons that were reflected off of it.
Well, since Raytheon has been in the EM radiation business for a long time I'm sure they can just sell an attachment that shifts the frequency from "pain induction" to "fry bacon" to deal with pesky monks or drugged out zombies. I worked in the military with Raytheon microwave equipment and let me tell you it does not take long at all to totally fry something in front of a dish. we used to do a demonstration for people who insisted on walking in front of our equipment. We would tape a lightbulb to the end of a pole and hold it up in front of the dish. even on low power the bulb lights up and eventually burns out. Another variation was to hold up a hot dog and watch it fry (I preferred this demo as it left me with a tasty snack.) No one walked in front of the dish twice.
I believe the worst thing about this weapon is the fact that it probably causes enough pain to totally snap a mind in a matter of minutes. This makes extreme behavioral conditioning possible in a relatively short amount of time. The quickest way that we humans learn something is to associate the lesson with pain. And what if you aren't interested in keeping the person functional or alive? Do you have a political enemy that has been giving you trouble? No problem, just snatch them up lock them in a room with a bottle of whatever medication they are already legitimately taking , turn on the pain induction and tel them the only way to make it stop is to take the whole bottle. Wait for them to give in, and they will give in rather soon I think. Dump the "poor suicidal person" in a cheap hotel room. See, no mess and no more problem. Intense unrelenting pain can make a person do just about anything to make it stop.
I agree and I don't,
Let me explain. I agree that it is not in any way practical to ship that many people off planet. I disagree that establishing an exo-infrastructure would not lead to easing of the population problem here on earth. I think (notice, please, I am saying what I think based on all the info i have ATM, feel free to tell me about anything I missed) that as more and more resources from space became available on earth the standard of living would go up. When the standard of living goes don't the birth rates tend to level off or even go negative (ala some parts of Europe). I am not saying that we would be able to solve the population problem instantly but maybe in the long run.
Of course if we add to many new bits of matter to the planet we might destabilize the orbit, but that's another discussion:) Asimov, I believe, wrote a story along those lines.
This is the main problem I have with the Itel offering. A 2 hour battery life is not very good at all. I use a battery guzzling toshiba m-105 for school work and it still gets much better than 2 hours (granted it has a larger battery, but it does more too.)
Most children in developing countries that are able to attend school are going to want more than 2 hours of use from a computer. They might have a place to plug it in once a day or maybe they won't. How are they supposed to deal with a constant need to plug in a laptop? The OLPC "charge-it-yourself" solution seems to be a much better fit for most of these kids.
I do think that the Itel offering would be great for developed countries where electrical power is available everywhere. $200/ student in public schools is quite a chunck of the per-head money that the school is alloted, but you could make up for it by triming back on other computing products. For example: Instead of buying/ upgrading current classroom computers @ approx $600 each you could get three of the Intel lappy's. If a clasroom was slated to get 4 new computers that would work out to 12 of the Itel machines. Even if evry kid didn't get their own 12 is much better than 4. I remember fighting to use an Apple IIe when we had only 6 of them for a class of 21 and the teacher insisted that papers must be typed.
I think it was Spider Robinson in his short story "Melacholy Elephants" that said authors don't create anything they discover. All an author or composer does is write down one possible combination of words/ musical notes ( I am in no way trying to diminish what they do, I certainly don't have the patientce for it, but the same result could be arrived at, after a somewhat longer interval, with a computer spilling out non-repeating random combinations.) Since there are a finite number of both things then there is also a finite, if very large, number of combinations of those things. If we give people a perpetual right to exploit their discoveries then we will eventually run out of combinations and it would probably be sooner than we think too.
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Hi, I work as a graphic designer and I can tell you making a really good UI design is tough. Just try to keep it as simple as possible and make sure that absolutely everything on your page is there for a purpose.
I would go with the "pay a graphic design student to do it" route if you can (talk to the teachers at your local school. A lot of students will do this kind of work for free to help them complete course work.)
If you do it yourself this book might help. "Homepage Usability 50 websites deconstructed" by Jakob Neilsen & Marie Tahir (ISBN: 0-7357-1102-x) It is a bit dated but goes into detail about how successful websites breakdown things like screen real estate and use of effective graphics.
Hope this helps a bit.
Ok, a google search for "cool names" gave me a link to the top 100 cool dog names http://www.dog-names-and-more.com/Cool-Dog-Names.html
Some of the better ones that I saw include:
Adonis
abracadabra
cruton
jalapeno
jitterbug
zigzag
Maybe Nasa should just pick one at random. Or if they really want some media coverage they could call it Britney Spears.
I tip my hat to you sir, I was just going to post the same thing. I read the summary and thought to myself, "does this work with piss?" I am sorry that you managed to post about it first.
Seriously, though, this could be a very revolutionary technology for areas that have a lot of rainfall and not much sun. I my area you could put rings of this stuff under the trees and power the whole place.
Maybe iRobot will put this into their Roombas and allow us to get rid of some of the IR gates that they use now. I don't know how many times I've stepped on one of them after they migrate to the center of the room in the dead of night.
Also, does anyone else find it disturbing that they also make military robots?
OK, I had to go into (ugh) a Wal-mart just a few hours ago (in my town they are literally the only store open before 9AM, that sells any kind of car products. Unless I want to pay a gas station $100 dollars a gallon for oil.)
I was lured into the electronics dept. by a big wall of shiny things. I happened to notice that they had their HD-DVD and Blu-Ray movies set up on the end of one of the isles. I asked one of the passing mouth-breathers with a wally world badge if this was all of the HD movies they had, to which he replied that this was indeed the entire selection.
The display consisted of about 8 columns and and 10 rows, I think. Blu-Ray had fully 6 of the columns and part of another. HD-DVD shared the rest of the space with some valentines day movies.
I decided to look at the selection of hardware that was available for each format. There were two Blu-Ray players (three if you count the PS3's in the video game section.) HD-DVD had exactly one player on offer. They did not even carry the Xbox 360 add on HD-DVD drive anymore. It was true that the HD-DVD player had had its price slashed, but I noticed that the Sony Blu-Ray player had also been marked down by $100.
The point of this little story is that unfortunately Wal-Mart has a huge influence on the average American. I know a lot of people that spend most of their shopping dollars at the store (not because they like it, but because they have shitty jobs that don't pay them enough to shop anywhere else.) If either of these two formats is ever going to become more than a niche product it becomes very very important for them to have the support of the large retailers. The fact that it looks like Wal-Mart is squeezing HD-DVD off the shelves means that if the format isn't dead already then it is not too healthy.
Of course the Blu-Ray section was not too large either, unless you count the PS3 games (they are Blu-Ray discs, do we have to count them?)
OK, I got a PS3 just after they started making the 80GB model. I bought it primarily as a game system (mainly because I like the PS controller. It's just personal preference, don't kill me.) After about a week I removed the DVD player from the entertainment center and have just been using the PS3 for all of my non-PC media needs (also have most of my music moved over now.)
I am really surprised how fast the thing became the default media player in the living room. My wife loves it because she can watch movies, play music, watch Youtube and do a bit of light web surfing without changing the video/audio settings on the stereo or TV (something she hated.)
It does a fine job of playing both DVD and blu-ray movies. We can keep using our existing DVD collection (we are heavily invested in the format with over 3000 discs) and also have the option to watch Blu-ray discs. We have not bought any Blu-ray discs and only own the free ones that came with the system, but we have been renting alot of them from blockbuster. We do the whole Blockbuster online thing instead of Netflix because you get the free in-store rentals with your mail rentals. We only rent new releases from the store and tend to go every Tuesday. Alot of the time the movies we like (you know the ones that make you think or have less than 1 fart joke per minute) are already rented on DVD by the time we make it to the store. so, we have been getting the movies on blu-ray instead as these are more often still on the shelves (our blockbuster stores rent blu-ray exclusively. I do not know if this is a nationwide policy. It is also odd that they do not rent PS3 games.)
So, after a few months of owning a PS3 I think that I will probably be pretty happy with the Blu-ray format.
Another thing that most people don't seem to be talking about is the fact that as far a Sony is concerned Blu-ray disc sales are not necessarily tied to movie sales. The game discs for the PS3 are ALL Blu-ray, even stuff that doesn't need to be. Oblivion is a good example. The PC DVD has about 8GB or so on it. It would have fit on a DVD for the PS3 as well, but it's on a BD instead. All of the movie sales could go away and Sony would still have a market for the BD discs (they would not be very happy as they would have to pay the rest of the Blu-ray group for the use of the tech, but they would still be selling millions of the discs as long as the PS3 was still going. I don't think HD-DVD has this kind of alternate market going for it (I know they have PC(BTW when I say PC I mean personal computer, not Windows machine, I don't care what OS you use) drives, but the market for these must be pretty small.)
I think it's because most Mac users that buy the new stuff are actually, literally, made of money. They think of it as getting rid of some dead skin instead of overpaying.
Just so everyone knows I do have a Mac, and use it, but it's old enough that I only have to have money dandruff.
Well, it finally happened. I am going to rant about some obscure bit of scifi on slashdot.
The rough storyline for the machine part of the dune books was: Man creates thinking machines as servants -> man becomes idle and lets the machines do all the work -> Bad men (The Titans) Create a computer virus/rewrite of the central machine intelligence (The Evermind) to take control of the machines and thereby mankind -> The Evermind is given too much control because the Titans are lazy too and it takes over for itself with the goal of making everything in the universe run in synchronized harmony (it's not allowed to kill the Titans, but it uses logic to just enslave them instead) -> Man get some religious fervor and destroys the machines (The Butlurian Jihad) (or so they think) -> Man outlaws all thinking machines -> lots of time and spice stuff happens including the breeding of super humans -> The machines, which have been hiding out beyond the range of human colonization come back to destroy/enslave man. They have also infiltrated mankind with shape changers who have re-introduced thinking machines for use in mans warships, leaving man seemingly defenseless when the machines take control of the ships -> Really super-duper-superman saves both machines and man so that they can all play nice together.
Sorry, it just seemed like some people hadn't really even read the books at all. Also I left out most of the detail for thousands of years of the timeline.
I think one of the best marketing directions for this ship(if it works) would be a kind of "Sky Cruise Ship." Lots of people would probably pay to be able to take slow cruises over land and sea. think of the great views as you cruise over the Caribbean and then later over South American jungles and then on to Hawaii or Alaska. Nice trip, I think.
I can see this being huge if the company can get a deal to add these to laptops. I would love to have a tiny projector built into my laptop. No more carrying around all those cords to hook up to someone else's TV/projector for a presentation.
On the other hand I would not want to see an office meeting with 10+ of these. It's hard enough to get that many people to share one screen already, just imagine if they all had a projector to throw up their power point vomit with.
Yes, NBC, CBS, ABC, etc do not yet transmit in digital here. They all share one tower up on the top of the one of the local mountains. I don't know who owns the tower, but I believe it is a private venture, as we all keep getting letters threatening to cut off service if we don't all pay fees to the owners. I go up there all the time in the summer and the thing looks like it has been sitting waiting to fall apart for about 40 years. the public station (PBS aka OPB/Create) Is actually the only one that has put any money into the area in recent years. they built a brand new tower and installed quite a large roomful of networking equipment at the local university.
I have had a digital tuner for about two years now. I was really jazzed when i heard that the networks were going to start transmitting in digital and/or HD. I ran out got the tuner for my HDTV and waited for something to watch. To date the only channels i get are the two OPB (Oregon public Broadcasting) channels. I have looked into it and from what I have heard none of the other networks plan on upgrading the transmission equipment in the area. So, it looks like I will not have anything to watch even after 2009. Anyone else have this problem in rural areas?
Ok, where does this "fry's is too expensive" thing come from. I live in near a fry's and have lived near two others, they always have a better (or at least the same price) on everything I am looking for. This, of course, only covers prices from other brick and mortars. I can usually find a better price online, but when I need something fast they seem to be one of the best choices. And the fact that they have some really really obscure stuff that I would have to go to two or three other places to get at the same time (ingredients for a blenderphone? what other store has bread boards, blenders, LEDs, and a phone.)
I think the key to surviving the place is to go in knowing what you are looking for. Also, the store is big, but not that big. i go in about five times a year and know pretty much exactly where everything is. the only exception are the ad items, which are always place at seemingly random locations. (like a geek treasure hunt:)
Just my thoughts on the subject.
Well another year gone and no flying cars (at least none I can afford.) I was promised flying cars by this time, can't they at least get me a rocket pack:)
Ok, kidding aside. The statement about Linux gaining some ground is not totally out of line (although i don't think MS or Apple are quaking in their boots.) I have noticed a higher than normal percentage of people that hang out at our local library and browse the internet on a laptop all day using some variety of Linux. I have asked a few of them why they are using it and the main answer does seem to be that it is free and "surfs" the interwebs.
I used to play eve and from what I remember they run two server clusters. One is the test cluster where all the new patches/content/whatever is tested by players and devs before it's added to the regular cluster. So it seems to me that the bug must have been added to the new patch after testing was done. The test server was populated by mostly hard core/ tech savvy eve fans who's main goal in life was to be the first to report any and all bugs, so I can't imagine something like this making it far on the test cluster.
I have at various times been both a Verizon and a Comcast customer. I must say that having to choose between the two for fast internet service is like being give the choice of having you right arm and leg cut off or your left arm and leg (not talking price per say.) You are pretty screwed no matter what you pick.
Any body else have the dubious honor of having been with both of these companies?
I remember watching a documentary that came out sometime in the late 80's/90's called "From Star Wars to Jedi." In it Lucas said that the reason that the first (IV, V, VI) three movies were so good was that so much time was spent developing the story and characters instead of on the visual effects.
Fast forward to Episode I and it becomes clear that Lucas has been replaced by an opposite version of himself from an alternate universe. There is no more storytelling and most of the movie is spent zooming around expensive CG settings.
Yay, I mixed a Star Trek reference into a gripe about Star Wars episode I:)
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but it was my understanding that e-paper couldn't handle video yet. So isn't the refresh rate one frame every time you hit the next page button? Makes it even easier to use the lens.
You could use just about any kind of halfway decent digital camera to take long exposures (when I say long I mean 1/5 of a second or so.) You get the same image as then scanner and there would be no way for the E-paper to tell what was soaking up all the photons that were reflected off of it.
To your right is a torch...
To your left is another passage....
In front of you is a Martian Cave Troll...
What do you do?
Use Mineral Sampling Device.
On what?
troll
Unknown command: troll
The troll hits you for 12 damage, you are dead.
Well, since Raytheon has been in the EM radiation business for a long time I'm sure they can just sell an attachment that shifts the frequency from "pain induction" to "fry bacon" to deal with pesky monks or drugged out zombies. I worked in the military with Raytheon microwave equipment and let me tell you it does not take long at all to totally fry something in front of a dish. we used to do a demonstration for people who insisted on walking in front of our equipment. We would tape a lightbulb to the end of a pole and hold it up in front of the dish. even on low power the bulb lights up and eventually burns out. Another variation was to hold up a hot dog and watch it fry (I preferred this demo as it left me with a tasty snack.) No one walked in front of the dish twice.
I believe the worst thing about this weapon is the fact that it probably causes enough pain to totally snap a mind in a matter of minutes. This makes extreme behavioral conditioning possible in a relatively short amount of time. The quickest way that we humans learn something is to associate the lesson with pain.
And what if you aren't interested in keeping the person functional or alive? Do you have a political enemy that has been giving you trouble? No problem, just snatch them up lock them in a room with a bottle of whatever medication they are already legitimately taking , turn on the pain induction and tel them the only way to make it stop is to take the whole bottle. Wait for them to give in, and they will give in rather soon I think. Dump the "poor suicidal person" in a cheap hotel room. See, no mess and no more problem.
Intense unrelenting pain can make a person do just about anything to make it stop.
I agree and I don't, Let me explain. I agree that it is not in any way practical to ship that many people off planet. I disagree that establishing an exo-infrastructure would not lead to easing of the population problem here on earth. I think (notice, please, I am saying what I think based on all the info i have ATM, feel free to tell me about anything I missed) that as more and more resources from space became available on earth the standard of living would go up. When the standard of living goes don't the birth rates tend to level off or even go negative (ala some parts of Europe). I am not saying that we would be able to solve the population problem instantly but maybe in the long run. Of course if we add to many new bits of matter to the planet we might destabilize the orbit, but that's another discussion:) Asimov, I believe, wrote a story along those lines.
Most children in developing countries that are able to attend school are going to want more than 2 hours of use from a computer. They might have a place to plug it in once a day or maybe they won't. How are they supposed to deal with a constant need to plug in a laptop? The OLPC "charge-it-yourself" solution seems to be a much better fit for most of these kids.
I do think that the Itel offering would be great for developed countries where electrical power is available everywhere. $200/ student in public schools is quite a chunck of the per-head money that the school is alloted, but you could make up for it by triming back on other computing products. For example: Instead of buying/ upgrading current classroom computers @ approx $600 each you could get three of the Intel lappy's. If a clasroom was slated to get 4 new computers that would work out to 12 of the Itel machines. Even if evry kid didn't get their own 12 is much better than 4. I remember fighting to use an Apple IIe when we had only 6 of them for a class of 21 and the teacher insisted that papers must be typed.
I think it was Spider Robinson in his short story "Melacholy Elephants" that said authors don't create anything they discover. All an author or composer does is write down one possible combination of words/ musical notes ( I am in no way trying to diminish what they do, I certainly don't have the patientce for it, but the same result could be arrived at, after a somewhat longer interval, with a computer spilling out non-repeating random combinations.) Since there are a finite number of both things then there is also a finite, if very large, number of combinations of those things. If we give people a perpetual right to exploit their discoveries then we will eventually run out of combinations and it would probably be sooner than we think too.