And I think FAT32 is here to stay for a long long time on just those devices. Let's see:
File system limit: 8 TB. Enough for another decade or two, at least.
File size limit: 4 GB. That's a real issue, HD movies are easily bigger. Will need a solution.
Fragmentation: not sure whether that's really an issue on solid state devices, as random seeks are about as fast as sequential seeks.
File permissions: pretty much absent. But I see that as a good thing for external storage, where userIDs are only getting in the way when carrying them between systems. And making the drive itself non-executable as a whole is trivial.
Device support: basically any device that supports external mass storage devices also supports FAT32. I can't think of any other FS that comes close to that. Even NTFS is probably far less than half: only supported by Windows PCs, maybe Linux/OSX systems too. But not by most phones, cameras, MP3 players, and other devices.
So other than the file size limit I do not really see serious downsides on FAT32, when used on an external storage device. So it's probably here to stay.
And I always thought triangulation was done using a proper directional antenna, not by walking up and down hoping to find out which direction you get stronger signals. It's just not exactly reliable. Triangulate from (at least) two points, and at the cross your transmitter is. Add a few more to compensate for possible reflections disturbing the signal. But strength fluctuations will not prevent triangulation, at all.
You forget to make a difference between "simple, low-budget, not necessarily useful arts project" and "ueber-geeky, high-budget, high-maintenance, overly complex, still probably useless project".
That said I would prefer to connect using a USB extension cable instead of holding my laptop to the wall, risking breaking everything.
The USB stick solution doesn't need a power supply; all wireless solutions do. It's also a lot cheaper to implement, especially for an artsy experiment.
Indeed/. this time around breaks it down however it can do, takes it way too seriously, and hasn't come with a single alternative that's as cheap, easy to implement, and anonymous as this one is. This assuming it has any practical value in the first place.
You seem one of the few who "understand" what's going on there. It's a joke, it's not for serious use, it's a "put it out and see what happens" thing. Typical artists. It doesn't make any practical sense - and as such I love it.
Half of the comments are about how to do it "better" wirelessly, with WiFi/BT access points or so. That's not the point (impractical and would probably out of budget anyway - plus more impractical as a power supply is needed). USB sticks are simply data deposit points, easy and carefree from the installer's pov, physically there and visible. WiFi isn't all that.
Viruses yes of course that may be a problem but how is this more dangerous than just connecting to the Internet? Or accepting a USB stick from a random friend? Other files put there are much more interesting. What do people like to share with the world at large?
And why indeed would it naturally be copyright infringing (there are better way to do that), pornographic (not too interesting to share with total strangers) or malignant software (something that breaks the connector's laptop? You will never know whether it happened in the first place. Virus? There are easier ways to distribute those - other than those that automatically copy then to other USB sticks and inadvertently end up on those glued sticks).
It's interesting, out of the ordinary, probably totally useless, and that's why I'm thinking of how to do it around my place. I think the publicity is the hardest part: how to spread the word of where they are to be found, and that preferably anonymously.
How does changing power help against triangulation?
When finding a wifi hotspot I would definitely do it the traditional way: get yourself a really directional antenna, figure out the direction the signal comes from, walk some 100m roughly perpendicular to that direction, and repeat. The cross point should be where the transmitter is. Two measurements should suffice (hence the word "triangulation"), more measurements makes it more accurate of course.
Power level in an urban environment is not reliable: interference, reflections, objects that enter line of sight (happens if the access point is not at ground level): now you see it through a window, walk closer and the line of sight is through a thick concrete wall, and power drops.
Directional antennas of course also may have a problem with reflections but doing sufficient measurements should get around that.
Sorry to pull you back to the real world... any patent that has been issued and has not expired or invalidated, is valid. It's a simple as that.
Whether you think it's a legitimate patentable invention doesn't matter. As long as the patent office thinks it is, then the patent will be issued. If you think it's not valid for whatever reason, you will have to ask a judge to invalidate it. And until they agree with you and invalidate the patent, it is valid.
Many places allow you to board a train, without having to pass through a ticket gate or anything. However there are notices posted on the platform that you must carry a valid ticket for your ride, and that you may be fined if you do not.
When you board this train without ticket, and you are caught, you will be fined. And a defence in the lines of "there were no barriers to entry, just some notice/contract about having to pay that I don't agree to" won't keep you off the hook.
Silly as their method seems to me, this web site may indeed very well be within their rights.
I stand to my point: for teaching the principles, there is no place for computers. For doing practical work they can be really useful tools, for sure. But to be able to calculate the gravitational constant for example you first have to know what it is, the principles on which your experiment you're doing is based, and how the actual calculation is done. For doing the actual calculation, the grunt work so to say, a computer is a great tool. But it's in no means a replacement for a text book - only an addition to it.
In my time they always said "when you start programming, the first thing to do is to switch off that computer. Because you first have to figure out what you want to do, and how you plan to do it. When you have that, you can start using the computer and implement it." I think this still holds true.
I never said they should be kept away from computers, just that physics and maths classes are not the place to teach how to work with a computer, and computers do not really have a place there. That're classes where you have to learn how to do maths, and how to do physics, and the way to understand what that is, is not done inside of some physics or maths simulation software.
Even calculators have don't have a place in maths classes, they are however very useful for physics, and maybe applied maths, where actual calculations are done. But most maths classes there is not even place for a calculator, as a lot of maths is not about numbers. And the parts that are about numbers are where students learn how to calculate without the use of a calculator.
Computer lessons are important too - but they belong in computer classes. Where people learn about the computer. Hopefully also the basics about hardware (what is a processor doing, what is memory for, just the basics), but also typing lessons (for some reason touch typing classes have all but disappeared, as if it's irrelevant nowadays), word processing, whatever.
Very bad interface design it is indeed. Especially for something like voting machines, where nothing should be left to chance, which should work reliably and predictably under all circumstances, and should be clear to operate for even the greatest noob.
Lingering "too long" when selecting a language? Is the system not designed to react to "touch release" instead of "touch press"? Or how about a 1-2 second delay after one button is made before the next can be registered, if the next is a new screen?
Maybe next time they should talk to the people from Apple or so... if anything they do know about simple and clear user interface design...
In the classroom there is no room for computers for studying physics or maths. Leave those to the workplace (and then likely only the workplace of university or higher educated people). E-textbooks may be an exception, but those are a mere replacement of paper books.
Before you can use said computer you will have to understand the underlying math and physics. You still have to understand the laws of physics, and how to solve an integral. Without that knowledge computers are useless, and probably only get in the way of the actual understanding of what's going on.
The second step is indeed doing physics simulations and mathematical simulations, that is where the computers come in: but only in the second part, the simulation part. The result of a simulation is only as good as the input - if the researcher doesn't understand what they are doing then they can never make a good simulation.
Not to mention that even if the computers come to the classroom (simple simulations can be illustrative), the software used and taught to the students will be outdated at best by the time they get a job. If the job uses the same simulation package in the first place. This teaching how the software works thus becomes a waste of time.
It's a step in the right direction: imagine this resolution on a 1" display. Now imagine two of those. Imagine some display holder that looks very much like a pair of glasses. And now imagine you wear those... the ultimate 3D display!
After that it should be come a relative small step to add some sensor to find the direction your head is turned and you have some great 3D VR goggles.
It may be a bit overdone for phone displays - but then the iPhone's "retina" resolution is of course based on something like arm-length viewing distance. Get closer and your eyes can manage more pixels.
This is not about investors. They are barely if at all affected by these fast trades. Investors are people that buy stocks to hold for long-term gains (either dividends or value increase).
This is about speculators. The people that try to ride the natural fluctuations to make a quick buck.
Japan has problems with space; and those all-in-ones tend to take less desk space than traditional desktops so it makes sense.
OTOH I'm surprised those all-in-ones are not more popular elsewhere, especially outside the Apple market. They indeed have limited upgrade possibilities but then nowadays that's not much done in the first place. Laptops have the same "problem" and it doesn't seem to stop people from buying those as desktop replacement. And personally I would prefer the all-in-one over a laptop that stays in the same place, as it usually has separate keyboard and mouse.
I'm running Linux, not Windows (except XP in VirtualBox for e-banking).
Makes me wonder why one would need a dedicated graphics card just for an OS. Then the OS is taking up too many resources.
In line with that: computer hardware has become hundreds if not thousands of times more powerful over the last decade or so. I still have the feeling that the software I'm running is working slower than 10 years ago.
I'm honestly not sure whether you're serious or not - it could be both.
Especially as I was thinking "why aren't these stories in the games section?". I mean who uses dedicated graphics cards, other than hardcore gamers, when nowadays all motherboards come with integrated graphics that proved you with more than enough rendering power for normal office work, web browsing and watching videos.
The only applications I can think of are games (and only the latest and most demanding ones that are not handled well enough by integrated graphics yet), and maybe some specialised CAD or so that require very high resolutions.
I can also very much imagine that the rest of us start thinking about other uses of that massive graphics computing power that is most of the times lying idle, actually just like most CPUs.
Not all people have the mindset to do programming. Actually I'd argue most people don't. I have tried TeX and it feels like programming to me. Way too big a learning curve when >95% of what I do is typing out invoices, one-page letters, and the like... even though it may give you great reports and so. If ever I have to write a report again I may consider learning TeX.
For example, in our university, most LAMP sysadmins are full time staff which you have to pay at least $45 - 55K per annum, while most WISA (Windows, IIS, SQL Server, ASP.NET) sysadmins are students which cost much less (somewhere between $13 - $18 an hour + tuition waiver if you are grad student).
Somehow I have the feeling that such a full time sysadmin can give you better quality work than part-time students. If only because they know the system, they know it's specifics, and half year later if there is a problem the same person is still around to help fix it, and they likely can fix it quicker because they have the experience with the system at hand, and likely with other systems previously in their career. Troubleshooting is more art than science, so experience is king.
OTOH hiring a new student for each job (yes that will be the case: students have time maybe now but not next month due to an exam, or they finish studies, or are on internships, or have enough money already) will waste a long time figuring out the problem at hand, possibly costing you more in time wasted (especially including the extra time needed to find the solution).
The Linux vs Windows part is totally moot in the above argument, it works both ways.
In most economies some 95% of companies and at least half of all employment is in SMEs. >90% of those companies will also never use any of the advanced features MS office has, and OOo is missing. Even sharing documents (as in: opening at the same time for editing - I once tried but failed in a recent version of OOo Calc; no idea on how MS Office is doing there) is often not done.
In large businesses I wouldn't be surprised if >90% of the users doesn't use those features. They probably don't even know it exists.
Actually I think 99% or more of the Office users wouldn't be able to name a feature that does not exist in the other suite, even if you would let them use both for a year for normal work, office and home.
We have to be realistic indeed (MS seems to be): how many people know what a macro is, and how to use it? What VB script is, or how to use it?
Slashdot Mirror
And I think FAT32 is here to stay for a long long time on just those devices. Let's see:
File system limit: 8 TB. Enough for another decade or two, at least.
File size limit: 4 GB. That's a real issue, HD movies are easily bigger. Will need a solution.
Fragmentation: not sure whether that's really an issue on solid state devices, as random seeks are about as fast as sequential seeks.
File permissions: pretty much absent. But I see that as a good thing for external storage, where userIDs are only getting in the way when carrying them between systems. And making the drive itself non-executable as a whole is trivial.
Device support: basically any device that supports external mass storage devices also supports FAT32. I can't think of any other FS that comes close to that. Even NTFS is probably far less than half: only supported by Windows PCs, maybe Linux/OSX systems too. But not by most phones, cameras, MP3 players, and other devices.
So other than the file size limit I do not really see serious downsides on FAT32, when used on an external storage device. So it's probably here to stay.
And I always thought triangulation was done using a proper directional antenna, not by walking up and down hoping to find out which direction you get stronger signals. It's just not exactly reliable. Triangulate from (at least) two points, and at the cross your transmitter is. Add a few more to compensate for possible reflections disturbing the signal. But strength fluctuations will not prevent triangulation, at all.
You forget to make a difference between "simple, low-budget, not necessarily useful arts project" and "ueber-geeky, high-budget, high-maintenance, overly complex, still probably useless project".
That said I would prefer to connect using a USB extension cable instead of holding my laptop to the wall, risking breaking everything.
The USB stick solution doesn't need a power supply; all wireless solutions do. It's also a lot cheaper to implement, especially for an artsy experiment.
Indeed /. this time around breaks it down however it can do, takes it way too seriously, and hasn't come with a single alternative that's as cheap, easy to implement, and anonymous as this one is. This assuming it has any practical value in the first place.
You seem one of the few who "understand" what's going on there. It's a joke, it's not for serious use, it's a "put it out and see what happens" thing. Typical artists. It doesn't make any practical sense - and as such I love it.
Half of the comments are about how to do it "better" wirelessly, with WiFi/BT access points or so. That's not the point (impractical and would probably out of budget anyway - plus more impractical as a power supply is needed). USB sticks are simply data deposit points, easy and carefree from the installer's pov, physically there and visible. WiFi isn't all that.
Viruses yes of course that may be a problem but how is this more dangerous than just connecting to the Internet? Or accepting a USB stick from a random friend? Other files put there are much more interesting. What do people like to share with the world at large?
And why indeed would it naturally be copyright infringing (there are better way to do that), pornographic (not too interesting to share with total strangers) or malignant software (something that breaks the connector's laptop? You will never know whether it happened in the first place. Virus? There are easier ways to distribute those - other than those that automatically copy then to other USB sticks and inadvertently end up on those glued sticks).
It's interesting, out of the ordinary, probably totally useless, and that's why I'm thinking of how to do it around my place. I think the publicity is the hardest part: how to spread the word of where they are to be found, and that preferably anonymously.
How does changing power help against triangulation?
When finding a wifi hotspot I would definitely do it the traditional way: get yourself a really directional antenna, figure out the direction the signal comes from, walk some 100m roughly perpendicular to that direction, and repeat. The cross point should be where the transmitter is. Two measurements should suffice (hence the word "triangulation"), more measurements makes it more accurate of course.
Power level in an urban environment is not reliable: interference, reflections, objects that enter line of sight (happens if the access point is not at ground level): now you see it through a window, walk closer and the line of sight is through a thick concrete wall, and power drops.
Directional antennas of course also may have a problem with reflections but doing sufficient measurements should get around that.
When you buy Windows, for example, it will include a license fee for any patent that needs licensing to use it.
Android like other OSS is passed around freely, without controls, so users have to take care of that separately.
That's also why Windows can play MP3 out of the box, but Red Hat not.
Sorry to pull you back to the real world... any patent that has been issued and has not expired or invalidated, is valid. It's a simple as that.
Whether you think it's a legitimate patentable invention doesn't matter. As long as the patent office thinks it is, then the patent will be issued. If you think it's not valid for whatever reason, you will have to ask a judge to invalidate it. And until they agree with you and invalidate the patent, it is valid.
Many places allow you to board a train, without having to pass through a ticket gate or anything. However there are notices posted on the platform that you must carry a valid ticket for your ride, and that you may be fined if you do not.
When you board this train without ticket, and you are caught, you will be fined. And a defence in the lines of "there were no barriers to entry, just some notice/contract about having to pay that I don't agree to" won't keep you off the hook.
Silly as their method seems to me, this web site may indeed very well be within their rights.
I stand to my point: for teaching the principles, there is no place for computers. For doing practical work they can be really useful tools, for sure. But to be able to calculate the gravitational constant for example you first have to know what it is, the principles on which your experiment you're doing is based, and how the actual calculation is done. For doing the actual calculation, the grunt work so to say, a computer is a great tool. But it's in no means a replacement for a text book - only an addition to it.
In my time they always said "when you start programming, the first thing to do is to switch off that computer. Because you first have to figure out what you want to do, and how you plan to do it. When you have that, you can start using the computer and implement it." I think this still holds true.
I never said they should be kept away from computers, just that physics and maths classes are not the place to teach how to work with a computer, and computers do not really have a place there. That're classes where you have to learn how to do maths, and how to do physics, and the way to understand what that is, is not done inside of some physics or maths simulation software.
Even calculators have don't have a place in maths classes, they are however very useful for physics, and maybe applied maths, where actual calculations are done. But most maths classes there is not even place for a calculator, as a lot of maths is not about numbers. And the parts that are about numbers are where students learn how to calculate without the use of a calculator.
Computer lessons are important too - but they belong in computer classes. Where people learn about the computer. Hopefully also the basics about hardware (what is a processor doing, what is memory for, just the basics), but also typing lessons (for some reason touch typing classes have all but disappeared, as if it's irrelevant nowadays), word processing, whatever.
Very bad interface design it is indeed. Especially for something like voting machines, where nothing should be left to chance, which should work reliably and predictably under all circumstances, and should be clear to operate for even the greatest noob.
Lingering "too long" when selecting a language? Is the system not designed to react to "touch release" instead of "touch press"? Or how about a 1-2 second delay after one button is made before the next can be registered, if the next is a new screen?
Maybe next time they should talk to the people from Apple or so... if anything they do know about simple and clear user interface design...
In the classroom there is no room for computers for studying physics or maths. Leave those to the workplace (and then likely only the workplace of university or higher educated people). E-textbooks may be an exception, but those are a mere replacement of paper books.
Before you can use said computer you will have to understand the underlying math and physics. You still have to understand the laws of physics, and how to solve an integral. Without that knowledge computers are useless, and probably only get in the way of the actual understanding of what's going on.
The second step is indeed doing physics simulations and mathematical simulations, that is where the computers come in: but only in the second part, the simulation part. The result of a simulation is only as good as the input - if the researcher doesn't understand what they are doing then they can never make a good simulation.
Not to mention that even if the computers come to the classroom (simple simulations can be illustrative), the software used and taught to the students will be outdated at best by the time they get a job. If the job uses the same simulation package in the first place. This teaching how the software works thus becomes a waste of time.
Depends on your viewing distance.
It's a step in the right direction: imagine this resolution on a 1" display. Now imagine two of those. Imagine some display holder that looks very much like a pair of glasses. And now imagine you wear those... the ultimate 3D display!
After that it should be come a relative small step to add some sensor to find the direction your head is turned and you have some great 3D VR goggles.
It may be a bit overdone for phone displays - but then the iPhone's "retina" resolution is of course based on something like arm-length viewing distance. Get closer and your eyes can manage more pixels.
This is not about investors. They are barely if at all affected by these fast trades. Investors are people that buy stocks to hold for long-term gains (either dividends or value increase).
This is about speculators. The people that try to ride the natural fluctuations to make a quick buck.
Japan has problems with space; and those all-in-ones tend to take less desk space than traditional desktops so it makes sense.
OTOH I'm surprised those all-in-ones are not more popular elsewhere, especially outside the Apple market. They indeed have limited upgrade possibilities but then nowadays that's not much done in the first place. Laptops have the same "problem" and it doesn't seem to stop people from buying those as desktop replacement. And personally I would prefer the all-in-one over a laptop that stays in the same place, as it usually has separate keyboard and mouse.
It would be great if my desk is that big... space comes at a premium in this part of the world.
I'm running Linux, not Windows (except XP in VirtualBox for e-banking).
Makes me wonder why one would need a dedicated graphics card just for an OS. Then the OS is taking up too many resources.
In line with that: computer hardware has become hundreds if not thousands of times more powerful over the last decade or so. I still have the feeling that the software I'm running is working slower than 10 years ago.
No matter what that A4-sized page still doesn't fit in a readable manner on the monitor(s)...
I'm honestly not sure whether you're serious or not - it could be both.
Especially as I was thinking "why aren't these stories in the games section?". I mean who uses dedicated graphics cards, other than hardcore gamers, when nowadays all motherboards come with integrated graphics that proved you with more than enough rendering power for normal office work, web browsing and watching videos.
The only applications I can think of are games (and only the latest and most demanding ones that are not handled well enough by integrated graphics yet), and maybe some specialised CAD or so that require very high resolutions.
I can also very much imagine that the rest of us start thinking about other uses of that massive graphics computing power that is most of the times lying idle, actually just like most CPUs.
Not all people have the mindset to do programming. Actually I'd argue most people don't. I have tried TeX and it feels like programming to me. Way too big a learning curve when >95% of what I do is typing out invoices, one-page letters, and the like... even though it may give you great reports and so. If ever I have to write a report again I may consider learning TeX.
For everything else, OO is doing just fine.
For example, in our university, most LAMP sysadmins are full time staff which you have to pay at least $45 - 55K per annum, while most WISA (Windows, IIS, SQL Server, ASP.NET) sysadmins are students which cost much less (somewhere between $13 - $18 an hour + tuition waiver if you are grad student).
Somehow I have the feeling that such a full time sysadmin can give you better quality work than part-time students. If only because they know the system, they know it's specifics, and half year later if there is a problem the same person is still around to help fix it, and they likely can fix it quicker because they have the experience with the system at hand, and likely with other systems previously in their career. Troubleshooting is more art than science, so experience is king.
OTOH hiring a new student for each job (yes that will be the case: students have time maybe now but not next month due to an exam, or they finish studies, or are on internships, or have enough money already) will waste a long time figuring out the problem at hand, possibly costing you more in time wasted (especially including the extra time needed to find the solution).
The Linux vs Windows part is totally moot in the above argument, it works both ways.
In most economies some 95% of companies and at least half of all employment is in SMEs. >90% of those companies will also never use any of the advanced features MS office has, and OOo is missing. Even sharing documents (as in: opening at the same time for editing - I once tried but failed in a recent version of OOo Calc; no idea on how MS Office is doing there) is often not done.
In large businesses I wouldn't be surprised if >90% of the users doesn't use those features. They probably don't even know it exists.
Actually I think 99% or more of the Office users wouldn't be able to name a feature that does not exist in the other suite, even if you would let them use both for a year for normal work, office and home.
We have to be realistic indeed (MS seems to be): how many people know what a macro is, and how to use it? What VB script is, or how to use it?
At the zoom level provided directly by the link I see "(C)2010 Google - map data (C)2010 Google"
Zooming out you get the name you give (probably aerial photography again) specifically for the imagery.
Zoom out a little more and it's all copyright Google again.
Even further zoomed out (satellite level): "imagery (C)2010 TerraMetrics."
And beyond that it appears to be pure mapping.
Google appears to have made those photos themselves. See the copyright notices on the bottom of the images.