In that case the ??? appears to be a large multinational corporation making millions of products that you can sell to a consumerist public. I think for once ??? has been succesfully explained.
The problem with strategy three is that it only gives a total time of T/4 if all the videos are the same length. Let's say that there's 4 videos of 30 minutes, 1 hour, 1 hour 30 and 2 hours length. Assume that one core can encode one video at real time (i.e. take 1 hour to encode 1 hour's footage), the times taken by each strategy are:
1) 30 minutes + 1 hour + 1 hour 30 + 2 hours = 5 hours 2) 5 hours / 4 = 1.25 hours 3) Core 1 finished in 30 minutes - then sits idle for 1 hour 30.
Core 2 finished in 1 hour - then sits idle for 1 hour.
Core 3 finished in 1 hour 30 - then sits idle for 30 minutes.
Core 4 finished in 2 hours. No idle time.
Total time to completion of job: 2 hours (45 minutes slower than option 3 with 3 hours idle core time wasted).
Given the option between options 1 and 3 I'll choose number 3. If, however, someone offered me option 2 I'd take that in preference to number 3.
Mr Robson said that HP should be penalised for that but HP has already been penalised. The cost difference between sending an envelope and sending that mountain of boxes (presumably by courier) would not be insignificant.
It's kind of like an automatic fine for stupidity.
For the obligatory Slashdot car analogy, you can tell what type of oil goes in a car, how fast it goes and how the headlights work by working with a car so why can't you just build one?
That's a pretty standard layout for many archival places. Library stacks are nearly always like this - there's too many journals and books in most large libraries for open shelf access for all so the older stuff is graded by size and put into stacks. Often, you can approach nearly complete space usage with well designed shelves and identical volume sizes. Tours of the Bodleian library book stacks in Oxford are available to members of the University. They're really something to behold.
Call me a pedant but that isn't freeze drying. It's just freezing in liquid nitrogen and breaking into a fine powder (because the frozen body is fragile).
Proper freeze drying involved placing the frozen item under a vacuum (below the pressure of the triple point of water, 612Pa) and applying gentle heat. The item will remain frozen (see this phase diagram of water) and water is driven off by sublimation and condensed on a cold trap (usually at least -60C) leaving a completely dry item (be it a scientific sample, food item or body).
But what about the use of distilled hydrocarbons as an energy source? Is that safe? My understanding is that these fuel tanks can explode under certain circumstances. Might not an automobile accident be sufficient to cause such an explosion?
The main problem I have with Offline mode with Steam is it is impossible to start in offline mode (for whatever reason you choose) if you have an active internet connection. You have to disable the ethernet link or pull the cable out before starting steam. Surely you should be able to choose offline mode whenever you want? The case in point would be if you want to play a game now but not wait to download an update that you don't want or need.
The difference between a person in the car and a person on the phone is that the person in the car is also aware of the prevailing road situation. If the road is busy and you're trying to pull out, they'll likely shut up and let you concentrate. At the very least they won't mind if you stop speaking whilst you make the move.
The person on the phone will continue to talk during all of this and it would be considered rude of you to stop talking (think of a business discussion over the phone).
That's the reason that a phone is more distracting than a passenger. Not that I'm saying that passengers aren't at all distracting.
I've not read up on the specific genetics involved here but theoretically, yes. These would be subject to the same selective pressures though.
If you end up with a half and half mouse then it will face half the selective pressure against it. Either way, it will be removed from the gene pool. By selective pressure and killing of the mutant mice or by dilution to the point of irrelevance amongst the whole mouse population.
A mouse like this will face a penalty for its increased speed. For a start, they will require more food (a scarce enough resource for any wild mouse) and since PEPCK is involved in gluconeogenesis (the manufacture of glucose from precursors such as protein and lipids) they will likely have a harder time laying down the fat needed to survuive the colder months.
Also, since these are albino mice they will likely face increased threat from predation (like most other albino animals) and thus face a significant selective pressure against them.
Hopefully the scientists won't let them escape but if they do, natural selection should lead to them being removed from the gene pool quite quickly.
What industrial processes use CO2 on any scale though? We carbonate a few drinks and make a bit of dry ice but nothing on any scale. I'd imagine that the CO2 output from a few coal fired power plants is enough to provide the world with Coca Cola yet no-one collects that CO2. It's cheaper to make more on site by whatever means they need (e.g. burning stuff or fermentation etc.)
The reason that the drop in emissions is not 100% is because the engine can run on either petrol or hydrogen. Presumably the petrol-running time is responsible for the smaller CO2 emissions.
I can't comment on all your points but your link is misleading.
That refers to roaming charges to make calls i.e. the charges made when you use your phone abroad; and does not mention texts at all. Texts vary in price between about 12p each (for the expensive pay-as-you-go tarrifs) to only a couple of pence each on the more elaborate contracts.
Indeed it's not. I've always been a little dissapointed with the economy of the smart car given it's tiny size. I drive a Vauxhall Corsa with a tiny 1 litre engine but it still manages to have enough room for four people and get 55+ mpg.
If I was going to drive a car that has so little practical use (apart from in very heavily built up areas where a car that small is useful) then I'd want an economy much higher than that.
Slashdot Mirror
1- nokia
2- dell
3- sony
4...
5 ???
6 Profit!
In that case the ??? appears to be a large multinational corporation making millions of products that you can sell to a consumerist public. I think for once ??? has been succesfully explained.
I thought it was quite easy to rember actually.
And not crashing...
The problem with strategy three is that it only gives a total time of T/4 if all the videos are the same length. Let's say that there's 4 videos of 30 minutes, 1 hour, 1 hour 30 and 2 hours length. Assume that one core can encode one video at real time (i.e. take 1 hour to encode 1 hour's footage), the times taken by each strategy are:
1) 30 minutes + 1 hour + 1 hour 30 + 2 hours = 5 hours
2) 5 hours / 4 = 1.25 hours
3) Core 1 finished in 30 minutes - then sits idle for 1 hour 30.
Core 2 finished in 1 hour - then sits idle for 1 hour.
Core 3 finished in 1 hour 30 - then sits idle for 30 minutes.
Core 4 finished in 2 hours. No idle time.
Total time to completion of job: 2 hours (45 minutes slower than option 3 with 3 hours idle core time wasted).
Given the option between options 1 and 3 I'll choose number 3. If, however, someone offered me option 2 I'd take that in preference to number 3.
Mr Robson said that HP should be penalised for that but HP has already been penalised. The cost difference between sending an envelope and sending that mountain of boxes (presumably by courier) would not be insignificant.
It's kind of like an automatic fine for stupidity.
Mercury is non-magnetic. There's a reason they're using *iron* nanoparticles in oil. There's no way they'll ever be able to use mercury.
For the obligatory Slashdot car analogy, you can tell what type of oil goes in a car, how fast it goes and how the headlights work by working with a car so why can't you just build one?
That's a pretty standard layout for many archival places. Library stacks are nearly always like this - there's too many journals and books in most large libraries for open shelf access for all so the older stuff is graded by size and put into stacks. Often, you can approach nearly complete space usage with well designed shelves and identical volume sizes. Tours of the Bodleian library book stacks in Oxford are available to members of the University. They're really something to behold.
Not to mention highly confusing once inside and ringed by a darstadly innescapable staircase that's been baffling would-be thieves for many a year.
Remids me of the old joke:
Q) How do you make a cat go woof?
A) Douse it in petrol
Call me a pedant but that isn't freeze drying. It's just freezing in liquid nitrogen and breaking into a fine powder (because the frozen body is fragile).
Proper freeze drying involved placing the frozen item under a vacuum (below the pressure of the triple point of water, 612Pa) and applying gentle heat. The item will remain frozen (see this phase diagram of water) and water is driven off by sublimation and condensed on a cold trap (usually at least -60C) leaving a completely dry item (be it a scientific sample, food item or body).
You wouldn't need to tell the difference if you used sporks more often. Although dangerous cross breeds and alcohol probably shouldn't mix...
But what about the use of distilled hydrocarbons as an energy source? Is that safe? My understanding is that these fuel tanks can explode under certain circumstances. Might not an automobile accident be sufficient to cause such an explosion?
The main problem I have with Offline mode with Steam is it is impossible to start in offline mode (for whatever reason you choose) if you have an active internet connection. You have to disable the ethernet link or pull the cable out before starting steam. Surely you should be able to choose offline mode whenever you want? The case in point would be if you want to play a game now but not wait to download an update that you don't want or need.
The difference between a person in the car and a person on the phone is that the person in the car is also aware of the prevailing road situation. If the road is busy and you're trying to pull out, they'll likely shut up and let you concentrate. At the very least they won't mind if you stop speaking whilst you make the move.
The person on the phone will continue to talk during all of this and it would be considered rude of you to stop talking (think of a business discussion over the phone).
That's the reason that a phone is more distracting than a passenger. Not that I'm saying that passengers aren't at all distracting.
Not well, generally.
Sony (the publicly listed parent company) - Fallen from 150 euros per share to around 37 euros per share now
Warner Music Group - Fallen from a peak of around 24 euros in mid 2006 to under 4 euros now
Vivendi - Fallen from a high of around 80 euros in 2001 to around 30 euros now although they have been climbing steadily since 2003.
EMI - Similar trend to Vivendi but still fallen from a high of 12 euros; to only 3.70 euros now.
Make of that what you will but it hasn't been an easy ride for investors in the music industry over the last few years.
Almost similar to the Nachos/Cheese problem from xkcd recently
I've not read up on the specific genetics involved here but theoretically, yes. These would be subject to the same selective pressures though.
If you end up with a half and half mouse then it will face half the selective pressure against it. Either way, it will be removed from the gene pool. By selective pressure and killing of the mutant mice or by dilution to the point of irrelevance amongst the whole mouse population.
A mouse like this will face a penalty for its increased speed. For a start, they will require more food (a scarce enough resource for any wild mouse) and since PEPCK is involved in gluconeogenesis (the manufacture of glucose from precursors such as protein and lipids) they will likely have a harder time laying down the fat needed to survuive the colder months.
Also, since these are albino mice they will likely face increased threat from predation (like most other albino animals) and thus face a significant selective pressure against them.
Hopefully the scientists won't let them escape but if they do, natural selection should lead to them being removed from the gene pool quite quickly.
What industrial processes use CO2 on any scale though? We carbonate a few drinks and make a bit of dry ice but nothing on any scale. I'd imagine that the CO2 output from a few coal fired power plants is enough to provide the world with Coca Cola yet no-one collects that CO2. It's cheaper to make more on site by whatever means they need (e.g. burning stuff or fermentation etc.)
The reason that the drop in emissions is not 100% is because the engine can run on either petrol or hydrogen. Presumably the petrol-running time is responsible for the smaller CO2 emissions.
I can't comment on all your points but your link is misleading.
That refers to roaming charges to make calls i.e. the charges made when you use your phone abroad; and does not mention texts at all. Texts vary in price between about 12p each (for the expensive pay-as-you-go tarrifs) to only a couple of pence each on the more elaborate contracts.
That sounds a lot like the Nominative Determinsm coined by the New Scientist magazine. There's plenty of good examples at the wikipedia page.
Indeed it's not. I've always been a little dissapointed with the economy of the smart car given it's tiny size. I drive a Vauxhall Corsa with a tiny 1 litre engine but it still manages to have enough room for four people and get 55+ mpg.
If I was going to drive a car that has so little practical use (apart from in very heavily built up areas where a car that small is useful) then I'd want an economy much higher than that.
The most efficient Toyota would have to be the Prius which according the same site gets around 46 mpg