I have already implemented a prioritized message queue of sorts. All systems send their status. For systems that have boolean status on/off they represent a bit in a binary number. All of these devices combine to for a complete binary number. This is then converted into hexadecimal. All the other systems that have ranges of values, temperature (inside and out), pressure (inside and out), accelerometer(X and Y), etc are also converted from their native number system into hexadecimal. Through a mathematical computation these hexadecimal numbers are merged in such a way that there is no data loss.I then pass the data in intervals as 16 digit hexadecimal numbers. The LabVIEW program then unpacks the hexadecimal packets and presents the information in graphical form and records all the information so that it can be played back. Sort of a black box. The commands sent to the sub from LabVIEW follow the same communication method using hexadecimal representation. When I first came up with the idea of using HEX there were several people that were against it. Now that it is in use everyone brags on it. Several people working on other projects have had me help them develop similar communication protocols.
Of course, many of the autonomous functionality is controlled by the microcontrollers and subsystems. I am at the point to where I need the upgrade I spoke about earlier to get much more out of them. I am planning on using at least 4 32 bit Freescale microcontrollers. They have a lot of additional functionality built into the chips themselves. I will have 2 chips that have ALUs and will be capable or running embedded BSD Unix. The other 2 microcontrollers will pretty much take over the data acquisition and command parsing and the linux systems will form a highly available master control system. This is where the autonomous systems will be developed and ran. The Fresscale microcontrollers are very versatile with power management units that allow you to control the clock to reduce MHz when the system does not need to run at top speed. They have 3 power settings top speed, medium speed, and sleep mode. I will be able to put the subsystem microcontrollers into sleep mode and put the BSD chips into low speed when inactive to conserve energy and control heat. They have on dye Ethernet simplifying and speeding up the communications systems drastically. The current system runs through wireless Ethernet but it requires additional IC that converts TTL to Ethernet and then a WiFi bridge takes it wireless. The TTL portion really limits the speed at which data can be transmitted and received. I'll still need the bridge but since the microcontrollers have true Ethernet we won't be tied to TTL speed any longer. Also, intercommunication between the controllers will be greatly increased since they have PCI bus. If I can get help with the driver I would like to run IP over PCI. If not I'm sure I can you the low level PCI calls for intercommunication. As you can see I am very excited about getting this upgrade and could talk forever about it. So, I'll just say that once I get the new board integrated into the system things will really start to advance at an accelerated rate.
The video is sent as stream that LabVIEW converts through a A/D converter and displays the video on the control panel while recording it to disk. It's setup so that everything can be played back. Single frames can be snapped and saved as gif images. All the video is saved but it's also setup so that segments of the video can pulled out and saved as mpg. The video data that is stored in the black box style is in RAW data format.
The accelerometer can display where it is currently located on a map on the control panel or display a route of where it has been. Data from the accelerometer also displays speed and of course acceleration. The data is used to graphical display the sub's current orientation. The pressure gauge data is used to keep an eye on structural integrity (leaks) since the sub is pressurized. I have not had th
I am building a robotic min submarine for my masters thesis in computer science. I have learned a lot about fluid dynamics and systems control is hostile environments. The remote monitoring and control systems have been developed in G using National Instruments' LabVIEW while the mini sub itself is currently utilizing multiple 8 bit Microchip microcontrollers. Though even as I write this the design process has started for a prefab PCB board that will see these chips replaced by 32 bit Freescale (Motorola) MCUs capable of extending the processing power to a level that will present the capability of added functionality beyond anything we have even speculated upon.
At this point I am just getting to the point were I can remote control the mini-sub and it only has a minimalistic set of autonomous functions, such as calculating the power reserve requirements and automatically surfacing when power levels are such that just enough power remains to surface. Sounds simple but there is a lot of calculations that go into this since this is not a stationary object. I have just started coding what will become the basis for computer controlled / assisted navigation. Teaching a system to control the 8 control motors and ballast system is proving to be a daunting task. But I'm getting there. With a bit more help this project could be at a 1st level prototype phase in a few months. Alone with my current funding, mostly from my mentor / physics professor credit card and my own meager contributions, it will take 2 to 3 years to reach that point.
My immediate future plans are to add a tethered buoy platform for mounting of high gain antennas for communications and solar panels arrays for trickle charging of the battery systems.
The biggest problem is power. If I could go the route I want I would install a radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) powered by 238Pu. 1kg of fuel could provide me with over 100 watts of continuous power for nearly a century. 238Pu (yes plutonium) is fairly safe (for a radioactive material) because in the very unlikely series of specific events that could result in a fission reaction it would become unstable and fizzle out before a chain reaction could occur. It is completely unusable for any kind of weapons grade nuclear device.
An RTG generates electricity from the heat produced from the natural decay of the radioactive material. With 1kg of 238Pu I would have to dissipate nearly 400 watts of heat for ever 100 watts of electricity produced but that's not difficult when your payload is cruising around the ocean depths.
I have been researching issues surrounding extreme pressure also. I am thinking that the best way to offset pressure would be to have the cavities of the submarine filled with a dense liquid like one of 3m's non-conductive fluorocarbons that has a low melting point but a high boiling point. This would add tremendous structural integrity to the sub and could be used as an alternative heat sink for the RTG in times when the fluorocarbon would be cooler than the surrounding water, such as close to the surface or the ocean floor were thermal venting is present.
All I need is a modest research grant from a university that is not afraid to enter into communications with the nuclear regulations committee and I would be ready to take this to the next step. A successfully prototype of a semi-autonomous mini-sub with the specifications I have described would have endless military and commercial applications and could bring major recognition to any university whole would sponsor (seek sponsorship) for such a project. I work in the lab that is 2 doors down from the nuclear storage facility at my current university but I have been informed that the future of my project could be in jeopardy if I seriously brought up the idea of constructing and powering a functional RTG.
Deep sea exploration is virtually wide open. Hardly any of our oceans have been surveyed especially at any significant depths. Working in this arena is one of the most excitin
So, if I get a grid of solar panels on my roof and I do actually start saving money on my electricity. What do I get out of the deal when my neigbors start signing up listing me as their referal?
I love Apple and i dislike Microsoft for all the reasons that I love Apple.
[RANT]
But, with that said I'll hang onto my Cingular HTC 8125 because it's a full PDA with phone capability. It has Wifi, Bluetooth, EDGE, GPRS, and I can install programs that other people have written for it, not just who Microsoft decides codes good enough and can afford to pay their licensing fees. Plus, I may be in the minority here but I write my own programs for my pocket PC phone.
So, unless Apple does a 360 and comes out with a SDK and full integration into XCODE and lets anyone who wants to develop applications for it then they can keep their fancy dancy ipod phone PDA wanna be thingy! Oh, and they won't because once Apple makes a stupid mistake they stick with it no matter how much it costs them.
People who pay would pay $500 for a phone are going to be the people replacing their pocket pc phones that currently run windows mobile 5.0. They are used to paying $5 to $10 per app/game and have a handful of favorites. If Electronic Arts writes programs for the iPhone they are going to want at least $50 for it. Also, I imagine many people who currently have pocket pc phones have written some of their own applications for it. So, if you want a phone, a media player, and a PDA then you will need to carry around at least 2 devices, your PDA and your iPhone. Unless your PDA is a pocket pc phone then forget the iPhone. And the worst part is that if you do decide to carry both your iPhone and a PDA your iPhone will have twice the memory and 10 times the computing power of your PDA but at least it will have WiFi and Bluetooth so you can uhmmm, hmmmmm, well never mind forget that because why would a phone need those?
Another shoot yourself in the foot move Apple has done with the iPhone is that they are not going to allow cell providers to subsidize the it, like all the other phones on the market are today. Currently Cingular is the only provider lined up to support it and they are going to have a hard to marketing it at $500 and since they can't subsidize it then they won't be able to lock you into a 2 year commitment the way they like. After all the rebates and subsidized pricing I paid $99 for my Cingular HTC 8125 and I got a $50 reward (visa) card and 1 gb mini SD card for it. So, the way I look at it is that Cingular gave me the phone so that I would use their service for 2 years. Fine, that's the way I like it. I am with Cingular anyways because they have the most subscribers (at least in my part of the world) so the majority of my calls are in network. So, the only way Cingular could match such an offer would be to subsidize their service and charge full retail for the phone which in most cases would mean giving the customer 2 years free service if they buy the phone and sign up for 2 years! You're kidding right Steve?
And I feel so strongly about it I'll rephrase my original statement in simple terms:
IT'S JUST A PHONE! It is NOT A PDA / PHONE!
Besides the oooh see how cool this thing looks, until I drop it a couple times, factor this is no better than a razor. I've dropped my 8125 at least 2 dozen times and it still works like a charm. A friend of mine has an iPod Nano and luckily he got the extended warranty because he has had to send it in 6 times in the last 4 months already! I was going to get one of those (the nano) until I saw it in person and realized that I couldn't go a week without breaking it. From what I have seen from the iPhone it's no different except even with an extended warranty how can you be without your phone while Apple is fixing it all the time? Yes touch screens look cool and all but they are prone to scratches and eventually cracks. People baby their brand new expensive toy for a certain period of time, with some correlation as to how much they paid, but at some point people start using a phone they way they use all their phones tossing it here and there and dropping it. How many times have you dropped your phone on the parking lot or sid
I agree, certainly if a mutation does not improve a life form's ability to meet it's needs or desires then it will not be recognized by other members of it's species as an attractive trait that would encourage breading amongst those with that mutation. It could have the opposite effect and deter breading with those members that have that mutation.
So, I retract my statement about "any primate, and eventually all animals". Of course the domestic cat has no such incentive as it knows to meow and it will be fed or petted, it needs and desires are met. This is just one example and I doubt that many, if any species, are on an evolutionary track that would encourage higher reasoning. Thank you for pointing that out.
With that said it appears that this article points out that "these" chimpanzees are demonstrating what seems can best be described as a basic understanding of cause and effect. They have on their own figured out that if you take the time and sharpen a stick, rather than using any dull one you find lying around, that your success rate goes up for killing your prey. Since it is the females that are doing this then unless being a more successful hunter is an unattractive trait to a male chimpanzee then it seems only logical that the males would be more inclined to mate with the females that are using this understanding of cause and effect. If this is the case and this trait is passed onto future generations and becomes incorporated into the species as a whole then a process will have started that encourages mutations that improves upon cognitive abilities. If you sharpen a rock enough it becomes even a deadlier weapon than a sharp stick, and doesn't break or become dull as much as the sharp stick. If you form a group, all with sharp rocks, you can take down even larger prey. Those with better communication skills make better grouping partners. Over time this could develop into a language. If another species ever develops a sophisticated enough language and humans are able to learn that language then humans will begin rewarding them for communicating with us. This could remove their primary need for hunting with that of communicating. Once humans start communicating with another species above a level of "BAD DOG" then the possibility for their cognitive skills to increase at an exponential rate would be present. Soon enough we could reach a common ground that would enable them to learn concepts at a much more accelerated rate than it took humans to learn. This is because we had to figure it all out for ourselves whereas such a species would benefit from our existing knowledge.
Now, who is to say if all these what ifs and maybes come to pass but the exciting part is that for the first time aside from man, it has been observed that a species has the potential through evolution to progress through a chain of events that could lead to ever increasing cognitive abilities. This in itself seems to warrant research to track such a species progress over time.
Although I am very excited about this discovery and it's potential ramifications I also worry about how humans would interact with a species that had an intelligence level such that we could communicate with them. Would we enslave them (out of greed)? Would we exterminate them (out of fear)? Or would we encourage them to strive to reach their full potential (out of compassion and a mutual bond)? Though, humans being the most intelligent species, that we know of, I wouldn't count on our compassion. When presented with something new our first instinct is generally motivated by fear or greed. If such an epoch ever occurs I hope that humans will have evolved enough to incorporate traits that make us more understanding and compassionate. If not, then pity those creatures for developing skills that we can exploit. Even worse pity them if they develop skills that, out of fear, we cannot tolerate.
On a side note, when you said 'primates are vastly outnumbered by "split-hoof" mammals' would this still be the case if humans
I have a friend that wants to purchase a new laptop. I suggested Apple but she is more familiar with Windows and doesn't want to pay the extra $500 or so for Apple hardware, even though it can now run Windows.
Anyways, It looks like she will be going with Dell for her laptop, which unfortunately now comes with your choice of Genuine Windows Vista Home Basic, Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium, or Genuine Windows Vista Business.
One of the main reasons she didn't consider Apple is because she does not want to learn a different operating system and although similar to XP Vista is a different operating system. With all the bad press Vista has been getting and me passing on information to her about which applications she has that she will not be able to run or will have to do modifications to make run (like Apple's iTunes) she does not want to run Vista.
My question is if she buys a new Dell laptop, like their Inspiron 1501, will we be able to install Windows XP on it, completely wiping out Vista, thus getting rid of all the issues of Vista and keeping her learning curve to a minimum? Or has Microsoft required vendors to put some "screw you, you will upgrade, resistance is futile!" chip in the system that will keep people from doing what I have suggested?
I think this is mislabeled as inkless printer and should be labeled something like "reusable paper printer".
This concept is fairly similar to the thermal printers which also require special paper. The images on them do wear off after a period of time as well. Have you ever pulled out your best buy four-year extended warranty, with attached receipt, only to notice the receipt is completely blank? I think most warranties will cover the item without the receipt if it has, and they have recorded, a serial number. Though I doubt anyone ever thought of reusing thermal paper.
I don't know about you but I have had limited success reusing paper in a printer. Many times I will have a huge printed document I no longer need and on occasion I have attempted to reuse the paper, or at least the side that I have not printed on, with limited success. I no longer do this because of the increase of paper jams and the like. I cannot imagine trying to run the same piece of paper through a printer 50 times!
This looks like something that will never go into commercial production as with most things people are most concerned about costs and though ink is not cheap, at least not how it is packaged for printers, it looks as if the price is being shifted from the ink to the paper.
It has been publicly know for quite some time that companies that produce printers do not make their profit from the printers themselves but from the ink that the printer uses. If you purchase an ink jet printer from your local Wal-Mart more than likely you are paying less for the printer than it cost to produce but the company figures that over time they will make up the cost by selling you ink. If this type of printer were to become commercially available then I imagine the same pricing model would continue and the paper would be the expensive part.
So, you have a printer with expensive paper, that can be reused, but only if you are VERY careful with it, don't fold it, cut it, put it in your pocket, etc. No thanks, I'll stick with my overpriced ink and do what I want with the cheap paper and when I'm done with it I'll put it in file 13. I'll be long dead before trees go extinct and I won't get whatever disease you get after long term exposure to the chemicals this paper is coated with that will only be discovered 10 years after people have been handling this stuff on a daily basis.
He has been in detention for 3 years? If convicted would he get credit for the time he has already spent in an Australia detention center? If so, do the same rules apply for fines as they do here in the US? For those that don't know you get credit for ~50 per day while incarcerated. If so, then he has already earned over $50,000 towards his fine. If they do take in account the time served in Australia I wouldn't be surprised if sentenced, even the maximum amount, that he would not get off for time served.
If I were him I would discuss this with my lawyer and then in turn with the district attorney to negotiate a Plea bargain to enter a plea of nolo contendere, saving the court the time and expense of a lengthy trial, in return for a sentence of time served and a few years of unadjudicated probation.
I have seen people get less for worse. I don't see why the taxpayers should have to pay to hold someone like this when they obviously present no danger to society.
If the theory of evolution proves to be true then it would be egotistical of us "humans" to think that evolution will not continue in all animals. At some point any primate, and eventually all animals, would develop to a point of where it would not only be self aware but intelligent. The type of intelligent life that many people speculate may exist on other planets. The type of intelligence that we currently posses. To me the more important question is what humans are going to evolve into? I have seen examples of human evolution in my lifetime. Females maturing (puberty) earlier and earlier each generation. Males becoming taller and taller each generation. All one needs to do to see this is to compare their high school year book with that of their father or grandfathers. You will notice the increased height and breast development earlier in later generations. I have heard attempts at explaining this by people stating that this has happened because of the introduction of steroids into the beef that we consume. Modern medicine has increased human lifespans. Not to long ago having an individual reaching the age of 100 was very rare and it is now becoming common place. Compare this to the middle ages when the average lifespan was 25 years.
As for the person who posted that we should teach animals to be vegetarians and is doing his part by feeding his cat corn should realize that unless the corn is 100% organic then it is more than likely that this corn has had animal genetics introduced into the corn's DNA to make it more hardy and resistance to disease. Corn is a good example because if you look at how corn looked when it was first discovered and what it looks like now that it has evolved through unnatural (human) selection and now genetic engineering. The lines between plant and animals is becoming blurry. With human intervention there is no telling what life will look like in the centuries to come. Although I stated unnatural (human) selection I do not personally believe that anything exists that is unnatural since humans are a product of nature anything we do or create is therefore natural regardless how organic or synthetic it may be. If a beaver makes a hut then it's considered natural where if a human builds a cabin out of wood (the same material used in the beaver hut) then it's considered man made. If we are going to make such a distinction then the beaver hut is unnatural because it's beaver made.
So, those that would argue that human involvement perverts natural selection I would respond that humans are not outside of nature but a part of it and therefore anything we do contributes to natural selection.
I am also one of a small minority that believe that evolution and creationism can and do coexist. The evidence of evolution is overwhelming but who can say that evolution is not just one of God's tools. Give it up to my god above, my one and only true love!
Nick Powers
P.S. Off topic but a question I have not received a good answer for is that if man could create life, from scratch, using all materials that contain no element of life would man be that's creatures God? If not God, by definition we would be their creator. For me it's semantics since God is the creator of this and any other universe(s). I would like to hear what people think. Can an entity be a God of a species they created if they themselves have a God that created them?
It depends on what kind of data you are processing. If you are doing 32 bit calculations then you would want to compile your code for 32 bit, assuming your processor can handle it, as most 64 bit CPU can. If you are using 64 bit calculations then of course the 64 bit CPU would out perform the 32 bit as you would have to do additional coding steps to simulate 64 bit on 32 bit architecture, multiple 32 bit operations with bit shifting and the like.
If you took code that was written for 32 bit operations and compiled that code for 64 bit then the results would be very bad. The same issues where present when computers made the move from 16 to 32 bit.
I would assume that the code written in these tests are 32 bit. If so, then when evaluating CPU one would have to take into consideration if they needed 64 bit calculations. Also, before jumping the gun and making a rash decision some research would need to be taken to see if your operating system of choice supports true 64 bit operations. Many of the so called 64 bit operating systems only use the 64 bit CPU to support memory beyond 4GB.
I like apple. I am writing this post using Firefox on OS X. With that said IMHO Apple has had many opportunities to make real strides when it comes to competing with the likes of Microsoft. But it seems like every time they get close they throw in a gotcha that makes their efforts have little if any impact.
The most recent example of this is the upcoming iPhone. The keynote that centered on this device made me giddy with anticipation. I carry a Cingular 8125 phone with Microsoft mobile 5.0 running on it. After seeing all the cool features and hearing Jobs state that this ran OS X (regardless of how you define that on a mobile setting) made me look forward to putting my phone on eBay and spending way to much on an iPhone. But, only days later it was announced that there would be no 3rd party development on the phone because it was not a PDA but simply a phone. Well, I'm going to continue to be careful and take care of my 8125 because that is a deal breaker for me.
Some people will say that I am not the average consumer for this product but I would beg to disagree. It's true that most people don't want to download software, beyond ring tones, not to mention writing their own software for their phone but this group of people don't pay $500+ for their phone. Most of them get them for free or pay a subsidized price by locking into a 2 year plan with their cellular provider. So Apple is left with the people that have more money than sense and just want to have a pretty phone to stick in their suit pocket and Apple's largest growing market, the computer guru. How many people, like me, switched to Apple because they finally took their head out of the sand when they released an OS with a command line? And surprisingly not any command line but a POSIX Unix based command line! I have heard from many of these people. Yes many apple people have never opened their terminal application never mind putting it in their dock like I have but the majority of these people are Apple's existing customer base. I like many people launched terminal and smiled with glee when the found a friendly bash prompt staring back at them.
This Unix savvy culture is Apple's largest growing market. I find it silly to see all these switching commercials aimed towards windows when the majority of the people I have seen convert are people who were running Linux on their desktop. Many believe as I do that with all Linux's great attributes it's still not ready for hard core desktop users. Linux a great server, running headless, performing all kinds of demanding tasks at far greater speeds than competing operating systems running on the same architecture. This is something to be proud of but I consider myself a pretty savvy computer guy and although I have tried many GUI on Linux nothing comes close to Windows not to even mention OS X. With that said most every move that apple makes seems to ignore this market and focus on the idea that their consumer base just wants it to work and be pretty.
Back to the iPhone. Who is going to pay $500+ for this thing? And yes they will have to pay full price because they are by contract not allowing the cellular providers to subsidies phones like they have been doing for years now. It's not going to be John Q Public upgrading his Razor. It is going to be people wanting to replace their pocket PC phone running Microsoft mobile 5.0. But, once again apple shoots themselves in the foot by stating that this is a phone and not a pocket PC phone, even though it has WiFi, bluetooth, faster CPU, more memory, and storage space than any pocket PC phone in the market today. And, since by their statement that it is a phone and not a PC there is not going to be any tools (i.e. a cross compiler and modified XCode IDE). Unless Apple wises up iPhone is going to be shelved along with the long forgotten Apple Newton.
Apple must underestimate the tenacity of their new market share. This is the same group that has been a big part of the proliferation of Linux so that you can run it on any
These comments are based on C++, though i have used Perl I have been doing much more C++ coding lately.
The XML files are text based. Text I/O has to be read in sequentially whereas you can write out an entire block of allocated memory to the disk in binary format. The advantages of this is that you can read & write that data to and from disk 50 to 100 times faster than reading it in sequential from a text file.
What advantages does XML provide at the expensive of data i/o speed loss?
In my graduate studies (computer science Texas A&M U @ Commerce,TX) I have been working on a mini robotic submarine that uses accelerometers to calculate acceleration (of course), speed, and location. We also have a similar arm that was donated to the Physics department but I have not had a chance to play with it yet.
Anyways, my question is why use wii controllers? You could order a dozen accelerometers from DigiKey for far far less than the price of the wii controller, assuming you can purchase them without buying a complete wii system. Not only would it be cheaper but you could place the accelerometers on your arm, hand, shoulder, etc in locations that most mimic the articulating parts of the actual robotic arm.
Only thing I can guess is that by using the wii controller, and it being so new, that you get that whole 3lit3 haxor effect because wii and it's use of accelerometers is new for game controllers. Looks like it worked, getting their site slashdotted and all.
On a side note I did use a wireless xbox (not 360) controller to control the mini robotic submarine. Did you know that those controllers are USB, Microsoft just used a non standard port? It was my intention to have events in the sub send data back that would control the force feedback in the controller but I have not been able to figure out how to send data to the gamepad to activate that function. If anyone has suggestions please let me know (sshscp@gmail.com). I am using the XBCD driver on a windows XP laptop running a program written in G (Labview 8.2.0).
With this stuff you have to watch what you call things. If something is completely remote controlled then you can't technically call it a robot. At minimum a robot has to be able to act autonomously or perform pre-programed tasks. Currently the sub has a pre-programed task - when battery levels reach a preset point control ballasts and pumps to quickly return to the surface and then go into power consumption mode. It sounds like this arm is a robot since the controller activates a series of pre-programmed movements. But, if it were completely controlled by the accelerometers then it would be a remote controlled arm and not a robot.
Future plans for the sub are to include autonomous mapping of it's environment. As for the arm I was thinking of working on it so that it could play chess, possibly against live opponents over the web (with a webcam). Do you think people would want to play it?
Anyways good job on the arm guys! I can't get enough of these micro controller applications. I got the bug quick after having code that I wrote actually do something in the real world for the first time. Maybe I'll get something slashdotted someday;)
Nick Powers
Why POOR coding is REWARDED!!!???
on
Why Software is Hard
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· Score: 2, Interesting
Software development is hard because of a misconception that knowing how to program in a particular programing language makes someone a good developer. Just because someone can learn a foreign language (i.e. an American who's native language is English can learn to read and write in French) but it does not mean that person will be able to write a good novel in that language.
I'm currently working towards my Masters in computer science and although I don't intend to ever work as a software developer programing concepts make up the majority of the curriculum. The majority of the graduate program, in computer science, is made up of international students (the university is in the US) of whom most hail from India. After working with these students for some time now I have learned that they obtained their undergraduate degrees from India where computer science is taught in theory. This means that they got their degree without ever touching a computer. Combine that with the fact that they have never owned a computer themselves makes me doubt the quality of their education. For those of you that know some C++ you will understand their level of knowledge when I say that they enter the program without understanding the concept of pointers (dynamically allocated memory instead of compile time arrays), structures, or object oriented programing concepts. Luckily many of these students do not make it past the remedial courses of the graduate program but most of them switch to the IT program under the business college of the university. Unfortunately I am sure many of these students go on to be programmers in their country where there is a big demand due to the trend to outsource coding projects to their country.
I have spoken with other students in similar programs at different universities and this seems to be a widespread scenario. So with people that barely understand the language they are programing in are being asked to write programs for consumer use. It seems that very little time goes into educating students on how to program. Here I am using the word "program" to mean given a problem utilize one's analytical skills and artistic ability (yes programing takes artistic ability) to conceive a solution and write it in a programing language in such a way that the language compiler and linker produces an executable program. With this in mind you add the fact that virtually no effort goes into teaching people how to move beyond this basic level of understanding of specific programing languages to a point where any competent programmer would consider them to be fluent in the language they are developing in. Would anyone buy a book written by someone that is not fluent in the language that the book is written in? I think not.
Beyond the fact that the majority of programs are being written by people who are not competent, by any standard, is the fact that programming is not just an application of knowledge of a specific language but an abstract concept that is created from the individuals understanding of the problem and their ability to conceive a solution entirely from within their own mind. This is where the artistic ability comes in. If you give 100 people a problem and ask for a solution in the form of a program you will get 100 different solutions. Out of those 100 people only a handful of the solutions will meet the standards of what could be considered efficient coding.
Consider that the programmers that I am speaking of here are people that entered into a post graduate computer science program. These people do not make up the majority of programmers out there. What makes up the body of the worlds programmers are people that have not attempted to progress to this level. Most enter the workforce after receiving their undergraduate degree and many have not received any higher education at all. It is my belief that aside from what can be taught to an individual programming requires an inherit ability within that individual for them to be able to produce what I would call quality code.
Out of all of Microsoft's products it seems that Office is one of the few Microsoft applications that actually win because of it's merits. Word is the best consumer targeted word processor. This seems to apply to Excel as well. Access is best in what it does. It's not going to be the best of bread for real server based databases but for smaller footprint requirements it's ease of use and versatility (it's user interface) makes it the clear choice. I switched to Apple when they went to OS X and have not regretted it. The one thing that I miss is something equivalent to Access. My thoughts on the matter as to why there is not a version of Access for OS X is that Microsoft understands that out of their entire product line there is no clear competitor for Access and thus not releasing a version for OS X will keep a large group of people using Windows rather than switching. Office is one of the few Microsoft products that is worth paying for IMHO.
If you know of an application that provides what Access does that one can run on OS X, or Linux (as most Linux code can easily be ported to OS X) please let me know as I have searched far and long. And what I am talking about here is not speed of the actual database engine or some other such metric but rather the concept of views and the graphical interface that allows such quick development of complex SQL searches and report generation.
I can see that what I am saying here might cause my posting to be labeled as troll or some other such derogatory adjective but I am not looking to post this in an attempt to elicit such responses but to give my opinion on a subject that I have spent time researching. If you want to flame this and truly have valid arguments I wait in anticipation of hearing them because it will mean that I have missed something in my research and there are comparable products out there.
Forget 6 month rotations. Ask for volunteers to make the moon their permanent home. They would need larger sturdy buildings but the goal should be to build enough infrastructure so that mining and refineries can eventually build additional infrastructure completely from resources on the moon itself. In the long run I imagine that this would be much more economical than trying to maintain an aging space station. I would def be looking to sign up to be a lunar pioneer. Sure it would be hard but nothing worthwhile comes easy. The 3 main resources that would be in short supply would be oxygen, water, and food. But with water and seed food could be grown.. maybe even enough plant life to produce a renewable supply of oxygen and food. Leaving only water, I guess that's why NASA is so bent on looking for that stuff!
Electricity could be provided from solar power, since you would have areas that always receive direct sunlight. At first a large scale Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator could provide more than enough power.
I may be a pessimist but it's my belief that the key to long term human survival (as a species) requires that we find a way to get off this rock and not just for 6 months but indefinitely. The moon seems like a very good start. Once we learn how to survive there the prospect of permanent colonization of an actual planet, like Mars, would be cake.
Nick Powers Computer Science Masters student Texas A&M U
If it started out BSD license then it's all theirs. They can license it to the public in any license they choose. It could be public domain, free ware, share ware, GPL, BSD, (c), or any number of others. I would have to check to be sure but I would be surprised if the BSD license is present on anything when you buy and install OS X. OS X just happens to be based on Darwin an open source project that Apple uses to allow the community to help develop future enhancements to OS X. Apple didn't have to tell you what base operating system was running under the hood. They could have, and still can, call it Apple Unix and keep it completely closed source.
btw, that's why I love the BSD license.
What scares me is that Jobs stated that there were no plans to allow 3rd parties to develop applications for the iPhone. Well that's a deal breaker for me folks.
Apples credo is that if you want to write good software make your own machine. Now it looks like they are saying if you want good software then it has to be written by Apple.
I have a 8125 (Cingular) pocket PC phone. I hate windows and I really hate mobile windows. With that said the fact that I can write my own programs for my pocket device makes it my choice. I was drooling over the iPhone until rumors came out that APIs and support for XCode would note be provided. Who does apple think they are? Microsoft? If XCode supported it at least the code for it would have to be developed on a Mac, similar to how mobile windows applications have to be developed on a windows system. This could improve sales of their workstations.
I would hope that what Apple means about it running Mac OS X is that it is running a tight closed source fork of Darwin and thin version of the OS X GUI. But, in honesty, I think they could say it is running OS X if it were doing either. Heck, they could say it if they thought saying it would help them sell it. That's like saying mobile Windows is a direct port of Windows XP. Do you think there is a MS DOS shell underneath windows mobile?
As far as the processor goes what difference does it make? As quickly as Apple changes their primary CPU in no time soon OS X will run on almost as many devices as does Linux (LOL). But at least you can use the super giant deluxe FAT binary to distribute applications.
This way the guild could do away with all this certifications confusion and you could rank members by their skill and that would set their pay rate. Companies could still hire non guild members but they could not be assured what they are getting. A similar example of this is the screen actors guild.
All you have to do with Itunes store music is to put it in a seperate folder, not the purchased folder, and then burn to CDROM as a music CD and then have Itunes rip that disk and it will take away all the copy restrictions from this newly ripped version.
If you want reality then go to work. If you want entertainment it's hard to beat a good video game. I think it's absurd to try and draw relationships between the two. If you do then you prob have more problems then this.
Slashdot Mirror
I have already implemented a prioritized message queue of sorts. All systems send their status. For systems that have boolean status on/off they represent a bit in a binary number. All of these devices combine to for a complete binary number. This is then converted into hexadecimal. All the other systems that have ranges of values, temperature (inside and out), pressure (inside and out), accelerometer(X and Y), etc are also converted from their native number system into hexadecimal. Through a mathematical computation these hexadecimal numbers are merged in such a way that there is no data loss.I then pass the data in intervals as 16 digit hexadecimal numbers. The LabVIEW program then unpacks the hexadecimal packets and presents the information in graphical form and records all the information so that it can be played back. Sort of a black box. The commands sent to the sub from LabVIEW follow the same communication method using hexadecimal representation. When I first came up with the idea of using HEX there were several people that were against it. Now that it is in use everyone brags on it. Several people working on other projects have had me help them develop similar communication protocols.
Of course, many of the autonomous functionality is controlled by the microcontrollers and subsystems. I am at the point to where I need the upgrade I spoke about earlier to get much more out of them. I am planning on using at least 4 32 bit Freescale microcontrollers. They have a lot of additional functionality built into the chips themselves. I will have 2 chips that have ALUs and will be capable or running embedded BSD Unix. The other 2 microcontrollers will pretty much take over the data acquisition and command parsing and the linux systems will form a highly available master control system. This is where the autonomous systems will be developed and ran. The Fresscale microcontrollers are very versatile with power management units that allow you to control the clock to reduce MHz when the system does not need to run at top speed. They have 3 power settings top speed, medium speed, and sleep mode. I will be able to put the subsystem microcontrollers into sleep mode and put the BSD chips into low speed when inactive to conserve energy and control heat. They have on dye Ethernet simplifying and speeding up the communications systems drastically. The current system runs through wireless Ethernet but it requires additional IC that converts TTL to Ethernet and then a WiFi bridge takes it wireless. The TTL portion really limits the speed at which data can be transmitted and received. I'll still need the bridge but since the microcontrollers have true Ethernet we won't be tied to TTL speed any longer. Also, intercommunication between the controllers will be greatly increased since they have PCI bus. If I can get help with the driver I would like to run IP over PCI. If not I'm sure I can you the low level PCI calls for intercommunication. As you can see I am very excited about getting this upgrade and could talk forever about it. So, I'll just say that once I get the new board integrated into the system things will really start to advance at an accelerated rate.
The video is sent as stream that LabVIEW converts through a A/D converter and displays the video on the control panel while recording it to disk. It's setup so that everything can be played back. Single frames can be snapped and saved as gif images. All the video is saved but it's also setup so that segments of the video can pulled out and saved as mpg. The video data that is stored in the black box style is in RAW data format.
The accelerometer can display where it is currently located on a map on the control panel or display a route of where it has been. Data from the accelerometer also displays speed and of course acceleration. The data is used to graphical display the sub's current orientation. The pressure gauge data is used to keep an eye on structural integrity (leaks) since the sub is pressurized. I have not had th
I am building a robotic min submarine for my masters thesis in computer science. I have learned a lot about fluid dynamics and systems control is hostile environments. The remote monitoring and control systems have been developed in G using National Instruments' LabVIEW while the mini sub itself is currently utilizing multiple 8 bit Microchip microcontrollers. Though even as I write this the design process has started for a prefab PCB board that will see these chips replaced by 32 bit Freescale (Motorola) MCUs capable of extending the processing power to a level that will present the capability of added functionality beyond anything we have even speculated upon.
At this point I am just getting to the point were I can remote control the mini-sub and it only has a minimalistic set of autonomous functions, such as calculating the power reserve requirements and automatically surfacing when power levels are such that just enough power remains to surface. Sounds simple but there is a lot of calculations that go into this since this is not a stationary object. I have just started coding what will become the basis for computer controlled / assisted navigation. Teaching a system to control the 8 control motors and ballast system is proving to be a daunting task. But I'm getting there. With a bit more help this project could be at a 1st level prototype phase in a few months. Alone with my current funding, mostly from my mentor / physics professor credit card and my own meager contributions, it will take 2 to 3 years to reach that point.
My immediate future plans are to add a tethered buoy platform for mounting of high gain antennas for communications and solar panels arrays for trickle charging of the battery systems.
The biggest problem is power. If I could go the route I want I would install a radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) powered by 238Pu. 1kg of fuel could provide me with over 100 watts of continuous power for nearly a century. 238Pu (yes plutonium) is fairly safe (for a radioactive material) because in the very unlikely series of specific events that could result in a fission reaction it would become unstable and fizzle out before a chain reaction could occur. It is completely unusable for any kind of weapons grade nuclear device.
An RTG generates electricity from the heat produced from the natural decay of the radioactive material. With 1kg of 238Pu I would have to dissipate nearly 400 watts of heat for ever 100 watts of electricity produced but that's not difficult when your payload is cruising around the ocean depths.
I have been researching issues surrounding extreme pressure also. I am thinking that the best way to offset pressure would be to have the cavities of the submarine filled with a dense liquid like one of 3m's non-conductive fluorocarbons that has a low melting point but a high boiling point. This would add tremendous structural integrity to the sub and could be used as an alternative heat sink for the RTG in times when the fluorocarbon would be cooler than the surrounding water, such as close to the surface or the ocean floor were thermal venting is present.
All I need is a modest research grant from a university that is not afraid to enter into communications with the nuclear regulations committee and I would be ready to take this to the next step. A successfully prototype of a semi-autonomous mini-sub with the specifications I have described would have endless military and commercial applications and could bring major recognition to any university whole would sponsor (seek sponsorship) for such a project. I work in the lab that is 2 doors down from the nuclear storage facility at my current university but I have been informed that the future of my project could be in jeopardy if I seriously brought up the idea of constructing and powering a functional RTG.
Deep sea exploration is virtually wide open. Hardly any of our oceans have been surveyed especially at any significant depths. Working in this arena is one of the most excitin
So, if I get a grid of solar panels on my roof and I do actually start saving money on my electricity. What do I get out of the deal when my neigbors start signing up listing me as their referal?
Nick Powers
I love Apple and i dislike Microsoft for all the reasons that I love Apple.
[RANT]
But, with that said I'll hang onto my Cingular HTC 8125 because it's a full PDA with phone capability. It has Wifi, Bluetooth, EDGE, GPRS, and I can install programs that other people have written for it, not just who Microsoft decides codes good enough and can afford to pay their licensing fees. Plus, I may be in the minority here but I write my own programs for my pocket PC phone.
So, unless Apple does a 360 and comes out with a SDK and full integration into XCODE and lets anyone who wants to develop applications for it then they can keep their fancy dancy ipod phone PDA wanna be thingy! Oh, and they won't because once Apple makes a stupid mistake they stick with it no matter how much it costs them.
People who pay would pay $500 for a phone are going to be the people replacing their pocket pc phones that currently run windows mobile 5.0. They are used to paying $5 to $10 per app/game and have a handful of favorites. If Electronic Arts writes programs for the iPhone they are going to want at least $50 for it. Also, I imagine many people who currently have pocket pc phones have written some of their own applications for it. So, if you want a phone, a media player, and a PDA then you will need to carry around at least 2 devices, your PDA and your iPhone. Unless your PDA is a pocket pc phone then forget the iPhone. And the worst part is that if you do decide to carry both your iPhone and a PDA your iPhone will have twice the memory and 10 times the computing power of your PDA but at least it will have WiFi and Bluetooth so you can uhmmm, hmmmmm, well never mind forget that because why would a phone need those?
Another shoot yourself in the foot move Apple has done with the iPhone is that they are not going to allow cell providers to subsidize the it, like all the other phones on the market are today. Currently Cingular is the only provider lined up to support it and they are going to have a hard to marketing it at $500 and since they can't subsidize it then they won't be able to lock you into a 2 year commitment the way they like. After all the rebates and subsidized pricing I paid $99 for my Cingular HTC 8125 and I got a $50 reward (visa) card and 1 gb mini SD card for it. So, the way I look at it is that Cingular gave me the phone so that I would use their service for 2 years. Fine, that's the way I like it. I am with Cingular anyways because they have the most subscribers (at least in my part of the world) so the majority of my calls are in network. So, the only way Cingular could match such an offer would be to subsidize their service and charge full retail for the phone which in most cases would mean giving the customer 2 years free service if they buy the phone and sign up for 2 years! You're kidding right Steve?
And I feel so strongly about it I'll rephrase my original statement in simple terms:
IT'S JUST A PHONE! It is NOT A PDA / PHONE!
Besides the oooh see how cool this thing looks, until I drop it a couple times, factor this is no better than a razor. I've dropped my 8125 at least 2 dozen times and it still works like a charm. A friend of mine has an iPod Nano and luckily he got the extended warranty because he has had to send it in 6 times in the last 4 months already! I was going to get one of those (the nano) until I saw it in person and realized that I couldn't go a week without breaking it. From what I have seen from the iPhone it's no different except even with an extended warranty how can you be without your phone while Apple is fixing it all the time? Yes touch screens look cool and all but they are prone to scratches and eventually cracks. People baby their brand new expensive toy for a certain period of time, with some correlation as to how much they paid, but at some point people start using a phone they way they use all their phones tossing it here and there and dropping it. How many times have you dropped your phone on the parking lot or sid
I agree, certainly if a mutation does not improve a life form's ability to meet it's needs or desires then it will not be recognized by other members of it's species as an attractive trait that would encourage breading amongst those with that mutation. It could have the opposite effect and deter breading with those members that have that mutation.
So, I retract my statement about "any primate, and eventually all animals". Of course the domestic cat has no such incentive as it knows to meow and it will be fed or petted, it needs and desires are met. This is just one example and I doubt that many, if any species, are on an evolutionary track that would encourage higher reasoning. Thank you for pointing that out.
With that said it appears that this article points out that "these" chimpanzees are demonstrating what seems can best be described as a basic understanding of cause and effect. They have on their own figured out that if you take the time and sharpen a stick, rather than using any dull one you find lying around, that your success rate goes up for killing your prey. Since it is the females that are doing this then unless being a more successful hunter is an unattractive trait to a male chimpanzee then it seems only logical that the males would be more inclined to mate with the females that are using this understanding of cause and effect. If this is the case and this trait is passed onto future generations and becomes incorporated into the species as a whole then a process will have started that encourages mutations that improves upon cognitive abilities. If you sharpen a rock enough it becomes even a deadlier weapon than a sharp stick, and doesn't break or become dull as much as the sharp stick. If you form a group, all with sharp rocks, you can take down even larger prey. Those with better communication skills make better grouping partners. Over time this could develop into a language. If another species ever develops a sophisticated enough language and humans are able to learn that language then humans will begin rewarding them for communicating with us. This could remove their primary need for hunting with that of communicating. Once humans start communicating with another species above a level of "BAD DOG" then the possibility for their cognitive skills to increase at an exponential rate would be present. Soon enough we could reach a common ground that would enable them to learn concepts at a much more accelerated rate than it took humans to learn. This is because we had to figure it all out for ourselves whereas such a species would benefit from our existing knowledge.
Now, who is to say if all these what ifs and maybes come to pass but the exciting part is that for the first time aside from man, it has been observed that a species has the potential through evolution to progress through a chain of events that could lead to ever increasing cognitive abilities. This in itself seems to warrant research to track such a species progress over time.
Although I am very excited about this discovery and it's potential ramifications I also worry about how humans would interact with a species that had an intelligence level such that we could communicate with them. Would we enslave them (out of greed)? Would we exterminate them (out of fear)? Or would we encourage them to strive to reach their full potential (out of compassion and a mutual bond)? Though, humans being the most intelligent species, that we know of, I wouldn't count on our compassion. When presented with something new our first instinct is generally motivated by fear or greed. If such an epoch ever occurs I hope that humans will have evolved enough to incorporate traits that make us more understanding and compassionate. If not, then pity those creatures for developing skills that we can exploit. Even worse pity them if they develop skills that, out of fear, we cannot tolerate.
On a side note, when you said 'primates are vastly outnumbered by "split-hoof" mammals' would this still be the case if humans
I have a friend that wants to purchase a new laptop. I suggested Apple but she is more familiar with Windows and doesn't want to pay the extra $500 or so for Apple hardware, even though it can now run Windows.
Anyways, It looks like she will be going with Dell for her laptop, which unfortunately now comes with your choice of Genuine Windows Vista Home Basic, Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium, or Genuine Windows Vista Business.
One of the main reasons she didn't consider Apple is because she does not want to learn a different operating system and although similar to XP Vista is a different operating system. With all the bad press Vista has been getting and me passing on information to her about which applications she has that she will not be able to run or will have to do modifications to make run (like Apple's iTunes) she does not want to run Vista.
My question is if she buys a new Dell laptop, like their Inspiron 1501, will we be able to install Windows XP on it, completely wiping out Vista, thus getting rid of all the issues of Vista and keeping her learning curve to a minimum? Or has Microsoft required vendors to put some "screw you, you will upgrade, resistance is futile!" chip in the system that will keep people from doing what I have suggested?
Thanks!
Nick Powers
I think this is mislabeled as inkless printer and should be labeled something like "reusable paper printer".
This concept is fairly similar to the thermal printers which also require special paper. The images on them do wear off after a period of time as well. Have you ever pulled out your best buy four-year extended warranty, with attached receipt, only to notice the receipt is completely blank? I think most warranties will cover the item without the receipt if it has, and they have recorded, a serial number. Though I doubt anyone ever thought of reusing thermal paper.
I don't know about you but I have had limited success reusing paper in a printer. Many times I will have a huge printed document I no longer need and on occasion I have attempted to reuse the paper, or at least the side that I have not printed on, with limited success. I no longer do this because of the increase of paper jams and the like. I cannot imagine trying to run the same piece of paper through a printer 50 times!
This looks like something that will never go into commercial production as with most things people are most concerned about costs and though ink is not cheap, at least not how it is packaged for printers, it looks as if the price is being shifted from the ink to the paper.
It has been publicly know for quite some time that companies that produce printers do not make their profit from the printers themselves but from the ink that the printer uses. If you purchase an ink jet printer from your local Wal-Mart more than likely you are paying less for the printer than it cost to produce but the company figures that over time they will make up the cost by selling you ink. If this type of printer were to become commercially available then I imagine the same pricing model would continue and the paper would be the expensive part.
So, you have a printer with expensive paper, that can be reused, but only if you are VERY careful with it, don't fold it, cut it, put it in your pocket, etc. No thanks, I'll stick with my overpriced ink and do what I want with the cheap paper and when I'm done with it I'll put it in file 13. I'll be long dead before trees go extinct and I won't get whatever disease you get after long term exposure to the chemicals this paper is coated with that will only be discovered 10 years after people have been handling this stuff on a daily basis.
Nick Powers
He has been in detention for 3 years? If convicted would he get credit for the time he has already spent in an Australia detention center? If so, do the same rules apply for fines as they do here in the US? For those that don't know you get credit for ~50 per day while incarcerated. If so, then he has already earned over $50,000 towards his fine. If they do take in account the time served in Australia I wouldn't be surprised if sentenced, even the maximum amount, that he would not get off for time served.
If I were him I would discuss this with my lawyer and then in turn with the district attorney to negotiate a Plea bargain to enter a plea of nolo contendere, saving the court the time and expense of a lengthy trial, in return for a sentence of time served and a few years of unadjudicated probation.
I have seen people get less for worse. I don't see why the taxpayers should have to pay to hold someone like this when they obviously present no danger to society.
Nick Powers
If the theory of evolution proves to be true then it would be egotistical of us "humans" to think that evolution will not continue in all animals. At some point any primate, and eventually all animals, would develop to a point of where it would not only be self aware but intelligent. The type of intelligent life that many people speculate may exist on other planets. The type of intelligence that we currently posses. To me the more important question is what humans are going to evolve into? I have seen examples of human evolution in my lifetime. Females maturing (puberty) earlier and earlier each generation. Males becoming taller and taller each generation. All one needs to do to see this is to compare their high school year book with that of their father or grandfathers. You will notice the increased height and breast development earlier in later generations. I have heard attempts at explaining this by people stating that this has happened because of the introduction of steroids into the beef that we consume. Modern medicine has increased human lifespans. Not to long ago having an individual reaching the age of 100 was very rare and it is now becoming common place. Compare this to the middle ages when the average lifespan was 25 years.
As for the person who posted that we should teach animals to be vegetarians and is doing his part by feeding his cat corn should realize that unless the corn is 100% organic then it is more than likely that this corn has had animal genetics introduced into the corn's DNA to make it more hardy and resistance to disease. Corn is a good example because if you look at how corn looked when it was first discovered and what it looks like now that it has evolved through unnatural (human) selection and now genetic engineering. The lines between plant and animals is becoming blurry. With human intervention there is no telling what life will look like in the centuries to come. Although I stated unnatural (human) selection I do not personally believe that anything exists that is unnatural since humans are a product of nature anything we do or create is therefore natural regardless how organic or synthetic it may be. If a beaver makes a hut then it's considered natural where if a human builds a cabin out of wood (the same material used in the beaver hut) then it's considered man made. If we are going to make such a distinction then the beaver hut is unnatural because it's beaver made.
So, those that would argue that human involvement perverts natural selection I would respond that humans are not outside of nature but a part of it and therefore anything we do contributes to natural selection.
I am also one of a small minority that believe that evolution and creationism can and do coexist. The evidence of evolution is overwhelming but who can say that evolution is not just one of God's tools. Give it up to my god above, my one and only true love!
Nick Powers
P.S. Off topic but a question I have not received a good answer for is that if man could create life, from scratch, using all materials that contain no element of life would man be that's creatures God? If not God, by definition we would be their creator. For me it's semantics since God is the creator of this and any other universe(s). I would like to hear what people think. Can an entity be a God of a species they created if they themselves have a God that created them?
I bet if the human race could somehow be made extinct the ecosystem of this planet would be back to her old self in no time.
Nick Powers
Hopefully they have some HEMP seeds in there.... you know in case someone wants to make some good rope or something.
Nick Powers
I can see it now:
Hormel v Microsoft
Processed meat sausages or bloated operating system?
Nick powers
It depends on what kind of data you are processing. If you are doing 32 bit calculations then you would want to compile your code for 32 bit, assuming your processor can handle it, as most 64 bit CPU can. If you are using 64 bit calculations then of course the 64 bit CPU would out perform the 32 bit as you would have to do additional coding steps to simulate 64 bit on 32 bit architecture, multiple 32 bit operations with bit shifting and the like.
If you took code that was written for 32 bit operations and compiled that code for 64 bit then the results would be very bad. The same issues where present when computers made the move from 16 to 32 bit.
I would assume that the code written in these tests are 32 bit. If so, then when evaluating CPU one would have to take into consideration if they needed 64 bit calculations. Also, before jumping the gun and making a rash decision some research would need to be taken to see if your operating system of choice supports true 64 bit operations. Many of the so called 64 bit operating systems only use the 64 bit CPU to support memory beyond 4GB.
Nick Powers
You know those survey cards and the like? They always ask "How did you hear about us?"
My response: "The psychic's friends network."
You know, there is a madness to my method!
Nick Powers
I like apple. I am writing this post using Firefox on OS X. With that said IMHO Apple has had many opportunities to make real strides when it comes to competing with the likes of Microsoft. But it seems like every time they get close they throw in a gotcha that makes their efforts have little if any impact.
The most recent example of this is the upcoming iPhone. The keynote that centered on this device made me giddy with anticipation. I carry a Cingular 8125 phone with Microsoft mobile 5.0 running on it. After seeing all the cool features and hearing Jobs state that this ran OS X (regardless of how you define that on a mobile setting) made me look forward to putting my phone on eBay and spending way to much on an iPhone. But, only days later it was announced that there would be no 3rd party development on the phone because it was not a PDA but simply a phone. Well, I'm going to continue to be careful and take care of my 8125 because that is a deal breaker for me.
Some people will say that I am not the average consumer for this product but I would beg to disagree. It's true that most people don't want to download software, beyond ring tones, not to mention writing their own software for their phone but this group of people don't pay $500+ for their phone. Most of them get them for free or pay a subsidized price by locking into a 2 year plan with their cellular provider. So Apple is left with the people that have more money than sense and just want to have a pretty phone to stick in their suit pocket and Apple's largest growing market, the computer guru. How many people, like me, switched to Apple because they finally took their head out of the sand when they released an OS with a command line? And surprisingly not any command line but a POSIX Unix based command line! I have heard from many of these people. Yes many apple people have never opened their terminal application never mind putting it in their dock like I have but the majority of these people are Apple's existing customer base. I like many people launched terminal and smiled with glee when the found a friendly bash prompt staring back at them.
This Unix savvy culture is Apple's largest growing market. I find it silly to see all these switching commercials aimed towards windows when the majority of the people I have seen convert are people who were running Linux on their desktop. Many believe as I do that with all Linux's great attributes it's still not ready for hard core desktop users. Linux a great server, running headless, performing all kinds of demanding tasks at far greater speeds than competing operating systems running on the same architecture. This is something to be proud of but I consider myself a pretty savvy computer guy and although I have tried many GUI on Linux nothing comes close to Windows not to even mention OS X. With that said most every move that apple makes seems to ignore this market and focus on the idea that their consumer base just wants it to work and be pretty.
Back to the iPhone. Who is going to pay $500+ for this thing? And yes they will have to pay full price because they are by contract not allowing the cellular providers to subsidies phones like they have been doing for years now. It's not going to be John Q Public upgrading his Razor. It is going to be people wanting to replace their pocket PC phone running Microsoft mobile 5.0. But, once again apple shoots themselves in the foot by stating that this is a phone and not a pocket PC phone, even though it has WiFi, bluetooth, faster CPU, more memory, and storage space than any pocket PC phone in the market today. And, since by their statement that it is a phone and not a PC there is not going to be any tools (i.e. a cross compiler and modified XCode IDE). Unless Apple wises up iPhone is going to be shelved along with the long forgotten Apple Newton.
Apple must underestimate the tenacity of their new market share. This is the same group that has been a big part of the proliferation of Linux so that you can run it on any
These comments are based on C++, though i have used Perl I have been doing much more C++ coding lately.
The XML files are text based. Text I/O has to be read in sequentially whereas you can write out an entire block of allocated memory to the disk in binary format. The advantages of this is that you can read & write that data to and from disk 50 to 100 times faster than reading it in sequential from a text file.
What advantages does XML provide at the expensive of data i/o speed loss?
Nick Powers
In my graduate studies (computer science Texas A&M U @ Commerce,TX) I have been working on a mini robotic submarine that uses accelerometers to calculate acceleration (of course), speed, and location. We also have a similar arm that was donated to the Physics department but I have not had a chance to play with it yet.
;)
Anyways, my question is why use wii controllers? You could order a dozen accelerometers from DigiKey for far far less than the price of the wii controller, assuming you can purchase them without buying a complete wii system. Not only would it be cheaper but you could place the accelerometers on your arm, hand, shoulder, etc in locations that most mimic the articulating parts of the actual robotic arm.
Only thing I can guess is that by using the wii controller, and it being so new, that you get that whole 3lit3 haxor effect because wii and it's use of accelerometers is new for game controllers. Looks like it worked, getting their site slashdotted and all.
On a side note I did use a wireless xbox (not 360) controller to control the mini robotic submarine. Did you know that those controllers are USB, Microsoft just used a non standard port? It was my intention to have events in the sub send data back that would control the force feedback in the controller but I have not been able to figure out how to send data to the gamepad to activate that function. If anyone has suggestions please let me know (sshscp@gmail.com). I am using the XBCD driver on a windows XP laptop running a program written in G (Labview 8.2.0).
With this stuff you have to watch what you call things. If something is completely remote controlled then you can't technically call it a robot. At minimum a robot has to be able to act autonomously or perform pre-programed tasks. Currently the sub has a pre-programed task - when battery levels reach a preset point control ballasts and pumps to quickly return to the surface and then go into power consumption mode. It sounds like this arm is a robot since the controller activates a series of pre-programmed movements. But, if it were completely controlled by the accelerometers then it would be a remote controlled arm and not a robot.
Future plans for the sub are to include autonomous mapping of it's environment. As for the arm I was thinking of working on it so that it could play chess, possibly against live opponents over the web (with a webcam). Do you think people would want to play it?
Anyways good job on the arm guys! I can't get enough of these micro controller applications. I got the bug quick after having code that I wrote actually do something in the real world for the first time. Maybe I'll get something slashdotted someday
Nick Powers
Software development is hard because of a misconception that knowing how to program in a particular programing language makes someone a good developer. Just because someone can learn a foreign language (i.e. an American who's native language is English can learn to read and write in French) but it does not mean that person will be able to write a good novel in that language.
I'm currently working towards my Masters in computer science and although I don't intend to ever work as a software developer programing concepts make up the majority of the curriculum. The majority of the graduate program, in computer science, is made up of international students (the university is in the US) of whom most hail from India. After working with these students for some time now I have learned that they obtained their undergraduate degrees from India where computer science is taught in theory. This means that they got their degree without ever touching a computer. Combine that with the fact that they have never owned a computer themselves makes me doubt the quality of their education. For those of you that know some C++ you will understand their level of knowledge when I say that they enter the program without understanding the concept of pointers (dynamically allocated memory instead of compile time arrays), structures, or object oriented programing concepts. Luckily many of these students do not make it past the remedial courses of the graduate program but most of them switch to the IT program under the business college of the university. Unfortunately I am sure many of these students go on to be programmers in their country where there is a big demand due to the trend to outsource coding projects to their country.
I have spoken with other students in similar programs at different universities and this seems to be a widespread scenario. So with people that barely understand the language they are programing in are being asked to write programs for consumer use. It seems that very little time goes into educating students on how to program. Here I am using the word "program" to mean given a problem utilize one's analytical skills and artistic ability (yes programing takes artistic ability) to conceive a solution and write it in a programing language in such a way that the language compiler and linker produces an executable program. With this in mind you add the fact that virtually no effort goes into teaching people how to move beyond this basic level of understanding of specific programing languages to a point where any competent programmer would consider them to be fluent in the language they are developing in. Would anyone buy a book written by someone that is not fluent in the language that the book is written in? I think not.
Beyond the fact that the majority of programs are being written by people who are not competent, by any standard, is the fact that programming is not just an application of knowledge of a specific language but an abstract concept that is created from the individuals understanding of the problem and their ability to conceive a solution entirely from within their own mind. This is where the artistic ability comes in. If you give 100 people a problem and ask for a solution in the form of a program you will get 100 different solutions. Out of those 100 people only a handful of the solutions will meet the standards of what could be considered efficient coding.
Consider that the programmers that I am speaking of here are people that entered into a post graduate computer science program. These people do not make up the majority of programmers out there. What makes up the body of the worlds programmers are people that have not attempted to progress to this level. Most enter the workforce after receiving their undergraduate degree and many have not received any higher education at all. It is my belief that aside from what can be taught to an individual programming requires an inherit ability within that individual for them to be able to produce what I would call quality code.
Out of all of Microsoft's products it seems that Office is one of the few Microsoft applications that actually win because of it's merits. Word is the best consumer targeted word processor. This seems to apply to Excel as well. Access is best in what it does. It's not going to be the best of bread for real server based databases but for smaller footprint requirements it's ease of use and versatility (it's user interface) makes it the clear choice. I switched to Apple when they went to OS X and have not regretted it. The one thing that I miss is something equivalent to Access. My thoughts on the matter as to why there is not a version of Access for OS X is that Microsoft understands that out of their entire product line there is no clear competitor for Access and thus not releasing a version for OS X will keep a large group of people using Windows rather than switching. Office is one of the few Microsoft products that is worth paying for IMHO.
If you know of an application that provides what Access does that one can run on OS X, or Linux (as most Linux code can easily be ported to OS X) please let me know as I have searched far and long. And what I am talking about here is not speed of the actual database engine or some other such metric but rather the concept of views and the graphical interface that allows such quick development of complex SQL searches and report generation.
I can see that what I am saying here might cause my posting to be labeled as troll or some other such derogatory adjective but I am not looking to post this in an attempt to elicit such responses but to give my opinion on a subject that I have spent time researching. If you want to flame this and truly have valid arguments I wait in anticipation of hearing them because it will mean that I have missed something in my research and there are comparable products out there.
Nick Powers
Forget 6 month rotations. Ask for volunteers to make the moon their permanent home. They would need larger sturdy buildings but the goal should be to build enough infrastructure so that mining and refineries can eventually build additional infrastructure completely from resources on the moon itself. In the long run I imagine that this would be much more economical than trying to maintain an aging space station. I would def be looking to sign up to be a lunar pioneer. Sure it would be hard but nothing worthwhile comes easy. The 3 main resources that would be in short supply would be oxygen, water, and food. But with water and seed food could be grown.. maybe even enough plant life to produce a renewable supply of oxygen and food. Leaving only water, I guess that's why NASA is so bent on looking for that stuff!
Electricity could be provided from solar power, since you would have areas that always receive direct sunlight. At first a large scale Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator could provide more than enough power.
I may be a pessimist but it's my belief that the key to long term human survival (as a species) requires that we find a way to get off this rock and not just for 6 months but indefinitely. The moon seems like a very good start. Once we learn how to survive there the prospect of permanent colonization of an actual planet, like Mars, would be cake.
Nick Powers
Computer Science Masters student Texas A&M U
If it started out BSD license then it's all theirs. They can license it to the public in any license they choose. It could be public domain, free ware, share ware, GPL, BSD, (c), or any number of others. I would have to check to be sure but I would be surprised if the BSD license is present on anything when you buy and install OS X. OS X just happens to be based on Darwin an open source project that Apple uses to allow the community to help develop future enhancements to OS X. Apple didn't have to tell you what base operating system was running under the hood. They could have, and still can, call it Apple Unix and keep it completely closed source.
btw, that's why I love the BSD license.
What scares me is that Jobs stated that there were no plans to allow 3rd parties to develop applications for the iPhone. Well that's a deal breaker for me folks.
Apples credo is that if you want to write good software make your own machine. Now it looks like they are saying if you want good software then it has to be written by Apple.
I have a 8125 (Cingular) pocket PC phone. I hate windows and I really hate mobile windows. With that said the fact that I can write my own programs for my pocket device makes it my choice. I was drooling over the iPhone until rumors came out that APIs and support for XCode would note be provided. Who does apple think they are? Microsoft? If XCode supported it at least the code for it would have to be developed on a Mac, similar to how mobile windows applications have to be developed on a windows system. This could improve sales of their workstations.
I would hope that what Apple means about it running Mac OS X is that it is running a tight closed source fork of Darwin and thin version of the OS X GUI. But, in honesty, I think they could say it is running OS X if it were doing either. Heck, they could say it if they thought saying it would help them sell it. That's like saying mobile Windows is a direct port of Windows XP. Do you think there is a MS DOS shell underneath windows mobile?
As far as the processor goes what difference does it make? As quickly as Apple changes their primary CPU in no time soon OS X will run on almost as many devices as does Linux (LOL). But at least you can use the super giant deluxe FAT binary to distribute applications.
Nick Powers
This way the guild could do away with all this certifications confusion and you could rank members by their skill and that would set their pay rate. Companies could still hire non guild members but they could not be assured what they are getting. A similar example of this is the screen actors guild.
Nick Powers
It is written by Microsoft.
I hope I live long enough to visit Bill Gates grave!
Nick Powers
All you have to do with Itunes store music is to put it in a seperate folder, not the purchased folder, and then burn to CDROM as a music CD and then have Itunes rip that disk and it will take away all the copy restrictions from this newly ripped version.
Nick Powers
If you want reality then go to work. If you want entertainment it's hard to beat a good video game. I think it's absurd to try and draw relationships between the two. If you do then you prob have more problems then this.
Nick Powers