SIMD is Single Instruction Multiple data,
MMX, SSE,2 and 3 , Altavec are this.
Cell is MIMD, Multiple instruction and multiple data.
Cell is an array of small independent CPU's. (think Beowulf cluster on a chip)
Computation is done by a systolic arrays or similar parrallel processing techniques.
Think of cells in spread sheet, where each rectange in the performs it's computation. A Cell processor allow you to change data at the top of the spread sheet and compute results at the bottom a GHz speeds!
Granted this isn't good for running an OS, but for video processing, Finite element simulations, Ray Tracing, code breaking, and AI, it's great.
I was working with Chuck Moore on Project Enumera , we layed out a chip with 49 (7x7) asynchronous CPU's. (this is important).
When doing Cell processors with 50 cores you don't want them to run step lock. This is akin to why soldiers march out of step when crossing a bridge. It's distributes the loading on the PowerSupply lines, rather then creating one big spike when they all switch.
It was made by a company called Gold Leopard King, from China, is has a build in modem, cassette storage, TV out. and come with 100 games, and basic interpritor and crude Web/E-mail over the modem.
It's a really cheap design, keyboard and mouse/joystick are all passive switches. With a game cartridge like the old C64's on top though. The only active electronic component in the whole thing was one chip in the cartridge!!!
Here is a cheap solution that already works.
on
No Pictures, Thanks
·
· Score: 1
About 10 years ago we came across some very high powered IR LEDS.
When we did some experimenting It was found almost all CCTV cameras would just white out around the area of the LED's , but in person there was nothing visible. Most CCD and CMOS sensors used in digital cameras, will saturate with the IR sources.
Useful when wanting not show up on a security camera.
I am also in a similar situation I have been programming since I was 7 years old, now at 37 I have the back of someone who's been programming for 30 years! I have avoided Carpel tunnel by never learning touch typing, so my hands are all over the keyboard, but I can type fast with just the right or left, or with the keyboard upside down.(useful when working on hardware)
Anyhow I found that managing and mentoring younger programmers and helping them avoid mistakes makes more sense then writing code.
Newer coders don't see how cool things at the start of a project can come back to haunt them, or "paint them into a corner" later in the project.
So I either start companies or manage teams. IE. Chief Architect, CTO etc. Spend a lot more time researching and reading, with some English writing rather then programming. and yet coming in and debugging code, and solving problems that a more novice programmer get stuck on. (deadlocks, leaks, real-time, optimization, compression etc.).
Think of it like pro-football player, you burn out and either become the coach or drop out.
I run videotechnology.com and several people have run past the idea of streaming, settop box or p2p distribution of TV shows with sponsor paid adverising as a possible model to resume filming of a high budget TV show. There would be no airtime fees and with things like bit torrent, viewers could be counted and demographics generated.
If CBS were to push for such an option fans could continue to watch and generate revenue for contuning the series just without the Cable/Broadcast and over the internet.
I think something like Star Trek would be a prime candiate for such a high tech move.
If anyone would like to see if we can actualy make something like this happen drop me an E-mail or a line in my chat room on http://www.videotechnology.com/
I E-mailed him a few days ago and just recieved a response.::Sir Arthur C Clarke to John L. Sokol
Dear John,
Thank you for your concern about my safety in the wake of last Sunday's devastating tidal wave.
I am enormously relieved that my family and household have escaped the ravages of the sea that suddenly invaded most parts of coastal Sri Lanka, leaving a trail of destruction.
But many others were not so fortunate. For over two million Sri Lankans and a large number of foreign tourists holidaying here, the day after Christmas turned out to be a living nightmare reminiscent of The Day After Tomorrow. My heart-felt sympathy goes out to all those who lost family members or friends.
Among those who directly experienced the waves were my staff based at our diving station in Hikkaduwa, and my holiday bungalows in Kahawa and Thiranagama all beachfront properties located in southern areas that were badly hit. Our staff members are all safe, even though some are badly shaken and relate harrowing first hand accounts of what happened. Most of our diving equipment and boats at Hikkaduwa were washed away. We still don't know the full extent of damage -- it will take a while for us to take stock as accessing these areas is still difficult.
This is indeed a disaster of unprecedented magnitude for Sri Lanka, which lacks the resources and capacity to cope with the aftermath. We are encouraging concerned friends to contribute to the relief efforts launched by various national and international organisations. If you wish to join these efforts, I can recommend two options.
- Contribute to a Sri Lanka disaster relief fund launched by an internationally operating humanitarian charity, such as Care or Oxfam.
- Alternatively, considering supporting Sarvodaya, the largest development charity in Sri Lanka, which has a 45-year track record in reaching out and helping the poorest of the poor. Sarvodaya has mounted a well organised, countrywide relief effort using their countrywide network of offices and volunteers who work in all parts of the country, well above ethnic and other divisions. Their website, www.sarvodaya.lk, provides bank account details for financial donations. They also welcome contributions in kind -- a list of urgently needed items is found at: http://www.sarvodaya.lk/Inside_Page/urgently%20nee ded.htm
There is much to be done in both short and long terms for Sri Lanka to raise its head from this blow from the seas. Among other things, the country needs to improve its technical and communications facilities so that effective early warnings can help minimise losses in future disasters.
Curiously enough, in my first book on Sri Lanka, I had written about another tidal wave reaching the Galle harbour (see Chapter 8 in The Reefs of Taprobane, 1957). That happened in August 1883, following the eruption of Krakatoa in roughly the same part of the Indian Ocean.
I have alway predicted we would soon have banks robbed through bullet proof glass by someone using a small laser.
About 10 years ago a friend of mine managed to get a surplus 1 watt IR laser diode and operate if from a couple of 9v batteries in something the size of a flashlight. We were able to ignite a paper bag from 10 feet.
Also with the 10 Watt white light laser(krypton argon) that Steller Designs has you could easily light a cigarette, it was about the same as one of those blow tourch lights in teams of heat.
But the real threat is instant and permanent blinding of people. When I was at Stanford we found medical reports of one small middle eastern army(Which I will not mention) using the laser range finders on it's tanks to blind 10's of thousands of enemy foot soldiers permanently!
The IR laser we had was particularly scary since your eyes would start bugging out like you were looking into the sun, when watching something like a bag burn, but since there was no visible light my eye's wouldn't instictivly look away or squint like when using the white laser.
I read many of the coments and complains posted so far. Many are implementation specific gripes.
Some are architecture specific, but Unix is what it is. You really can't change that. And that is the root of the problem.
I mean Unix was/is a major step forward. Almost all major OS's have a unix like engine under the hoods these days(MS Windows included).
Unix has accomplished every goal originaly set out for it. But it's also very limited in it's own over all vision and architecture.
To overcome that requires finding a very different way of thinking about programs, OS's and computers then the way we now do.
For example, I can access a remote machine with VNC. I love it so much I have several PC that I almost only access that way. There are many significant adventages when using a computer this way that most people don't realize.
1.) When I log in, all my applications are right were I left them. Windows open, word processors and E-mails half written, cursor sitting just where I had last contunued even though I many have flown 2000 miles. (or had my local computer reboot)
X windows can't do this! Although I love X for many reasons, X tunneled over SSH is very cool. VNC also tunnels.
Back in the Early 90's Novel had something sort of like this, at least your whole windows work enviorment and files would follow you from computer to computer, but would loose run time states. Sun is also working hard on systems like this.
2.)Thing like IM and E-mail , gnutilla etc continue to function even when I am not online.
In the command line world we have had this in UNIX for a long time "nohup" and "cron" for example.
But why do I need a graphics card at all. Why can't I just have many virtual desktop sessions that I can VNC into(on a single Server)? Then I can then leave them in different states for each project I am working on.
Here is another one. Why Can't I take a program, pause it(swap it out) generate a file of it's run state. Copy it across the net and resume execution right where it left off, but on a completely different computer? Or maybe after a reboot.. (HP had this years ago, or was it Tandem?)
I had some thoughts on this that I gave a talk on. It's missing much, and still not polished, but there are still a lot of good ideas in there.
Amorphous OS talk Sorry it's a powerpoint, but I know you Linux guys can still read it.
I have sent an E-mail to Arthur C. Clark , included a URL to this thread. He's usualy quick at replying.(assuming the phone lines are working) His home is about 1/2 Mile inland, but there are several of these British style clubs he likes to visit that have walls on three side and ocean on the fourth. I'd really not want to be at one when the tsunami hit.
From the news it looks like waves were large enough to capsize boats in Columbo and the Galle Face Green (my favorate spot) people were washed across a field into a fence that ran along the road side, but they didnt' think anyone was washed out...
http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/12/26/ em ail.replies/
Many companies don't understand that a short program is better then a long one and requires more skill to do so.
Many companies don't understand that a good design and experianced programmers can make smaller/better/faster/easier/bugfree programs in less time.
Many companies just don't appreciate or aren't willing to pay for 10, 20 or more years of software development experience. They don't understand that an expert is much faster and cheaper in the long run then hiring the novice, they just see the price tag.
There is a reason people buy high end products and are willing to pay more, and the same holds true for hiring developers. Higher quality, better results and often lower cost in the long run.
These companies study management theory, and make there Gant charts and UML layouts, and pigeon hole it's employies and expect then to churn out code like cows give milk. Developers are then become interchangable and expendable and it's just a matter of thowing "bodies" at the project at the lowest cost possible. (think COBOL development at a bank)
Nothing cutting edge, innovative or creative has ever come from these endeavors. And Yet they keep expecting it to. Sure it's gets the job done, but it actualy cost them more in the long run, and they don't even know it. They just keep going along,oblivious, in there little rose colored world.
This is why most software sucks, bloatware, 1000's of bugs is considered acceptable and viruses and malware run free across the Internet.
Not hiring cheap developers and not experts has put many companies out of bussiness!
I do have the beer belly, but last I checked testical hang down. not up. So there is the width of my leg about 10 inches from the lap to the seat bottom where the jewels rest.
Being fat acts as thermal insulation therby protecting scrotum temperatures.
Also my lap is a good 10 inches( add a few more for gut overhang) from my scrotum, so unless I was trying to hump a laptop or something, they would never really be affected buy it's heat.
Accoring the the photo and rulls described by the article that was linked to, I can did it in 23 Moves! That's 2.5 second a move.
if I number the blocks 1 to 9 from top left to right. E is empty
I have 1 1 2 2 1 1 3 4 E E 3 4 5 6 6 7 5 8 8 9
The rulls are to move the 2x2 square from the top left to the bottom right I do the following
1 down 2 left 3479 up 7 left 4 down 3 right 7 up 1 right 5 up 689 left 9 up 8 right 6 down 9 left 1 down 7 down left 3 left 4 up 1 right 9 right up 6 up 8 left 1 down
Let me know if I am missing something, But this took more to write down then to solve....
Having to deal with an inquisitive 4 year old and a screaming wife.
I doesn't it required being smart but to just see the problem clearly.
I just cut out some wood blocks and tried to solve it and was able to in like under a minute.
It's not hard to see the solution , but this computer program had a hard time brute forcing it. Because it can't work towards a goal! and Can't eleminate obvious dead ends.
No this is not true, a hologram is a recording of the interference patterns of light, these interference patterns are larger then the wavelength of light, several lambda.
Diffraction grating work on the same principal as a hologram. A diffraction grating is just a series of black and white lines scribed on a flat surface. Or could be slits or even a series of find parallel wires.
http://www.eio.com/repairfaq/sam/diffract.gif
The first practical diffraction gratings were made in 1820 by Joseph von Fraunhofer. He stretched fine, parallel wires between two parallel threaded rods, and was able to resolve the sodium D spectrum lines
Most things labeled as holgrams are crappy 3D effects. Such as those lenticular sheet 3D effects on magazine covers and breakfast cerial boxes.
This word missuse has really discredited those who have real holograms.
Then there are still image holograms such as the cheap Mylar prints that aren't too bad if lit right, but most people can't or aren't willing to get up proper lighting to display them effectivly. The fact that I can't just put a nail in the wall and hang it is a large setback.
The glass plate holograms are very expensive but when done right are frightenly real. Like one a friend of mine made of his head with a pulsed ruby laser. I really looks like a decapitated head in a box, in almost any lighting. He was showing it at a fleamarket and people would call the cops, or completely go histerical in horror screaming and crying, thinking is was a real head in a box (except it was just a flat glass palate)
Here is the big hint now.
Did you know you can digitaly generate a hologram compulationaly and print it on a laser printer, photographicaly reduce it and have it work as a hologram!
A hologram is really just a black and white print of the light interferiance patterns (that are much larger then the wavelength of light used).
You can even display these interference patterns in realtime using a LCOS chip if it's illiminated correctly,(mono chrome only) and product true holographic image. Limited to 1 inch across through and $5000 at the moment.
So if it were possible to get an LCOS that was 14 inches across it would litteraly be like a red tinted glass porthole into another universe. Will all the detail and resolution of looking out side the window of your office!
There was some very interesting experiments we did with this a few years ago. Maybe someday I'll have the time to write these up in more detail.
Slashdot Mirror
The cost of Bit Torrent distrubution is orders of magnitude lower cost per viewer then TV.. htm
http://www.videotechnology.com/economics_of_video
Add's can still be viewer and pay for production costs. And better tracking of viewers can be done.
Where Can I find and get into these groups trying to save the show?
SIMD is Single Instruction Multiple data,
MMX, SSE,2 and 3 , Altavec are this.
Cell is MIMD, Multiple instruction and multiple data.
Cell is an array of small independent CPU's. (think Beowulf cluster on a chip)
Computation is done by a systolic arrays or similar parrallel processing techniques.
Think of cells in spread sheet, where each rectange in the performs it's computation. A Cell processor allow you to change data at the top of the spread sheet and compute results at the bottom a GHz speeds!
Granted this isn't good for running an OS, but for video processing, Finite element simulations, Ray Tracing, code breaking, and AI, it's great.
I was working with Chuck Moore on Project Enumera , we layed out a chip with 49 (7x7) asynchronous CPU's. (this is important).
When doing Cell processors with 50 cores you don't want them to run step lock. This is akin to why soldiers march out of step when crossing a bridge. It's distributes the loading on the PowerSupply lines, rather then creating one big spike when they all switch.
I would like to make a p2p with adversting to allow the show to contunue over the internet. Viewed and payed for by internet viewers.
Anyone interested in this and would like start some sort of organization to do this please let me know. I have the tech part all worked out...
www.videotechnology.com
John L. Sokol
I bought one while in Dharwad, karnatika, India.
It was made by a company called Gold Leopard King, from China, is has a build in modem, cassette storage, TV out. and come with 100 games, and basic interpritor and crude Web/E-mail over the modem.
It's a really cheap design, keyboard and mouse/joystick are all passive switches. With a game cartridge like the old C64's on top though.
The only active electronic component in the whole thing was one chip in the cartridge!!!
Did you see that line!!
Think Pinky and the Brain....
Soon the mice will be taking over..
About 10 years ago we came across some very high powered IR LEDS.
When we did some experimenting It was found almost all CCTV cameras would just white out around the area of the LED's , but in person there was nothing visible. Most CCD and CMOS sensors used in digital cameras, will saturate with the IR sources.
Useful when wanting not show up on a security camera.
I am also in a similar situation I have been programming since I was 7 years old, now at 37
I have the back of someone who's been programming for 30 years! I have avoided Carpel tunnel by never learning touch typing, so my hands are all over the keyboard, but I can type fast with just the right or left, or with the keyboard upside down.(useful when working on hardware)
Anyhow I found that managing and mentoring younger programmers and helping them avoid mistakes makes more sense then writing code.
Newer coders don't see how cool things at the start of a project can come back to haunt them, or "paint them into a corner" later in the project.
So I either start companies or manage teams. IE. Chief Architect, CTO etc. Spend a lot more time researching and reading, with some English writing rather then programming. and yet coming in and debugging code, and solving problems that a more novice programmer get stuck on. (deadlocks, leaks, real-time, optimization, compression etc.).
Think of it like pro-football player, you burn out and either become the coach or drop out.
I run videotechnology.com and several people have run past the idea of streaming, settop box or p2p distribution of TV shows with sponsor paid adverising as a possible model to resume filming of a high budget TV show. There would be no airtime fees and with things like bit torrent, viewers could be counted and demographics generated.
If CBS were to push for such an option fans could continue to watch and generate revenue for contuning the series just without the Cable/Broadcast and over the internet.
I think something like Star Trek would be a prime candiate for such a high tech move.
If anyone would like to see if we can actualy make something like this happen drop me an E-mail or a line in my chat room on http://www.videotechnology.com/
John
http://www.dnull.com/dos/DOS-Block.htm
Proposal for a new method to block distributed denial-of-service (DOS) attacks.
I E-mailed him a few days ago and just recieved a response. ::Sir Arthur C Clarke to John L. Sokol
e ded.htm
Dear John,
Thank you for your concern about my safety in the wake of last Sunday's devastating tidal wave.
I am enormously relieved that my family and household have escaped the ravages of the sea that suddenly invaded most parts of coastal Sri Lanka, leaving a trail of destruction.
But many others were not so fortunate. For over two million Sri Lankans and a large number of foreign tourists holidaying here, the day after Christmas turned out to be a living nightmare reminiscent of The Day After Tomorrow. My heart-felt sympathy goes out to all those who lost family members or friends.
Among those who directly experienced the waves were my staff based at our diving station in Hikkaduwa, and my holiday bungalows in Kahawa and Thiranagama all beachfront properties located in southern areas that were badly hit. Our staff members are all safe, even though some are badly shaken and relate harrowing first hand accounts of what happened. Most of our diving equipment and boats at Hikkaduwa were washed away. We still don't know the full extent of damage -- it will take a while for us to take stock as accessing these areas is still difficult.
This is indeed a disaster of unprecedented magnitude for Sri Lanka, which lacks the resources and capacity to cope with the aftermath. We are encouraging concerned friends to contribute to the relief efforts launched by various national and international organisations. If you wish to join these efforts, I can recommend two options.
- Contribute to a Sri Lanka disaster relief fund launched by an internationally operating humanitarian charity, such as Care or Oxfam.
- Alternatively, considering supporting Sarvodaya, the largest development charity in Sri Lanka, which has a 45-year track record in reaching out and helping the poorest of the poor. Sarvodaya has mounted a well organised, countrywide relief effort using their countrywide network of offices and volunteers who work in all parts of the country, well above ethnic and other divisions. Their website, www.sarvodaya.lk, provides bank account details for financial donations. They also welcome contributions in kind -- a list of urgently needed items is found at: http://www.sarvodaya.lk/Inside_Page/urgently%20ne
There is much to be done in both short and long terms for Sri Lanka to raise its head from this blow from the seas. Among other things, the country needs to improve its technical and communications facilities so that effective early warnings can help minimise losses in future disasters.
Curiously enough, in my first book on Sri Lanka, I had written about another tidal wave reaching the Galle harbour (see Chapter 8 in The Reefs of Taprobane, 1957). That happened in August 1883, following the eruption of Krakatoa in roughly the same part of the Indian Ocean.
Arthur Clarke
29 December 2004
benchmark
This is just looking at core cpu performance, not bus and external cache issues.
I have alway predicted we would soon have banks robbed through bullet proof glass by someone using a small laser.
About 10 years ago a friend of mine managed to get a surplus 1 watt IR laser diode and operate if from a couple of 9v batteries in something the size of a flashlight. We were able to ignite a paper bag from 10 feet.
Also with the 10 Watt white light laser(krypton argon) that Steller Designs has you could easily light a cigarette, it was about the same as one of those blow tourch lights in teams of heat.
But the real threat is instant and permanent blinding of people. When I was at Stanford we found medical reports of one small middle eastern army(Which I will not mention) using the laser range finders on it's tanks to blind 10's of thousands of enemy foot soldiers permanently!
The IR laser we had was particularly scary since your eyes would start bugging out like you were looking into the sun, when watching something like a bag burn, but since there was no visible light my eye's wouldn't instictivly look away or squint like when using the white laser.
I read many of the coments and complains posted so far. Many are implementation specific gripes.
Some are architecture specific, but Unix is what it is. You really can't change that. And that is the root of the problem.
I mean Unix was/is a major step forward. Almost all major OS's have a unix like engine under the hoods these days(MS Windows included).
Unix has accomplished every goal originaly set out for it. But it's also very limited in it's own over all vision and architecture.
To overcome that requires finding a very different way of thinking about programs, OS's and computers then the way we now do.
For example, I can access a remote machine with VNC. I love it so much I have several PC that I almost only access that way.
There are many significant adventages when using a computer this way that most people don't realize.
1.) When I log in, all my applications are right were I left them. Windows open, word processors and E-mails half written, cursor sitting just where I had last contunued even though I many have flown 2000 miles. (or had my local computer reboot)
X windows can't do this! Although I love X for many reasons, X tunneled over SSH is very cool. VNC also tunnels.
Back in the Early 90's Novel had something sort of like this, at least your whole windows work enviorment and files would follow you from computer to computer, but would loose run time states. Sun is also working hard on systems like this.
2.)Thing like IM and E-mail , gnutilla etc continue to function even when I am not online.
In the command line world we have had this in UNIX for a long time "nohup" and "cron" for example.
But why do I need a graphics card at all. Why can't I just have many virtual desktop sessions that I can VNC into(on a single Server)? Then I can then leave them in different states for each project I am working on.
Here is another one.
Why Can't I take a program, pause it(swap it out)
generate a file of it's run state. Copy it across the net and resume execution right where it left off, but on a completely different computer? Or maybe after a reboot.. (HP had this years ago, or was it Tandem?)
I had some thoughts on this that I gave a talk on. It's missing much, and still not polished, but there are still a lot of good ideas in there.
Amorphous OS talk Sorry it's a powerpoint, but I know you Linux guys can still read it.
I have sent an E-mail to Arthur C. Clark , included a URL to this thread. He's usualy quick at replying.(assuming the phone lines are working) His home is about 1/2 Mile inland, but there are several of these British style clubs he likes to visit that have walls on three side and ocean on the fourth. I'd really not want to be at one when the tsunami hit.
/ em ail.replies/
From the news it looks like waves were large enough to capsize boats in Columbo and the Galle Face Green (my favorate spot) people were washed across a field into a fence that ran along the road side, but they didnt' think anyone was washed out...
http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/12/26
Opps, please ignore that "not" on start of the line...
Should read:
"hiring cheap developers and not experts has put many companies out of bussiness!"
Articles like Has Software Development Become a Commodity? is stripping the skill and art of programming out of the bussines.
,oblivious, in there little rose colored world.
Many companies don't understand that a short program is better then a long one and requires more skill to do so.
Many companies don't understand that a good design and experianced programmers can make smaller/better/faster/easier/bugfree programs in less time.
Many companies just don't appreciate or aren't willing to pay for 10, 20 or more years of software development experience. They don't understand that an expert is much faster and cheaper in the long run then hiring the novice, they just see the price tag.
There is a reason people buy high end products and are willing to pay more, and the same holds true for hiring developers. Higher quality, better results and often lower cost in the long run.
These companies study management theory, and make there Gant charts and UML layouts, and pigeon hole it's employies and expect then to churn out code like cows give milk. Developers are then become interchangable and expendable and it's just a matter of thowing "bodies" at the project at the lowest cost possible. (think COBOL development at a bank)
Nothing cutting edge, innovative or creative has ever come from these endeavors.
And Yet they keep expecting it to. Sure it's gets the job done, but it actualy cost them more in the long run, and they don't even know it. They just keep going along
This is why most software sucks, bloatware, 1000's of bugs is considered acceptable and viruses and malware run free across the Internet.
Not hiring cheap developers and not experts has put many companies out of bussiness!
I do have the beer belly, but last I checked testical hang down. not up. So there is the width of my leg about 10 inches from the lap to the seat bottom where the jewels rest.
Being fat acts as thermal insulation therby protecting scrotum temperatures.
Also my lap is a good 10 inches( add a few more for gut overhang) from my scrotum, so unless I was trying to hump a laptop or something, they would never really be affected buy it's heat.
May he face the full wrath of the force..
I can't get to the linked article.
P2P IPTV is an Idea who's time has really come. I write about this on my site here
Thanks, that makes does make it more difficult.
Accoring the the photo and rulls described by the article that was linked to, I can did it in 23 Moves! That's 2.5 second a move.
if I number the blocks 1 to 9 from top left to right. E is empty
I have
1 1 2 2
1 1 3 4
E E 3 4
5 6 6 7
5 8 8 9
The rulls are to move the 2x2 square from the top left to the bottom right I do the following
1 down
2 left
3479 up
7 left
4 down
3 right
7 up
1 right
5 up
689 left
9 up
8 right
6 down
9 left
1 down
7 down left
3 left
4 up
1 right
9 right up
6 up
8 left
1 down
Let me know if I am missing something, But this took more to write down then to solve....
Having to deal with an inquisitive 4 year old and a screaming wife.
I doesn't it required being smart but to just see the problem clearly.
I just cut out some wood blocks and tried to solve it and was able to in like under a minute.
It's not hard to see the solution , but this computer program had a hard time brute forcing it. Because it can't work towards a goal! and Can't eleminate obvious dead ends.
No this is not true, a hologram is a recording of the interference patterns of light, these interference patterns are larger then the wavelength of light, several lambda.
9 90450
Diffraction grating work on the same principal as a hologram. A diffraction grating is just a series of black and white lines scribed on a flat surface. Or could be slits or even a series of find parallel wires.
http://www.eio.com/repairfaq/sam/diffract.gif
The first practical diffraction gratings were made in 1820 by Joseph von Fraunhofer. He stretched fine, parallel wires between two parallel threaded rods, and was able to resolve the sodium D spectrum lines
So if you read my earlier post I have more info there,
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=131623&cid=10
Most things labeled as holgrams are crappy 3D effects. Such as those lenticular sheet 3D effects on magazine covers and breakfast cerial boxes.
This word missuse has really discredited those who have real holograms.
Then there are still image holograms such as the cheap Mylar prints that aren't too bad if lit right, but most people can't or aren't willing to get up proper lighting to display them effectivly. The fact that I can't just put a nail in the wall and hang it is a large setback.
The glass plate holograms are very expensive but when done right are frightenly real. Like one a friend of mine made of his head with a pulsed ruby laser. I really looks like a decapitated head in a box, in almost any lighting. He was showing it at a fleamarket and people would call the cops, or completely go histerical in horror screaming and crying, thinking is was a real head in a box (except it was just a flat glass palate)
Here is the big hint now.
Did you know you can digitaly generate a hologram compulationaly and print it on a laser printer, photographicaly reduce it and have it work as a hologram!
A hologram is really just a black and white print of the light interferiance patterns (that are much larger then the wavelength of light used).
You can even display these interference patterns in realtime using a LCOS chip if it's illiminated correctly,(mono chrome only) and product true holographic image. Limited to 1 inch across through and $5000 at the moment.
So if it were possible to get an LCOS that was 14 inches across it would litteraly be like a red tinted glass porthole into another universe. Will all the detail and resolution of looking out side the window of your office!
There was some very interesting experiments we did with this a few years ago. Maybe someday I'll have the time to write these up in more detail.