I was part of the initial preorder program for the Alpha Grip. I wanted one because of a repetitive stress issue, but it turned out to be worse for my condition than a normal keyboard. I still have it, and wish I could use it.
Sapphire is monocrystaline aluminum oxide with one impurity, ruby is the same thing with another impurity. It's been a few years so I don't remember which impurities.
However, I do remember that it has a hardness of something like 9.2. Which means that it takes a diamond to scratch it.
My guess is that that monitor will take punishment, but when you go past it's limit it will shatter. However, it's limit might be something like a bullet or being driven on by a car.
Clearly that comment is parody and protected free speech.
Honestly, I wonder if her, or her fans, realize the damage she's doing to the long-term viability of her work. At this point I think she's successfully united the seemingly disparate groups of Christian fundamentalists and the OSS community against her books being used for education.
Re:Worthless without a cooling fan...
on
Lap Desks
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· Score: 2, Informative
I second the idea of blowing the dust out of your laptop.
I have an asus W3V, and after about a year it started to have serious overheating issues. After trying a bunch of different software setup things (drivers, resolution, etc.), I was about to give up and buy another computer when I decided to give it one last shot, and just blow all the dust out of it.
After opening up the panels at the bottom, taking out the keyboard, and blasting air into it (got big chunks of dust that were probably at one time dust bunnies), it now works fine and no longer has any heating issues.
Your problem with laptops overheating might be that you just live in a dusty area.
As a side note, it took me a few years to break my wife of putting her laptop down ontop of a blanket to protect the coffee table. That cretainly contributed to overheating issues for her.
The superconductive and resistive magnets at the National High Magnetic Field Lab are ussually a tube for the working area.
As was pointed out this magnet is special becuase it will let researchers get laser light to their sample while it's in the high field.
For those that are wondering why high fields are useful for studying semiconductors, it's that one of the most important variables in the equasions governing semiconductors is Magnetic field divided by temperature.
That's partially because the current generation of game developers aren't really trying to think outside the box. Instead, as you point out, they're just repackaging the same tired stuff that they've been doing since the 1980's.
What I'm looking forward to is going to be a FPS on the Wii that takes advantage of both the 'gun' and the Wii-fit board thingy. You'll aim & shoot with the gun, and move around by shifting your balance forward, back, or to the side. Or a boxing game where the hand positions are determined by the controller (and nunchuck) and the 'dance' is done via the Wii-fit board. It will be even cooler when things like impact vests let you feel when you get hit (and where you get hit) rather than just a flasing light or a change in your life bar.
I'm not saying that such a game has to be on the Wii, it's just that the Wii is the only console with an interface capable of such immersive games. Personally, I _hope_ that at least one of the two other consoles adds Wii-like controls.
I completely agree with the idea that the xbox360 and the PS3 are 'evolutionary' rather than 'revolutionary' consoles. They basically do the same thing the Xbox and the PS2 did, but better.
The Wii, on the other hand, has a truly innovative interface, which only promises to get more interesting as new devices (like that platform for WiiFit) come out for it. It feels more like VR for the home than a traditional game console.
I understand that the 'hardcore' gamers in my generation are upset with the Wii, and how it's making gaming somewhat less cool because their parents (and grandparents) are getting into it. However, Nintendo is going to be laughing all the way to the bank for this round of the console wars. The next generation of high-end consoles looks like it's going to have to include impact vests, Wii-like controlers, and Wii-fit like boards. Gamers, even if you don't like the Wii, you better figure out how to use the controler, because that's where everything is going.
I think I'm about the same age as Stormie. The problem that I have with today's market is that most of the 'new' consoles and PC-games have remarkably little depth of field. There seem to be a small handful of good games for each device, and everything else just mimics those. It used to be that there were many many more games, good bad and mediocre.
I'm still occasionally playing nethack, which I still view as the greatest RPG ever made. I also play an MMORPG, and have ordered a Wii. I play the MMORPG because it functions mostly as a chatroom that provides it's on content (rather than being an actual game that challenges me in some way), and I've ordered the Wii because it's just fun.
First, about a year ago (maybe two) they were considering doing this at Lawerence Berkeley National Lab (LBNL). They even got to the point where there were film crews here being talked to about safety. The plan to do it here was eventually scrapped because of concerns that it would be bad press. For those that don't know Berkeley, CA has declared itself to be a "Nuclear Free Zone." No, I don't know anyone that actually knows what that means.
Second, sterilization via radiation is a standard method for dealing with bugs where the females only mate once. That is, you farm-raise a bunch of the males, irradiate them so they're sterile, then release them into the wild so the females will mate with infertile, farm-raised insects rather thant he fertile, wild ones. So it's well known that radiation can keep bugs from reproducing.
After giving up on LBNL, they were considering doing this at UC Davis. I don't know what the issues were that caused them to give up there.
The presentation that was made recently by the scientific director for NIF at LBNL included references to simulations which actually had supernovae exploding. One of them was particularly interesting because it included a 'natural' asymmetry (as in it came from the model without having to be included artificially).
I'm well aware that a lot of the information that astrophysicists want to know have huge uncertainties. I'm involved in making those measurements.
For this discussion it's worth keeping in mind that current computer models have real problems actually getting supernovae to explode. At one point it was so bad that I heard someone say, "If it weren't for the fact that we occasionally observe one explode, I would assure you that they cannot."
It's only been in the last couple of years that someone has made a computer model that actually did it.
Everyone should just use the image as their signature that way anyone using the iphone for one of the approved purposes (web browsing) will end up hacking their iphones. Once 90% of all iphones are 'hacked,' even without 3rd party apps installed on them, Apple really won't be able to do any more 'ibricking.'
What AT&Apple are trying to avoid is someone figuring out how to run skype on the iphone and just running the iphone without any sort of contract that sends them monthly fees. What's funny is that Tmobile has just introduced a phone that lets you do just that.
That's not really the problem with the RIAA, copyright laws or even counterfeiting laws.
IMO the problem is that copyright and counterfeiting laws were written when it was difficult to catch people that were producing forged goods or currency on a huge scale. For example, the minimum penalty for counterfeiting is a $250,000 fine, 5 years in prison, and the confiscation of all equipment used in the counterfeiting. That law makes a lot of sense when you're after someone that's made a printing press and is producing sheets of 100's. It's not so appropriate when you're going after a teenager that produced some shitty copies of a 20$ with an inkjet.
Similarly, RIAA is using laws designed to go after people selling pirated material on a massive scale to persecute people who aren't financially benefiting from copyright infringement. E.g. rather than reforming their distribution network, they're using copyright law as a club to try and fend off change and a new reality about how the world works.
If RIAA, the MPAA, and whomever else wants to make their customers happy and keep their businesses working properly, they need to switch to simultaneously release everything worldwide in pretty much every langauge. There's no reason I should have to wait 4 months to buy a DVD of a JP TV show for 30$, when someone in Japan adds subtitles and posts it on the internet the day after it airs in Japan.
I'm probably gonna butcher the quote, but in futurama, when they goto the ancient lost city of Atlanta:
Fry: How many atmospheres can the ship take?
Prof: Well, given that it's a space ship, some where between 0 and 1.
But in Anime, explosions in space are louder because there's no air to get in the way.
Seriously though, I kinda hope that this is intended to be used from inside the crew cabin. Using it outside the space craft is gonna be problematic if it actually relies on the sound of the gas escaping.
Probably better to look at what photoshop's interface was like in 1997 than 2007, when comparing the two.
I'm 90% sure that GIMP isn't intended to be a photoshop clone, but rather an independent graphical image manipulation program.
I know that I'm not an artist, or a mac devotee, but I actually find the GIMP interface more intuative than Photoshop's. I also find Gnome to be a better interface than MacOSX or WindowsXP.
IMO it's more a match of how well the program matches up with how each person thinks. If photoshop is better for you, then by all means use photoshop, a photoshop clone, or hack GIMP so it looks like photoshop.
So...is it time we started boycotting artists from major labels that make such stupid statements. It's easy enough to stop buying CDs or tracks from itunes, but it should also include calling radio stations and asking them to stop playing said artists.
I've got some clue what's meant by dead time for scientific measurements. Basically, dead time is the amount of time after an event is measured that it takes for the detector system to reset. For example, if you're using a Spectroscopy Amplifier (or another shaping amplifier) dead time comes from two signals coming too close to each other. Shaping amplviers are setup so that a square wave (or a step) would produce a characteristic shape (usually a flat-topped Gaussian shape, or a trapazoid). The purpose of the shaping is to allow for the imperfections in detector to be integrated into a single measurement which is easier to process (signal being generated slowly or slowly getting through prior parts of the circuit). If a second signal occurs while the shaping is still taking place it will be integrated into the output of the shaping amplifier resulting in a garbled output for both inputs.
The net result is that as you send more and more signals to a spectroscopy system, the dead time increases and eventually you get no output because the electronics are constantly saturated. A well put together system will include a measurement of dead time so you know how many signals you're loosing.
Album artwork is encoded in the MP3 tracks themselves.
AAC is not really open, but it's a standard and pushed by the same people that made MP3 (it's the audio part of mp4), so it is at least as open as mp3. For this particular comparison amazonmp3 sells non-DRMed music for about 40% less than itunes, so that is a better comparison. As far as I know OGG is the only really 'open' standard. I'm already being rated as a troll in an earlier post for implying that all music that itunes sold is tied to ipods and you're f***ed if you ever try to switch away from apple manufactured players. For joe-blow users I think that the added steps to make itunes music work on a non-itunes player are enough to effectively lock them into ipods forever.
non-DRMed music was available before itunes existed. I think the first non-DRMed music I bought online was from TMBG in the late 90's or early OO's (before cable modems and DSL was commonly available), after their 'major' label dropped them. At the time downloading the music from the internet was being pushed as 'bring-your-own-CD,' and the bandwith requirements were huge and it took the better part of a day to download it. non-DRMed music continued to be around for indie music and smaller labels.
With regard to Apple & the music labels...I think that Apple's executive management has many people in common with major branches of the entertainment industry, so it's very complex to try to say which are which. The issue of DRM is tied up in the disputes between Apple (which was rapidly becoming the only stylish way to sell musich) and the major labels.
I've recently started buying music again now that it's possible to get DRM-free music again (on amazonmp3 and a few others). For those that haven't thought very hard about it, DRMed music (itunes music) is essentially ephemeral. At some point it will stop working, either when it thinks it's on too many devices, or when the vendor decides it's no longer important to support that format (ever try opening a decade-old data file made by a windows or mac product?). The music I love, is music I want to keep forever, and I still listen to those gold-printed CDs of 'The Wall' I bought in 1990. My older friends still have their Beetle's Albums on LP.
Even without DRM (itunes premium?) using apple's proprietary data format, you're taking a risk since the data format hasn't been made publicly available. Re-processing those files as MP3 (or doing the 'burn to cd and reimport to get around apple's DRM' trick) is non-optimal since you're using two compressed data formats which are lossy in different ways.
It used to be true that foreign students that completed advanced degrees in the US would stay in the US. Now more and more of them want to go back to their home countries after completing their training (which usually includes 2-4 years of post-graduate work). In my experience many foreign students are here with their governments support and have jobs waiting for them at home after they successfully complete their US-based training. The US actually has a long track record of recruiting bright people from other countries. We've done very well importing brain power. What's changing now is that foreigners are going back to their home countries and taking our training with them.
Gamma ray bursts and (I think) supernovas can 'beam' radiation naturally b/c they've got huge magnetic fields inside them. This is the only way that gamma ray bursts are actually calculable in terms of the total energy output by the event (even then it takes 30 solar mass stars).
For supernovas the magnetic fields can be strong enough to cause the particles emitted in weak-force interactions be almost all one time which gives the resulting black hole/neutron star some serious momentum. I think there are some supernova remnants with neutron stars observed zipping out of them at 40% of the speed of light.
I've got an asus laptop and love it. I bought it b/c my boss in my prior job got one and loved it. As it turns out the repair center for their laptops (if not their notebook division, I'm not sure) is actually in the US within driving distance. I had a hard disk problem and was able to drive it over to have it repaired (saving time sans-laptop).
They are also great if you're linux-oriented but still have to keep windows around b/c at least until a few months ago they came with their hard-disks partitioned making a linux install for a dual-boot system almost brainless. The only hardware that takes any work to get functioning properly under linux is the wireless because it isn't enabled at boot (which is a good security feature IMO).
As far as durability goes, I think they're good, but definitely not at the toughbook standard. I'ld guess they're on-par with macbook-pro or higher-end dells for durability (although they don't have the exploding batteries from sony like both of those).
I grew up after hand-held calculators were ubiquitous, and after slide rules were rare. However, it was also before calculators were allowed on exams, but slide rules were!
So, I learned how to use a slide rule. Later on, I was allowed to use a slide rule with all my useful chemistry and physics equations written on it, even though programmable calculators were forbidden b/c they might have formulas stored in them.
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I was part of the initial preorder program for the Alpha Grip. I wanted one because of a repetitive stress issue, but it turned out to be worse for my condition than a normal keyboard. I still have it, and wish I could use it.
Sapphire is monocrystaline aluminum oxide with one impurity, ruby is the same thing with another impurity. It's been a few years so I don't remember which impurities.
However, I do remember that it has a hardness of something like 9.2. Which means that it takes a diamond to scratch it.
My guess is that that monitor will take punishment, but when you go past it's limit it will shatter. However, it's limit might be something like a bullet or being driven on by a car.
Clearly that comment is parody and protected free speech.
Honestly, I wonder if her, or her fans, realize the damage she's doing to the long-term viability of her work. At this point I think she's successfully united the seemingly disparate groups of Christian fundamentalists and the OSS community against her books being used for education.
I second the idea of blowing the dust out of your laptop. I have an asus W3V, and after about a year it started to have serious overheating issues. After trying a bunch of different software setup things (drivers, resolution, etc.), I was about to give up and buy another computer when I decided to give it one last shot, and just blow all the dust out of it. After opening up the panels at the bottom, taking out the keyboard, and blasting air into it (got big chunks of dust that were probably at one time dust bunnies), it now works fine and no longer has any heating issues. Your problem with laptops overheating might be that you just live in a dusty area. As a side note, it took me a few years to break my wife of putting her laptop down ontop of a blanket to protect the coffee table. That cretainly contributed to overheating issues for her.
As was pointed out this magnet is special becuase it will let researchers get laser light to their sample while it's in the high field.
For those that are wondering why high fields are useful for studying semiconductors, it's that one of the most important variables in the equasions governing semiconductors is Magnetic field divided by temperature.
What I'm looking forward to is going to be a FPS on the Wii that takes advantage of both the 'gun' and the Wii-fit board thingy. You'll aim & shoot with the gun, and move around by shifting your balance forward, back, or to the side. Or a boxing game where the hand positions are determined by the controller (and nunchuck) and the 'dance' is done via the Wii-fit board. It will be even cooler when things like impact vests let you feel when you get hit (and where you get hit) rather than just a flasing light or a change in your life bar.
I'm not saying that such a game has to be on the Wii, it's just that the Wii is the only console with an interface capable of such immersive games. Personally, I _hope_ that at least one of the two other consoles adds Wii-like controls.
The Wii, on the other hand, has a truly innovative interface, which only promises to get more interesting as new devices (like that platform for WiiFit) come out for it. It feels more like VR for the home than a traditional game console.
I understand that the 'hardcore' gamers in my generation are upset with the Wii, and how it's making gaming somewhat less cool because their parents (and grandparents) are getting into it. However, Nintendo is going to be laughing all the way to the bank for this round of the console wars. The next generation of high-end consoles looks like it's going to have to include impact vests, Wii-like controlers, and Wii-fit like boards. Gamers, even if you don't like the Wii, you better figure out how to use the controler, because that's where everything is going.
I'm still occasionally playing nethack, which I still view as the greatest RPG ever made. I also play an MMORPG, and have ordered a Wii. I play the MMORPG because it functions mostly as a chatroom that provides it's on content (rather than being an actual game that challenges me in some way), and I've ordered the Wii because it's just fun.
Second, sterilization via radiation is a standard method for dealing with bugs where the females only mate once. That is, you farm-raise a bunch of the males, irradiate them so they're sterile, then release them into the wild so the females will mate with infertile, farm-raised insects rather thant he fertile, wild ones. So it's well known that radiation can keep bugs from reproducing.
After giving up on LBNL, they were considering doing this at UC Davis. I don't know what the issues were that caused them to give up there.
I'm well aware that a lot of the information that astrophysicists want to know have huge uncertainties. I'm involved in making those measurements.
For this discussion it's worth keeping in mind that current computer models have real problems actually getting supernovae to explode. At one point it was so bad that I heard someone say, "If it weren't for the fact that we occasionally observe one explode, I would assure you that they cannot." It's only been in the last couple of years that someone has made a computer model that actually did it.
What AT&Apple are trying to avoid is someone figuring out how to run skype on the iphone and just running the iphone without any sort of contract that sends them monthly fees. What's funny is that Tmobile has just introduced a phone that lets you do just that.
IMO the problem is that copyright and counterfeiting laws were written when it was difficult to catch people that were producing forged goods or currency on a huge scale. For example, the minimum penalty for counterfeiting is a $250,000 fine, 5 years in prison, and the confiscation of all equipment used in the counterfeiting. That law makes a lot of sense when you're after someone that's made a printing press and is producing sheets of 100's. It's not so appropriate when you're going after a teenager that produced some shitty copies of a 20$ with an inkjet.
Similarly, RIAA is using laws designed to go after people selling pirated material on a massive scale to persecute people who aren't financially benefiting from copyright infringement. E.g. rather than reforming their distribution network, they're using copyright law as a club to try and fend off change and a new reality about how the world works.
If RIAA, the MPAA, and whomever else wants to make their customers happy and keep their businesses working properly, they need to switch to simultaneously release everything worldwide in pretty much every langauge. There's no reason I should have to wait 4 months to buy a DVD of a JP TV show for 30$, when someone in Japan adds subtitles and posts it on the internet the day after it airs in Japan.
I'm probably gonna butcher the quote, but in futurama, when they goto the ancient lost city of Atlanta: Fry: How many atmospheres can the ship take? Prof: Well, given that it's a space ship, some where between 0 and 1.
Seriously though, I kinda hope that this is intended to be used from inside the crew cabin. Using it outside the space craft is gonna be problematic if it actually relies on the sound of the gas escaping.
I know that I'm not an artist, or a mac devotee, but I actually find the GIMP interface more intuative than Photoshop's. I also find Gnome to be a better interface than MacOSX or WindowsXP.
IMO it's more a match of how well the program matches up with how each person thinks. If photoshop is better for you, then by all means use photoshop, a photoshop clone, or hack GIMP so it looks like photoshop.
this list is outdated by 2 years, but it's a start: http://www.oag.state.tx.us/newspubs/releases/2005/112105sony_list.pdf
The net result is that as you send more and more signals to a spectroscopy system, the dead time increases and eventually you get no output because the electronics are constantly saturated. A well put together system will include a measurement of dead time so you know how many signals you're loosing.
AAC is not really open, but it's a standard and pushed by the same people that made MP3 (it's the audio part of mp4), so it is at least as open as mp3. For this particular comparison amazonmp3 sells non-DRMed music for about 40% less than itunes, so that is a better comparison. As far as I know OGG is the only really 'open' standard. I'm already being rated as a troll in an earlier post for implying that all music that itunes sold is tied to ipods and you're f***ed if you ever try to switch away from apple manufactured players. For joe-blow users I think that the added steps to make itunes music work on a non-itunes player are enough to effectively lock them into ipods forever.
non-DRMed music was available before itunes existed. I think the first non-DRMed music I bought online was from TMBG in the late 90's or early OO's (before cable modems and DSL was commonly available), after their 'major' label dropped them. At the time downloading the music from the internet was being pushed as 'bring-your-own-CD,' and the bandwith requirements were huge and it took the better part of a day to download it. non-DRMed music continued to be around for indie music and smaller labels.
With regard to Apple & the music labels...I think that Apple's executive management has many people in common with major branches of the entertainment industry, so it's very complex to try to say which are which. The issue of DRM is tied up in the disputes between Apple (which was rapidly becoming the only stylish way to sell musich) and the major labels.
Even without DRM (itunes premium?) using apple's proprietary data format, you're taking a risk since the data format hasn't been made publicly available. Re-processing those files as MP3 (or doing the 'burn to cd and reimport to get around apple's DRM' trick) is non-optimal since you're using two compressed data formats which are lossy in different ways.
It used to be true that foreign students that completed advanced degrees in the US would stay in the US. Now more and more of them want to go back to their home countries after completing their training (which usually includes 2-4 years of post-graduate work). In my experience many foreign students are here with their governments support and have jobs waiting for them at home after they successfully complete their US-based training. The US actually has a long track record of recruiting bright people from other countries. We've done very well importing brain power. What's changing now is that foreigners are going back to their home countries and taking our training with them.
In light of the ibrick event, what else can you expect from the exclusive service provider of the iphone?
For supernovas the magnetic fields can be strong enough to cause the particles emitted in weak-force interactions be almost all one time which gives the resulting black hole/neutron star some serious momentum. I think there are some supernova remnants with neutron stars observed zipping out of them at 40% of the speed of light.
I've got an asus laptop and love it. I bought it b/c my boss in my prior job got one and loved it. As it turns out the repair center for their laptops (if not their notebook division, I'm not sure) is actually in the US within driving distance. I had a hard disk problem and was able to drive it over to have it repaired (saving time sans-laptop). They are also great if you're linux-oriented but still have to keep windows around b/c at least until a few months ago they came with their hard-disks partitioned making a linux install for a dual-boot system almost brainless. The only hardware that takes any work to get functioning properly under linux is the wireless because it isn't enabled at boot (which is a good security feature IMO). As far as durability goes, I think they're good, but definitely not at the toughbook standard. I'ld guess they're on-par with macbook-pro or higher-end dells for durability (although they don't have the exploding batteries from sony like both of those).
I grew up after hand-held calculators were ubiquitous, and after slide rules were rare. However, it was also before calculators were allowed on exams, but slide rules were! So, I learned how to use a slide rule. Later on, I was allowed to use a slide rule with all my useful chemistry and physics equations written on it, even though programmable calculators were forbidden b/c they might have formulas stored in them.