I remember seeing this as a kid in one of the "cars of the future" at Epcot Center. Seemed like a gamer's dream-come-true at the time. Was so disappointed when I was old enough to drive and it still wasn't available in any cars.
"With Live Mesh, you can synchronize files with all of your devices, so you always have the latest versions handy. Access your files from any device or from the web, easily share them with others, and get notified whenever someone changes a file.
Working on one computer, but need a program from another? No problem. Use Live Mesh to connect to your other computer and access its desktop as if you were sitting right in front of it. "
I live in one of those high traffic areas is the reason I mentioned the rubber.
You are correct though, a lot of the color does come from the aggregate rock used. Aggregate can be anywhere from pure white to black. Obviously, it is cheaper to use what is close by.
Here is some research on the topic that might be of interest.
Sort of. It's called "whitetopping." You add about a layer of concrete on top of the asphalt during a maintenance or repair project. Advances in the 1990s improved the ultra-thin whitetopping (UTW) where the layer isn't required to be so thick.
Believe it or not, there is a lot of research going into creating lighter colored surfaces for roads. One of the advantages is that it takes less light (and thus energy) to light up the surface at night. This also decreases the amount of "light pollution" you would have around town. There are other advantages to improving water quality and decreasing noise.
However, one of the current hangups is how to keep them light? Unless we can also change the rubber in the tires to be lighter color as well, the road surfaces just end up black again in high traffic areas like California.
Their point was that the technology that staffers encountered when they arrived at the White House was really antiquated compared to what they were used to on the campaign trail. No laptops, desktops had software that was several versions behind, limited phone lines and lines that were pointing to the wrong extension, etc.
"If the Obama campaign represented a sleek, new iPhone kind of future, the first day of the Obama administration looked more like the rotary-dial past.
Two years after launching the most technologically savvy presidential campaign in history, Obama officials ran smack into the constraints of the federal bureaucracy yesterday, encountering a jumble of disconnected phone lines, old computer software, and security regulations forbidding outside e-mail accounts.
What does that mean in 21st-century terms? No Facebook to communicate with supporters. No outside e-mail log-ins. No instant messaging. Hard adjustments for a staff that helped sweep Obama to power through, among other things, relentless online social networking.
"It is kind of like going from an Xbox to an Atari," Obama spokesman Bill Burton said of his new digs.
In many ways, the move into the White House resembled a first day at school: Advisers wandered the halls, looking for their offices. Aides spent hours in orientation, learning such things as government ethics rules as well as how their paychecks will be delivered. And everyone filled out a seemingly endless pile of paperwork.
There were plenty of first-day glitches, too, as calls to many lines in the West Wing were met with a busy signal all morning and those to the main White House switchboard were greeted by a recording, redirecting callers to the presidential Web site. A number of reporters were also shut out of the White House because of lost security clearance lists.
By late evening, the vaunted new White House Web site did not offer any updated posts about President Obama's busy first day on the job, which included an inaugural prayer service, an open house with the public, and meetings with his economic and national security teams.
Nor did the site reflect the transparency Obama promised to deliver. "The President has not yet issued any executive orders," it stated hours after Obama issued executive orders to tighten ethics rules, enhance Freedom of Information Act rules and freeze the salaries of White House officials who earn more than $100,000.
The site was updated for the first time last night, when information on the executive orders was added. But there were still no pool reports or blog entries.
No one could quite explain the problem -- but they swore it would be fixed.
One member of the White House new-media team came to work on Tuesday, right after the swearing-in ceremony, only to discover that it was impossible to know which programs could be updated, or even which computers could be used for which purposes. The team members, accustomed to working on Macintoshes, found computers outfitted with six-year-old versions of Microsoft software. Laptops were scarce, assigned to only a few people in the West Wing. The team was left struggling to put closed captions on online videos.
Senior advisers chafed at the new arrangements, which severely limit mobility -- partly by tradition but also for security reasons and to ensure that all official work is preserved under the Presidential Records Act.
"It is what it is," said a White House staff member, speaking on the condition of anonymity. "Nobody is being a blockade right now. It's just the system we need to go through."
I too have a Zune, and love it. The decision to buy it was easy. Feature for feature it beat the similar iPod nano (which I had just purchased for my wife) in almost every category. It had the ability to play video and a larger, brighter display months before the video nano.
The thing that put it over the top for me was the ability to sync wirelessly. There is nothing like being able to walk into the house and grab all of the latest video podcast that have downloaded while I was away without ever having to go near my computer.
I make my online music purchases from Amazon.com and have no problems living without the cumbersome iTunes software or store.
Slashdot Mirror
I remember seeing this as a kid in one of the "cars of the future" at Epcot Center. Seemed like a gamer's dream-come-true at the time. Was so disappointed when I was old enough to drive and it still wasn't available in any cars.
Windows Live Mesh
https://www.mesh.com/
"With Live Mesh, you can synchronize files with all of your devices, so you always have the latest versions handy. Access your files from any device or from the web, easily share them with others, and get notified whenever someone changes a file.
Working on one computer, but need a program from another? No problem. Use Live Mesh to connect to your other computer and access its desktop as if you were sitting right in front of it. "
I live in one of those high traffic areas is the reason I mentioned the rubber.
You are correct though, a lot of the color does come from the aggregate rock used. Aggregate can be anywhere from pure white to black. Obviously, it is cheaper to use what is close by.
Here is some research on the topic that might be of interest.
http://www.graniterock.com/pdf/technical_reports/cool1_technical_report.pdf
Sort of. It's called "whitetopping." You add about a layer of concrete on top of the asphalt during a maintenance or repair project. Advances in the 1990s improved the ultra-thin whitetopping (UTW) where the layer isn't required to be so thick.
http://www.whitetopping.com/faq.asp
Alternatively, you can put additives such as limestone into the asphalt mix to help lighten the color.
Believe it or not, there is a lot of research going into creating lighter colored surfaces for roads. One of the advantages is that it takes less light (and thus energy) to light up the surface at night. This also decreases the amount of "light pollution" you would have around town. There are other advantages to improving water quality and decreasing noise.
http://www.eoearth.org/article/Cool_paving
However, one of the current hangups is how to keep them light? Unless we can also change the rubber in the tires to be lighter color as well, the road surfaces just end up black again in high traffic areas like California.
Yes, you are missing something, but it isn't your fault. The was the wrong article to point to from the Washington Post. The better story was here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/21/AR2009012104249.html
Their point was that the technology that staffers encountered when they arrived at the White House was really antiquated compared to what they were used to on the campaign trail. No laptops, desktops had software that was several versions behind, limited phone lines and lines that were pointing to the wrong extension, etc.
"If the Obama campaign represented a sleek, new iPhone kind of future, the first day of the Obama administration looked more like the rotary-dial past.
Two years after launching the most technologically savvy presidential campaign in history, Obama officials ran smack into the constraints of the federal bureaucracy yesterday, encountering a jumble of disconnected phone lines, old computer software, and security regulations forbidding outside e-mail accounts.
What does that mean in 21st-century terms? No Facebook to communicate with supporters. No outside e-mail log-ins. No instant messaging. Hard adjustments for a staff that helped sweep Obama to power through, among other things, relentless online social networking.
"It is kind of like going from an Xbox to an Atari," Obama spokesman Bill Burton said of his new digs.
In many ways, the move into the White House resembled a first day at school: Advisers wandered the halls, looking for their offices. Aides spent hours in orientation, learning such things as government ethics rules as well as how their paychecks will be delivered. And everyone filled out a seemingly endless pile of paperwork.
There were plenty of first-day glitches, too, as calls to many lines in the West Wing were met with a busy signal all morning and those to the main White House switchboard were greeted by a recording, redirecting callers to the presidential Web site. A number of reporters were also shut out of the White House because of lost security clearance lists.
By late evening, the vaunted new White House Web site did not offer any updated posts about President Obama's busy first day on the job, which included an inaugural prayer service, an open house with the public, and meetings with his economic and national security teams.
Nor did the site reflect the transparency Obama promised to deliver. "The President has not yet issued any executive orders," it stated hours after Obama issued executive orders to tighten ethics rules, enhance Freedom of Information Act rules and freeze the salaries of White House officials who earn more than $100,000.
The site was updated for the first time last night, when information on the executive orders was added. But there were still no pool reports or blog entries.
No one could quite explain the problem -- but they swore it would be fixed.
One member of the White House new-media team came to work on Tuesday, right after the swearing-in ceremony, only to discover that it was impossible to know which programs could be updated, or even which computers could be used for which purposes. The team members, accustomed to working on Macintoshes, found computers outfitted with six-year-old versions of Microsoft software. Laptops were scarce, assigned to only a few people in the West Wing. The team was left struggling to put closed captions on online videos.
Senior advisers chafed at the new arrangements, which severely limit mobility -- partly by tradition but also for security reasons and to ensure that all official work is preserved under the Presidential Records Act.
"It is what it is," said a White House staff member, speaking on the condition of anonymity. "Nobody is being a blockade right now. It's just the system we need to go through."
The system has daunted past
While the video on ESPN was pretty good, the audio died. However, on MSNBC the video died but the audio was perfect. So, I had both going...
I too have a Zune, and love it. The decision to buy it was easy. Feature for feature it beat the similar iPod nano (which I had just purchased for my wife) in almost every category. It had the ability to play video and a larger, brighter display months before the video nano. The thing that put it over the top for me was the ability to sync wirelessly. There is nothing like being able to walk into the house and grab all of the latest video podcast that have downloaded while I was away without ever having to go near my computer. I make my online music purchases from Amazon.com and have no problems living without the cumbersome iTunes software or store.