Could we say that, within certain limits for distance from the eye, there is a maximum amount of pixels that we can see, and that from that point on, any increase will not be noticed?
Certainly, the limit is reached once the atual wavelength of the light starts to play a role (once a pixel is just a photon, or something along those lines).
From TFA: "GNOME Shell is the interface being developed for GNOME 3.0, which was delayed to spring 2011."
On the plus side: there are now also ordinary people using Ubuntu - people that don't know anything. On the down side: they still don't understand what a shell is, even after that explanation (see quoted text).
To me, it's not really clear where GNOME starts or stops... So there's at least one Ubuntu user who is quite clueless what this is all about.
The value of this post? I show you all that there are people able to use Ubuntu without even the basic knowledge of the processes or even the names of them running on the computer. I always think of myself as the target group for Ubuntu. The wizkids can use the other Linux systems.
"the iPhone 4s infamous Retina display packs in 326 pixels"
Why INfamous ? Can we mod the TFA as Troll or Flamebait ?:)
Assuming you're not joking, I will reply and request a -1 Offtopic for myself rather than for you.
The use of a single subjective word is not trolling or flaming. It's just a poor choice of words and can happen to anyone. If however the whole purpose of the sentence is to misinform, to be off-topic (like me in this post!) or to insult, then it can be called trolling or flaming. Now, TFA has a lot of very objective information, and its goal seems to inform us.
On topic again: when would a display be "good enough"? When do we reach a point that we cannot possibly see the difference between a resolution, and an even higher pixel density?
Note, if we get an efficient engine that can keep accelerating (no "idle flight" period), it would be 60-70 years for earth-based observers, but much shorter for the crew. The speed limit of 1c is relevant to surrounding universe, but from the spaceship crew standpoints, the engine power - acceleration - speed - distance - travel time relation behaves in mostly newtonian way. If they expend power needed to travel at 10c according to newtonian mechanics, it will take (in their perception) 1/10 the time of travel at 1c to get there.
Ok... Now I understand why we haven't traveled to the stars yet.
We must overestimate the power needed, so that we can underestimate the time required.
This is opposite from all engineering projects on earth, where the final design is underpowered and delayed.
This stupid system makes it possible to earn a massive amount of money by buying and selling shares at the right time. The really stupid thing is that at some point, the money earned with those transactions can be exchanged for real goods, produced by real people.
People who don't add anything tangible to this world get free money, and can buy goods for it. It's madness. If I hadn't grown up in this world, I doubt that I would ever understand and accept it...
Before becoming the standard critical slashdotter, I'd like to start positive: I think it's really cool - I believe that, as the video says, there are many applications for these magnets. The youtube video is worth the time too...
That said, I wonder if the magnets are stable in time. some of the applications described do not allow for failures after a few months/years. Hope that the costs of the magnets will drop soon too...
I am very confused with the replies I read here (see above). My first thought when I heard about this was: Awesome! In big capital letters.
I am a fan of overpowered machines that dwarf anything else... and this is just really really big, and it was built with the sole purpose to destroy things... It's a really cool toy!
However, the average slashdotter seem to find quite a few things wrong with this... or they just make a joke about it (+1 for jokes).
It would be a fantastic way for the USA, Russia, China and some other countries to test their satellite defense systems. Shooting down space pirates would make the test legitimate.
they also better sue Microsoft for that picture of Stonehenge they distributed with their OS.
On the short term, that would be a win: Two companies known for petty copyright claims are fighting each other in a lawsuit. Both lose money.
On the long term, we lose: At first, more lawyers find work. But then they become unemployed. Unemployed lawyers may start searching for other things to sue (that's what they do, right?). Assuming that people cannot become more stupid, but the rules can become more stupid, it stands to reason that more lawyers means more (stupid) rules.
However for your good faith effort I will reply rather than mark you troll.
"Let's make it mandatory! Then every infraction will be posted to the police, and the media, and maintained on a public page. Captain Panic, who was pulled over on suspicion of driving tired, pleaded not guilty, saying that he was just trying to figure out more information about the grooved pavement in front of him."
"Pshaw! Likely story!"
"Captain Panic's employer has been contacted and his hours have been cut since, as he cannot drive properly rested, he must be working too hard."
No, surveillance measures are all to easily abused in this Orwellian Age.
But there are GPS systems that will beep if it detects you break the speed limit. Nobody seems to oppose those systems? Safety features are a unique sales point - the first seatbelts were not enforced by law, but were instead invented by the Volvo car company. In fact, cars are full of automated warning lights, beeps, and safeguards (oil temperature, tire pressure, rev limiters, sensors detecting which seats are used and whether the person wears the seatbelt, rain sensors, light sensors, etc, etc)... what's the matter with one more - one which does not change the driving experience in any way, unless you doze off?
As far as I understood, this thing will not communicate to the police. It will not shut down your car. It will not force you to stop. It will just give an alarm to keep you awake. It leaves all further responsibility with the driver... Please explain why drivers would oppose this? If any device in cars would be a danger to us, in this Orwellian Age, if would be the GPS. that already has a built in communication system. It can detect your speed (which you will break more often than the tiredness thingy - and also, there is no law against tired driving as it is very subjective).
I see no problems in making this mandatory in traffic a.s.a.p. Worst case scenario is that a silly alarm goes off when the system makes a mistake. It has very few disadvantages... the price is probably the biggest problem. Best case scenario is that it saves the lives of a number of people, saves the relatives a lot of grief, saves the health system a lot of work, the taxpayers a lot of money, etc...
I'm a little sad to see that advertisers have already seen opportunities to use this to improve marketing tricks... but I guess every invention can be abused. And in this case, I think the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.
While I agree with you that nerds, scientists and engineers are more valuable to society (I'm asking for a flame, I know) than economists and the latest Wall street Gugu, it does not mean that we must block all information about the financial issues of the world.
It takes you only 5 seconds to scan a summary on/. and/. obviously expects its readers to make the conscious decision to stop reading if they consider it a waste of time. There are plenty of other topics to read...
Hmm, the Netherlands, UK, Denmark, North Korea, Swaziland, Lesotho and a few other coconut states are dictorships with medieval style kings/queens. There may be elections once in a while, but that is just for show...
You have no clue.... seriously. That is complete and utter bullshit what you are saying there. How do I know? I live in the Netherlands. Dictatorship... lol:')
I believe that the parent made a joke.
Joke: # a humorous anecdote or remark intended to provoke laughter; "he told a very funny joke"; "he knows a million gags"; "thanks for the laugh"; "he laughed unpleasantly at his own jest"; "even a schoolboy's jape is supposed to have some ascertainable point" # jest: activity characterized by good humor # tell a joke; speak humorously; "He often jokes even when he appears serious" # antic: a ludicrous or grotesque act done for fun and amusement # act in a funny or teasing way # a triviality not to be taken seriously; "I regarded his campaign for mayor as a joke" Source: wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
I think that the coconuts gave it away. There are no coconut trees in the Netherlands.
Wasn't sustainable energy supposed to be the really expensive one? Wasn't nuclear supposed to save us while the real sustainable energy is being developed?
It's funny how the costs of nuclear energy are structurally underestimated, while sustainable energy (wind/solar) continuously has to fight the image of being expensive. It says enough that all 28 business plans for nuclear reactors are halted, partially because a regulatory system for greenhouse gases (the "cap and trade" system) was not put into effect.
So... public perception in summary: - sustainable energy: requires too much subsidies, too expensive - nuclear energy: financially more interesting, needs no subsidies
Reality: - sustainable energy: growing market, although expensive - nuclear energy: market stagnation, too expensive
Agreed completely - but not only for driving and traffic. Imagine the list of offenses that people could get fined / arrested for in general. The main problem is that we have many (many!) laws. Most people don't know all the laws. And to abide every law at every moment, people have to turn into frickin' robots... People who say they never break any law are liars. Everybody does, if only by accident.
A fine is meant as a "lesson", so that you don't do it again. And sometimes, it is not necessary to learn the lesson - it's vital that we remember that. If you start punishing people at even the slightest mistake, then it won't take long for the people to lose their confidence in the system...
Terrorism was never the biggest threat to society... but with systems like these, the security industry rapidly is.
Genuine question - if people honestly don't care, then is it really a problem?
Is it that they don't care, or don't understand?
If people honestly don't understand the problem, then it's up to a government to protect the people, or up to the producer of a particular product to protect its customers (enforced by laws to protect the people).
Privacy is an abstract concept, which is difficult to understand for most people. Privacy for most people still means "to be able to close the curtains at night", and has nothing to do with the internet or any other digital technology.
You may think otherwise but fucking with the general public in France is not a good idea. First cars start to combust spontaneously. Then it's buildings. Before you have time to react, people are having their head separated from the rest of their body.
Partially true. But it's the unions which are strong and actually accomplish something. The unions organize the enormous strikes to protect the rights of the workers.
Those riots where cars get burned are no more than a national sport. They do not accomplish much (some awareness of problems at best). The real French revolution was 221 years ago.
The future will be the most interesting. A kid downloads illegal content... and daddy the freelance software engineer gets shut down. That would be one of the first lawsuits. And I seriously doubt that it will come to riots and strikes. More likely that people will find a technical workaround.
"Our world is increasingly connected and networked and therefore also increasingly vulnerable to disruptions caused by intrusions and cyber attacks," he said. "Cybercrime is emerging as a very concrete threat. Considering the anonymity of cyberspace, it may in fact be one of the most dangerous criminal threats ever."
I have nothing to hide, but apparently I have a lot to worry about.
If Interpol’s Secretary General actually worries about the vulnerability, then perhaps it's not such a brilliant idea to store a lot of personal information on a bunch of servers??? To me, this is the best argument for privacy at the moment: I am not so much worried that Interpol will turn evil. But I am worried that they cannot guarantee that all our personal data is safe on their servers.
I have the idea that a rather large percentage of linux users and slashdotters likes Civ:-) Although linux has a 1% market share in the operating systems, Civilization V may find a significant part of its fans (10%? 20%?) among linux users.
Slashdot Mirror
Could we say that, within certain limits for distance from the eye, there is a maximum amount of pixels that we can see, and that from that point on, any increase will not be noticed?
Certainly, the limit is reached once the atual wavelength of the light starts to play a role (once a pixel is just a photon, or something along those lines).
From TFA:
"GNOME Shell is the interface being developed for GNOME 3.0, which was delayed to spring 2011."
On the plus side: there are now also ordinary people using Ubuntu - people that don't know anything.
On the down side: they still don't understand what a shell is, even after that explanation (see quoted text).
To me, it's not really clear where GNOME starts or stops... So there's at least one Ubuntu user who is quite clueless what this is all about.
The value of this post? I show you all that there are people able to use Ubuntu without even the basic knowledge of the processes or even the names of them running on the computer. I always think of myself as the target group for Ubuntu. The wizkids can use the other Linux systems.
"the iPhone 4s infamous Retina display packs in 326 pixels"
Why INfamous ? Can we mod the TFA as Troll or Flamebait ? :)
Assuming you're not joking, I will reply and request a -1 Offtopic for myself rather than for you.
The use of a single subjective word is not trolling or flaming. It's just a poor choice of words and can happen to anyone.
If however the whole purpose of the sentence is to misinform, to be off-topic (like me in this post!) or to insult, then it can be called trolling or flaming.
Now, TFA has a lot of very objective information, and its goal seems to inform us.
On topic again: when would a display be "good enough"? When do we reach a point that we cannot possibly see the difference between a resolution, and an even higher pixel density?
Note, if we get an efficient engine that can keep accelerating (no "idle flight" period), it would be 60-70 years for earth-based observers, but much shorter for the crew. The speed limit of 1c is relevant to surrounding universe, but from the spaceship crew standpoints, the engine power - acceleration - speed - distance - travel time relation behaves in mostly newtonian way. If they expend power needed to travel at 10c according to newtonian mechanics, it will take (in their perception) 1/10 the time of travel at 1c to get there.
Ok... Now I understand why we haven't traveled to the stars yet.
We must overestimate the power needed, so that we can underestimate the time required.
This is opposite from all engineering projects on earth, where the final design is underpowered and delayed.
This stupid system makes it possible to earn a massive amount of money by buying and selling shares at the right time. The really stupid thing is that at some point, the money earned with those transactions can be exchanged for real goods, produced by real people.
People who don't add anything tangible to this world get free money, and can buy goods for it. It's madness. If I hadn't grown up in this world, I doubt that I would ever understand and accept it...
Before becoming the standard critical slashdotter, I'd like to start positive: I think it's really cool - I believe that, as the video says, there are many applications for these magnets.
The youtube video is worth the time too...
That said, I wonder if the magnets are stable in time. some of the applications described do not allow for failures after a few months/years.
Hope that the costs of the magnets will drop soon too...
I am very confused with the replies I read here (see above).
My first thought when I heard about this was: Awesome! In big capital letters.
I am a fan of overpowered machines that dwarf anything else... and this is just really really big, and it was built with the sole purpose to destroy things... It's a really cool toy!
However, the average slashdotter seem to find quite a few things wrong with this... or they just make a joke about it (+1 for jokes).
Is there something wrong with me? Am I alone?
It would be a fantastic way for the USA, Russia, China and some other countries to test their satellite defense systems. Shooting down space pirates would make the test legitimate.
^^ +5 insightful,
they also better sue Microsoft for that picture of Stonehenge they distributed with their OS.
On the short term, that would be a win:
Two companies known for petty copyright claims are fighting each other in a lawsuit. Both lose money.
On the long term, we lose:
At first, more lawyers find work. But then they become unemployed. Unemployed lawyers may start searching for other things to sue (that's what they do, right?). Assuming that people cannot become more stupid, but the rules can become more stupid, it stands to reason that more lawyers means more (stupid) rules.
Nope.
However for your good faith effort I will reply rather than mark you troll.
"Let's make it mandatory! Then every infraction will be posted to the police, and the media, and maintained on a public page. Captain Panic, who was pulled over on suspicion of driving tired, pleaded not guilty, saying that he was just trying to figure out more information about the grooved pavement in front of him."
"Pshaw! Likely story!"
"Captain Panic's employer has been contacted and his hours have been cut since, as he cannot drive properly rested, he must be working too hard."
No, surveillance measures are all to easily abused in this Orwellian Age.
But there are GPS systems that will beep if it detects you break the speed limit. Nobody seems to oppose those systems?
Safety features are a unique sales point - the first seatbelts were not enforced by law, but were instead invented by the Volvo car company.
In fact, cars are full of automated warning lights, beeps, and safeguards (oil temperature, tire pressure, rev limiters, sensors detecting which seats are used and whether the person wears the seatbelt, rain sensors, light sensors, etc, etc)... what's the matter with one more - one which does not change the driving experience in any way, unless you doze off?
As far as I understood, this thing will not communicate to the police. It will not shut down your car. It will not force you to stop. It will just give an alarm to keep you awake. It leaves all further responsibility with the driver... Please explain why drivers would oppose this?
If any device in cars would be a danger to us, in this Orwellian Age, if would be the GPS. that already has a built in communication system. It can detect your speed (which you will break more often than the tiredness thingy - and also, there is no law against tired driving as it is very subjective).
Mark me as troll btw? Why? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troll_(Internet)
I think I was on topic, and we just disagree.
I see no problems in making this mandatory in traffic a.s.a.p.
Worst case scenario is that a silly alarm goes off when the system makes a mistake. It has very few disadvantages... the price is probably the biggest problem. Best case scenario is that it saves the lives of a number of people, saves the relatives a lot of grief, saves the health system a lot of work, the taxpayers a lot of money, etc...
I'm a little sad to see that advertisers have already seen opportunities to use this to improve marketing tricks... but I guess every invention can be abused. And in this case, I think the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.
but in maths we say that:
limit of n/(n+1) with n to infinity equals 1.
And as usually with maths, common sense also works :-)
While I agree with you that nerds, scientists and engineers are more valuable to society (I'm asking for a flame, I know) than economists and the latest Wall street Gugu, it does not mean that we must block all information about the financial issues of the world.
It takes you only 5 seconds to scan a summary on /. and /. obviously expects its readers to make the conscious decision to stop reading if they consider it a waste of time. There are plenty of other topics to read...
Hmm, the Netherlands, UK, Denmark, North Korea, Swaziland, Lesotho and a few other coconut states are dictorships with medieval style kings/queens. There may be elections once in a while, but that is just for show...
You have no clue.... seriously. That is complete and utter bullshit what you are saying there. How do I know? I live in the Netherlands. Dictatorship... lol :')
I believe that the parent made a joke.
Joke:
# a humorous anecdote or remark intended to provoke laughter; "he told a very funny joke"; "he knows a million gags"; "thanks for the laugh"; "he laughed unpleasantly at his own jest"; "even a schoolboy's jape is supposed to have some ascertainable point"
# jest: activity characterized by good humor
# tell a joke; speak humorously; "He often jokes even when he appears serious"
# antic: a ludicrous or grotesque act done for fun and amusement
# act in a funny or teasing way
# a triviality not to be taken seriously; "I regarded his campaign for mayor as a joke"
Source: wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
I think that the coconuts gave it away. There are no coconut trees in the Netherlands.
A bunch of tweets is much simpler than a complete conversation... so it would be the Turing test Light.
Umm...
Wasn't sustainable energy supposed to be the really expensive one? Wasn't nuclear supposed to save us while the real sustainable energy is being developed?
It's funny how the costs of nuclear energy are structurally underestimated, while sustainable energy (wind/solar) continuously has to fight the image of being expensive.
It says enough that all 28 business plans for nuclear reactors are halted, partially because a regulatory system for greenhouse gases (the "cap and trade" system) was not put into effect.
So... public perception in summary:
- sustainable energy: requires too much subsidies, too expensive
- nuclear energy: financially more interesting, needs no subsidies
Reality:
- sustainable energy: growing market, although expensive
- nuclear energy: market stagnation, too expensive
Agreed completely - but not only for driving and traffic. Imagine the list of offenses that people could get fined / arrested for in general.
The main problem is that we have many (many!) laws. Most people don't know all the laws. And to abide every law at every moment, people have to turn into frickin' robots... People who say they never break any law are liars. Everybody does, if only by accident.
A fine is meant as a "lesson", so that you don't do it again. And sometimes, it is not necessary to learn the lesson - it's vital that we remember that. If you start punishing people at even the slightest mistake, then it won't take long for the people to lose their confidence in the system...
Terrorism was never the biggest threat to society... but with systems like these, the security industry rapidly is.
Genuine question - if people honestly don't care, then is it really a problem?
Is it that they don't care, or don't understand?
If people honestly don't understand the problem, then it's up to a government to protect the people, or up to the producer of a particular product to protect its customers (enforced by laws to protect the people).
Privacy is an abstract concept, which is difficult to understand for most people. Privacy for most people still means "to be able to close the curtains at night", and has nothing to do with the internet or any other digital technology.
So, the actual news is that although we get new technology, old problems still aren't fixed?
The fact that with current technology all this data is already available doesn't mean that it does not need to be fixed in the future.
Indeed... it seems closer to an otter (non rodent) than a beaver (rodent).
Innocent until proven guilty - that still stands... but governments are really trying hard to prove that we're guilty of something.
And surprise, surprise, if you look hard enough, almost everybody is guilty of something.
If such a large group of people are misbehaving, maybe there's something wrong with the laws, rather than with the people...
Well, at least they started in France.
You may think otherwise but fucking with the general public in France is not a good idea. First cars start to combust spontaneously. Then it's buildings. Before you have time to react, people are having their head separated from the rest of their body.
Partially true.
But it's the unions which are strong and actually accomplish something. The unions organize the enormous strikes to protect the rights of the workers.
Those riots where cars get burned are no more than a national sport. They do not accomplish much (some awareness of problems at best). The real French revolution was 221 years ago.
The future will be the most interesting. A kid downloads illegal content... and daddy the freelance software engineer gets shut down. That would be one of the first lawsuits. And I seriously doubt that it will come to riots and strikes. More likely that people will find a technical workaround.
(from TFA)
"Our world is increasingly connected and networked and therefore also increasingly vulnerable to disruptions caused by intrusions and cyber attacks," he said. "Cybercrime is emerging as a very concrete threat. Considering the anonymity of cyberspace, it may in fact be one of the most dangerous criminal threats ever."
I have nothing to hide, but apparently I have a lot to worry about.
If Interpol’s Secretary General actually worries about the vulnerability, then perhaps it's not such a brilliant idea to store a lot of personal information on a bunch of servers???
To me, this is the best argument for privacy at the moment: I am not so much worried that Interpol will turn evil. But I am worried that they cannot guarantee that all our personal data is safe on their servers.
I have the idea that a rather large percentage of linux users and slashdotters likes Civ :-)
Although linux has a 1% market share in the operating systems, Civilization V may find a significant part of its fans (10%? 20%?) among linux users.
As long as the options aren't hidden in obscure menus, or disabled because the users are considered idiots, then I think I like it.
In short: I like it if I can tweak it (and if I can disable it if necessary).
-- The options menu of my webcam extends to my drawer where I keep my duct tape to block the lens. Be warned, evil empire, I am armed with duct tape!