OK, it's not really a trick, I've seen it in the shops before. You have a object shaped something like this
___________ /___________\
\___________/
inside it is a coin and the inside surface is a mirror. There is a lense at the top and when you look at it from a certain angle, it looks like the coin is on top of the thing and not inside it. Sound familiar? Anybody know how these things work?
I've heard that to use present CPU's with the 760 chip set you'll want to reduce the clock multipliers, unless you want to fry the CPU. Supposedly this is because of the higher FSB speed. Is this true? Can someone please explain?
Dang, I was just about the press post when my computer restarted by itself. Spooky, reminds me of the days when I played about with watsit called trojan horse.
Anyway, to get back on topic, I'm not an American but I thought I'd give my 2c anyway.
Neither candidate inspires my confidence. Bush flunked badly on that interview half a year ago when he couldn't name the heads of state of several foreign countries. And his tax reform plan is even worse than Gore's. Gore stretches the truth even more than Apple advertising and his tax reform plan isn't any good either.
As for their views on violence and pornography etc. on the net, I disagree with both of them. To quote Sister Miriam from Sid Meir's Alpha Centauri:) = Evil lurks in the datalinks[internet] as it lurked in the streets of yesteryear. But it was never the streets that were evil. As has been said countless times before, the internet is just another medium for communication (though it is unlike outher media). The internet is neutral, just as books and TV are neutral. It's what we put up that is good or bad. As for the prevalence of pornography and other such forms of entertainment on the net, it just reflects the morals of the society (mainly US). By the way, I saw an article noting that all the porn site have been reaping the profits from the beginning while all those hyped dot-coms have yet to do so. Says something about where all the traffic is going, no?
Anyway, if i were an American, I'd seriously consider the independant candidates, though Nader seems a bit wacky. Anyway, those of us outside the US rarely hear anything about the indeps. Anyone like to fill us in?
While the prospect of terraforming Mars excites me, I wonder whether we should do it. Considering how we've messed up earth, what right do we have to mess with the climate of another planet.
I bet that Bill Gates thinks so as well. If delete actually deleted things instead of sending them to the trash bin, I don't think the prosecutors in the Microsoft anti-trust could have got their hands on those emails they used against Microsoft.
But considering how few people turned of the auto-run vbs script feature in Microsoft whatd'ya call it and thus left themselves open to the I Love You Virus, how many do you think will bother to check whether their IP is tied to the MAC. A lot of people I know have never heard of IP, let alone MAC.
While us techies will have no problems, what about the ordinary people.
I totally agree with you that Gnutella has legal uses. Heck, even Napster does as some artists have consented to having their music distributed over the web. However, the question is whether or not the overwhelming number of people who use these programs for illegal purposes (downloading ripped mp3s) justify banning the programmes (though I'd sure like to see them try ban Gnutella , they can't even get DECSS off the web!) and inconvenience those who use these programs for legitimate purposes. Of course the RIAA thinks it does justify it, but it's up to the courts to judge. So far, the courts seem to have sided with the RIAA.
Actually, you're wrong;) Emmanuel Goldstein does not exist (or he might have some time in the past). Whatever the case, the underground movement he 'heads' is in fact a creation of the thought police to catch those who attempt to overthrow the state. The book that was 'written' by Emmanuel Godstein was in fact written by members of the inner party, including O'Brien, the inner party member who is in charge of Winston's interogation and re-education. However, through the technique of double-think, where one chooses to suppress what one knows to be the truth and believe what the party tells you, the contents of manifesto can be taken to be true, as the authors wrote what they 'know' to be true but deny it to be so.
And since i'm on the topic of 1984, I thought I might give you a brief commentary on the book. George Orwell wrote the book as a warning. At the time of writing (end of WW2), Orwell saw many alarming trends in western society. Firstly, he saw that ability of a totalitarian state to suppress the individual (Hitler's Germany and Stalin's USSR), that the western Allies were using the same reprehensive techniques that their enemies were using (eg. strategic bombing), and the increasingly vague use of language in politics (see Orwells article on Politics and the English Language). He wrote 1984 as a warning of what MIGHT happen if these trends were allowed to continue, NOT what will happen. He uses the futuristic setting to explore how well he thought an individual could stand against the state, and his conclusion is that the individual cannot stand, as is evidenced by Winstons defeat.
Hmmm, I wonder whether the company that is trying to overclock PowerPCs by active cooling is going to do something. While a 1 Gig G4 with it's 4 stage pipeline would undoubtably by cool, I'd rather not have to cool it with liquid nitrogen or fluro-whatever. They can't expect to sell computers to people using a liquid cooling system, except of course those die-hard mac fans.
Planescape: Torment:
2. I don't believe the game sold very well. A shame, because it's a true classic
A pity. I just picked PS:T up about a month ago and I have to say I think it is much better than BG (of course, if you're looking for a hack-fest, go get BG or Diablo 2 instead)
Which leads me on to ask, why is it that so many good games seem to sell poorly? Terra Nova by the now defunct Looking Glass Studios is one such game that comes to mind, MDK is another (I think, please correct me if i'm wrong). Maybe PS:T was a bit too wierd in terms of setting and characters that it put people off. Does that mean that gamers are reluctant to try out games that are different from the norms?
Sounds cool. However, wouldn't you first have to decrpyt the contents of the DVD? That means the DECSS is probably used. Hmmm, what are the implications of this for the MPAA vs 2600 case? This would allow people to pirate DVDs onto CDs, thus bypassing the CSS.
Can the 'packaging' of a computer be considered a trade secret? If the employees had leaked information regarding a new chip design, then sure, but can the 'packaging' of a computer be considered a trade secret? Since Apple's strategy seems to rely on surprise announcments, they may have a case. Also, if the employees have signed NDA, then Apple's got them.
There's no actual video of the launch on the broadcast. The launch occurs at 41:49 (t=0 seconds) but they just had to lose the camera's at the time, so all you get is audio commentary. While that may have been exciting to listen to live, now that we know that the launch is successful it's pretty boring. They do show a video of a launch but it's from a previous launch (at 45:27). After that you get some more audio, some shots of the launch platform after they regain the cameras, and some other stuff.
anandtech also has a review of the Radeon. To summarise it, at 16 bit colour, it's only an average card. However, at 32 bits, it as good as or better than the Geforce 2 GTS.
A Recent development in the SETI programme is optical SETI. As the name suggests, this attempts to detect any transmitions sent using light in the visible part of the spectrum. The concept for optical SETI isn't new. However, it was only recently that it has been put into practise. The latest issue of the Planetary Report (the bimontly magazine of the Planetary Society) has an article of Optical SETI which I will attempt to summarize below. The advantages of sending signals using visible light over radio waves are
1)transmitted beams of visible light (ie. lasers) can be finer than beams of radio waves due to the higher gain of optical telescopes. I suppose this means that the signal can be more concentrated and thus brighter and more easily detected.
2)visible light doesn't disperse as much as radio waves. This also increases the intensity of the signal.
3)the capabilities of radio transmitters has hit a brick wall while optical lasers continue to increase in power. This is assuming that an alien race is similarly limited as to the power of their radio transmitters. All this leads us onto the question of how effective signals sent with visible light are. The answer is very. The article says that with our current technology, we can send laser transmitions that would outshine the background light from our sun by 5000 times. So assuming that an alien civilisation has more powerful lasers than us, we should easily be able to detect any signals they send in our direction.
Also, the equipment needed for an optical SETI search is very simple. All it involves is a pair of photon-detectors. Current optical SETI equipment works on the premise that any optical signals from alien civilisations will be sent in pulses. I haven't had time to purse the explanation on how the detector works so I can't tell you yet. Perhaps someone else with access to the latest Planetary Report could help out here.
I have heard from a source that I trust that the next series will be set after voyager. Just where did your source get this information from, you may ask. I'm not saying;)
However, my personal opinion is that Paramount needs to give Star Trek a break, take a few months off. This is because for the past 15 years or so, we've had Star Trek continuously non-stop and they have obviously run out of ideas. They need some time off to come up with some good ones, otherwise, the next series is going to be just as bad as Voyager.
That doesn't work because the links on the Apple and New Line page connect you to some incy wincy 9k.mov file, whereupon you will be sent the trailer as streaming video.
By the way, some guy has managed to save the 640x480 version and has posted it up as a 26.12 meg zip file. So here's the link. Now I'll just sit back and watch the/. effect occur!
If you read the books, you'll find that the possessor of the Ring is unable to give it up by himself (Gandalf had to force it away from Biblo - the previous holder of the ring). Secondly, there wasn't anyone else who was willing to take the ring for the fear of being corrupted by it (except perhaps for Boromir, but he didn't volunteer).
As to your second question, the elves no longer had the strength to force their way into Mordor. Their numbers and thus their powers had declinded since Sauron was last defeated. Instead, they decided to go for stealth and surprise and tried to sneak the Ring into Mordor.
For some reason, Apple or New Line have rigged it so that you can't save the trailer to hard drive. Fortunately, there are two ways to get around this.
How does this mandatory recall thing work? I doubt that they can force people to give back their PS2s, or is there some license agreement between Sony and their customers? If I had bought a PS3, I would screw Sony and keep mine so I can watch DVDs from any region I want!
While NWN is primarily a multiplayer game, the guys at Bioware have included a single player game. The purpose of this is to give prospective DM's an example on how to program your own games. This is because the aim NWN is not to create a big online world such as UO and Everquest. Rather, NWN is intended to be played by a small group of people (eg. 5-10) with one person taking the role of the DM, just like in paper and pen D&D. The DM has to create the maps and the entire adventure and program it. However, it is possible to create permenent online world with NWN.
Slashdot Mirror
___________
/___________\
\___________/
inside it is a coin and the inside surface is a mirror. There is a lense at the top and when you look at it from a certain angle, it looks like the coin is on top of the thing and not inside it. Sound familiar? Anybody know how these things work?
I've heard that to use present CPU's with the 760 chip set you'll want to reduce the clock multipliers, unless you want to fry the CPU. Supposedly this is because of the higher FSB speed. Is this true? Can someone please explain?
Anyway, to get back on topic, I'm not an American but I thought I'd give my 2c anyway.
Neither candidate inspires my confidence. Bush flunked badly on that interview half a year ago when he couldn't name the heads of state of several foreign countries. And his tax reform plan is even worse than Gore's. Gore stretches the truth even more than Apple advertising and his tax reform plan isn't any good either.
As for their views on violence and pornography etc. on the net, I disagree with both of them. To quote Sister Miriam from Sid Meir's Alpha Centauri :) = Evil lurks in the datalinks[internet] as it lurked in the streets of yesteryear. But it was never the streets that were evil. As has been said countless times before, the internet is just another medium for communication (though it is unlike outher media). The internet is neutral, just as books and TV are neutral. It's what we put up that is good or bad. As for the prevalence of pornography and other such forms of entertainment on the net, it just reflects the morals of the society (mainly US). By the way, I saw an article noting that all the porn site have been reaping the profits from the beginning while all those hyped dot-coms have yet to do so. Says something about where all the traffic is going, no?
Anyway, if i were an American, I'd seriously consider the independant candidates, though Nader seems a bit wacky. Anyway, those of us outside the US rarely hear anything about the indeps. Anyone like to fill us in?
While the prospect of terraforming Mars excites me, I wonder whether we should do it. Considering how we've messed up earth, what right do we have to mess with the climate of another planet.
I bet that Bill Gates thinks so as well. If delete actually deleted things instead of sending them to the trash bin, I don't think the prosecutors in the Microsoft anti-trust could have got their hands on those emails they used against Microsoft.
While us techies will have no problems, what about the ordinary people.
I totally agree with you that Gnutella has legal uses. Heck, even Napster does as some artists have consented to having their music distributed over the web. However, the question is whether or not the overwhelming number of people who use these programs for illegal purposes (downloading ripped mp3s) justify banning the programmes (though I'd sure like to see them try ban Gnutella , they can't even get DECSS off the web!) and inconvenience those who use these programs for legitimate purposes. Of course the RIAA thinks it does justify it, but it's up to the courts to judge. So far, the courts seem to have sided with the RIAA.
And since i'm on the topic of 1984, I thought I might give you a brief commentary on the book. George Orwell wrote the book as a warning. At the time of writing (end of WW2), Orwell saw many alarming trends in western society. Firstly, he saw that ability of a totalitarian state to suppress the individual (Hitler's Germany and Stalin's USSR), that the western Allies were using the same reprehensive techniques that their enemies were using (eg. strategic bombing), and the increasingly vague use of language in politics (see Orwells article on Politics and the English Language). He wrote 1984 as a warning of what MIGHT happen if these trends were allowed to continue, NOT what will happen. He uses the futuristic setting to explore how well he thought an individual could stand against the state, and his conclusion is that the individual cannot stand, as is evidenced by Winstons defeat.
Hmmm, I wonder whether the company that is trying to overclock PowerPCs by active cooling is going to do something. While a 1 Gig G4 with it's 4 stage pipeline would undoubtably by cool, I'd rather not have to cool it with liquid nitrogen or fluro-whatever. They can't expect to sell computers to people using a liquid cooling system, except of course those die-hard mac fans.
2. I don't believe the game sold very well. A shame, because it's a true classic
A pity. I just picked PS:T up about a month ago and I have to say I think it is much better than BG (of course, if you're looking for a hack-fest, go get BG or Diablo 2 instead)
Which leads me on to ask, why is it that so many good games seem to sell poorly? Terra Nova by the now defunct Looking Glass Studios is one such game that comes to mind, MDK is another (I think, please correct me if i'm wrong). Maybe PS:T was a bit too wierd in terms of setting and characters that it put people off. Does that mean that gamers are reluctant to try out games that are different from the norms?
Sounds cool. However, wouldn't you first have to decrpyt the contents of the DVD? That means the DECSS is probably used. Hmmm, what are the implications of this for the MPAA vs 2600 case? This would allow people to pirate DVDs onto CDs, thus bypassing the CSS.
Why am I not surprised that this is posted by Katz ;)
Now, Darwin is our core OS kernel. It is the mock microkernel surrounded by 3 BSD Unix
I think he means FreeBSD
Can the 'packaging' of a computer be considered a trade secret? If the employees had leaked information regarding a new chip design, then sure, but can the 'packaging' of a computer be considered a trade secret? Since Apple's strategy seems to rely on surprise announcments, they may have a case. Also, if the employees have signed NDA, then Apple's got them.
There's no actual video of the launch on the broadcast. The launch occurs at 41:49 (t=0 seconds) but they just had to lose the camera's at the time, so all you get is audio commentary. While that may have been exciting to listen to live, now that we know that the launch is successful it's pretty boring. They do show a video of a launch but it's from a previous launch (at 45:27). After that you get some more audio, some shots of the launch platform after they regain the cameras, and some other stuff.
anandtech also has a review of the Radeon. To summarise it, at 16 bit colour, it's only an average card. However, at 32 bits, it as good as or better than the Geforce 2 GTS.
1)transmitted beams of visible light (ie. lasers) can be finer than beams of radio waves due to the higher gain of optical telescopes. I suppose this means that the signal can be more concentrated and thus brighter and more easily detected.
2)visible light doesn't disperse as much as radio waves. This also increases the intensity of the signal.
3)the capabilities of radio transmitters has hit a brick wall while optical lasers continue to increase in power. This is assuming that an alien race is similarly limited as to the power of their radio transmitters. All this leads us onto the question of how effective signals sent with visible light are. The answer is very. The article says that with our current technology, we can send laser transmitions that would outshine the background light from our sun by 5000 times. So assuming that an alien civilisation has more powerful lasers than us, we should easily be able to detect any signals they send in our direction.
Also, the equipment needed for an optical SETI search is very simple. All it involves is a pair of photon-detectors. Current optical SETI equipment works on the premise that any optical signals from alien civilisations will be sent in pulses. I haven't had time to purse the explanation on how the detector works so I can't tell you yet. Perhaps someone else with access to the latest Planetary Report could help out here.
However, my personal opinion is that Paramount needs to give Star Trek a break, take a few months off. This is because for the past 15 years or so, we've had Star Trek continuously non-stop and they have obviously run out of ideas. They need some time off to come up with some good ones, otherwise, the next series is going to be just as bad as Voyager.
Here are direct links to all four versions of the trailer
By the way, some guy has managed to save the 640x480 version and has posted it up as a 26.12 meg zip file. So here's the link. Now I'll just sit back and watch the /. effect occur!
As to your second question, the elves no longer had the strength to force their way into Mordor. Their numbers and thus their powers had declinded since Sauron was last defeated. Instead, they decided to go for stealth and surprise and tried to sneak the Ring into Mordor.
For some reason, Apple or New Line have rigged it so that you can't save the trailer to hard drive. Fortunately, there are two ways to get around this.
How does this mandatory recall thing work? I doubt that they can force people to give back their PS2s, or is there some license agreement between Sony and their customers? If I had bought a PS3, I would screw Sony and keep mine so I can watch DVDs from any region I want!
While NWN is primarily a multiplayer game, the guys at Bioware have included a single player game. The purpose of this is to give prospective DM's an example on how to program your own games. This is because the aim NWN is not to create a big online world such as UO and Everquest. Rather, NWN is intended to be played by a small group of people (eg. 5-10) with one person taking the role of the DM, just like in paper and pen D&D. The DM has to create the maps and the entire adventure and program it. However, it is possible to create permenent online world with NWN.
There's a good article at Ars Technica on SIMD architectures, including Motorola's Altivec.