I know that it is 'in depth' but on further reading, they indicate that they will begin with PCI-E depending how long it takes to arrive at the finalised-design stage.
The very argument is that the drivers would be open-source and a Good Thing(tm).
The drivers and the firmware would be open to ad-hoc development so users could change things as they would see fit within the limitation of the hardware.
Of course, this has never been done before but I wouldn't want to be a nay-sayer. I'd prefer to say "Lets try and see how we do".
If you'd read-up on this subject, you'd have seen that these folk *do* know their hardware.
They are also not being overly ambitious. While they expect to be able to develop a card which has 3D accelleration for desktop applications, they make no bold claims about gaming.
Indeed, this card is being designed as the ideal desktop-card for open-source systems with open-source drivers and firmware. Any gaming performance, while unlikely, should be treated as a bonus.
I have already pledged my intention to buy one of these cards just out of curiosity.
Having read a lot about patentability in the UK recently, the damages caused by US patents can be far more real in the UK than the rest of Europe. For this we have largely to thank President....er....I mean Primeminister Blair.
It is also of note that the current UK government is all-for patent reform. ie: adopting the US standards.
Not living in the US, I don't have a congressman to write to and yet, ultimately, these patents will affect us here in the UK.
Perhaps if we were to become the 51st state, at least we would be able to properly lobby for reform. (Although, right now, 'A fate worse than death' springs to mind).
The Smart has actually been proven to come off very well in crashes.
There is no engine in the front of a Smart to be pushed into the passenger compartment (preventing leg injuries etc.)
A UK TV show demo'd the Smart being crashed into a solid concrete wall at 70mph. Amazingly, the tridion safety cell preserved the shape of the vehicle sufficiently that the doors would still open/close. Another bonus is the low mass and hence inertia of the Smart which means you can litterally 'bounce-off' solid objects while dissipating crash energy in a safe manner.
The Smart also features high-quality airbags to prevent neck/back injuries.
Furthermore, the Smart is pedestrian-friendly, once-again, the hapless would-be road-kill bounces off the plastic panels and there are no suspension turrets to impale them.
IIRC, Cameron said he didn't think T3 should be made (hence he refused to direct it). He believed that Terminator 2 completed the Terminator story as he wanted to tell it.
Indeed, you can see in the wildly different styles of direction in T1/T2 vs T3 that James Cameron had no part in T3's production.
Also of note is that Arnie was refusing to play the Terminator again in T3 unless Cameron was the director. Ultimately, Cameron told Arnie to do the film but make sure he got an extortionate ammount of money for doing so.
Just as a note; we *did* discover that Firefox dislikes seriously over-clocked machines but then many apps will throw in the towel under such circumstances.
Usually, seriously OC'd machines get used for gaming etc rather than desktop work.
Yes, IIRC, the book takes a little artistic licence and moves Sri Lanka (referred to by its former name Sri Kanda) to the Equator.
In later revisions of the book, Clarke also notes that Sri Lanka might be a possible anchor-point when used with newly described methods other than those discussed in the book.
"... Does this mean we will soon have telescopes outside of our homes soon to pick up high definition TV signals instead of our current 18 inch dishes?"
Its unlikely because Optical Telescopes rely on somewhat precise pieces of equipment such as lenses which are not known for their 'year-round' hardiness.
Speaking from experience, line-of-sight laser communications systems can be a right-royal pain to keep maintained when they are within meters.
I don't know for sure, but I would image that initial targetting of your telescope would be a very tricky operation (and you know that sat dishes are hard enough). And then, once installed, the fixings would need to be exceptionally heavy-duty to hold the telescope on target during gales etc.
When you move to belt-fed weapons, the complexity goes up again; you're now looking at belt-cutters and correct alignment etc to avoid jamming.
Certainly there are belt-fed weapons used on aircraft that have advance jamming protection but these items are not man-portable (as the Packbot is supposed to be).
Just to note that fitting a 'pump-action' shotgun to a robot does not neccesarily indicate that the weapon will be a duplicate of the man-used version.
It would be more practical to have a top-loading breech which could have an extended magazine which is cycled on the 'stroke'.
You could even look to hopper-loaders for the shotgun concept but once again, it introduces the potential for jamming.
The action basically consists of:
1) Place Shell in barrel
2) Aim
3) Strike cap to fire
4) Eject shell
(repeat).
In the case of the pump-action shotgun, the weapon is cycled by a simple linear motion in 2 directions.
Furthermore, the shotgun has a low requirement for accurate aiming.
The UZI is a bit more of a problem.
Compared to the shotgun, the mechanism of the UZI which provides its 'automatic' cycling using part of the gas from the barrel is quite complex.
Once firing begins from a closed-bolt (not sure if the UZI fires from CB), the weapon then relies on gas to work the bolt and springs to chamber the next round and cycle the trigger.
All of this makes a weapon like an UZI prone to jamming which, in the case of a robot would render the weapon useless until the end of the mission. (When human-intervention can fix the jam)
CBC could use the Freedom Audio player on their website.
Freedom Audio is a simple java web-page embedded player which can play OGG/Vorbis streams.
It uses Javascript/Java 1.1 so it'll run with *most* browsers without needing to get the Sun Java VM.
The player loads automatically and begins streaming with just one click so there is no need for a standalone player and the prospective listener doesn't even *need* to know that playback is using OGG/Vorbis format. (Although it would be nice if they did know.)
AFAIK, Winamp 5.x will quite handily use.m3u and open the ogg stream for you.
I'm not sure how in Windows, Realplayer or Helix would handle the ogg stream if it was set as the default player.
On GNU/Linux systems, XMMS handles the.m3u just like Winamp but I've had to 'play' a little to get Realplayer 10 / Helix to automatically play from.m3u.
Slashdot Mirror
I know that it is 'in depth' but on further reading, they indicate that they will begin with PCI-E depending how long it takes to arrive at the finalised-design stage.
The advantage would be that both the drivers and firmware can be adapted to suit certain needs.
The very argument is that the drivers would be open-source and a Good Thing(tm).
The drivers and the firmware would be open to ad-hoc development so users could change things as they would see fit within the limitation of the hardware.
Of course, this has never been done before but I wouldn't want to be a nay-sayer. I'd prefer to say "Lets try and see how we do".
If you'd read-up on this subject, you'd have seen that these folk *do* know their hardware.
They are also not being overly ambitious. While they expect to be able to develop a card which has 3D accelleration for desktop applications, they make no bold claims about gaming.
Indeed, this card is being designed as the ideal desktop-card for open-source systems with open-source drivers and firmware. Any gaming performance, while unlikely, should be treated as a bonus.
I have already pledged my intention to buy one of these cards just out of curiosity.
Having read a lot about patentability in the UK recently, the damages caused by US patents can be far more real in the UK than the rest of Europe. For this we have largely to thank President....er....I mean Primeminister Blair.
It is also of note that the current UK government is all-for patent reform. ie: adopting the US standards.
Yeah, like that will ever work when 90% of British politicians beleive we are already the 51st state
Not living in the US, I don't have a congressman to write to and yet, ultimately, these patents will affect us here in the UK.
Perhaps if we were to become the 51st state, at least we would be able to properly lobby for reform. (Although, right now, 'A fate worse than death' springs to mind).
I know its an American saying but in (British) English, that would imply mowing them down with the patrol-car.
I'd have to say 'Fair Play' to that
Boris Johnson is a lot more entertaining than David Blunkett.
Well, I was equating the solid wall of inanimate concrete to an American SUV.
;)
A fair comparison I think
The Smart has actually been proven to come off very well in crashes.
There is no engine in the front of a Smart to be pushed into the passenger compartment (preventing leg injuries etc.)
A UK TV show demo'd the Smart being crashed into a solid concrete wall at 70mph. Amazingly, the tridion safety cell preserved the shape of the vehicle sufficiently that the doors would still open/close. Another bonus is the low mass and hence inertia of the Smart which means you can litterally 'bounce-off' solid objects while dissipating crash energy in a safe manner.
The Smart also features high-quality airbags to prevent neck/back injuries.
Furthermore, the Smart is pedestrian-friendly, once-again, the hapless would-be road-kill bounces off the plastic panels and there are no suspension turrets to impale them.
IIRC, Cameron said he didn't think T3 should be made (hence he refused to direct it). He believed that Terminator 2 completed the Terminator story as he wanted to tell it.
Indeed, you can see in the wildly different styles of direction in T1/T2 vs T3 that James Cameron had no part in T3's production.
Also of note is that Arnie was refusing to play the Terminator again in T3 unless Cameron was the director. Ultimately, Cameron told Arnie to do the film but make sure he got an extortionate ammount of money for doing so.
It'll happen after you describe your specific 100% CPU bug on http://bugzilla.mozilla.org
If it turns out that your specific bug is affecting a large number of people, it is likely to be fixed quickly.
Use the system; it's there for YOU.
It must be a slack day for the slashdot editors.
Really tho, this sort of thing is better reported to Mozilla.org and then they can diagnose any supposed problem.
*Then* when we know what (any given) problem is, it can be posted to the front-page of Slashdot and *that* is news
I've got no issues with it.
Just as a note; we *did* discover that Firefox dislikes seriously over-clocked machines but then many apps will throw in the towel under such circumstances.
Usually, seriously OC'd machines get used for gaming etc rather than desktop work.
This has to be a vastly better alternative to sitting on our backsides contemplating our navels (or starting wars etc).
Of course, the chance of any nation getting stuck-in is remote due to plain beurocracy. (We're back to contemplating navels)
Yes, IIRC, the book takes a little artistic licence and moves Sri Lanka (referred to by its former name Sri Kanda) to the Equator.
In later revisions of the book, Clarke also notes that Sri Lanka might be a possible anchor-point when used with newly described methods other than those discussed in the book.
Its unlikely because Optical Telescopes rely on somewhat precise pieces of equipment such as lenses which are not known for their 'year-round' hardiness.
Speaking from experience, line-of-sight laser communications systems can be a right-royal pain to keep maintained when they are within meters.
I don't know for sure, but I would image that initial targetting of your telescope would be a very tricky operation (and you know that sat dishes are hard enough). And then, once installed, the fixings would need to be exceptionally heavy-duty to hold the telescope on target during gales etc.
When I said full-spectrum white, I was hoping everyone (who knows lasers) would know the method.
White lasers either provide a cyclic frequency or are Red Green and Blue combined.
This is generally the reason for the astronomical prices of 'white' lasers.
The reason that they're referred to as 'white' is that on full gain/balance they appear white to the human eye (r,g,b at balanced levels)
Colour projection is obviously going to rely on having either 3 base colour lasers (red, green, blue) or having a full-spectrum white.
In the world of lasers, Red is the cheapest right now with Green a close second.
However, when you get to Blue lasers, the price is significantly higher and then White lasers require you to sell your granny to afford them.
I'd like to be wrong but a system like this will probably stay monochrome for a while yet.
Surely if they've described the item / concept then they have just 'invented' it.
At least that what the USPTO believes.
Its back to the complexity again.
When you move to belt-fed weapons, the complexity goes up again; you're now looking at belt-cutters and correct alignment etc to avoid jamming.
Certainly there are belt-fed weapons used on aircraft that have advance jamming protection but these items are not man-portable (as the Packbot is supposed to be).
Just to note that fitting a 'pump-action' shotgun to a robot does not neccesarily indicate that the weapon will be a duplicate of the man-used version.
It would be more practical to have a top-loading breech which could have an extended magazine which is cycled on the 'stroke'.
You could even look to hopper-loaders for the shotgun concept but once again, it introduces the potential for jamming.
The shotgun is a pretty straight-forward weapon.
The action basically consists of:
1) Place Shell in barrel 2) Aim 3) Strike cap to fire 4) Eject shell (repeat).
In the case of the pump-action shotgun, the weapon is cycled by a simple linear motion in 2 directions.
Furthermore, the shotgun has a low requirement for accurate aiming.
The UZI is a bit more of a problem.
Compared to the shotgun, the mechanism of the UZI which provides its 'automatic' cycling using part of the gas from the barrel is quite complex.
Once firing begins from a closed-bolt (not sure if the UZI fires from CB), the weapon then relies on gas to work the bolt and springs to chamber the next round and cycle the trigger.
All of this makes a weapon like an UZI prone to jamming which, in the case of a robot would render the weapon useless until the end of the mission. (When human-intervention can fix the jam)
CBC could use the Freedom Audio player on their website.
Freedom Audio is a simple java web-page embedded player which can play OGG/Vorbis streams.
It uses Javascript/Java 1.1 so it'll run with *most* browsers without needing to get the Sun Java VM.
The player loads automatically and begins streaming with just one click so there is no need for a standalone player and the prospective listener doesn't even *need* to know that playback is using OGG/Vorbis format. (Although it would be nice if they did know.)
AFAIK, Winamp 5.x will quite handily use .m3u and open the ogg stream for you.
.m3u just like Winamp but I've had to 'play' a little to get Realplayer 10 / Helix to automatically play from .m3u.
I'm not sure how in Windows, Realplayer or Helix would handle the ogg stream if it was set as the default player.
On GNU/Linux systems, XMMS handles the