In the US, three phase power comes into a residential neighborhood or a large building (apartment complex, industrial site, etc.) and typically two of the three are distributed to individual residences -- giving you your regular mains and a high-voltage for a dryer and/or stove. The phases are rotated between the different residences -- so one unit gets A and B, the next B and C, the next C and A, the next A and B, etc. The purpose of doing this is to balance out usage on average.
Industrial sites may use all three phases for large equipment such as motors to run machinery, and will also break off each phase similarly to residential use to run office equipment, etc.
I'm now using a QNAP TS-109 (http://www.qnap.com/pro_detail_feature.asp?p_id=79/) and love it. It's silent (no fans), low-power-consumption (about 14 watts max draw), has lots of built-in functionality managed through a web interface (including DLNA for media streaming to a PS3 or similar), and runs Linux...
Not true. The original SoundBlaster Live board was based on an EMU 10K1 chip, which was designed at Creative's Advanced Technology Center in Scotts Valley, CA. Ensoniq did provide chips for a variety of Creative products, using derivatives of the ES137x series of chips. Derivatives of Ensoniq technology can certainly be found in some recent model Live boards -- the 24-bit varieties in particular.
For more information, there is a pretty good Wikipedia article available.
Why, yes. In fact, we're so stunningly quick to react that we started handing out specs under NDA in 2002. Although the NDA in use is full of legalese, the essence of the NDA is that any specifications distributed under the NDA can't be redistributed to someone who isn't subject to the NDA. There have been about eight parties over the past four years who have signed up (two were open source companies, if I remember correctly). The resulting open source code doesn't have to be obfuscated or anything lame like that. This program has been used to create and/or improve many ALSA drivers (sound card matrix -- http://tinyurl.com/3ov6w). In advance of being slammed for it -- yes, it's true that the X-Fi series of boards (based on the 10K2 chip) have not been put into this program yet. There are a lot of other cards on the list, however.
This is not always the case. I have been administering the NDA which Creative Labs uses for open source developers, and our NDA's main effect is that the developer is not allowed to redistribute the specifications we give out. There are no restrictions on the code being developed or comments within the code. For more information on the results of this program, see the ALSA sound card matrix (Creative view) at the following -- http://tinyurl.com/3ov6w.
I installed one in my 06' Outback, and it's wonderful. The "blank" CD for my Subaru doesn't even have an audible gap when going from the end to the beginning of the blank track -- it's an utterly seamless setup.
I use a simpler CD-changer adaptor for my Honda Civic, and although it wasn't trivial to install either, these kind of adaptors are well worth it -- they both give me flawless MP3 player integration.
The letter itself (which is much less sensational than the article _about_ the letter) suggests that the government and parents work together to overcome the issue.
It's possible that the letter will have an effect, and I generally agree with it myself. At least here in the USA, my feeling is that we've been heading this direction for a long time, and 9/11 accelerated the atmosphere of fear and paranoia that much more.
I live in California, where we're blessed with wonderful weather almost all the time. I'm amazed all the time when I go out with my 3-year-old son to the local playground on the weekend, and find that _nobody is there_. I live in an urban area, and there are thousands of elementary-age kids living around that school, yet very few of them seem to ever be in the park playing.
If I were proposing a solution to this problem here in the US, would I be proposing some huge government program? No, but letters like the subject of this thread could help in raising awareness, which could lead to local comittees being formed (or changing focus if the appropriate comittee already exists), which could lead to organized playtimes (if that's needed to get parents to let their kids out of the house), more community activities, etc.
In short -- yes, letters like this are very valuable. After all, this one has people _all over the world_ talking about it.
After the fact, Micheal apparently has claimed that he was being satirical, in which case he didn't write the article very well. Gotta add more smileys, I guess...
> a one pound reduction in bike weight will save a cyclist 2 seconds over the course of a kilometer
For most people (not Olympic atheletes), it would be _much_ more efficient in terms of time and money to just ride a cheap, heavy bike and lose five pounds of body weight...
In my case, I've actually become addicted to Kickbiking (www.kickbike.com), so my ancient, heavy mountain bike mostly gathers dust.
I have to agree that the article is grossly exaggerated. Either the driver who was featured has a lemon, or he drives very agressively. I own a Honda Civic hybrid (CVT -- which in general is slightly worse mileage than the manual, if the manual transmission is used to maximize mileage), and I keep fairly detailed track of the fuel consumption. Over the life of the car -- now a year and a half and 16000 miles -- the on-dash mileage is reported as 44.2mpg and the at-the-pump actual mileage is about 42mpg. This _is_ lower than the EPA estimates for the car, but not by the ridiculous figures quoted in the article. BTW -- I find that the numbers for city driving _can_ actually be better than on the highway, but only under specific conditions. Ideal conditions for my Civic are when I drive for a while on a city road at 40 mph, with only a few stops -- under these conditions I can easily get a reported 50mpg, which should translate to around 47mpg at the pump (assuming a similar ratio to my actual figures for the car).
My favorite "original" (non-sequel) game of 2003 was Orbz, published by Garage Games. The concept is sort of an abstract 3D frizbee golf. I've played through all the levels (about 35) multiple times and probably got about 15 hours of play total so far for my $20. Also -- very important to this crowd -- It runs on MacOS X, Linux, and Windows. You can download a free demo on their site to play through the first levels.
XM sells a USB-controlled receiver for $50. It comes with Windows software, but there are MacOS and Linux programs available to control it (a search on Freshmeat will turn them up). I installed mine under Windows and activated the account, moved it to my Mac for a half hour or so to try out the Mac software -- which worked fine -- then moved it to my Linux box which is where I actually use it.
Here are some books that I have found useful over the long haul --
Non-Technical:
Peopleware; Tom Demarco, Timothy Lister
The Pragmatic Programmer; Andrew Hunt
Technical:
Programming Windows 95; Charles Petzold
Thinking in C++; Bruce Eckel
Learning Perl; Randal L. Schwartz
Learning Python; Mark Lutz
Perl Cookbook; Tom Christiansen, Nathan Torkington; Larry Wall
Programming in OpenGL; Mason Woo
I've had good luck with PacBell DSL in SF Bay Area. I picked it up about a year ago when they were still offering static IPs, and have had about 10 hours of downtime since then (about eight hours of it was in a single afternoon, most of the rest were short 10-minute outages). For the past three months or so, I haven't detected an outage. They have had a lot of problems keeping their email servers up and running, but I don't use their account so it hasn't been a problem. Speed-wise, I signed up for 384/128 kb/s service, and normally get about 1.2 Mb/s downstream and 130 kb/s upstream.
For comparison: I have had ISDN and cable modem (AT&T @Home) in the past. ISDN was great, but expensive compared to modern DSL and had just as much downtime. I enjoyed cable when it was working, but I had to cancel the service after it went down for three weeks with no ETA for fixing it. AT&T was nice enough not to _charge_ me for the non-service, but that isn't really good enough when you want to get online and there's not even a _schedule_ for fixing the problem. (They finally came by to fix it about six weeks after the initial problem -- DSL was already installed, so I just told them to take their router...)
Garin
Slashdot Mirror
In the US, three phase power comes into a residential neighborhood or a large building (apartment complex, industrial site, etc.) and typically two of the three are distributed to individual residences -- giving you your regular mains and a high-voltage for a dryer and/or stove. The phases are rotated between the different residences -- so one unit gets A and B, the next B and C, the next C and A, the next A and B, etc. The purpose of doing this is to balance out usage on average.
Industrial sites may use all three phases for large equipment such as motors to run machinery, and will also break off each phase similarly to residential use to run office equipment, etc.
I'm now using a QNAP TS-109 (http://www.qnap.com/pro_detail_feature.asp?p_id=79/) and love it. It's silent (no fans), low-power-consumption (about 14 watts max draw), has lots of built-in functionality managed through a web interface (including DLNA for media streaming to a PS3 or similar), and runs Linux...
Not true. The original SoundBlaster Live board was based on an EMU 10K1 chip, which was designed at Creative's Advanced Technology Center in Scotts Valley, CA. Ensoniq did provide chips for a variety of Creative products, using derivatives of the ES137x series of chips. Derivatives of Ensoniq technology can certainly be found in some recent model Live boards -- the 24-bit varieties in particular.
For more information, there is a pretty good Wikipedia article available.
Garin
Why, yes. In fact, we're so stunningly quick to react that we started handing out specs under NDA in 2002. Although the NDA in use is full of legalese, the essence of the NDA is that any specifications distributed under the NDA can't be redistributed to someone who isn't subject to the NDA. There have been about eight parties over the past four years who have signed up (two were open source companies, if I remember correctly). The resulting open source code doesn't have to be obfuscated or anything lame like that. This program has been used to create and/or improve many ALSA drivers (sound card matrix -- http://tinyurl.com/3ov6w). In advance of being slammed for it -- yes, it's true that the X-Fi series of boards (based on the 10K2 chip) have not been put into this program yet. There are a lot of other cards on the list, however.
Garin
This is not always the case. I have been administering the NDA which Creative Labs uses for open source developers, and our NDA's main effect is that the developer is not allowed to redistribute the specifications we give out. There are no restrictions on the code being developed or comments within the code. For more information on the results of this program, see the ALSA sound card matrix (Creative view) at the following -- http://tinyurl.com/3ov6w.
Garin
For applicable Subaru models, the following adaptor is useful:
p roducts_id=28
http://www.jazzyengineering.com/product_info.php?
I installed one in my 06' Outback, and it's wonderful. The "blank" CD for my Subaru doesn't even have an audible gap when going from the end to the beginning of the blank track -- it's an utterly seamless setup.
I use a simpler CD-changer adaptor for my Honda Civic, and although it wasn't trivial to install either, these kind of adaptors are well worth it -- they both give me flawless MP3 player integration.
Garin
The letter itself (which is much less sensational than the article _about_ the letter) suggests that the government and parents work together to overcome the issue.
It's possible that the letter will have an effect, and I generally agree with it myself. At least here in the USA, my feeling is that we've been heading this direction for a long time, and 9/11 accelerated the atmosphere of fear and paranoia that much more.
I live in California, where we're blessed with wonderful weather almost all the time. I'm amazed all the time when I go out with my 3-year-old son to the local playground on the weekend, and find that _nobody is there_. I live in an urban area, and there are thousands of elementary-age kids living around that school, yet very few of them seem to ever be in the park playing.
If I were proposing a solution to this problem here in the US, would I be proposing some huge government program? No, but letters like the subject of this thread could help in raising awareness, which could lead to local comittees being formed (or changing focus if the appropriate comittee already exists), which could lead to organized playtimes (if that's needed to get parents to let their kids out of the house), more community activities, etc.
In short -- yes, letters like this are very valuable. After all, this one has people _all over the world_ talking about it.
Garin
A few links to librarian blogger responses:
Free Range Librarian
librarian.net -- "blog people say "ugh" to Michael Gorman"
After the fact, Micheal apparently has claimed that he was being satirical, in which case he didn't write the article very well. Gotta add more smileys, I guess...
> a one pound reduction in bike weight will save a cyclist 2 seconds over the course of a kilometer
For most people (not Olympic atheletes), it would be _much_ more efficient in terms of time and money to just ride a cheap, heavy bike and lose five pounds of body weight...
In my case, I've actually become addicted to Kickbiking (www.kickbike.com), so my ancient, heavy mountain bike mostly gathers dust.
Garin
I have to agree that the article is grossly exaggerated. Either the driver who was featured has a lemon, or he drives very agressively. I own a Honda Civic hybrid (CVT -- which in general is slightly worse mileage than the manual, if the manual transmission is used to maximize mileage), and I keep fairly detailed track of the fuel consumption. Over the life of the car -- now a year and a half and 16000 miles -- the on-dash mileage is reported as 44.2mpg and the at-the-pump actual mileage is about 42mpg. This _is_ lower than the EPA estimates for the car, but not by the ridiculous figures quoted in the article. BTW -- I find that the numbers for city driving _can_ actually be better than on the highway, but only under specific conditions. Ideal conditions for my Civic are when I drive for a while on a city road at 40 mph, with only a few stops -- under these conditions I can easily get a reported 50mpg, which should translate to around 47mpg at the pump (assuming a similar ratio to my actual figures for the car).
My favorite "original" (non-sequel) game of 2003 was Orbz, published by Garage Games. The concept is sort of an abstract 3D frizbee golf. I've played through all the levels (about 35) multiple times and probably got about 15 hours of play total so far for my $20. Also -- very important to this crowd -- It runs on MacOS X, Linux, and Windows. You can download a free demo on their site to play through the first levels.
XM sells a USB-controlled receiver for $50. It comes with Windows software, but there are MacOS and Linux programs available to control it (a search on Freshmeat will turn them up). I installed mine under Windows and activated the account, moved it to my Mac for a half hour or so to try out the Mac software -- which worked fine -- then moved it to my Linux box which is where I actually use it.
Here are some books that I have found useful over the long haul --
Non-Technical:
Peopleware; Tom Demarco, Timothy Lister
The Pragmatic Programmer; Andrew Hunt
Technical:
Programming Windows 95; Charles Petzold
Thinking in C++; Bruce Eckel
Learning Perl; Randal L. Schwartz
Learning Python; Mark Lutz
Perl Cookbook; Tom Christiansen, Nathan Torkington; Larry Wall
Programming in OpenGL; Mason Woo
I've had good luck with PacBell DSL in SF Bay Area. I picked it up about a year ago when they were still offering static IPs, and have had about 10 hours of downtime since then (about eight hours of it was in a single afternoon, most of the rest were short 10-minute outages). For the past three months or so, I haven't detected an outage. They have had a lot of problems keeping their email servers up and running, but I don't use their account so it hasn't been a problem. Speed-wise, I signed up for 384/128 kb/s service, and normally get about 1.2 Mb/s downstream and 130 kb/s upstream. For comparison: I have had ISDN and cable modem (AT&T @Home) in the past. ISDN was great, but expensive compared to modern DSL and had just as much downtime. I enjoyed cable when it was working, but I had to cancel the service after it went down for three weeks with no ETA for fixing it. AT&T was nice enough not to _charge_ me for the non-service, but that isn't really good enough when you want to get online and there's not even a _schedule_ for fixing the problem. (They finally came by to fix it about six weeks after the initial problem -- DSL was already installed, so I just told them to take their router...) Garin