A couple of years ago I thought about gluing a whole-house mic system to a text-to-speech engine, allowing me to do simple queries like 'define ', 'weather tomorrow', 'traffic on I-15'... Give the system a unique name ('squizzlesauce?') and make that the key for temporarily enabling speech recognition("squizzlesauce, what's the weather like tomorrow"). Whip up a few scripts to glue the voice-recognition engine to google, a TTS engine for parsing and speaking web results... Then I got a laptop with WiFi and lost the need.
I hope they're planning a modular approach for the communication links. Simply relying on one wireless technology leaves you vulnerable to very easily implemented(by govt or private operator) jamming.
Something like hardwired connections, longwave/shortwave links, or even optical mixed-in with the wifi approach would make the system much more robust.
or an air canon shooting small packages onto the roof of a friendly warehouse on the US side...
or autonomous boats/submarines...
I saw an MTV documentary one time where they showed how kayaks and sailboats would carry packages of drugs underwater attached to a weighted rope. If the authorities approach, just cut the line and let it sink.
I think if I were a drug kingpin I'd be paying lots of money to some poor graduate students to investigate modifying some native US plant into producing cocaine and morphine, thereby avoiding the border altogether.
- Too much whitespace. - Posts and comments need better separation(green line or something) - Noticeably slower in Firefox 3.6.13 on my Core 2 Duo 1.667GHz laptop w/ 3GB RAM(minecraft is running in the background though). - Comment text box is way too small.
I think the overall direction is good though - I hated the last layout and had turned a lot of the fancy stuff off.
I know you're joking, but you could be right! I just ran across a study linking(weakly) lavender to breast growth in prepubescent males. Who the hell would have thought that something like lavender could affect sexual development?
There's no reason every police officer shouldn't have a video camera in their badge and on their gun. Pay cops premium salaries, demand professionalism and accountability, and punish bad cops and those who try to protect them *more* severely than the general public.
Devices like this are the future of modern warfare. Unflinching, unwavering, completely accurate and obedient.
The scary part is that devices like this aren't all that difficult to construct. I don't have the link, but years ago there was a video floating around of a kid doing this with a paintball gun and a webcam. I don't think it will be long before some nutjob sets up one of these on his roof.
Even scarier is the thought that someone could hook a green laser pointer up to such a control system and blind everyone in, say, times square, in a fraction of a second. It's about damn time we start treating things like high-powered lasers as munitions, subject to ownership requirements and background checks like we do with firearms.
The future scares the crap out of me, and makes me glad I don't have children of my own to worry about.
Living in Southern California I've often thought of ways to steal other regions' water. It seems the nation could benefit from some sort of massive water redistribution infrastructure. One way to do it cheaply without negotiating right-of-ways would be an undersea pipeline system of flexible, armored piping.
Also - why use a tanker ship? Couldn't you construct a giant bag of water and just drag it with a tug-like vessel?
We need a new moderation level for posts like this - like "Moderation: <THREAD WINNER>", and then just close the story. There really isn't anything else to say.
I see no problem with the Chinese supplying all of our rare-earth needs. If they're willing to sacrifice their environment for short-term gains then so be it. We're in the process of collecting their rare-earth elements in our landfills, which one day will serve as a valuable strategic resource.
Similarly, I think the US should hold off on oil extraction until the other nations have started to exhaust their supplies. Once the prices start to rise, only then should we tap our reserves.
This is just great - soon doctors won't need to live anywhere near the dirty people they have to care for. The doctor class could safely live on a few tropical islands and still provide care for the masses.
Ya know, I've long thought that it would be possible to build a 'cop detector' by looking for the leaked IF stage emission signature of the police radios.
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, but who wants to rub poutine all over their nice expensive goggles?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-radiation_missile
A couple of years ago I thought about gluing a whole-house mic system to a text-to-speech engine, allowing me to do simple queries like 'define ', 'weather tomorrow', 'traffic on I-15'... Give the system a unique name ('squizzlesauce?') and make that the key for temporarily enabling speech recognition("squizzlesauce, what's the weather like tomorrow"). Whip up a few scripts to glue the voice-recognition engine to google, a TTS engine for parsing and speaking web results... Then I got a laptop with WiFi and lost the need.
I hope they're planning a modular approach for the communication links. Simply relying on one wireless technology leaves you vulnerable to very easily implemented(by govt or private operator) jamming.
Something like hardwired connections, longwave/shortwave links, or even optical mixed-in with the wifi approach would make the system much more robust.
People still use Gentoo? Wow! That was always my fav distro. How well is Gentoo being maintained nowadays?
I was actually thinking of trying Debian 'cause I figured Gentoo would have rotted over the last few years.
http://open-rtms.sourceforge.net/
Or a weather balloon with a GPS transponder...
or an air canon shooting small packages onto the roof of a friendly warehouse on the US side...
or autonomous boats/submarines...
I saw an MTV documentary one time where they showed how kayaks and sailboats would carry packages of drugs underwater attached to a weighted rope. If the authorities approach, just cut the line and let it sink.
I think if I were a drug kingpin I'd be paying lots of money to some poor graduate students to investigate modifying some native US plant into producing cocaine and morphine, thereby avoiding the border altogether.
Well, I guess loading seemed about the same. I forgot to specify that I was referring to scrolling speed/responsiveness.
- Too much whitespace.
- Posts and comments need better separation(green line or something)
- Noticeably slower in Firefox 3.6.13 on my Core 2 Duo 1.667GHz laptop w/ 3GB RAM(minecraft is running in the background though).
- Comment text box is way too small.
I think the overall direction is good though - I hated the last layout and had turned a lot of the fancy stuff off.
I know you're joking, but you could be right! I just ran across a study linking(weakly) lavender to breast growth in prepubescent males. Who the hell would have thought that something like lavender could affect sexual development?
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa064725
The world is probably full of phytochemicals that could have health consequences if consumed in sufficient amounts.
is there an Android app that wipes your phone whenever GPS data indicates it's entering a police station?
There's no reason every police officer shouldn't have a video camera in their badge and on their gun. Pay cops premium salaries, demand professionalism and accountability, and punish bad cops and those who try to protect them *more* severely than the general public.
What about beneficial fungal treatments as opposed to chemical methods? I thought trichoderma were relatively effective at preventing pythium.
Devices like this are the future of modern warfare. Unflinching, unwavering, completely accurate and obedient.
The scary part is that devices like this aren't all that difficult to construct. I don't have the link, but years ago there was a video floating around of a kid doing this with a paintball gun and a webcam. I don't think it will be long before some nutjob sets up one of these on his roof.
Even scarier is the thought that someone could hook a green laser pointer up to such a control system and blind everyone in, say, times square, in a fraction of a second. It's about damn time we start treating things like high-powered lasers as munitions, subject to ownership requirements and background checks like we do with firearms.
The future scares the crap out of me, and makes me glad I don't have children of my own to worry about.
> Where is the place that is now what slashdot was?
We can't tell you, or it will end up like slashdot.
Living in Southern California I've often thought of ways to steal other regions' water. It seems the nation could benefit from some sort of massive water redistribution infrastructure. One way to do it cheaply without negotiating right-of-ways would be an undersea pipeline system of flexible, armored piping.
Also - why use a tanker ship? Couldn't you construct a giant bag of water and just drag it with a tug-like vessel?
Slashdot - thank you once again for making me glad that I didn't have children.
Ugh, didn't preview.. let's try again...
We need a new moderation level for posts like this - like "Moderation: <THREAD WINNER>", and then just close the story. There really isn't anything else to say.
We need a new moderation level for posts like this - like "Moderation: ", and then just close the story. There really isn't anything else to say.
I see no problem with the Chinese supplying all of our rare-earth needs. If they're willing to sacrifice their environment for short-term gains then so be it. We're in the process of collecting their rare-earth elements in our landfills, which one day will serve as a valuable strategic resource.
Similarly, I think the US should hold off on oil extraction until the other nations have started to exhaust their supplies. Once the prices start to rise, only then should we tap our reserves.
Jesus... I always stayed away from game programming because I didn't think it paid well. So much for that.
This is just great - soon doctors won't need to live anywhere near the dirty people they have to care for. The doctor class could safely live on a few tropical islands and still provide care for the masses.
That worked pretty well for the world's fastest growing religion.
Ok, but they work on different bands, right? If that's the case, the LO(local oscillator) is going to emit a different frequency.
Nowadays though they're probably all direct digital conversion...
Ya know, I've long thought that it would be possible to build a 'cop detector' by looking for the leaked IF stage emission signature of the police radios.