More than direct-to-customer deliveries, I see Amazon using this for a next-to-the-last-mile distribution network. Basically, extending their distribution network out one level to the retail storefront scale. In this model, drones would take packages from regional distribution centers to customer-facing pickup locations (i.e. the retail storefront). In such a network, the drone could drop the package in a chute on the roof of the pickup facility, to be manually or automatically sorted for pickup. In a fully automated system, you could use robotics to move the package from the receiving area to a passcode-protected pickup box (like a post office box).
The customer experience would be:
1. buy on Amazon.com
2. receive order confirmation with access code
3. wait some time (4 hours?)
4. travel to pickup location
5. locate box & enter access code
6. retrieve package
Technically much simpler than figuring out doorstep delivery (which has endless complexity... single family detached homes, multi-unit dwellings, awnings/hanging pots/other obstacles, etc.) and it keeps the drones out of "people space".
I can't believe this was modded so high. The point that testing is the wrong place to detect architectural flaws is spot on. The idea that the "only thing that helps is very capable and experienced... get it right by intuition" is flawed. While I'm not going to knock expertise, modeling and simulation should be the preferred way to analytically determine whether something will work in complex systems. "Serious" engineering realizes the limitations of humans to reason about problems. Would you drive across a bridge that was designed without formal analyses based on empirically determined testing data?
Seriously, though, all you have to do is hook up your wireless access point to the DMZ port and enable traffic shaping on that network interface. There are apparently fancier things you can do, but I just configure inbound/outbound bandwidth limits). Quite simple, and it's all through a friendly web GUI!
I gave Solaris 10 more than a fair shake a few months ago (with an eye on its ZFS support) when I had a hard drive fail. I worked pretty hard at getting it to run and really didn't get very far. Note: I've been using Debian for almost 10 years now -- so I'm pretty biased.
From what I remember there was an astroturfed Sun-staff-only developer community, little information available online, slow as hell boot time, ZFS boot partition complications, and a broken KDE (the X server didn't work correctly; I have absolutely ZERO problems, even with 3D here in Linux).
And when I looked ahead to maintaining the system (the VAST BULK of where overhead is spent) I didn't see anything that looked as sane or easy as Debian. No incremental updates, just some arcane BSD-esque 'port' or.tar.gz package system (excusable for the rare unpackaged Perl module, but unacceptable for the whole damn system). I'm quite admittedly not very knowledgeable about BSD and Unix, but damn those systems seem like a bitch to maintain. And Nexenta simply wasn't there yet.
I'm surprised that no one has seen/mentioned the work Donald Shoup at UCLA has done covering the very high societal costs associated with free parking. I'm further surprised (although I guess I shouldn't be) that the "progressive" Apple is pushing for free parking given the conclusive evidence that free parking is very harmful to the environment, increases traffic, and wastes everyone's time.
Read the literature (dynamic decision-making, experts versus novices, the role of experience in expertise): graduate students are often not expert in their fields. That's part of the reason they're apprenticing - to gain experience and become expert!
No, I didn't bother reading the article; title didn't pass the sniff test.
You can rest assured that CA will fire all of the developers, milk Niku for every penny its worth, and then scrap it just like every other piece of technology they acquire.
CA is a sales organization, plain and simple. Acquire, fire, sell, sell, sell, drop. They couldn't develop a coat rack if their lives depended on it.
Yeah, but you'd be surprised at the number of idiots that steal software and then expect the company to support them! What company wants to deal with all of the extra helpdesk activity because of illegitimate users calling in for support?
I've got one brand new high performance computer for sale. I built this machine about a month ago - but have barely used it! The computer comes in a very elegant Silverstone PC case and is fully loaded with lots of great componets. $1200 (below cost) gets you all of the hardware fully assembled, tested and known to work! Right now Debian Linux is installed on the computer, but I'm sure you can very easily install Windows on it. Everything will be delivered in a shipping-safe box with all of the original manuals and extra supplies.
This would make an excellent home theater PC (HTPC) or gaming machine. The case is very elegant looking and would be at home on your desk, or in with your other stereo components. The Tira infrared (IR) transmitter/receiver has been mounted inside the front plexiglas panel of the case (invisible from the outside), allowing you to use a standard IR remote control with the computer. With its 64-bit processor, this is sure to be a very good machine for a long time! It will scream through modern 3D games, or serve you very well as a HD PVR.
The parts:
1 Silverstone SST-LC04 Lascala Series HTPC Case - black
1 MSI "K8T NEO-FSR" K8T800 Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket 754 CPU
1 AMD Athlon 64 2800+
1 Viking 184 Pin 512MB DDR PC-2700
1 pcHDTV HD-3000 High Definition Television Card
1 eVGA nVIDIA GeForce FX5200 Video Card, 128MB DDR, 64-bit, DVI/TV-Out, 8X AGP
1 Seagate 7200.8 400GB 7200RPM IDE Hard Drive, Model ST3400832A-RK
1 Lite-On 16X, DVD Dual Layer DVD+/-RW Drive, Model SOHW-1673S Black
1 Nexus 80mm Real Silent Case Fan
1 extra ATA-133 Cable - 24in
1 Tira USB IR Transmitter/Receiver (remote control your computer!)
1 IR Blaster
1 flexible PCI riser card that allows the use of larger PCI cards with the system (i.e., TV cards).
I will ship the computer double-boxed via insured USPS mail. The inner shipping box will be the Silverstone case's original shipping box and the motherboard box will contain all of the original paperwork and a few extra parts.
Video card: Model "e-GeForce FX5200(128-A8-N304-LX)"
That's not really true. Even a multi-coated well polyurethaned board only 10 inches wide will move a lot (on the 1/16-1/8" scale) - I know from experience. There are several reference books where you can look up expansion/contraction measurements by species. If you need dimensional stability, plywood is where it's at.
In order to properly account for movement, you must carefully align your grain (especially in joints) so that it's all moving along the same axis. In other situations you must float things so that they're anchored where they need to be, but free to move perpendicular to the grain - example of is include tongue and groove joints and a screw in a slot.
While I agree, then I have to pay a big reserve auction fee and eBay takes their cut of the final sale. Also, I'm taking bids through the form on my site - it's only the starting price that is $1,800.
As Christopher Horn, I can safely say that I did not get my idea from those people - in fact, I only have only recently become aware of those cases that you linked to; I recently started a Google AdWords campaign to sell my case and they appear to be my primary competitors.
Though I have to run home now and see what you all did to my poor server (aka desktop computer), my website will tell you that the case is for sale. If you want to purcahse it, message me at this account, or wait for my little cable modem connection to recover and send me an email through my online form. I'm asking US$1,800 and can deliver within a good distance from Washington, DC (including NYC), or can arrange to ship the case.
Please expand on this. Or, if anyone else can shed some light on why openglx said that Condor isn't "real grid technology," I'd be greatly appreciative. I've used Condor for a couple years and been very happy with it. How is Condor not one implementation of grid computing? Is it because it is not an API?
I understand that Globus is the big API that everyone uses to do grid computing, but you can't just use it to run jobs on a grid - you'd have to write an application to do that. Why the bigotry? I'm somewhat lost, here.
I'm very happy with my Samsung ML-1450, which I picked up used for $100. It has some trouble picking up heavier weight paper (32lb resume stock), but prints darkly, crisply and reliably. No smears, no grey background.
My old IBM 4019E went strong for many years, but smeared on the edges sometimes. Stay away from the Brother HL-1450 - that thing worked fine for a few months and then started printing grey pages!
I've got an interior office and my Spathiphyllum is doing just fine. I put it by the window over the weekend and when I'll be gone on a trip for a while. Most plants will go (even in a dry office) for a week without water if you make sure they're nice and moist before you leave.
Remember that overwatering can be just as bad as underwatering. And if you get someone to water your plant for you, make sure you casually run down how often they should water it and how much! I personally just keep an eye on the soil and give a plant water "when it needs it," but most people can't tell that (a good way to check the soil moisture is to stick your finger in it; you should aim to keep the moisture at a relatively constant level) and need to be given a schedule ("every three days give it two cups of water"). Keep in mind that if you have a non-draining pot the bottom can accumulate water and drown/rot the plant.
Bandwidth, bandwidth, bandwidth. Who the hell cares?
I'm waiting for some improvements to LATENCY. Has anyone ssh'd anywhere over an 802.11b/g link? Slow as shit, unless you have some other process communicating on the same link to get those buffers flushed. I'm sure there's encryption and compression overhead, too.
Also, reliability. A fast link doesn't do me a bit of good if it doesn't fucking work. I've been on the phone and had my access point disappear from both my laptops - hang up and it appears. Yes, I need to buy a 900MHz phone. On the Mac side of things (I use Linux & OS X) I know first hand of at least 3 machines running the latest OS X that work very poorly with three different 3rd party access points. Hell, sometimes my Airport Express even disappears from the available AP list... Frustrating, to say the least.
I still plug in to my gigE switch for that reliable, low latency link whenever I can. The hell with wireless, it's too immature to be used for everyday computing.
I used one of these in a university hotel. It was slow as hell to bring the desktop up after I inserted my keycard. I think a prox card would be easier - it's not like doctor's don't already have a clip full of IDs.
Slashdot Mirror
More than direct-to-customer deliveries, I see Amazon using this for a next-to-the-last-mile distribution network. Basically, extending their distribution network out one level to the retail storefront scale. In this model, drones would take packages from regional distribution centers to customer-facing pickup locations (i.e. the retail storefront). In such a network, the drone could drop the package in a chute on the roof of the pickup facility, to be manually or automatically sorted for pickup. In a fully automated system, you could use robotics to move the package from the receiving area to a passcode-protected pickup box (like a post office box).
The customer experience would be:
1. buy on Amazon.com
2. receive order confirmation with access code
3. wait some time (4 hours?)
4. travel to pickup location
5. locate box & enter access code
6. retrieve package
Technically much simpler than figuring out doorstep delivery (which has endless complexity... single family detached homes, multi-unit dwellings, awnings/hanging pots/other obstacles, etc.) and it keeps the drones out of "people space".
I can't believe this was modded so high. The point that testing is the wrong place to detect architectural flaws is spot on. The idea that the "only thing that helps is very capable and experienced ... get it right by intuition" is flawed. While I'm not going to knock expertise, modeling and simulation should be the preferred way to analytically determine whether something will work in complex systems. "Serious" engineering realizes the limitations of humans to reason about problems. Would you drive across a bridge that was designed without formal analyses based on empirically determined testing data?
Seriously, though, all you have to do is hook up your wireless access point to the DMZ port and enable traffic shaping on that network interface. There are apparently fancier things you can do, but I just configure inbound/outbound bandwidth limits). Quite simple, and it's all through a friendly web GUI!
Here's the documentation (sorry, no screenshots) that describes how to configure the shaping: http://m0n0.ch/wall/list/showmsg.php?id=35/88
Rather than bothering with PTgui or Hugin, why not just buy yourself a Gigapan robot?
http://www.gigapansystems.com/
A very good excuse, if you were ever looking for one. I can't help with the GIS angle of the problem, but the GRASS recommendations seem good.
General Dynamics offers a product called CoMotion that allows you to visually explore your data and find interesting patterns and trends.
http://www.gdc4s.com/content/detail.cfm?item=32341561-76f9-40f8-8ad5-0f0d66dd240e
CoMotion is a commercial fork of Visage, a collaborative visualization platform designed at Carnegie Mellon University and MAYA Design:
I gave Solaris 10 more than a fair shake a few months ago (with an eye on its ZFS support) when I had a hard drive fail. I worked pretty hard at getting it to run and really didn't get very far. Note: I've been using Debian for almost 10 years now -- so I'm pretty biased.
.tar.gz package system (excusable for the rare unpackaged Perl module, but unacceptable for the whole damn system). I'm quite admittedly not very knowledgeable about BSD and Unix, but damn those systems seem like a bitch to maintain. And Nexenta simply wasn't there yet.
From what I remember there was an astroturfed Sun-staff-only developer community, little information available online, slow as hell boot time, ZFS boot partition complications, and a broken KDE (the X server didn't work correctly; I have absolutely ZERO problems, even with 3D here in Linux).
And when I looked ahead to maintaining the system (the VAST BULK of where overhead is spent) I didn't see anything that looked as sane or easy as Debian. No incremental updates, just some arcane BSD-esque 'port' or
Solaris 10: pass.
I'm surprised that no one has seen/mentioned the work Donald Shoup at UCLA has done covering the very high societal costs associated with free parking. I'm further surprised (although I guess I shouldn't be) that the "progressive" Apple is pushing for free parking given the conclusive evidence that free parking is very harmful to the environment, increases traffic, and wastes everyone's time.
Seethe high cost of free parking in the SFGate. The research behind this article can be found on the professor's UCLA page.
I guess my question is "Why SHOULDN'T you be able to videotape police officers doing their job?". Seriously.
Here are some even better links. MIT's SenseTable was presented at CHI 2001. http://tangible.media.mit.edu/projects/sensetable/
Here's a good MIT thesis on RFID tables: http://alumni.media.mit.edu/~mazalek/publications/ mazalek_phd-thesis.pdf
There's more than just Audiopad, look at all these audio-related tables: http://mtg.upf.edu/reactable/?related
Read the literature (dynamic decision-making, experts versus novices, the role of experience in expertise): graduate students are often not expert in their fields. That's part of the reason they're apprenticing - to gain experience and become expert!
No, I didn't bother reading the article; title didn't pass the sniff test.
You can rest assured that CA will fire all of the developers, milk Niku for every penny its worth, and then scrap it just like every other piece of technology they acquire.
CA is a sales organization, plain and simple. Acquire, fire, sell, sell, sell, drop. They couldn't develop a coat rack if their lives depended on it.
Amen to that.
Yeah, but you'd be surprised at the number of idiots that steal software and then expect the company to support them! What company wants to deal with all of the extra helpdesk activity because of illegitimate users calling in for support?
Ah, but is what's working for BMW and Mercedes sustainable in the long run?
This would make an excellent home theater PC (HTPC) or gaming machine. The case is very elegant looking and would be at home on your desk, or in with your other stereo components. The Tira infrared (IR) transmitter/receiver has been mounted inside the front plexiglas panel of the case (invisible from the outside), allowing you to use a standard IR remote control with the computer. With its 64-bit processor, this is sure to be a very good machine for a long time! It will scream through modern 3D games, or serve you very well as a HD PVR.
The parts:
1 Silverstone SST-LC04 Lascala Series HTPC Case - black
1 MSI "K8T NEO-FSR" K8T800 Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket 754 CPU
1 AMD Athlon 64 2800+
1 Viking 184 Pin 512MB DDR PC-2700
1 pcHDTV HD-3000 High Definition Television Card
1 eVGA nVIDIA GeForce FX5200 Video Card, 128MB DDR, 64-bit, DVI/TV-Out, 8X AGP
1 Seagate 7200.8 400GB 7200RPM IDE Hard Drive, Model ST3400832A-RK
1 Lite-On 16X, DVD Dual Layer DVD+/-RW Drive, Model SOHW-1673S Black
1 Nexus 80mm Real Silent Case Fan
1 extra ATA-133 Cable - 24in
1 Tira USB IR Transmitter/Receiver (remote control your computer!)
1 IR Blaster
1 flexible PCI riser card that allows the use of larger PCI cards with the system (i.e., TV cards).
I will ship the computer double-boxed via insured USPS mail. The inner shipping box will be the Silverstone case's original shipping box and the motherboard box will contain all of the original paperwork and a few extra parts.
Video card: Model "e-GeForce FX5200(128-A8-N304-LX)"
chris at beefstew dot net
That's not really true. Even a multi-coated well polyurethaned board only 10 inches wide will move a lot (on the 1/16-1/8" scale) - I know from experience. There are several reference books where you can look up expansion/contraction measurements by species. If you need dimensional stability, plywood is where it's at.
In order to properly account for movement, you must carefully align your grain (especially in joints) so that it's all moving along the same axis. In other situations you must float things so that they're anchored where they need to be, but free to move perpendicular to the grain - example of is include tongue and groove joints and a screw in a slot.
While I agree, then I have to pay a big reserve auction fee and eBay takes their cut of the final sale. Also, I'm taking bids through the form on my site - it's only the starting price that is $1,800.
As Christopher Horn, I can safely say that I did not get my idea from those people - in fact, I only have only recently become aware of those cases that you linked to; I recently started a Google AdWords campaign to sell my case and they appear to be my primary competitors.
Though I have to run home now and see what you all did to my poor server (aka desktop computer), my website will tell you that the case is for sale. If you want to purcahse it, message me at this account, or wait for my little cable modem connection to recover and send me an email through my online form. I'm asking US$1,800 and can deliver within a good distance from Washington, DC (including NYC), or can arrange to ship the case.
Please expand on this. Or, if anyone else can shed some light on why openglx said that Condor isn't "real grid technology," I'd be greatly appreciative. I've used Condor for a couple years and been very happy with it. How is Condor not one implementation of grid computing? Is it because it is not an API?
I understand that Globus is the big API that everyone uses to do grid computing, but you can't just use it to run jobs on a grid - you'd have to write an application to do that. Why the bigotry? I'm somewhat lost, here.
What on earth are you bothering with X-grid for?
You have the in-house developed Condor that's amazing!
I'm very happy with my Samsung ML-1450, which I picked up used for $100. It has some trouble picking up heavier weight paper (32lb resume stock), but prints darkly, crisply and reliably. No smears, no grey background.
My old IBM 4019E went strong for many years, but smeared on the edges sometimes. Stay away from the Brother HL-1450 - that thing worked fine for a few months and then started printing grey pages!
I've got an interior office and my Spathiphyllum is doing just fine. I put it by the window over the weekend and when I'll be gone on a trip for a while. Most plants will go (even in a dry office) for a week without water if you make sure they're nice and moist before you leave.
http://pubs.caes.uga.edu/caespubs/pubcd/b959-w.htRemember that overwatering can be just as bad as underwatering. And if you get someone to water your plant for you, make sure you casually run down how often they should water it and how much! I personally just keep an eye on the soil and give a plant water "when it needs it," but most people can't tell that (a good way to check the soil moisture is to stick your finger in it; you should aim to keep the moisture at a relatively constant level) and need to be given a schedule ("every three days give it two cups of water"). Keep in mind that if you have a non-draining pot the bottom can accumulate water and drown/rot the plant.
>But, in the end, for general purpose film, even a 6 mp digital SLR camera will give you better performance.
But the 35mm film camera of comparable quality is a fraction of the cost of its digital brethren.
True, but the incremental cost of using a 35mm film camera is much higher than that of its digital bretheren (which approaches zero).
Bandwidth, bandwidth, bandwidth. Who the hell cares?
I'm waiting for some improvements to LATENCY. Has anyone ssh'd anywhere over an 802.11b/g link? Slow as shit, unless you have some other process communicating on the same link to get those buffers flushed. I'm sure there's encryption and compression overhead, too.
Also, reliability. A fast link doesn't do me a bit of good if it doesn't fucking work. I've been on the phone and had my access point disappear from both my laptops - hang up and it appears. Yes, I need to buy a 900MHz phone. On the Mac side of things (I use Linux & OS X) I know first hand of at least 3 machines running the latest OS X that work very poorly with three different 3rd party access points. Hell, sometimes my Airport Express even disappears from the available AP list... Frustrating, to say the least.
I still plug in to my gigE switch for that reliable, low latency link whenever I can. The hell with wireless, it's too immature to be used for everyday computing.
I used one of these in a university hotel. It was slow as hell to bring the desktop up after I inserted my keycard. I think a prox card would be easier - it's not like doctor's don't already have a clip full of IDs.