I see the obvious scientific benefits in research like this. What I don't see is if we really would like to live much longer. I for one feel that imortality would be more of a curse than a blessing. Thoughts?
Then again, if we get hints on dementia and other comparable illnesses I'm all for it!
I've actually heard another version of the Original Myrphy's law... "If there are two or more ways to do something and one of those results in a catastrophe, then someone will do it that way". The reference is here.
You only need HAM radio once in a while, but there is no substitute for it's low-tech ability to keep communicating.
Another great thing about plain old analogue radio is that it can be implemented using discrete componets in a military-grade package for around 20 lbs. Repariablilty of such a solution is far superior to integrated electronics.
Might not make a difference under normal circumstances, but when faced with things blowing to bits right and left you sure are glad you don't have to locate IC637247 (random name there) to repair the damn thing!
It's interresting to note that this wheelchair also has served as the technology-cradle (if you will) for the Segway. Yet, the Segway has been around for quite some time already, and the wheelchair only just got approved by the FDA.
The whole approval thing makes it possible to get part of the (very costly) wheelchair price covered by medical insurances and the like, as I've understood things correctly anyway.
I don't understand why it takes Debian so long to release!
As I've understood it (and I'm probably misinformed) Debian needs all packages in a release to be stable before issuing a new stable release. With thousands of packages that's a lot of work.
Some people advocate splitting the distro into a more modular approach were groups of packages (like file server packages, wes server packages, desktop packages) could be deemed stable and released independently.
Even if you could only call people using phones with the same technology locally, surely a solution could be devised to call other networks, as we do with areacodes and whatnot already?
The question rather becomens, does it make sense to do so?
Idea Theft? What the hell would that be? I'm just amazed that you even mention it, let alone use it in a serious context! Do you seriously believe that ideas can be stolen?
I don't think an idea is property per say, but I would say that someone copying something you've created and then taking credit for your invention could be called idea theft. This would heavily depend on the circumstances though...
Reverse engineering is nothing more than the common theft of intelectual property. When yo look at someone's compiled code, you are seeing that which you were not meant to see.
From what I could understand from the article this was not a case of code decompilation, but rather looking at the program and seeing how it works, then reimplementing the features.
Firebird a subproject of Mozilla is a light weight version of Mozilla seems a lot better bet to me.
Actually, the current Mozilla Roadmap clearly states this goal: Deliver a Mozilla 1.4 milestone that can replace the 1.0 branch as the stable development path, then move on to make riskier changes during 1.5 and 1.6. The major changes after 1.4 involve switching to Mozilla Firebird and Thunderbird, and working aggressively on the next two items.
ISA Vesa Local Bus PCI AGP PCI Express It's 5th generation for me.
Vesa Local Bus and AGP aren't general purpose buses like ISA and PCI if you ask me. There is the PCI-X standard though, but I guess the 3GIO name was aiming for a third generation of dominant technology kind of thing.
Why does every/. story need to have some little cynical tagline at the end of the intro.
I have no idea. I've submitted 2 stories which have been accepted, so you'll have to ask the editors about the picking of cynical-tagline-ending-stories...
What I do know is that I felt raising the question would benefit the discussion, and I wanted to hear people's oppinion in comparison to my own. Questioning everything is part of my nature, i guess.
1. Get local spam under control. 2. Start sanctions agaist countries / ISPs from which spam originates.
Not sure this makes any sense though, but if countries like China find themselves at a disadvantage due to a handful of local spammers I would think they would be more motivated to deal with the problem.
I'm not proposing any tehnical solutions though... anyone have ideas on that?
Either I haven't been reading the news, or this hasn't made the news at all... I'm not outraged by the VAT thing, but I am a little disgruntled that I'm reading about this on Slashdot, and not in the local newspaper or on TV.
A standard compact disk has a diameter of 12cm. If this disk is to spin at 35000RPM, the peripheral velocity at the edges of the disk (.377m circumference x 583.3 turns per second) will near 220m/s, or 722fps, or 792km/h or 492miles per hour. That is one fast CD-Rom!
At those speeds the CD is storing over 150joules of energy.
I wonder if Freezing the CD would make for even more spectacular explosions... after all the speed and energy stored in the CD is really ridiculous.
Freezing usually makes most things more fragile, right?
PNG is not just an alternative to GIF. PNG has things like Alpha Blending, Gamma Correction and Huge color depth (up to 48 bits, I believe).
So you can really do a lot of cool things with PNG that you can't do with GIF's.
The problem is that without browser support this is like having a CD library in the 70s... Useless. And as long as browsers don't handle PNG's properly it's also chicken & egg problem.
I hate to say it, but we're pretty much at Microsoft's mercy with mainstream PNG usage.
Translation: If I can't get what I want, the way I want and to the price I want, it's okay to take it.
Not quite... I'm more along the lines of: Do I wish to give more money to organizations which keep 95 percent of the money and maybe give the remaining money to the artists/actors, while keeping a monopoly rolling, or do I don't give any money at all until a more sensible option is presented.
OK, the phrasing of the above passage is all messed up, but I'm sure you get the general idea. It's also true that if I were completely ethical about this I would refrain from getting the stuff in the first place... Then again, who is without sin?
I would be delighted to pay, say 5 Euros/Dollars for a movie download in DivX and/or a comparable format. Knowing that the movie would't be a fake would be great too...
P2P software will continue to be used until someone gives us a viable commercial option. DVD's are 20 to 30 Euros here in Finland, and I'm not counting the rare imported stuff... There's no way I'm paying that much for a movie, especially when it probably has broken even in the theaters prior to the DVD being released.
Slashdot Mirror
I see the obvious scientific benefits in research like this. What I don't see is if we really would like to live much longer. I for one feel that imortality would be more of a curse than a blessing. Thoughts?
Then again, if we get hints on dementia and other comparable illnesses I'm all for it!
I've actually heard another version of the Original Myrphy's law... "If there are two or more ways to do something and one of those results in a catastrophe, then someone will do it that way". The reference is here.
Does anyone know the validity of this version?
Replaces the hierarchical file system with ... the pile system? :)
When doing so, IBM's GameGrid software typically operated with latencies of 50 microseconds or less, according to Hammer.
:)
I hope thats a typo..
Why? A microsecond is a millionth of a second, fifty should't be that long
You only need HAM radio once in a while, but there is no substitute for it's low-tech ability to keep communicating.
Another great thing about plain old analogue radio is that it can be implemented using discrete componets in a military-grade package for around 20 lbs. Repariablilty of such a solution is far superior to integrated electronics.
Might not make a difference under normal circumstances, but when faced with things blowing to bits right and left you sure are glad you don't have to locate IC637247 (random name there) to repair the damn thing!
With the way things seem to be going (Intel's Prescott anyone?) we can be very fortunate that iron isn't used in CPUs!
It's interresting to note that this wheelchair also has served as the technology-cradle (if you will) for the Segway. Yet, the Segway has been around for quite some time already, and the wheelchair only just got approved by the FDA.
The whole approval thing makes it possible to get part of the (very costly) wheelchair price covered by medical insurances and the like, as I've understood things correctly anyway.
I don't understand why it takes Debian so long to release!
As I've understood it (and I'm probably misinformed) Debian needs all packages in a release to be stable before issuing a new stable release. With thousands of packages that's a lot of work.
Some people advocate splitting the distro into a more modular approach were groups of packages (like file server packages, wes server packages, desktop packages) could be deemed stable and released independently.
Again, I could be misinformed.
Even if you could only call people using phones with the same technology locally, surely a solution could be devised to call other networks, as we do with areacodes and whatnot already?
The question rather becomens, does it make sense to do so?
Especially given that the Vorbis format supports bitrate peeling.
/. page you linked states that bitrate peeling isn't implemented yet... Are you is or is you aint?
The page linked from the
Anyone have an update? The info is dated Nov. 7th 2002.
With such things like Personal Submarines, Personal Rockets, Z80 based webservers etc., can't we have a Slashdot store or something?
The would probably be a little redundant, taken that thinkgeek already exists.
I'm all for competition, but running a store takes some serious logistics.
What sort of portable system are you going to play it on that over 200 Kbps would even make a difference?
While on the move: Not much.
But if you plug your player into a badass n-thousand-watt PA system it just might. HIFI applications could be another example.
I don't know about the quality of the Neuros's DA-converters though, they would have significant impact, that's for sure.
Idea Theft? What the hell would that be? I'm just amazed that you even mention it, let alone use it in a serious context! Do you seriously believe that ideas can be stolen?
I don't think an idea is property per say, but I would say that someone copying something you've created and then taking credit for your invention could be called idea theft. This would heavily depend on the circumstances though...
Ultimately it's all semantics, isn't it?
Reverse engineering is nothing more than the common theft of intelectual property. When yo look at someone's compiled code, you are seeing that which you were not meant to see.
From what I could understand from the article this was not a case of code decompilation, but rather looking at the program and seeing how it works, then reimplementing the features.
Idea theft maybe, but reverse engineering?
Firebird a subproject of Mozilla is a light weight version of Mozilla seems a lot better bet to me.
:)
Actually, the current Mozilla Roadmap clearly states this goal: Deliver a Mozilla 1.4 milestone that can replace the 1.0 branch as the stable development path, then move on to make riskier changes during 1.5 and 1.6. The major changes after 1.4 involve switching to Mozilla Firebird and Thunderbird, and working aggressively on the next two items.
So actually, that's where we're heading
ISA Vesa Local Bus PCI AGP PCI Express It's 5th generation for me.
Vesa Local Bus and AGP aren't general purpose buses like ISA and PCI if you ask me. There is the PCI-X standard though, but I guess the 3GIO name was aiming for a third generation of dominant technology kind of thing.
Why does every /. story need to have some little cynical tagline at the end of the intro.
I have no idea. I've submitted 2 stories which have been accepted, so you'll have to ask the editors about the picking of cynical-tagline-ending-stories...
What I do know is that I felt raising the question would benefit the discussion, and I wanted to hear people's oppinion in comparison to my own. Questioning everything is part of my nature, i guess.
What daunting technical issues? Nearly every instant messaging client has the ability to always log conversations.
Would you trust your IM to log messages? What if the logging fails? Will your boss listen to you, or would you rather not take the risk at all?
I propose the following:
1. Get local spam under control.
2. Start sanctions agaist countries / ISPs from which spam originates.
Not sure this makes any sense though, but if countries like China find themselves at a disadvantage due to a handful of local spammers I would think they would be more motivated to deal with the problem.
I'm not proposing any tehnical solutions though... anyone have ideas on that?
Either I haven't been reading the news, or this hasn't made the news at all... I'm not outraged by the VAT thing, but I am a little disgruntled that I'm reading about this on Slashdot, and not in the local newspaper or on TV.
Anyone in Finland catch this on the news?
From the site:
A standard compact disk has a diameter of 12cm. If this disk is to spin at 35000RPM, the peripheral velocity at the edges of the disk (.377m circumference x 583.3 turns per second) will near 220m/s, or 722fps, or 792km/h or 492miles per hour. That is one fast CD-Rom!
At those speeds the CD is storing over 150joules of energy.
I wonder if Freezing the CD would make for even more spectacular explosions... after all the speed and energy stored in the CD is really ridiculous.
Freezing usually makes most things more fragile, right?
PNG is not just an alternative to GIF. PNG has things like Alpha Blending, Gamma Correction and Huge color depth (up to 48 bits, I believe).
So you can really do a lot of cool things with PNG that you can't do with GIF's.
The problem is that without browser support this is like having a CD library in the 70s... Useless. And as long as browsers don't handle PNG's properly it's also chicken & egg problem.
I hate to say it, but we're pretty much at Microsoft's mercy with mainstream PNG usage.
OK, now when can I apt-get install this thing?
;)
Says the Linux-newbie who wants it all served on a plate
PS. IF that is now Ximian's site is too slow for me to find out.
Translation: If I can't get what I want, the way I want and to the price I want, it's okay to take it.
Not quite... I'm more along the lines of: Do I wish to give more money to organizations which keep 95 percent of the money and maybe give the remaining money to the artists/actors, while keeping a monopoly rolling, or do I don't give any money at all until a more sensible option is presented.
OK, the phrasing of the above passage is all messed up, but I'm sure you get the general idea. It's also true that if I were completely ethical about this I would refrain from getting the stuff in the first place... Then again, who is without sin?
I would be delighted to pay, say 5 Euros/Dollars for a movie download in DivX and/or a comparable format. Knowing that the movie would't be a fake would be great too...
P2P software will continue to be used until someone gives us a viable commercial option. DVD's are 20 to 30 Euros here in Finland, and I'm not counting the rare imported stuff... There's no way I'm paying that much for a movie, especially when it probably has broken even in the theaters prior to the DVD being released.