Just because Aptitude works doesn't mean there's any MIPS packages to download.
No, of course not.
It's the fact that:
it's trivially to compile for MIPS once you've got it compiled for every other major architecture.
the likes of Debian and other non-commercial distros have policies to ensure that all possible architectures are fully supported.
MIPS is an extremely popular architecture (Embedded, PDAs, SGI systems, etc.)...that means there's tons of MIPS binary packages available for download.
It sounds like the blame has shifted, but the point is still the same: they would like to do a show on RFID, but they were politically motivated not to.
The blame hasn't just shifted, we now don't know if anyone is to blame in the first place, since it's the Mythbusters that opted to cancel the show, and not their parent company, nor advertisers, as had been reported.
Those who were reported as being to "blame", have now been absolved of all responsibility for the issue, and no-one else has been revealed as being at fault.
Adam Savage has said that credit card companies are to blame, but in the same breath, he got everything else wrong, and was speaking in the third person anyhow, so even that vague statement is very highly suspect.
Now, all we know is that a show on RFID wasn't produced, for some reason...
No, we don't. Dual-layer Blu-Ray has AMPLE storage for 1080.
because even with Blu-Ray, there's too much compression.
There is no "Blu-ray". There is single OR dual layer Blu-ray. There is Blu-ray with MPEG-2, OR WMV9, OR H.264.
And lossy video codecs are NOT a fixed target either. They improve over the years, and are better/worse depending on the implementation.
The fact that some movies look less than perfect on Blu-ray only says that the producer of the disc isn't particularly good. There's nothing technically wrong with the format itself.
Displays are currently ahead of transmission and storage.
That is, and always has been, the case. You don't make a video format that is ahead of display tech. VHS was far lower quality than analog televisions could deliver. Even DVD, introduced at the very end of the analog era, really isn't any better than analog TVs can deliver (except for being progressive rather than interlaced).
Blu-ray, like DVD, goes just slightly beyond what HDTVs out there can display. That should give it a pretty strong position, even if displays do improve. The idea that HDTVs will improve is pretty unlikely as well, in the near future. Broadcast is well below Blu-ray, and it's pretty unlikely anything beyond Blu-ray will be introduced in the next decade+.
Game consoles are an interesting case, but I really doubt that's going to be a big enough driver to convince people to invest $1000 more for their new TV...
Just a nitpick, but, the radio signal being broadcast over, under, to the sides of, and straight through your head right now...
Depends where you are... Here on the fringes, the strength of TV signals is very, very weak at ground level, while it's acceptable at, say, 20' up. Of course there is some signal at ground level, but not sufficiently distinct from background noise.
Of course, if you're in a stronger signal area, then the signal is, of course, very strong, everywhere.
but to pay good money for crippleware when I can get a perfectly useable copy for free is just brain-dead stupid.
Welcome to the strange parallel world of TV episodes on iTunes/Netflix...
Yes, that radio signal being broadcast over your head right now... you get to PAY for a lower quality version, that you are forced to watch within 24 hours or lose the right... Meanwhile, a $30 TV tuner allows you to capture it without any restrictions, and at full quality.
And it's all the more insane when it's something 20+ years old, where everyone that cares already owns at least one copy, if not more. The idea that everyone is going to go out and pirate old TV shows or movies just because they have a DRM-free copy is just insane.
The RIAA is just starting to figure it out where music is concerned, but really only because they're tired of being bullied by Apple, and DRM-free is the only way you can sell music playable on the iPod without paying Apple and agreeing to their terms. Perhaps we'll see the same thing happen with TV and (older) movies in the near future if the iPod and iPhone becomes an remotely as popular for video as it is for music.
Also, where the hell do you pull the idea that the billion are dirt poor chinese.
Extensive knowledge of the topic, spanning a couple years of, shall we say, paying attention...
China has a middle class larger than the entire american population.
Hmm, that does sound familiar... Maybe because that's exactly what I said in my first reply: "This despite a Chinese middle-class larger than the entire US population." -evilviper http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=951341&cid=24851377
Back on the topic, yes there are 0.3 billion Chinese in the middle class. But there are 1.3 billion people in China. Leaving 1.0 billion Chinese who AREN'T in the middle class. And yes, the vast majority of that 1 billion are extremely poor, and usually subsistent farmers in the Chinese country side.
Sadly, it's clear you've completely missed the point of damn near everything I've said here.
1 billion dirt-poor Chinese just barely contribute to, or benefit from, all that industrialization and pollution. So, counting per-capita, based only on geopolitical national borders, rather than factoring in the economic situation of the majority of the population, is even more deceptive than using GDP.
In other words. In GDP or in per-capita, the US still wins. If you've got a third option, by all means, spit it out.
Suddenly, a targeted ad for condoms is projected on the ground in front of them.
... of course they can't make it out, because of all the other ads already painted on the ground, the walls, the streets, and every other free bit of space there is...
Either way the per capita pollution is still worse in the states by a hefty margin.
Not if you're even attempting to be remotely fair...
China gets a pass in the per-capita comparisons only because they've still got a billion dirt-poor rural people in the country. Yes, keeping your population impoverished really helps your pollution figures...
If you take the US, and then add on all the impoverished populations of Mexico, and some central and south American countries, to get an equivalent population, the US' per-capita figures would drop drastically as well.
So you'd say the problem is inefficiency and not the fact that they have the factories now?
At least their pollution comes from providing cheap goods to the rest of the world and not driving SUVs.
The US is still #1 in manufacturing BY FAR. China is only #3, having recently overtaken Germany. This despite a Chinese middle-class larger than the entire US population.
And as for SUVs, China has a seriously love affair with cars now. They're not far behind the US, and their cars don't have even the minimal basic pollution controls that have been around since the 70s.
So, the US produces more, and drives only slightly more. How does this make China better?
"After earthquakes and after tsunamis the only structures that still survive are trees,"
The reason trees survive tsunamis is because they are extremely dense, having a very low volume. Once you shape it into a house, it will no longer survive such severe forces.
But earthquakes? Living in CA, I can tell you first hand that you stay the hell away from trees during an earthquake. No matter how strong the tree may be, it's exerting a lot of angular force on the soil, and any weakening of the soil will result in the tree uprooting, and falling... it'll remain intact, but it'll still fall.
And how about all the other natural forces? Houses that can withstand fires are able to do so because none of their wooden frame is exposed... It's covered with tile, stucco, drywall, etc, etc. Things that wouldn't be doable with a living tree.
How about lightning? My neighbor has a wonderful tree that has been hit by lightning 4 times in as many years... Each time a major limb is blown to bits, and comes crashing to the ground. I certainly would prefer my house not explode...
And floods or mudslides? Hurricanes and tornadoes? etc.
Shouldn't Sisvel have to provide evidence that these 69 companies are infringing on patents?
Last time around (2007), they
"filed claims of patent infringement"... "in The Netherlands, Germany, and the United Kingdom"... "seeking an injunction and damages." long before any products were seized.
Also, would 69 different companies all choose Sisvel's products to infringe? I've never even heard of Sisvel!
SISVEL is more or less a spin-off formed from Philip's patent-licensing arm.
Have you heard of Philips? Because, you know, they invented a lot of stuff... including MPEG audio... used in DVB decoders, MP3 player, etc.
Since then, they've secured the rights to patents from several other companies as well, forming a patent pool, much like MPEG-LA, Audio MPEG, or VIA Licensing.
And if he is allowed to save the profits from his efforts he will have a means to sustain himself when he leaves prison. That benefits all of us as well.
Indeed. And if we didn't need to spend money imprisoning him, we'd all benefit.
And if murder wasn't illegal, we wouldn't have had to spend the money on the investigation and the trial.
Clearly, we'd all benefit the most if murder was legal, and Hans was free.
Those who have committed crimes they are unlikely to repeat, possibly including Hans, might be better off in a smaller, more secure, facility intended for rehabilitation.
Recidivism rates for murder are extremely low. Rates for petty crimes are extremely high.
So, by your logic (shared by many others, I realize), murders should get light and very short jail time, while petty thieves/vandals should get life sentences to "protect" the public.
The same counter-intuitive reality applies to deterrence... Those who commit murder are unlikely to be deterred by any punishment, which petty criminals have been shown to be by and large highly subject to deterrence. Therefore, murder should be legal, while petty theft/vandalism should automatically receive life sentences.
Logic dictates, that arrangement will make the public safer, keep crime at the lowest possible rates, and most effectively utilize the justice system.
"What about your VP choice?" the response could be, "Yeah, but she's our VP choice. You're running someone with even less experience for president."
I don't think there's any question that trying to focus on such fine details will be utterly lost on the electorate. Remember John "Voted for it before I voted against it" Kerry? McCain seems to be just setting himself up to be labeled a "flip-flopper" on "experience".
And it's not just that it won't resonate with ill-informed voters. That argument is clearly BS to analysts, politicians, and the best informed citizens as well, so it's not going to gain any traction... The VP's job, first and foremost, is to be able to take over the job should anything happen to the president. With McCain's age and truck-full of medical records, it becomes a particularly important issue.
According to wikipedia the US has way more than two pumped storage plants.
He said "Pure", as in "dedicated" facilities, designed solely as big batteries. The rest are regular dams, that have had pumps added on more recently (many decades after their construction).
Dams are more subject to evaporation, because they are uncovered/open air, and so lose a significant amount of the power stored in them. "Pure" purpose-built pumped storage facilities are enclosed and so much more efficient.
Using this logic: In fact I have a water desalinization plant. There's tons of water in the ocean, I just need to install a pump and evaporation chamber.
The vastly expensive and difficult part of pumped-water storage is already built, in the form of dams around the country. The cost and difficulty of adding a pump is absolutely trivial. The motivation to do so just hasn't been there on a very large scale.
If you have a water desalinization plant, but just need to finish it off by installing the water pump, it's safe to say, YES, you DO still have a desalinization plant, even if it isn't quite operational.
Your car doesn't cease to exist when the fuel pump goes out...
Pumped storage is a great idea for local energy storage, but we don't currently have any built.
WHAT?
"In 2000 the United States had 19.5 GW of pumped storage capacity, accounting for 2.5% of baseload generating capacity"
"In 1999 the EU had 32 GW capacity of pumped storage"
Interesting, but it seems that the power produced would be less
Less than what, and when?
Also not built yet.
No, the wind turbines that are going to necessitate this huge grid infrastructure upgrade are what is "not built yet."
There are actually a few liquid-sodium solar-thermal power plants up and running around the world. And other thermal energy storage methods are available, and partially in-use. Thermal storage is really only a small modification to traditional/existing solar-thermal power plants, and it's likely when more of them get built, they will be built with thermal storage, not to reduce load on the grid, but for all-around better return on investment (and not needing larger lines to connect to the grid is one such cost/investment).
Power lines though are made from multiple conductors for the same reason that rope is made from many fibres, partly flexability, but mostly for strength,
Flexibility is a serious drawback in suspended power lines. It becomes a huge liability in wind. Weights have to be added to long runs to partially compensate.
There certainly are concerns with a single flaw spreading, but that is easily enough address by having, eg. 5 large conductors (as is the case with steel-core/steel-reinforced cables), as opposed to the smaller and more numerous conductors used with typical power lines.
and because the conductors will conduct radially(unless you put insulation around each strand) then making them as bundles wouldn't help with skin effect.
Which is, in fact, what is done to reduce the effect. See: Litz Wire
but at 60Hz, I get a skin depth of about 6 Meters.
I think you may have made a typo in that calculator, because I'm getting perfectly accurate numbers from that page. It puts the skin effect of 60 Hz at 8.40 "micro meters" [sic] in copper. That is quite close enough to the 8.47mm figure cited on WP: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skin_effect#Examples
It's always important to have a reality check when trying to calculate anything. For instance, you can look up at the power lines strung from pole to pole and note that they are ALL numerous-strand braided conductors, rather than solid bars of copper (which would offer better rigidity).
You probably haven't even seen it, but in the old days there was extensive use of hollow copper wiring... They basically had a flat ~1/4in.-thick, ~4in. long sheet of copper, which was keyed on the ends, and then rolled into a big hollow "wire". I've seen it, held it in my hands, and worked with it, so I know very well that skin effect is very real, very relevant to grid frequency and power levels, and has always been a very important issue.
Slashdot Mirror
No, of course not.
It's the fact that:
it's trivially to compile for MIPS once you've got it compiled for every other major architecture.
the likes of Debian and other non-commercial distros have policies to ensure that all possible architectures are fully supported.
MIPS is an extremely popular architecture (Embedded, PDAs, SGI systems, etc.) ...that means there's tons of MIPS binary packages available for download.
The blame hasn't just shifted, we now don't know if anyone is to blame in the first place, since it's the Mythbusters that opted to cancel the show, and not their parent company, nor advertisers, as had been reported.
Those who were reported as being to "blame", have now been absolved of all responsibility for the issue, and no-one else has been revealed as being at fault.
Adam Savage has said that credit card companies are to blame, but in the same breath, he got everything else wrong, and was speaking in the third person anyhow, so even that vague statement is very highly suspect.
Now, all we know is that a show on RFID wasn't produced, for some reason...
So, you've never heard of Linux before, eh? Welcome to /.
apt-get, yum, and the like will function just as well on MIPS as they do on x86, automatically downloading the pre-compiled binaries for your arch.
Actually, that one's not necessarily too far off the mark.
Think: relatively low performance Wii console, versus PS3/XBox.
If input methods change, types of applications will change as well. The changes could easily have a significant relation to performance.
There is compelling scientific evidence that the rate of decay of radioactive isotopes is not fundamentally stable/consistent.
I'm not a creationist, but since you're antagonizing others, it's only fair to point out your own beliefs are questionable.
No, we don't. Dual-layer Blu-Ray has AMPLE storage for 1080.
There is no "Blu-ray". There is single OR dual layer Blu-ray. There is Blu-ray with MPEG-2, OR WMV9, OR H.264.
And lossy video codecs are NOT a fixed target either. They improve over the years, and are better/worse depending on the implementation.
The fact that some movies look less than perfect on Blu-ray only says that the producer of the disc isn't particularly good. There's nothing technically wrong with the format itself.
That is, and always has been, the case. You don't make a video format that is ahead of display tech. VHS was far lower quality than analog televisions could deliver. Even DVD, introduced at the very end of the analog era, really isn't any better than analog TVs can deliver (except for being progressive rather than interlaced).
Blu-ray, like DVD, goes just slightly beyond what HDTVs out there can display. That should give it a pretty strong position, even if displays do improve. The idea that HDTVs will improve is pretty unlikely as well, in the near future. Broadcast is well below Blu-ray, and it's pretty unlikely anything beyond Blu-ray will be introduced in the next decade+.
Game consoles are an interesting case, but I really doubt that's going to be a big enough driver to convince people to invest $1000 more for their new TV...
Depends where you are... Here on the fringes, the strength of TV signals is very, very weak at ground level, while it's acceptable at, say, 20' up. Of course there is some signal at ground level, but not sufficiently distinct from background noise.
Of course, if you're in a stronger signal area, then the signal is, of course, very strong, everywhere.
Yes. They're being included in low-end computers, set-top boxes, and supercomputers, all over China. Such as the Tianhua GX-1C.
The Dragon chips (and variations of) are also gaining some traction in Europe and the US, being used in a couple dirt-cheap $250 EEE PC clones. eg.: http://www.compsource.com/pn/3KRZ40074GB/3k_Computers_2340/
http://www.gdium.com/description/
They've made millions of them.
Welcome to the strange parallel world of TV episodes on iTunes/Netflix...
Yes, that radio signal being broadcast over your head right now... you get to PAY for a lower quality version, that you are forced to watch within 24 hours or lose the right... Meanwhile, a $30 TV tuner allows you to capture it without any restrictions, and at full quality.
And it's all the more insane when it's something 20+ years old, where everyone that cares already owns at least one copy, if not more. The idea that everyone is going to go out and pirate old TV shows or movies just because they have a DRM-free copy is just insane.
The RIAA is just starting to figure it out where music is concerned, but really only because they're tired of being bullied by Apple, and DRM-free is the only way you can sell music playable on the iPod without paying Apple and agreeing to their terms. Perhaps we'll see the same thing happen with TV and (older) movies in the near future if the iPod and iPhone becomes an remotely as popular for video as it is for music.
Extensive knowledge of the topic, spanning a couple years of, shall we say, paying attention...
Hmm, that does sound familiar... Maybe because that's exactly what I said in my first reply: "This despite a Chinese middle-class larger than the entire US population." -evilviper http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=951341&cid=24851377
Back on the topic, yes there are 0.3 billion Chinese in the middle class. But there are 1.3 billion people in China. Leaving 1.0 billion Chinese who AREN'T in the middle class. And yes, the vast majority of that 1 billion are extremely poor, and usually subsistent farmers in the Chinese country side.
Sadly, it's clear you've completely missed the point of damn near everything I've said here.
I already covered this one: http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=951341&cid=24851435
1 billion dirt-poor Chinese just barely contribute to, or benefit from, all that industrialization and pollution. So, counting per-capita, based only on geopolitical national borders, rather than factoring in the economic situation of the majority of the population, is even more deceptive than using GDP.
In other words. In GDP or in per-capita, the US still wins. If you've got a third option, by all means, spit it out.
Not if you're even attempting to be remotely fair...
China gets a pass in the per-capita comparisons only because they've still got a billion dirt-poor rural people in the country. Yes, keeping your population impoverished really helps your pollution figures...
If you take the US, and then add on all the impoverished populations of Mexico, and some central and south American countries, to get an equivalent population, the US' per-capita figures would drop drastically as well.
The US is still #1 in manufacturing BY FAR. China is only #3, having recently overtaken Germany. This despite a Chinese middle-class larger than the entire US population.
And as for SUVs, China has a seriously love affair with cars now. They're not far behind the US, and their cars don't have even the minimal basic pollution controls that have been around since the 70s.
So, the US produces more, and drives only slightly more. How does this make China better?
Most importantly, why are planetary physicists using base-2 notation?
The reason trees survive tsunamis is because they are extremely dense, having a very low volume. Once you shape it into a house, it will no longer survive such severe forces.
But earthquakes? Living in CA, I can tell you first hand that you stay the hell away from trees during an earthquake. No matter how strong the tree may be, it's exerting a lot of angular force on the soil, and any weakening of the soil will result in the tree uprooting, and falling... it'll remain intact, but it'll still fall.
And how about all the other natural forces? Houses that can withstand fires are able to do so because none of their wooden frame is exposed... It's covered with tile, stucco, drywall, etc, etc. Things that wouldn't be doable with a living tree.
How about lightning? My neighbor has a wonderful tree that has been hit by lightning 4 times in as many years... Each time a major limb is blown to bits, and comes crashing to the ground. I certainly would prefer my house not explode...
And floods or mudslides? Hurricanes and tornadoes? etc.
Last time around (2007), they
"filed claims of patent infringement" ... "in The Netherlands, Germany, and the United Kingdom" ... "seeking an injunction and damages." long before any products were seized.
SISVEL is more or less a spin-off formed from Philip's patent-licensing arm.
Have you heard of Philips? Because, you know, they invented a lot of stuff... including MPEG audio... used in DVB decoders, MP3 player, etc.
Since then, they've secured the rights to patents from several other companies as well, forming a patent pool, much like MPEG-LA, Audio MPEG, or VIA Licensing.
In the US we know SISVEL as "Audio MPEG, Inc."
Indeed. And if we didn't need to spend money imprisoning him, we'd all benefit.
And if murder wasn't illegal, we wouldn't have had to spend the money on the investigation and the trial.
Clearly, we'd all benefit the most if murder was legal, and Hans was free.
Recidivism rates for murder are extremely low. Rates for petty crimes are extremely high.
So, by your logic (shared by many others, I realize), murders should get light and very short jail time, while petty thieves/vandals should get life sentences to "protect" the public.
The same counter-intuitive reality applies to deterrence... Those who commit murder are unlikely to be deterred by any punishment, which petty criminals have been shown to be by and large highly subject to deterrence. Therefore, murder should be legal, while petty theft/vandalism should automatically receive life sentences.
Logic dictates, that arrangement will make the public safer, keep crime at the lowest possible rates, and most effectively utilize the justice system.
Ah yes, "token ring" WiFi... I like it.
I don't think there's any question that trying to focus on such fine details will be utterly lost on the electorate. Remember John "Voted for it before I voted against it" Kerry? McCain seems to be just setting himself up to be labeled a "flip-flopper" on "experience".
And it's not just that it won't resonate with ill-informed voters. That argument is clearly BS to analysts, politicians, and the best informed citizens as well, so it's not going to gain any traction... The VP's job, first and foremost, is to be able to take over the job should anything happen to the president. With McCain's age and truck-full of medical records, it becomes a particularly important issue.
He said "Pure", as in "dedicated" facilities, designed solely as big batteries. The rest are regular dams, that have had pumps added on more recently (many decades after their construction).
Dams are more subject to evaporation, because they are uncovered/open air, and so lose a significant amount of the power stored in them. "Pure" purpose-built pumped storage facilities are enclosed and so much more efficient.
The vastly expensive and difficult part of pumped-water storage is already built, in the form of dams around the country. The cost and difficulty of adding a pump is absolutely trivial. The motivation to do so just hasn't been there on a very large scale.
If you have a water desalinization plant, but just need to finish it off by installing the water pump, it's safe to say, YES, you DO still have a desalinization plant, even if it isn't quite operational.
Your car doesn't cease to exist when the fuel pump goes out...
WHAT?
"In 2000 the United States had 19.5 GW of pumped storage capacity, accounting for 2.5% of baseload generating capacity"
"In 1999 the EU had 32 GW capacity of pumped storage"
Less than what, and when?
No, the wind turbines that are going to necessitate this huge grid infrastructure upgrade are what is "not built yet."
There are actually a few liquid-sodium solar-thermal power plants up and running around the world. And other thermal energy storage methods are available, and partially in-use. Thermal storage is really only a small modification to traditional/existing solar-thermal power plants, and it's likely when more of them get built, they will be built with thermal storage, not to reduce load on the grid, but for all-around better return on investment (and not needing larger lines to connect to the grid is one such cost/investment).
Flexibility is a serious drawback in suspended power lines. It becomes a huge liability in wind. Weights have to be added to long runs to partially compensate.
There certainly are concerns with a single flaw spreading, but that is easily enough address by having, eg. 5 large conductors (as is the case with steel-core/steel-reinforced cables), as opposed to the smaller and more numerous conductors used with typical power lines.
Which is, in fact, what is done to reduce the effect. See: Litz Wire
It's not a nit at all, it's quite relevant.
I think you may have made a typo in that calculator, because I'm getting perfectly accurate numbers from that page. It puts the skin effect of 60 Hz at 8.40 "micro meters" [sic] in copper. That is quite close enough to the 8.47mm figure cited on WP: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skin_effect#Examples
It's always important to have a reality check when trying to calculate anything. For instance, you can look up at the power lines strung from pole to pole and note that they are ALL numerous-strand braided conductors, rather than solid bars of copper (which would offer better rigidity).
You probably haven't even seen it, but in the old days there was extensive use of hollow copper wiring... They basically had a flat ~1/4in.-thick, ~4in. long sheet of copper, which was keyed on the ends, and then rolled into a big hollow "wire". I've seen it, held it in my hands, and worked with it, so I know very well that skin effect is very real, very relevant to grid frequency and power levels, and has always been a very important issue.