It's not Karma, it's mana. Specifically, a level 45 Reflective Shield around their server which bounced Slashdot's level 60 spell of Traffic Jam back at itself. Slashdot will be lagged for a few more rounds.
There was a specific problem with head-mounted VR systems that Mark Pesce brings up in his book "The Playful World". It was discovered while testing a headmounted VR system Pesce was working on for Sega.
Essentially, the method of producing 3D images used in headmounts only approximates one of six ways that we perceive depth and distance. Exposed for over twenty minutes, the brain adapts to the comuter-generated images causing confusion between the brain's and eyes' perception, a state that remains after the head-mount is removed.
From the book: "How long your brain remained confused was an open question. It varied from person to person. Some people adapted back to the real world almost immediately. Others seemed to take hours. No one knew what kind of effect it would have on growing children, who have highly flexible nervous systems. Could long exposure to a head-mounted display 3-D environment cause permanent damage? Even today, no one knows for sure (certainly, no one want's to do such a study) but the open question of permanent brain damage was enough to scare Sega away for good."
Strangely enough, there are plenty of such devices out on the market now by rather reputable names like Phillips. Did they look into the risks?
Since this whole incident is over the unlikely event that the heatsink falls off the chip, why not have a jumper on the motherboard tethered to the heatsink? That way when the heatsink falls, the jumper pops off, and the mobo responds.
I first thought the mobo could also set off an alarm but then figured the loud thunk and subsequent cracking produced by a 5 lb heatsink crashing and knocking out the PCI cards beneath it would bring enough attention the the problem. That and the screen suddenly going out as the video card gets annihilated by the falling behemoth.
"Mechanical problems demand mechanical solutions." - my mechanic bitching about modern cars
Especially because of this tidbit at the bottom of the article:
"Editor's Note
Felix Abraham Truman, 10/29/2001 8:54:42 PM
Some of the comments posted about this article have led me to believe that it may be either inaccurate or blatantly false. If any of our readers from MIT can cast some light on this issue, I'd appreciate it. Thanks!"
What I find most interesting is that most of the hoax busters refer to the research they did by scouring the Net. Granted, it's a computer related project, but has the eye of the Net become so omnicient that we believe nothing exists outside the Wire?
We should have all seen this coming. What with all these companies participating in the wild orgy of mergers, somebody was going to get into trouble.
And look what happened: Corel carelessly hooked up with Imprise and less than one month into the affair, we find out it's contracted M$.
This is not the carefree "free merger" days! Today there are many incorporation-transmitted diseases,and with the debilitating M$ at an all time high, no company should merge without proper protection.
"The more Taiwan relies on the US for defence, the less willing they will be to complain about the US's protectionist actions that favour its domestic chip manufacturing business."
I believe these ideas are the issues that fuel the Tiawanese nationalists. Because of their current situation, they need to play the damsel in distress for protection. If Tiawan was legitimately recognized as an independent sovereign state, it can then receive diplomatic recognition in international organizations.
In my opinion, having some legitimate global representation should be the primary goal (above a formal separation from the mainland). The problem of course is that any attempt at the former causes China to bitch about the latter.
As it stands, the only channel through which Tiawan can be heard is through it's corporate/economic avenues; and as Jon Perterson alludes to, these veins can be easily pinched as well.
*I apologize for any hallucinations resulting from my mixed metaphors*
Slashdot Mirror
It's not Karma, it's mana. Specifically, a level 45 Reflective Shield around their server which bounced Slashdot's level 60 spell of Traffic Jam back at itself. Slashdot will be lagged for a few more rounds.
There was a specific problem with head-mounted VR systems that Mark Pesce brings up in his book "The Playful World". It was discovered while testing a headmounted VR system Pesce was working on for Sega.
Essentially, the method of producing 3D images used in headmounts only approximates one of six ways that we perceive depth and distance. Exposed for over twenty minutes, the brain adapts to the comuter-generated images causing confusion between the brain's and eyes' perception, a state that remains after the head-mount is removed.
From the book: "How long your brain remained confused was an open question. It varied from person to person. Some people adapted back to the real world almost immediately. Others seemed to take hours. No one knew what kind of effect it would have on growing children, who have highly flexible nervous systems. Could long exposure to a head-mounted display 3-D environment cause permanent damage? Even today, no one knows for sure (certainly, no one want's to do such a study) but the open question of permanent brain damage was enough to scare Sega away for good."
Strangely enough, there are plenty of such devices out on the market now by rather reputable names like Phillips. Did they look into the risks?
Since this whole incident is over the unlikely event that the heatsink falls off the chip, why not have a jumper on the motherboard tethered to the heatsink? That way when the heatsink falls, the jumper pops off, and the mobo responds.
I first thought the mobo could also set off an alarm but then figured the loud thunk and subsequent cracking produced by a 5 lb heatsink crashing and knocking out the PCI cards beneath it would bring enough attention the the problem. That and the screen suddenly going out as the video card gets annihilated by the falling behemoth.
"Mechanical problems demand mechanical solutions." - my mechanic bitching about modern cars
Especially because of this tidbit at the bottom of the article:
"Editor's Note
Felix Abraham Truman, 10/29/2001 8:54:42 PM
Some of the comments posted about this article have led me to believe that it may be either inaccurate or blatantly false. If any of our readers from MIT can cast some light on this issue, I'd appreciate it. Thanks!"
What I find most interesting is that most of the hoax busters refer to the research they did by scouring the Net. Granted, it's a computer related project, but has the eye of the Net become so omnicient that we believe nothing exists outside the Wire?
"Hello, Navi"
We should have all seen this coming. What with all these companies participating in the wild orgy of mergers, somebody was going to get into trouble.
And look what happened: Corel carelessly hooked up with Imprise and less than one month into the affair, we find out it's contracted M$.
This is not the carefree "free merger" days! Today there are many incorporation-transmitted diseases,and with the debilitating M$ at an all time high, no company should merge without proper protection.
I just got my first geekbone after visiting the website.
geekbone: (n.) a tech junky's involuntary aroused physical reaction to hardcore/extreme implementation of technology, science, electronics, etc."The more Taiwan relies on the US for defence, the less willing they will be to complain about the US's protectionist actions that favour its domestic chip manufacturing business."
I believe these ideas are the issues that fuel the Tiawanese nationalists. Because of their current situation, they need to play the damsel in distress for protection. If Tiawan was legitimately recognized as an independent sovereign state, it can then receive diplomatic recognition in international organizations.
In my opinion, having some legitimate global representation should be the primary goal (above a formal separation from the mainland). The problem of course is that any attempt at the former causes China to bitch about the latter.
As it stands, the only channel through which Tiawan can be heard is through it's corporate/economic avenues; and as Jon Perterson alludes to, these veins can be easily pinched as well.
*I apologize for any hallucinations resulting from my mixed metaphors*