Thanks for all the news and keepinng this site going.
It had all the Web 2.0 things we now take for granted way in the beginning. I always keep going back to slashdot for "News for nerds, stuff that matters."
I've always found graphical calculators completely pointless. A PC or laptop can run rings around a graphical calculator. The only reason a graphical calculator sells because the schools want a limited device used for tests. Plotting functions can easily be done on paper, during an exam.
On the other hand. Getting a good calculator remains invaluable. I've bought a HP 32S-II calculator the day before the EMC (ElectroMagnetic Compatibility) exam. My 4th Casio FX-82D had broken down that year and I ead that HP makes decent calculators and that RPN rocks.
EMC is a fairly complex subject and you need to solve a lot of equations. The day I bought the calculator, I was pulling my hair out, trying to find out how the damn thing worked. Because, I heard that using an RPN calculator allowed you to work faster. However, learning to use an RPN calculator takes a while. Not funny when you have an exam with a lot of equations the next day. On the day of the exam however, I was able to work with the HP 32S-II quite comfortably and was on average 20 minutes faster than the rest of the class. The reason that RPN works faster remains the fact that you can skip all the intermediate solutions of the equations after you written out the correct algebraic solution to the problem. So that's a real life safer there, during exams, because you have to type a lot less.
Using a real calculator still has benefits nowadays. The tactile feedback from a real calculator allows you to work much faster than using a touchscreen of your phone.
So for graphing and complex mathematics I will use my computer. For simple algebra I will keep on using my trusty HP 32S-II for a long time.
Compatibility should not become a problem. After downloading you can transcode the files to any format you wish to use. Getting a program easy enough to do this without too much effort, will require some work.
Also marketing and promoting to users could become a challenge. But if you download the.flac from a site. That site could also link to the programs / services that could render your.flac's to.mp3/ogg/wma.
Maybe even the site where you buy your music could also include the lossy compressed files as a bonus for extra cost. I sense several business oppurtunities here.
I find the Inconsolata very good for diagrams and other texts that need a monospaced font. advantages: - Monospaced - has a slashed zero - The brackets are higher than the other characters. So you instinctively see what's inside the brackets. - has an open license. http://www.levien.com/type/myfonts/inconsolata.html
A couple of years ago I used ngspice en gschem for simulation. I had some problems getting the whole toolchain running. But after the initial effort it proved very flexible and effective. By creating a Makefile for the whole project everything could be automated.
Use gschem to define the circuit. gnetlist with the spice back-end to generate a circuit ngspice for simulation gwave for viewing graphs and gnuplot for producing images.
I just needed to take some prejudice away, about boy scouts in general. The majority here comes from the US and the boy scouts of America look like nothing we have over here. Even at the world Jamboree in 1995 they had a separate camp for the boys and girls. Whereas most other countries had mixed camps.
And they're not competition. I never see them over here and we don't have competitions. Maybe if I did see some other boy scouts from the US, I might take a chance to meet them.
I've never been of a competition fan. I've been with the boyscouts for over 12 years (and in Holland the boyscouts are not the pussies they are in the USA). You how to work together and to organise stuff, which helps a lot more in real life when you start working in the real world.
And you also learn to work together with people that are on an other intellectual level.
As for sports, after scouting, I started with Aikido and kobudo. Both are quite effective martial arts, that don't have competitions and strive to improve yourself. Physically and intellectually. So any jock asking me if "I'm so smart" and wants to intimidate me can get that aggressive attitude right back to him.
DIP????? that's quite old and maybe suitable for quick bread board if you don't have any spare time. Also the high speed opreation of the device will require shorter leads to achieve a good Signal Integrity.
Soldering SO or TSSOP package isn't that difficult. Even smaller should also be doable. THe BGA's are a PITA.
I've been trying to get rid of XFig for years. There's just no other package that can replace it. My previous coach forced me to use Visio 2000 in my previous project. It was a complete nightmare to do a quick diagram.
For my current subject I have a couple of large diagrams in XFig to visualise everything. One colleague asked me if it was a brochure of a supplier because it looked so neat and had everything aligned.
A recent study confirmed my opinion about patents.
They couldn't find any relationship between innovation and the number of patents a corporation has. It's nice to have some patents to use in a defensive manner. But they don't give you much leverage over the competetion. If you effectively want to use patents you have to several things. Develop the patent. apply for it and actively defend against any infringement. If you do the later 2, you have less time for development. Which results in loss of your customers, who go over to the competition.
Companies like Google have to invent new stuff in order to stay ahead of the competititon. They don't have the time to wonder about patent infringement.
Most patents nowadays concern many small improvements that are obvious. Patents that the competition has to avoid in order to compete. At the moment patents allow a monopoly for the big guys. The innovative small guys remain screwed and face unfair competition.
No wonder that big American corporations are pushing for software patents in the EU. It sure would help them against the local competition.
The guy made a false fingerprint with the help of the original owner of the print within 10 minutes. It even spoofed the most expensive and best fingerprint scanners.
Fingerprint scanners schould only be used where security doesn't depend on the fingerprint but you want to make someone easily identifiable. Like the mailboxes we have on our network printers. You still can supply a separate PIN code, to prevent just anyone accessing your print jobs. Same counts for RFID.
Why must everybody show off they're wearing an iPod? The white earbuds are a dead giveaway. Every mugger in the street will know you've got expensive gadgets on you. Just buy an extra headphone or other color earbuds and you wil stand stand out a lot less.
I've got an cowon Iaudio 5 which also uses white earbuds to imitate the iPod look. I'm not all too happy about that. If I were walking in a big city and ran the risk of being mugged, I would problably get myself some other earphones. Even if it were to not look like a simple iPod user.
The best writing style to avoid active or passive sentences remains E-prime. Just prohibit the use of the verb 'to-be' and your message comes out a lot clearer. In this case: 'The boy rides the bike to the store'. In this case the sentences mostly describe action or relations, instead of the abolutes. Using the verb 'to be' makes the writer either allseeing or a passive victim. Using the previous example a passive sentence would become: 'The bike is ridden to the store by the boy.'
E-prime helps me a lot in making my technical reports a lot more understandable and clearer.
It shows some perseverence that you learned 8086 machine code. I believe it was a long story. Maybe you should also learn a nice assembly code like 68000. Still one of the neater ones out there.
I'm quite introverted myself but nowadays I always stay sober when I go out. It takes a while to get into it and the first couple of times were quite stressfull and I totally flipped. Like almost panic attacks and the muscles around my shoulder completely locking up so much it hurts. But after getting plastered every weekend with my friends and getting no girls I decided it was time a change.
Peripheral vision and breathing exc ercises help a lot. Also just being left to my own devices for once in a while and just thinking stuff over in a bar helps me to get back my energy en motivation. Also the martial arts I train (aikido and kobudo) have prevented me from freaking out a couple of years ago.
I will have to go out every week otherwise I get back to my old ways and have to retrain my sensors and my way of thinking. When everything goes fine, I get completely wild and extroverted and will talk to anyone whoever even blinks to me. I've first noticed this when I was at a festival. The first days I kept quiet, bu on the third day, I became the animal let loose and partied all night long without any trouble. I guess I just need a couple of days adjusting to the setting.
I have no trouble going out alone. My friends are a bit much tied to their usual places and I still want to see a lot of places and parties. It's a great ride for the night. People sometimes ask what kind of drugs I've used, but only mineral water will do the trick.
The next sunday I will have to cooldown again and have a long (3 to 4 hours) to get everything back together again. Mondays and tuesdays become a real downer and I have to recouperate. On Thursdays, I already get bored and need my next fix of meeting people.
I hate floppies. My home computer doesn't have a floppy drive and I put the box together myself.
The only reason I still have to find a floppy occurs at my work. At work I have a Tektronix TDS 744 oscilloscope which is almost 7 years old. It still uses floppies to transfer the data from the scope to my computer.
Except for the floppy drive the scope does everything I need to do. Last I heard that Tek doesn't service or calibrate that kind of scope anymore so maybe I can convince my manager to invest in a new one. All the other scope manufacturers all base their software on Windows. I don't find that a very atractive alternative.
When you want to do something very stupid in Debinan with apt-get in kindly asks: If you want to continue please enter: "Yes, I want to totally wreck my system now."
You have to type the whole sentence and then you're system get's hosed. Otherwise it cancels the requested action.
The PodBuddy doesn't have cavity to mount the iPOD, it uses the connector to keep it in position. The patent als specifies you have to use an MP3 player. The iPod uses AAc if I recall correctly.
You can connnect to your REvo with RS-232 under linux. The tools allow you to export the Revo-Word files to ascii or html.
Synchronizing agenda's becomes more troublesome. So I only use my psion agenda and make regular back-ups of the whole system. The Revo even recognizes my Siemens M65 mobile phone and let's me export the address book in the SIM card.
At the moment I can't think of any replacement of my Psion.
Alkaline batteries can't supply much current and loose their voltage quite fast. Most camera manufacturers don't recommend alkaline abtteries for their camera buth rechargable NimH batteries.
However, they put 2 alkaline batteries in the package with the camera to get you started. These run out much too fast and everybody thinks that the camera is crap. While only the batteries suck.
Alkaline batteries work excellent for flashlights (mag lite, etc) and remote controls.
Slashdot Mirror
Thanks for all the news and keepinng this site going.
It had all the Web 2.0 things we now take for granted way in the beginning.
I always keep going back to slashdot for "News for nerds, stuff that matters."
I've always found graphical calculators completely pointless. A PC or laptop can run rings around a graphical calculator.
The only reason a graphical calculator sells because the schools want a limited device used for tests. Plotting functions can easily be done on paper, during an exam.
On the other hand. Getting a good calculator remains invaluable. I've bought a HP 32S-II calculator the day before the EMC (ElectroMagnetic Compatibility) exam. My 4th Casio FX-82D had broken down that year and I ead that HP makes decent calculators and that RPN rocks.
EMC is a fairly complex subject and you need to solve a lot of equations. The day I bought the calculator, I was pulling my hair out, trying to find out how the damn thing worked.
Because, I heard that using an RPN calculator allowed you to work faster. However, learning to use an RPN calculator takes a while. Not funny when you have an exam with a lot of equations the next day. On the day of the exam however, I was able to work with the HP 32S-II quite comfortably and was on average 20 minutes faster than the rest of the class.
The reason that RPN works faster remains the fact that you can skip all the intermediate solutions of the equations after you written out the correct algebraic solution to the problem. So that's a real life safer there, during exams, because you have to type a lot less.
Using a real calculator still has benefits nowadays. The tactile feedback from a real calculator allows you to work much faster than using a touchscreen of your phone.
So for graphing and complex mathematics I will use my computer. For simple algebra I will keep on using my trusty HP 32S-II for a long time.
Compatibility should not become a problem. After downloading you can transcode the files to any format you wish to use. Getting a program easy enough to do this without too much effort, will require some work.
Also marketing and promoting to users could become a challenge. .flac from a site. That site could also link to the programs / services that could render your .flac's to .mp3/ogg/wma.
But if you download the
Maybe even the site where you buy your music could also include the lossy compressed files as a bonus for extra cost.
I sense several business oppurtunities here.
When is a good remake of Syndicate coming about. Not just running around an shooting everybody. Also with good missions and mission descriptions.
Just update the graphics, sound and interface and keep the missions the same as it was.
I find the Inconsolata very good for diagrams and other texts that need a monospaced font.
advantages:
- Monospaced
- has a slashed zero
- The brackets are higher than the other characters. So you instinctively see what's inside the brackets.
- has an open license.
http://www.levien.com/type/myfonts/inconsolata.html
A couple of years ago I used ngspice en gschem for simulation.
I had some problems getting the whole toolchain running. But after the initial effort it proved very flexible and effective.
By creating a Makefile for the whole project everything could be automated.
Use gschem to define the circuit.
gnetlist with the spice back-end to generate a circuit
ngspice for simulation
gwave for viewing graphs and gnuplot for producing images.
If you look for a light weight audio player under Linux, Audacious might do the trick. It's a successor of the old xmms.
For media I like to use mplayer. Also light weight and able to play anything.
I just needed to take some prejudice away, about boy scouts in general.
The majority here comes from the US and the boy scouts of America look like nothing we have over here. Even at the world Jamboree in 1995 they had a separate camp for the boys and girls. Whereas most other countries had mixed camps.
And they're not competition. I never see them over here and we don't have competitions. Maybe if I did see some other boy scouts from the US, I might take a chance to meet them.
I've never been of a competition fan. I've been with the boyscouts for over 12 years (and in Holland the boyscouts are not the pussies they are in the USA). You how to work together and to organise stuff, which helps a lot more in real life when you start working in the real world.
And you also learn to work together with people that are on an other intellectual level.
As for sports, after scouting, I started with Aikido and kobudo. Both are quite effective martial arts, that don't have competitions and strive to improve yourself. Physically and intellectually.
So any jock asking me if "I'm so smart" and wants to intimidate me can get that aggressive attitude right back to him.
DIP????? that's quite old and maybe suitable for quick bread board if you don't have any spare time. Also the high speed opreation of the device will require shorter leads to achieve a good Signal Integrity.
Soldering SO or TSSOP package isn't that difficult. Even smaller should also be doable.
THe BGA's are a PITA.
I've been trying to get rid of XFig for years. There's just no other package that can replace it.
My previous coach forced me to use Visio 2000 in my previous project. It was a complete nightmare to do a quick diagram.
For my current subject I have a couple of large diagrams in XFig to visualise everything. One colleague asked me if it was a brochure of a supplier because it looked so neat and had everything aligned.
Visio diagrams mostly are a complete mess.
A recent study confirmed my opinion about patents.
They couldn't find any relationship between innovation and the number of patents a corporation has. It's nice to have some patents to use in a defensive manner. But they don't give you much leverage over the competetion.
If you effectively want to use patents you have to several things. Develop the patent. apply for it and actively defend against any infringement. If you do the later 2, you have less time for development. Which results in loss of your customers, who go over to the competition.
Companies like Google have to invent new stuff in order to stay ahead of the competititon. They don't have the time to wonder about patent infringement.
Most patents nowadays concern many small improvements that are obvious. Patents that the competition has to avoid in order to compete. At the moment patents allow a monopoly for the big guys. The innovative small guys remain screwed and face unfair competition.
No wonder that big American corporations are pushing for software patents in the EU. It sure would help them against the local competition.
Check the following presentation.
n gerprints_in_10_minutes.mp4
http://rehash.whatthehack.org/tmp/wth_spoofing_fi
The guy made a false fingerprint with the help of the original owner of the print within 10 minutes.
It even spoofed the most expensive and best fingerprint scanners.
Fingerprint scanners schould only be used where security doesn't depend on the fingerprint but you want to make someone easily identifiable. Like the mailboxes we have on our network printers. You still can supply a separate PIN code, to prevent just anyone accessing your print jobs.
Same counts for RFID.
My Cowon iAudio 5 plays ogg's just fine.
So put your money where your mouth is.
Thus I chose an Cowon iAudio 5.
Why must everybody show off they're wearing an iPod? The white earbuds are a dead giveaway. Every mugger in the street will know you've got expensive gadgets on you. Just buy an extra headphone or other color earbuds and you wil stand stand out a lot less.
I've got an cowon Iaudio 5 which also uses white earbuds to imitate the iPod look. I'm not all too happy about that. If I were walking in a big city and ran the risk of being mugged, I would problably get myself some other earphones. Even if it were to not look like a simple iPod user.
The best writing style to avoid active or passive sentences remains E-prime. Just prohibit the use of the verb 'to-be' and your message comes out a lot clearer. In this case: 'The boy rides the bike to the store'. In this case the sentences mostly describe action or relations, instead of the abolutes. Using the verb 'to be' makes the writer either allseeing or a passive victim. Using the previous example a passive sentence would become: 'The bike is ridden to the store by the boy.'
t ml/e-prime.html
E-prime helps me a lot in making my technical reports a lot more understandable and clearer.
For more information see:
http://www.wonderfulwritingskillsunhandbook.com/h
http://www.angelfire.com/nd/danscorpio/ep2.html/
It shows some perseverence that you learned 8086 machine code. I believe it was a long story.
Maybe you should also learn a nice assembly code like 68000. Still one of the neater ones out there.
I'm quite introverted myself but nowadays I always stay sober when I go out. It takes a while to get into it and the first couple of times were quite stressfull and I totally flipped. Like almost panic attacks and the muscles around my shoulder completely locking up so much it hurts. But after getting plastered every weekend with my friends and getting no girls I decided it was time a change.
Peripheral vision and breathing exc ercises help a lot. Also just being left to my own devices for once in a while and just thinking stuff over in a bar helps me to get back my energy en motivation. Also the martial arts I train (aikido and kobudo) have prevented me from freaking out a couple of years ago.
I will have to go out every week otherwise I get back to my old ways and have to retrain my sensors and my way of thinking. When everything goes fine, I get completely wild and extroverted and will talk to anyone whoever even blinks to me. I've first noticed this when I was at a festival. The first days I kept quiet, bu on the third day, I became the animal let loose and partied all night long without any trouble. I guess I just need a couple of days adjusting to the setting.
I have no trouble going out alone. My friends are a bit much tied to their usual places and I still want to see a lot of places and parties. It's a great ride for the night. People sometimes ask what kind of drugs I've used, but only mineral water will do the trick.
The next sunday I will have to cooldown again and have a long (3 to 4 hours) to get everything back together again. Mondays and tuesdays become a real downer and I have to recouperate. On Thursdays, I already get bored and need my next fix of meeting people.
Well, I'm here reading at a quarter past midnight. I've just taken a weekend vacation from my normal life.
I hate floppies. My home computer doesn't have a floppy drive and I put the box together myself.
The only reason I still have to find a floppy occurs at my work. At work I have a Tektronix TDS 744 oscilloscope which is almost 7 years old. It still uses floppies to transfer the data from the scope to my computer.
Except for the floppy drive the scope does everything I need to do. Last I heard that Tek doesn't service or calibrate that kind of scope anymore so maybe I can convince my manager to invest in a new one. All the other scope manufacturers all base their software on Windows. I don't find that a very atractive alternative.
When you want to do something very stupid in Debinan with apt-get in kindly asks:
If you want to continue please enter: "Yes, I want to totally wreck my system now."
You have to type the whole sentence and then you're system get's hosed. Otherwise it cancels the requested action.
The PodBuddy doesn't have cavity to mount the iPOD, it uses the connector to keep it in position. The patent als specifies you have to use an MP3 player. The iPod uses AAc if I recall correctly.
How do they infringe the patent?
You can connnect to your REvo with RS-232 under linux. The tools allow you to export the Revo-Word files to ascii or html.
Synchronizing agenda's becomes more troublesome. So I only use my psion agenda and make regular back-ups of the whole system. The Revo even recognizes my Siemens M65 mobile phone and let's me export the address book in the SIM card.
At the moment I can't think of any replacement of my Psion.
Alkaline batteries can't supply much current and loose their voltage quite fast. Most camera manufacturers don't recommend alkaline abtteries for their camera buth rechargable NimH batteries.
However, they put 2 alkaline batteries in the package with the camera to get you started. These run out much too fast and everybody thinks that the camera is crap. While only the batteries suck.
Alkaline batteries work excellent for flashlights (mag lite, etc) and remote controls.