But today, is it more practical (and simple) just to use a language like Ruby, that has arbitrary-precision integers, so you can just store everything in units of cents?
Hmm.... if you use integers of any given finite precision, aren't you still subjecting yourself to round-off error? (e.g. ((int)4)/((int)3) == 1!!) On the other hand, if you use a string-based infinite-precision datatype, what happens when you try to compute an non-terminating number (e.g. 1.0/3.0)? Perhaps your program crashes after trying to allocate an infinite amount of RAM to store the result?;^)
Seems to me the only full solution to round-off error would be to store the results of certain math operations as strings indicating the underlying mathematical/algebraic expressions (e.g. 1.0/3.0 == "1/3"), a la Matlab... but then, I'm no expert, perhaps there is a better way.
The only problem is that your index will be as big as your original file.
Well... maybe. It depends a lot on what data you are trying to compress. As a best-case scenario, it can compress the entire decimal expansion of PI down to a single digit: "0". Infinite digits compressed to a single byte, not bad eh?;^)
It's unlikely that you could do a better job than any reasonable compression program does already with the same data.
Very simple way to win this contest:
Write a program that generates the digits of PI
Have the program run until it comes across a sequence of digits in PI that are equivalent to the Wikipedia file
At that point, the program can just print out the index/offset into PI where the sequence starts, and that is your compressed output. 'Decompressing' it again is just a matter of looking up that sequence of digits in PI.
Just use lzip! 100% compression on any data, even if it's already been compressed by another utility! It works fantastically, but you may run into trouble if you try uncompressing the data.
Bah, lzip is nothing compared to azip, which has all the infinite-compression goodness of lzip, but also supports lossless decompression. The downside is that it currently only runs under BeOS, but it comes with source so it should be easy enough to port to (whatever).
Lets get a bunch of good CPU designers and _thinkers_ (call Google?) to design an architecture that works well for virtualization, then port linux to it
That would be a cool project; the problem is that the twenty gazillion computers already out there in the world still run the bad old Intel ISA, and most likely the next twenty gazillion computer will too (because economies of scale have made Intel PCs so cheap). That means that 99% of existing computers can run a virtualized Intel ISA at (close to) full speed, whereas virtualizing any other ISA (even an 'ideal' one) would require slow emulation.
The problem is, why in these tests did software virtualization come out ahead of hardware virtualization?
Presumably because Intel did a lousy job on the implementation. It's not like it hasn't happened before (see: x86 ISA, SSE, memory buses for multiprocessors, etc). Hopefully they will do better for the next version; if not there is always AMD's implementation.
It's tough to change the orientation of the robot, although you can handle that if you have a rotational joint further up so you can rotate the torso.
Hmm, how about a couple of internal counter-rotating flywheels.... spin them both up simultaneously, and then whenever you want to turn the robot, apply a bit of brakes to just one of them.
I'd like to see the human-powered, human-carrying version. Think unicycle, but with a spherical wheel. You know, for when traditional unicycling isn't enough of a challenge anymore...
Gödel's Theorem shows that a system cannot be perfect. It doesn't necessarily follow that the system "will fail". To declare that a system will fail, you have to define what success and failure mean. My view is, so what if Cyc can't do everything? If it does enough to be useful, then it will be a (qualified) success.
I'm pretty security conscious, but cannot think of any possible way anything could be learned from mouse movements
True, mouse movements by themselves probably wouldn't tell you much. But a wireless keyboard would give you lots of fun information, like the user's passwords, credit card numbers, late night love letters, etc etc.
Security might not too inconvenient. The device could authenticate key exchange w/base station and require physical interaction to re-authenticate.
That might work, but there are still two problems: (1) security tends to interfere with the plug-and-play quality that people want, and (2) any security protocols built in to the hardware are likely to have bugs that will be found and exploited some day, making the security (and thus, the peripheral) worse than useless. Maybe it would be better to just concentrate on making good old USB easier to use for this sort of thing; then all of these problems (as well as battery problems, interference, etc) are avoided.
You can dislike Apple's style if you want, but that doesn't change the fact that many other people find it much easier to use than the alternatives. Your complaint seems to be that the Apple GUI doesn't look "computery enough". Well, perhaps that is the point!
Unfortunately, it required a server version of Windows to operate, and didn't have the nifty user interface, but it was there.
Since the majority of Windows users don't run a server version of Windows (AFAIK WinXP is not a 'server version' of anything), for most people it wasn't (and isn't) there.
very old idea and there are products today that do it. thank God we have Apple to invent it again for the very first time!
Well, there's inventing something and then there is skillfully integrating it into a GUI that's easy enough to use that your mom can (and will) use it. An implementation may be the bee's knees in terms of what it can theoretically do, but if it's too hard (read: not click-and-drool dead simple) to use, then for 95% of the people out there it might as well not exist.
That said, I wonder how Time Machine will affect system performance for developers... will I need to disable it to avoid losing all my drive spacing to useless copies of obsolete object files? And if it does its synchronization action every day at midnight, does that mean that it won't work on my Mac that I power down when I leave the office?
That ".com" should be ".cm." In an article about typo-squatting, could you at least make sure you don't typo the main premise of the article in a manner that significantly alters the story??
If I registered slashdt.org, people would say I was typo-squatting slashdot.org. Similarly, if I redirected *.cm, I would be typo-squatting *.com. The article description is correct.
Al Gore talks the talk but by no means does he walk the walk.
There are many people out there who 'walk the walk'. However, you are never going to hear from them because they live frugally on their farms and don't have access to the media that Gore does.
Yes, Gore is a politically active member of the American upper class. Like most other members of the American upper class, he uses lots of energy. Unlike them, however, he also works to get the message out about global warming. In return for his hard work, he gets called a hypocrite, while his equally energy-using do-nothing peers all skate by without a second look. No good deed goes unpunished, of course... but I for one am glad that someone with the resources to make a real difference also has to balls to do so -- even if it does mean taking flack from the peanut gallery.
A liberal is just a conservative who hasn't been mugged. Actually, that's not quite right, a social batshit crazy democrat is just a theoretically rightist but in reality not really whose political leaders also major hypocrites albeit not as bad as the front-runners in the leftist field who hasn't been mugged. Amercan liberals are not liberals at all.
For the record: While technically written in English, the above made no sense whatsoever. I suggest that the author get a good night's sleep, and abstain from listening to talk radio for at least a week.
Actually you could have reversed the analogy entirely, Japan being involved in a war with China then inexplicably picking a fight with the US and diverting the majority of their troops towards that effort!
You have to demean yourself and give up all self respect to not get tossed in the slammer, while boosting the already oversized eco of the police.
Being respectful and polite is not the same as "demeaning yourself and giving up all self-respect", unless your self-image is based on your (perceived) ability to rude whenever you want to.
but really, do they expect everyone to have eletricity? I hope their sending Solar Panels as well.
Assuming this is the same project mentioned in last month's Wired magazine, the laptops can be recharged using (among other things) physical labor (i.e. pulling a string, similar to how you start a lawnmower).
Really, sending something more practical like the parts to build a power plant, or tractors to grow food...might just be a better idea than a laptop
Seems like the World Bank has been trying things like that since the 1960's, and in many cases they didn't improve the situation much for anyone other than the government in power and their cronies. So why not try something new? Perhaps the problem has been that the things that would seem practical to a naive westerner aren't so practical after all.
We'll see what happens -- either these laptops will make a difference, or they won't. But don't be so quick to cast judgement on a program you don't know very much about. It's not like MIT is just jumping into this on a whim... they've given it several years of thought, and consulted with many people familiar with the areas they are trying to help.
there's no failsafe on them; if they fail whilst in flight, you die
That's why every jet pack flightsuit should come with emergency air bags. If they can use them to land Mars rovers, I don't see why they couldn't use them to land humans...:^)
Slashdot Mirror
Hmm.... if you use integers of any given finite precision, aren't you still subjecting yourself to round-off error? (e.g. ((int)4)/((int)3) == 1!!) On the other hand, if you use a string-based infinite-precision datatype, what happens when you try to compute an non-terminating number (e.g. 1.0/3.0)? Perhaps your program crashes after trying to allocate an infinite amount of RAM to store the result?
Seems to me the only full solution to round-off error would be to store the results of certain math operations as strings indicating the underlying mathematical/algebraic expressions (e.g. 1.0/3.0 == "1/3"), a la Matlab... but then, I'm no expert, perhaps there is a better way.
Well... maybe. It depends a lot on what data you are trying to compress. As a best-case scenario, it can compress the entire decimal expansion of PI down to a single digit: "0". Infinite digits compressed to a single byte, not bad eh?
Very simple way to win this contest:
Couldn't be easier!
Bah, lzip is nothing compared to azip, which has all the infinite-compression goodness of lzip, but also supports lossless decompression. The downside is that it currently only runs under BeOS, but it comes with source so it should be easy enough to port to (whatever).
That would be a cool project; the problem is that the twenty gazillion computers already out there in the world still run the bad old Intel ISA, and most likely the next twenty gazillion computer will too (because economies of scale have made Intel PCs so cheap). That means that 99% of existing computers can run a virtualized Intel ISA at (close to) full speed, whereas virtualizing any other ISA (even an 'ideal' one) would require slow emulation.
Presumably because Intel did a lousy job on the implementation. It's not like it hasn't happened before (see: x86 ISA, SSE, memory buses for multiprocessors, etc). Hopefully they will do better for the next version; if not there is always AMD's implementation.
Hmm, how about a couple of internal counter-rotating flywheels.... spin them both up simultaneously, and then whenever you want to turn the robot, apply a bit of brakes to just one of them.
I'd like to see the human-powered, human-carrying version. Think unicycle, but with a spherical wheel. You know, for when traditional unicycling isn't enough of a challenge anymore...
Gödel's Theorem shows that a system cannot be perfect. It doesn't necessarily follow that the system "will fail". To declare that a system will fail, you have to define what success and failure mean. My view is, so what if Cyc can't do everything? If it does enough to be useful, then it will be a (qualified) success.
Then clearly you aren't doing it right.
True, mouse movements by themselves probably wouldn't tell you much. But a wireless keyboard would give you lots of fun information, like the user's passwords, credit card numbers, late night love letters, etc etc.
Security might not too inconvenient. The device could authenticate key exchange w/base station and require physical interaction to re-authenticate.
That might work, but there are still two problems: (1) security tends to interfere with the plug-and-play quality that people want, and (2) any security protocols built in to the hardware are likely to have bugs that will be found and exploited some day, making the security (and thus, the peripheral) worse than useless. Maybe it would be better to just concentrate on making good old USB easier to use for this sort of thing; then all of these problems (as well as battery problems, interference, etc) are avoided.
You can dislike Apple's style if you want, but that doesn't change the fact that many other people find it much easier to use than the alternatives. Your complaint seems to be that the Apple GUI doesn't look "computery enough". Well, perhaps that is the point!
I was told there would be hot grits involved. If that is not the case, then I will be very dissappointed and probably switch back to Dell.
Since the majority of Windows users don't run a server version of Windows (AFAIK WinXP is not a 'server version' of anything), for most people it wasn't (and isn't) there.
And why not? It's not like they haven't done it before....
Well, there's inventing something and then there is skillfully integrating it into a GUI that's easy enough to use that your mom can (and will) use it. An implementation may be the bee's knees in terms of what it can theoretically do, but if it's too hard (read: not click-and-drool dead simple) to use, then for 95% of the people out there it might as well not exist.
That said, I wonder how Time Machine will affect system performance for developers... will I need to disable it to avoid losing all my drive spacing to useless copies of obsolete object files? And if it does its synchronization action every day at midnight, does that mean that it won't work on my Mac that I power down when I leave the office?
If I registered slashdt.org, people would say I was typo-squatting slashdot.org. Similarly, if I redirected *.cm, I would be typo-squatting *.com. The article description is correct.
There are many people out there who 'walk the walk'. However, you are never going to hear from them because they live frugally on their farms and don't have access to the media that Gore does.
Yes, Gore is a politically active member of the American upper class. Like most other members of the American upper class, he uses lots of energy. Unlike them, however, he also works to get the message out about global warming. In return for his hard work, he gets called a hypocrite, while his equally energy-using do-nothing peers all skate by without a second look. No good deed goes unpunished, of course... but I for one am glad that someone with the resources to make a real difference also has to balls to do so -- even if it does mean taking flack from the peanut gallery.
leftist field who hasn't been mugged. Amercan liberals are not liberals at all.
For the record: While technically written in English, the above made no sense whatsoever. I suggest that the author get a good night's sleep, and abstain from listening to talk radio for at least a week.
Inexplicably? Actually, the reversed analogy works there too... Japan was concerned about maintaining their access to foreign oil supplies.
Being respectful and polite is not the same as "demeaning yourself and giving up all self-respect", unless your self-image is based on your (perceived) ability to rude whenever you want to.
And I'm sure they made an impression, all right. These kids will dislike and mistrust the police for the rest of their lives.
Cops have been doing the "well, I should book you, but I'll let you go this time" routine for centuries.
Yup, it's called exercising sound judgement. They should have done it again this time.
Assuming this is the same project mentioned in last month's Wired magazine, the laptops can be recharged using (among other things) physical labor (i.e. pulling a string, similar to how you start a lawnmower).
Really, sending something more practical like the parts to build a power plant, or tractors to grow food...might just be a better idea than a laptop
Seems like the World Bank has been trying things like that since the 1960's, and in many cases they didn't improve the situation much for anyone other than the government in power and their cronies. So why not try something new? Perhaps the problem has been that the things that would seem practical to a naive westerner aren't so practical after all.
We'll see what happens -- either these laptops will make a difference, or they won't. But don't be so quick to cast judgement on a program you don't know very much about. It's not like MIT is just jumping into this on a whim... they've given it several years of thought, and consulted with many people familiar with the areas they are trying to help.
That's why every jet pack flightsuit should come with emergency air bags. If they can use them to land Mars rovers, I don't see why they couldn't use them to land humans...
Pardon my ignorance.... why is Bugatti selling cars at a loss?