If you want a decent weather forecast, get a book on basic weather and go to the National Weather Service website (www.weather.gov) or get a weather radio. At least the NWS isn't beholden to ratings.
A G4 can be modded for rackmount -- I don't have a source for you but it involves replacing the CPU handles with some kind of bracket. I don't think a G5 can, though -- different case design obviously. If you don't need expandability you can get an iMac or eMac -- both are basically just monitors with built-in computers, so integrating them into a rack environment wouldn't be too hard.
If you had the budget (which you pretty explicitly said you don't) I'd say go for an Xserve if you need rackmount.
Actually, I think they were calling it that (at least on The Register) before it ever came out. The fact that both Merced and McKinley were DOA, though, pretty much made sure the name stuck.
There's OpenWatcom. What's missing, I think, is the RAD tools that allow you to put together an interface without a lot of deep thought.
I'd actually like to see someone clone HyperCard. I've wanted to do that myself for years, but I just don't have the developer juice. Never had it, actually.
The Legend of Blacksilver and Legacy of the Ancients (one Epyx, one Electronic Arts, but same engine) used it for their dungeon crawl views, though they implemented it in a rather klutzy fashion. In any case they were really an adjunct to a more traditional scrolling CRPG.
Y'all make secession from the US to the Great White North awfully tempting...
I'm actually surprised Canada would have a law like the satellite dish law on the books to begin with. And hopefully with the amount of cross-border business done between the US and Canada the checkbook will do what the activists couldn't to the Patriot Act.
Not to mention that the Guinness ad folks misuse "brilliant" anyway -- having met Irish people who overuse the term to that degree, it's just the Irish equivalent of "awesome", and just about as devoid of meaning.
Yes, and the funny part is they talk about "bringing you programming like this" -- stuff they only play during pledge drives. And it's grotesquely unhip and uninteresting... I get pissed off when I can't watch my America's Test Kitchen on a saturday because of the pledge drives... I mean, I blame pledge week programming entirely for my current dislike of doowop, which is a classic, deeply historical antecedent to the glorious R&B golden era that was Motown.
PBS has some excellent programming, and they're leading the way on the Digital TV revolution. They need to learn that a lot of their regular viewers might just tune out during pledge week.
It is true that Star Trek is a parody of itself now, and that reality programming in and of itself tends to be pretty lame. I will defend WWE Smackdown slightly on grounds that when Vince McMahon actually has a reason to try (as he doesn't right now, unfortunately) it can actually be worth watching.
Mythbusters would be the show. And Mr. Wizard is much missed as well -- Nickelodeon probably has some of the best kids' entertainment programming out there (I like All Grown Up in particular) but Mr. Wizard was representative of its glory days.
Well, let's be honest -- what good is science when you ain't blowin shit up?
Seriously, though. You can't make science boring and expect people to pick up on it -- you have to engage your audience, and that's one of the great things about old shows like 3-2-1 Contact, Voyage of the Mimi, and Newton's Apple. Nature documentaries work pretty well, but they're forever tarred by the spectre of the Disney lemmings; grown-up science shows like Nova/Horizon remember to include drama in their stories to keep the audience interested. (I've developed a new respect for PBS lately, Antiques Roadshow aside...)
I want Discovery HD... the best of the Discovery Channel and some of the rare really worthwile HD content, and not wall-to-wall odd stuff.
I actually looked it up after posting -- it was 819i25, pretty impressive for an early standard. I think they replaced it with the 625-line CCIR system to be in compliance with the rest of Europe, and more or less decided to do their own thing when Germany was working on PAL.
The interesting part -- the UK almost went NTSC 405i, but went with PAL instead for compatibility reasons. (Would have been interesting to see NTSC-625i25. Not terribly good, mind you, just interesting.)
Yeah, it's pretty amazing that NTSC even works, but it was the first... pioneers with arrows in the back and all that. PAL is apparently color television done correctly.
SECAM, though... that one is funny. The way the French designed the SECAM system, you can't do editing effectively in SECAM video -- you either do it with film stock or with RGB component video (or just transcode from PAL), because the implementation of color in SECAM uses a delay line that apparently throws everything out of phase if you try to stick two discrete sections of SECAM video together. Interestingly, I've read that no one makes high-band (SVHS, Hi8, DV) camcorders for SECAM... and you wouldn't need a DV standard for SECAM anyway because the image data is basically the same on the digital side.
What I find interesting about the color television world is that apparently before they created SECAM, the French had a working high-definition black and white standard.
Maybe on the production end, if you've got the budget for DV50 or DigiBeta gear. But you get a damn good picture off of MiniDV, which is only 25 Mbps, and a compressed MPEG-2 signal is substantially less (not sure exactly what the broadcast standard is, but it's somewhat lower than the data rate on a DVD).
I would suggest that too. My backpack is a Coleman camping backpack (Exponent Weekender) with a concealed frame -- it's more than big enough for a laptop. Just throw the laptop in a padded sleeve and keep your attachments in the water bottle pocket inside. It's designed to strap on around the waist so it carries most of the weight on your hips anyway -- I bought it as much for luggage use as anything else.
You do need a license for aviation and some marine operation though. (The rules for marine operation are pretty strict -- license required for boats over a certain size and ship-to-shore operation, as well as HF radiotelephone. I don't know the specifics on aviation.)
I have trouble being sympathetic with these people, because they didn't do their homework as far as getting on the air legally. Simple fact is, without some progress on the LPFM issue, AM is the best venue for community radio.
There is a case to be made that mid-level radio -- the LPFM debate -- is being squelched by big media (including, shamefully, NPR). But part 15 still exists, and it works just fine on the AM side of the dial -- just ask Allston-Brighton Free Radio (www.abfreeradio.org). They started out as an FM pirate operation, got shut down, and now run a legit Part 15 AM station that covers not only their part of Boston, but spills over into Brookline, Cambridge, and parts of Newton.
True, but if you got a lot of people running one-watt FM transmitters, you'd have a problem that transcends enforcement issues -- you'd have absolute bedlam on the airwaves. That's why the FCC exists in the first place, and that's why licensed users get priority.
Wifi is meant for end-to-end network connections though -- you need some kind of digital broadcasting standard like Digital Radio Mondiale. You could probably do it with firmware hacking on a Linksys though.
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Please look at talkorigins.org. No legitimate scientist doubts that evolution happens; it's how it happens that gets debated.
If you want a decent weather forecast, get a book on basic weather and go to the National Weather Service website (www.weather.gov) or get a weather radio. At least the NWS isn't beholden to ratings.
A G4 can be modded for rackmount -- I don't have a source for you but it involves replacing the CPU handles with some kind of bracket. I don't think a G5 can, though -- different case design obviously. If you don't need expandability you can get an iMac or eMac -- both are basically just monitors with built-in computers, so integrating them into a rack environment wouldn't be too hard.
If you had the budget (which you pretty explicitly said you don't) I'd say go for an Xserve if you need rackmount.
Actually, I think they were calling it that (at least on The Register) before it ever came out. The fact that both Merced and McKinley were DOA, though, pretty much made sure the name stuck.
There's OpenWatcom. What's missing, I think, is the RAD tools that allow you to put together an interface without a lot of deep thought.
I'd actually like to see someone clone HyperCard. I've wanted to do that myself for years, but I just don't have the developer juice. Never had it, actually.
The Legend of Blacksilver and Legacy of the Ancients (one Epyx, one Electronic Arts, but same engine) used it for their dungeon crawl views, though they implemented it in a rather klutzy fashion. In any case they were really an adjunct to a more traditional scrolling CRPG.
Y'all make secession from the US to the Great White North awfully tempting...
I'm actually surprised Canada would have a law like the satellite dish law on the books to begin with. And hopefully with the amount of cross-border business done between the US and Canada the checkbook will do what the activists couldn't to the Patriot Act.
The Dremel Owner's Club... talk about knowing you have a cult product on your hands. I almost want one of these pumpkin carver beasties too.
Not to mention that the Guinness ad folks misuse "brilliant" anyway -- having met Irish people who overuse the term to that degree, it's just the Irish equivalent of "awesome", and just about as devoid of meaning.
Now get it on basic cable. I'd have to get a digital box to see it, and no one in my household wants to pay to upgrade.
Yes, and the funny part is they talk about "bringing you programming like this" -- stuff they only play during pledge drives. And it's grotesquely unhip and uninteresting... I get pissed off when I can't watch my America's Test Kitchen on a saturday because of the pledge drives... I mean, I blame pledge week programming entirely for my current dislike of doowop, which is a classic, deeply historical antecedent to the glorious R&B golden era that was Motown.
PBS has some excellent programming, and they're leading the way on the Digital TV revolution. They need to learn that a lot of their regular viewers might just tune out during pledge week.
It is true that Star Trek is a parody of itself now, and that reality programming in and of itself tends to be pretty lame. I will defend WWE Smackdown slightly on grounds that when Vince McMahon actually has a reason to try (as he doesn't right now, unfortunately) it can actually be worth watching.
Mythbusters would be the show. And Mr. Wizard is much missed as well -- Nickelodeon probably has some of the best kids' entertainment programming out there (I like All Grown Up in particular) but Mr. Wizard was representative of its glory days.
Well, let's be honest -- what good is science when you ain't blowin shit up?
Seriously, though. You can't make science boring and expect people to pick up on it -- you have to engage your audience, and that's one of the great things about old shows like 3-2-1 Contact, Voyage of the Mimi, and Newton's Apple. Nature documentaries work pretty well, but they're forever tarred by the spectre of the Disney lemmings; grown-up science shows like Nova/Horizon remember to include drama in their stories to keep the audience interested. (I've developed a new respect for PBS lately, Antiques Roadshow aside...)
I want Discovery HD... the best of the Discovery Channel and some of the rare really worthwile HD content, and not wall-to-wall odd stuff.
Mythbusters has it all -- two geeks, skepticism, science, folklore, and stuff blowin up real good.
I actually looked it up after posting -- it was 819i25, pretty impressive for an early standard. I think they replaced it with the 625-line CCIR system to be in compliance with the rest of Europe, and more or less decided to do their own thing when Germany was working on PAL.
The interesting part -- the UK almost went NTSC 405i, but went with PAL instead for compatibility reasons. (Would have been interesting to see NTSC-625i25. Not terribly good, mind you, just interesting.)
Yeah, it's pretty amazing that NTSC even works, but it was the first... pioneers with arrows in the back and all that. PAL is apparently color television done correctly.
SECAM, though... that one is funny. The way the French designed the SECAM system, you can't do editing effectively in SECAM video -- you either do it with film stock or with RGB component video (or just transcode from PAL), because the implementation of color in SECAM uses a delay line that apparently throws everything out of phase if you try to stick two discrete sections of SECAM video together. Interestingly, I've read that no one makes high-band (SVHS, Hi8, DV) camcorders for SECAM... and you wouldn't need a DV standard for SECAM anyway because the image data is basically the same on the digital side.
What I find interesting about the color television world is that apparently before they created SECAM, the French had a working high-definition black and white standard.
Maybe on the production end, if you've got the budget for DV50 or DigiBeta gear. But you get a damn good picture off of MiniDV, which is only 25 Mbps, and a compressed MPEG-2 signal is substantially less (not sure exactly what the broadcast standard is, but it's somewhat lower than the data rate on a DVD).
Brazilian PAL (PAL-M) is unusual, though. It's NTSC resolution with PAL color encoding, so it's rather differently behaved than standard PAL.
I thought of buying one, but I thought it was too flashy, especially compared to their regular bags.
I would suggest that too. My backpack is a Coleman camping backpack (Exponent Weekender) with a concealed frame -- it's more than big enough for a laptop. Just throw the laptop in a padded sleeve and keep your attachments in the water bottle pocket inside. It's designed to strap on around the waist so it carries most of the weight on your hips anyway -- I bought it as much for luggage use as anything else.
Sure, if you're a huge fan of narrowband UHF for broadcasting...
You do need a license for aviation and some marine operation though. (The rules for marine operation are pretty strict -- license required for boats over a certain size and ship-to-shore operation, as well as HF radiotelephone. I don't know the specifics on aviation.)
I have trouble being sympathetic with these people, because they didn't do their homework as far as getting on the air legally. Simple fact is, without some progress on the LPFM issue, AM is the best venue for community radio.
There is a case to be made that mid-level radio -- the LPFM debate -- is being squelched by big media (including, shamefully, NPR). But part 15 still exists, and it works just fine on the AM side of the dial -- just ask Allston-Brighton Free Radio (www.abfreeradio.org). They started out as an FM pirate operation, got shut down, and now run a legit Part 15 AM station that covers not only their part of Boston, but spills over into Brookline, Cambridge, and parts of Newton.
True, but if you got a lot of people running one-watt FM transmitters, you'd have a problem that transcends enforcement issues -- you'd have absolute bedlam on the airwaves. That's why the FCC exists in the first place, and that's why licensed users get priority.
Wifi is meant for end-to-end network connections though -- you need some kind of digital broadcasting standard like Digital Radio Mondiale. You could probably do it with firmware hacking on a Linksys though.