A panda walks into a bar. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.
"Why? Why are you behaving in this strange, un-panda-like fashion?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda walks towards the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.
"I'm a panda," he says, at the door. "Look it up."
The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.
"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."
Most of the mistakes are going to be spelling errors, an omitted punctuation, et cetra. In most cases, those errors are mere speed bumps to reading, but don't change the substance of the patent...
It's too expensive for monitor makers to tool up for a UXGA+ desktop display that most people wouldn't buy.
Outside of specialty applications, most people wouldn't want such a high native-resolution display on a desktop monitor.
That said, if you want to convert a notebook panel to be a desktop monitor, you can find custom monitor makers out there that'll do whatever you want... It just won't be cheap!
The refresh methods of CRT's differ greatly from that of LCD's. Your eyes (or, rather, your eyes and your brain) are probably tuned to the CRT since you've been using that setup for a decade... Also, try adjusting the backlight intensity -- the LCD might actually be too bright for you!
Also, the geometry of the screen may be an issue too. I remember when the first generation of "flat" CRT televisions came out, people used to curved monitors thought that the image looked inwardly curved...
You may not have much of a choice -- CRT's are getting much more difficult to source these days, and when your current one dies, you may not even be able to buy a CRT that suits you!
For truly enjoying projected images, you will want really solid blacks in addition to the brightest whites - the contrast ratio of the panel will determine how "washed out" the image will look.
This is why most portable projectors these days use DLP/DMD "light mirrors" - because they can generate true black, and the DMD "light valves" can handle more heat than small LCD's that would otherwise be used in a portable projector.
The other thing to keep in mind is that cheaper LCD's have a slow pixel response time -- for really enjoyable high-motion video, you'll want a fast response time - a single frame at 75Hz refresh is about 13ms, so if you get a cheap 25ms response LCD, things will looky mushy/ghosty when the images are in motion.
If you're going through the time and hassle of building one of these, spend the money where it'll make the big difference -- and buy the LCD's with 500:1 or better contrast ratio, and 8ms or better response time.
There should be a scoreboard that is always displaying major stats... Like the stock market ticker tape that you see at the brokerage firms... Visually appealing AND useful. Well, as long as there isn't a board full of red stats!
Given that this is DRAM-based and lacks a true non-volatile storage as a backing store, I wouldn't trust this with information except to use it for scratch data.
Every character in the simulated world will need to eat to survive, and will be able to learn from their environment through trial and error - learning, for example, how to cultivate edible plants with water and sunlight. In addition, characters will be able to reproduce by mating with members the opposite sex and their offspring will inherited a random collection of their parents "genetic" traits.
I wonder this world's oldest profession will be like the real world......farming.
You need to relax... Seriously, most of academic work goes out to the world for free. Universities have the clause because once in a bleu moon, a really good patent will turn out to be a money maker for the school, and they use the money from those patents to further the cause of academia.
A provision of the recent Bayh-Dole Act decrees that universities who retain royalties from licensing of a patent share a fraction of the royalties as personal income to the inventors. By law the university's share of the royalties must be used to further its research and educational activities. In actuality very few patents generate significant royalty income for the university. Notable exceptions include the Cohen-Boyer gene-splicing patent from Stanford University and the University of California, and the fax patent owned by Iowa State. (http://www.istl.org/98-summer/article5.html)
One problem that I had working at the university was that the faculty's budgets came from various sources with strings attaches, creating a nightmare for IT projects because each professor spent directly on their IT needs, and never on the overall IT "framework" -- worse, since each paid for the service "directly", they expected the service to be tailored to them.
Imagine having 10 different networks, each with its own server and a different way of running backups, and having no way to share resources because they won't let you!
...make sure you spend time on learning about the traditional 4C's of diamond quality: cut, clarity, color, and carat. (5C's if you add "Cost". Heh.)
The main point of a gem is to be bright (brilliance) and sparkly (fire)... And to achieve that, you want to maximize the light "gathering" tendencies of the gem.
Clarity, color and carat are fairly well explained, but it seems cut is not always correctly understood. "Cut" does not mean "shape". Instead, it is the quality of how the diamond was cut -- the sub-qualities to cut include its symmetry and polish, and its geometry.
Personally, a well cut stone can be more sparkly and brilliant than a much larger poorly cut stone, even if the color/clarity of the two stones are similar. In fact, the better cut stone can be more brilliant and appear whiter, even if it is slightly inferior in color.
There's much talk about "hearts and arrows" among the diamond connoiseurs. What it basically boils down to is that H&A diamonds are proportioned such that they maximize light reflections through much more precise alignment of the light paths (by more careful arrangement of the facets).
It's the opposite problem of adding "noise" into ray-traced images that look too perfect... The H&A polishers work harder to take away the "noise"... You're trying to minimize light loss through alignment errors!
Of course, at the end of the day, you just have to look at enough stones to start telling them apart. If you want to escape cheap, go with "ignorance is bliss"... More you study, the more expensive it gets... I ended up spending a month of research to learn about diamonds, and it was quite fun, but ultimately very expensive. (And people do think it's a bit odd when you use a toilet paper roll to study a diamond... But it works!)
Just for you, I went online to my Verizon account management and tried to see what new plans are available for upgrade... If I sign up with America's Choice(sm) 900, I can add the "TXT MSG 500 W MBL WEB" plan for - $7.99/month.
Calling Plan America's Choicesm 900
America's Choice Map
National Enhanced Services Map
Contract Term 2 years
Details Monthly Access $59.99 Monthly Home Airtime 900 (in minutes) Additional Peak Minutes $0.40
Feature Monthly Fee
3-WAY CALLING $0.00
BUSY TRANSFER $0.00
CALL DELIVERY $0.00
CALL FORWARDING $0.00
CALL WAITING $0.00
CALLER ID $0.00
IN CALLING NATL UNLIM - $0 $0.00
MESSAGE WAITING INDICATOR $0.00
NATL ENHANCED SVC ACCESS-$0 $0.00
NEW EVERY TWO $0.00
NO ANSWER TRANSFER $0.00
PIX & FLIX PAY PER MSG - $0 $0.00
TXT MSG 500 W MBL WEB - $7.99 $7.99
TXT MSG W PER MSG CHARGES $0.00
VOICE MAIL PLUS $0 $0.00
WPP ASURION - $3.99 $3.99
N/A HOMETOLL US.00 CN.20 MX.20-$0 $0.00
N/A ROAM TOLL US.00 CN.20 MX.20-$0 $0.00
Promotions
UNLIMITED NIGHT AND WEEKEND 2Y
N/A UNLIMITED NIGHT & WEEKEND MIN
Hmmm, I got it as a part of the unlimited Text/Web package that was available to me at the time of signup. Verizon changes plans frequently, so they might not have a similar offering right now...
For about $20, I was able to get a USB Cable for my LG VX6000 which I use on Verizon. With that, I can get about 140Kbps on the 1x network. I just pay my regular flat rate and my extra $5/month (iirc) for the "unlimited web".
Being in the boonies, you might not be able to get the 1x network service. On the LG VX6000, you can tell by looking for the "1x" service icon that apperas whenever the 1x service is available.
The drawback to this, of course, is that your phone is your "modem", and must be connected to your computer during the Internet session; and you will not receive phone calls during your Internet session. So it's okay for periodic use, but may not be suitable for an always-on Internet.
In my uses, I was able to use SSH, SMTP, POP, HTTP/HTTPS, and AIM. So for my needs, it was effectively unfiltered. One thing that was annoying was the auto-idle-hangup that would kick in from time to time.
Also, for web-surfing, there is an accelerator software that you can run that would compress images at a (user selectable) higher compression to speed download times of web pages.
That said, are you sure you are so far off in the boonies that you can't find a wireless ISP? A good WiFi transceiver with the right antenna could easily give you 1 or 2 Mbps over many many miles...
...is that the mouse is responsible for position information, not the pad... Which is nice in some ways, because you mouse motion in real-world use doesn't always map nicely to the digitizing pad's cartesian grid.
If your entire desk's surface was one big induction loop, this would allow you to have this mouse work over the whole of your desk (assuming there's enough power coupling). Beware the magnetic media, though!:)
ITC eChoupal brings the power of scale to the small farmer, relevant and real-time information despite
distances, and customized knowledge despite heterogeneity. As a result, farmers earn higher incomes through increased yields, better quality, and lower transaction costs. The increased efficiencies and improved crop quality contribute to making Indian agriculture more competitive.
Free access to the Internet is also opening windows of rural India to the world at large. Many sanchalaks track futures prices on the Chicago Board of Trade and other global exchanges directly, in addition to the prices provided on eChoupal sites. Local language news and entertainment portals are part of the websites surfed regularly. All sanchalaks have become proficient in using email. Net-based chatting among sanchalaks is on the rise. Village children use the eChoupal computers for schoolwork, games, and to access their academic test results.
eChoupal is now regarded as a reliable delivery mechanism for resource development initiatives. Its potential is being tested through pilot projects in water management and cattle health management with the help of nongovernmental organizations.
True. But there is one advantage to plug-in cars -- as power plant efficiency at electric generators go up, the existing fleet of cars already on the road will all benefit from that improvement. Non plug-in cars, OTOH, is locked into the design's efficiency at the time or production.
The other beauty of electric propulsion is that for stop-and-go traffic in the city, the motor draws power only when it's in use. There's no idling at the stop light...
BTW, it's interesting to note that the VSLAM allows the robot to be "kidnapped" and dropped off at a new location...
If the robot is kidnapped at the beginning of exploration (right after the initial map is created), can it figure out its location? Or does the robot start exploration again?
The vSLAM algorithm contains a novel approach for data processing which enables quick detection and recovery from kidnapping scenarios. Though it's not advisable to kidnap the robot immediately before the landmark database is dense, the robot typically still recovers nicely. However, the recovery from an early kidnapping may be somewhat more time consuming than the recovery from kidnapping when the landmark map is dense and stabilized. Note that the robot does not restart the map building from scratch when it has been kidnapped.
These are two companies I've heard of from Idealab where I used to work:
Newbury Network's Location Server products uses 802.11b signal monitoring to do location detection. They offer a virtual docent system that uses the technology to allow the virtual docents to provide location-appropriate information.
Evolution Robotic's VSLAM lets robots use odometry AND visual data to update its position information.
Depending on the size of the warehouse and the manner of "occlusion" that occurs, I'd say wiring up the warehouse with lots of cameras and triangulating to a beacon would be a pretty straightforward method... The hockey puck, indeed!
Another vote for the Tandy Model-100 family. A highly functional portable computer that ran forever on batteries. My teacher had it when I was a kid in school and got to use it. The thing was perfect.
I hope they can realize the goal of being able to read (and maybe eventually send feedback signal back to) the brain to give disabled people highly functional prosthetics.
But I also think this discovery has great uses for human augmentation. Just like people with six fingers (hexadactyly) can use all six fingers, I would imagine that with sufficient training (plus tuning of the control system), a person can "grow" extra arms. (Think Dr. Octavius in Spiderman 2...)
But I think the best application for this would be the ability to operate a "keyboard" and "mouse" without actual physical movement. I bet I could think and type about 5 times faster than I do now, if only my fingers had the necessary agility and endurance.
Of course, the first ones to capitalize on this will probably be the military... It puts a new meaning to flying by wire and driving by wire.
There are tons of 8051-family boards out there, some quite cheap. You can use SDCC (sdcc.sourceforge.net) to develop your code in C and 8051 assembly. It works pretty well.
Slashdot Mirror
A panda walks into a bar. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.
"Why? Why are you behaving in this strange, un-panda-like fashion?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda walks towards the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.
"I'm a panda," he says, at the door. "Look it up."
The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.
"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."
Most of the mistakes are going to be spelling errors, an omitted punctuation, et cetra. In most cases, those errors are mere speed bumps to reading, but don't change the substance of the patent...
It's too expensive for monitor makers to tool up for a UXGA+ desktop display that most people wouldn't buy.
Outside of specialty applications, most people wouldn't want such a high native-resolution display on a desktop monitor.
That said, if you want to convert a notebook panel to be a desktop monitor, you can find custom monitor makers out there that'll do whatever you want... It just won't be cheap!
The refresh methods of CRT's differ greatly from that of LCD's. Your eyes (or, rather, your eyes and your brain) are probably tuned to the CRT since you've been using that setup for a decade... Also, try adjusting the backlight intensity -- the LCD might actually be too bright for you!
Also, the geometry of the screen may be an issue too. I remember when the first generation of "flat" CRT televisions came out, people used to curved monitors thought that the image looked inwardly curved...
You may not have much of a choice -- CRT's are getting much more difficult to source these days, and when your current one dies, you may not even be able to buy a CRT that suits you!
For truly enjoying projected images, you will want really solid blacks in addition to the brightest whites - the contrast ratio of the panel will determine how "washed out" the image will look.
This is why most portable projectors these days use DLP/DMD "light mirrors" - because they can generate true black, and the DMD "light valves" can handle more heat than small LCD's that would otherwise be used in a portable projector.
The other thing to keep in mind is that cheaper LCD's have a slow pixel response time -- for really enjoyable high-motion video, you'll want a fast response time - a single frame at 75Hz refresh is about 13ms, so if you get a cheap 25ms response LCD, things will looky mushy/ghosty when the images are in motion.
If you're going through the time and hassle of building one of these, spend the money where it'll make the big difference -- and buy the LCD's with 500:1 or better contrast ratio, and 8ms or better response time.
There should be a scoreboard that is always displaying major stats... Like the stock market ticker tape that you see at the brokerage firms... Visually appealing AND useful. Well, as long as there isn't a board full of red stats!
"Will glamorizing science in the movies make kids pay better attention in chemistry class?"
Forensic scientists can tell you that kids are definitely paying a lot more attention to their field these days...
Given that this is DRAM-based and lacks a true non-volatile storage as a backing store, I wouldn't trust this with information except to use it for scratch data.
I wonder this world's oldest profession will be like the real world...
One problem that I had working at the university was that the faculty's budgets came from various sources with strings attaches, creating a nightmare for IT projects because each professor spent directly on their IT needs, and never on the overall IT "framework" -- worse, since each paid for the service "directly", they expected the service to be tailored to them.
Imagine having 10 different networks, each with its own server and a different way of running backups, and having no way to share resources because they won't let you!
Argh.
I left after a year.
...make sure you spend time on learning about the traditional 4C's of diamond quality: cut, clarity, color, and carat. (5C's if you add "Cost". Heh.)
The main point of a gem is to be bright (brilliance) and sparkly (fire)... And to achieve that, you want to maximize the light "gathering" tendencies of the gem.
Clarity, color and carat are fairly well explained, but it seems cut is not always correctly understood. "Cut" does not mean "shape". Instead, it is the quality of how the diamond was cut -- the sub-qualities to cut include its symmetry and polish, and its geometry.
Personally, a well cut stone can be more sparkly and brilliant than a much larger poorly cut stone, even if the color/clarity of the two stones are similar. In fact, the better cut stone can be more brilliant and appear whiter, even if it is slightly inferior in color.
There's much talk about "hearts and arrows" among the diamond connoiseurs. What it basically boils down to is that H&A diamonds are proportioned such that they maximize light reflections through much more precise alignment of the light paths (by more careful arrangement of the facets).
It's the opposite problem of adding "noise" into ray-traced images that look too perfect... The H&A polishers work harder to take away the "noise"... You're trying to minimize light loss through alignment errors!
Of course, at the end of the day, you just have to look at enough stones to start telling them apart. If you want to escape cheap, go with "ignorance is bliss"... More you study, the more expensive it gets... I ended up spending a month of research to learn about diamonds, and it was quite fun, but ultimately very expensive. (And people do think it's a bit odd when you use a toilet paper roll to study a diamond... But it works!)
Hmmm, I got it as a part of the unlimited Text/Web package that was available to me at the time of signup. Verizon changes plans frequently, so they might not have a similar offering right now...
For about $20, I was able to get a USB Cable for my LG VX6000 which I use on Verizon. With that, I can get about 140Kbps on the 1x network. I just pay my regular flat rate and my extra $5/month (iirc) for the "unlimited web".
Being in the boonies, you might not be able to get the 1x network service. On the LG VX6000, you can tell by looking for the "1x" service icon that apperas whenever the 1x service is available.
The drawback to this, of course, is that your phone is your "modem", and must be connected to your computer during the Internet session; and you will not receive phone calls during your Internet session. So it's okay for periodic use, but may not be suitable for an always-on Internet.
In my uses, I was able to use SSH, SMTP, POP, HTTP/HTTPS, and AIM. So for my needs, it was effectively unfiltered. One thing that was annoying was the auto-idle-hangup that would kick in from time to time.
Also, for web-surfing, there is an accelerator software that you can run that would compress images at a (user selectable) higher compression to speed download times of web pages.
That said, are you sure you are so far off in the boonies that you can't find a wireless ISP? A good WiFi transceiver with the right antenna could easily give you 1 or 2 Mbps over many many miles...
...is that the mouse is responsible for position information, not the pad... Which is nice in some ways, because you mouse motion in real-world use doesn't always map nicely to the digitizing pad's cartesian grid.
:)
If your entire desk's surface was one big induction loop, this would allow you to have this mouse work over the whole of your desk (assuming there's enough power coupling). Beware the magnetic media, though!
http://www.lavarnd.org/news/lavadiff.html
Where do they get the information? From Indian initiatives like e-choupal...
The country is gearing up to connect their rural masses. There's still a lot of groundwork being done, but they are definitely moving forward.
True. But there is one advantage to plug-in cars -- as power plant efficiency at electric generators go up, the existing fleet of cars already on the road will all benefit from that improvement. Non plug-in cars, OTOH, is locked into the design's efficiency at the time or production.
The other beauty of electric propulsion is that for stop-and-go traffic in the city, the motor draws power only when it's in use. There's no idling at the stop light...
These are two companies I've heard of from Idealab where I used to work:
Newbury Network's Location Server products uses 802.11b signal monitoring to do location detection. They offer a virtual docent system that uses the technology to allow the virtual docents to provide location-appropriate information.
Evolution Robotic's VSLAM lets robots use odometry AND visual data to update its position information.
Depending on the size of the warehouse and the manner of "occlusion" that occurs, I'd say wiring up the warehouse with lots of cameras and triangulating to a beacon would be a pretty straightforward method... The hockey puck, indeed!
Another vote for the Tandy Model-100 family. A highly functional portable computer that ran forever on batteries. My teacher had it when I was a kid in school and got to use it. The thing was perfect.
http://oldcomputers.net/trs100.html
This is a great discovery.
I hope they can realize the goal of being able to read (and maybe eventually send feedback signal back to) the brain to give disabled people highly functional prosthetics.
But I also think this discovery has great uses for human augmentation. Just like people with six fingers (hexadactyly) can use all six fingers, I would imagine that with sufficient training (plus tuning of the control system), a person can "grow" extra arms. (Think Dr. Octavius in Spiderman 2...)
But I think the best application for this would be the ability to operate a "keyboard" and "mouse" without actual physical movement. I bet I could think and type about 5 times faster than I do now, if only my fingers had the necessary agility and endurance.
Of course, the first ones to capitalize on this will probably be the military... It puts a new meaning to flying by wire and driving by wire.
There are tons of 8051-family boards out there, some quite cheap. You can use SDCC (sdcc.sourceforge.net) to develop your code in C and 8051 assembly. It works pretty well.