Why is the body good at dealing with things like colds, but can't seem to handle things like common bacterial STDs? Or, is it actually good at dealing with them, but occasionally runs into a strain it can't handle and which then causes symptoms?
Likewise. As a matter of fact, if it was fast and easy I'd/prefer/ to pay a few bucks to download pristine commercial-free HD sources for the shows I enjoy watching.
The content providers ougth to set up a tiered pricing structure. Say, 5 bucks for the download on the night it airs, then reduce the price by 30% every two weeks until it gets to a buck, then leave it there permanently.
I think what bothers me is that for someone not very familiar with a given area of law, it is very difficult to determine what the 'spirit of the law' is from only the text.
This is one of the areas I'd love to see improved with computer technology. Hyperlinks and stuff, lots of info about why laws are the way they are. Links to biographies of the people who were involved in writing them, who voted for and against them, etc.
The temporary copy you are referring to is pointing at caches and proxy systems, but not at p2p systems
opinions on how to interpret the texts are multiple
Question.. If the authors of the law intended exceptions specificly for caches and proxies, did it actually say 'caches and proxies', or did it just say something about 'temporary copies for the purpose of...'?
As a computer programmer instead of a lawyer, I find it frustrating that laws are written using language that is often ambigious. I find myself wanting laws written with supplimentary text describing test cases (law would apply in this case [...], but not this case [...]), and justifications (this law is intended to have the following effect [...]), and the specific events that lead to the creation of the law (Mr. Simth at Megacorp pointed out to Senator Bob that [...] so this law was drafted to prevent [...] ).
Of course this is completely impractical as it would require a substantial investment of resources to track that sort of information, and would also make it harder to play the kinds of games that make the political world work.
What is required for an entity to be legally recognized in the USA as a library? Does it differ by region?
I've often wondered if it would be possible to create a legally recongnized electronic library system? I'm guessing not, I expect it would be blocked because of the difficulty of preventing patrons from keeping copies of the content. Although the same difficulty applies to audio books and music that libraries lend. Perhaps a cryptographic token system.. hmm.
If I go to the library and use their equipment to photocopy the books they are sharing, I'm guilty of copyright violation and they are not.
But if I share my music and movie collections and someone comes and uses my equipment to make a copy, I'm guilty of copyright violation.
WTF? Its the downloaders making the copies, not me. I'm just sharing the material and providing the equipment to make the copies, not causing the copies to be made.
It would be fair use for someone to download one specific piece of a movie file from me (just like copying a few pages of a book at the library).
Now, I'm not defending copyright infringment, right or wrong, it is what it is. What I'm complaining about is the inconsistant treatment of it as it applies to computers. Sharing shouldn't be illegal, causing infringing copies to be made should be. And with current p2p technology, it is the downloader who causes the copy to be made.
Discover magazine had an article about the first successful experimental implant of this type a couple years ago. The sensor was a narrow strip, tall and skinny. It provided the user with a dim, low-resolution strip of vision from one eye. This was enough to allow the user to much more effectively navigate with a cane.
This makes me wonder. On an orbital telescope would it be possible to eliminate spider diffraction by removing the spider? In a microgravity environment it might be possible to suspend and control the secondary precisely enough using non-contact methods (magnetic or electronic field, or perhaps with a particle gun).
I'm not sure that spider diffraction causes enough of a problem to justify such extreme measures, but it would be cool to see:)
Its not the phones that are distracting, its the fact that you are listening with only one ear. Unless you are deaf in one ear your brain is used to hearing with both ears. When the input is reduced to one ear you have to listen more closely to hear well. Couple that with the limited frequency domain (that charactaristic sound of a voice over the telephone), and you have to listen very closely, which takes your attention away from driving.
Hands-free sets are dumb, a good proportion of people drive with one hand anyway. The only system that helps is a speakerphone.
As a simple experiment, plug up one ear and try to have a conversation with someone, you'll notice you have to pay a heck of a lot more attention to the sounds in order to understand what is being said.
I did something similar with my 85. Instead of using software though (which is easily defeated if the procoter knows what he's doing), I purchased a few of the memory chips the calculator uses and piggy-backed them onto the stock chip. By disconnecting the Chip Select pin from the PCB and connecting a small switch (hidden behind the battery cover) I could turn off the calculator and switch memory banks.
After reading that article I started using that paper for my PCBs as well, it does work quite well. Much better than the other regular paper attempts I've made.
I bought a couple packages of the paper online in December, and it was delivered for free to my home the next day by courier from a Staples store in a nearby city.
With some help of a skilled alchemist you could try to use some sort of camera obscura to achieve this with 1350's technology, but it would be really a hassle.
Actually the chemistry necessary is pretty simple, another comment provided this link where the experiment is actally done and the photograph of the results provided. They exposed a silver nitrate soaked linen cloth using a camera obscura and then fixed the image with a weak ammonia solution.
Paradoxically, it would be counterproductive from a forger's point of view.
Not necessarily. At the time fake shrouds were not uncommon (at least 40 form the period are known today). Producing a very convincing fake would have been necessary to convince more skeptical people. Also, its not inconceivable that a skilled craftsman hired to make such an artifact would enjoy the challenge of producing something to the best of his ability.
It's quite easy for a skilled forensic pathologist to distinguish bruises and weals caused by flogging a dead corpse
True, but I'd be impressed if one could extract the same data from a monochrome photograph with low dynamic range on cloth.
Evidently there is also evidence in the image that indicates the face was imaged seperately (it is offset and more sharpely focused. It is purported that lenses at the time did not have sufficent focal length to capture the entire body with the level of detail necessary for the face, so the face was done in a second exposure). I haven't the necessary expertise to evaluate these claims, but they appear to be the explaination that best fits the look of the shroud.
Very interesting. Is there any evidence that Leonardo had any knowledge of photographic techniques?
The author of a previous comment posted a link to a page describing a plausable early photographic technique that is consistant with what is known about the shroud.
Leonardo had a remarkable range of talents, and probably knew as much or more about optics and cameras as anyone at that time. It would not surprise me in the least if he developed a technique to fix photographic images and never revealed it.
This page provides some more analysis of the possibility.
It seems that swearing on an artifact has less to do with a common belief in the principles represented by the artifiact than the idea that an individual will be less likely to be insincere after he has publicly linked his actions with his purported belief system.
So, the fact that founding members of an organization swore to their duties on a given artifact does not in any way link the organization to the principles represented by the artifact. The choice of artifact is completely dependent upon the beliefs of the person in question.
Heat by itself isn't enough to generate power. You have to have somewhere cold too, because you can only generate power by sitting a generator of some sort where the heat energy is flowing.
Obviously our only option is to build a space elevator and deploy a giant space parisol. The only real drawback is that it will make our whole race look pretty sissy when the aliens visit.
If the network airs the same show more than once, the TiVo will only record one airing.
This is the only part of season pass functionality that the Cox box doesn't do yet (Its commonly requested though, so I imagine it will be in the next software update).
You can create a wishlist by pre-defined topics.
This would be a nice feature. If the Cox DVR has it, I haven't discovered it.
As I said, if you haven't had the pleasure of using a TiVo, you probably think the Cable company's DVR is great.
Its far from great, but it works with my digital cable (yes, I could use some silly remote control setup to chain the cable box into the Tivo, but that won't let me use dual tuners), its got a very low entry cost, and the interface, while not fantastic, really isn't that bad. The worst part about the whole thing is the remote control that came with it. The 'Live' button is the same shape and right next to the fast forward button, so I frequently accidentally hit it when I want to jump past commercials. It remembers where I left off, so its only about three button presses to get back to where I was, but its still annoying. I also found that the IR codes that it uses are incompatible with my learning remote control, so I still have to drag around two remotes (unfortunately its hard to replace my learning remote because so few remotes support X10).
Re:We have a Tivo and a Cox DVR
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It can't handle "season passes" properly.
Not having a Tivo, I don't really know what makes a 'season pass' special. If it could do something like transparently pull down episodes that I missed six weeks ago, it might be worth it.
The Cox DVR will record by series with several options (first run, reruns, on any channel, etc) Unfortunately its too stupid to know that the SciFi channel airs the good stuff twice, so I always get two of everthing.
Searching for shows takes forever; there is no searching by title and then displaying all upcoming episodes;
You must have had the old software. You can search by title and it will display all upcoming episodes. The search is a little popup keyboard that you use to type the name of the show. It does a partial text match so you rarely have to type more than a few characters. As you type it will grey letters on the keyboard if there are no further matches for the search term that would be created by appending that letter to the current search term. It works quite well.
no "wishlist" capability.
That would be nice. So would predictive capture (IE, compare what I've selected to record with what other people have selected and make suggestions based on similarities). Lots of options there, that would probably be third on my feature wishlist (after centralized recording (the equivalent of a 1000 channel decoder and unlimited HD space) and the ability to deliver shows to other TV's in my house (preferably on a standard cable channel so I don't need multiple boxes)).
If it is already in the middle of recording a show, you can't tell it to start playing the show from the beginning.
Hmm, can't remember doing that, but it does have a 'Play from beginning' option from the List menu. I'd be surprised if that wasn't available if it was already recording.
It doesn't warn you if you have exceeded your capbility -- it just stops recording shows.
Only if you have told it to never erase anything. Otherwise it starts recording over old stuff, also with no warning.
It needs better handling for marathons too. If someone plays 50 episodes of Flying Circus I'd like to only get about 4 of them before it starts ignoring them.
It is, in short, a piece of crap.
I'd call that overly harsh, its not crap, it just has lots of potential:)
The big attraction is that for about 15 bucks a month and no committment (ie, if I decide I don't want it I can take it back, no questions asked) I get a full HDTV digital cable recorder that works pretty well.
What I'm really waiting for is for the cable company to start recording every show they broadcast so that I can view them at any time without having previously selected to record them. They do this now with Stars, Showtime and (iirc) HBO. Its fantastic.
Next I want them to archive all aired episodes of every show, trim the commercials and let me pay a buck or two to watch each one (including recording and burning to CD if I so desire).
Finally, I want them to give me an application that runs on my computer that, when I'm on their cable modem network (or otherwise validated as a subscriber to their service), will allow me to do all of this directly from my computer.
I'd also be fine with whomever owns the rights to episodes doing something similar. I'd be happy to pay Paramount or whomever a few bucks to download any commercial-free episode of their shows from their servers, to play on my computer or to write to VCD/DVD to play on my TV.
Enterprise and Alamo (owned by the same company I think?) were also taking debit cards for a while. They'll also let you take a car without much hassle if you've got a previous rental receipt from them.
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Why is the body good at dealing with things like colds, but can't seem to handle things like common bacterial STDs? Or, is it actually good at dealing with them, but occasionally runs into a strain it can't handle and which then causes symptoms?
Likewise. As a matter of fact, if it was fast and easy I'd /prefer/ to pay a few bucks to download pristine commercial-free HD sources for the shows I enjoy watching.
The content providers ougth to set up a tiered pricing structure. Say, 5 bucks for the download on the night it airs, then reduce the price by 30% every two weeks until it gets to a buck, then leave it there permanently.
How much do typical shows make per viewer anyway?
I think what bothers me is that for someone not very familiar with a given area of law, it is very difficult to determine what the 'spirit of the law' is from only the text.
This is one of the areas I'd love to see improved with computer technology. Hyperlinks and stuff, lots of info about why laws are the way they are. Links to biographies of the people who were involved in writing them, who voted for and against them, etc.
The temporary copy you are referring to is pointing at caches and proxy systems, but not at p2p systems
opinions on how to interpret the texts are multiple
Question.. If the authors of the law intended exceptions specificly for caches and proxies, did it actually say 'caches and proxies', or did it just say something about 'temporary copies for the purpose of...'?
As a computer programmer instead of a lawyer, I find it frustrating that laws are written using language that is often ambigious. I find myself wanting laws written with supplimentary text describing test cases (law would apply in this case [...], but not this case [...]), and justifications (this law is intended to have the following effect [...]), and the specific events that lead to the creation of the law (Mr. Simth at Megacorp pointed out to Senator Bob that [...] so this law was drafted to prevent [...] ).
Of course this is completely impractical as it would require a substantial investment of resources to track that sort of information, and would also make it harder to play the kinds of games that make the political world work.
What is required for an entity to be legally recognized in the USA as a library? Does it differ by region?
I've often wondered if it would be possible to create a legally recongnized electronic library system? I'm guessing not, I expect it would be blocked because of the difficulty of preventing patrons from keeping copies of the content. Although the same difficulty applies to audio books and music that libraries lend. Perhaps a cryptographic token system.. hmm.
Get a Netflix subscription, go to the movies if you want to watch
Oh please. How are you supposed to get community respect if you aren't stickin' it to 'tha man' and getting away with something illegal?
Quit stealing peoples illusions.
Obviously they do in US law, but I submit that they do not have a case in natural law.
Natural law?
Natural law goes like this: If you can get away with it without repercussions you find unacceptable, its legal.
Everthing else is just rules we make up so that we can stand to put up with having each other in close proximity.
You know what I don't get?
If I go to the library and use their equipment to photocopy the books they are sharing, I'm guilty of copyright violation and they are not.
But if I share my music and movie collections and someone comes and uses my equipment to make a copy, I'm guilty of copyright violation.
WTF? Its the downloaders making the copies, not me. I'm just sharing the material and providing the equipment to make the copies, not causing the copies to be made.
It would be fair use for someone to download one specific piece of a movie file from me (just like copying a few pages of a book at the library).
Now, I'm not defending copyright infringment, right or wrong, it is what it is. What I'm complaining about is the inconsistant treatment of it as it applies to computers. Sharing shouldn't be illegal, causing infringing copies to be made should be. And with current p2p technology, it is the downloader who causes the copy to be made.
Discover magazine had an article about the first successful experimental implant of this type a couple years ago. The sensor was a narrow strip, tall and skinny. It provided the user with a dim, low-resolution strip of vision from one eye. This was enough to allow the user to much more effectively navigate with a cane.
This makes me wonder. On an orbital telescope would it be possible to eliminate spider diffraction by removing the spider? In a microgravity environment it might be possible to suspend and control the secondary precisely enough using non-contact methods (magnetic or electronic field, or perhaps with a particle gun).
:)
I'm not sure that spider diffraction causes enough of a problem to justify such extreme measures, but it would be cool to see
Its not the phones that are distracting, its the fact that you are listening with only one ear. Unless you are deaf in one ear your brain is used to hearing with both ears. When the input is reduced to one ear you have to listen more closely to hear well. Couple that with the limited frequency domain (that charactaristic sound of a voice over the telephone), and you have to listen very closely, which takes your attention away from driving.
Hands-free sets are dumb, a good proportion of people drive with one hand anyway. The only system that helps is a speakerphone.
As a simple experiment, plug up one ear and try to have a conversation with someone, you'll notice you have to pay a heck of a lot more attention to the sounds in order to understand what is being said.
I did something similar with my 85. Instead of using software though (which is easily defeated if the procoter knows what he's doing), I purchased a few of the memory chips the calculator uses and piggy-backed them onto the stock chip. By disconnecting the Chip Select pin from the PCB and connecting a small switch (hidden behind the battery cover) I could turn off the calculator and switch memory banks.
I have a story that is almost but not quite entirely unlike yours.
Just don't try it with soft aluminum. The aluminum just stretches out behind the template.
After reading that article I started using that paper for my PCBs as well, it does work quite well. Much better than the other regular paper attempts I've made.
I bought a couple packages of the paper online in December, and it was delivered for free to my home the next day by courier from a Staples store in a nearby city.
With some help of a skilled alchemist you could try to use some sort of camera obscura to achieve this with 1350's technology, but it would be really a hassle.
Actually the chemistry necessary is pretty simple, another comment provided this link where the experiment is actally done and the photograph of the results provided. They exposed a silver nitrate soaked linen cloth using a camera obscura and then fixed the image with a weak ammonia solution.
Paradoxically, it would be counterproductive from a forger's point of view.
Not necessarily. At the time fake shrouds were not uncommon (at least 40 form the period are known today). Producing a very convincing fake would have been necessary to convince more skeptical people. Also, its not inconceivable that a skilled craftsman hired to make such an artifact would enjoy the challenge of producing something to the best of his ability.
It's quite easy for a skilled forensic pathologist to distinguish bruises and weals caused by flogging a dead corpse
True, but I'd be impressed if one could extract the same data from a monochrome photograph with low dynamic range on cloth.
Evidently there is also evidence in the image that indicates the face was imaged seperately (it is offset and more sharpely focused. It is purported that lenses at the time did not have sufficent focal length to capture the entire body with the level of detail necessary for the face, so the face was done in a second exposure). I haven't the necessary expertise to evaluate these claims, but they appear to be the explaination that best fits the look of the shroud.
Very interesting. Is there any evidence that Leonardo had any knowledge of photographic techniques?
The author of a previous comment posted a link to a page describing a plausable early photographic technique that is consistant with what is known about the shroud.
Leonardo had a remarkable range of talents, and probably knew as much or more about optics and cameras as anyone at that time. It would not surprise me in the least if he developed a technique to fix photographic images and never revealed it.
This page provides some more analysis of the possibility.
It seems that swearing on an artifact has less to do with a common belief in the principles represented by the artifiact than the idea that an individual will be less likely to be insincere after he has publicly linked his actions with his purported belief system.
So, the fact that founding members of an organization swore to their duties on a given artifact does not in any way link the organization to the principles represented by the artifact. The choice of artifact is completely dependent upon the beliefs of the person in question.
Heat by itself isn't enough to generate power. You have to have somewhere cold too, because you can only generate power by sitting a generator of some sort where the heat energy is flowing.
Obviously our only option is to build a space elevator and deploy a giant space parisol. The only real drawback is that it will make our whole race look pretty sissy when the aliens visit.
If the network airs the same show more than once, the TiVo will only record one airing.
This is the only part of season pass functionality that the Cox box doesn't do yet (Its commonly requested though, so I imagine it will be in the next software update).
You can create a wishlist by pre-defined topics.
This would be a nice feature. If the Cox DVR has it, I haven't discovered it.
As I said, if you haven't had the pleasure of using a TiVo, you probably think the Cable company's DVR is great.
Its far from great, but it works with my digital cable (yes, I could use some silly remote control setup to chain the cable box into the Tivo, but that won't let me use dual tuners), its got a very low entry cost, and the interface, while not fantastic, really isn't that bad. The worst part about the whole thing is the remote control that came with it. The 'Live' button is the same shape and right next to the fast forward button, so I frequently accidentally hit it when I want to jump past commercials. It remembers where I left off, so its only about three button presses to get back to where I was, but its still annoying. I also found that the IR codes that it uses are incompatible with my learning remote control, so I still have to drag around two remotes (unfortunately its hard to replace my learning remote because so few remotes support X10).
It can't handle "season passes" properly.
:)
Not having a Tivo, I don't really know what makes a 'season pass' special. If it could do something like transparently pull down episodes that I missed six weeks ago, it might be worth it.
The Cox DVR will record by series with several options (first run, reruns, on any channel, etc) Unfortunately its too stupid to know that the SciFi channel airs the good stuff twice, so I always get two of everthing.
Searching for shows takes forever; there is no searching by title and then displaying all upcoming episodes;
You must have had the old software. You can search by title and it will display all upcoming episodes. The search is a little popup keyboard that you use to type the name of the show. It does a partial text match so you rarely have to type more than a few characters. As you type it will grey letters on the keyboard if there are no further matches for the search term that would be created by appending that letter to the current search term. It works quite well.
no "wishlist" capability.
That would be nice. So would predictive capture (IE, compare what I've selected to record with what other people have selected and make suggestions based on similarities). Lots of options there, that would probably be third on my feature wishlist (after centralized recording (the equivalent of a 1000 channel decoder and unlimited HD space) and the ability to deliver shows to other TV's in my house (preferably on a standard cable channel so I don't need multiple boxes)).
If it is already in the middle of recording a show, you can't tell it to start playing the show from the beginning.
Hmm, can't remember doing that, but it does have a 'Play from beginning' option from the List menu. I'd be surprised if that wasn't available if it was already recording.
It doesn't warn you if you have exceeded your capbility -- it just stops recording shows.
Only if you have told it to never erase anything. Otherwise it starts recording over old stuff, also with no warning.
It needs better handling for marathons too. If someone plays 50 episodes of Flying Circus I'd like to only get about 4 of them before it starts ignoring them.
It is, in short, a piece of crap.
I'd call that overly harsh, its not crap, it just has lots of potential
The big attraction is that for about 15 bucks a month and no committment (ie, if I decide I don't want it I can take it back, no questions asked) I get a full HDTV digital cable recorder that works pretty well.
What I'm really waiting for is for the cable company to start recording every show they broadcast so that I can view them at any time without having previously selected to record them. They do this now with Stars, Showtime and (iirc) HBO. Its fantastic.
Next I want them to archive all aired episodes of every show, trim the commercials and let me pay a buck or two to watch each one (including recording and burning to CD if I so desire).
Finally, I want them to give me an application that runs on my computer that, when I'm on their cable modem network (or otherwise validated as a subscriber to their service), will allow me to do all of this directly from my computer.
I'd also be fine with whomever owns the rights to episodes doing something similar. I'd be happy to pay Paramount or whomever a few bucks to download any commercial-free episode of their shows from their servers, to play on my computer or to write to VCD/DVD to play on my TV.
A commerical version could be much lighter, go/stop more efficiently and look even cooler.
and quieter too I'd hope, that thing sounds terrible.
Enterprise and Alamo (owned by the same company I think?) were also taking debit cards for a while. They'll also let you take a car without much hassle if you've got a previous rental receipt from them.