It seems to me that success in this field will necessarily create a need for engineering effective replacement body parts. Sounds like an interesting premise for a Sci-Fi novel that I'm pretty sure somebody here is going to tell me has already been written.
I wonder what happens to the power cell when you try to turn your laptop 180 degrees with this thing spinning 20,000 rpm.
Thats 20,000 Rev/S, or 1,200,000 RPM.
I imagine that they have taken into account the gyroscopic forces and planned accordingly. I wonder if it will have any sensors that can be perverted into use as tsunami detectors or lightsaber simulators?
I'm not sure I understand why a tamper-resistant/evident case would be a challenge.
After certification the case should be secured with pop-rivets and the fasteners covered with tamper-evident tape, leaving only the memory card slot (and screen and power cord) accessable. A voting official inserts a memory card with a digital signature, which the machine copies. The card is removed and the empty card slot is covered with tamper-evident tape.
After the machine collects votes a voting official inserts a memory card containing a digital signature which is matched to the stored signature. If they match the machine saves the votes to the memory card. If they don't match the machine tasers the person who put in the wrong card, then detonates for good measure. Or it could just complain loudly to draw attention to the possible fraud attempt.
Physical security of the device just doesn't seem like that big of a deal. I'd be much more concerned about security of the ballots themselves and the procedures used to tally and do spot-checks for fraud.
I am very disappointed with the open source and security communities. Instead of busting the closed source machines left right and sideways how about building a prototype of a secure voting machine
Both your's and the grandparent post are correct. Cheating can help the individual to survive. Cooperation can help the group to survive (and thereby, help the individual to survive). Getting caught cheating can reduce the individual's survival rate either directly, by being killed for cheating, or indirectly by losing the cooperation of others. Individuals who cooperate are rewarded with reciprocal cooperation, those who cheat are punished by being cheated upon (or disregarded).
So hidden cheating can certainly be successful, but it must be balanced against the consequences and against the chance that it will advance the individual at the cost of the group (too much cheating might destroy the system).
The Prisoners Dilemma puzzle has resulted in an interesting examination of strategies. One competition turned up what some might call a cheater, a program that cooperates with other instances of itself to sacrifice many of the instances so that a few could excel.
I'd be inclined to use rivets covered in hologram security tape.
Honestly, how often do they need to open these things anyway? I'd expect them to be taped up with tamper-evident tape much like harddrives, if just so Diebold can tell when they get to charge extra for service.
If you do a cost-benefits analysis on replacing appliances with more energy-efficient models, you'll find that it's usually not worth it, unless the old appliance is already at the end of their life.
The benefit part of the analysis is not always simply savings on your electric bill. If you live off-grid or have a whole-house backup power system the reduced energy consumption of a highly efficent appliance reduces the cost of your power storage/generation requirements or extends your backup times.
You can also consider the environmental benefit in the analysis. Saving power reduces the rate of resource consumption (but usually not at a rate that justifies replacing a working appliance! It costs energy to make the new one, so environmentally speaking you may be wasting resources by taking a working appliance out of service. You can always give/sell it to someone else who needs it though).
You're right, and if you enemy is pretty low-tech you can play up the 'magical' aspects of the infliction of pain, using incantations and hand-waving to really scare the bajesus out of them. With some other cutting-edge special effects you could develop some heavy-duty supernatural questioning techniques.
I completely agree with the logic of your analysis. Works the same as a library copy machine. Whomever causes the copy to be made is at fault.
Last I knew the (MP|RI)AA were going after users who share media, not those who download it. Are they just depending on the fact that they can beat individuals into submission by virtue of having vastly superior legal resources and the cooling effect that would have on file sharing?
If this is what they are doing, is it illegal? Could someone initiate a lawsuit against them for that?
The machines that this concerns are usually Pfaff or a competitor (thats pronounced f-ah-f). They are priced anywhere from $3000 to $9000, with a huge variation in price depending on which independent dealer you get screwed by.. er, purchase from. Dealer support is a big factor, the machines do occasionally need service and the users need training. A good dealer makes a big difference in the end-user experience. Shop around and rely on reputations of dealers within the community. Buy locally if you can, many dealers refuse to support equipment they didn't sell.
The machines are precision, high quality CNC systems, very cool. You can upgrade the software in some of the low-end models to the software for the high-end systems and end up with all the capabilities of the over-priced high end system for the fairly reasonable (considering the quality and capability of the machine) lower price. The machines are usually USB connected and allow firmware upgrades. Maybe it'll run linux (but I'll bet whatever motion control software its got on it is vastly superiour to EMC).
The computer software is expensive, dumb and crappy. The users are typically not computer-savvy, and, predictably, often were born before transistors were invented. Unfortunately these users have odd ideas about computers and the software that runs on them. They expect it to work without fiddling with it. Like their Caddy, they want to turn it on, point it where they want to go and have it go there.
The software for producing new designs (in a non-stupid or non-trivial way) is not free or cheap. People who pay for it generally want to make some money doing it. There is a significant amount of work involved in the production of a single design (artwork, CAD work, color selection, ordering of color application, time and materials spent embroidering test verions, etc), and a library of designs can represent many hundreds of man-hours. Unlike most computer software development, you cannot do this (well) without paying for some consumables and access to the embroidery machine.
These people are not compatible with a release-early-release-often software development strategy. You give them a working finished product with a one-click install, a very intuitive interface and simple video-based help system.
The majority of them do not want to produce their own designs. They'd rather spend the time at their craft not producing artwork on a computer. There are exceptions (power-users within the community), but they are few and far-between.
Remember those books that used to come with clip-art CDs? A lot of them like those books. They can sit down with the book, look through it, dog-ear pages with stuff they like, take it with them in their sewing bag, etc.
Most of these people do not use the computer to find new software. They browse extensively at quilt and craft shops, they go to craft retreats to socialize with their friends, and a few of them participate in internet forums (about.com, yahoo groups). Acquiring a userbase for new software would not be a matter of dropping it on sourceforge and waiting.
I don't mean this to sound negative, I just want to point out that the consumers of this product have needs that an ivory-tower developer would not anticipate. There is a lot of interesting potential for software, but anyone who wants the software to be widely used must be very conscious of how the users interact with computers and each other. The developer should actively join the community (or if he feels too girly working with textiles, get his mother or grandmother to do so and tag along) to see what is needed and how to make a successful package.
You can see (and often play with) the machines and software at places like Joanne's or an independent local dealer.
But I think their understanding of Trek warp theory is way off. Enterprise zips around the galaxy without time dilation effects.
Not so, according to the TNG tech manual. While the warp drives avoid time dilation by virtue of the impulse engines are sub-light and operate in normal space, subjecting the crew to all the usual time dilation effects. Sublight velocity is normally restricted to about 0.5c (IIRC, check the manual for the exact number) to keep this to a minium. They periodicly recalibrate their clocks with a standard.
This is not something they ever really touched on in the TV series, to my knowledge (with the exception of the Picard maneuver, which is superluminal). It would have made an interesting addition to a battle scene. Moving at near light speed could possibly afford some tactical advantages. At the very least it could have been used for a time capsule or something.
It's really not that uncommon, and it doesn't take '15 or 20 minutes' if the home is built with foam board rather than plywood. All you have to do is lever up the siding (trivial for vinyl, not difficult for board) then push through the foam, insulation and drywall. In a back yard with a privacy fence you could easily accomplish this in under 5 minutes. If the walls are made of sterner stuff (plywood or particle board) this would require more effort than a random theft would justify.
I was not suggesting that your bars and alarms are not effective deterrents. You proposed a challenge:
If I knew you in person I'd challenge you to break into my house.
I'm just pointing out that the possibility exists that your walls might be weaker than you think, allowing someone who is only lightly equipped, but determined (as a result of, say, a personal challenge), easy entry to your house.
Is your house brick or stone? If not, what's the siding made of, and whats under it?
Many of the house around here, including mine, are 2x4s with foam, fiberglass insulation and drywall. The only thing stopping someone from punching through the wall with their bare hands is the siding, which is quarter inch manufactured board. With a big screwdriver and a few minutes away from public view anybody could go right through the wall with minimal noise.
In other words, dolphins have no reason to have developed claustraphbia, because it would be a very rare case indeed where getting stuck in a small space would even come up for a dolphin.
Not according to the folks at Sea World. They claim that getting dolphins to swim through small spaces is very difficult because dolphins, lacking the ability to swim backwards, are very resistant to entering any space that appears too narrow to turn around in.
I dunno if it's true, and if so they can certainly be trained to do these things because those Sea World trainers are proud to show off those tricks.
First of all, the future depicted in 1984 is fast approaching, or did you miss the fact that there's a lawsuit proceeding (besides the one just thrown out) against AT&T for allowing the feds to tap their communications? Sure, it's twenty years late, but he was remarkably aware of the date.
A friend of mine works tech support for a hosting company. A few weeks ago the FBI showed up and politely asked if they could install a T1 for the purpose of monitoring the hosted systems. The admin turned them down cold. They left, then returned a bit later with a court order, however they did not permit close examination or copying of the order. The site now has a T1 over which the FBI monitors activity on the hosted machines.
Unfortunately I don't have information about what or how they monitor. I suggested to my friend that in a free society his company ought to be free to log and publish what goes across that T1. Since they can't read the court order to see if its prohibited...
If you can hold a 45 magnum and fire it, then an ideal body armor can make the hit on the target have no worse an impact than it did on you.
Well, less actually because the energy transfer is nowhere near 100%. The difference, however, is that the recoils is being absorbed by your arms rather than an arbitrary part of your chest. Catching a heavy ball with both hands is a lot different than having it impact your chest.
Obviously, ideal body armor would identify the incoming round and laser it into vapor before it impacted at all.
Slighly less than ideal body armor would identify the incoming round and extend a long squishy psudopod along the predicted trajectory of the round thus extending the impact in time.
The cornstarch in water mix will do some interesting things if you set a plate of it on top of a speaker to subject it to the vibrations from a tone generator. It'll stand up in freaky-looking peaks and blobs.
1) Pay off your debts first. Do not invest money while you still have debt -- paying off a 19.75% credit card balance will reap you more money than any average investment. Let me repeat that, because most people are retards and don't get this point. Do not put a cent of money into a mutual fund or stock until your debt level equals $0.00. Capiche?
Exception. If your employer offers a 401k with a high matching percentage, 50-100%, invest as much as you can, up to the matching limit (typically around 6% of your yearly income). You'll have a hard time beating that return anywhere.
Once the funds in the 401k have vested, take a loan out against them and pay off your high interest debt.
Be careful not to change employeers while you have the loan against the 401k, the balance will be due immediately. You can liquidate the fund to pay it, but you'll pay a penalty and taxes. If you are careful you can still come out even or slightly ahead, but it's easy to get screwed too.
It may take a year before the 401k contributions vest and you can take out that loan. Your other debt may end up costing you more than you make on the matching funds during that time.
If you have a 401k, consider using a loan against it before incuring high-interest debt. The amount you borrow stops earning interest, but if it already worked to get you a 50-100% gain from matching contribution and lets you avoid a 23% loan on a car or whatever it's pretty easy to justify.
Ramping up biofuel production in a big way as you suggest could potentially impact the price of food. This wouldn't be a big deal for most Americans, but it could affect those who purchase the food exported from the US.
Cellulose-based biofuel would mitigate this effect, allowing the production of both food and fuel from the same crops, but currently the technology is not commercially viable.
Slashdot Mirror
It seems to me that success in this field will necessarily create a need for engineering effective replacement body parts. Sounds like an interesting premise for a Sci-Fi novel that I'm pretty sure somebody here is going to tell me has already been written.
You might like the short story The Extra by Greg Egan. You can read it online for free.
First most influential lobby in US is American Association of Retired Persons (AARP)
Well, most congressmen have been members of AARP for the better part of a century, so what do you expect?
I wonder what happens to the power cell when you try to turn your laptop 180 degrees with this thing spinning 20,000 rpm.
Thats 20,000 Rev/S, or 1,200,000 RPM.
I imagine that they have taken into account the gyroscopic forces and planned accordingly. I wonder if it will have any sensors that can be perverted into use as tsunami detectors or lightsaber simulators?
I'm not sure I understand why a tamper-resistant/evident case would be a challenge.
After certification the case should be secured with pop-rivets and the fasteners covered with tamper-evident tape, leaving only the memory card slot (and screen and power cord) accessable. A voting official inserts a memory card with a digital signature, which the machine copies. The card is removed and the empty card slot is covered with tamper-evident tape.
After the machine collects votes a voting official inserts a memory card containing a digital signature which is matched to the stored signature. If they match the machine saves the votes to the memory card. If they don't match the machine tasers the person who put in the wrong card, then detonates for good measure. Or it could just complain loudly to draw attention to the possible fraud attempt.
Physical security of the device just doesn't seem like that big of a deal. I'd be much more concerned about security of the ballots themselves and the procedures used to tally and do spot-checks for fraud.
So I didn't think much of the movies (seemed like roughly 12 hours of people walking),
Only 12 hours of walking? Thats a huge improvement on the books!
I am very disappointed with the open source and security communities. Instead of busting the closed source machines left right and sideways how about building a prototype of a secure voting machine
Yeah, why not?
Both your's and the grandparent post are correct. Cheating can help the individual to survive. Cooperation can help the group to survive (and thereby, help the individual to survive). Getting caught cheating can reduce the individual's survival rate either directly, by being killed for cheating, or indirectly by losing the cooperation of others. Individuals who cooperate are rewarded with reciprocal cooperation, those who cheat are punished by being cheated upon (or disregarded).
So hidden cheating can certainly be successful, but it must be balanced against the consequences and against the chance that it will advance the individual at the cost of the group (too much cheating might destroy the system).
The Prisoners Dilemma puzzle has resulted in an interesting examination of strategies. One competition turned up what some might call a cheater, a program that cooperates with other instances of itself to sacrifice many of the instances so that a few could excel.
I'd be inclined to use rivets covered in hologram security tape.
Honestly, how often do they need to open these things anyway? I'd expect them to be taped up with tamper-evident tape much like harddrives, if just so Diebold can tell when they get to charge extra for service.
If you do a cost-benefits analysis on replacing appliances with more energy-efficient models, you'll find that it's usually not worth it, unless the old appliance is already at the end of their life.
The benefit part of the analysis is not always simply savings on your electric bill. If you live off-grid or have a whole-house backup power system the reduced energy consumption of a highly efficent appliance reduces the cost of your power storage/generation requirements or extends your backup times.
You can also consider the environmental benefit in the analysis. Saving power reduces the rate of resource consumption (but usually not at a rate that justifies replacing a working appliance! It costs energy to make the new one, so environmentally speaking you may be wasting resources by taking a working appliance out of service. You can always give/sell it to someone else who needs it though).
You're right, and if you enemy is pretty low-tech you can play up the 'magical' aspects of the infliction of pain, using incantations and hand-waving to really scare the bajesus out of them. With some other cutting-edge special effects you could develop some heavy-duty supernatural questioning techniques.
I completely agree with the logic of your analysis. Works the same as a library copy machine. Whomever causes the copy to be made is at fault.
Last I knew the (MP|RI)AA were going after users who share media, not those who download it. Are they just depending on the fact that they can beat individuals into submission by virtue of having vastly superior legal resources and the cooling effect that would have on file sharing?
If this is what they are doing, is it illegal? Could someone initiate a lawsuit against them for that?
Just some random thoughts on the subject:
The machines that this concerns are usually Pfaff or a competitor (thats pronounced f-ah-f). They are priced anywhere from $3000 to $9000, with a huge variation in price depending on which independent dealer you get screwed by.. er, purchase from. Dealer support is a big factor, the machines do occasionally need service and the users need training. A good dealer makes a big difference in the end-user experience. Shop around and rely on reputations of dealers within the community. Buy locally if you can, many dealers refuse to support equipment they didn't sell.
The machines are precision, high quality CNC systems, very cool. You can upgrade the software in some of the low-end models to the software for the high-end systems and end up with all the capabilities of the over-priced high end system for the fairly reasonable (considering the quality and capability of the machine) lower price. The machines are usually USB connected and allow firmware upgrades. Maybe it'll run linux (but I'll bet whatever motion control software its got on it is vastly superiour to EMC).
The computer software is expensive, dumb and crappy. The users are typically not computer-savvy, and, predictably, often were born before transistors were invented. Unfortunately these users have odd ideas about computers and the software that runs on them. They expect it to work without fiddling with it. Like their Caddy, they want to turn it on, point it where they want to go and have it go there.
The software for producing new designs (in a non-stupid or non-trivial way) is not free or cheap. People who pay for it generally want to make some money doing it. There is a significant amount of work involved in the production of a single design (artwork, CAD work, color selection, ordering of color application, time and materials spent embroidering test verions, etc), and a library of designs can represent many hundreds of man-hours. Unlike most computer software development, you cannot do this (well) without paying for some consumables and access to the embroidery machine.
These people are not compatible with a release-early-release-often software development strategy. You give them a working finished product with a one-click install, a very intuitive interface and simple video-based help system.
The majority of them do not want to produce their own designs. They'd rather spend the time at their craft not producing artwork on a computer. There are exceptions (power-users within the community), but they are few and far-between.
Remember those books that used to come with clip-art CDs? A lot of them like those books. They can sit down with the book, look through it, dog-ear pages with stuff they like, take it with them in their sewing bag, etc.
Most of these people do not use the computer to find new software. They browse extensively at quilt and craft shops, they go to craft retreats to socialize with their friends, and a few of them participate in internet forums (about.com, yahoo groups). Acquiring a userbase for new software would not be a matter of dropping it on sourceforge and waiting.
I don't mean this to sound negative, I just want to point out that the consumers of this product have needs that an ivory-tower developer would not anticipate. There is a lot of interesting potential for software, but anyone who wants the software to be widely used must be very conscious of how the users interact with computers and each other. The developer should actively join the community (or if he feels too girly working with textiles, get his mother or grandmother to do so and tag along) to see what is needed and how to make a successful package.
You can see (and often play with) the machines and software at places like Joanne's or an independent local dealer.
But I think their understanding of Trek warp theory is way off. Enterprise zips around the galaxy without time dilation effects.
Not so, according to the TNG tech manual. While the warp drives avoid time dilation by virtue of the impulse engines are sub-light and operate in normal space, subjecting the crew to all the usual time dilation effects. Sublight velocity is normally restricted to about 0.5c (IIRC, check the manual for the exact number) to keep this to a minium. They periodicly recalibrate their clocks with a standard.
This is not something they ever really touched on in the TV series, to my knowledge (with the exception of the Picard maneuver, which is superluminal). It would have made an interesting addition to a battle scene. Moving at near light speed could possibly afford some tactical advantages. At the very least it could have been used for a time capsule or something.
WTF? That's quite possibly the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard of.
g
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hole_in_the_Wall_Gan
It's really not that uncommon, and it doesn't take '15 or 20 minutes' if the home is built with foam board rather than plywood. All you have to do is lever up the siding (trivial for vinyl, not difficult for board) then push through the foam, insulation and drywall. In a back yard with a privacy fence you could easily accomplish this in under 5 minutes. If the walls are made of sterner stuff (plywood or particle board) this would require more effort than a random theft would justify.
I was not suggesting that your bars and alarms are not effective deterrents. You proposed a challenge:
If I knew you in person I'd challenge you to break into my house.
I'm just pointing out that the possibility exists that your walls might be weaker than you think, allowing someone who is only lightly equipped, but determined (as a result of, say, a personal challenge), easy entry to your house.
just curious.
Is your house brick or stone? If not, what's the siding made of, and whats under it?
Many of the house around here, including mine, are 2x4s with foam, fiberglass insulation and drywall. The only thing stopping someone from punching through the wall with their bare hands is the siding, which is quarter inch manufactured board. With a big screwdriver and a few minutes away from public view anybody could go right through the wall with minimal noise.
In other words, dolphins have no reason to have developed claustraphbia, because it would be a very rare case indeed where getting stuck in a small space would even come up for a dolphin.
Not according to the folks at Sea World. They claim that getting dolphins to swim through small spaces is very difficult because dolphins, lacking the ability to swim backwards, are very resistant to entering any space that appears too narrow to turn around in.
I dunno if it's true, and if so they can certainly be trained to do these things because those Sea World trainers are proud to show off those tricks.
Or better yet, how long until there is an exploit to root the OS in the card itself?
And state that you don't consent to a search any time they ask to look at or in your stuff (except ID, generally).
First of all, the future depicted in 1984 is fast approaching, or did you miss the fact that there's a lawsuit proceeding (besides the one just thrown out) against AT&T for allowing the feds to tap their communications? Sure, it's twenty years late, but he was remarkably aware of the date.
A friend of mine works tech support for a hosting company. A few weeks ago the FBI showed up and politely asked if they could install a T1 for the purpose of monitoring the hosted systems. The admin turned them down cold. They left, then returned a bit later with a court order, however they did not permit close examination or copying of the order. The site now has a T1 over which the FBI monitors activity on the hosted machines.
Unfortunately I don't have information about what or how they monitor. I suggested to my friend that in a free society his company ought to be free to log and publish what goes across that T1. Since they can't read the court order to see if its prohibited...
If you can hold a 45 magnum and fire it, then an ideal body armor can make the hit on the target have no worse an impact than it did on you.
Well, less actually because the energy transfer is nowhere near 100%. The difference, however, is that the recoils is being absorbed by your arms rather than an arbitrary part of your chest. Catching a heavy ball with both hands is a lot different than having it impact your chest.
Obviously, ideal body armor would identify the incoming round and laser it into vapor before it impacted at all.
Slighly less than ideal body armor would identify the incoming round and extend a long squishy psudopod along the predicted trajectory of the round thus extending the impact in time.
The cornstarch in water mix will do some interesting things if you set a plate of it on top of a speaker to subject it to the vibrations from a tone generator. It'll stand up in freaky-looking peaks and blobs.
1) Pay off your debts first. Do not invest money while you still have debt -- paying off a 19.75% credit card balance will reap you more money than any average investment. Let me repeat that, because most people are retards and don't get this point. Do not put a cent of money into a mutual fund or stock until your debt level equals $0.00. Capiche?
Exception. If your employer offers a 401k with a high matching percentage, 50-100%, invest as much as you can, up to the matching limit (typically around 6% of your yearly income). You'll have a hard time beating that return anywhere.
Once the funds in the 401k have vested, take a loan out against them and pay off your high interest debt.
Be careful not to change employeers while you have the loan against the 401k, the balance will be due immediately. You can liquidate the fund to pay it, but you'll pay a penalty and taxes. If you are careful you can still come out even or slightly ahead, but it's easy to get screwed too.
It may take a year before the 401k contributions vest and you can take out that loan. Your other debt may end up costing you more than you make on the matching funds during that time.
If you have a 401k, consider using a loan against it before incuring high-interest debt. The amount you borrow stops earning interest, but if it already worked to get you a 50-100% gain from matching contribution and lets you avoid a 23% loan on a car or whatever it's pretty easy to justify.
There were some articles recently about biofuel production pushing up food costs.
Ramping up biofuel production in a big way as you suggest could potentially impact the price of food. This wouldn't be a big deal for most Americans, but it could affect those who purchase the food exported from the US.
Cellulose-based biofuel would mitigate this effect, allowing the production of both food and fuel from the same crops, but currently the technology is not commercially viable.
Curious, I've got exactly that same story, originating from a now-defunct software company in south Texas.
Like what, the fact it has enough cargo space to bring a school bus to orbit?
If I had money like Warren Buffet I'd so do that.
No, it would be a Winnabago, with wings!