I don't know if your custom software will run under Wine, but google ies4osx -- install that and you can run ie6 on your mac. And man, it runs SO PERFECTLY that even the fonts suck.
Thanks for point that out, I just watched a review for the PRS-900 on YouTube.
No backlight isn't a show stopper -- although a backlit display is really nice for a poorly-lit bar. It's a little tiny (Kindle DX is a better size), but the stylus *and* touch screen is neat, if you could use the stylus to make notes on your PDFs. (I am famous for marking up my music).
It also lacks a keyboard, making fast searching difficult.
That said, I have a sneaky feeling these will lose their value unto the used market more quickly than the iPad... Any idea if they've provider-locked the 3G modems in 'em?
> That's the key thing I still haven't heard anyone explain. What is an Ipad for, exactly?
Aside from the price tag, these things look like they were purpose-built for me. I can't wait for the 2nd gen to come out so the first gen price plummets.
Now, why do I want one? I've been looking for a device which
- works well in portrait mode (no CPU fan obstructions, can charge without wrecking the cord)
- Has a screen about the size of a piece of paper
- Can view PDFs and flip pages by touch screen (no stylus)
- Can search PDFs based on input from a cordless keyboard
- Is back lit with a high-resolution screen (96 dpi would be great)
- Looks good with black-on-white content
- Gives off no interfering RF or loud sounds
If I had said device, I could use it to replace a stack of music books four feet high. I already have them scanned and the indices OCRed. Actually, I have a local "web app" that can jump to songs based on the indices as well, but that relies on ActiveX; hopefully I can do something similar with the dev toolkit.
The only thing better would be a pair of these, where "turning the page" on the PDF shoots the page one screen left so you can always see the next page if you time your page-turning well.
> Steering wheels do not lock until you remove the key from the car altogether.
I had a stuck accelerator in a '92 Sunbird once, and I did turn the ignition off. The goddamned steering locked, and although I was able to brake without power assistance, I put half the car up a curb and on the sidewalk at 35 mpg because I couldn't steer. Luckily, the road was pretty straight.
The next time that happened, I wasn't sure if the engine had a rev limiter or not, so I just overpowered it with the brakes and stalled it out from 100 mph. It's a good thing I'd had the first experience under my belt, as this time it happened on a twisty mountain road. I don't know how much power these Toyota engines put out, but front disc brakes in good condition can overpower a little ~110hp four-banger without any problems. Mind you, they won't necessarily be in good condition *afterwards*.
There was no third time. The first time I took the car into the shop, the second time I fixed it myself.
> so it's OK to take your family into an unfamiliar vehicle? > The manual is in the thing, and the fact that it is non-standard > is immediately obvious once you try to start it and shift it into drive.
I rent vehicles on a regular basis, and I have never been in a rental that had a manual, or been in a rental office that could lend me one.
Normally when I take a new car out, I sit in the parking lot for 3-5 minutes sorting out the important controls and setting up my mirrors. It would never cross my mind that the controls might behave differently in traffic than in a parking lot.
If it takes 3 seconds to turn it off on the road, it should take 3 seconds to turn it off in the parking lot.... unless you reprogram the car somehow, in a way only described in the owner's manual. (My van, for example, has different algorithms for automatic lock engagement that you can change with magic button combinations).
Shifting to neutral might not make the engine particularly happy with the throttle fully opened.
I would suggest that the correct back-up remedy is to assume accelerator position is 0 when the brake is applied. And, if not close to zero, flash the MIL.
I don't understand why this isn't already the case in their ECU. To me, it seems obvious, and goes hand-in-hand with single-foot brake/accelerator control. I can't think of any functionality that would be impacted by adding this safety feature on a vehicle with an automatic transmission. In fact, you could probably even augment it by refusing to accept accelerator input until there is a small downward delta in pedal position after the brake is released.
No, blowing one line is enough -- all you have to do is drain the master reservoir out a flex line and you will experience problems at the opposing corners.
> So, a question to the room - if it's even possible, is there > any advantage in compiling a dynamic weakly typed language to > native code?
You don't have to get to native code reap the benefits.
I work on a server-side javascript platform; it pre-compiles the JavaScript to an intermediary token representation. The benefit is measureable, especially with large scripts. The cost is also negligible for trivial scripts.
Actually, that reminds me, that is the same mechanism that Firefox uses to "fast load" extensions.
Kids don't need to play with computers. Computers are no longer novel.
Kids need LAB TIME. Chemistry lab time is fun, for everybody. IIRC my high school chem classes were 2 lecture + 1 lab.
If you are getting enough lecture time in that you can think of "jazzing up" the course with computers, get them to throw some lithium into a beaker full of water or something instead.
Believe or not, if you use a win32 box as an X-Terminal via xmingw or cygwin/X, configured in no-root (floating window mode), and let win32 handle the dual monitors... You really get the best of both worlds.
I stumbled on this solution a couple of years ago, and although my primary setup is a Sun with two separate displays (no xinerama), I like it quite a lot.
Also, windows has a nifty target when you click the control key so you can find that lost mouse pointer. Unnecessary with only two monitors, but once you have 3 or 4 it's a godsend.
> Neither does real gold, unless you happen to need to make really > really thin wires, or build something which is extremely reflective, > or actually make use of gold's natural properties in some other way.
I can cover regular connectors with very thin layers of gold, and sell them to audiophiles for significantly more than the original cost of the connectors and the gold-plating process.
Also, I can put a piece of carbon into a band of gold and give it to a female, in exchange for several months of sex. The carbon, without the gold, would only yield a few days of sex.
Assuming the South Korean currency is not backed something solid (like gold), then their currency is just as virtual as online virtual currency -- it has no actual intrinsic value.
> Exactly what goal is served by using the crappy tools?
Allowing me, the owner of the information, to select the ratio of ease-of-use vs. difficulty of eavesdropping.
Just like locking your house. I'm sure you only one, maybe two deadbolts. Why not 16? Do you still have windows? Why? Did you know they are really easy to break?
I think it is unreasonable for the crypto specialists to dictate my needs -- present me with information, let me make my choice. The market has shied away from opportunistic encryption because the crypto people have taken this choice away, instead preferring to still not-encrypt most communications.
For example, I consider https over WEP to be secure enough for almost all my surfing needs, including web banking. If somebody *really* wants to know what servers I'm exchanging packets with, what DNS entries I'm looking up, etc -- go ahead, break my WEP and eavesdrop, you really need a life.
So, I'm happy with that. Why should I have to enter a 20-digit WPA key? It's lucky that I have the choice, if the crypto people had their way, WEP would be erased from every router on the planet.
And don't even get me started with https. Why do we need signed certificates for everything? Jim-joe-bob's page of Mullet Haircuts doesn't need them; again, the crypto+browser people have taken away the casual encryption option and replaced it with an all-or-nothing dichotomy.
Which answers the main question of this/. topic: why is there no opportunistic encryption? Because the crypto people subscribe to this all-or-nothing crap.
> Now that WPA2 is out, I can't see any reason to not use at least WPA2/PSK. > Type in a password, set your Wifi manager to remember it forever, and you're > good to go. How is that hard?
Typing it in on my iPod often takes longer than the actual information I want to check.
Never mind that *getting* the WPA2 key is often difficult, as well. When my father died, it took me nearly an hour to get net access at his house, so that I could check my email (via https!). If he hadn't been as well organized as he was, I/never/ would have found the post-it.
That day, I would have been far happier being able to chose either no encryption, or something secure against casual eavesdropping.
It's PhDs in computer science that are the REAL problem, if you want my opinion.
There are some things that are worth casually encrypting -- like locking the door to your house.
There are some things that are REALLY worth encrypting -- like locking your safe.
The problem with the crypto community is that you seem to think that black-and-white, good-and-bad, all-or-nothing approach is reasonable. It's not. It's crap.
So, when people don't want to deal with *real* security, but wouldn't mind some opportunistic encryption, to make things more annoying to break but not impossible, they have no choice. So they simply pick "no encryption" in the opportunistic requirement scenario.
Kinda like Nothing vs. WEP vs. WPA. I'd rather use WEP than no crypto for casual communications.. but I'd rather use no crypto than type in a 20-digit number just to get online to check my (https) email.
The only reason we have a middle ground in the WiFi land (WEP) is because the crypto guys screwed up. It's handy. Let us keep and decide how secure we need to keep our information... either that, or give us a no-cost secure channel.
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I don't know if your custom software will run under Wine, but google ies4osx -- install that and you can run ie6 on your mac. And man, it runs SO PERFECTLY that even the fonts suck.
For what it's worth, we've had more problems in our office with Ubuntu and Debian-stable updates breaking stuff than Windows.
Just sayin'
Toshiba made laptops like this for years. I don't recall it being a problem for them, I DO recall it being very convenient.
I think I have a Satellite 100CS with Win95 on it around here somewhere like that...
Thanks for point that out, I just watched a review for the PRS-900 on YouTube.
No backlight isn't a show stopper -- although a backlit display is really nice for a poorly-lit bar. It's a little tiny (Kindle DX is a better size), but the stylus *and* touch screen is neat, if you could use the stylus to make notes on your PDFs. (I am famous for marking up my music).
It also lacks a keyboard, making fast searching difficult.
That said, I have a sneaky feeling these will lose their value unto the used market more quickly than the iPad... Any idea if they've provider-locked the 3G modems in 'em?
> That's the key thing I still haven't heard anyone explain. What is an Ipad for, exactly?
Aside from the price tag, these things look like they were purpose-built for me. I can't wait for the 2nd gen to come out so the first gen price plummets.
Now, why do I want one? I've been looking for a device which
- works well in portrait mode (no CPU fan obstructions, can charge without wrecking the cord)
- Has a screen about the size of a piece of paper
- Can view PDFs and flip pages by touch screen (no stylus)
- Can search PDFs based on input from a cordless keyboard
- Is back lit with a high-resolution screen (96 dpi would be great)
- Looks good with black-on-white content
- Gives off no interfering RF or loud sounds
If I had said device, I could use it to replace a stack of music books four feet high. I already have them scanned and the indices OCRed. Actually, I have a local "web app" that can jump to songs based on the indices as well, but that relies on ActiveX; hopefully I can do something similar with the dev toolkit.
The only thing better would be a pair of these, where "turning the page" on the PDF shoots the page one screen left so you can always see the next page if you time your page-turning well.
Your observation is consistent with a patch I read once for the Sun T3+ storage array.
These have redundant internal battery banks (and power supplies), to allow safe shutdown of the RAID in the event of a power failure.
IIRC, the patch significantly increased battery life by instructing the RAID enclosure to drain each battery completely once a week.
> Steering wheels do not lock until you remove the key from the car altogether.
I had a stuck accelerator in a '92 Sunbird once, and I did turn the ignition off. The goddamned steering locked, and although I was able to brake without power assistance, I put half the car up a curb and on the sidewalk at 35 mpg because I couldn't steer. Luckily, the road was pretty straight.
The next time that happened, I wasn't sure if the engine had a rev limiter or not, so I just overpowered it with the brakes and stalled it out from 100 mph. It's a good thing I'd had the first experience under my belt, as this time it happened on a twisty mountain road. I don't know how much power these Toyota engines put out, but front disc brakes in good condition can overpower a little ~110hp four-banger without any problems. Mind you, they won't necessarily be in good condition *afterwards*.
There was no third time. The first time I took the car into the shop, the second time I fixed it myself.
Didn't this happen on to Gilligan in 1965?
> so it's OK to take your family into an unfamiliar vehicle?
> The manual is in the thing, and the fact that it is non-standard
> is immediately obvious once you try to start it and shift it into drive.
I rent vehicles on a regular basis, and I have never been in a rental that had a manual, or been in a rental office that could lend me one.
Normally when I take a new car out, I sit in the parking lot for 3-5 minutes sorting out the important controls and setting up my mirrors. It would never cross my mind that the controls might behave differently in traffic than in a parking lot.
If it takes 3 seconds to turn it off on the road, it should take 3 seconds to turn it off in the parking lot.... unless you reprogram the car somehow, in a way only described in the owner's manual. (My van, for example, has different algorithms for automatic lock engagement that you can change with magic button combinations).
Shifting to neutral might not make the engine particularly happy with the throttle fully opened.
I would suggest that the correct back-up remedy is to assume accelerator position is 0 when the brake is applied. And, if not close to zero, flash the MIL.
I don't understand why this isn't already the case in their ECU. To me, it seems obvious, and goes hand-in-hand with single-foot brake/accelerator control. I can't think of any functionality that would be impacted by adding this safety feature on a vehicle with an automatic transmission. In fact, you could probably even augment it by refusing to accept accelerator input until there is a small downward delta in pedal position after the brake is released.
> How about we just settle for putting the transmission in Neutral?
> It would be much safer rather than loosing all assisted control of the vehicle.
Not really a good choice, unless you also plan to cut spark, at least once you get past the red line on the tach.
No, blowing one line is enough -- all you have to do is drain the master reservoir out a flex line and you will experience problems at the opposing corners.
> So, a question to the room - if it's even possible, is there
> any advantage in compiling a dynamic weakly typed language to
> native code?
You don't have to get to native code reap the benefits.
I work on a server-side javascript platform; it pre-compiles the JavaScript to an intermediary token representation. The benefit is measureable, especially with large scripts. The cost is also negligible for trivial scripts.
Actually, that reminds me, that is the same mechanism that Firefox uses to "fast load" extensions.
Kids don't need to play with computers. Computers are no longer novel.
Kids need LAB TIME. Chemistry lab time is fun, for everybody. IIRC my high school chem classes were 2 lecture + 1 lab.
If you are getting enough lecture time in that you can think of "jazzing up" the course with computers, get them to throw some lithium into a beaker full of water or something instead.
Maybe it will stop AT&T from bleeding customers?
Um, I think if you're gonna use that gate you're going to find you want to buy a DHD!
Believe or not, if you use a win32 box as an X-Terminal via xmingw or cygwin/X, configured in no-root (floating window mode), and let win32 handle the dual monitors... You really get the best of both worlds.
I stumbled on this solution a couple of years ago, and although my primary setup is a Sun with two separate displays (no xinerama), I like it quite a lot.
Also, windows has a nifty target when you click the control key so you can find that lost mouse pointer. Unnecessary with only two monitors, but once you have 3 or 4 it's a godsend.
You're so boring... let's *escalate*:
>+o
o+
Huh, and here I thought all the Rouge agents came from Cambodia!
> Neither does real gold, unless you happen to need to make really
> really thin wires, or build something which is extremely reflective,
> or actually make use of gold's natural properties in some other way.
I can cover regular connectors with very thin layers of gold, and sell them to audiophiles for significantly more than the original cost of the connectors and the gold-plating process.
Also, I can put a piece of carbon into a band of gold and give it to a female, in exchange for several months of sex. The carbon, without the gold, would only yield a few days of sex.
Therefore, gold has a very high intrinsic value.
Assuming the South Korean currency is not backed something solid (like gold), then their currency is just as virtual as online virtual currency -- it has no actual intrinsic value.
> Exactly what goal is served by using the crappy tools?
Allowing me, the owner of the information, to select the ratio of ease-of-use vs. difficulty of eavesdropping.
Just like locking your house. I'm sure you only one, maybe two deadbolts. Why not 16? Do you still have windows? Why? Did you know they are really easy to break?
I think it is unreasonable for the crypto specialists to dictate my needs -- present me with information, let me make my choice. The market has shied away from opportunistic encryption because the crypto people have taken this choice away, instead preferring to still not-encrypt most communications.
For example, I consider https over WEP to be secure enough for almost all my surfing needs, including web banking. If somebody *really* wants to know what servers I'm exchanging packets with, what DNS entries I'm looking up, etc -- go ahead, break my WEP and eavesdrop, you really need a life.
So, I'm happy with that. Why should I have to enter a 20-digit WPA key? It's lucky that I have the choice, if the crypto people had their way, WEP would be erased from every router on the planet.
And don't even get me started with https. Why do we need signed certificates for everything? Jim-joe-bob's page of Mullet Haircuts doesn't need them; again, the crypto+browser people have taken away the casual encryption option and replaced it with an all-or-nothing dichotomy.
Which answers the main question of this /. topic: why is there no opportunistic encryption? Because the crypto people subscribe to this all-or-nothing crap.
> Now that WPA2 is out, I can't see any reason to not use at least WPA2/PSK.
> Type in a password, set your Wifi manager to remember it forever, and you're
> good to go. How is that hard?
Typing it in on my iPod often takes longer than the actual information I want to check.
Never mind that *getting* the WPA2 key is often difficult, as well. When my father died, it took me nearly an hour to get net access at his house, so that I could check my email (via https!). If he hadn't been as well organized as he was, I /never/ would have found the post-it.
That day, I would have been far happier being able to chose either no encryption, or something secure against casual eavesdropping.
> Exactly what's the point of encrypting something if
> information will still leak out of the encrypted packets?
Do you lock your house? Does it have windows?
It's PhDs in computer science that are the REAL problem, if you want my opinion.
There are some things that are worth casually encrypting -- like locking the door to your house.
There are some things that are REALLY worth encrypting -- like locking your safe.
The problem with the crypto community is that you seem to think that black-and-white, good-and-bad, all-or-nothing approach is reasonable. It's not. It's crap.
So, when people don't want to deal with *real* security, but wouldn't mind some opportunistic encryption, to make things more annoying to break but not impossible, they have no choice. So they simply pick "no encryption" in the opportunistic requirement scenario.
Kinda like Nothing vs. WEP vs. WPA. I'd rather use WEP than no crypto for casual communications.. but I'd rather use no crypto than type in a 20-digit number just to get online to check my (https) email.
The only reason we have a middle ground in the WiFi land (WEP) is because the crypto guys screwed up. It's handy. Let us keep and decide how secure we need to keep our information... either that, or give us a no-cost secure channel.