One thing people here are also forgetting about China is that due to their draconian policies to reduce population growth (while an admirable goal) has led to a country that is quite old. In fact, the Economist recently reported that for every four grandparents, there are two parents and one child in China. This has led to quite an imbalance in the size of the workforce relative to the population. One child now has to help take care of a larger number of relatives on a per capita income that hasn't increased to match such a change. I forget the exact statistics (it was in the Economist from last month and I cannot find the article now) but the average age in China was something like 28 in 1990, rising to 33 in 1995. And looking to the future, the proportion of those over 60 will rise from something like 10 per cent of the population in 1995 to 22 per cent in 2030.
Now, besides the obvious problems like the massive reduction in the young workforce over the next couple of decades, many of you have pointed out that healthcare in China is quite archaic and is not equipped to handle (when couple with all its current problems) something like this. IMHO. While India's healthcare system is not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, it will not be hit by the problems of a large swath/percentage of its population turning old all at once. I think this will give rise to a semblance of stability.
Re:Interesting Political Uses
on
Google Suggest
·
· Score: 1
To say that I want this is an understatement;-). However, 5400 RPM seems a bit slow, especially if the price tag is a heft $285.
I mean, with that much space, I would also like faster seeks times. Additionally, the 2MB cache seems awfully small. I guess we have to wait for the special edition like in the Western Digitals, where only the special edition drives have the 8MB caches. DesignTechnica has a bit of information on this drive (family). Go here while Toms Hardware is un-slashdotted:-).
The ultimate geek toy has to be Hollywood:). Go to http://www.go-l.com and click on the link for the 17" laptop. More direct link here. All I can say is - Bow Down!!!
Specs - - 17" WXGA 1440-by-900 pixels, high contrast, wide-angle-view, fast video response, Ultra-Speed(TM) Widescreen Display - 3.20GHz & up Intel(R) Pentium 4 HyperThreading 2MB L3 Cache Extreme Edition CPU - 512K L2 Cache - Support for next-generation Intel Pentium 5/Prescott Processor* - 800MHz System Bus - Enhanced CacheFlow(TM) Technology - SuperBIOS(TM) IBPT Technology - Up to 2GB of 433MHz Dual-Channel DDR Memory - Ultra ATA-133 Connectivity - Up to 80GB of Colossal Storage Capacity using ultra-high performance 7200rpm HD - ATI Radeon(TM) 9600 PRO AGP 128MB DDR Memory Professional Graphics with dual monitor output and Video-Out. - Choice of optical drive: CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, CD-RW, COMBO (DVD-ROM/CD-RW), or high-speed 2x DVD-Burner (DVD-R/-RW) - Integrated CCD Video camera with full-motion video at 30 frames per second in 24-bit color. - IEEE 1394 FireWire & USB 2 connectivity
Can anyone beat this (or the price for that matter:))? Need to start saving now, or find one of my minions to buy it for me as a gift.:)
This is so sad, it is the end of an era. One of the things I always wanted to do was to fly in the Concorde, however the one time that I called to enquire about tickets, I was informed that one round-trip ticket is a whopping $10,000. It was slightly outside my price range of $10.
This is why I became a computer scientist, i.e. to make money quick and then...
This is good news for the consumers of course. With more people researching better search technologies, like this Chinese Search Alliance, like Yahoo announced a couple of days ago about trying to better it's search engine, and Microsoft trying to get into the search market, the products are only going to get better (*hopefully*).
But there is no substitute for now - Google rocks! I especially love Google Labs.
I still prefer the Area-51 laptops by Alienware. A little more pricey, but damn, they put a lot of horsepower in there; perfect for LAN parties. And they are colorful as hell:).
Review is also very nice, though it is off of their own site. Customize your own here.
I am taking a game design class at school and here are some readings that you all may find interesting. I wonder whether after reading the articles below and sticking to the concepts, will we become better game developers?
Also, here is a funny comeback from http://www.superhero.org "Windows 95 is finally out, and I keep reading in all the consultants' columns that UNIX is dead. I believe them, of course--they're paid well to make such pronouncements--but UNIX seems pretty lively for a corpse. Whenever a hardware vendor brings out the latest hot box, it seems to be running UNIX; the telecom industry still likes UNIX pretty much; and there sure seem to be a lot of UNIX users out there on the Internet. If UNIX is so old, how can it be producing offspring like that little scamp, Linux? "Maybe these consultants are confusing dying with age. UNIX is old, a lot older than the other operating systems that have long since passed on. In spite of its twenty-six years, however, UNIX continues to crunch numbers while younger systems can only gum them till they're mushy. What explains this mysterious longevity?
"I have a theory. UNIX survives because, unlike other operating systems, it lacks doubt and guilt. UNIX does just what you tell it to, as quickly and efficiently as it can, and then it waits for more work. It doesn't worry about whether what you asked it to do was fair, beneficial, or even sensible. It just does it.
"By contrast, Windows frets about you. It offers you hints and choices and dialog boxes. Help is everywhere (for what it's worth). And if you ask Windows to do anything of consequence, it asks you to confirm your request, and then it tells you what it did. Delete a large number of files, and Windows is exhausted. It's not the work, it's the *stress*. It's no wonder that Windows systems tend to freeze up where a UNIX system would crash.
"UNIX snorts at Windows-style solicitude. UNIX doesn't ask you to confirm--if you didn't want it to do what you asked, why did you ask it? Similarly, it won't annoy you by reporting the consequences of what you did. Why would you enter a command if you don't first know its consequences?"
There is some interesting commentary on Longhorn, Build 4008, including cracks that are already being released:). You can read about them at http://www.xbetas.com/.
NeoWin also reports that they got their hands on a new leaked version of Windows Longhorn. "The reporter insists that these are original shots. Lots of grandients are going on in the UI and while this is an alpha and the final version might look different (that's what happened with XP's Luna, MS only revealed XP's final design only a few months before the release, while most betas used another theme), these shots showing there are just pretty ugly IMHO. Bad taste on colors, no easy distinction between elements, it all looks like a big bad web page."
When I read that heading - "MicroBSD Is No More" - I was reminded of the StarWars line by Obi-Wan Kenobi - "I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced".:)
There are so many things to say, so many feelings. Firstly, I do believe that this is not just an American tragedy, it is one that affects mankind. NASA has been basically leading the way towards space exploration and if one is to believe the "Space, the final frontier" bit, I do feel that this is something that affects us all. Not to mention, there was an Indian American, an Isreali and an African American on board.
In fact, this is one of the many reasons why I feel that it was extra stupid of Saddam Hussein to call this catastrophe "God's punishment on America". If anything, he should have taken this opportunity to show some sympathy towards this event.
I also wonder if they will send a teacher up in space in the near future. They were just about to start interviewing over 4000 teachers but I really don't know if that is going to happen now.
Re:I've seen this before
on
Smart Pool Table
·
· Score: 4, Informative
Well, actually a professor at Columbia University (Dr. Tony Jebara) was just interviewed about his "new device [that] may turn billiards beginners into high-tech pool sharks". The article was at http://www.ny1.com/Living/technology.html. It looks very cool. Also he just bought a pool table for the department to test his stuff on, and given that my office is just a few doors down from his, I will enjoy playing for hours (so much for my PhD).
There seems to be a whole bunch of commentary on the lack of information on this site and how the site is basically "Under Construction".
However, in their defense, the product isn't going to be launched until March next year. This gives them a "little" bit of time to get their website in gear.
Regarding the hardware specs, it seems to me that the website gives sufficient information about it
Processor: Hitachi SH7727 @ 160MHz
215 MIPS speed with built-in DSP Memory: 64 MB SDRAM, 32 MB Flash or 32MB SDRAM,
16MB Flash Display: 3.5" Colour TFT
(320x240x64k-16 bit) with circuit for automatic backlight controls. Interfaces: Communication ports USB Host Control USB Client Serial (can be built-in) IrDA Expansion Slots SD card expansion slot for RAM expansion Compact Flash (CF2) support for peripherals (Wi-Fi, Modem, Ethernet, Bluetooth, GPS etc.) or Memory Input Devices: Touch panel, Handwriting Recognition, Software
Keyboard, Unicode Input and External Keyboard (Optional) Power Supply: 1200 mAH Li-Polymer or Li-Ion re-chargeable battery. UL/CE certified power adapter 100V - 240V 50/60Hz AC auto switching input and 5V DC output
So why don't we give these guys a break. Having said this, they did announce this device quite some time ago (read at http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS5126719992.html) so they had better get their ass in gear quickly if they want to woo consumers.
I recently heard one of the researchers give a talk about WireGL and found it very fascinating. If one has a GigE dedicated network, then a graphics cluster like this would be perfect for supporting graphics over the network for multiple PCs.
Slashdot Mirror
One thing people here are also forgetting about China is that due to their draconian policies to reduce population growth (while an admirable goal) has led to a country that is quite old. In fact, the Economist recently reported that for every four grandparents, there are two parents and one child in China. This has led to quite an imbalance in the size of the workforce relative to the population. One child now has to help take care of a larger number of relatives on a per capita income that hasn't increased to match such a change. I forget the exact statistics (it was in the Economist from last month and I cannot find the article now) but the average age in China was something like 28 in 1990, rising to 33 in 1995. And looking to the future, the proportion of those over 60 will rise from something like 10 per cent of the population in 1995 to 22 per cent in 2030.
Now, besides the obvious problems like the massive reduction in the young workforce over the next couple of decades, many of you have pointed out that healthcare in China is quite archaic and is not equipped to handle (when couple with all its current problems) something like this. IMHO. While India's healthcare system is not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, it will not be hit by the problems of a large swath/percentage of its population turning old all at once. I think this will give rise to a semblance of stability.
And "Bill Gates is..."
To say that I want this is an understatement ;-). However, 5400 RPM seems a bit slow, especially if the price tag is a heft $285.
:-).
I mean, with that much space, I would also like faster seeks times. Additionally, the 2MB cache seems awfully small. I guess we have to wait for the special edition like in the Western Digitals, where only the special edition drives have the 8MB caches. DesignTechnica has a bit of information on this drive (family). Go here while Toms Hardware is un-slashdotted
Suhit
The ultimate geek toy has to be Hollywood :). Go to http://www.go-l.com and click on the link for the 17" laptop. More direct link here. All I can say is - Bow Down!!!
:))? Need to start saving now, or find one of my minions to buy it for me as a gift. :)
Specs -
- 17" WXGA 1440-by-900 pixels, high contrast, wide-angle-view, fast video response, Ultra-Speed(TM) Widescreen Display
- 3.20GHz & up Intel(R) Pentium 4 HyperThreading 2MB L3 Cache Extreme Edition CPU
- 512K L2 Cache
- Support for next-generation Intel Pentium 5/Prescott Processor*
- 800MHz System Bus
- Enhanced CacheFlow(TM) Technology
- SuperBIOS(TM) IBPT Technology
- Up to 2GB of 433MHz Dual-Channel DDR Memory
- Ultra ATA-133 Connectivity
- Up to 80GB of Colossal Storage Capacity using ultra-high performance 7200rpm HD
- ATI Radeon(TM) 9600 PRO AGP 128MB DDR Memory Professional Graphics with dual monitor output and Video-Out.
- Choice of optical drive: CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, CD-RW, COMBO (DVD-ROM/CD-RW), or high-speed 2x DVD-Burner (DVD-R/-RW)
- Integrated CCD Video camera with full-motion video at 30 frames per second in 24-bit color.
- IEEE 1394 FireWire & USB 2 connectivity
Can anyone beat this (or the price for that matter
Suhit
This is so sad, it is the end of an era. One of the things I always wanted to do was to fly in the Concorde, however the one time that I called to enquire about tickets, I was informed that one round-trip ticket is a whopping $10,000. It was slightly outside my price range of $10.
This is why I became a computer scientist, i.e. to make money quick and then...
This is good news for the consumers of course. With more people researching better search technologies, like this Chinese Search Alliance, like Yahoo announced a couple of days ago about trying to better it's search engine, and Microsoft trying to get into the search market, the products are only going to get better (*hopefully*).
But there is no substitute for now - Google rocks! I especially love Google Labs.
I still prefer the Area-51 laptops by Alienware. A little more pricey, but damn, they put a lot of horsepower in there; perfect for LAN parties. And they are colorful as hell :).
Review is also very nice, though it is off of their own site. Customize your own here.
Suhit
Though space.com has good articles, I think http://www.spacer.com (also going by the name spacedaily.com) has some very nice write-ups. Check out the following three articles on the Chinese space ventures -6 fq.html 9 c7.html
i. China to shoot for the moon after sending man into orbit - http://www.spacedaily.com/2003/030302075956.spawz
ii. China may launch unmanned moon mission in 2005 - http://www.spacedaily.com/2003/030303030843.54odg
iii. Shenzhou's Changing Face - http://www.spacedaily.com/news/china-03j.html
Suhit
For those that didnt understand what TPC is and did not get enough information from http://www.tpc.org, check out further information that is very well explained at The Benchmark Handbook. The direct link is at http://www.benchmarkresources.com/handbook/content s.asp.
Suhit
So I guess they are using Windows? :)
Suhit
How about the Metrobots that are Sony AIBO robots used as embodied multi-agent systems that play robotic soccer too.
They are planning to enter the RoboCup American Open at CMU in Spring of 2003 and hoping to participate in RoboCup 2003 in Padua Italy.
Suhit
I am taking a game design class at school and here are some readings that you all may find interesting. I wonder whether after reading the articles below and sticking to the concepts, will we become better game developers?
. asp
_ tools_01.htm
"Game Engine Anatomy 101" by Jake Simpson - http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,3973,594,00
"Formal Abstract Design Tools" by Doug Church - http://www.gamasutra.com/features/19990716/design
"2000: Formal Design Tools: Emergent Complexity, Emergent Narrative" by Marc "MAHK" LeBlanc - http://www.algorithmancy.org
John C. Dvorak writes "Unix is Dead! Wanna Fight??".
Also, here is a funny comeback from http://www.superhero.org "Windows 95 is finally out, and I keep reading in all the consultants' columns that UNIX is dead. I believe them, of course--they're paid well to make such pronouncements--but UNIX seems pretty lively for a corpse. Whenever a hardware vendor brings out the latest hot box, it seems to be running UNIX; the telecom industry still likes UNIX pretty much; and there sure seem to be a lot of UNIX users out there on the Internet. If UNIX is so old, how can it be producing offspring like that little scamp, Linux?
"Maybe these consultants are confusing dying with age. UNIX is old, a lot older than the other operating systems that have long since passed on. In spite of its twenty-six years, however, UNIX continues to crunch numbers while younger systems can only gum them till they're mushy. What explains this mysterious longevity?
"I have a theory. UNIX survives because, unlike other operating systems, it lacks doubt and guilt. UNIX does just what you tell it to, as quickly and efficiently as it can, and then it waits for more work. It doesn't worry about whether what you asked it to do was fair, beneficial, or even sensible. It just does it.
"By contrast, Windows frets about you. It offers you hints and choices and dialog boxes. Help is everywhere (for what it's worth). And if you ask Windows to do anything of consequence, it asks you to confirm your request, and then it tells you what it did. Delete a large number of files, and Windows is exhausted. It's not the work, it's the *stress*. It's no wonder that Windows systems tend to freeze up where a UNIX system would crash.
"UNIX snorts at Windows-style solicitude. UNIX doesn't ask you to confirm--if you didn't want it to do what you asked, why did you ask it? Similarly, it won't annoy you by reporting the consequences of what you did. Why would you enter a command if you don't first know its consequences?"
Suhit
Unix is dead? Holy crap! This means that since we are all using it, then are we all dead too? Flashbacks of The Sixth Sense here? Noooo!!!!
Suhit
There is some interesting commentary on Longhorn, Build 4008, including cracks that are already being released :). You can read about them at http://www.xbetas.com/.
& catid=1.
Plus, there is a Longhorn 4008 wallpaper for those really interested.
NeoWin also reports that they got their hands on a new leaked version of Windows Longhorn. "The reporter insists that these are original shots. Lots of grandients are going on in the UI and while this is an alpha and the final version might look different (that's what happened with XP's Luna, MS only revealed XP's final design only a few months before the release, while most betas used another theme), these shots showing there are just pretty ugly IMHO. Bad taste on colors, no easy distinction between elements, it all looks like a big bad web page."
Finally, there are some nice screenshots available at http://www.windowsxpstuff.net/comments.php?id=460
Suhit
This is crazy, how many times do I have to read the same article on Slashdot. I might actually have to stop reading /.
But then my life would be so empty. NOOOO!!! My preciousssss! I will continue.
Suhit
Well, even though the game sounds blah, there does seem to be some very nice art work associated with it - Check it out at http://www.warofthering.net/gallery/; not to mention the nice screenshots of the game available at http://gamespot.com/gamespot/filters/products/scre enindex/0,11104,563555,00.html
Suhit
Since this site seems /.'ed already, here are another ones that have some screenshots too -
3 069.
http://www.wininsider.com/news/comments.aspx?mid=
http://users.pandora.be/AMDtje/Office11_2.htm
http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/ol11.htm
Suhit
When I read that heading - "MicroBSD Is No More" - I was reminded of the StarWars line by Obi-Wan Kenobi - "I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced". :)
I apologize. I was not aware of this.
Suhit
There are so many things to say, so many feelings. Firstly, I do believe that this is not just an American tragedy, it is one that affects mankind. NASA has been basically leading the way towards space exploration and if one is to believe the "Space, the final frontier" bit, I do feel that this is something that affects us all. Not to mention, there was an Indian American, an Isreali and an African American on board.
In fact, this is one of the many reasons why I feel that it was extra stupid of Saddam Hussein to call this catastrophe "God's punishment on America". If anything, he should have taken this opportunity to show some sympathy towards this event.
I also wonder if they will send a teacher up in space in the near future. They were just about to start interviewing over 4000 teachers but I really don't know if that is going to happen now.
Lastly, here are some links that I have found useful all day today that I haven't seen posted up yet - http://www.spacer.com, http://www.spaceref.com, http://www.spaceflightnow.com and of course http://www.space.com.
Well, actually a professor at Columbia University (Dr. Tony Jebara) was just interviewed about his "new device [that] may turn billiards beginners into high-tech pool sharks". The article was at http://www.ny1.com/Living/technology.html. It looks very cool. Also he just bought a pool table for the department to test his stuff on, and given that my office is just a few doors down from his, I will enjoy playing for hours (so much for my PhD).
However, in their defense, the product isn't going to be launched until March next year. This gives them a "little" bit of time to get their website in gear.
Regarding the hardware specs, it seems to me that the website gives sufficient information about it
Processor: Hitachi SH7727 @ 160MHz 215 MIPS speed with built-in DSP
So why don't we give these guys a break. Having said this, they did announce this device quite some time ago (read at http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS5126719992.htmMemory: 64 MB SDRAM, 32 MB Flash or 32MB SDRAM, 16MB Flash
Display: 3.5" Colour TFT (320x240x64k-16 bit) with circuit for automatic backlight controls.
Interfaces: Communication ports USB Host Control USB Client Serial (can be built-in) IrDA Expansion Slots SD card expansion slot for RAM expansion Compact Flash (CF2) support for peripherals (Wi-Fi, Modem, Ethernet, Bluetooth, GPS etc.) or Memory
Input Devices: Touch panel, Handwriting Recognition, Software Keyboard, Unicode Input and External Keyboard (Optional)
Power Supply: 1200 mAH Li-Polymer or Li-Ion re-chargeable battery. UL/CE certified power adapter 100V - 240V 50/60Hz AC auto switching input and 5V DC output
If you like 3D screens, you will like 3D stereoscopic cameras - stereoscopy.com and curtin.edu.au. Pretty cool stuff.
Why settle for just 2 GPUs, here is the Lightning-2 - "A High-Performance Display Subsystem for PC Clusters" - http://graphics.stanford.edu/papers/lightning2/.
I recently heard one of the researchers give a talk about WireGL and found it very fascinating. If one has a GigE dedicated network, then a graphics cluster like this would be perfect for supporting graphics over the network for multiple PCs.