I've got a theory about this. I remember reading in one of his books that the Culture had sent an expedition to the Andromeda Galaxy - and were worried about a possible 'Outside Context Problem' when they get there.
Replacing a string in a binary with a string of a different length?
This will break it. Depending how the replace works, it will either:
Increase the length of the file, throwing off any and all offsets and addresses either side of the modified string(s) (I suspect this is what will happen)
or it will overwrite code/data at the end of the string. e.g. the null terminator... that could be one very long string filled with garbage you'd have afterwards, not to mention broken instructions.
Consultation with the UK branch office revealed no clue of how long "1Å hours" is. Any ideas?
According to the scooter's website, the thingy can hover for up to 3 hours.
Using ordinary 87-octane gasoline, SoloTrek can hover for up to 3 hours, reach speeds of up to 70 knots, and traverse distances of up to 150 nautical miles.
So presumably maintaining a high speed uses a fair amount more petrol; perhaps it meant 1 1/2 hours or something, and whatever they used to write the article converted '1/2' into A-with-a-circle.
I definitely have to agree. After I made the mistake long ago of ordering something from amazon, I've been under an endless onslaught of spam from them.
Amazon.co.uk must be different to the American branch... I've had zero spam from them so far.
Of course, there's always teleconferencing, which would work pretty good, too, but this way you can hear your friends and the speaker sounds both very well. Otherwise you'd need some sort of attenuation and mixing system so that you could pipe the phone signal into your headphones along with the game sound.
The PC equivalent of this is Roger Wilco, but I've never tried it; I have pretty much zero confidence of it working over a modem connection.
When 'fat pipe' higher bandwidth connections begin to be standard in home networking, then it's more likely to be usuable.
Having said all this, having an ADSL connection on an arcade machine surely isn't infeasible; arcade machines are pretty pricy on their own, and an ADSL connection would be peanuts compared to the purchase price.
The most I'd ever put into an arcade machine is a pound a game, and only if it were a really good game (multiplayer, and/or with some sort of gimmick like Silent Scope's zoomed sniper scope rifle).
And this is London prices, so everything's about double what you'll pay in the rest of England.
Its about time coin-op arcade games joined the networked multiplayer arena. By far the most fun coin-ops are the ones where there are multiple machines next to each other (e.g. Sega Rally et. al.), and you can play your friends (and shout at them when they overtake you).
Adding more players over a network could make it even better... if done well.
The logistics are difficult though. On lots of multiplayer games on a PC you end up spending most of your time in the 'lobby' area waiting for a game, or searching for one that you can connect to with reasonable latency. Coin-ops need a quicker, more reliable process of game selection; put your coin in, and play, without any fuss.
As for the credit card aspect of it, well, I don't know. There's something to be said for just putting a coin in, having a quick fun game, and leaving.
I have less objection to a rendered simulation of screen contents being overlayed on an actual photo of the monitor itself. However, the entire image of the monitor, keyboard, mouse and monitor display is computer generated in this case.
The contents may not be photographable (is that even a word?), but the actual monitor itself certainly is. It makes the product look like a scam if the photo is completely faked.
Diamonds apparently can shatter, although it would probably take something pretty big to do it. A jumbo jet would probably do quite nicely:-)
I had a poke around on Google and this article on Zyvex's website (a molecular nanotech company) popped up, all about the use of synthetic diamond.
Some interesting ideas about diamond's applications in molecular computer production.
It also mentions that diamond fibres could perhaps be used instead to avoid the shatter problem.
Ah well, Arthur C. Clarke can't be right about everything, can he?:-)
Is Carbon going to be the nano-medium of the nanoscopic age?
Carbon is, basically, a pretty funky element.
Buckyballs and nano-tubes show great promise for nanotechnology.
The ring around the Earth in 3001: Final Odessey by Arthur C. Clarke also springs to mind; made out of synthetically produced diamond, with tall towers connecting the Earth's surface to the ring in orbit. The surface area inside the ring was be enormous, and was home to millions (billions?) of people.
Carbon's the medium of life (on this planet, anyway), a great candidate for nanotechnology structures, and if diamond can be synthetically manufactured on a massive scale, would be the material for macro-scale projects.
'Buckyballs' are molecules of buckminsterfullerene, the third allotrope of carbon (graphite and diamond being the first two). It consists of 60 carbon atoms in a geodesic dome arrangement.
This link has an article all about the discovery and naming of buckminsterfullerene.
This is good for a laugh. My 6 year old niece can bypass filter software.
When will 'they' (companies, politicians, etc.)work this simple fact out for themselves?
These 'parental lock' systems are named appropriately though; since the kids are so much more computer literate than their parents, they can lock their parents out whenever they like;-P
The logo on the IWSC site is exactly the sort of thing we keep seeing from wearables. You end up looking like some cheesy 70's sci-fi superhero, complete with wacky headgear and utility belt.
Surely the way to go is in the palmtop area. People would be much more comfortable with a wallet-sized thing, perhaps with unfoldable screen to get a readable area.
Who, apart from real geeks, actually wants to wear peripherals?
You may link to any article that you can locate in a search of our site. If the article does not come up in a search of our site, it means that it is no longer available for linking.
Since the 'partners' site doesn't show up on their search engine, this probably means they don't want links to it.
Then again it doesn't specify their search engine, so if you can find a link on Google (search for sites related to partners.nytimes.com and you get a link right to the partners home page... I'd copy the link but Slashdot keeps mangling it) or whatever, maybe that makes it alright:-P
The legalese doesn't seem to properly cover it either.
What it boils down to is Slashdot don't want to be sued.
This kind of thing's been around for a while, except using plastic.
Lasers are beamed into a special plastic whilst it's liquid, and the affected volume solidifies, giving you a solid 3D plastic model of whatever it was you 'printed'.
A bit more permanent than making an ice model...
Engineer turns up to presentation to demonstrate his new Miracle Widget, with a big wet patch in his pocket...
"Um, hi. I did have a model, but it kinda melted. Honest."
Slashdot Mirror
(Aside from the OCP of the Excession itself, they also mentioned the expedition)
So, it's a matter of comparing code. If it's 'sufficiently similar' there could be a case.
It's all up in the air of course, since there's 'copied and changed' code and 'coincidentally similar because it does the same thing' code.
I don't know how definitive the burden of proof has to be in the US, particularly in intellectual property cases.
It is a fundamental law of physics that the reliability of a device is inversely proportional to the importance of that device being reliable.
If a floppy contains the only copy of a critical document, it will fail instantaneously. It might even burst into flames for good measure.
Of course, if you try to demonstrate this effect, it won't work. The Universe knows when you're serious or not.
This will break it. Depending how the replace works, it will either:
The BBC News article and one of the Slashdot articles poses the argument that the RIP bill is contrary to the recently passed Human Rights Act.
So presumably maintaining a high speed uses a fair amount more petrol; perhaps it meant 1 1/2 hours or something, and whatever they used to write the article converted '1/2' into A-with-a-circle.
Doh.
When 'fat pipe' higher bandwidth connections begin to be standard in home networking, then it's more likely to be usuable.
Having said all this, having an ADSL connection on an arcade machine surely isn't infeasible; arcade machines are pretty pricy on their own, and an ADSL connection would be peanuts compared to the purchase price.
$2 a game?
Hm.
The most I'd ever put into an arcade machine is a pound a game, and only if it were a really good game (multiplayer, and/or with some sort of gimmick like Silent Scope's zoomed sniper scope rifle).
And this is London prices, so everything's about double what you'll pay in the rest of England.
Its about time coin-op arcade games joined the networked multiplayer arena. By far the most fun coin-ops are the ones where there are multiple machines next to each other (e.g. Sega Rally et. al.), and you can play your friends (and shout at them when they overtake you).
Adding more players over a network could make it even better... if done well.
The logistics are difficult though. On lots of multiplayer games on a PC you end up spending most of your time in the 'lobby' area waiting for a game, or searching for one that you can connect to with reasonable latency. Coin-ops need a quicker, more reliable process of game selection; put your coin in, and play, without any fuss.
As for the credit card aspect of it, well, I don't know. There's something to be said for just putting a coin in, having a quick fun game, and leaving.
IMHO, ISTM that all TLDs should be TLAs ;-)
I have less objection to a rendered simulation of screen contents being overlayed on an actual photo of the monitor itself. However, the entire image of the monitor, keyboard, mouse and monitor display is computer generated in this case.
The contents may not be photographable (is that even a word?), but the actual monitor itself certainly is. It makes the product look like a scam if the photo is completely faked.
I'm always suspicious of products where the 'photo' is actually a computer rendered artists impression, as the picture on the linked page clearly is.
Is there an actual photo of the device anywhere on the site? I can't find one.
Diamonds apparently can shatter, although it would probably take something pretty big to do it. A jumbo jet would probably do quite nicely :-)
:-)
I had a poke around on Google and this article on Zyvex's website (a molecular nanotech company) popped up, all about the use of synthetic diamond.
Some interesting ideas about diamond's applications in molecular computer production.
It also mentions that diamond fibres could perhaps be used instead to avoid the shatter problem.
Ah well, Arthur C. Clarke can't be right about everything, can he?
Is Carbon going to be the nano-medium of the nanoscopic age?
Carbon is, basically, a pretty funky element.
Buckyballs and nano-tubes show great promise for nanotechnology.
The ring around the Earth in 3001: Final Odessey by Arthur C. Clarke also springs to mind; made out of synthetically produced diamond, with tall towers connecting the Earth's surface to the ring in orbit. The surface area inside the ring was be enormous, and was home to millions (billions?) of people.
Carbon's the medium of life (on this planet, anyway), a great candidate for nanotechnology structures, and if diamond can be synthetically manufactured on a massive scale, would be the material for macro-scale projects.
'Buckyballs' are molecules of buckminsterfullerene, the third allotrope of carbon (graphite and diamond being the first two). It consists of 60 carbon atoms in a geodesic dome arrangement.
This link has an article all about the discovery and naming of buckminsterfullerene.
Right, let's try that again. Damn thing mangling the post.
There are lots of high-res photos at http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/, but it's not updated yet to include the new parts fitted by STS-92.
There are some pictures on the STS-92 site. This one shows the entire station, and the new antenna on the truss they just fitted.
The latest picture on the NASA STS-92 site of the Station itself seems to be , which shows the entire station and the new antenna on the truss.
These 'parental lock' systems are named appropriately though; since the kids are so much more computer literate than their parents, they can lock their parents out whenever they like
The logo on the IWSC site is exactly the sort of thing we keep seeing from wearables. You end up looking like some cheesy 70's sci-fi superhero, complete with wacky headgear and utility belt.
Surely the way to go is in the palmtop area. People would be much more comfortable with a wallet-sized thing, perhaps with unfoldable screen to get a readable area.
Who, apart from real geeks, actually wants to wear peripherals?
Can't say I've ever sniffed a bear.
According to NY Times' linking page: Since the 'partners' site doesn't show up on their search engine, this probably means they don't want links to it.
Then again it doesn't specify their search engine, so if you can find a link on Google (search for sites related to partners.nytimes.com and you get a link right to the partners home page... I'd copy the link but Slashdot keeps mangling it) or whatever, maybe that makes it alright
The legalese doesn't seem to properly cover it either.
What it boils down to is Slashdot don't want to be sued.
This kind of thing's been around for a while, except using plastic.
:-P
Lasers are beamed into a special plastic whilst it's liquid, and the affected volume solidifies, giving you a solid 3D plastic model of whatever it was you 'printed'.
A bit more permanent than making an ice model...
Engineer turns up to presentation to demonstrate his new Miracle Widget, with a big wet patch in his pocket... "Um, hi. I did have a model, but it kinda melted. Honest."
Anyway, a quick link to the 3D laser printer.