My college set up something like that for password resets. Two computing center student employees could type in their own passwords and the username of another student to reset that student's password. If I remember right, it didn't work on faculty accounts and in a few other situations.
Space-bound hardware needs special protection from radiation (no atmosphere to do that job for you). Without it, random bits of memory will get flipped. Sometimes permanently. Modern hardware is especially susceptible to this problem.
In fact, this exact thing happened to Voyager 2 somewhat recently, and it started talking gibberish to controllers here on Earth. Someone figured out what magical bit was flipped and how to translate back. In that case, I don't think the damage was permanent.
The computer in your pocket is unlikely to survive even a few months in space.
That's not to say that we can't put some incredible processing power into space, it's just that radiation-hardened hardware lacks behind the latest technology.
Completely different markets. The RP is NOT a microcontroller. It is not an Arduino. It is a full ARM computer (albeit a slow one compared to what you have on your desk). It's as if you ripped out the motherboard from your phone or tablet and made it more hacker friendly.
Where you have some overlap is the RP gives pinouts for connecting some hardware, but the way you talk to that hardware is completely different.
And when you talk about the RP having more RAM, I should put that into perspective. The Discovery board has 192kB. The RP has 256MB. These aren't even close to being the same class of device, much less the same market. Read the article... can you see the one you linked to bring used as a media center? Of course not, it's an absurd idea.
There's plenty of market for the model A. If anything, the model B had taken up a lot of that market (only ten bucks more and you get Ethernet, one more USB, and more RAM).
Openness really doesn't matter to the RP's target market. If you're working on a microcontroller, your goal is to eventually move beyond the prototype stage and make a product. Openness matters in that case. But the RP isn't a prototype board (though it could be used as one). Instead, it's the product, already finished for you (just add a case and power supply). Openness matters a bit when it comes to drivers and access to SPI and whatnot, but the documentation for that is available, and I've yet to hear any complaints.
No. I prefer modern payment methods over either coins or paper. For everything else, there's the occasional paper bill I keep in my wallet.
Since I pay with a debit card for most everything, I almost never receive change of either kind. Thus, I never have to keep a wad of change in my pocket. On the rare occasion that I pay with cash, any change goes to a cup for the occasional ice cream cone or something (which is pretty rare, since I never get change anyway).
So, if I got to pick if I'd rather have the $1 change in paper or coin, I'd choose the paper since I don't carry coins around with me anyway.
Could I deal with a transition away from $1 paper? Of course. It just makes my life that one tiny bit more annoying, and then I'd move on. More ice cream for me, in the end.
Download the source? Check. Modify it? Check. Flash it onto your device? Uh.... maybe. If you can get root. (Which, fortunately, is usually possible, despite the best efforts of the carriers.)
I think that's the rub right now, and it goes right back to the Tivoization debate.
With the exception that a lot of Linux stuff is already written to be rather cross-platform, if you bother recompiling. And if enough people go to ARM, distros will bundle those applications up for you.
And what do you know? That's already happened! Sure, not everything's available for ARM yet, but there's plenty out there already.
All devices that use the 30 pin dock connector pay a licensing fee to Apple for the privilege. They also get to put a "Made for iPhone" (or whatever) sticker on the box.
The cost is rumored to be the greater of 10% or $10. (These prices are subject to NDA and probably change depending on deals made with the accessory manufacturer, so I wouldn't necessarily take the exact number as factual). I believe the cost of the connector component itself is extra.
So, a simple $80 iHome stereo system has $10 going to Apple. A $400 Bose system would be closer to $40. I can only hope that BMW made some sort of arrangement so that it's not 10% of the cost of a new car.
And Apple wants to pay $1 per phone for some very significant patent licenses. What hypocrites!
I generally focus my gaze usually directly into their right eye (just pick one, doesn't really matter that much I don't think)
There's a NOVA episode that showed humans naturally look at the right eye first when seeing a face. (Meaning, we look left at the right eye of the other person). They went on to show that dogs do the same thing, theoretically a behavior that evolved as humans and dogs integrated socially.
And I've never been on a project that didn't have the oddest mixture of coding styles. And that's not because there was a lack of a style guide. But over the years (decades, sometimes) projects get combined, different styles work their way in over time as opinions change on the best style and as code gets reformatted ten times over.
Consistency is fine and all, but it tends to degrade over time.
On whatever code I'm working on, its always best to match what's there as much as possible.
If there's something I've learned, it's that the exact style doesn't matter, as long as it looks good, doesn't get in the way, and you try to enforce consistency.
I can't help hut feel that the insane medical system of my country (the US) is subsidizing the cost of hearing aids in your country. You're welcome, I guess.
My bet is that it's a protection against malware, but that's only a guess. After all, you don't want completely unrestricted sideloading, as long as the restrictions come from the user.
First, let me say that I've lived in both the US and Brazil, and I'm an Electrical Engineer.
Second, Brazil is on the verge of being considered "developed," if I understand rightly, so I object to calling it third world in the first place. It's actually a great place to live.
Third, from personal experience, Brazil's grid simply isn't better than the US's. For example, the power quality in Brazil is very sketchy. Pay attention to how the lights dim and brighten, for example. That will happen in a US home when the air conditioning compressor turns on, but that's about it. In Brazil, it's the fault of the power grid itself. (But having a large favela nearby didn't help much, either.) I've seen many computers with fried power supplies due brownouts in Brazil's grid; always use a UPS!
Fourth, distance matters when it comes to power generation. Turning on an extra station in the South can help with load problems, but that also introduces other issues due to geography. Much better is to start up another station nearer to where the failed plant is.
Fifth, while the US doesn't have a national grid, the individual grids are very interconnected, with power being transferred between them constantly. If one grid has a shortage, a neighboring grid will sell its extra capacity to them. These interconnections are constantly increasing, to the point that the US effectively does have a national grid.
The fact of the matter is that the US consumes an insane amount of electricity: over 3x that of China and 5x that of Brazil, per capita. More than the entire EU combined. Only Canada and Australia have to deal with such a large per capita consumption and a large, geographically dispersed population. The US grid system works very well, and out of necessity. If it worked as poorly as people think, there's no way the grid would ever keep up with that kind of demand.
Trojans don't count in the same way that moons don't count. Basically, the definition of "cleared the neighborhood" means that anything left is dominated by the gravitational influence of the planet. Moons orbit the planet, Trojans orbit the Lagrange points.
Another similar class of objects are those in orbital resonance with the planet. The Pluto/Neptune system, for example. Or Cruithne/Earth. The planet's gravity dominates in each case, so we're OK there.
The term "cleared the neighborhood" is unfortunately misleading. And purposefully vague, I always thought. When does the neighborhood become cleared? There's a lot of asteroids in our near neighborhood (which result in rather significant accretion events, so to speak).
I ride my bike for two reasons: commuting and fitness. I don't want to wear regular clothes! If I wore my work clothes while commuting, I'd arrive sweaty and hot. Instead, I bring my clothes with me and wear shorts and a thin shirt while on the bike. My recreational riding involve much longer rides, and here again regular clothes fail. They're hot, soak up sweat, and chafe something awful. Biking shorts (I wear loose-fitting shorts with the padded liner) are much more comfortable for long rides.
So, your points 2-4 simply don't apply that well to me. But then again, I don't use my bike to go clubbing... maybe I'd regret not having a chain case and fenders if I did.
...because it won't, and never will, and because this is the Linux community attempting to force Nvidia to develop open-source drivers, which is just about the exact opposite of freedom.
It's the exact opposite of freedom from Nvidia's perspective, that's true. But, on the other hand, it increases freedom for the users of the driver (those that want to modify the code and improve it or make drivers that work slightly differently). And on the third hand, the GPL grants only limited freedom (albeit freedom that might not exist otherwise) of those that would fork or otherwise make derivative works. There's probably more hands involved, too.
Freedom is often a matter of give-and-take, unfortunately.
The theory (whether or not this works in practice is another matter) is that forcing drivers, etc. to be open will improve user experience (more eyeballs, more developers, etc). There's something to it, as well... closed graphics drivers have been one reason "why graphics on Linux sucks," which has prevented linux devs from fixing the problem in the first place.
I'm sure there's pearls of wisdom scattered throughout Slashdot, but the moderation system only goes to +5. Maybe if it didn't have a limit, we'd see who the truly insightful posters really are?
I can see it now, Locke (15369) and Demosthenes (16815) rise to prominence through their constant (Score:1500, Insightful) posts.
Ender's Shadow does this very explicitly. Bean figures things out on his own, which mostly "ruins" the surprise twist, but that was never the point of the novel anyway. And yet, there's still that revelation to Ender (and even Bean, if I remember right... I'd have to re-read it to be sure) at the end. Very well done.
Ok, then. The deposit for the first notice is $1. Every false notice after that adds a zero (or doubles or some other function, probably up to a certain maximum, etc).
This even adds an additional incentive to not file false claims (it'll cost more next time, even if it's the next one isn't false), while providing a range that accessible to individuals yet punitive to the worst offenders.
Slashdot Mirror
Do diamonds count? If so:
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2010/12/08/exoplanets-of-the-week-a-diamond-planet-and-gas-giant-quadruplets/
QED
My college set up something like that for password resets. Two computing center student employees could type in their own passwords and the username of another student to reset that student's password. If I remember right, it didn't work on faculty accounts and in a few other situations.
You missed a big one. Cosmic rays.
Space-bound hardware needs special protection from radiation (no atmosphere to do that job for you). Without it, random bits of memory will get flipped. Sometimes permanently. Modern hardware is especially susceptible to this problem.
In fact, this exact thing happened to Voyager 2 somewhat recently, and it started talking gibberish to controllers here on Earth. Someone figured out what magical bit was flipped and how to translate back. In that case, I don't think the damage was permanent.
The computer in your pocket is unlikely to survive even a few months in space.
That's not to say that we can't put some incredible processing power into space, it's just that radiation-hardened hardware lacks behind the latest technology.
Completely different markets. The RP is NOT a microcontroller. It is not an Arduino. It is a full ARM computer (albeit a slow one compared to what you have on your desk). It's as if you ripped out the motherboard from your phone or tablet and made it more hacker friendly.
Where you have some overlap is the RP gives pinouts for connecting some hardware, but the way you talk to that hardware is completely different.
And when you talk about the RP having more RAM, I should put that into perspective. The Discovery board has 192kB. The RP has 256MB. These aren't even close to being the same class of device, much less the same market. Read the article ... can you see the one you linked to bring used as a media center? Of course not, it's an absurd idea.
There's plenty of market for the model A. If anything, the model B had taken up a lot of that market (only ten bucks more and you get Ethernet, one more USB, and more RAM).
Openness really doesn't matter to the RP's target market. If you're working on a microcontroller, your goal is to eventually move beyond the prototype stage and make a product. Openness matters in that case. But the RP isn't a prototype board (though it could be used as one). Instead, it's the product, already finished for you (just add a case and power supply). Openness matters a bit when it comes to drivers and access to SPI and whatnot, but the documentation for that is available, and I've yet to hear any complaints.
No. I prefer modern payment methods over either coins or paper. For everything else, there's the occasional paper bill I keep in my wallet.
Since I pay with a debit card for most everything, I almost never receive change of either kind. Thus, I never have to keep a wad of change in my pocket. On the rare occasion that I pay with cash, any change goes to a cup for the occasional ice cream cone or something (which is pretty rare, since I never get change anyway).
So, if I got to pick if I'd rather have the $1 change in paper or coin, I'd choose the paper since I don't carry coins around with me anyway.
Could I deal with a transition away from $1 paper? Of course. It just makes my life that one tiny bit more annoying, and then I'd move on. More ice cream for me, in the end.
Download the source? Check. .... maybe. If you can get root. (Which, fortunately, is usually possible, despite the best efforts of the carriers.)
Modify it? Check.
Flash it onto your device? Uh
I think that's the rub right now, and it goes right back to the Tivoization debate.
With the exception that a lot of Linux stuff is already written to be rather cross-platform, if you bother recompiling. And if enough people go to ARM, distros will bundle those applications up for you.
And what do you know? That's already happened! Sure, not everything's available for ARM yet, but there's plenty out there already.
Which doesn't have an SD slot. I only have two complaints about the Nexus 7, and that's one of them. (The other is that there's no HDMI port).
That said ... I love my Nexus. If I ever need more storage, I'll find a way to use an external flash memory reader.
All devices that use the 30 pin dock connector pay a licensing fee to Apple for the privilege. They also get to put a "Made for iPhone" (or whatever) sticker on the box.
The cost is rumored to be the greater of 10% or $10. (These prices are subject to NDA and probably change depending on deals made with the accessory manufacturer, so I wouldn't necessarily take the exact number as factual). I believe the cost of the connector component itself is extra.
So, a simple $80 iHome stereo system has $10 going to Apple. A $400 Bose system would be closer to $40. I can only hope that BMW made some sort of arrangement so that it's not 10% of the cost of a new car.
And Apple wants to pay $1 per phone for some very significant patent licenses. What hypocrites!
I generally focus my gaze usually directly into their right eye (just pick one, doesn't really matter that much I don't think)
There's a NOVA episode that showed humans naturally look at the right eye first when seeing a face. (Meaning, we look left at the right eye of the other person). They went on to show that dogs do the same thing, theoretically a behavior that evolved as humans and dogs integrated socially.
However, this is a quick glance, not a stare.
And I've never been on a project that didn't have the oddest mixture of coding styles. And that's not because there was a lack of a style guide. But over the years (decades, sometimes) projects get combined, different styles work their way in over time as opinions change on the best style and as code gets reformatted ten times over.
Consistency is fine and all, but it tends to degrade over time.
On whatever code I'm working on, its always best to match what's there as much as possible.
If there's something I've learned, it's that the exact style doesn't matter, as long as it looks good, doesn't get in the way, and you try to enforce consistency.
Since you're going down to the studs anyway, find some place to put in a simple secret passageway. You know, for the kids and grandkids.
Look for dead spaces in the walls. It can be as simple as going from one closet to another. Try to connect to the crawlspace, maybe.
I can't help hut feel that the insane medical system of my country (the US) is subsidizing the cost of hearing aids in your country. You're welcome, I guess.
I know it's not xkcd, but http://abstrusegoose.com/389">this is obligatory.
My bet is that it's a protection against malware, but that's only a guess. After all, you don't want completely unrestricted sideloading, as long as the restrictions come from the user.
Think of it as bitmap vs vector graphic of a mustang.
FTFY. Analogy fail. He was looking for a car analogy.
Apple maps strike again!
First, let me say that I've lived in both the US and Brazil, and I'm an Electrical Engineer.
Second, Brazil is on the verge of being considered "developed," if I understand rightly, so I object to calling it third world in the first place. It's actually a great place to live.
Third, from personal experience, Brazil's grid simply isn't better than the US's. For example, the power quality in Brazil is very sketchy. Pay attention to how the lights dim and brighten, for example. That will happen in a US home when the air conditioning compressor turns on, but that's about it. In Brazil, it's the fault of the power grid itself. (But having a large favela nearby didn't help much, either.) I've seen many computers with fried power supplies due brownouts in Brazil's grid; always use a UPS!
Fourth, distance matters when it comes to power generation. Turning on an extra station in the South can help with load problems, but that also introduces other issues due to geography. Much better is to start up another station nearer to where the failed plant is.
Fifth, while the US doesn't have a national grid, the individual grids are very interconnected, with power being transferred between them constantly. If one grid has a shortage, a neighboring grid will sell its extra capacity to them. These interconnections are constantly increasing, to the point that the US effectively does have a national grid.
The fact of the matter is that the US consumes an insane amount of electricity: over 3x that of China and 5x that of Brazil, per capita. More than the entire EU combined. Only Canada and Australia have to deal with such a large per capita consumption and a large, geographically dispersed population. The US grid system works very well, and out of necessity. If it worked as poorly as people think, there's no way the grid would ever keep up with that kind of demand.
Trojans don't count in the same way that moons don't count. Basically, the definition of "cleared the neighborhood" means that anything left is dominated by the gravitational influence of the planet. Moons orbit the planet, Trojans orbit the Lagrange points.
Another similar class of objects are those in orbital resonance with the planet. The Pluto/Neptune system, for example. Or Cruithne/Earth. The planet's gravity dominates in each case, so we're OK there.
The term "cleared the neighborhood" is unfortunately misleading. And purposefully vague, I always thought. When does the neighborhood become cleared? There's a lot of asteroids in our near neighborhood (which result in rather significant accretion events, so to speak).
I ride my bike for two reasons: commuting and fitness. I don't want to wear regular clothes! If I wore my work clothes while commuting, I'd arrive sweaty and hot. Instead, I bring my clothes with me and wear shorts and a thin shirt while on the bike. My recreational riding involve much longer rides, and here again regular clothes fail. They're hot, soak up sweat, and chafe something awful. Biking shorts (I wear loose-fitting shorts with the padded liner) are much more comfortable for long rides.
So, your points 2-4 simply don't apply that well to me. But then again, I don't use my bike to go clubbing ... maybe I'd regret not having a chain case and fenders if I did.
...because it won't, and never will, and because this is the Linux community attempting to force Nvidia to develop open-source drivers, which is just about the exact opposite of freedom.
It's the exact opposite of freedom from Nvidia's perspective, that's true. But, on the other hand, it increases freedom for the users of the driver (those that want to modify the code and improve it or make drivers that work slightly differently). And on the third hand, the GPL grants only limited freedom (albeit freedom that might not exist otherwise) of those that would fork or otherwise make derivative works. There's probably more hands involved, too.
Freedom is often a matter of give-and-take, unfortunately.
The theory (whether or not this works in practice is another matter) is that forcing drivers, etc. to be open will improve user experience (more eyeballs, more developers, etc). There's something to it, as well ... closed graphics drivers have been one reason "why graphics on Linux sucks," which has prevented linux devs from fixing the problem in the first place.
Indeed, reading this kind of nonsense makes my blood boil.
Wait, what?
I'm sure there's pearls of wisdom scattered throughout Slashdot, but the moderation system only goes to +5. Maybe if it didn't have a limit, we'd see who the truly insightful posters really are?
I can see it now, Locke (15369) and Demosthenes (16815) rise to prominence through their constant (Score:1500, Insightful) posts.
Ender's Shadow does this very explicitly. Bean figures things out on his own, which mostly "ruins" the surprise twist, but that was never the point of the novel anyway. And yet, there's still that revelation to Ender (and even Bean, if I remember right ... I'd have to re-read it to be sure) at the end. Very well done.
Ok, then. The deposit for the first notice is $1. Every false notice after that adds a zero (or doubles or some other function, probably up to a certain maximum, etc).
This even adds an additional incentive to not file false claims (it'll cost more next time, even if it's the next one isn't false), while providing a range that accessible to individuals yet punitive to the worst offenders.