It uses the ACE1101
on
Server In A Fly
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· Score: 3, Interesting
Here's some information on the ACE1101 Arithmetic Controller Engine (ACEx) for Low Power Applications:
Arithmetic
Controller
The ACE1101 (Arithmetic Controller Engine) family of
microcontrollers is a dedicated programmable monolithic inte-grated
circuit for applications requiring high performance, low
power, and small size. It is a fully static part fabricated using
CMOS technology.
The ACE1101 product family has an 8-bit microcontroller core, 64
bytes of RAM, 64 bytes of data EEPROM and 1K bytes of code
EEPROM. Its on-chip peripherals include a multi-function 16-bit
timer, watchdog/idle timer, and programmable under-voltage
detection circuitry. On-chip clock and reset functions reduce the
number of required external components. The ACE1101 product
family is available in 8-pin TSSOP, 8-pin DIP and 14-pin DIP
packages.
Yes, adjusting for inflation and COL is always important when comparing monetary amounts from different years. Good call! Here's the woldwide gross for each Trek movie in adjusted 2002 dollars:
Biodiesel... But does it scale?
on
239 MPG Car
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
If you are interested in alternative fuel sources, I recommend you check out Steven Den Beste's comments on biodiesel. He's skeptical about its scalability, to say the least. Here's a tiny quote:
"The problem with all of them isn't that they can't be made to work, it's that the amount of power (energy per time) they can provide us is several orders of magnitude too small to make any real difference if our goal is to significantly reduce our consumption of petroleum. What you find is that most of them can generate really substantial amounts of power in short bursts, but the average power generation is tiny on the scale we're discussing."
Please note that the above is just a tiny quote, and you need to read the whole article to really put it into context.
You might also want to check out his other article on alternative fuels which covers solaris, geothermal, wind, fusion, tides, fission, and solar satellites.
I'm not saying he's 100% correct, but he definitely brings up some points that need to be considered when having an intelligent conversation about alternative fuels.
This isn't exactly breaking news, but good news for all the rabid x86 fans out there no doubt.
Here's the Heliopod blurb *cough*shameless plug*cough* from Oct 4:
"Having had its
productization deferred back in January, Solaris 9 x86 will now be receiving full support from Sun. It is believed that this decision was based, in part, on highly vocal fans of the x86 edition. However, unlike its Sparc edition counterpart, Sun will be charging for Solaris 9 x86. Initial prices are $99 for single-processor desktop systems and some as-yet undetermined price for multiprocessor systems. Optional service is also available starting at $75 per month for desktop systems and $1,275 a year for lower-end servers."
By the way, TechTarget.com posted an interview with Chris Baker, Sun's Product Manager for Solaris x86. They discuss quite a few aspects of the OS, including support, driver development, and pricing plans. If you run x86, it's probably worth checking out.
[I posted this before, but I thought it was apropos to this story as well.]
Perhaps you are wondering what an NP-complete problem is or what this P vs. NP stuff is all about. You might want to check out the comp.theory FAQ and scroll down to 7. P vs NP. It gives a bit of history and a decent description.
Or check out The P versus NP Problem at Clay for a really good description (unfortunately too long to quote here). And lastly, you might want to check out Tutorial: Does P = NP? at VB Helper for a little more info.
Hopefully that helps. I was very clueless when it came to P vs. NP stuff that always seems to be mentioned on Slashdot. So I took the time to look it up. Now I'm clueless but I have links to share.:)
If you need something small, and don't mind building your own, you should consider the VIA EPIA Mini ITX Mainboard:
"Measuring just
170mm x 170mm, the VIA EPIA Mini-ITX mainboard is 30% smaller than the smallest Flex-ATX platforms, while maintaining Micro ATX chassis compliancy. It also provides the smallest and coolest processing environment available, including an optional fanless configuration. The VIA Apollo PLE133 North Bridge features integrated graphics with 2D/3D acceleration and DVD Motion Compensation, accompanied by onboard SoundBlaster(TM) and SoundBlaster(TM) Pro compatible audio, delivering key multimedia capabilities. Onboard 10/100 LAN, TV-Out, an additional PCI slot, and a full set of I/O features provide ample connectivity and expansion options."
Everything from NIC to S-Video all for about $120. Just add 512MB PC133 SDRAM for about $55 and either a hard drive or a compact flash card with an IDE->CF adapter. The "EDEN" Via chips don't even need a fan but still run at up to 667MHz.
For more info, check out the unofficial source of mini-itx goodness... Mini-ITX.com.
Of course, there is still the issue of keyboard, waterproofing, touchscreens, and all that. But getting a nice, cool-running, system that fits in a 7"x7" square is a good start.
"But the Blu-ray DVDs will require greater capital investment by manufacturers and
will feature protective cartridges and other quirks that may make compatibility with existing products costly and difficult."
That implies, to me at least, that the Toshiba-NEC format will not require cartridges. Blu-Ray DVDs definitely will.
Here are the Blu-ray DVD specifications for those who are interested. And pay attention to that cartridge dimension spec give above, for the "easy to use optical disc cartridge [that] protects the optical disc's recording and playback phase from dust and fingerprints." The fact that they use cartridges was news to me.
Blu-ray Disc Specifications
Recording capacity: 23.3GB / 25GB / 27GB
Laser wavelength: 405 nm (blue-violet laser)
Lens numerical aperture (NA): 0.85
Data transfer rate: 36 Mbps
Disk diameter: 120mm
Disk thickness: 1.2mm
Optical trasmittence protection layer: 0.1mm
Recording format: Phase change recording
Tracking format: Groove recording
Tracking pitch: 0.32um
Shortest pit length: 0.160/18.0/19.5 Gbits/in2
Recording phase density: 16.8/18.0/19.5 Gbits/in2
Video recording format: MPEG-2 video
Audio recording format: AC3, MPEG-1, Layer 2, etc.
Video and audio multiplex format: MPEG-2 transport stream
Cartridge dimensions: Approx. 129x131x7mm
Summary Gamma radiation dose rates were measured at several locations in and around the U.S. Capitol and U.S. Library of Congress buildings in Washington, D.C. A qualified radiation surveyor used a Bicron MicroRem meter for measuring. Dose rates inside the Capitol building and outside the Thomas Jefferson Building were measured at 30 microrem per hour. This dose rate: (1) exceeds local background radiation dose rates; (2) is up to 550 percent greater than the typical dose rate "at the fence line" around nuclear power plants; (3) is about 13,000 times greater than the average individual dose rate from worldwide nuclear power production; (4) is about 13,000 times greater than ongoing worldwide exposures to radiation from the Chernobyl accident; and (5) exceeds the dose rate associated with the radiation protection standards proposed for the Yucca Mountain high-level nuclear waste facility. The measured level of radiation is associated with up to a 0.5 percent increase in cancer risk, according to U.S. EPA risk assessment methods.
Yes, read that again. The pedestal for the statue of Roger Williams (Rotunda/Senate Chamber Hallway, U.S. Capitol) gives off about 30 microrem per hour... more than the proposed standards for radiation at the perimeter of Yucca Mountain. Just to put in perspective.
(Various disclaimers: Yes, the Steve Milloy's JunkScience.com site does usually have a politcal agenda. However, that does not, in itself, make their claims any less true. And yes, you should take into account alpha vs. gamma radiation. And for what it's worth, the radiation study was made possible by a grant from Citizens for the Integrity of Science. An opposing viewpoint can be found here.)
For those of you didn't already know, Eric S. Raymond maintains a weblog called Armed and Dangerous. Today he has an interesting post about the NYT article called Diet Considered as a Bad Religion (you may need to scroll down a bit). Here's the obligatory blockquote:
"The NYT article tells us that the dominant dietary religion of the last twenty years is cracking -- that the weight of evidence against the fat-is-evil/carbs-are-good theory is no longer supportable. Well and good -- but it won't necessarily do us a lot of good to discard this religion only to get stuck with another one."
It's a classic ESR rant, but probably worth reading the whole thing.
I can't believe that the from the you-must-face-the-gazebo-alone dept. bit hasn't drawn more comments and explanations. It's really pretty funny in that special D&D geek way. For your pleasure and information, here's the scoop from the rec.games.frp.dnd FAQ. Blockquoth the FAQ:
E15: What is the Gazebo story? And what's the Head of Vecna?
Both of these are gaming stories that have been told and retold so many times that they have taken on the air of urban legends--where the original DM is a "friend of my sister-in-law's uncle's second cousin" and if you track that path down, it turns out to be just that, a story. However, in both of these cases, the original tellers are known, the original versions are archived on the web, and both stories really happened!
The Tale of Eric and the Dread Gazebo, by Richard Aronson, is about a player who didn't know that a gazebo is a hutlike building typically found in parks, and had his character attack one. The story was originally written in 1986, and various versions of it can be found all over the web. One such place is the rec.humor.funny webpage; another, with some background into how the story spread, can be found at DreadGazebo.com.
Whereas the tale of Eric and the Gazebo is about how lack of knowledge can be a dangerous thing, The Head of Vecna, by Mark Steuer, is more of a morality tale about how greed can make you stupid. Most *D&D players have heard about the Hand and Eye of Vecna, powerful artifacts which require the owner to cut off his own hand or eye in order to gain the powers. In this case, the characters found what they thought was the Head of Vecna, and ended up with several headless--and thus very dead--characters. The full story can be found at on the web at Stan Berry's webpage.
There you go. Classic D&D humor no self respecting geek should be without.:)
I think it is worth mentioning the etymology of the name "Gentoo" for this distro. I believe that back in the day, it used to be called "Enoch", but then they decided that they needed a new name... something based on penguins (of course!). Thus Gentoo was chosen, being (I think) a type of penguin known for being the best and fastest swimmer of all penguins.
So here's some obligatory Gentoo links for you zoologoy freaks:
Gentoo penguin: "The Gentoo penguin is a member of the genus Pygoscelis, which contains two other members, the Adelie and the Chinstrap. When inspecting the three, the Adelie looks more like the odd one in the group of three. Chinstraps and Gentoos share more morphological features, but the Gentoo is the most colorful of the three with its orangish beak and pinkish-orange feet. They can also be positively identified by an interorbit band of plumage that runs superiorly over the head."
Pete & Barbara's Page: "Males have their maximum weight of about 8 kg just before moulting and their minimum weight of about 5.5kg just before mating. For females the maximum weight is 7.5kg just before moulting but their weight drops to below 5 kg when guarding the chicks in the nest."
Gentoo Penguin: 10 Facts: "Adults can be found throughout the year on breeding islands indicating that they are relatively sedentary. They feed on Rock cod, amphipods and cephalopods (mainly squid). Females tend to eat more krill than the males, while the males tend to eat more fish than the females. It is thought that gentoo penguins are gregarious at sea."
Penguin Chicks: Come on... everyone loves baby animals!:)
Seriously though, Gentoo Linux sounds really cool. I'm a die-hard Debian guy (especially with Woody going stable in May)... but I plan on giving Gentoo a try this week. And I wish the best to the developers.
Yeah, nothing like having your systems go down over a weekend because you didn't upgrade fast enough. Pfft!
Why not try something a little more reasonable, such as SecurityFocus Pager 3.0? And I blockquote:
"The SecurityFocus Pager is a dynamic application designed to help system administrators track content of interest to them on the SecurityFocus.com web site. It affords the system administrator the ability to select categories of interest and tracks them automatically, notifying the administrator when new content arrives. The Security Focus Pager displays short descriptive summaries
allowing the administrator to stay updated on relevant issues in the security world, including vulnerabilities, news articles, software releases, and other important information."
Of course, there are other tools available that do the same thing (or something similar). The point is tools like this allow admins to stay up on security issues, but let them upgrade immediately or as soon as practicable.
What is NetHack?
on
Nethack 3.4.0
·
· Score: 5, Informative
What do you mean you've never heard of Nethack?!
I'm surprised to read quite a few posts from people saying "What's Nethack?"... well, here's some information to get you started on an answer:
Unsung Heros: NetHack: "NetHack is a spectacular dungeon crawl that has been in development for more than 15 years. It's the only game in this feature that we can refer to in the present tense, because it is the only game still being actively worked on. It features random dungeons, enough monsters to fill an AD&D menagerie, and enough commands to create a programming language."
The Gamespy Hall of Fame: "Here's a game that's been under continuous development for over 15 years. It has no graphics, unless you count the primitive patterns made of ascii characters. And yet is has a huge following -- a very active newsgroup, fans all over the globe, and many instances of major media coverage. There's some kind of magic in NetHack, a world so huge and complex that every game is completely different, where each new item can twist the gameplay in new directions. Mostly we love it for the surprises -- the number of times you try some amazingly obscure action and find out that it works, leaving slump back in your chair and exclaim, 'They thought of everything!'"
Salon: The Best Game Ever: "But as any hacker worth the title will tell you, Nethack is still one of the best games ever made. What's more, it's one of the best open-source games ever made -- meaning anyone who cares can grab ahold of the game's source code and make changes and improvements. The player's guide is even authored by none other than open-source ontologist Eric S. Raymond..."
The Nethack Homepage: "Nethack is a single player, ASCII graphics-based adventure game, similar to the lines of Dungeons & Dragons and similar fantasy games. It is commonly classified in the larger group of Rogue-like Games, which generally are all text-based, solo adventures. Within the game, your character is after the infamous Wizard of Yendor, who has stolen the Amulet of Yendor and plans to use it for his evil purposes. You, a young member of your chosen class, have been blessed by your people and your god to retrieve the Amulet, and to save the world from the Wizard's evil plans."
Variants and Utilities: "One of the most impressive features of Nethack is the amount of 3rd party developed material that either is a varient of the Nethack game, or can be used to enhance your Nethack gaming experience. You'll find both variants and utilites for Nethack listed on this page."
But this one may be (in my biased opinion) the coolest project of all...
Nethack-Palm Porting Project: "The Nethack-Palm porting project is a loosely-knit group of Nethack and Palm enthusiasts who are working to port the classic game Nethack to the Palm platform. The project is well underway, but still far from complete so we welcome any new contributors." (See also Roguelikes for PalmOS)
So there you go. NetHack. What is it? The longest running, most amazing, coolest, open source game in the history of computers.... or something.:) But seriously, if you've never played NetHack, give it a try. It's worth it, if nothing else, just to say you did.
ORBS, ORBZ, and MAPS Previously on Slashdot
on
ORBZ Shuts Down
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· Score: 3, Informative
Previously on Slashdot:
ORBS Forks: "Wired is carrying this article about the shutdown of Alan Brown's Open Relay Behavior-Modification System, more commonly known as ORBS. Brown, of New Zealand, closed his operation after two local companies won legal injunctions against him for listing them." It seems the list of 94,000 open relays will be maintained by: "Open Relay Black List of Phoenix, AZ, Open Relay Block Zone (ORBZ), of Basingstoke, England, and the Open Relay Database (ORDB), of Aarhus, Denmark." We've gotten a zillion ORBS submissions since the day its website went down, but this is the first post-ORBS story with enough info to be worth a mention. Guess the dust just needed to settle."
MAPS vs. ORBS: "It seems that the anti-spammers at MAPS and ORBS have gone from a cold war into a shooting one, with MAPS listing ORBS on their blackhole list. ORBS accuses MAPS of doing it for financial gain, MAPS accuses ORBS of attacking systems, Alan Cox gets peeved about spam, kuro5hin.org has the obligatory "Slashdot is censoring the story!" postings but has at least one seemingly clueful post, and the U.S. House passed an anti-spam bill yesterday - coincidence, or devious conspiracy?"
ORBS Lookup Entries Undergo Major Revamping: "I noticed this morning that as of 2001/2/1 relays.orbs.org has been decommisioned, ORBS has announced. The announcement further mentions some serious new testing/checking/hostname additions, about a dozen of them, that will greatly increase the granularity of the ORBS results. A benefit seems to be the end user now has fine granularity in the results s/he will get back, obviating some of the bullshit griping that surrounds ORBS most often. More power to us and them. =)"
It is always helpful to read current stories with a bit of historical context.
Hopefully you find some of that to be interesting.
The Benefits of Serial ATA
on
Serial ATA Coming
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· Score: 4, Informative
So you want to know what Serial ATA is all about but you don't want to read the article? Well, of all places Dell has a decent page about Serial ATA. It takes a bit of the "this is the best thing since sliced bread" stance, but there is some good info in there nevertheless. It is this info that I will now blockquote:
Benefits of Serial ATA Serial ATA offers a number of benefits over Parallel ATA, including:
Reductions in voltage and pin count
Smaller, easier-to-route cables; elimination of the cable-length limitation
Improved data robustness
Backward compatibility
Voltage Reduction Serial ATA's low-voltage requirement (500 millivolts [mV] peak-to-peak) will effectively alleviate the increasingly difficult-to-accommodate 5-volt signaling requirement that hampers the current Parallel ATA interface.
Cabling The Serial ATA architecture replaces the wide Parallel ATA ribbon cable with a thin, flexible cable that can be up to 1 meter in length. The serial cable is smaller and easier to route inside the chassis (see Figure 2). The small-diameter cable can help improve air flow inside the PC system chassis and will facilitate future designs of smaller PC systems.
Improved Data Robustness Serial ATA will offer more thorough error checking and error correcting capabilities than are currently available with Parallel ATA. The end-to-end integrity of transferred commands and data can be guaranteed across the serial bus.
Backward Compatibility Serial ATA will provide backward compatibility for legacy Parallel ATA and ATAPI devices.
More information can be found at the Serial ATA FAQ (again, rather 'pro' biased).
What is the OECD Privacy Policy Generator? It's a freely available tool to help you put together a working privacy policy for your website. Here is the site description:
"It provides guidance on conducting an internal review of existing personal data practices and on developing a privacy policy statement. It gives links to private sector organisations with expertise in developing a privacy policy. It offers links to governmental agencies, non-governmental organisations and private bodies that give information on applicable regulations.
The Generator makes use of a questionnaire to learn about your personal data practices. A Help Section provides explanatory notes and practical guidance. Warning flags appear where appropriate. Your answers are then fed into a pre-formatted draft policy statement. You must assess this statement: is it an accurate reflection of your personal data practices and policy?"
I'm not sure if it fits with the P3P standard, but I thought some site admins might find it to be useful.
PS. OECD = Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development. According to their site they are "an international organisation helping governments tackle the economic, social and governance challenges of a globalised economy."
Here's a quick list of some floppy distros that you may not have heard about (and some that you have) with summaries. Tom's Root Boot is definitely one to check out. I've heard Coyote is good too, but haven't tried it myself. Links and summaries are brought to you by Freshmeat.net. Enjoy.
Herbix: "Herbix is a Linux server that fits on a floppy. It supports ipchains and can serve FTP, HTTP, IRC, DHCP, SMTP, and IDENT."
Mike's Jukebox Distro: "Mike's Jukebox Distro is really just a floppy image that you add to a CD full of mp3's, using it as the El-Torito boot image. It has a complete Linux kernel and madplay, along with BusyBox. A simple shell script uses "find" to get a list of all mp3's on the CD, and it then plays each of them in order. tty3 is used for the player output, tty1, and tty2 have shells to allow the user to "play" while it's playing music."
RIMiRadio: "RIMiRadio is a floppy disk distro of Linux and an Icecast server."
floppyfw: "Floppyfw is a router and simple firewall on one single floppy. It uses Linux basic firewall capabilities, and has a very simple packaging system. It is perfect for masquerading and securing networks on ADSL and cable lines, using both static IP, DHCP, and PPPoE, and provides a simple installation, which usually involves editing of only one file on the floppy."
BBIagent Router: "BBIagent is a single floppy Linux-based router for sharing a broadband Internet connection. It also serves as a firewall to prohibit intruders from accessing your LAN. You can create your own BBIagent router software (a diskette file image) on our server based on your hardware configuration (NICs) and connection protocol (e.g. PPPoE, PPPoATM or DHCP). It is very easy to install and use."
Coyote Linux: "Coyote Linux is a single floppy distribution for people who have an Internet connection that they wish to share with other computers on a LAN. In addition to connection sharing, it also provides firewall services to help protect the internal network. The goal of the Coyote project is to make it as quick and easy as possible to share an Internet connection."
Tom's RootBoot: "rtbt is the most Linux on one floppy disk for rescue recovery panic and emergencies, contains tools to keep in your shirt pockets, is useful whenever you can't use a hard drive and contains about 100 rescue tools."
Pocket Linux: "Pocket Linux is an almost minimal, one floppy linux system designed to quickly convert PC workstation into secure linux-based workstation using ssh to connect to remote host (other networking clients are also supported). It supports bootp for determining host IP and other network parameters (there's also manual configuration possible, but bootp is recommended). In addition to workstations equipped with a network card (ethernet or arcnet), you can also use Pocket Linux on a PC equipped with a modem. Modem is automatically detected and then PPP connection is made."
Trinux: "Trinux is a minimal Linux distribution that boots from a single floppy or CD-ROM, loads its packages from an FTP/HTTP server, IDE filesystem, or additional floppies, and runs entirely in RAM. Trinux contains the latest versions of popular network security tools that can be used to conduct security research, analyze network traffic, and perform vulnerability testing."
Hopefully this list is helpful to those of you just starting to think about tiny distros.
For those who don't want to read the article and use Google, the game in question is Shadow Man 2: Second Coming from Acclaim. In it, you play the part of Michael Leroi a "heavily-armed, 240 lb bad-ass". Here's a little snippet of the game's story:
"As a desperate New York cop drags his shattered body from a blazing tenement building, his partner and friend perishes inside at the hands of a huge, demonic creature. His death is not in vain, however, for it gives his colleague a chance to escape with the very thing the creature seeks; an enormous and ancient book, sealed shut by a series of powerful clasps...
Some ten years later in the southern United States, a near-empty passenger train thunders through the haze of an early evening dusk, as it makes it way to New Orleans. On board, alone, sits Michael LeRoi. As night falls and the moon rises, white-blue sparks of "Shadow Power" surge from his chest and envelope him as the train's interior lights plunge into darkness. Michael LeRoi, as he does every night, transforms to become the Shadow Man."
This is, of course, a sequel to the original Shadow Man (Demo) which was a self-proclaimed "uniquely terrifying 3rd person adventure".
Shadow Man 2 for Playstation 2 will begin shipping to North American retail on March 7th.
Perhaps you are wondering what an NP-complete problem is or what this P vs. NP stuff is all about. You might want to check out the comp.theory FAQ and scroll down to 7. P vs NP. It gives a bit of history and a decent description.
Or check out The P versus NP Problem at Clay for a really good description (unfortunately too long to quote here). And lastly, you might want to check out Tutorial: Does P = NP? at VB Helper for a little more info.
Hopefully that helps. I was very clueless when it came to P vs. NP stuff that always seems to be mentioned on Slashdot. So I took the time to look it up. Now I'm clueless but I have links to share.:)
Looks like that isn't the only one to be made into live action.... Jûbei ninpôchô will too. I shall now blockquote from Yahoo News:
'Mortal' Maven Nabs 'Ninja Scroll' Wed Mar 13, 2:31 AM ET By Dana Harris
HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - "Mortal Kombat" producer Larry Kasanoff has bought all remake rights to the Japanese 1994 anime blockbuster "Ninja Scroll" with the intention of turning it into an f/x-driven live-action feature that will spawn television, live stage tours, video games and music.
Critically acclaimed as Kawajiri Yoshiaki's masterpiece, "Ninja Scroll" is a samurai sword-and-sorcery epic in which a masterless ninja for hire joins forces with a powerful female ninja after her team is destroyed by a powerful man-monster. They create a tragic love story that culminates with the overthrow of the Shogun government.
"Anime is today what video games were seven years ago -- an entirely different style of entertainment that will be mainstream in the very near future," Kasanoff said.
Kasanoff is chairman and CEO of Threshold Entertainment, whose digital animation and effects subsidiary, will supervise visual FX for "Ninja Scroll," while another unit will create and manage the online presence of the brand.
Threshold also represents such entertainment properties as Duke Nukem, Mortal Kombat, Playboy, Hellraiser, Pepsi Co./Frito Lay and Ozzy Osbourne, developing brands for film, television and the Internet.
Anytime someone mentions Tron, everyone is quick to mention the upcoming sequel. Coming Attractions has some spoilers on Tron 2.0 that I will ruthlessly blockquote below:
---BEGIN SPOILER--- Jeff Bridges character does play a Colonel Kurtz-like character now permanently in cyberspace. The script also features a cyberspace ghetto where all of the obsolete software and videogame characters go when no one uses them anymore. This project had been cold for quite some time until recently, when Disney execs were surprised to learn of the strength of advanced sales for the 20th anniversary DVD going on sale next month (and which may be the best DVD ever produced by Disney). As a result, the sequel has apparently gained momentum as of late. Glimpses of pre-production material for Tron 2.0 will appear on the DVD." ---END SPOILER---
"Burnt out Captain Willard is sent into the jungle with orders to find and kill Colonel Kurtz who has set up his own army within the jungle. As he descends into the jungle he is slowly over taken by the jungles mesmerizing powers and the battles and insanity which surround him. His crew begins to succumbs to drugs and are slowly killed off one by one. As Willard continues his journey he begins to become more and more like the man he was sent to kill."
There is also some good info here as well, but it's mostly a rehash of other sites. Surprisingly UpcomingMovies.com doesn't appear to have any info on this.
The article was written by Glenn Reynolds. He also maintains a rather cool weblog at Instapundit.com. More information about him can be found here, from which I will blockquote:
"
WHO IS GLENN REYNOLDS? I'm a law professor at the University of Tennessee. I write various law review articles, opeds, and other stuff. My most recent book is The Appearance of Impropriety: How the Ethics Wars Have Undermined American Government, Business and Society, (The Free Press, 1997) coauthored with Peter W. Morgan. For something completely different, see Environmental Regulation of Nanotechnology: Some Preliminary Observations, from the April, 2001 Environmental Law Reporter. (Sorry, but most law review articles aren't on the Web).
I'm interested in everything, but my chief interest is in the intersection between advanced technologies and individual liberty. The vast majority of my writing touches on this in one way or another.
I'm also very interested in music. I produce, write for, or perform with a number of bands (but not "Pachyderm Party" -- that's a different Glenn Reynolds), including Mobius Dick, The Nebraska Guitar Militia, and the Defenders of the Faith. I own a small record company (it's not organized as a nonprofit, but it might as well be) with my brother and another guy, called WonderDog Records. Some of my favorite acts are Cecilia Noel and the Wild Clams, BT, The Supreme Beings of Leisure, and, of course, Creedence Clearwater Revival."
And he may be one of the few columnists out there that hates the RIAA as much as the Slashdot crowd.
I thought a little background on him would be appropriate since all the claims of conservative bias and such started being flung around.
Slashdot Mirror
You might also want to check out his other article on alternative fuels which covers solaris, geothermal, wind, fusion, tides, fission, and solar satellites.
I'm not saying he's 100% correct, but he definitely brings up some points that need to be considered when having an intelligent conversation about alternative fuels.
Here's the Heliopod blurb *cough*shameless plug*cough* from Oct 4:
By the way, TechTarget.com posted an interview with Chris Baker, Sun's Product Manager for Solaris x86. They discuss quite a few aspects of the OS, including support, driver development, and pricing plans. If you run x86, it's probably worth checking out.Perhaps you are wondering what an NP-complete problem is or what this P vs. NP stuff is all about. You might want to check out the comp.theory FAQ and scroll down to 7. P vs NP. It gives a bit of history and a decent description.
Or check out The P versus NP Problem at Clay for a really good description (unfortunately too long to quote here). And lastly, you might want to check out Tutorial: Does P = NP? at VB Helper for a little more info.
Ok, but what is it good for? The Compendium of NP Optimization Problems is a great place to look for real world examples of NP problems. Including everything from flower shop scheduling [nada.kth.se] to multiprocessor scheduling.
Hopefully that helps. I was very clueless when it came to P vs. NP stuff that always seems to be mentioned on Slashdot. So I took the time to look it up. Now I'm clueless but I have links to share. :)
For more info, check out the unofficial source of mini-itx goodness... Mini-ITX.com.
Of course, there is still the issue of keyboard, waterproofing, touchscreens, and all that. But getting a nice, cool-running, system that fits in a 7"x7" square is a good start.
The companies supporting Blue-ray are: Hitachi Ltd., LG Electronics Inc., Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., Pioneer Corporation, Royal Philips Electronics, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Sharp Corporation, Sony Corporation, and Thomson Multimedia.
Yes, read that again. The pedestal for the statue of Roger Williams (Rotunda/Senate Chamber Hallway, U.S. Capitol) gives off about 30 microrem per hour... more than the proposed standards for radiation at the perimeter of Yucca Mountain. Just to put in perspective.
(Various disclaimers: Yes, the Steve Milloy's JunkScience.com site does usually have a politcal agenda. However, that does not, in itself, make their claims any less true. And yes, you should take into account alpha vs. gamma radiation. And for what it's worth, the radiation study was made possible by a grant from Citizens for the Integrity of Science. An opposing viewpoint can be found here.)
So here's some obligatory Gentoo links for you zoologoy freaks:
Seriously though, Gentoo Linux sounds really cool. I'm a die-hard Debian guy (especially with Woody going stable in May)... but I plan on giving Gentoo a try this week. And I wish the best to the developers.Why not try something a little more reasonable, such as SecurityFocus Pager 3.0? And I blockquote:
Of course, there are other tools available that do the same thing (or something similar). The point is tools like this allow admins to stay up on security issues, but let them upgrade immediately or as soon as practicable.Or you can just do an apt-get update; apt-get upgrade; once in a while like I do. ;)
I'm surprised to read quite a few posts from people saying "What's Nethack?" ... well, here's some information to get you started on an answer:
So there you go. NetHack. What is it? The longest running, most amazing, coolest, open source game in the history of computers.... or something.PS. OECD = Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development. According to their site they are "an international organisation helping governments tackle the economic, social and governance challenges of a globalised economy."
Hopefully this list is helpful to those of you just starting to think about tiny distros.
Shadow Man 2 for Playstation 2 will begin shipping to North American retail on March 7th.
Or check out The P versus NP Problem at Clay for a really good description (unfortunately too long to quote here). And lastly, you might want to check out Tutorial: Does P = NP? at VB Helper for a little more info.
Ok, but what is it good for? The Compendium of NP Optimization Problems is a great place to look for real world examples of NP problems. Including everything from flower shop scheduling to multiprocessor scheduling.
Hopefully that helps. I was very clueless when it came to P vs. NP stuff that always seems to be mentioned on Slashdot. So I took the time to look it up. Now I'm clueless but I have links to share. :)
Viral marketing doesn't work. Tell everyone you know.
There is also some good info here as well, but it's mostly a rehash of other sites. Surprisingly UpcomingMovies.com doesn't appear to have any info on this.
And he may be one of the few columnists out there that hates the RIAA as much as the Slashdot crowd.
I thought a little background on him would be appropriate since all the claims of conservative bias and such started being flung around.