"Nevermind the noise from the actual PC - that's bareable! It's my CD drive that drives me insane!...A while ago, I'm sure I read a review for a "quiet" CD drive, but I haven't found it since.... Old quad-speed drives were never like that!"
I use an old Mac and wrote an app that slows the 4x CD drive down to 1x for mp3 CDs as 150KB/sec is plenty of bandwidth. Since a 128kbps mp3 uses under 15KB/sec bandwidth, the CD could theoretically spin at 0.1x.
73 units (low-noise case fans, 40 pounds) 5.5 units (low-noise power supply, 90 pounds) 9.6 units (CPU/GPU cooling, 75 pounds) 5.2 units (acoustic materials and HD enclosure, 128 pounds) 5.8 units (resistors on case fans, 0 pounds)
Man I'd hate to buy these things mail-order and pay the shipping cost!
"Is there any other industry that tries to force itself upon a public that is explicity making it clear it wants no part of it?"
This possibility comes to mind: if ad blocking is installed by default, then many people might be using it without knowing it. This suggests that ad blocking software should be made so it's obvious that the user intentionally enabled it, so that ad companies will know that all use of ad blocking is intentional rather than just the default.
"...it changes itself so its hard to detect the functions and block them."
It just occurred to me that the code mutation techniques that some viruses use might find their way into online advertisement code. The code would be generated on-the-fly with various inactive bits inserted, tag values rearranged, equivalent variations, etc. Fortunately there's less room for hiding than for viruses.
"Yep, currently I'm typing on Gandalf the laptop and dinking around on Pippin the Pocket PC, accessing the Internet through Sauron the wireless access point and Aragorn the firewall, while my wife plays games on Eowyn the PC, my daughter plays games on Gimli the other PC, and Samwise the web server silently does his job in the background. Legolas the old web server lies disemboweled on the floor after an unfortunate shield-sledding accident."
No need to name your daughter or wife since there is only one of each.
"There's a safe limit as to the speed that we can have cars travelling, and if the highways fill up, bumper to bumper all moving at that speed, we've reached capacity.
The most obvious solution there is the same as the obvious solution here: Add more lanes. If you have thirty-two lanes of traffic instead of one, you've increased your capacity roughly 32 times. Same situation here: Transmit 32 bits in parallel..."
Sorry, I just tried that in SimCity and my traffic density increased with more parallel lanes. Railroad cars full of DVDs it is!
Hmmm, Planetary Protection Officer. Oh I remember, he was in the movie Dr. Strangelove as General Jack D. Ripper. "...conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids..."
The one thing that can be depended on is that any given standard will never be universal, even if the word universal is thrown into its name. This reminds me of a replacement for Gross Domestic Product (GDP) named GPI (Genuine Progress Indicator).
"New Polymer Ideal For Secure Data Storage... The material consists of a lattice of onionlike spheres in which the particle core and its layers each contain a different dye..."
Come on, this is just security through obscurity. Somebody's going wonder why you keep an ever-expanding pile of onions next to your computer...
"This picocell concept solves both problems by moving the nearest cell tower to just a few feet away from the phone. Therefore, the phone kicks into its lowest power setting, and never talks to any other tower."
This seems like a safety risk, in that it relies on every cell phone in use on the plane to properly detect the picocell; any phone which doesn't is then transmitting at full power.
"With a simple API, it should be easy to change the colours on the fly, going from blue to red (or whatever) depending on different 'threat' conditions."
Then you could have the Blue Mousepad of Death synchronized with the Blue Screen of Death.
The value seems to come mostly from the simplicity of the components, rather than their physical nature, so why not make them virtual and run them on a single processor (microcontroller)? You'd have the various I/O modules (without any processing), but no logic modules, rather a central processor module.
The processor module supplies power to the I/O modules and is programmed from a PC. The PC presents a virtual layout space where various simplified I/O modules can be chosen based on the actual ones present. For example, there might be several sound modules with different sound trigger levels. As a bonus the system could be simulated and fed sequences of inputs to see how it responds.
The main objection would be that you don't have the hands-on experience, but the modules described on the page are already complex encapsulated systems so you aren't really working at the basic level in the first place (the logic modules are the closest to "bare metal").
"If I want to try out a game... I could get the cheap $5 full version paper demo, try it out, and when the disk finally breaks down..."
They could use PD-RW (Paper Disc Rewritable), which uses disappearing ink instead of regular ink that is used for PD-R. As a bonus, the burner doubles as a disc label printer.
A while back I accidentally connected the wrong power supply to my Zip drive. I realized the error in less than a second and unplugged it, but the drive was dead. I opened it up to see what happened and a large filter capacitor had popped. Monitoring the chip temperatures when connected to the proper power supply (and with a new capacitor) revealed immediate overheating. I couldn't find much of any kind of input power protection, like a diode or voltage regulator. I know the drive is constructed very cheaply, but you'd think they would provide some protection (or use an uncommon power connector). Fortunately I found another Zip drive at a garage sale for $5.
A friend had a 1GB Jaz drive and lent it to me once. I bought my own disk and was going to use it, but the drive/media started giving errors within a week or so. I tried to reformat the cartridge but it stopped part way through.
I think I'll stick with CD-R and DVD-R in the future, considering the almost universal access PCs have/will have.
"With every new device, we have to learn new commands, languages or interfaces."
I agree. I was really annoyed that I had to learn a new interface to drive a car. Why can't it be just like walking? Then there was the TV set. The first time I tried to use one I lit a match thinking it would work like a fireplace, but nooo, they had to make it different with a huge lighter that supposedly emits invisible light rays. These days I can use a computer and I can't figure out why they don't make them all just like my desktop machine. Like my celphone, why doesn't it just have a normal keyboard and mouse, instead of those weird "Talk" and number keys?
"As part of the Sarbanes-Oxley act, companies are required to conduct some internal security audits to get a 404 compliance certificate. Without this certification, the company stock can't be traded."
I'm having trouble finding that document. Every time I think I've located it I get a 404 response.
Slashdot Mirror
"I'd love to have abuse@gmail.com"
I take it you like being flooded with spam reports...
"Nevermind the noise from the actual PC - that's bareable! It's my CD drive that drives me insane!...A while ago, I'm sure I read a review for a "quiet" CD drive, but I haven't found it since.... Old quad-speed drives were never like that!"
I use an old Mac and wrote an app that slows the 4x CD drive down to 1x for mp3 CDs as 150KB/sec is plenty of bandwidth. Since a 128kbps mp3 uses under 15KB/sec bandwidth, the CD could theoretically spin at 0.1x.
73 units (low-noise case fans, 40 pounds)
5.5 units (low-noise power supply, 90 pounds)
9.6 units (CPU/GPU cooling, 75 pounds)
5.2 units (acoustic materials and HD enclosure, 128 pounds)
5.8 units (resistors on case fans, 0 pounds)
Man I'd hate to buy these things mail-order and pay the shipping cost!
"Is there any other industry that tries to force itself upon a public that is explicity making it clear it wants no part of it?"
This possibility comes to mind: if ad blocking is installed by default, then many people might be using it without knowing it. This suggests that ad blocking software should be made so it's obvious that the user intentionally enabled it, so that ad companies will know that all use of ad blocking is intentional rather than just the default.
"...it changes itself so its hard to detect the functions and block them."
It just occurred to me that the code mutation techniques that some viruses use might find their way into online advertisement code. The code would be generated on-the-fly with various inactive bits inserted, tag values rearranged, equivalent variations, etc. Fortunately there's less room for hiding than for viruses.
INSTRUCTIONS
"I live in Michigan and the Winters here can get fairly cold. Does anyone know if there is any type of heated keyboard/mouse out there."
Just find a keyboard with a Pentium I/O processor in it.
"Yep, currently I'm typing on Gandalf the laptop and dinking around on Pippin the Pocket PC, accessing the Internet through Sauron the wireless access point and Aragorn the firewall, while my wife plays games on Eowyn the PC, my daughter plays games on Gimli the other PC, and Samwise the web server silently does his job in the background. Legolas the old web server lies disemboweled on the floor after an unfortunate shield-sledding accident."
No need to name your daughter or wife since there is only one of each.
Oh nice, a car which in addition to taking up the driver's time, is also fueled by time.
"and a more important question... how the heck do you card a robot?"
And if you manage to get to them, which card do you check?
"All we need now is a "Shtoolio" waste collection robot and I won't have any excuses to get up at all!"
Those already exist, and they are even shaped like a chair so you can sit on them.
"There's a safe limit as to the speed that we can have cars travelling, and if the highways fill up, bumper to bumper all moving at that speed, we've reached capacity.
The most obvious solution there is the same as the obvious solution here: Add more lanes. If you have thirty-two lanes of traffic instead of one, you've increased your capacity roughly 32 times. Same situation here: Transmit 32 bits in parallel..."
Sorry, I just tried that in SimCity and my traffic density increased with more parallel lanes. Railroad cars full of DVDs it is!
Hmmm, Planetary Protection Officer. Oh I remember, he was in the movie Dr. Strangelove as General Jack D. Ripper. "...conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids..."
The one thing that can be depended on is that any given standard will never be universal, even if the word universal is thrown into its name. This reminds me of a replacement for Gross Domestic Product (GDP) named GPI (Genuine Progress Indicator).
"New Polymer Ideal For Secure Data Storage... The material consists of a lattice of onionlike spheres in which the particle core and its layers each contain a different dye..."
Come on, this is just security through obscurity. Somebody's going wonder why you keep an ever-expanding pile of onions next to your computer...
"I seriously doubt that something going comercial like this would have a high risk of danger."
As opposed to, say, a high risk of safety?
"This picocell concept solves both problems by moving the nearest cell tower to just a few feet away from the phone. Therefore, the phone kicks into its lowest power setting, and never talks to any other tower."
This seems like a safety risk, in that it relies on every cell phone in use on the plane to properly detect the picocell; any phone which doesn't is then transmitting at full power.
"With a simple API, it should be easy to change the colours on the fly, going from blue to red (or whatever) depending on different 'threat' conditions."
Then you could have the Blue Mousepad of Death synchronized with the Blue Screen of Death.
The value seems to come mostly from the simplicity of the components, rather than their physical nature, so why not make them virtual and run them on a single processor (microcontroller)? You'd have the various I/O modules (without any processing), but no logic modules, rather a central processor module.
The processor module supplies power to the I/O modules and is programmed from a PC. The PC presents a virtual layout space where various simplified I/O modules can be chosen based on the actual ones present. For example, there might be several sound modules with different sound trigger levels. As a bonus the system could be simulated and fed sequences of inputs to see how it responds.
The main objection would be that you don't have the hands-on experience, but the modules described on the page are already complex encapsulated systems so you aren't really working at the basic level in the first place (the logic modules are the closest to "bare metal").
Sometimes my attempts at humor fail completely. Apologies.
"having been in use here some time ago, maybe a year ago, or two?
can any other Finnish people confirm?"
I tried calling the service and reading your post but it didn't figure out what you were talking about. Oh wait, wrong service.
"If I want to try out a game ... I could get the cheap $5 full version paper demo, try it out, and when the disk finally breaks down..."
They could use PD-RW (Paper Disc Rewritable), which uses disappearing ink instead of regular ink that is used for PD-R. As a bonus, the burner doubles as a disc label printer.
A while back I accidentally connected the wrong power supply to my Zip drive. I realized the error in less than a second and unplugged it, but the drive was dead. I opened it up to see what happened and a large filter capacitor had popped. Monitoring the chip temperatures when connected to the proper power supply (and with a new capacitor) revealed immediate overheating. I couldn't find much of any kind of input power protection, like a diode or voltage regulator. I know the drive is constructed very cheaply, but you'd think they would provide some protection (or use an uncommon power connector). Fortunately I found another Zip drive at a garage sale for $5.
A friend had a 1GB Jaz drive and lent it to me once. I bought my own disk and was going to use it, but the drive/media started giving errors within a week or so. I tried to reformat the cartridge but it stopped part way through.
I think I'll stick with CD-R and DVD-R in the future, considering the almost universal access PCs have/will have.
"With every new device, we have to learn new commands, languages or interfaces."
I agree. I was really annoyed that I had to learn a new interface to drive a car. Why can't it be just like walking? Then there was the TV set. The first time I tried to use one I lit a match thinking it would work like a fireplace, but nooo, they had to make it different with a huge lighter that supposedly emits invisible light rays. These days I can use a computer and I can't figure out why they don't make them all just like my desktop machine. Like my celphone, why doesn't it just have a normal keyboard and mouse, instead of those weird "Talk" and number keys?
"As part of the Sarbanes-Oxley act, companies are required to conduct some internal security audits to get a 404 compliance certificate. Without this certification, the company stock can't be traded."
I'm having trouble finding that document. Every time I think I've located it I get a 404 response.