My god. You'd be amazed at how people are now completely dependent on it. And I mean completely. Take it away, and they don't have a f*cking clue about where they are. I cannot even begin to imagine the number of times I've sat next to a GPS addict and have to tell him what lane to take, even in obvious circumstances.
But indeed, we do have bigger problems to worry about. Namely the untold amounts of utterly clueless persons running/driving around in our society.
FTFA: "The Caltech study grossly overstated hydrogen leakage, says Assistant Secretary David Garman of the Department of Energys Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. But whatever its volume, hydrogen added to the atmosphere will combine with oxygen to form water vapor, creating noctilucent cloudsthose high, wispy tendrils you see at dawn and dusk. The increased cloud cover could accelerate global warming."
I don't think so. Leaked hydrogen will quickly rise to the top of the atmosphere, where it will be blown away by solar wind before it has had time to react with oxygen. The result from splitting water and letting a part of the produced H2 leak would be to increase the oxygen content in the atmosphere. Very bad.
Most 'showcases' up to now are indeed awful; they're unpolished, unoptimized, address problems that really aren't and suffer from hardware limitations. It takes time to sort things out, but we'll get there sooner or later.
Too bad, a second Cuba in the making... Let's hope it doesn't take as long to change.
Re:There could be a reason for this...
on
3D User Interfaces
·
· Score: 1
I agree, and I stated before that this also applies to listening to surround mixes with headphones. You need to change the sound when the head moves; a head transfer function isn't enough.
Anyway gamers don't seem to have a problem with that. Just look at one when they're hiding behind a wall and want to quickly glance beside it. They'll be moving their heads in coordination with a strafing move. The 2D projection model isn't destroying their illusion when they're moving their head. If anything, moving seems to increase the immersion, even if it doesn't change the view.
I'm curious what the current generation of kids who have played FPS since preschool will produce when they grow up. Their minds must be wired in a particular way, and I think we'll see some consequences.
Re:There could be a reason for this...
on
3D User Interfaces
·
· Score: 1
What we casually refer to as 3D games, for example, are really projections of 3D structures onto a two-dimensional screen.
True, but one must be out of this world to perceive current games like Far Cry or HL2 as projections on a 2D screen.
Been there, done that .. partially
on
3D User Interfaces
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
Some years (5 already?) ago I started developing a server and a 3D widget set based on Direct3D. I started with OpenGL, but found Direct3D more fully featured and a better fit for my goals at that time.
Applications shared the server to display their objects. All interprocess communication was COM. You could easily write a 3D app in Visual Basic.
Navigation between applications (or their components) was made easy by having each application offer a set of camera positions and orientations for the user to travel to (using the Alt-Tab and Ctrl-Tab conventions); but the user still could roam freely if he wanted.
Unfortunately my interest waned out before I could do anything really useful. I've still got a 3D piano keyboard object, controlled by an app playing midi...
While some say that a 3D UI doesn't add value, I think there is much to be discovered. Imagine programming in 3D, where each class and function is a labeled box which you can enter to see its code. If-then-else and case constructs could also be presented interestingly. Lame maybe - for now - but I believe that by leaving the linear one-dimensional text model we'll get a completely new perspective which we haven't grasped yet because of the lack of a useable and non-trivial framework to play with. It'll come.
My primary travel interest is nature, so of course I've seen everything in between too (including Morrocoy, the Gran Sabana and both halves of Margarita).
I only missed the Andes and the llanos, but I'll be back someday. It's an amazing country, and extremely undertravelled.
BTW I didn't find the climate overly hot; at 30C it's really rather nice except when you have to do physical exercise. Try places like Phoenix, Cairo, Sevilla and parts of India for a really hot climate...
You are priviledged to live there - the only negatives are the lousy politics, the slums in Caracas (the result of an uneven wealth distribution) and the ever present sandflies - but maybe you can add more...
That being said, I think all of this extra work
will be good for the EE job sector, no?
Alas, no. If EEs don't deliver the bang for the buck, investments will be reduced so that there will be less money to spend on EEs, leading to fewer EEs and/or less well paid EEs.
Another way to think about this is as follows: if an industry realizes large improvements in its products quickly, customers will be eager to spend. If not, customers won't, but will continue to use their old stuff.
You mention a company where I have a foot (actually only some toes) in door, and I already had a lot of informal discussions with my contacts about this issue. But typically they're too distanced and too busy minding their own corner to care. With a wait-and-see approach businesses in Belgium tend to be very reactive regarding politics.
I've also talked to a quite highly positioned person at Alcatel, but they take a very, very pro-patent stance since they feel it's a thing that can protect them from Chinese competition/rip-offs. Being a big business, they don't care about the cost, as the lawyers add to their meat mass and hence their visible profile.
Non-IT businesses are even worse. Talking to them about this is like talking about a math problem to a baker. They simply have other things to do.
I've previously contacted some Belgian MEPs about this issue, and was pleased by their response. Is there anything we 'Belgians Against Software Patents' can do now regarding this matter, given that Belgium already seems to be on the right side ?
It's a shame, because VZ is one of South America's most interesting countries. I've traveled the country from Valencia to Parima, and it has a lot going for it. If you ever have the chance, go there. You won't be disappointed.
Long answer: over the years I find myself hating the resentless breeding of humans, and their need to stuff every last bit, nook and cranny, stomping over and destroying everything in their path. And while I realize I'm part of them too, short of wishing I'd never been born at all there's nothing that I can realistically do about that now. Mind you, I enjoy living but the fact is that the world would have been a better place without me, just because overpopulation would have been, however infinitesimally, reduced.
In my opinion humankind should take every measure possible to reduce population gradually and voluntarily to around 100M and choose quality over quantity. If we don't, 'nature' will reduce both quantity and quality for us.
Longer answer: My house stands where once was a decrepit farm. So while I haven't destroyed any pristine territory myself, I realize someone had to do it before so I could wash my hands in innocence.
Long answer: over the years I find myself hating the resentless breeding of humans, and their need to fill every last bit, nook and cranny, stumping over and destroying everything in their path. And while I realize I'm part of them too, short of wishing I'd never been born at all there's nothing practical I can do about that now. Mind you, I enjoy living but the fact is that the world would have been a better place without me, just because overpopulation would have been, however infinitesimally, reduced.
In my opinion humankind should take every measure possible to reduce population gradually and voluntarily to around 100M. If we don't, 'nature' will.
My favorite spot in the extreme south of Spain, until recently spared of mass tourism, is being completely and utterly destroyed by thousands and thousands of windmills. Every formally pristine hilltop now has a 6 meter wide access road, and a row of eyesores.
As a major passage between Europe and Africa for migrant birds they present an enormous danger to them. Each time I walk up to a mill I find carcasses of a birds nearby. Rare birds getting killed IS a major issue.
Ecologists are caught in a trap. While they must see the birds getting killed (unless they're armchair ecologists), they like 'green energy' and are being bought off because the status of the land around the mills is converted from hunting area to nature reserve. Not that anything changes, the hunting areas were pristine, and not much hunting took place before.
The windmills are being heavily subsidised. Owners of the land - in Spain nobility still owns nearly all uncultivated land - reap them, plus untold amounts of money for converting their useless 'hunting' lands into nature preserves.
Once the subsidies subside, the mills will become unprofitable and will be abandoned.
If you have the chance, go and see for yourself, or google for 'tarifa windmills' or something like this.
The first three are still in the same order of magnitude as 10 years after their introduction. Depressing.
Now computers, that's another matter.
Moving mass around is slow, that's probably never going to change. In computers you move very, very little mass very slowly (electrons are very light, and the drift speed is very low). So it's all about momentum and energy.
Heck, I don't know what deep&profound things I'm dabbling about. It's late, and time for bed.
The first bummer: trying to be holier than the pope they added VAT tax to the $59 (because I'm located in Europe), for a total of $72. The heck, I said. Dollars aren't worth shit today anyway.
Second bummer: after asking full address details it refused my perfectly valid credit card. This makes me feel rather uneasy, as they now have all my details, including CCV, without a valid transaction.
That's more than enough to turn me off. I'll try to live without HL2 for a while, if not forever. I've still got to finish Doom III.
The telco confirmed that it were automated line tests. They were performed at a voltage below standard ringing voltage, but way above what you would see normally off-hook and with a different frequency.
My phone switch wasn't defective, but just reacted badly to these new-fangled signals that didn't exist yet when the switch was certified by the telco.
I spent a holiday in that area when daylight saving time was changing. Some states had dst, others didn't, and the time zones were different. Very funny.
And/or the other way round: a bluetooth headset profile on the iPod so you can hear your phone ringing while you're listening. It should announce the caller with a synthesized voice so you can decide whether to answer.
The required microphone could be used to record your ideas/todos on the iPod quickly too.
Slashdot Mirror
My god. You'd be amazed at how people are now completely dependent on it. And I mean completely. Take it away, and they don't have a f*cking clue about where they are. I cannot even begin to imagine the number of times I've sat next to a GPS addict and have to tell him what lane to take, even in obvious circumstances.
But indeed, we do have bigger problems to worry about. Namely the untold amounts of utterly clueless persons running/driving around in our society.
FTFA: "The Caltech study grossly overstated hydrogen leakage, says Assistant Secretary David Garman of the Department of Energys Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. But whatever its volume, hydrogen added to the atmosphere will combine with oxygen to form water vapor, creating noctilucent cloudsthose high, wispy tendrils you see at dawn and dusk. The increased cloud cover could accelerate global warming."
I don't think so. Leaked hydrogen will quickly rise to the top of the atmosphere, where it will be blown away by solar wind before it has had time to react with oxygen. The result from splitting water and letting a part of the produced H2 leak would be to increase the oxygen content in the atmosphere. Very bad.
Most 'showcases' up to now are indeed awful; they're unpolished, unoptimized, address problems that really aren't and suffer from hardware limitations. It takes time to sort things out, but we'll get there sooner or later.
Too bad, a second Cuba in the making... Let's hope it doesn't take as long to change.
I agree, and I stated before that this also applies to listening to surround mixes with headphones. You need to change the sound when the head moves; a head transfer function isn't enough.
Anyway gamers don't seem to have a problem with that. Just look at one when they're hiding behind a wall and want to quickly glance beside it. They'll be moving their heads in coordination with a strafing move. The 2D projection model isn't destroying their illusion when they're moving their head. If anything, moving seems to increase the immersion, even if it doesn't change the view.
I'm curious what the current generation of kids who have played FPS since preschool will produce when they grow up. Their minds must be wired in a particular way, and I think we'll see some consequences.
True, but one must be out of this world to perceive current games like Far Cry or HL2 as projections on a 2D screen.
Some years (5 already?) ago I started developing a server and a 3D widget set based on Direct3D. I started with OpenGL, but found Direct3D more fully featured and a better fit for my goals at that time.
Applications shared the server to display their objects. All interprocess communication was COM. You could easily write a 3D app in Visual Basic.
Navigation between applications (or their components) was made easy by having each application offer a set of camera positions and orientations for the user to travel to (using the Alt-Tab and Ctrl-Tab conventions); but the user still could roam freely if he wanted.
Unfortunately my interest waned out before I could do anything really useful. I've still got a 3D piano keyboard object, controlled by an app playing midi...
While some say that a 3D UI doesn't add value, I think there is much to be discovered. Imagine programming in 3D, where each class and function is a labeled box which you can enter to see its code. If-then-else and case constructs could also be presented interestingly. Lame maybe - for now - but I believe that by leaving the linear one-dimensional text model we'll get a completely new perspective which we haven't grasped yet because of the lack of a useable and non-trivial framework to play with. It'll come.
My primary travel interest is nature, so of course I've seen everything in between too (including Morrocoy, the Gran Sabana and both halves of Margarita).
I only missed the Andes and the llanos, but I'll be back someday. It's an amazing country, and extremely undertravelled.
BTW I didn't find the climate overly hot; at 30C it's really rather nice except when you have to do physical exercise. Try places like Phoenix, Cairo, Sevilla and parts of India for a really hot climate...
You are priviledged to live there - the only negatives are the lousy politics, the slums in Caracas (the result of an uneven wealth distribution) and the ever present sandflies - but maybe you can add more...
Alas, no. If EEs don't deliver the bang for the buck, investments will be reduced so that there will be less money to spend on EEs, leading to fewer EEs and/or less well paid EEs.
Another way to think about this is as follows: if an industry realizes large improvements in its products quickly, customers will be eager to spend. If not, customers won't, but will continue to use their old stuff.
You mention a company where I have a foot (actually only some toes) in door, and I already had a lot of informal discussions with my contacts about this issue. But typically they're too distanced and too busy minding their own corner to care. With a wait-and-see approach businesses in Belgium tend to be very reactive regarding politics.
I've also talked to a quite highly positioned person at Alcatel, but they take a very, very pro-patent stance since they feel it's a thing that can protect them from Chinese competition/rip-offs. Being a big business, they don't care about the cost, as the lawyers add to their meat mass and hence their visible profile.
Non-IT businesses are even worse. Talking to them about this is like talking about a math problem to a baker. They simply have other things to do.
I've previously contacted some Belgian MEPs about this issue, and was pleased by their response. Is there anything we 'Belgians Against Software Patents' can do now regarding this matter, given that Belgium already seems to be on the right side ?
in Venezuela, I suppose.
7 posts so far.
It's a shame, because VZ is one of South America's most interesting countries. I've traveled the country from Valencia to Parima, and it has a lot going for it. If you ever have the chance, go there. You won't be disappointed.
Indeed.
l ls&hl=en&lr=&c2coff=1&sa=N&tab =wi
Look here:
http://images.google.com/images?q=tarifa%20windmi
Try to imagine the pristine hills without the more than 3000 mills in the area.
It's a sorry sight. Really.
You can answer these questions with unrelated data, encrypted and kept elsewhere.
Look at it as a backup password, in case the original broke into bits by some strange mishap.
Short answer: Yes, I am.
Long answer: over the years I find myself hating the resentless breeding of humans, and their need to stuff every last bit, nook and cranny, stomping over and destroying everything in their path. And while I realize I'm part of them too, short of wishing I'd never been born at all there's nothing that I can realistically do about that now. Mind you, I enjoy living but the fact is that the world would have been a better place without me, just because overpopulation would have been, however infinitesimally, reduced.
In my opinion humankind should take every measure possible to reduce population gradually and voluntarily to around 100M and choose quality over quantity. If we don't, 'nature' will reduce both quantity and quality for us.
Now, does that answer your question ?
Short answer: Yes, I am.
Longer answer: My house stands where once was a decrepit farm. So while I haven't destroyed any pristine territory myself, I realize someone had to do it before so I could wash my hands in innocence.
Long answer: over the years I find myself hating the resentless breeding of humans, and their need to fill every last bit, nook and cranny, stumping over and destroying everything in their path. And while I realize I'm part of them too, short of wishing I'd never been born at all there's nothing practical I can do about that now. Mind you, I enjoy living but the fact is that the world would have been a better place without me, just because overpopulation would have been, however infinitesimally, reduced.
In my opinion humankind should take every measure possible to reduce population gradually and voluntarily to around 100M. If we don't, 'nature' will.
Quality, not quantity.
Now, does that answer your question ?
I'm vehemently opposed to windfarms.
l ls&hl=en&lr=&c2coff=1&sa=N&tab =wi
My favorite spot in the extreme south of Spain, until recently spared of mass tourism, is being completely and utterly destroyed by thousands and thousands of windmills. Every formally pristine hilltop now has a 6 meter wide access road, and a row of eyesores.
As a major passage between Europe and Africa for migrant birds they present an enormous danger to them. Each time I walk up to a mill I find carcasses of a birds nearby. Rare birds getting killed IS a major issue.
Ecologists are caught in a trap. While they must see the birds getting killed (unless they're armchair ecologists), they like 'green energy' and are being bought off because the status of the land around the mills is converted from hunting area to nature reserve. Not that anything changes, the hunting areas were pristine, and not much hunting took place before.
The windmills are being heavily subsidised. Owners of the land - in Spain nobility still owns nearly all uncultivated land - reap them, plus untold amounts of money for converting their useless 'hunting' lands into nature preserves.
Once the subsidies subside, the mills will become unprofitable and will be abandoned.
If you have the chance, go and see for yourself, or google for 'tarifa windmills' or something like this.
http://images.google.com/images?q=tarifa%20windmi
The first three are still in the same order of magnitude as 10 years after their introduction. Depressing.
Now computers, that's another matter.
Moving mass around is slow, that's probably never going to change. In computers you move very, very little mass very slowly (electrons are very light, and the drift speed is very low). So it's all about momentum and energy.
Heck, I don't know what deep&profound things I'm dabbling about. It's late, and time for bed.
No, I had never heard of Van Glis either. I know Van Halen made a lot of noise, but I bet they're not that popular anymore.
And Van Helsing ? How's he doing ?
(there. we've got "Van [GH]*" covered.)
at a speed of 1 billion atoms per second takes about 20 million years.
Slow, slow.
I tried to buy HL2 through Steam today.
The first bummer: trying to be holier than the pope they added VAT tax to the $59 (because I'm located in Europe), for a total of $72. The heck, I said. Dollars aren't worth shit today anyway.
Second bummer: after asking full address details it refused my perfectly valid credit card. This makes me feel rather uneasy, as they now have all my details, including CCV, without a valid transaction.
That's more than enough to turn me off. I'll try to live without HL2 for a while, if not forever. I've still got to finish Doom III.
3256 directories, 49,182 files
76 directories (of which 16 hidden), 38 files (18 hidden) in the home directory itself.
The telco confirmed that it were automated line tests. They were performed at a voltage below standard ringing voltage, but way above what you would see normally off-hook and with a different frequency.
My phone switch wasn't defective, but just reacted badly to these new-fangled signals that didn't exist yet when the switch was certified by the telco.
I spent a holiday in that area when daylight saving time was changing. Some states had dst, others didn't, and the time zones were different. Very funny.
And/or the other way round: a bluetooth headset profile on the iPod so you can hear your phone ringing while you're listening. It should announce the caller with a synthesized voice so you can decide whether to answer.
The required microphone could be used to record your ideas/todos on the iPod quickly too.