In the mid eighties, I spent many hours in the lab at the University of Illinois, working through endless physics problems on PLATO. It was a great system. I'm jealous that I never had access to games on it. From what others have said, there was some serious fun to be had there.
Remembering the interface, I can't help but think that a port/remake would be a perfect fit for Apple's iThings. Just the nostalgia aspect would probably force me to jailbreak my phone.
None that actually "exploded", but I've had two motherboards go bad with leaking caps. Both are back in service after having most of the caps replaced. It does happen.
I read recently about the push for what they're calling plug-in hybrids. Just a standard hybrid with beefed up battery capacity, and a plug for charging off the grid when it's parked. For short trips, the gasoline/diesel engine never has to run at all.
Obviously you're not going to be able to drive on solar power, even at 40% conversion efficiency (or at 100%, I'd assume), but perhaps with panels on the car, sitting in the lot at work for 8 hours would give you enough to get home. You now have a zero-emission vehicle for your daily commute, one without the shortcomings current electric cars suffer from (limited range, slow refueling).
You should assume that your cell phone is bugged, at least in the sense that the "proper authorities" have access to any conversations you've had and where you were at the time. Maybe they're not always paying attention, but they can always listen if they choose.
Perhaps I'm wrong, just being paranoid, but I'd say it's utterly foolish to assume you have any privacy by default these days. If you're not taking active measures to ensure privacy, you don't have it.
10 months seems a bit conservative. Our daughter learned to recognize the word "Kitty" at about 5 1/2 months. We have 2 cats, and she laughs whenever she sees them as if they were the next Penn and Teller. If one of the cats was around, but not yet noticed, we could just ask her "Where's the Kitty?", and she would stop whatever she was doing, and look around the entire room until she found them. 100% repeatable by 6 months.
Again, no surprise to parents, but kids are much more capable than even the so-called experts suppose.
I eventually got tired of writing games in Z-80 assembly "under" LDOS (TRS-DOS), and graduated to CP/M. Had great fun writing a new BIOS and a hard disk driver for a 40MB SASI drive.
When's the last time you wrote complete, useful code that occupied less than 512 bytes?:-)
So, after those R&D costs are regained, why don't the prices drop?>/b>
Unfortunately a business in a vacuum doesn't say, "We spent 2 billion dollars developing product X and we've made our investment back-- time to sell it at cost."
More to the point, the profits above costs aren't paying for R&D on that product (you must have already had that money), they're paying for the stuff on the drawing board. In an industry as fast-moving as tech, while you're selling Product A you'd better be burning R&D money designing Products B and C and fantasizing about Product X, or else you're on that proverbial long walk on the short pier...
40mb disks? Those were the days. Had one on my Lobo Max-80 (which I sadly no longer own).
Hey pilgrim23, you mentioned old software. I have an 8mm backup tape from a work Mac made about 1992. I don't own a Mac, and I've forgotten what software was used to create it. I do have a working(?) 8mm drive. Is my tape a paperweight, or might I interest you in a data-retrieval challenge?
A 600 pound gas turbine can easily provide 5,000 hp.
Sounds like you just solved your own problem. Scale down the gas turbine to something like 500hp, spin a generator with it, and power these new whiz-bang electric motors. Moderate weight, no transmission, scads of torque, commonly available fuel source.
Can I get mine in red, with the premium audio package?
...into space before it's too late! Eventually there WILL be an accident. And don't try to tell me that NASA's safeguards are sufficient. Imagine the devastating environmental impact of vaporized Lance Bass filling the upper atmosphere. It could well be the end of us all!
Speaking of large-scale changes in a species, has anyone read Darwin's Radio, by Greg Bear (ISBN:
0345435249)? The plot revolves around how such changes occurred (and are occurring) in our own
species. I quite enjoyed it.
Are there any electric hand warmers out there or should I go build my own?
Try your local motorcycle shop. Companies like Widder and others make a wide range of 12 VDC electrically heated clothing, including gloves and socks. If you could find a pair of fingerless heated gloves (or some you could lop the fingers off of), you'd be in business.
A few episodes later (Logopolis) he learns the mathematics of Block Transfer Computation which is what helps the TARDIS define it's exterior dimension, in only a rather
short time.
Block Transfer Computation wasn't how the Tardis determined its shape, it was the technique the Logopolitans were going to use to try to repair the Tardis' chameleon circuit.
...the Cybermen (another foe of the Doctor) have taken over a spaceship containing a large amount of explosives, taken it back in time 65 million years, and plan to throw it at the
earth as to destroy *all* life on the planet...
As I recall, the Cybermen were planning to crash the ship into a much more modern Earth. It's Adric who managed to kick it back in time 65 million years, and then died in the crash.
In an age where we can take decent pictures of objects on the other side of the universe, and read newspaper headlines from satellites in orbit, it seems like this should be an easy issue to settle.
I find it hard to believe that we don't have something on Earth or in orbit that can't take a picture of the moon in which we could locate some of the junk we left up there...
Sorry to knitpick, but I'm wondering if there's a reason why I keep noticing the same sorts of typos repeated over and over again on/., not just in this article but spread over many articles. For example, one of the more annoying (to me, anyway) is the use of "then" instead of "than". This occurs several times in this article, and I've noticed it many times in the past. One instance in this article:
All in all, there are likely a LOT more workstations running KDE then there are running something else.
Now, I'll be the first to admit that the English language, particularly the American variety, is more of a challenge than it ought to be, but let's try to make the best of it.
Here's question I would like to ask of all the Developer's Studio users...how can you take an existing MFC SDI (single-window) project and convert it to an MDI (multi-window in a single pane) project?
At home I use Linux. At work I use Windoze NT. If I had to pick just one thing about the Windoze GUI that really bugs me, it would be MDI. What a hideous thing to do to an otherwise useful application. IMNSHO, no multi-document application should ever use MDI.
When I'm developing on a real OS (Linux now, OPENSTEP before), the ability to interleave windows from multiple applications is invaluable. When testing and debugging, I need to be able to manipulate the windows of the target application, use the debugger in a terminal window, watch the live outputs into various log files in other terminal windows, view the source in various editor windows, etc. On Windoze, if even one of these applications is MDI, then the others become almost useless.
In an MDI world, you've basically reverted back to a single-tasking OS. Please don't go there.
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In the mid eighties, I spent many hours in the lab at the University of Illinois, working through endless physics problems on PLATO. It was a great system. I'm jealous that I never had access to games on it. From what others have said, there was some serious fun to be had there.
Remembering the interface, I can't help but think that a port/remake would be a perfect fit for Apple's iThings. Just the nostalgia aspect would probably force me to jailbreak my phone.
None that actually "exploded", but I've had two motherboards go bad with leaking caps. Both are back in service after having most of the caps replaced. It does happen.
These things will become popular, and someone at NASA will forget that they require gravity to function...
"Shuttle to Mission Control: Orbital insertion in 3...2...1...ummmm.... Guys, we have a problem..."
I read recently about the push for what they're calling plug-in hybrids. Just a standard hybrid with beefed up battery capacity, and a plug for charging off the grid when it's parked. For short trips, the gasoline/diesel engine never has to run at all.
Obviously you're not going to be able to drive on solar power, even at 40% conversion efficiency (or at 100%, I'd assume), but perhaps with panels on the car, sitting in the lot at work for 8 hours would give you enough to get home. You now have a zero-emission vehicle for your daily commute, one without the shortcomings current electric cars suffer from (limited range, slow refueling).
- Brain.
You should assume that your cell phone is bugged, at least in the sense that the "proper authorities" have access to any conversations you've had and where you were at the time. Maybe they're not always paying attention, but they can always listen if they choose.
Perhaps I'm wrong, just being paranoid, but I'd say it's utterly foolish to assume you have any privacy by default these days. If you're not taking active measures to ensure privacy, you don't have it.
- Brain.
10 months seems a bit conservative. Our daughter learned to recognize the word "Kitty" at about 5 1/2 months. We have 2 cats, and she laughs whenever she sees them as if they were the next Penn and Teller. If one of the cats was around, but not yet noticed, we could just ask her "Where's the Kitty?", and she would stop whatever she was doing, and look around the entire room until she found them. 100% repeatable by 6 months.
Again, no surprise to parents, but kids are much more capable than even the so-called experts suppose.
- Brain.
Anyone else?
:-)
I eventually got tired of writing games in Z-80 assembly "under" LDOS (TRS-DOS), and graduated to CP/M. Had great fun writing a new BIOS and a hard disk driver for a 40MB SASI drive.
When's the last time you wrote complete, useful code that occupied less than 512 bytes?
- Brain.
So, after those R&D costs are regained, why don't the prices drop?>/b>
Unfortunately a business in a vacuum doesn't say, "We spent 2 billion dollars developing product X and we've made our investment back-- time to sell it at cost."
More to the point, the profits above costs aren't paying for R&D on that product (you must have already had that money), they're paying for the stuff on the drawing board. In an industry as fast-moving as tech, while you're selling Product A you'd better be burning R&D money designing Products B and C and fantasizing about Product X, or else you're on that proverbial long walk on the short pier...
"Retrospect" doesn't ring any bells, but you've given me much more of a plan than I've had so far. I'll give it a try.
Many thanks,
Brain.
40mb disks? Those were the days. Had one on my Lobo Max-80 (which I sadly no longer own).
Hey pilgrim23, you mentioned old software. I have an 8mm backup tape from a work Mac made about 1992. I don't own a Mac, and I've forgotten what software was used to create it. I do have a working(?) 8mm drive. Is my tape a paperweight, or might I interest you in a data-retrieval challenge?
slashdot atsign brainbarker period com
Now I'll need tinfoil wallpaper too, time to go to Cosco...
Cosco makes strollers and playpens.
Costco sells bulk paranoia supplies.
However, if you have children young enough for strollers, no one can hear your keyboard anyway...
A 600 pound gas turbine can easily provide 5,000 hp.
Sounds like you just solved your own problem. Scale down the gas turbine to something like 500hp, spin a generator with it, and power these new whiz-bang electric motors. Moderate weight, no transmission, scads of torque, commonly available fuel source.
Can I get mine in red, with the premium audio package?
- Brain.
Sure, there is one way we can find out but we can't let myself die under mysterious circumstances.
Well, since you've now told everyone your plans, your demise won't be a mystery. You may proceed with confidence....into space before it's too late! Eventually there WILL be an accident. And don't try to tell me that NASA's safeguards are sufficient. Imagine the devastating environmental impact of vaporized Lance Bass filling the upper atmosphere. It could well be the end of us all!
Speaking of large-scale changes in a species, has anyone read Darwin's Radio, by Greg Bear (ISBN:
0345435249)? The plot revolves around how such changes occurred (and are occurring) in our own
species. I quite enjoyed it.
- Brian.
Are there any electric hand warmers out there or should I go build my own?
Try your local motorcycle shop. Companies like Widder and others make a wide range of 12 VDC electrically heated clothing, including gloves and socks. If you could find a pair of fingerless heated gloves (or some you could lop the fingers off of), you'd be in business.
A few episodes later (Logopolis) he learns the mathematics of Block Transfer Computation which is what helps the TARDIS define it's exterior dimension, in only a rather short time.
Block Transfer Computation wasn't how the Tardis determined its shape, it was the technique the Logopolitans were going to use to try to repair the Tardis' chameleon circuit.
As I recall, the Cybermen were planning to crash the ship into a much more modern Earth. It's Adric who managed to kick it back in time 65 million years, and then died in the crash.
In an age where we can take decent pictures of objects on the other side of the universe, and read newspaper headlines from satellites in orbit, it seems like this should be an easy issue to settle.
I find it hard to believe that we don't have something on Earth or in orbit that can't take a picture of the moon in which we could locate some of the junk we left up there...
Now, I'll be the first to admit that the English language, particularly the American variety, is more of a challenge than it ought to be, but let's try to make the best of it.
At home I use Linux. At work I use Windoze NT. If I had to pick just one thing about the Windoze GUI that really bugs me, it would be MDI. What a hideous thing to do to an otherwise useful application. IMNSHO, no multi-document application should ever use MDI.
When I'm developing on a real OS (Linux now, OPENSTEP before), the ability to interleave windows from multiple applications is invaluable. When testing and debugging, I need to be able to manipulate the windows of the target application, use the debugger in a terminal window, watch the live outputs into various log files in other terminal windows, view the source in various editor windows, etc. On Windoze, if even one of these applications is MDI, then the others become almost useless.
In an MDI world, you've basically reverted back to a single-tasking OS. Please don't go there.