No kidding. Just this morning I was sending an email to my boss, and sure enough it couldn't find "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" in the dictionary. What a piece of junk!
We took our 4yo to Cincinnati's Museum of Natural History & Science this past weekend, and came out a little disappointed. I'm not a huge fan of natural history museums in general, but this felt particularly stale, as though most of the exhibits were designed in the 70's/early-80's and hadn't been updated much since. I suppose a dead animal is a dead animal... but overall, I wasn't impressed, and our son was quite bored (though four years old might not exactly be the target audience!).
We didn't get a chance to do the other two museums (it was late on Sunday, and had free admission to the natural history museum, so free won), but the children's museum looked pretty cool, and Union Terminal itself was gorgeous.
On one hand, you want kids to build on the achievements of previous generations. On the other, those previous achievements become more abstract. But you know, televisions were corrupting our kids' minds back when you were learning on that 6502. And, there are plenty of 6502 emulators out there. The challenge is then to excite children about learning the basics, so maybe they can go on to tackle a modern CPU datasheet.
So maybe there's a way to supplement the educational system. Shows like Junkyard Wars and Mythbusters -- a huge step forward in helping our kids get excited and learn about science and technology. It's possible to have an equally engaging show about programming and all, perhaps including 6502 assembly. So maybe not quite Discovery or TLC material, but isn't that what YouTube, self-produced video, etc. is all about?
So, just think -- kids in Venezuela watching educational videos on programming 6502 assembly, and using a 6502 emu, all on their cheap Classmates. Sounds pretty cool to me.
CableCard under Myth, legally? Ha! The only way I can see this happening is if someone (ATI/AMD, etc.) built an expansion card (PCIe) which would have a slot for the CableCard module, CATV in, as well as an HDMI output port. This card would decrypt the stream from the cable co, and immediately re-encrypt it with a unique key, perhaps based on the CableCard's serial number (or whatever the equivalent of a MAC address is for CableCard), and passed over to Myth to store on disk. Upon playback, Myth would feed the stream back to the card for decryption, output directly to the on-board HDMI port. Obvious caveat: cancel cable, and you lose all of your recordings. Ideally, the card would also accept an overlay for on-screen graphics, and would hopefully do hardware decryption of the codec du jour. Ooh - better yet, direct access to a DSP which would let developers write their own "hardware" codecs.
Okay, pinch me. I'm obviously living in a fantasy world.
A good place to start would be to crack DigiCipher II, which encrypts the data in the first place. You wouldn't even need a CableCard -- just a tuner which supported QAM256 (e.g. FusionHDTV, etc.).
This has got to be the same person, talking about RFID in tires (which I never knew about -- as if I'm not paranoid enough) and more. Interesting, uh, stuff:
I'm one of those crazies who uses Pine almost exclusively for my email. The patches site has some valuable additions for the app, and the closing of the site is a loss for the community. I hope the maintainer considers moving the site, even if it's not updated regularly, just for retention of the existing patches. Thanks!
In 12/2005, my still-under-warranty iPod was gathering bad sectors on the drive. The "genius" at the Apple store said bad sectors were normal, and to just reformat it. After being quite persistent, he relented and gave me a replacement. But not before charging me a $30 "recycling fee". Bullshit! Given that they'll use all the parts, save for maybe the battery, again, I find it quite hard to believe that the battery costs $30 to recycle. FWIW, the way out of this fee is to purchase the Apple extended service plan. And then go back the next day and return just the service plan.
I know there's more to being green than just recycling batteries and parts, but Apple should be put under a microscope to make sure the money they're collecting for "recycling" is placed directly into "green" programs.
You beat me to it -- I was going to post the pic of the microSD card which shipped in that same sized box, also from Newegg. The card is literally smaller than my fingernail, and shipped in a box which could hold THOUSANDS of them.
Did I miss the part in high school where you got to pick your lifetime personal lawyer? For those of us not intimately involved with the legal system, what exactly should I do if arrested and need a lawyer? I've got the means to hire a private attorney, but I'd have NO idea who to turn to. I have a feeling saying "I need to call my wife so she can find me a lawyer NOW!" wouldn't cut it.
Though I can type fairly well, I'd look at the keyboard far too often when typing. Especially true for the hortizontal number keys. So I took my (cheap, HP-bundled) keyboard, popped the keys off, and rearranged them (incidentally, the letter keys now spell out something like "thequickbrownfxjmpdvrlazyg"). You don't need a fancy black-on-black keyboard to do something like this. It works even better on old Model-M's. Find an old, dirty, used one real cheap, pop off the keytops and throw them in a dishwasher, take a can-o'-air to the keyboard, and pop the keys back on randomly.
Added bonus: When the desktop support guys come around and need to type in an admin password, they're COMPLETELY thrown off.
If you're not using XBMC, you have every right to complain about the xbox being a poor "media center extender". It's not the MS-based app you seem to be referring to; it's MUCH, MUCH more than that. Go on craigslist, get a used xbox for $100, softmod it, and load up XBMC. It's simply the best "media center" I've come across.
From their site:
XboxMediaCenter is a free open source (GPL) multimedia player for the Xbox(TM) from Microsoft. Currently XboxMediaCenter can be used to play/view most common video/audio/picture formats such as MPEG-1/2/4, DivX, XviD, MP3, AAC, JPG, GIF plus many more less known formats directly from a CD/DVD in Xbox DVD-ROM drive or of Xbox hard-drive, XBMC can also stream files from a PC over a local network and even stream media streams directly from the internet. XBMC has playlist and slideshow functions, a weather forecast and many audio visualizations
I suppose this means I can finally retire my laserdisc player. *sniff*... watching a movie just isn't the same anymore without the whirrrr of a 12" disc spinning.
The eBags Downloader backpack has served me well for over a year now. I'm in a similar situation -- I carry a ton of gear, as well as cables and spare batteries for everything. It's not perfect, but short of designing a custom-made bag to fit my specific set of items, I'm fairly happy with this bag.
The two main compartments each have sub-compartments, including a laptop section with foamy padding. There's a decent sized pocket on the front (in which I store my iPod and PDA), two on the sides (good for a cell phone or two in one, and a small umbrella in the other), and the zippered subpockets in the smaller of the two main compartments are perfect for batteries and cables.
I was skeptical about purchasing an eBags branded bag, but so far I'm impressed with the quality. The biggest indicator for me? The zippers never stick. The regular price is reasonable, but it's easy to find coupon codes to bring it down a few dollars more.
One other suggestion: get some retractable cables (i.e. ziplinq) to replace anything in your bag longer than a foot.
I do appreciate that any time I've called IBM/Lenovo for Thinkpad support, I always get a US-based representative who seems to be at least somewhat invested in giving me good support. That's more than I can say for Dell, which *every* phone call I place for support gets answered by someone who is very difficult for me to communicate with (mostly due to language issues) and, more importantly, COMPLETELY out-of-touch with the technology they support and the company they are representing.
Consumer adoption of high-def DVD equipment is going to be nowhere near the level of "legacy" DVD adoption, simply because the vast majority of consumers don't have HD displays and don't particularly care about them. So HDDVD and/or Blu-Ray won't have time to be fully adopted (outside of data storage) before it'll be time for the next technology (holographics, etc.)
Replace MPEG-2 with H.264 and you can use existing (9GB) DVD technology *NOW* with minimal expense. The problem (for THEM, not us!) then becomes DRM. And let's face it, it'll be circumvented somehow, right? So just use CSS and hide behind the DMCA enough to prohibit consumer-level DVD duplicators, yet let anyone with a computer and a little technical ability do as they please. Thanks.
Slashdot Mirror
No kidding. Just this morning I was sending an email to my boss, and sure enough it couldn't find "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" in the dictionary. What a piece of junk!
Stop teasing. But perhaps they could put out a new "LHC" remix of Supercollider...?
Tivos runs Linux. Tivos support Netflix. Therefore, BoxeeBox might just be able to run Netflix.
It's still ugly, though. Maybe someone will offer a 3rd party case for it.
They might have used satellites to relay messages through the pager network, but the pagers themselves were talking to local towers.
We took our 4yo to Cincinnati's Museum of Natural History & Science this past weekend, and came out a little disappointed. I'm not a huge fan of natural history museums in general, but this felt particularly stale, as though most of the exhibits were designed in the 70's/early-80's and hadn't been updated much since. I suppose a dead animal is a dead animal... but overall, I wasn't impressed, and our son was quite bored (though four years old might not exactly be the target audience!).
We didn't get a chance to do the other two museums (it was late on Sunday, and had free admission to the natural history museum, so free won), but the children's museum looked pretty cool, and Union Terminal itself was gorgeous.
On one hand, you want kids to build on the achievements of previous generations. On the other, those previous achievements become more abstract. But you know, televisions were corrupting our kids' minds back when you were learning on that 6502. And, there are plenty of 6502 emulators out there. The challenge is then to excite children about learning the basics, so maybe they can go on to tackle a modern CPU datasheet.
So maybe there's a way to supplement the educational system. Shows like Junkyard Wars and Mythbusters -- a huge step forward in helping our kids get excited and learn about science and technology. It's possible to have an equally engaging show about programming and all, perhaps including 6502 assembly. So maybe not quite Discovery or TLC material, but isn't that what YouTube, self-produced video, etc. is all about?
So, just think -- kids in Venezuela watching educational videos on programming 6502 assembly, and using a 6502 emu, all on their cheap Classmates. Sounds pretty cool to me.
CableCard under Myth, legally? Ha! The only way I can see this happening is if someone (ATI/AMD, etc.) built an expansion card (PCIe) which would have a slot for the CableCard module, CATV in, as well as an HDMI output port. This card would decrypt the stream from the cable co, and immediately re-encrypt it with a unique key, perhaps based on the CableCard's serial number (or whatever the equivalent of a MAC address is for CableCard), and passed over to Myth to store on disk. Upon playback, Myth would feed the stream back to the card for decryption, output directly to the on-board HDMI port. Obvious caveat: cancel cable, and you lose all of your recordings. Ideally, the card would also accept an overlay for on-screen graphics, and would hopefully do hardware decryption of the codec du jour. Ooh - better yet, direct access to a DSP which would let developers write their own "hardware" codecs.
Okay, pinch me. I'm obviously living in a fantasy world.
A good place to start would be to crack DigiCipher II, which encrypts the data in the first place. You wouldn't even need a CableCard -- just a tuner which supported QAM256 (e.g. FusionHDTV, etc.).
I'm a Vonage customer, so I already do.
Wait, 5.5% of $25.00/mo = $1.375 -- looks like Verizon is STILL getting me for TouchTone(tm) all these years later.
Viacom and CBS split up about a year ago. I believe CBS has a pretty tight deal going on with YouTube, actually.
Yes, but wireless bandwidth is not infinite...
This has got to be the same person, talking about RFID in tires (which I never knew about -- as if I'm not paranoid enough) and more. Interesting, uh, stuff:
http://clintjcl.wordpress.com/tag/rants/
I'm one of those crazies who uses Pine almost exclusively for my email. The patches site has some valuable additions for the app, and the closing of the site is a loss for the community. I hope the maintainer considers moving the site, even if it's not updated regularly, just for retention of the existing patches. Thanks!
Not even 99/4A support! Bah!
The screaming would be a great distraction while the white woman sailed through the gates with who-knows-what in her coat.
In 12/2005, my still-under-warranty iPod was gathering bad sectors on the drive. The "genius" at the Apple store said bad sectors were normal, and to just reformat it. After being quite persistent, he relented and gave me a replacement. But not before charging me a $30 "recycling fee". Bullshit! Given that they'll use all the parts, save for maybe the battery, again, I find it quite hard to believe that the battery costs $30 to recycle. FWIW, the way out of this fee is to purchase the Apple extended service plan. And then go back the next day and return just the service plan.
I know there's more to being green than just recycling batteries and parts, but Apple should be put under a microscope to make sure the money they're collecting for "recycling" is placed directly into "green" programs.
You beat me to it -- I was going to post the pic of the microSD card which shipped in that same sized box, also from Newegg. The card is literally smaller than my fingernail, and shipped in a box which could hold THOUSANDS of them.
"I want my lawyer NOW."
Did I miss the part in high school where you got to pick your lifetime personal lawyer? For those of us not intimately involved with the legal system, what exactly should I do if arrested and need a lawyer? I've got the means to hire a private attorney, but I'd have NO idea who to turn to. I have a feeling saying "I need to call my wife so she can find me a lawyer NOW!" wouldn't cut it.
Why not show this to the cops on a spectrum analyzer? Just get a mic and an app which displays freq vs amplitude.
Though I can type fairly well, I'd look at the keyboard far too often when typing. Especially true for the hortizontal number keys. So I took my (cheap, HP-bundled) keyboard, popped the keys off, and rearranged them (incidentally, the letter keys now spell out something like "thequickbrownfxjmpdvrlazyg"). You don't need a fancy black-on-black keyboard to do something like this. It works even better on old Model-M's. Find an old, dirty, used one real cheap, pop off the keytops and throw them in a dishwasher, take a can-o'-air to the keyboard, and pop the keys back on randomly.
Added bonus: When the desktop support guys come around and need to type in an admin password, they're COMPLETELY thrown off.
From their site:
I suppose this means I can finally retire my laserdisc player. *sniff*... watching a movie just isn't the same anymore without the whirrrr of a 12" disc spinning.
The eBags Downloader backpack has served me well for over a year now. I'm in a similar situation -- I carry a ton of gear, as well as cables and spare batteries for everything. It's not perfect, but short of designing a custom-made bag to fit my specific set of items, I'm fairly happy with this bag.
The two main compartments each have sub-compartments, including a laptop section with foamy padding. There's a decent sized pocket on the front (in which I store my iPod and PDA), two on the sides (good for a cell phone or two in one, and a small umbrella in the other), and the zippered subpockets in the smaller of the two main compartments are perfect for batteries and cables.
I was skeptical about purchasing an eBags branded bag, but so far I'm impressed with the quality. The biggest indicator for me? The zippers never stick. The regular price is reasonable, but it's easy to find coupon codes to bring it down a few dollars more.
One other suggestion: get some retractable cables (i.e. ziplinq) to replace anything in your bag longer than a foot.
I do appreciate that any time I've called IBM/Lenovo for Thinkpad support, I always get a US-based representative who seems to be at least somewhat invested in giving me good support. That's more than I can say for Dell, which *every* phone call I place for support gets answered by someone who is very difficult for me to communicate with (mostly due to language issues) and, more importantly, COMPLETELY out-of-touch with the technology they support and the company they are representing.
Consumer adoption of high-def DVD equipment is going to be nowhere near the level of "legacy" DVD adoption, simply because the vast majority of consumers don't have HD displays and don't particularly care about them. So HDDVD and/or Blu-Ray won't have time to be fully adopted (outside of data storage) before it'll be time for the next technology (holographics, etc.)
Replace MPEG-2 with H.264 and you can use existing (9GB) DVD technology *NOW* with minimal expense. The problem (for THEM, not us!) then becomes DRM. And let's face it, it'll be circumvented somehow, right? So just use CSS and hide behind the DMCA enough to prohibit consumer-level DVD duplicators, yet let anyone with a computer and a little technical ability do as they please. Thanks.