Especially considering how just a few days ago Steve Jobs was saying in an interview here. [alwayson-network.com] how they were trying to not be blatant about trumpeting this advantage to avoid becoming a target for viruses and other security breaches.
Although, if Steve Jobs points that out in an interview, then how low-profile can it really be?
I have that book, too, although I bought my copy in 1995 or 1996. However, I do remember ordering a 4-floppy disk set (1.2MB 5.25" floppies) with POV-Ray in 1993, and having fun using my 386SX computer render spheres over checkerboards. So I agree, POV-Ray has definitey been around for longer than 10 years.
Lightweight solar cars have a reason to exist, sensibly sized minivans have a reason to exist, trucks have a reason to exist, Hummers do not.
What you really mean is, at least no reasons that you personally approve of.
Also--rail is more efficient for certain freight needs, but it's too large scale for small loads and does not reach every location that semis can reach. How many supermarkets have railroads swinging by their loading dock behind the store? How many small towns have a railroad anywhere near them?
Is this really 70 megapixels? The press release is short on details, but I'm guessing their "slit scan" technology is simply a traditional line-scan camera mounting on a revolving shaft. In this case the camera would use a CCD that is a single line of pixels, instead of an array like conventional cameras. Line-scan cameras have been used in industry when high resolution is important (the chief tradeoff is speed, since scanning a full image requires moving the camera or the object).
Cool! Brings back the memories!
on
Old Toy Modding?
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
I never had a Big Trak (although friends did), but I had a similar toy that was a programmable Corvette. I picked it up at a garage sale for a few bucks in the early 80s, and it was great! I wonder what happened to it? It would be a lot of fun to hack, now that I have the engineering background to do it!
From the (extremely brief) article it sounds like the system put in place to evaluate threats worked. A potential threat was identified somehow, then dismissed once it was turned out to be a nonthreat. Its not like any action beyond evaluation was taken. Even if the "potential threat" in this case was a videogame character, I would prefer to have a human being make that call then let some automated search engine do the screening based on some rules. Whatever automated system they are using is probably only designed to identify potential threats, not evaluate them.
Don't worry, I don't think they've been unreasonable at all. They've been working with me to get me back up. The person I've been in almost constant e-mail contact with has been very communicative and helpful, and has even taught me a few things about setting up my mail aliases that I probably should have picked up by reading the man pages. I intend to stay with them and after this experience I strongly recommend them because of their excellent service.
BTW, we're now in the process of reinstating my valid e-mail addresses one-by-one, while closely watching to make sure they are not being overrun with spam, too.
Actually, I used to have my own server when I had a DSL net connection. 3 years ago I moved and DSL was not longer available, so now I'm on cable modem, and my ISP's contract explicitly forbids me hosting a server on my connection. Otherwise I would have. Having my domain hosted somewhere is my currently only legal option.
Thanks to everyone who's posted replies on my topic. I've worked with my hoster to change my default alias to route messages with an invalid address to oblivion. Until this happened I didn't even realize that I had a default alias set up, which shows how dangerous a little ignorance can be. We're now re-enabling my aliases one at a time and watching closely to make sure these valid addresses are not being overrun with this returned spam.
By the way, I should mention that my hosting service, CubeSoft, has been very good through all this. I've been in constant contact with them through e-mail (but not my domain e-mail, hah), and they have been very helpful in suggesting solutions and in trying to work with me rather than just blowing me off as not their problem. After this, I can strongly recommend them as a hosting provider.
How much per liter is white-out? How much per pound is lead refills for a mechanical pencil? How much per liter are eye drops?
It's all a matter of volumes and supply and demand. If everyone bought ink by the bottle like they did champagne, the volumes would be way up and the consumer price would probably be more similar.
You have a very good point. Venice is car-free, but it's also tiny. Today it's population is only about 60,000 and at its peak it was still less than 200,000 people.
I missed the offer on HSN by a few hours, so I turned to Ebay. I managed to get one for a pretty good price ($220), but not as cheap as that HSN price.
I'm impatiently waiting for mine to arrive on Monday, according to UPS...
It seems to me that people who pirate movies with camcorders are small fish for the MPAA, relatively speaking. But even so, this is the right way for them to do it. It's perfectly fair to develop anti-copying technologies, just as it's fair for others to develop technologies that defeat anti-copying techniques.
It's the legal moves by the MPAA that I disagree strongly with. This battle belongs in the technological arena, not the courtrooms.
Maybe its new for this application, but hybrid analog/digital chips have been around for a long time. Anybody ever hear of an analog-to-digital converter, or perhaps a digital-to-analog converter?
For that matter, inkjet printheads have quite a bit of both analog and digital circuitry on them, and they are made out of a single silicon die.
Like many others, I've worked in both. Bureaucracy, and the paperwork overhead that goes with it, are typically much worse in public sector jobs. Although, it can be bad in both.
> MIT should be forced to pay a royalty for the use of the art. Nothing more.
True, but from the article it appears that MIT will not willingly pay a royalty because they claim to have done nothing wrong. If Horizon's approaching MIT fails to result in an agreement, then Horizon's next step under the law is to file a lawsuit.
This would be a case where a lawsuit is actually justified. Contrary to some of the prevailing opinions around here, not all lawsuits are unwarranted.
First of all, let me say that I concur with the many others who've said that FORTRAN is alive and well. For a lot of numerical computing, it is a powerful tool.
I do not consider MATLAB a replacement for FORTRAN, rather it's a fast-feedback analysis and visualization language. For matrix math it's unsurpassed. But I totally disagree about it being inept at looping--it would be a useless language if it were.
It's been years since I've used MATLAB extensively, but I remember writing simulation of electro-mechanical systems in MATLAB that used FOR looping, conditional looping, and breaking out of loops. No disrespect meant, but I suspect that the person who asked this question has only a cursory knowledge of MATLAB, the kind you get after having one linear algebra class in college where the most advanced operation you use MATLAB for is to find the eigenvalues of a matrix. If you're a EE, then you don't really get to see what MATLAB can do until you take some advanced control systems or power systems analysis classes.
A business model by which stupid and/or obvious ideas are patented and then violators are sued for money.
I could make a fortune from this one patent alone, and never even have to provide a product or service or even come up with any other ideas! Anytime a company sues another over a stupid or obvious patent (one-click shopping, pop-up ads), I could sue them!
It would also have the side benefit of preventing other stupid or obvious patents from being enforced.;-)
While I wholeheartedly agree that DVD zoning is a bad idea and harmful to consumers, the free marketer in me has to admit that the DVD licensors have the right to establish zones if they want. What's missing is an alternative to DVD. Competition won't really exist until there's an alternative format, or unless DVD becomes an open format so everyone can play on an equal footing.
Now if only someone with the capital and inkling would wake up and develop an alternative format to DVD that was more attractive to consumers--then we'd have competition and the DVD zoning issue would just go away due to natural selection.
Tree rings, ice cores, spring flood deposits... none of these can do anything to validate or invalidate a set of assumptions about the initial isotopes involved in carbon dating. Even if these techniques verify the results of carbon dating, they can't validate the assumptions without a causal link.
Just because we assume A = 3 and thus A + 4 = 7 and we know that 2 + 5 = 7 doesn't mean that A is necessarily 3. If for some reason A is actually 6, then our hypothesis that A + 4 = 7 is invalid. 2 + 5 = 7 does nothing to prove or disprove that A = 3.
But don't think I'm saying it's disproved, either. We just don't know. Tools like this aren't really meant to be used singly, anyway. Other techniques/tools should be used to confirm or contradict the results of any technique/tool.
I once saw a presentation by Dr. Donald Chittick about this very point. I don't remember the details, but his argument is that carbon dating as it is practiced today makes certain assumptions about the original isotopes that decay. Different, but equally valid, assumptions about what the original isotopes were leads to carbon dating results that agree with the 5,000-7,000 year universe lifespan espoused by new-earth creationists. The problem lies in the fact that there isn't a way to verify either set of assumptions.
Yes, but statistically light truck vs light truck accidents cause less severe injuries than car vs car accidents.
Perhaps we should be requiring the drivers of small cars to sign a disclaimer acknowledging they're on the road with larger, safer (to the occupants) vehicles (I do not really advocate this, I believe that part of personal responsibility is realizing the risks of driving).
The Motely Fool isn't the only investor's info source to cover this. The Wall Street Journal had an article on the situation, including quotes from Chris DiBona, last week.
Slashdot Mirror
Especially considering how just a few days ago Steve Jobs was saying in an interview here. [alwayson-network.com] how they were trying to not be blatant about trumpeting this advantage to avoid becoming a target for viruses and other security breaches.
Although, if Steve Jobs points that out in an interview, then how low-profile can it really be?
I have that book, too, although I bought my copy in 1995 or 1996. However, I do remember ordering a 4-floppy disk set (1.2MB 5.25" floppies) with POV-Ray in 1993, and having fun using my 386SX computer render spheres over checkerboards. So I agree, POV-Ray has definitey been around for longer than 10 years.
Lightweight solar cars have a reason to exist, sensibly sized minivans have a reason to exist, trucks have a reason to exist, Hummers do not.
What you really mean is, at least no reasons that you personally approve of.
Also--rail is more efficient for certain freight needs, but it's too large scale for small loads and does not reach every location that semis can reach. How many supermarkets have railroads swinging by their loading dock behind the store? How many small towns have a railroad anywhere near them?
Is this really 70 megapixels? The press release is short on details, but I'm guessing their "slit scan" technology is simply a traditional line-scan camera mounting on a revolving shaft. In this case the camera would use a CCD that is a single line of pixels, instead of an array like conventional cameras. Line-scan cameras have been used in industry when high resolution is important (the chief tradeoff is speed, since scanning a full image requires moving the camera or the object).
I never had a Big Trak (although friends did), but I had a similar toy that was a programmable Corvette. I picked it up at a garage sale for a few bucks in the early 80s, and it was great! I wonder what happened to it? It would be a lot of fun to hack, now that I have the engineering background to do it!
From the (extremely brief) article it sounds like the system put in place to evaluate threats worked. A potential threat was identified somehow, then dismissed once it was turned out to be a nonthreat. Its not like any action beyond evaluation was taken. Even if the "potential threat" in this case was a videogame character, I would prefer to have a human being make that call then let some automated search engine do the screening based on some rules. Whatever automated system they are using is probably only designed to identify potential threats, not evaluate them.
Don't worry, I don't think they've been unreasonable at all. They've been working with me to get me back up. The person I've been in almost constant e-mail contact with has been very communicative and helpful, and has even taught me a few things about setting up my mail aliases that I probably should have picked up by reading the man pages. I intend to stay with them and after this experience I strongly recommend them because of their excellent service.
BTW, we're now in the process of reinstating my valid e-mail addresses one-by-one, while closely watching to make sure they are not being overrun with spam, too.
Actually, I used to have my own server when I had a DSL net connection. 3 years ago I moved and DSL was not longer available, so now I'm on cable modem, and my ISP's contract explicitly forbids me hosting a server on my connection. Otherwise I would have. Having my domain hosted somewhere is my currently only legal option.
Thanks to everyone who's posted replies on my topic. I've worked with my hoster to change my default alias to route messages with an invalid address to oblivion. Until this happened I didn't even realize that I had a default alias set up, which shows how dangerous a little ignorance can be. We're now re-enabling my aliases one at a time and watching closely to make sure these valid addresses are not being overrun with this returned spam.
By the way, I should mention that my hosting service, CubeSoft, has been very good through all this. I've been in constant contact with them through e-mail (but not my domain e-mail, hah), and they have been very helpful in suggesting solutions and in trying to work with me rather than just blowing me off as not their problem. After this, I can strongly recommend them as a hosting provider.
How much per liter is white-out? How much per pound is lead refills for a mechanical pencil? How much per liter are eye drops?
It's all a matter of volumes and supply and demand. If everyone bought ink by the bottle like they did champagne, the volumes would be way up and the consumer price would probably be more similar.
You have a very good point. Venice is car-free, but it's also tiny. Today it's population is only about 60,000 and at its peak it was still less than 200,000 people.
Aha! Now we finally know what THE question was that was lost when the earth was destroyed in the Hitchhiker's Guide!
I missed the offer on HSN by a few hours, so I turned to Ebay. I managed to get one for a pretty good price ($220), but not as cheap as that HSN price.
I'm impatiently waiting for mine to arrive on Monday, according to UPS...
It seems to me that people who pirate movies with camcorders are small fish for the MPAA, relatively speaking. But even so, this is the right way for them to do it. It's perfectly fair to develop anti-copying technologies, just as it's fair for others to develop technologies that defeat anti-copying techniques.
It's the legal moves by the MPAA that I disagree strongly with. This battle belongs in the technological arena, not the courtrooms.
Maybe its new for this application, but hybrid analog/digital chips have been around for a long time. Anybody ever hear of an analog-to-digital converter, or perhaps a digital-to-analog converter?
For that matter, inkjet printheads have quite a bit of both analog and digital circuitry on them, and they are made out of a single silicon die.
Like many others, I've worked in both. Bureaucracy, and the paperwork overhead that goes with it, are typically much worse in public sector jobs. Although, it can be bad in both.
> MIT should be forced to pay a royalty for the use of the art. Nothing more.
True, but from the article it appears that MIT will not willingly pay a royalty because they claim to have done nothing wrong. If Horizon's approaching MIT fails to result in an agreement, then Horizon's next step under the law is to file a lawsuit.
This would be a case where a lawsuit is actually justified. Contrary to some of the prevailing opinions around here, not all lawsuits are unwarranted.
First of all, let me say that I concur with the many others who've said that FORTRAN is alive and well. For a lot of numerical computing, it is a powerful tool.
I do not consider MATLAB a replacement for FORTRAN, rather it's a fast-feedback analysis and visualization language. For matrix math it's unsurpassed. But I totally disagree about it being inept at looping--it would be a useless language if it were.
It's been years since I've used MATLAB extensively, but I remember writing simulation of electro-mechanical systems in MATLAB that used FOR looping, conditional looping, and breaking out of loops. No disrespect meant, but I suspect that the person who asked this question has only a cursory knowledge of MATLAB, the kind you get after having one linear algebra class in college where the most advanced operation you use MATLAB for is to find the eigenvalues of a matrix. If you're a EE, then you don't really get to see what MATLAB can do until you take some advanced control systems or power systems analysis classes.
A new episode of Geeks in Space was posted today.
Here's a new patent idea:
;-)
A business model by which stupid and/or obvious ideas are patented and then violators are sued for money.
I could make a fortune from this one patent alone, and never even have to provide a product or service or even come up with any other ideas! Anytime a company sues another over a stupid or obvious patent (one-click shopping, pop-up ads), I could sue them!
It would also have the side benefit of preventing other stupid or obvious patents from being enforced.
While I wholeheartedly agree that DVD zoning is a bad idea and harmful to consumers, the free marketer in me has to admit that the DVD licensors have the right to establish zones if they want. What's missing is an alternative to DVD. Competition won't really exist until there's an alternative format, or unless DVD becomes an open format so everyone can play on an equal footing.
Now if only someone with the capital and inkling would wake up and develop an alternative format to DVD that was more attractive to consumers--then we'd have competition and the DVD zoning issue would just go away due to natural selection.
Tree rings, ice cores, spring flood deposits... none of these can do anything to validate or invalidate a set of assumptions about the initial isotopes involved in carbon dating. Even if these techniques verify the results of carbon dating, they can't validate the assumptions without a causal link.
Just because we assume A = 3 and thus A + 4 = 7 and we know that 2 + 5 = 7 doesn't mean that A is necessarily 3. If for some reason A is actually 6, then our hypothesis that A + 4 = 7 is invalid. 2 + 5 = 7 does nothing to prove or disprove that A = 3.
But don't think I'm saying it's disproved, either. We just don't know. Tools like this aren't really meant to be used singly, anyway. Other techniques/tools should be used to confirm or contradict the results of any technique/tool.
I once saw a presentation by Dr. Donald Chittick about this very point. I don't remember the details, but his argument is that carbon dating as it is practiced today makes certain assumptions about the original isotopes that decay. Different, but equally valid, assumptions about what the original isotopes were leads to carbon dating results that agree with the 5,000-7,000 year universe lifespan espoused by new-earth creationists. The problem lies in the fact that there isn't a way to verify either set of assumptions.
Yes, but statistically light truck vs light truck accidents cause less severe injuries than car vs car accidents.
Perhaps we should be requiring the drivers of small cars to sign a disclaimer acknowledging they're on the road with larger, safer (to the occupants) vehicles (I do not really advocate this, I believe that part of personal responsibility is realizing the risks of driving).
The Motely Fool isn't the only investor's info source to cover this. The Wall Street Journal had an article on the situation, including quotes from Chris DiBona, last week.