When Doc Smith was gaping about 1.21 Gigawatts, he wasn't talking 1.21 * 2^30, he meant 1,210,000,000 watts.
Actually he said "Jiggawatts", quite funny now that we use giga all the time, but back in the mid 80's I guess giga- was used as much as exa- is now.
Hmm, cable connecter was about 1 foot long. At 88mph, total maximum contact time (Assuming the car didnt vanish half way through the connection - if it did less power was needed) was less then 1/100th of a second. Total power used by the car was therefore 1.21*10^9/10^2 - 12.1MJ. (1 watt is a measure of power, not energy - 1 joule per second)
With a massive capacitor you could charge the delorian off five ten-millionths of a gram of antimatter (combined with an equal ammount of matter). More importantly you could charge the delorian in a UK power socket (13A, 240V, or just over 3.1KJ/s) in less then 7 minutes.
The delorian must have needed the power all at once (understandable), and didnt have any way of storing that much charge (doubtful).
BTW 1.21GW is a lot of power to continuosly put out.
Marty was back in 1955 for a week. Even a trickle charge of 60W (1 light bulb) for the entire week would have provided 36MJ, enought to power the delorian for 1/30th of a second - 3 times longer than needed.
Incidently, in 1999, the U.S.A produced over 13 million TerraJoules in electricty - enough to power the delorian for over 300 years.
QuickTime, Real, and Windows Media. Of course, given those open standards (with HIGHER licensing fees) are responsible for probably 98% of all digital video watched worldwide
I dont agree with 98%. It's certainly high (quicktime for all those movie trailers, real for streaming etc), but divX has a big share in the "shadier" side of online video
AMD was a much smaller company challanging Intel's dominence. Sun was a newcomer (in terms of office applications) but yes, IMO is guilty of predatory pricing of staroffice.
It's hard to say you are selling a good for a loss with software, with near-zero marginal cost.
However lok at the airlines (which doe have a marginal cost). The big boys (British Airways, American Airlines etc) flew trans atlantic flights at a high price. Laker airlines came in, and undercut the big companies in the same way Easyjet and South West Airlines undercut the big companies. The big companies had massive reserves, and combined (like a cartel) to lower their prices below Laker's airline. Laker didnt have massive reserves of capital, and could afford to run at a loss for 3 years. Instead he went bust. (In adition BA and co. used their large number of flights [and hence landings] to make sure Laker Airlines didnt get any slots at the airports [they said "dont give laker the slots or we'll pull out]).
Sure enough, after going bust, the big companies (acting as a cartel), put their prices back up.
Free calls while roaming? Not bad if you compare the u.s. to europe. Compare U.S. to a single country in europe and thats hardly something to be impressed with.
For about £65($100) a month I can get about 600 minutes of free calls across the UK, to mobiles or land lines, 24 hours a day. Tons of free texts too, about £250 off a phone (e.g. nokia 7650 for free) on a 12 month contract.
Roaming really works great, and with Euro traveling has become a great pleasure.
Agreed. It's as useful as a single currency - I still havent worked out some Italian phone cards (where you have to dial a number)
I've had a mobile for the last 5 years (of course now every 12 year old and his dog had one, I was the only person in school with a phone on GCSE results day). Naturally I dont remember peoples phone numbers now.
This was a great problem when I left my phone in greece 2 weeks ago. Got on the boat to italy, and realised I'd forgotten it when I tried to look at the time (I dont have a watch now either).
Didnt know anyones number, and after a 24 hours boat ride, spending 6 hours in venice on new years eve, isn't fun. Found an internet cafe, and sent a few emails. Couldnt make any phone calls though because I didnt know anyones number! Eventually got back to the UK and rang directory enquiries from Bristol.
One thign to note, at least with vodaphone, you pay extra to phone from abroad (signal goes from greece to UK, via many carriers, therefore costs more). In addition, if you phone someone in greece from greece, you pay the cost to UK, and then cost to greece. Finally if someone phones you from UK to your number (07890123456), you pay the UK-Greece cost (as charging the UK person for an international call when they dialed a normal 07, without telling them, is bad)
That was with Vodaphone xnet200. Same sort of thing with orange too (last summer any way).
I ran up a £120 bill over summer, thanks to 3 weeks in greece, then 2 weeks driving back through europe, and calling my parents (who live in greece). Didnt use any free minutes either!
Here is a quote: Eight spiders from Australia will make a trip to outer space to help the U.S. space agency test the effects of zero gravity
I had no idea spiders were so benevolent! I take it they are getting a 5* hotel stay before lift off, for their generous donation of time. This experiment will surely enhance Astrailian-Spider relations.
Not only that we don't know yet what OS they will work with. So lets not start doomsaying until the first of these are out and there is proof they refuse to run certain operating systems.
I was bored one day, so I created isoroxOS v0.01, to learn about x86 assembly, try to get a thing displayed on the screen, and have fun. I did it because I can.
I then put in the floppy disk, and rebooted. Machine POSTed, then suddenly
Back in 1991, Linux wasnt an OS, it was a guy playing arround with getting something working on his computer. I dont care if it supports every OS imaginable, it wont support the one I might write in 4 months time.
Re:Broadcast to other TiVos?
on
TiVo and Rendezvous
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
This may open the door for simple pirate TV stations using 802.11, TiVos, and Macs.
Or just use an old VCR, a booster, and a roof ariel aimed at everyone else.
Be a nice excuse though. "Yes dear, I just turned on the TV and there was all this porn there, it must be next door!"
I don't pay the two of you in R&D to play Quake all day! Find out what this Rendezvous is and copy it! I'll prepare a hot press release announcing it today. Be ready to ship by 2006.
So *thats* when the BOFH and PFY really are!
Re:More like...
on
Real DRM
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
They did get real. They know that any "protection" they put on their "content" will be no more complex then ROT13. However they have the DMCA - doesnt matter if the DRM stuff is any good, as long as it's illegal to own or distribute a tool that can be used to break it. 90% of people that currently nab mp3's and divx's off edonkey wont when they have to go to the trouble of installing a non-DRM signed program-to-break-drm onto their computers. Especially when any efforts to do this will be reported to the FBI, department of religious purity, department of homeland security and Microsoft Marketting.
I'm sure there are people like you that agree. Start your own company - you dont really have to worry about predatory pricing. Either that or buy a a laser printer
I was speaking to a friend of a friend of a friend who may or may not have been a lawyer (I forget), and this doesnt constitute legal advise and all that bullshit that comes from a littigation society where you can sue McDonalds for being a fat turd
I heard, from said person, that once a patent has been granted, its very hard to ungrant, even with prior art. For example If I bribed a few people and patented the wheel, it would be hard work to claim that I shouldnt have been given the patent originally. Is this true?
Many moons ago, in the dark ages, I obtained a semi-broken iNFRA54 creative cd rom drive. It has 1) Earphones output 2) volume (up/down buttons) 3) Remote with numbered buttons etc. 4) play/next/rewind/prev buttons 5) Stop/eject button 6) Mode button (?) 7) Windows software which enables the remote to be a mouse etc.
On the back is a normal large 12V/5V/GND power socket, IDE port, master/slave jumper, analog audio out and didgatl audio out (2 pin cable thing).
The thing the laser sits on and moves kept sticking whenthe case was on though, but worked ok with the case off. As mentioned elsewhere, a cheap AT power supply would work it great, I bet ebay as a few. Dunno if the digital out is the same as a coaxial digital out on DVD's and tuners etc.
I just use my DVD player (which does mp3 cd's fine, has digital out and cost less then $150 18 months ago). I was impressed by my parents new midi system - 5 CD changer, reads file names, file/directory navigation, etc. etc. For now I'm happy with my DVD player, but were I into music large scale, I'd definatly invest in a proper CD deck.
Why anyone would spend $50+ on a high end CDROM drive is beyond belief!
To test this, you just have to throw yourself at the floor... and miss!
Very hard to do, unless you are sufficently surprised. For example if you are on an alien planet and see a suitcase you lost at an airport years ago in mid fall. You'll be so astonished you'll forget to land.
Slashdot Mirror
Hey, mine's worth less then a cup of tea!
When Doc Smith was gaping about 1.21 Gigawatts, he wasn't talking 1.21 * 2^30, he meant 1,210,000,000 watts.
Actually he said "Jiggawatts", quite funny now that we use giga all the time, but back in the mid 80's I guess giga- was used as much as exa- is now.
Hmm, cable connecter was about 1 foot long. At 88mph, total maximum contact time (Assuming the car didnt vanish half way through the connection - if it did less power was needed) was less then 1/100th of a second. Total power used by the car was therefore 1.21*10^9/10^2 - 12.1MJ. (1 watt is a measure of power, not energy - 1 joule per second)
With a massive capacitor you could charge the delorian off five ten-millionths of a gram of antimatter (combined with an equal ammount of matter). More importantly you could charge the delorian in a UK power socket (13A, 240V, or just over 3.1KJ/s) in less then 7 minutes.
The delorian must have needed the power all at once (understandable), and didnt have any way of storing that much charge (doubtful).
BTW 1.21GW is a lot of power to continuosly put out.
Marty was back in 1955 for a week. Even a trickle charge of 60W (1 light bulb) for the entire week would have provided 36MJ, enought to power the delorian for 1/30th of a second - 3 times longer than needed.
Incidently, in 1999, the U.S.A produced over 13 million TerraJoules in electricty - enough to power the delorian for over 300 years.
QuickTime, Real, and Windows Media. Of course, given those open standards (with HIGHER licensing fees) are responsible for probably 98% of all digital video watched worldwide
I dont agree with 98%. It's certainly high (quicktime for all those movie trailers, real for streaming etc), but divX has a big share in the "shadier" side of online video
AMD was a much smaller company challanging Intel's dominence. Sun was a newcomer (in terms of office applications) but yes, IMO is guilty of predatory pricing of staroffice.
It's hard to say you are selling a good for a loss with software, with near-zero marginal cost.
However lok at the airlines (which doe have a marginal cost). The big boys (British Airways, American Airlines etc) flew trans atlantic flights at a high price. Laker airlines came in, and undercut the big companies in the same way Easyjet and South West Airlines undercut the big companies. The big companies had massive reserves, and combined (like a cartel) to lower their prices below Laker's airline. Laker didnt have massive reserves of capital, and could afford to run at a loss for 3 years. Instead he went bust. (In adition BA and co. used their large number of flights [and hence landings] to make sure Laker Airlines didnt get any slots at the airports [they said "dont give laker the slots or we'll pull out]).
Sure enough, after going bust, the big companies (acting as a cartel), put their prices back up.
Illegal? Maybe not. Immoral? Yes.
Free calls while roaming? Not bad if you compare the u.s. to europe. Compare U.S. to a single country in europe and thats hardly something to be impressed with.
For about £65($100) a month I can get about 600 minutes of free calls across the UK, to mobiles or land lines, 24 hours a day. Tons of free texts too, about £250 off a phone (e.g. nokia 7650 for free) on a 12 month contract.
Roaming really works great, and with Euro traveling has become a great pleasure.
Agreed. It's as useful as a single currency - I still havent worked out some Italian phone cards (where you have to dial a number)
I've had a mobile for the last 5 years (of course now every 12 year old and his dog had one, I was the only person in school with a phone on GCSE results day). Naturally I dont remember peoples phone numbers now.
This was a great problem when I left my phone in greece 2 weeks ago. Got on the boat to italy, and realised I'd forgotten it when I tried to look at the time (I dont have a watch now either).
Didnt know anyones number, and after a 24 hours boat ride, spending 6 hours in venice on new years eve, isn't fun. Found an internet cafe, and sent a few emails. Couldnt make any phone calls though because I didnt know anyones number! Eventually got back to the UK and rang directory enquiries from Bristol.
A phone is great, but dont rely on it!
One thign to note, at least with vodaphone, you pay extra to phone from abroad (signal goes from greece to UK, via many carriers, therefore costs more). In addition, if you phone someone in greece from greece, you pay the cost to UK, and then cost to greece. Finally if someone phones you from UK to your number (07890123456), you pay the UK-Greece cost (as charging the UK person for an international call when they dialed a normal 07, without telling them, is bad)
That was with Vodaphone xnet200. Same sort of thing with orange too (last summer any way).
I ran up a £120 bill over summer, thanks to 3 weeks in greece, then 2 weeks driving back through europe, and calling my parents (who live in greece). Didnt use any free minutes either!
Does your head warm up when you're on the phone? Yes.
Which is so ironic, because in this weather I really wish I'd not lost my phone in greece.
Here is a quote: Eight spiders from Australia will make a trip to outer space to help the U.S. space agency test the effects of zero gravity
I had no idea spiders were so benevolent! I take it they are getting a 5* hotel stay before lift off, for their generous donation of time. This experiment will surely enhance Astrailian-Spider relations.
Couldn't send something cute could they
Like a furby? What happens if that mututes into a large killing machine?
iso@isorox:~$ ethereal
Not only that we don't know yet what OS they will work with. So lets not start doomsaying until the first of these are out and there is proof they refuse to run certain operating systems.
I was bored one day, so I created isoroxOS v0.01, to learn about x86 assembly, try to get a thing displayed on the screen, and have fun. I did it because I can.
I then put in the floppy disk, and rebooted. Machine POSTed, then suddenly
AWOOOGAH AWOOOGAH AWOOOGAH AWOOOGAH AWOOOGAH AWOOOGAH
Back in 1991, Linux wasnt an OS, it was a guy playing arround with getting something working on his computer. I dont care if it supports every OS imaginable, it wont support the one I might write in 4 months time.
This may open the door for simple pirate TV stations using 802.11, TiVos, and Macs.
Or just use an old VCR, a booster, and a roof ariel aimed at everyone else.
Be a nice excuse though. "Yes dear, I just turned on the TV and there was all this porn there, it must be next door!"
I don't pay the two of you in R&D to play Quake all day! Find out what this Rendezvous is and copy it! I'll prepare a hot press release announcing it today. Be ready to ship by 2006.
So *thats* when the BOFH and PFY really are!
They did get real. They know that any "protection" they put on their "content" will be no more complex then ROT13. However they have the DMCA - doesnt matter if the DRM stuff is any good, as long as it's illegal to own or distribute a tool that can be used to break it. 90% of people that currently nab mp3's and divx's off edonkey wont when they have to go to the trouble of installing a non-DRM signed program-to-break-drm onto their computers. Especially when any efforts to do this will be reported to the FBI, department of religious purity, department of homeland security and Microsoft Marketting.
I always use "Bob@bob.com" for my emails when I have to enter an address
:)
I always use fuck@you.com
You have to feel sorry for the people with short domain names like bob.com, me.com, you.com, spam.com etc.
I'm sure there are people like you that agree. Start your own company - you dont really have to worry about predatory pricing. Either that or buy a a laser printer
I was speaking to a friend of a friend of a friend who may or may not have been a lawyer (I forget), and this doesnt constitute legal advise and all that bullshit that comes from a littigation society where you can sue McDonalds for being a fat turd
I heard, from said person, that once a patent has been granted, its very hard to ungrant, even with prior art. For example If I bribed a few people and patented the wheel, it would be hard work to claim that I shouldnt have been given the patent originally. Is this true?
Many moons ago, in the dark ages, I obtained a semi-broken iNFRA54 creative cd rom drive. It has
1) Earphones output
2) volume (up/down buttons)
3) Remote with numbered buttons etc.
4) play/next/rewind/prev buttons
5) Stop/eject button
6) Mode button (?)
7) Windows software which enables the remote to be a mouse etc.
On the back is a normal large 12V/5V/GND power socket, IDE port, master/slave jumper, analog audio out and didgatl audio out (2 pin cable thing).
The thing the laser sits on and moves kept sticking whenthe case was on though, but worked ok with the case off.
As mentioned elsewhere, a cheap AT power supply would work it great, I bet ebay as a few. Dunno if the digital out is the same as a coaxial digital out on DVD's and tuners etc.
I just use my DVD player (which does mp3 cd's fine, has digital out and cost less then $150 18 months ago). I was impressed by my parents new midi system - 5 CD changer, reads file names, file/directory navigation, etc. etc. For now I'm happy with my DVD player, but were I into music large scale, I'd definatly invest in a proper CD deck.
Why anyone would spend $50+ on a high end CDROM drive is beyond belief!
(e.g. high vs. low centers of gravity)
Remember gravity isnt instantaneous, it travels at between 0.7 and 1.2 times the speed of light. This may affect your plans.
The biggest problems happen when she begins downloading large files (I'll let you guess what she downloads
:)
4 posts so far, 3 implying she downloads porn. You did ask for it you know
QoS on the router would be the best bet in my uninformed opinion. Other then that a download manager that throttles her bandwidth
Shame about being (kinda) responsible for kidnapping russian citizens isnt it?
Or just pull out the oil and leave Iraq alone, which is all GWB wants ;)
To test this, you just have to throw yourself at the floor... and miss!
Very hard to do, unless you are sufficently surprised. For example if you are on an alien planet and see a suitcase you lost at an airport years ago in mid fall. You'll be so astonished you'll forget to land.