There is no doubt that advanced technology developed by any civilization will eventually be what destroys it. In our society where we value our privacy so much, it will be the technology that destroys it.
Allow me to be anal about the above statement:
I fully agree that at some point in the future, there may be a technology that will render privacy an obsolete notion, which will bring our Western society as we know it crashing down on it knees, never to return.
However, I'd like to draw a distinction between the destruction of "society" and of "humankind". Privacy going the way of the dodo will greatly affect North America and Europe - generally, the Developed worlds. However, it won't make a lick of difference to those squatting behind bushes waiting to club a rabbit or toiling away in rice paddies or herding sheep on a mountainside. Their society may change due to ours collapsing, but it won't be destroyed.
And as sad and fragile a species as we've become, we'll prevail. A lot of people might die while our societal paradigm changes, but homo sapiens will remain firmly glued to the face of this planet, and we'll continue on as best we know how.
Yes, now the big labels and big bands will see that Napster users are merely music ENTHUSIASTS, no pirates! They will embrace Napster, and all other like services, showering them with high-quality tracks, demos, and even previews!
And Metallica will realize its erronous ways, and beg forgiveness from all of its Napster fans. In fact, being so moved by the indesputable research that Napster HELPS sales, Metallica will become the single biggest promoter and sponsor of Napster, and release all of their music online for the first time in History!
[/sarcasm]
Unfortunately, record execs can't read Jupiter's report, having their heads so far up their asses.
If someone would be so kind, please explain to me the reasoning behind overclocking. I realize that (on the surface) it allows you to purchase an XYZ MHz system, and then turn it into an XYZ+ABC MHz system. Faster chips cost more money, so you're saving a few bucks.
But is the performance gain really worth it? If you need those few extra clock cycles every second, why are you cheaping out and then risking not only your warranty (or blowing it altogether) but the life of your CPU? If I really wanted some extra speed in my brand-new machine, I'd spend the extra $200 or so, not blow time, energy, and then my entire investment by overclocking.
Whoever is responsible for paypai.com didn't think things through too thoroughly, did they?
First, they used a lure that was not only false, but that could be readily verifiable by the user. Big chunk o' cash waiting? I'll go see! Hmm, not there... uh oh! Using a less-effective lure (please click here to be removed from the paypaI.com mailing list) would not have generated as many hits, but would have kept him under cover much longer.
I also think it was a bit untidy of him/her to use paypai.com as the main site. Personally, I look at the URL quite a bit. Seeing "paypai" would set me off instantly. Instead, he/she could have used something else, like "login.paypalcom.net" or even "welcome.to/paypal", and one might just assume they're expanding their service and changing server names (like Hotmail likes to do a lot).
Even better (if it's possible), after recording the login and password, it could have spat the user to a "login failed" page with a "please try again" link, or maybe "server error, please try a different server, sorry for the inconvenience" page, that then redirected the user to the REAL PayPal site.
I have to admit - as illegal and unethical as this scam was, it was a fairly bright idea. Good thing for PayPal users that they didn't think it all the way through.
Vapourware is right... although that's a very nicely rendered image. An actual picture might make me a bit more excited...
I think Palm has nothing to worry about. Why? The Palm VII fits in your hand. As does the RIM Blackberry. THIS monstrosity is freaking HUGE! It's not a webpad - it's more like a beach blanket!
Once you get into a device that size, why bother to make it wireless? Just so you have have the pleasure of lugging it around in its own suitcase so you can browse for gaspacho recipes from the park? I don't think so. I'd be more inclined to just leave it at home, in which case a short-range wireless connection to my home Internet port would be much better. A lot cheaper, too, I'm betting - I didn't find any mention of a service price on the site.
Having read both articles, I don't see why everyone has their panties in a knot. Apple is not replacing the ATI system. ATI has not lost their biggest customer. They are having a spat, not getting a divorce.
My take on the whole thing? Jobs is hopping mad, and in an infantile (but effective) move, spanked ATI for being naughty (or more precisely, for employing one naughty, gabby employee who hasn't been found yet). So ATI loses out on the keynote spotlight.
That doesn't mean that you won't find ATI hardware in the G4 Cube or any other Mac. It just means that ATI is going to have to hang its head, say "sorry" a lot, and life will go on. The new graphics card will be an OEM option - it would punish the consumer more than ATI not to include it. ATI and Jobs will kiss and make up.
Don't blow things out of proportion. All will be OK - profit will prevail over ego.
Hold on a second... this ISP is supposed to be non-profit? Then, especially given the current state of Australian Internet access, how do we know that is going to offer anything better?
I think the point here is that something is better than nothing. If you're the only ISP, you're the benchmark, unless you're going to compare to kangaroo-tipping. We here in North America can bitch and complain long and hard about "quality" ISP's, but if you're living in the outback and have NO ACCESS at all, you'd be eternally grateful for ANY access, even if it was a flaky, slow, hit-and-miss ISP.
A few years ago, I heard of plans that would make putting Pizza Hut on the side of a Proton rocket look like a hand-written flyer as compared to a billboard.
For the record, I believe Coke was the one thinking of this, but I can't be sure.
Two methods of space-based advertising were being considered:
1) Send up huge coloured sheets, akin to the light sails that we've heard about, except this would simply be a huge, orbiting billboard. Just think about it - looking up one night and noticing a rectangular shape crossing the sky that catches the sun, lighting up "Enjoy Coke!" clear as day against the night sky. Shudder.
2) This idea was even worse; Instead of making a floating, orbiting billboard, they were simply going to paint a billboard on the moon for all to see.
As much as I like it and rely on it on a daily basis, THIS is why a market economy sucks.
I'm not sure who this box is for. It costs about the same amount at the full G4 machines but its less upgradable.
This box would be for me. Or, hopefully will be, anyway.
I currently have a computer (unfortunately, a Wintel box) that includes a decent 17" monitor. Now, when I replace that computer, will I need a new monitor? In all likelyhood, no. It's only 3 years old, is a decent size, and supports just about any resolution I actually need (and can read). So, the G4 Cube is for me - I buy it, plug my monitor into it (I really hope I can - Apple's introduction of it wasn't very clear on that aspect) and away I go, without having to shovel out another $500.
As for upgradability: if that's what you need, then you'll have to settle with the not-as-new-so-not-as-cool G4. The Cube seems to be slotted between the lowly 400 MHz G4 and the Dual 450, which makes me think they're going for a market where upgrades are not commonplace; If you want a really fast system, you'll buy top-end (dual 500 G4). If you want really top-end, but only in certain areas (say, storage) you buy whatever will do (400 G4), and expand it. If you're a business or home user and will use this machine until either it dies or you do and will never see the inside of the machine, you buy the Cube if you need moderate computing power, or the dual 450 or 500 MHz G4.
Besides, if you want to expand, just plug any given USB or firewire device in. No prob!
If anyone out there buys a Cube and finds out that they can't handle the non-expandability, I'd be more than happy to help them out and take it away from them.:)
Why fight for the right to buy expensive gear and to consume lots of electricity to broadcast over a small geographic area, when you could reach the whole world by setting up a station on the Internet?
Who says you need expensive gear? Didn't you ever get that electronics lab from Radio Shack as a kid? It had a manual, lots of pre-cut-and-stripped wires of various lengths, and the components were wired underneath the friendly, printed-carboard surface. Just follow the "recipe", and voila - you have [insert simple electronic device here]. One of them, I'm almost certain, was a radio wave broadcaster.
Admittedly, there is a difference between pirating the AM radio in your parent's living room from your bedroom and suddenly talking to 10 000+ of your neighbours. But I can't see the equipment being all that much - unless they're priced to ensure low-powered radio stations don't exists. (Paranoia, anyone?) OTOH, what do you think various campus radio stations all over the continent use? The one I was at certainly didn't get far.
As for an Internet station.. I guess it depends on your audience. Certainly an alternative radio station would be a good fit, but if I wanted to appeal to toddlers, or retirees, or people in vehicles (like the airport radio stations), I'd be much better off broadcasting in the regular fashion.
I somehow doubt that Cobalt Networks could sue Apple (and win) over copying the design of the Qube, a la iMac vs eMachines.
First, the iMac was a whole new paradigm for computers. No more beige box and separate monitor. I think it's pretty clear that a few manufacturers stole more than just a few pages from the iMac styling book. Case closed.
But with the G4 Cube, how can anyone say that they were the first to package a computer in a cube? Unless the design is largely the same (which it isn't) you can't really lay claim (in my books) to an orthagonally packaged computer enclosure.
Differences, Qube vs G4 Cube:
cobalt blue vs clear/graphite
entirely cubic vs cubic enclosure with more rectangular clear cover
looks like a rectilinear Octane vs looks more like something you'd find in a hair salon
.org - non profit or social organizations .com - commerical business .net - ISPs/networks/etc.
I checked through all 29 proposals (well, skimmed them pretty well) and was very, very surprised to find that ".xxx" was not proposed by anyone. At least, not that ICAAN is letting us know.
If no one else does, it might be worth proposing ".xxx" for no other reason than to give porn its own place, and possibly get it out of the.com,.org, and.net space that it's currently smeared through. It would ease browsing for those looking for porn (www.beastiality.xxx, www.bigtitties.xxx, woman-on-woman.liveaction.xxx, etc.) and make filtering porn VERY easy.
Now if we could only find someone who wants the responsibility for taking the TLD...
Is anyone ever going to realize that the best step forward will be to take a step back? To hell with adding on all these whiz-bang new-fangled "features" to the OS. Do the opposite - go back, hack all the crap out, and optimize, optimize, optimize.
I've been thinking for quite a few years now that things would be just great if someone would take an OS (for example, Windows) and instead of adding varios eye-candy crap to it, just hack it down to the simplest, purest form. Make it work, make it stable, and make it SMALL. At some point (we may have already reached it) code optimization will give us more speed than upping the speed on our CPU's will.
Attention-sensitive UI's, voice recognition - keep it. Give me a lean, mean machine with some nice tight code and I'll be a happy camper.
The funny thing is, the same people who are concerned about power lines and mobile phones have no qualms about sitting in front of a TV or computer for hours each day being bombarded with X-rays
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Off-the-cuff reation to the proposed TLD's? Some of them are good, and others are very, very stupid. Allow me to harp on the stupid ones (isn't ".web" redundant???)...
The ones I consider "stupid" are the ones that are far too specific. As just an example, ".gallery", ".humanrights", ".isnotgreen" (?!??!??) are a few of the ones I consider detrimental. Not because they're over 3 letters - that I can get around - but because I believe that such TLD's will make navigating the web even harder thna it is today.
Right now, if you want to find out something about rental cars, or soft drinks, or even home appliances, you can guess, and probably guess correctly, about budget.com, coca-cola.com, and maytag.com. There might be variations, but it's usually limited to the domain name, not the TLD (it might be budgetrental.com instead).
Now you go and open up a new TLD for everything and anything you desire:
www.drteeth.dds bejing.china.humanrights carseats.recalls.info london.england.uk.tel proctorandgamble.isnotgreen (can you say lawsuit?) japan.maritime.law
All of a sudden, you have no idea what is where anymore. Search engines become necessary to find *anything* that isn't a.com. And with web content already having doubled this year, search engines have to scramble to keep up.
Additionally, this might create a situation where someone who wants a domain name for a web site might be forced into registering multiple domain names just for one site. If www.oldusedcars.biz has photos of all the clunkers they're selling, do they need www.oldusedcars.gallery? Do they put all prices at www.oldusedcars.prices? Admittedly, this is a poor example, but with a large corporation with lots of information to distribute, I can see a case where they would register everything under the sun, just in the hope that people guessing their URLs will get one right! (So much for bringing the price of URL registration down.)
The LCD rear view screens are an excellent idea, especially from the standpoint of drag. However, being an engineer, I'm going to be picky...
Why two screens, and two cameras? You could completely eliminate any and all protrusions from the side of the doors by axing one camera and one LCD screen, and instead mounting one camera (maybe with a wide-angle lens) at the rear of the car (beside the CHMSL maybe). Then you'd also only need one LCD screen. Voila - half the cost, with all the nerdity preserved!
The windmill idea is.. interesting. A bit to granola-munching for my tastes, however. For the price of all the equipment, and the time it takes to set up and dismantle DAILY, how many KW's of electricity could you buy instead? How about something a little more proven, like solar panels on the garage? It just seems like there was a surplus windmill generator lying around, and he needed to find a use for it. Either way, I'd much rather mount it on the garage, or in the middle of the yard. One slip and your pretty little car has an ugly gouge on its roof.
Although technically interesting, I don't see this new technology as all that earth-shattering. I can easily forsee it coming into use in retrieving black box data from flight recorders (or late-model GM vehicles), as that data is extremely valuable in not only determining what went wrong, but possibly how lives could be saved later.
But let's get back to you and me. Is this really going to affect us? I somehow doubt it. Even if you were the most notorious hacker, the most villanous virus-writer, the most heinous of DoS'ers, would this technology ever be used against you? Probably not.
I see this technology being used almost exclusively on audio and video tapes. Why? If you're using a hard drive and doing something bad, chances are your hard drive isn't the only one out there that has information on what you've been doing. Your ISP might have logs of what FTP sites you've been to. Your friend's computer might still contain those inflated-ego e-mails you sent him/her. Countless other web servers might have registered your IP (or your firewall's, or your ISP's, or whatever). Most likely, the authorities don't need to recover *your* hard drive (after you've shot it, trash-compacted it, and put it in your saltwater aquarium) to nail you.
However, we'll now finally be able to recover that episode of B5 that your mother recorded her Celine Dion special over....
One word can sum up why gasoline is king of the automotive power hill: Infrastructure.
Another two can sum up why it'll stay there: market economy.
Gasoline is old. Really old. Yes, it's been reformulated (got rid of the lead, added detergents, etc.) but the general idea of having a liquid hydrocarbon that your horseless carriage runs on is old.
What this means is that there have always (all of my life, anyway - long enough) been oil expeditions looking for a source of oil to make gasoline from, there has always been refineries that can make the gasoline, there have always been distribution systems for gasoline, and there have always been gas stations that retail the gasoline to consumers. The infrastructure is there, and has been refined and adjusted and is working pretty well.
Now, fuel cells are a wonderful idea, but so far they either run on hydrogen, methan(e/anol), or other such light fuels. Do you see these at every 7-11 and Sunoco station? No - you'll find it added to select gasolines (but no more than 10%) in some places. Add to the fact that fuel cells use a LOT of platinum (the ones I'm familliar with) for their catalyst, and the fact that they aren't mass-produced yet, and there you have an expenstive alternative.
Alternative fuels are the same story infrastructure-wise, but without the added complication of developing technology. I could convert my car to ethanol, methanol, propane (LPG), natural gas (CNG)... and get excellent emissions, good drivability... but I'd be a fool to go on long trips without mapping out where each ethanol station is along my route. (Trust me on this - I did the 1997 Propane Vehicle Challenge, and we mapped out EACH and EVERY propane station from Waterloo, Ontario, Canada all the way down to Austin, Texas. Not exactly spur-of-the-moment "road trip" kinda stuff.)
(And before someone says, "But propane has infrastructure!", yes, it does. But very limited. It's big in Canada - mostly for BBQ's - and Texas, but that's about it. Drive around town, and see how many propane centers you see, and how many have the right nozzle for vehicle refuelling. Hint: try your local taxi depot or airport shuttle service. It may be your only bet.)
Meanwhile, gasoline engines are getting better and better. Honda can now get 71 mpg highway and 61 city with the IMA (Integrated Motor Assist) Insight. Many manufacturers have LEV (Low Emissions Vehicle), TLEV (Transitional), ULEV (Ultra-), and even SULEV (Super-Ultra-, or something like that)vehicles in showrooms right now, and more coming. Volvo even has a catalytic radiator coating that eats up smog and hydrocarbons (if memory serves) as you drive along. (Wish I had a link for that one - too bad I'm lazy.)
Add in the Partnership for the Next Generation Vehicle (PNGV), intensive efforts by the aluminum industry to get their material into more and more cars (AIV's - Aluminum Intensive Vehicles), and the counter-effors by the steel consortiums to keep their product the mainstay of autobodies by making thinner, stronger, and lighter carbodies to compete with aluminum, plastic, and whatever else people come up with, and you'll eventually get vehicles that are lighter, more fuel-efficient, and barely sip the gas. There already exist cars in Europe that attain 3L/100km, or about 78 mpg.
Gasoline. It's old. It's new. And unless someone wants to dump in trillions of dollars into global infrastructure, it's staying for a while longer.
So, 40 km/h for a human. That's pretty good. So what happens if we make shoes for *other* non-bipedal animals?
- The Kentucky Derby is overshadowed by the Yamaha Goodyear Derby 500, where gas-powered horseshoes propel specially trained jockeys to 100 km/h, and banked corners are mandated after one too many dull, wet thuds in turn 1.
- Police dogs don't ride in the K-9 unit anymore, they run along side of it, and chase down criminals in the next borough. You think dogs chased cars before? Just think of a car theif seeing an angry German Shepard closing in on their stolen ride. Is that a brick in your pants, or are you surrendering peacefully?
- Mice in space. No, we don't make shoes for them. Just rig up one of these shoes as a mouse trap, and spring the little bugger into orbit. Confused by happy birds of prey get to pluck their lunch right out of the air.
No sense in limiting this to just shoes, either. Ski boots could give hot-doggers the air they've been looking for. Heck, ski-jump in Saskatchewan. Imagine figure skating with gasoline-assisted jumps... instant replay is required to figure out whether it was a octuple axel, or merely the standard septuple.
I think this just goes to show that engineers should be given good jobs and a decent salary... to keep them out of trouble and coming up with goofy crap like this.:) (I should know - I'm one.)
Slashdot Mirror
Allow me to be anal about the above statement:
I fully agree that at some point in the future, there may be a technology that will render privacy an obsolete notion, which will bring our Western society as we know it crashing down on it knees, never to return.
However, I'd like to draw a distinction between the destruction of "society" and of "humankind". Privacy going the way of the dodo will greatly affect North America and Europe - generally, the Developed worlds. However, it won't make a lick of difference to those squatting behind bushes waiting to club a rabbit or toiling away in rice paddies or herding sheep on a mountainside. Their society may change due to ours collapsing, but it won't be destroyed.
And as sad and fragile a species as we've become, we'll prevail. A lot of people might die while our societal paradigm changes, but homo sapiens will remain firmly glued to the face of this planet, and we'll continue on as best we know how.
My $0.005. (Government took the rest...)
[sarcasm]
Oh, joy, this will stop all the fighting!
Yes, now the big labels and big bands will see that Napster users are merely music ENTHUSIASTS, no pirates! They will embrace Napster, and all other like services, showering them with high-quality tracks, demos, and even previews!
And Metallica will realize its erronous ways, and beg forgiveness from all of its Napster fans. In fact, being so moved by the indesputable research that Napster HELPS sales, Metallica will become the single biggest promoter and sponsor of Napster, and release all of their music online for the first time in History!
[/sarcasm]
Unfortunately, record execs can't read Jupiter's report, having their heads so far up their asses.
The games are *still* afoot...
But is the performance gain really worth it? If you need those few extra clock cycles every second, why are you cheaping out and then risking not only your warranty (or blowing it altogether) but the life of your CPU? If I really wanted some extra speed in my brand-new machine, I'd spend the extra $200 or so, not blow time, energy, and then my entire investment by overclocking.
Please - teach me. I am but your sponge.
First, they used a lure that was not only false, but that could be readily verifiable by the user. Big chunk o' cash waiting? I'll go see! Hmm, not there... uh oh! Using a less-effective lure (please click here to be removed from the paypaI.com mailing list) would not have generated as many hits, but would have kept him under cover much longer.
I also think it was a bit untidy of him/her to use paypai.com as the main site. Personally, I look at the URL quite a bit. Seeing "paypai" would set me off instantly. Instead, he/she could have used something else, like "login.paypalcom.net" or even "welcome.to/paypal", and one might just assume they're expanding their service and changing server names (like Hotmail likes to do a lot).
Even better (if it's possible), after recording the login and password, it could have spat the user to a "login failed" page with a "please try again" link, or maybe "server error, please try a different server, sorry for the inconvenience" page, that then redirected the user to the REAL PayPal site.
I have to admit - as illegal and unethical as this scam was, it was a fairly bright idea. Good thing for PayPal users that they didn't think it all the way through.
I think Palm has nothing to worry about. Why? The Palm VII fits in your hand. As does the RIM Blackberry. THIS monstrosity is freaking HUGE! It's not a webpad - it's more like a beach blanket!
Once you get into a device that size, why bother to make it wireless? Just so you have have the pleasure of lugging it around in its own suitcase so you can browse for gaspacho recipes from the park? I don't think so. I'd be more inclined to just leave it at home, in which case a short-range wireless connection to my home Internet port would be much better. A lot cheaper, too, I'm betting - I didn't find any mention of a service price on the site.
My take on the whole thing? Jobs is hopping mad, and in an infantile (but effective) move, spanked ATI for being naughty (or more precisely, for employing one naughty, gabby employee who hasn't been found yet). So ATI loses out on the keynote spotlight.
That doesn't mean that you won't find ATI hardware in the G4 Cube or any other Mac. It just means that ATI is going to have to hang its head, say "sorry" a lot, and life will go on. The new graphics card will be an OEM option - it would punish the consumer more than ATI not to include it. ATI and Jobs will kiss and make up.
Don't blow things out of proportion. All will be OK - profit will prevail over ego.
I think the point here is that something is better than nothing. If you're the only ISP, you're the benchmark, unless you're going to compare to kangaroo-tipping. We here in North America can bitch and complain long and hard about "quality" ISP's, but if you're living in the outback and have NO ACCESS at all, you'd be eternally grateful for ANY access, even if it was a flaky, slow, hit-and-miss ISP.
For the record, I believe Coke was the one thinking of this, but I can't be sure.
Two methods of space-based advertising were being considered:
1) Send up huge coloured sheets, akin to the light sails that we've heard about, except this would simply be a huge, orbiting billboard. Just think about it - looking up one night and noticing a rectangular shape crossing the sky that catches the sun, lighting up "Enjoy Coke!" clear as day against the night sky. Shudder.
2) This idea was even worse; Instead of making a floating, orbiting billboard, they were simply going to paint a billboard on the moon for all to see.
As much as I like it and rely on it on a daily basis, THIS is why a market economy sucks.
This box would be for me. Or, hopefully will be, anyway.
I currently have a computer (unfortunately, a Wintel box) that includes a decent 17" monitor. Now, when I replace that computer, will I need a new monitor? In all likelyhood, no. It's only 3 years old, is a decent size, and supports just about any resolution I actually need (and can read). So, the G4 Cube is for me - I buy it, plug my monitor into it (I really hope I can - Apple's introduction of it wasn't very clear on that aspect) and away I go, without having to shovel out another $500.
As for upgradability: if that's what you need, then you'll have to settle with the not-as-new-so-not-as-cool G4. The Cube seems to be slotted between the lowly 400 MHz G4 and the Dual 450, which makes me think they're going for a market where upgrades are not commonplace; If you want a really fast system, you'll buy top-end (dual 500 G4). If you want really top-end, but only in certain areas (say, storage) you buy whatever will do (400 G4), and expand it. If you're a business or home user and will use this machine until either it dies or you do and will never see the inside of the machine, you buy the Cube if you need moderate computing power, or the dual 450 or 500 MHz G4.
Besides, if you want to expand, just plug any given USB or firewire device in. No prob!
If anyone out there buys a Cube and finds out that they can't handle the non-expandability, I'd be more than happy to help them out and take it away from them. :)
Who says you need expensive gear? Didn't you ever get that electronics lab from Radio Shack as a kid? It had a manual, lots of pre-cut-and-stripped wires of various lengths, and the components were wired underneath the friendly, printed-carboard surface. Just follow the "recipe", and voila - you have [insert simple electronic device here]. One of them, I'm almost certain, was a radio wave broadcaster.
Admittedly, there is a difference between pirating the AM radio in your parent's living room from your bedroom and suddenly talking to 10 000+ of your neighbours. But I can't see the equipment being all that much - unless they're priced to ensure low-powered radio stations don't exists. (Paranoia, anyone?) OTOH, what do you think various campus radio stations all over the continent use? The one I was at certainly didn't get far.
As for an Internet station.. I guess it depends on your audience. Certainly an alternative radio station would be a good fit, but if I wanted to appeal to toddlers, or retirees, or people in vehicles (like the airport radio stations), I'd be much better off broadcasting in the regular fashion.
First, the iMac was a whole new paradigm for computers. No more beige box and separate monitor. I think it's pretty clear that a few manufacturers stole more than just a few pages from the iMac styling book. Case closed.
But with the G4 Cube, how can anyone say that they were the first to package a computer in a cube? Unless the design is largely the same (which it isn't) you can't really lay claim (in my books) to an orthagonally packaged computer enclosure.
Differences, Qube vs G4 Cube:
cobalt blue vs clear/graphite
entirely cubic vs cubic enclosure with more rectangular clear cover
looks like a rectilinear Octane vs looks more like something you'd find in a hair salon
different vs Different
Unfortunately, at this point all 7 other dimensions are filled with unpaired socks, lost keys, and pocket change.
I checked through all 29 proposals (well, skimmed them pretty well) and was very, very surprised to find that ".xxx" was not proposed by anyone. At least, not that ICAAN is letting us know.
If no one else does, it might be worth proposing ".xxx" for no other reason than to give porn its own place, and possibly get it out of the .com, .org, and .net space that it's currently smeared through. It would ease browsing for those looking for porn (www.beastiality.xxx, www.bigtitties.xxx, woman-on-woman.liveaction.xxx, etc.) and make filtering porn VERY easy.
Now if we could only find someone who wants the responsibility for taking the TLD...
Great. MORE CPU overhead.
Is anyone ever going to realize that the best step forward will be to take a step back? To hell with adding on all these whiz-bang new-fangled "features" to the OS. Do the opposite - go back, hack all the crap out, and optimize, optimize, optimize.
I've been thinking for quite a few years now that things would be just great if someone would take an OS (for example, Windows) and instead of adding varios eye-candy crap to it, just hack it down to the simplest, purest form. Make it work, make it stable, and make it SMALL. At some point (we may have already reached it) code optimization will give us more speed than upping the speed on our CPU's will.
Attention-sensitive UI's, voice recognition - keep it. Give me a lean, mean machine with some nice tight code and I'll be a happy camper.
FYI, it isn't permanently attached to the vehicle. It is used only while parked as a battery regeneration power source.
It really helps if you actually read/skim/browse the actual link before posting... honest...
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Excessive use of Slashdot may cause dizziness, eyestrain, headaches, hypertension, reduced brain function, loss of memory, brain tumours, cancer, spontaneous combustion, and the urge to GPL any and all code.
Off-the-cuff reation to the proposed TLD's? Some of them are good, and others are very, very stupid. Allow me to harp on the stupid ones (isn't ".web" redundant???)...
.com. And with web content already having doubled this year, search engines have to scramble to keep up.
The ones I consider "stupid" are the ones that are far too specific. As just an example, ".gallery", ".humanrights", ".isnotgreen" (?!??!??) are a few of the ones I consider detrimental. Not because they're over 3 letters - that I can get around - but because I believe that such TLD's will make navigating the web even harder thna it is today.
Right now, if you want to find out something about rental cars, or soft drinks, or even home appliances, you can guess, and probably guess correctly, about budget.com, coca-cola.com, and maytag.com. There might be variations, but it's usually limited to the domain name, not the TLD (it might be budgetrental.com instead).
Now you go and open up a new TLD for everything and anything you desire:
www.drteeth.dds
bejing.china.humanrights
carseats.recalls.info
london.england.uk.tel
proctorandgamble.isnotgreen (can you say lawsuit?)
japan.maritime.law
All of a sudden, you have no idea what is where anymore. Search engines become necessary to find *anything* that isn't a
Additionally, this might create a situation where someone who wants a domain name for a web site might be forced into registering multiple domain names just for one site. If www.oldusedcars.biz has photos of all the clunkers they're selling, do they need www.oldusedcars.gallery? Do they put all prices at www.oldusedcars.prices? Admittedly, this is a poor example, but with a large corporation with lots of information to distribute, I can see a case where they would register everything under the sun, just in the hope that people guessing their URLs will get one right! (So much for bringing the price of URL registration down.)
The LCD rear view screens are an excellent idea, especially from the standpoint of drag. However, being an engineer, I'm going to be picky...
Why two screens, and two cameras? You could completely eliminate any and all protrusions from the side of the doors by axing one camera and one LCD screen, and instead mounting one camera (maybe with a wide-angle lens) at the rear of the car (beside the CHMSL maybe). Then you'd also only need one LCD screen. Voila - half the cost, with all the nerdity preserved!
The windmill idea is.. interesting. A bit to granola-munching for my tastes, however. For the price of all the equipment, and the time it takes to set up and dismantle DAILY, how many KW's of electricity could you buy instead? How about something a little more proven, like solar panels on the garage? It just seems like there was a surplus windmill generator lying around, and he needed to find a use for it. Either way, I'd much rather mount it on the garage, or in the middle of the yard. One slip and your pretty little car has an ugly gouge on its roof.
Although technically interesting, I don't see this new technology as all that earth-shattering. I can easily forsee it coming into use in retrieving black box data from flight recorders (or late-model GM vehicles), as that data is extremely valuable in not only determining what went wrong, but possibly how lives could be saved later.
But let's get back to you and me. Is this really going to affect us? I somehow doubt it. Even if you were the most notorious hacker, the most villanous virus-writer, the most heinous of DoS'ers, would this technology ever be used against you? Probably not.
I see this technology being used almost exclusively on audio and video tapes. Why? If you're using a hard drive and doing something bad, chances are your hard drive isn't the only one out there that has information on what you've been doing. Your ISP might have logs of what FTP sites you've been to. Your friend's computer might still contain those inflated-ego e-mails you sent him/her. Countless other web servers might have registered your IP (or your firewall's, or your ISP's, or whatever). Most likely, the authorities don't need to recover *your* hard drive (after you've shot it, trash-compacted it, and put it in your saltwater aquarium) to nail you.
However, we'll now finally be able to recover that episode of B5 that your mother recorded her Celine Dion special over....
I don't like Bill.
One word can sum up why gasoline is king of the automotive power hill: Infrastructure.
Another two can sum up why it'll stay there: market economy.
Gasoline is old. Really old. Yes, it's been reformulated (got rid of the lead, added detergents, etc.) but the general idea of having a liquid hydrocarbon that your horseless carriage runs on is old.
What this means is that there have always (all of my life, anyway - long enough) been oil expeditions looking for a source of oil to make gasoline from, there has always been refineries that can make the gasoline, there have always been distribution systems for gasoline, and there have always been gas stations that retail the gasoline to consumers. The infrastructure is there, and has been refined and adjusted and is working pretty well.
Now, fuel cells are a wonderful idea, but so far they either run on hydrogen, methan(e/anol), or other such light fuels. Do you see these at every 7-11 and Sunoco station? No - you'll find it added to select gasolines (but no more than 10%) in some places. Add to the fact that fuel cells use a LOT of platinum (the ones I'm familliar with) for their catalyst, and the fact that they aren't mass-produced yet, and there you have an expenstive alternative.
Alternative fuels are the same story infrastructure-wise, but without the added complication of developing technology. I could convert my car to ethanol, methanol, propane (LPG), natural gas (CNG)... and get excellent emissions, good drivability... but I'd be a fool to go on long trips without mapping out where each ethanol station is along my route. (Trust me on this - I did the 1997 Propane Vehicle Challenge, and we mapped out EACH and EVERY propane station from Waterloo, Ontario, Canada all the way down to Austin, Texas. Not exactly spur-of-the-moment "road trip" kinda stuff.)
(And before someone says, "But propane has infrastructure!", yes, it does. But very limited. It's big in Canada - mostly for BBQ's - and Texas, but that's about it. Drive around town, and see how many propane centers you see, and how many have the right nozzle for vehicle refuelling. Hint: try your local taxi depot or airport shuttle service. It may be your only bet.)
Meanwhile, gasoline engines are getting better and better. Honda can now get 71 mpg highway and 61 city with the IMA (Integrated Motor Assist) Insight. Many manufacturers have LEV (Low Emissions Vehicle), TLEV (Transitional), ULEV (Ultra-), and even SULEV (Super-Ultra-, or something like that)vehicles in showrooms right now, and more coming. Volvo even has a catalytic radiator coating that eats up smog and hydrocarbons (if memory serves) as you drive along. (Wish I had a link for that one - too bad I'm lazy.)
Add in the Partnership for the Next Generation Vehicle (PNGV), intensive efforts by the aluminum industry to get their material into more and more cars (AIV's - Aluminum Intensive Vehicles), and the counter-effors by the steel consortiums to keep their product the mainstay of autobodies by making thinner, stronger, and lighter carbodies to compete with aluminum, plastic, and whatever else people come up with, and you'll eventually get vehicles that are lighter, more fuel-efficient, and barely sip the gas. There already exist cars in Europe that attain 3L/100km, or about 78 mpg.
Gasoline. It's old. It's new. And unless someone wants to dump in trillions of dollars into global infrastructure, it's staying for a while longer.
Mr. Ska
So, 40 km/h for a human. That's pretty good. So what happens if we make shoes for *other* non-bipedal animals?
:) (I should know - I'm one.)
- The Kentucky Derby is overshadowed by the Yamaha Goodyear Derby 500, where gas-powered horseshoes propel specially trained jockeys to 100 km/h, and banked corners are mandated after one too many dull, wet thuds in turn 1.
- Police dogs don't ride in the K-9 unit anymore, they run along side of it, and chase down criminals in the next borough. You think dogs chased cars before? Just think of a car theif seeing an angry German Shepard closing in on their stolen ride. Is that a brick in your pants, or are you surrendering peacefully?
- Mice in space. No, we don't make shoes for them. Just rig up one of these shoes as a mouse trap, and spring the little bugger into orbit. Confused by happy birds of prey get to pluck their lunch right out of the air.
No sense in limiting this to just shoes, either. Ski boots could give hot-doggers the air they've been looking for. Heck, ski-jump in Saskatchewan. Imagine figure skating with gasoline-assisted jumps... instant replay is required to figure out whether it was a octuple axel, or merely the standard septuple.
I think this just goes to show that engineers should be given good jobs and a decent salary... to keep them out of trouble and coming up with goofy crap like this.