So have I. I even did it with my Palm Pilot & a wireless phone jack extender thingy.
Years ago a child could tell that his dad was heading for the can when he grabbed the sports page and walked out of the room. "Honeeeyy!, where did you put the sports page?"
Nowdays it's "Hoonneeeyy, have you seen the laptop?"
Next year it will be "Honeey, do you know where the webpad is?"
Palm's original customer base may have been nerds, but no longer. It's gone mainstream in a big way - to the point that you're uncool if you don't have one. Besides that, webpads and PDAs compete in somewhat different spaces. It's not an either/or situation. I see webpads as somewhere between a laptop and a PDA. I know I carry my Visor around with me everywhere, but I don't think I'd want to have a webpad with me at all times. Having said that, web browsing from 'The Throne' is the BOMB!:)
Makes me feel pretty safe about RC5-64 versus brute-force attacks..
Me too. Unfortunately the goal of the project was to demonstrate the opposite. Namely that RC5-64 was too weak and would succumb to a brute-force attack. They managed to do that in the DES, CSC and RC5-56 contests, but it looks like we're at least another year from cracking RC5-64. Maybe more since a large chuck of resources are now being diverted to the OGR challenge (a non-encryption project). I have been of the opinion for a while now that they should abandon RC5 and focus on OGR.
Someone else spoke of how they have switched back to d.net from SETI@Home. I've done that as well. Ironically, I first learned about d.net through SETI@Home and started running their clients before the S@H clients were released. Then later it became obvious that the SETI project had all the cycles they needed and more. I felt my cycles could go to better use at d.net and I went back. I believe in both projects and in the concept of distributed computing in general, but I just came to the conclusion that I would be of more use helping d.net.
As a convertible owner, I wouldn't shed a tear if all diesel vehicles were outlawed. I'm driving along enjoying the sunshine & fresh air and then I get behind a diesel. A mile later I'm yakking on the curb. Bleh.
At the very least they could require that he exhaust be no less than 10' off the ground.
1. Ohhh, the bats are busy today. In what way was this post OT? Everytime I use my last mod point I see something like this. Stoopid, crack-smoking moderators....
2. Funny you should bring this up. I just finished the book for the second time. I originally read it just after it came out (c. 1977, or so). I was surprised at how much of it I mis-remembered. I had the basic plot about right (just as you've outlined it), but many of the details I totally garbled. Damn memory...second thing that goes, eh? Anyway, it's a great read; I recommend it highly.
Take it a step further and omit the voting altogether. Just elect whomever is leading in the public opinion polls (Gallup, et al.) on the day of the 'election'.:)
I didn't mean to say that the RAM retained its data without power. What I was trying to get across was that if power wasn't applied to the unit (whatever that unit is - could be a computer or an embedded device, whatever), SRAM would allow the data to be retained by using a battery to supply power to it. You can do this with DRAM too (think Palm Pilot) but it uses more battery power. Sorry for the confusion.
If you know to put gas in your car, you know more about cars than most people know about computers. You know, at least, that it needs gas and regular maintenance. Most folks don't even know that much about the computers they drive. If people drove their cars they way they use their computers, they'd drive until they ran out of gas. Then they would call tech support.
I'm not trying to be elitist. I agree that it would be nice to have a computer that would operate the way you'd like it to. But you admit that we aren't yet at that point. Until that day, it behooves people to learn some basics about how computers work - such as the difference between disk space and RAM.
Does anyone else think that there should be some sort of computer proficiency test...
I do, but for their own good, not so much to save us from the morons (though that would be a nice side effect). They make you take a driving test before you get on the highway, you should know how to operate a computer before getting on the information superhighway (if they ever get around to building one).
Also, in response to the other guy who said all programmers should take assembler. Damn right! I learned more about how computers operate in my assembly language class than in all my EE classes combined.
I'm not sure if you're being serious or not, but just in case you are, I'll bite.
Static RAM has nothing to do with static electricity. It's called static because if you stop clocking the chip, the contents of the memory remain valid. Dynamic, otoh, requires that you constantly refresh the the contents of the memory or else it will 'forget' what's in it.
The tradeoff is that for a given amount of memory, dynamic is much more efficient (uses fewer transistors) and therefore is smaller. Put another way, you can get more DRAM on a given die size than SRAM. Also it's cheaper. The above two factors are why computers use DRAM for main memory. However, SRAM has it's place. For one thing, it's faster than DRAM and if you must retain the contents of memory when power is not applied, SRAM uses less battery power than DRAM.
If your post was just a joke, disregard the above.
Heh, reminds me of a story I heard about a sys admin of a VAX cluster (iirc). He was lamenting to the DEC tech. support guys that the performance was great until there were about 33 users logged in, then everything would go to hell. He suggested to the DEC guys (in jest) that they go tell the software writers to grep through the code and when they see the number 33, change it to 50.:)
3) The point of hyperlinks is to MOVE you around a site--not to popup new windows. I don't want the main page to be a "base station" from which other pages launch.
Actually, I find this a fairly efficient way to browse certain sites (such as freshmeat, slashdot and other news portals). You can launch an article or announcement in a new window and just kill it when you're done rather than having to navigate backwards. However, I still agree with you that it shouldn't be the default behavior. I can choose to open a link in a new window by middle clicking, but the reverse isn't true. I'd rather be the one making that decision.
Penrose's "The Emperor's New Mind" and "Shadows of the Mind" also makes the case (quite effectively, imo, but you may disagree) that the mind is not a digital computer, but a quantum computer and that to get a computer to think like we do we'll have to make it model quantum effects.
If I could play all my games, I'd never use Windows again. How many of you out there feel the same way?
That's pretty much how I feel. I keep Windows around mostly for the games, though there *are* two apps that are indespensible to me that I run on Windows: Quicken and MS Publisher. Progress is being made on GnuCash so maybe one day I won't need Quicken any more. And perhaps I'll eventually get Framemaker to run on my system and won't need Publisher either. When that day comes, the *only* excuse I'll have for running Windows is for the games.
Is he the same guy who wrote Between the Strokes of Night? That book was awesome! I bought it on the recommendation of a friend in a used bookstore. I had an armload of books and he just threw that one on the pile. Didn't say a word. I read it immediately and it blew me away. I don't know what the rest of his work is like but that one had some very original thinking in it.
Hehe, reminds me of that Seinfeld routine where he's talking about lawyers. He said that when lawyers say "Your Honor, I object" it's lawyer-speak for "'Fraid not". And when the judge overrules the objection it means "'Fraid so".
Thanks! I hadn't considered that possibility. Good thing I wasn't the deposee (or whatever the legal term is) - I would have just looked at my lawyer with that wtf? look that a dog gets when he hears a far away sound (or is receiving instructions from the mother ship - I could never figure that out).
Slashdot Mirror
So have I. I even did it with my Palm Pilot & a wireless phone jack extender thingy.
Years ago a child could tell that his dad was heading for the can when he grabbed the sports page and walked out of the room. "Honeeeyy!, where did you put the sports page?"
Nowdays it's "Hoonneeeyy, have you seen the laptop?"
Next year it will be "Honeey, do you know where the webpad is?"
Palm's original customer base may have been nerds, but no longer. It's gone mainstream in a big way - to the point that you're uncool if you don't have one. Besides that, webpads and PDAs compete in somewhat different spaces. It's not an either/or situation. I see webpads as somewhere between a laptop and a PDA. I know I carry my Visor around with me everywhere, but I don't think I'd want to have a webpad with me at all times. Having said that, web browsing from 'The Throne' is the BOMB! :)
Me too. Unfortunately the goal of the project was to demonstrate the opposite. Namely that RC5-64 was too weak and would succumb to a brute-force attack. They managed to do that in the DES, CSC and RC5-56 contests, but it looks like we're at least another year from cracking RC5-64. Maybe more since a large chuck of resources are now being diverted to the OGR challenge (a non-encryption project). I have been of the opinion for a while now that they should abandon RC5 and focus on OGR.
Someone else spoke of how they have switched back to d.net from SETI@Home. I've done that as well. Ironically, I first learned about d.net through SETI@Home and started running their clients before the S@H clients were released. Then later it became obvious that the SETI project had all the cycles they needed and more. I felt my cycles could go to better use at d.net and I went back. I believe in both projects and in the concept of distributed computing in general, but I just came to the conclusion that I would be of more use helping d.net.
Unfortunately, at this point all 7 other dimensions are filled with unpaired socks, lost keys, and pocket change.
That's true, but to maintain balance in the universe, the lost socks come back to 'our' dimensions as belly-button lint.
It's only Part One.
Diesel? Ick!
As a convertible owner, I wouldn't shed a tear if all diesel vehicles were outlawed. I'm driving along enjoying the sunshine & fresh air and then I get behind a diesel. A mile later I'm yakking on the curb. Bleh.
At the very least they could require that he exhaust be no less than 10' off the ground.
omg...just spewed coffee on my keyboard. You owe me a new one. That's funny as shit!
1. Ohhh, the bats are busy today. In what way was this post OT? Everytime I use my last mod point I see something like this. Stoopid, crack-smoking moderators....
2. Funny you should bring this up. I just finished the book for the second time. I originally read it just after it came out (c. 1977, or so). I was surprised at how much of it I mis-remembered. I had the basic plot about right (just as you've outlined it), but many of the details I totally garbled. Damn memory...second thing that goes, eh? Anyway, it's a great read; I recommend it highly.
Yep, good point. Next thing you know you've got another Columbine HS on your hands. Please, mod squad, think before you act.
heh, you wouldn't even need a spell checker....just proofing the story would suffice in most cases. :)
Take it a step further and omit the voting altogether. Just elect whomever is leading in the public opinion polls (Gallup, et al.) on the day of the 'election'. :)
I didn't mean to say that the RAM retained its data without power. What I was trying to get across was that if power wasn't applied to the unit (whatever that unit is - could be a computer or an embedded device, whatever), SRAM would allow the data to be retained by using a battery to supply power to it. You can do this with DRAM too (think Palm Pilot) but it uses more battery power. Sorry for the confusion.
If you know to put gas in your car, you know more about cars than most people know about computers. You know, at least, that it needs gas and regular maintenance. Most folks don't even know that much about the computers they drive. If people drove their cars they way they use their computers, they'd drive until they ran out of gas. Then they would call tech support.
I'm not trying to be elitist. I agree that it would be nice to have a computer that would operate the way you'd like it to. But you admit that we aren't yet at that point. Until that day, it behooves people to learn some basics about how computers work - such as the difference between disk space and RAM.
Does anyone else think that there should be some sort of computer proficiency test ...
I do, but for their own good, not so much to save us from the morons (though that would be a nice side effect). They make you take a driving test before you get on the highway, you should know how to operate a computer before getting on the information superhighway (if they ever get around to building one).
Also, in response to the other guy who said all programmers should take assembler. Damn right! I learned more about how computers operate in my assembly language class than in all my EE classes combined.
I'm not sure if you're being serious or not, but just in case you are, I'll bite.
Static RAM has nothing to do with static electricity. It's called static because if you stop clocking the chip, the contents of the memory remain valid. Dynamic, otoh, requires that you constantly refresh the the contents of the memory or else it will 'forget' what's in it.
The tradeoff is that for a given amount of memory, dynamic is much more efficient (uses fewer transistors) and therefore is smaller. Put another way, you can get more DRAM on a given die size than SRAM. Also it's cheaper. The above two factors are why computers use DRAM for main memory. However, SRAM has it's place. For one thing, it's faster than DRAM and if you must retain the contents of memory when power is not applied, SRAM uses less battery power than DRAM.
If your post was just a joke, disregard the above.
Heh, reminds me of a story I heard about a sys admin of a VAX cluster (iirc). He was lamenting to the DEC tech. support guys that the performance was great until there were about 33 users logged in, then everything would go to hell. He suggested to the DEC guys (in jest) that they go tell the software writers to grep through the code and when they see the number 33, change it to 50. :)
Not a bad idea.....better to be a little fish in a big pond than the only fish in a little pond. And hopefully the little fish will grow.
3) The point of hyperlinks is to MOVE you around a site--not to popup new windows. I don't want the main page to be a "base station" from which other pages launch.
Actually, I find this a fairly efficient way to browse certain sites (such as freshmeat, slashdot and other news portals). You can launch an article or announcement in a new window and just kill it when you're done rather than having to navigate backwards. However, I still agree with you that it shouldn't be the default behavior. I can choose to open a link in a new window by middle clicking, but the reverse isn't true. I'd rather be the one making that decision.
Penrose's "The Emperor's New Mind" and "Shadows of the Mind" also makes the case (quite effectively, imo, but you may disagree) that the mind is not a digital computer, but a quantum computer and that to get a computer to think like we do we'll have to make it model quantum effects.
If I could play all my games, I'd never use Windows again. How many of you out there feel the same way?
That's pretty much how I feel. I keep Windows around mostly for the games, though there *are* two apps that are indespensible to me that I run on Windows: Quicken and MS Publisher. Progress is being made on GnuCash so maybe one day I won't need Quicken any more. And perhaps I'll eventually get Framemaker to run on my system and won't need Publisher either. When that day comes, the *only* excuse I'll have for running Windows is for the games.
Yeah, but M14 would have taken 15-20 seconds to crash. M16 is waaaayyy faster.
Is he the same guy who wrote Between the Strokes of Night? That book was awesome! I bought it on the recommendation of a friend in a used bookstore. I had an armload of books and he just threw that one on the pile. Didn't say a word. I read it immediately and it blew me away. I don't know what the rest of his work is like but that one had some very original thinking in it.
Rokay Rorge....but don't forget man's best friend.
Hehe, reminds me of that Seinfeld routine where he's talking about lawyers. He said that when lawyers say "Your Honor, I object" it's lawyer-speak for "'Fraid not". And when the judge overrules the objection it means "'Fraid so".
Thanks! I hadn't considered that possibility. Good thing I wasn't the deposee (or whatever the legal term is) - I would have just looked at my lawyer with that wtf? look that a dog gets when he hears a far away sound (or is receiving instructions from the mother ship - I could never figure that out).