One:
"Slashdot and other news sites present high quality peer-reviewed commentary by involving large numbers of members of the web community in recommending and rating items."
Obviously that man has never been here.
Two:
"The shared, collective mind of the second superpower is made up of many individual human minds - your mind and my mind - together we create the movement."
I couldn't finish reading the article. I stopped after the first few paragraphs. Nothing personal, I just have a hard time believing this will be a rational, well-thought out, and fair article when it starts out
"It's no secret that I don't like the Mac OS X Finder. Almost every article I've written about Mac OS X has included a litany of criticisms, from small annoyances to fundamental philosophical differences."
The conclusion of this post is left as an exercise for the troll^H^H^H^H^Hreader.
The reason Apple Support was having such a hard time is because he doesn't have a standard iPod. He has one of the rumored "iPod II" prototypes. You can tell by the color screen. (photo from the top of the linked page)
On the other hand, maybe it's just a doctored photo. But why would someone do that? I don't know. It does make me question his otherwise plausible story. (Although an Apple employee not knowing the meaning of the word 'syncronize' when they have a product named iSync is also a tad hard to swallow.)
Was I the only person who initially read that as Doomsday book? I even managed to make it all of the way through the BBC article and well into the comments before realizing it.
A better usage of lasers
on
Smart Pool Table
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Anyone who's played pool even a little knows what the best shots are, the tricky part is being able to cause that to happen. So I think a better usage would be to have the pool table use rangefinding to determine how you're holding the cue stick, and display where that will make the balls end up. Then you'd be able to adjust your stance & position and see the new results in real time. This would be much more beneficial for learning. After all, any idiot can say "You should hit that ball there." I doubt there's a bar or pool hall anywhere that doesn't already have several of these helpful "experts".
If you want your site removed from the archive, their FAQ refers you to their removing documents page... which comes back with a "page not found" error.
So maybe a different (and possibly better) way of doing this would be to get the Linux machines to mount HFS+ home directories off the OSX box, instead of the other way around. I'm not sure how hard this would be, or if it's already been done. In any case, increased connectivity between OSX and Linux (and between other *nixes and HFS+) would be a Good Thing.
I think what we really need is a statute of limitations on patent suits, or something to that effect. That way, companies would only have a fixed length of time in which to dispute these things.
I also don't think there's any way the companies could win. It's a cache-22. They didn't care about it before, because they didn't realize how much it would be worth in the future. But if they had enforced patents and charged for it way back when, it never would have caught on, as we would have turned to a different free format instead.
"It wasn't until a Microsoft employee was adding the help documentation to the software giant's developer Web site that the worm was found. 'We have to go through a conversion process to an online HTML format,' said Flores."
No wonder Nimda slipped through. They're spending all their time manually converting to HTML.
However, in Microsoft's defense, it should be noted that most other developers only convert the help files they expect to find.
According to this overview of MPEG4 (or skip right to the diagram if you're lazy), it resembles a graphics API much more than just a codec. (For those unaware of the distinction: A codec stores information pixel by pixel. An API can represent information in mathematical form. e.g. black pixel, white pixel, 3 black pixels etc. vs. a black circle on a white background). MPEG4 allows for "media objects", such as a background, a person, their voice, and so on. This allows more flexibility for the content creator, and also allows for the possibility of interaction with the user. It's much easier to move objects around, then to move pixels around. (In fact, the later is nearly impossible).
I noticed this because I'm currently working with OpenGL, where instead of merely drawing objects on the screen, you have a 2d or 3d virtual world in which you can create and transform 3d objects, and then you calculate how those images would appear projected onto a 2d surface, in much the same manner that 3-dimensional objects in the real world get projected upon the 2-d film of a camera. (The name for this modeling system is, in fact, the synthetic camera model).
I'm not sure how well applying this type of approach to video will work, since in effect, the client would have to render the footage instead of merely displaying it, but it's an interesting concept nonetheless.
So what you're proposing, really, is a rail-type system inside of a case. A novel idea, however, either there's a big case all around it, which makes it larger, or you leave the rail exposed. This is even worse, though, because it leaves it open to coffee, etc. being spilled on it, things banging into it, cats licking it, etc. Of course, nobody says you have to get it right on the first try.
My advice, as some others have also stated, would be to copy Apple's design for the PowerMac G4. Having used and upgraded one of these, I can say it's awe-inspiring. Lift the handle (which can be locked shut), and without undoing any screws, you have access to all of the drive bays (2 external, 5 internal), all of the slots (1 AGP 4X, 4 PCI), the processor daughterboard, and the ram slots, and the cables are all routed underneath the motherboard and behind components so that there's no cables to move out of the way when modifying things. You can even operate it with it open, although the cooling doesn't work as well in that position.
On a related note also mentioned earlier on this page, Apple's LCD monitors do include 2 usb ports on the back of it, and the usb, dvi, and power all travel through the same cable. It makes things so simple. Power cord and ethernet cable go into tower. One cable goes from tower to monitor. usb from monitor to keyboard, to mouse. (keyboard has 2 port hub also). --
In my own unscientific testing, I've looked at a few random audio cd's I have laying around. NONE of them have the "CD - Digital Audio" logo anywhere on the front or back covers, only only on the inside of the jewel case next to the CD, where it's embossed into the plastic. Although IANAL, what I take this to mean is that the RIAA could say "Fine, we won't use it anymore", and the only way you could tell is by looking really closely (here's the important part) AFTER you've bought it, taken off the all-important shrinkwrap, and opened it. There would be no way to tell whether or not a cd was a "true" cd in the store just by looking at it.
I like the idea of the Philips "look for the logo" ads, but other than that, or a grassroots "don't buy these cds", I don't see this making any difference, even if Philips win. Although the PR surrounding it might do some good.
we could be living in one big black hole
on
Giant Black Hole Found
·
· Score: 1, Interesting
On the subject of black holes, it's interesting to note that our entire (known) universe could be inside of a black hole. In fact, that super-black hole could be inside of a larger universe, and so on ad infinadum, or as far as you wanted to observe. conversely, since we seem to always be finding that our current "elementary" particules are in fact made up of smaller stuff. (atoms -> protons&electrons etc. -> quarks -> strings), black holes in our universes could contain entire universes within them.
Or perhaps, since the massive gravity of a blackhole would warp 4-dimensional spacetime, perhaps they lead to other unknown parts of this universe, so far away that we've never observed or discovered it. in that case, having a black hole nearby wouldn't be that bad. We'd still have to find some exotic matter or something to counteract the tidal forces, and there's time discrepancy issues to deal with, but that's a somewhat moot point.
Are we slashdot readers all so focused on being geeks that nobody knows anything about the standard model worth posting? Really now. Where I come from, we learn about high-energy neutrinos in junior high.
btw, First Post!
Slashdot Mirror
"Slashdot and other news sites present high quality peer-reviewed commentary by involving large numbers of members of the web community in recommending and rating items."
Obviously that man has never been here.
Two:
"The shared, collective mind of the second superpower is made up of many individual human minds - your mind and my mind - together we create the movement."
Sounds like the Borg.
The conclusion of this post is left as an exercise for the troll^H^H^H^H^Hreader.
On the other hand, maybe it's just a doctored photo. But why would someone do that? I don't know. It does make me question his otherwise plausible story. (Although an Apple employee not knowing the meaning of the word 'syncronize' when they have a product named iSync is also a tad hard to swallow.)
Was I the only person who initially read that as Doomsday book? I even managed to make it all of the way through the BBC article and well into the comments before realizing it.
Anyone who's played pool even a little knows what the best shots are, the tricky part is being able to cause that to happen. So I think a better usage would be to have the pool table use rangefinding to determine how you're holding the cue stick, and display where that will make the balls end up. Then you'd be able to adjust your stance & position and see the new results in real time. This would be much more beneficial for learning. After all, any idiot can say "You should hit that ball there." I doubt there's a bar or pool hall anywhere that doesn't already have several of these helpful "experts".
If you want your site removed from the archive, their FAQ refers you to their removing documents page... which comes back with a "page not found" error.
So maybe a different (and possibly better) way of doing this would be to get the Linux machines to mount HFS+ home directories off the OSX box, instead of the other way around. I'm not sure how hard this would be, or if it's already been done. In any case, increased connectivity between OSX and Linux (and between other *nixes and HFS+) would be a Good Thing.
I think what we really need is a statute of limitations on patent suits, or something to that effect. That way, companies would only have a fixed length of time in which to dispute these things.
I also don't think there's any way the companies could win. It's a cache-22. They didn't care about it before, because they didn't realize how much it would be worth in the future. But if they had enforced patents and charged for it way back when, it never would have caught on, as we would have turned to a different free format instead.
Now it comes up with a page that says "Actually, I prefer the term jovial."
No wonder Nimda slipped through. They're spending all their time manually converting to HTML.
However, in Microsoft's defense, it should be noted that most other developers only convert the help files they expect to find.
I noticed this because I'm currently working with OpenGL, where instead of merely drawing objects on the screen, you have a 2d or 3d virtual world in which you can create and transform 3d objects, and then you calculate how those images would appear projected onto a 2d surface, in much the same manner that 3-dimensional objects in the real world get projected upon the 2-d film of a camera. (The name for this modeling system is, in fact, the synthetic camera model).
I'm not sure how well applying this type of approach to video will work, since in effect, the client would have to render the footage instead of merely displaying it, but it's an interesting concept nonetheless.
My advice, as some others have also stated, would be to copy Apple's design for the PowerMac G4. Having used and upgraded one of these, I can say it's awe-inspiring. Lift the handle (which can be locked shut), and without undoing any screws, you have access to all of the drive bays (2 external, 5 internal), all of the slots (1 AGP 4X, 4 PCI), the processor daughterboard, and the ram slots, and the cables are all routed underneath the motherboard and behind components so that there's no cables to move out of the way when modifying things. You can even operate it with it open, although the cooling doesn't work as well in that position.
On a related note also mentioned earlier on this page, Apple's LCD monitors do include 2 usb ports on the back of it, and the usb, dvi, and power all travel through the same cable. It makes things so simple. Power cord and ethernet cable go into tower. One cable goes from tower to monitor. usb from monitor to keyboard, to mouse. (keyboard has 2 port hub also).
--
I like the idea of the Philips "look for the logo" ads, but other than that, or a grassroots "don't buy these cds", I don't see this making any difference, even if Philips win. Although the PR surrounding it might do some good.
On the subject of black holes, it's interesting to note that our entire (known) universe could be inside of a black hole. In fact, that super-black hole could be inside of a larger universe, and so on ad infinadum, or as far as you wanted to observe. conversely, since we seem to always be finding that our current "elementary" particules are in fact made up of smaller stuff. (atoms -> protons&electrons etc. -> quarks -> strings), black holes in our universes could contain entire universes within them.
Or perhaps, since the massive gravity of a blackhole would warp 4-dimensional spacetime, perhaps they lead to other unknown parts of this universe, so far away that we've never observed or discovered it. in that case, having a black hole nearby wouldn't be that bad. We'd still have to find some exotic matter or something to counteract the tidal forces, and there's time discrepancy issues to deal with, but that's a somewhat moot point.
Are we slashdot readers all so focused on being geeks that nobody knows anything about the standard model worth posting? Really now. Where I come from, we learn about high-energy neutrinos in junior high. btw, First Post!