Answer: NO, Robosaurus is NOT owned, sponsored, or created by the US Air Force. RTFA.
Question: WTF is this doing as a slashdot article? And why am I wasting my time posting to it? Shouldn't I have something better to do at 10PM on a Friday night?
I was one of four students in a pilot program in 4th grade (1980) wherein we learned BASIC programming (Apple II) and "New Math" (don't even get me started.)
After learning the basics, I started my first project - a random text generator. I wanted to see if, left to its own devices, the Apple II would eventually reproduce the works of Shakespeare. Or at least, produce a few dirty words on its own.
I spent two days coding (never having used a keyboard before, typing was arduous) The program went like this:
10 A=INT(RND(1)*30) +1 20 REM 30 IF A=1 THEN $B="A" 40 IF A=2 THEN $B="B" ...
340 IF A=30 THEN $B="." 350 PRINT $B; 360 GOTO 10
If I recall, there was no "copy" or "paste" function in the boot ROM AppleII BASIC. Typing this was hell on my 9-year-old fingers. The good news is, the program worked. The bad news is, after I'd finished it, the teacher showed me how to cut 29 lines out of my program using the $CHR() function. I wanted to shoot him.
All in all, BASIC served me well. It's a great intro programming language for pre-teens.
The beauty of this scheme is that each bit of data I want to archive is stored remotely on ten (or was it nine?) servers. It's quite likely that, in the course of the year, one of those servers fail, and three of them drop out of the archive network. I've still got 5 working copies out there. And 30 (90) days after one server drops out, the data is replicated onto a new server in the net, to bring my total back up to the original 10.
If my server dies a fiery, horrible death, all I need to do is provide a new server within 90 days, supply my authentication, and all of the right bits will be restored.
I was envisioning this as the "forever" archive -- as long as I've got a participating machine, and others are participating, I'm confident that my bits are going to exist backup copies of my data out there.
Does anything like this currently exist in the wild?
if your server is offline for "n" days, then the storage you're providing to other users is also offline for "n" days. At some point, you've got to call no joy and give up the DASD you're using on someone else's machine. It's only fair.
It's actually a great archiving idea. Something along the lines of Freenet. Distributed, anonymous, redundant storage.
Using P2P software, you supply: a) n bytes of data you want archived b) 10Xn bytes of free space to archive other people's stuff
So you've got 1GB you want preserved forever? Supply 10GB to the network, and the software takes care of the rest. If a user drops out of the network, his "stuff" is purged after 30 days of inactivity, freeing up space for new participants.
We spend a lot of time in iTunes. We moved our CD collection (4000 or so tracks) to the Mac and segregated it into large playlists: Christmas, Family Gathering, High Energy, Sunday Morning, Music To Read A Book By, Kids Favorites, and so on. We NEVER go to the 4000 song library and hit "shuffle" - we'll get a Christmas tune, followed by Dixieland Hymns, followed by theme track from South Park. Unacceptable.
An interesting side effect is that there dozens of songs with 50+ playcount, and HUNDREDS of songs that have had ZERO play count in the last year and a half. So I created a new playlist, added all of the "low playcount" tracks, and when I'm feeling like taking a risk, will launch in and hit 'shuffle' in there. Voila! Instant 'new music'. It's fun to find some of those old tracks now and again.
From the article: The FCC agreed to use the Telecommunications Relay Service Fund to pay for IP Relay for the same technical reason that allows easy access by scammers: unlike phones, which can be quickly traced to a particular location, computer IP addresses are not tied to any place. As one FCC document put it, "WorldCom states that there is no way of determining the origin of IP Relay calls, because Internet addresses have no geographical correlates."
I'll plead ignorance -- I assume they're right in saying there is no strict, one-to-one relationship between IP address and locale. But isn't it possible to identify with a HIGH degree of likelihood that a given IP is originating in Nigeria? Or that the packets have been routed through Nigeria?
Imagine a large real goods manufacturer going to Target and saying: "Let's make a deal. If you don't want to deal with me, I'm going to be forced to go talk to Wal-Mart."
It doesn't exactly indicate that you're negotiating from a position of strength when your "threat" alternative is to sell your soul to the devil.
I won't be sad to see them go, if it comes to that.
I'm honestly having trouble coming up with a practical application for this. I RTFA and learned (I think) that they're using "DVD-like" technology, but that the substrate is (51% by weight) paper, not acrylic and aluminum. The advantage? "It's easier to cut with scissors," states the article.
What possible benefit does this present. Someone help me out.
Following the story of a few hours ago, I picture a minivan full of little soccer-playing robots being transported to the pitch for practice by their autonomous self-driving minivan mother.
If this were standardized - an external power supply pack with a standard connector supplying 1.5,3,5,9,and 12 volts, then you'd see the "house brand" computers coming out sans power supply -- buy your own -- and the end consumer would pick one up, much as they now pick up USB cables and add on their own memory. (Who buys additional memory from the manufacturer these days?)
And, damn you for that.sig!!! Agents has sucked away WAAAY too much of my life since I first read your shameless plug. Who thought that a game which, in theory, takes as little at 30 seconds a day to play could waste so much of one's time? So simple, yet so complex.
A solid piece of hardware - I now have three operating in various capacities around the house - but noisy like you wouldn't believe. I've become accustomed to some minimal amount of acoustic engineering going into boxes these days -- all of the name brand boxes have an average (low) amount of noise. Not so with the Microtel. The power supply has a whoosh to it, and the CPU fan a bit of a low whir. You may be able to remedy this with a replacement low-noise PS.
Not bad for under $300, but, as always, you get what you pay for.
Why don't we have boxes with external (fanless - noiseless) power supplies? Everything that goes on inside the box is low voltage DC, right?
Get off your frickin' high horse. Just because the parent poster happened to be posting from the US doesn't mean the solution only applies there. For the VAST majority of email users in ANY country, the only (legitimate) email they receive is from the same country. Those of you in academia or business, you world travelers, or residents of Belgium are exceptions. The parent poster deals with the exceptions. Blocking, by default, all email originating outisde your local jurisdication is a valid solution for the vast majority of global email users.
For the rest of us, simply pretending that Russia, Korea, Belize and the Netherlands don't exist is a good start.
This is part of the specs for the race - to yield to authority, when needed. I don't think it too out of the ordinary to design an automated machine that has the ability to STOP and then, a short while later, RESTART.
All in all, hard to believe that the qualified entries were, effectively, unable to make it out of the starting gate. What happened between qualification day and race day?
Significantly less than a mile. This was a small (20 acres?) outlot adjacent to the factory where they test incremental changes or modifications. I'm guessing that the "official" proving grounds are considerably larger/longer/more rigorous. This was more like a rapid-fire collection of many types of the bad terrain that you could throw at a vehicle, in one compact location. Had nothing to do with the DARPA challenge.
Team Terramax is a collaboration between Oshkosh Truck and Ohio State University based on the MTVR, a six-wheeled, 425 HP, seven-ton truck.
I had the privilege of test-driving an MTVR on the obstacle course at their factory in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. This truck, fully loaded, could take on hills steeper than feel comfortable taking on in an ATV. We forded streams, climbed over barricades, and did steep side grades, all without breaking a sweat. I've got no doubt that this vehicle is up to the Grand Challenge, if the guys at OSU have their technology in order...
I hadn't thought of that -- it is ironic, I guess, that the sucess America has had in innovation leads directly into outsourcing American jobs to further that innovation.
The solution? How about we keep innovating, staying one step ahead of the curve? Might work. We certainly can't go back to where we used to be.
If you're opposed to the oppression of coffee farmers or the destruction of rainforest to feed the coffee trade, you should stop buying coffee.
I know that coffee is borne on the backs of the oppressed, and that it's grown at the expense of the rainforest, and I continue to buy it anyway. I'm not hypocritical; I'll openly take the blame as one who supports the trade. It's a price I have to bear to support my habit. (Are there any "ethical" coffees out there? I'd pay more to support them if I had the opportunity...)
Don't complain about the plight of the outsourced factory worker, and then go to Wal-Mart to buy your cheap imported Levi's. Be honest. If you're opposed to a trade practice, then don't support it. And while you're at it, recruit a few of your friends to do the same.
I agree with your point in its entirety. See my response here.
People forget that the economy isn't something external - it's something we're all a part of. Free markets can and will be changed by people voting with their dollars, pounds, and rupees.
Free markets will never be effectively changed through legislation - there's no point in trying.
Re:We need to start taxing companies who do this.
on
Need a Job? Move to India
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Welcome to the 21st century. Please note that it is no longer 1950. The tactics you suggest MAY have worked last millenium, but won't in this one.
It's easy now to take advantage of the cheaper Indian labor - there's almost no cost, and considerable savings, in outsourcing. If the savings are eliminated through taxation, companies will take more drastic measures to realize the savings. Implementing a tax on outsourced jobs will only lead to movement of the entire company to where the labor is cheaper. It'll see the formation of subsidiaries/partnerships in India, employing only Indians, and then "selling" R&D or finished product back to the American parent.
If you're considering a war between the US congress, writing tax code, and American free enterprise, finding ways around it, I think we both know which one will be both more creative and quicker to act.
The smarter move on your (and all of our) part is to VOTE WITH YOUR WALLET. Don't like outsourcing? Don't buy products or services from companies that use foreign labor. You'll pay more in the end, but it won't be any more (or any less) than you'd pay if the "outsourcing tax" were applied.
Go ahead and try. Convice your congresscritters to pass the "No Jobs Overseas" bill, and you'll find that American products and services are suddenly higher than similar products and services available for import from Asia, Europe, or India.
Used to be, the cost of information flow was expensive. If you manufactured doohickeys in Dallas, you had your customer support staff located in Dallas. With cheap communications, you can locate your CSR's anywhere, or everywhere -- to save a few pennies on every doohickey you make, which allows you to stay competitive against all the other (foreign and domestic) doohickey makers.
The free market is now global. Can't stop globalization in a free market. Don't want a free market? Try Cuba.
Yeah, I also pictured a line of astrophysicists waiting for their "turn" to use the lens... "Hey, hurry up, will ya? You think you could give someone else a turn?"
Slashdot Mirror
Answer: NO, Robosaurus is NOT owned, sponsored, or created by the US Air Force. RTFA.
Question: WTF is this doing as a slashdot article? And why am I wasting my time posting to it? Shouldn't I have something better to do at 10PM on a Friday night?
I was one of four students in a pilot program in 4th grade (1980) wherein we learned BASIC programming (Apple II) and "New Math" (don't even get me started.)
After learning the basics, I started my first project - a random text generator. I wanted to see if, left to its own devices, the Apple II would eventually reproduce the works of Shakespeare. Or at least, produce a few dirty words on its own.
I spent two days coding (never having used a keyboard before, typing was arduous)
The program went like this:
10 A=INT(RND(1)*30) +1
20 REM
30 IF A=1 THEN $B="A"
40 IF A=2 THEN $B="B"
...
340 IF A=30 THEN $B="."
350 PRINT $B;
360 GOTO 10
If I recall, there was no "copy" or "paste" function in the boot ROM AppleII BASIC. Typing this was hell on my 9-year-old fingers.
The good news is, the program worked. The bad news is, after I'd finished it, the teacher showed me how to cut 29 lines out of my program using the $CHR() function. I wanted to shoot him.
All in all, BASIC served me well. It's a great intro programming language for pre-teens.
I get your point.
The beauty of this scheme is that each bit of data I want to archive is stored remotely on ten (or was it nine?) servers. It's quite likely that, in the course of the year, one of those servers fail, and three of them drop out of the archive network. I've still got 5 working copies out there. And 30 (90) days after one server drops out, the data is replicated onto a new server in the net, to bring my total back up to the original 10.
If my server dies a fiery, horrible death, all I need to do is provide a new server within 90 days, supply my authentication, and all of the right bits will be restored.
I was envisioning this as the "forever" archive -- as long as I've got a participating machine, and others are participating, I'm confident that my bits are going to exist backup copies of my data out there.
Does anything like this currently exist in the wild?
Thanks for the discussion.
90 days then.
if your server is offline for "n" days, then the storage you're providing to other users is also offline for "n" days. At some point, you've got to call no joy and give up the DASD you're using on someone else's machine. It's only fair.
It's actually a great archiving idea. Something along the lines of Freenet. Distributed, anonymous, redundant storage.
Using P2P software, you supply:
a) n bytes of data you want archived
b) 10Xn bytes of free space to archive other people's stuff
So you've got 1GB you want preserved forever? Supply 10GB to the network, and the software takes care of the rest. If a user drops out of the network, his "stuff" is purged after 30 days of inactivity, freeing up space for new participants.
Perhaps the old articles were archived to CD-R...
We spend a lot of time in iTunes. We moved our CD collection (4000 or so tracks) to the Mac and segregated it into large playlists: Christmas, Family Gathering, High Energy, Sunday Morning, Music To Read A Book By, Kids Favorites, and so on. We NEVER go to the 4000 song library and hit "shuffle" - we'll get a Christmas tune, followed by Dixieland Hymns, followed by theme track from South Park. Unacceptable.
An interesting side effect is that there dozens of songs with 50+ playcount, and HUNDREDS of songs that have had ZERO play count in the last year and a half. So I created a new playlist, added all of the "low playcount" tracks, and when I'm feeling like taking a risk, will launch in and hit 'shuffle' in there. Voila! Instant 'new music'. It's fun to find some of those old tracks now and again.
From the article: The FCC agreed to use the Telecommunications Relay Service Fund to pay for IP Relay for the same technical reason that allows easy access by scammers: unlike phones, which can be quickly traced to a particular location, computer IP addresses are not tied to any place. As one FCC document put it, "WorldCom states that there is no way of determining the origin of IP Relay calls, because Internet addresses have no geographical correlates."
I'll plead ignorance -- I assume they're right in saying there is no strict, one-to-one relationship between IP address and locale. But isn't it possible to identify with a HIGH degree of likelihood that a given IP is originating in Nigeria? Or that the packets have been routed through Nigeria?
Good point.
Imagine a large real goods manufacturer going to Target and saying: "Let's make a deal. If you don't want to deal with me, I'm going to be forced to go talk to Wal-Mart."
It doesn't exactly indicate that you're negotiating from a position of strength when your "threat" alternative is to sell your soul to the devil.
I won't be sad to see them go, if it comes to that.
I'm honestly having trouble coming up with a practical application for this. I RTFA and learned (I think) that they're using "DVD-like" technology, but that the substrate is (51% by weight) paper, not acrylic and aluminum. The advantage? "It's easier to cut with scissors," states the article.
What possible benefit does this present. Someone help me out.
Following the story of a few hours ago, I picture a minivan full of little soccer-playing robots being transported to the pitch for practice by their autonomous self-driving minivan mother.
What? Please stop looking at me like that.
If this were standardized - an external power supply pack with a standard connector supplying 1.5,3,5,9,and 12 volts, then you'd see the "house brand" computers coming out sans power supply -- buy your own -- and the end consumer would pick one up, much as they now pick up USB cables and add on their own memory. (Who buys additional memory from the manufacturer these days?)
.sig!!! Agents has sucked away WAAAY too much of my life since I first read your shameless plug. Who thought that a game which, in theory, takes as little at 30 seconds a day to play could waste so much of one's time? So simple, yet so complex.
And, damn you for that
A solid piece of hardware - I now have three operating in various capacities around the house - but noisy like you wouldn't believe. I've become accustomed to some minimal amount of acoustic engineering going into boxes these days -- all of the name brand boxes have an average (low) amount of noise. Not so with the Microtel. The power supply has a whoosh to it, and the CPU fan a bit of a low whir. You may be able to remedy this with a replacement low-noise PS.
Not bad for under $300, but, as always, you get what you pay for.
Why don't we have boxes with external (fanless - noiseless) power supplies? Everything that goes on inside the box is low voltage DC, right?
Get off your frickin' high horse. Just because the parent poster happened to be posting from the US doesn't mean the solution only applies there. For the VAST majority of email users in ANY country, the only (legitimate) email they receive is from the same country. Those of you in academia or business, you world travelers, or residents of Belgium are exceptions. The parent poster deals with the exceptions. Blocking, by default, all email originating outisde your local jurisdication is a valid solution for the vast majority of global email users.
For the rest of us, simply pretending that Russia, Korea, Belize and the Netherlands don't exist is a good start.
And what do you suppose Lt. Worf's response would be to being put on hold?
By an android.
Some disassembly would ensue.
This is part of the specs for the race - to yield to authority, when needed. I don't think it too out of the ordinary to design an automated machine that has the ability to STOP and then, a short while later, RESTART.
All in all, hard to believe that the qualified entries were, effectively, unable to make it out of the starting gate. What happened between qualification day and race day?
Significantly less than a mile. This was a small (20 acres?) outlot adjacent to the factory where they test incremental changes or modifications. I'm guessing that the "official" proving grounds are considerably larger/longer/more rigorous. This was more like a rapid-fire collection of many types of the bad terrain that you could throw at a vehicle, in one compact location. Had nothing to do with the DARPA challenge.
Team Terramax is a collaboration between Oshkosh Truck and Ohio State University based on the MTVR, a six-wheeled, 425 HP, seven-ton truck.
I had the privilege of test-driving an MTVR on the obstacle course at their factory in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. This truck, fully loaded, could take on hills steeper than feel comfortable taking on in an ATV. We forded streams, climbed over barricades, and did steep side grades, all without breaking a sweat. I've got no doubt that this vehicle is up to the Grand Challenge, if the guys at OSU have their technology in order...
I hadn't thought of that -- it is ironic, I guess, that the sucess America has had in innovation leads directly into outsourcing American jobs to further that innovation.
The solution? How about we keep innovating, staying one step ahead of the curve? Might work. We certainly can't go back to where we used to be.
If you're opposed to the oppression of coffee farmers or the destruction of rainforest to feed the coffee trade, you should stop buying coffee.
I know that coffee is borne on the backs of the oppressed, and that it's grown at the expense of the rainforest, and I continue to buy it anyway. I'm not hypocritical; I'll openly take the blame as one who supports the trade. It's a price I have to bear to support my habit. (Are there any "ethical" coffees out there? I'd pay more to support them if I had the opportunity...)
Don't complain about the plight of the outsourced factory worker, and then go to Wal-Mart to buy your cheap imported Levi's. Be honest. If you're opposed to a trade practice, then don't support it. And while you're at it, recruit a few of your friends to do the same.
I agree with your point in its entirety. See my response here.
People forget that the economy isn't something external - it's something we're all a part of. Free markets can and will be changed by people voting with their dollars, pounds, and rupees.
Free markets will never be effectively changed through legislation - there's no point in trying.
Welcome to the 21st century. Please note that it is no longer 1950. The tactics you suggest MAY have worked last millenium, but won't in this one.
It's easy now to take advantage of the cheaper Indian labor - there's almost no cost, and considerable savings, in outsourcing. If the savings are eliminated through taxation, companies will take more drastic measures to realize the savings. Implementing a tax on outsourced jobs will only lead to movement of the entire company to where the labor is cheaper. It'll see the formation of subsidiaries/partnerships in India, employing only Indians, and then "selling" R&D or finished product back to the American parent.
If you're considering a war between the US congress, writing tax code, and American free enterprise, finding ways around it, I think we both know which one will be both more creative and quicker to act.
The smarter move on your (and all of our) part is to VOTE WITH YOUR WALLET. Don't like outsourcing? Don't buy products or services from companies that use foreign labor. You'll pay more in the end, but it won't be any more (or any less) than you'd pay if the "outsourcing tax" were applied.
Go ahead and try. Convice your congresscritters to pass the "No Jobs Overseas" bill, and you'll find that American products and services are suddenly higher than similar products and services available for import from Asia, Europe, or India.
Used to be, the cost of information flow was expensive. If you manufactured doohickeys in Dallas, you had your customer support staff located in Dallas. With cheap communications, you can locate your CSR's anywhere, or everywhere -- to save a few pennies on every doohickey you make, which allows you to stay competitive against all the other (foreign and domestic) doohickey makers.
The free market is now global. Can't stop globalization in a free market. Don't want a free market? Try Cuba.
Yeah, I also pictured a line of astrophysicists waiting for their "turn" to use the lens... "Hey, hurry up, will ya? You think you could give someone else a turn?"
I'm guessing that 867-5309 is a valid telephone number in about 200 different area codes. Name a carrier, I'd bet that they "have" that number.