I have seen at least three Enigmas in the Smithsonian American History Museum. If memory serves there were one or two right next to pieces of the ENIAC, there as another one or two in a display case elsewhere (the case was one of those oddly placed displays along a wall that could easily be looked over, it also had a few other cipher items in it like a code wheel, like the one that came in StarFlight, StarControl I, and the Secret of Monkey Island). I am positive that at least one of the cases had two machines in it.
If anyone ever gets the chance to visit Washington D.C. and has some spare time, definitely go visit the Information Age section of the American History Museum. They show how World War II brought us the information age, not the nuclear age. They go from Morse code, early mechanical computing machines, early T.V, they have a old cross bar switch, Enigma, pieces of the ENIAC, pieces of the UNIVAC, the original apple computer in its wood burned box, and some early TI and Zilog microprocessors. A lot of history in a small space.
When I first read this I was hoping they were working on a conversion of the classic TI-99/4A game Parsec. Unfortunately its completely unrelated (expect that both take place in space, and both involve blowing things up, and both are trying to be state-of-the-art for their time).
ObNostalgia: Anyone else remember playing this game until their hands ached from those black and orange joysticks?
The United States government has created several freely available standards for voice compression. I would look into CELP (Code-page Excited Linear Predictive coding). It is a variation of the LPC coding system that has the same bit rates, but sounds MUCH better. The algorithm was invented by the NSA and given to the public. I believe this is the algorithm used in the STU-III (never actually seen one, but someone told this to me on sci.crypt). There are two standard bit rates, 9600 bits/sec, and 2400 bits/sec. I understand that 9600 sounds good, but 2400 is rather robotic sounding.
I would also get yourself to a good University library and find articles and books on voice coding. About a year ago I saw some articles on very low rate bit coding for voice. Again it was government/military sponsored work. I remember reading about an experimental coding system that operated in the 40bit/sec range (yes I find that hard to believe too). It should not be hard to find some good material.
There is a small book consisting of nothing but reprints of some of the most important papers in the field of Speech Analysis/Synthesis/Coding. Unfortunatly I don't have the title, but it does have a copy of "Speech Analysis and Synthesis by Linear Prediction of the Speech Wave" by B.S Atal and Suzanne L. Hanauer (Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, volume 50 Number 2) which describes the LPC process.
ObDisclaimer: I am not trying to start a flame war, just express my views on censorship. Read the whole post and think about it before you make a fool out of yourself;)
I would not mind requiring all explicit adult entertainment sites to register under a particular TLD. I hate accidentally visiting them, and it would be easier to block them if they were labeled before I click on the link (or worse yet, sent their by some JavaScript).
I agree that censorware has too many problems, I am not a fan of censorship, but I would appreciate a warning before I have something I might object to displayed on my screen. If I really want to see it, so be it. But if I really don't, at least warn me first.
Classic example: I am looking up information regarding a new security exploit, and some 31137 kiddie's web site pops open 200 windows of XXX porn. Not appreciated. I have ended up disabling JavaScript, Java, and automatic loading of pictures while visiting sites that might pull this stunt.
But back to the point. I don't really want censorship, but I do want user selectable blocking. If _I_ don't want to see it, ask me for my permission. Censorship is when someone else tells me _I_ can't see it. When I tell them I don't want to see it, its just another preference menu.
If the DNS system was invented today, instead of by researchers 20-30 years ago, I am sure the TLDs would look a lot like the ones just proposed.
Someone was concerned that this could create more confusion if a particular site is a.com,.org, or.net. It won't. Why? If enough new TLD's are created then the meaning of TLD will be destroyed. For example if things were setup right you could visit 'coke' instead of 'coca-cola.com'. If you look at the list you will see several TLDs for specific companies, not general categories (.dubai,.yp, etc). Of couse this might take some client hacking to make it work.
Many of us were first intrigued by computer games, and for an honorable mention we need Ken Williams. He was the founder of Sierra on-line and created the first graphical adventure games.
Most of my early motivation in computers was do to my desire to figure out "How did that do THAT?". Which quickly followed by "How do I do that myself". I am sure many geeks today feel the same way.
Don't forget Sierra on-line was one of the early companies to promote sound boards (especially theRoland MT-32), they stared on-line gaming a long time ago (remember the Sierra Network), and they also became heavily involved in 3-D after they bought Dynamix. They also were early adopters of CD-ROM based games. I have to say part of Sierra's problems was they were ahead of their time by about 2 years. They were in markets that didn't exist yet.
I have to mention that there is a strong Internet bias in the top 10 list. Some of these people I have never heard of. Remember that the Internet only became main stream a few years ago, but games have been main stream much longer (and therefore have influenced more people).
If we are talking about last minute shopping, they need to make e-mailable (is that a word yet?) or printable gift certificates. That way you can buy one on-line at 4:30am Dec 25th.
The problem with the system they proposed would be even more duplicate articles. We have had, what is it, two or more duplicate or near duplicate articles in the last week? This system would make it even worse.
One thing I would like to see is some form of self-moderation. Why? If I post something as a joke I just wanted someone (perhaps the author of the parent) to get a laugh out of it. But other times I write something that I think has good technical merit and wish it would float a little above the default of 1.
I wish I could think of a way to prevent troll abuse. Perhaps allow users to have a +0.5 and a +1 depending upon karma and make it optional (if the author wants to use it, so be it, if not, don't use it). Or perhaps make it a point pool that depletes (like mod points).
As a reader I would like to see what the author thought of his/her own post. It would be amusing to have pointless (pun intended) message attributes (+0 funny, +0 troll, and -0 just wanted to make the mathematicians whine).
Of course its fake, it was a JOKE! If I really wanted to impersonate DC I would have not used my regular Slashdot account. But apparently it looked good enough to trick some people into checking it out;^)
"Steve Gibson is working on something called NanoProbe technology. He describes it as advanced remote Internet security testing. " - Yep, nmap for windows. Pretty cool eh?
Lots of interesting stuff to think about in there (despite the fact that he says its designed for windows). - It was a no brainier for me, I think you may want to read more of the stories you post CmdrTaco;)
Its quite technical, and apparently moving fairly quickly forward. - Quite technical for a newbie windows user, or a serious 12'oclock flasher (someone who has every appliance in the house flashing 12'oclock)
My university bookstore ran out of textbooks for my biology class. When the new texts finally arrived they had a sticker on them declaring they included a free CD study-guide. I couldn't help but noticed that the edition with a 'free CD' was identical to the previous book, but cost $20 more.
I was tempted to mail in the business reply card ("What do you think of our textbook?") with a story about not being able to buy baby formula because of the $20 price hike for the FREE CD;)
In my library (collage) they allow you to check out the book, and at the checkout desk they will ask you if you want the CD to go along with it. If you do then they will run back and grab it for you. They pretty much ignore the sticker over the CD pouch.
Typical marketing ploy. Think back to when the N64 came out. The boxes were so scare only 1 parent in 20 was able to get his/her hands on one. Then all of a sudden a ton of the machines showed up at the store 1-2 weeks before Christmas. Can you say conspiracy (its spelled marketing).
This is close to an idea I had. Place web caches/proxies close to major ISP in the network and serve content out of them instead. The Netscape and MSN homepages must be the most heavily hit pages, why not use local caches that update every 2 minutes co-located at major ISP's like Earthlink. More advanced caches could be used for dynamic content like eBay and the various stock services. The end result is faster response time (less traffic, and less distance traveled, but its not like anyone will notice the added 50ms), and a lower network load.
I live in Provo, Utah and setup a DSL line about 3 months ago. Because I live in an apartment that uses a PBX like system, I had to have a second line installed.
It did take about 3 weeks for the order to be processed (they it would take 3-4 weeks), but it was complete a few days before they said it would be. I had my own DSL modem and I noticed it would connect to something then time out, I assume the line was up but since we didn't have our login/password it could not establish a connection.
When the letter with the login/password arrived (a few days before it was supposed to be activated) we were able to configure the modem and it worked flawlessly. So the point is they got the job done BEFORE they said they would.
Shortly after I installed the modem I noticed that it I had a 640k down-link. USWest later announced that all their 256k customers that are close enough to the Central Office would receive a free 640k upgrade (down-link only). I am not complaining a bit.
On the reliability side we had a single incident of a 4 hour network outage on a Sunday. We have had no other problems. Note that we used USWest as our ISP, not someone else.
I have to say I am impressed with USWest's DSL service. If only their linemen were half as good. Once phone line sounded as if a 120v-power line was crossed with our line. It had a buzz louder than our dial tone on it. After the lineman came out the first time he said he 'fixed' it. When I picked up the phone guess what, sill buzzing. It was real fun trying to explain to the girl at customer service over the buzz that our line was sill messed up. I decided to take the problem into my own hands. I popped open the box at the point of demarcation, found my wire pair, disconnected my apartment from the network and tested the line where it came into the building. The problem was definitely on their side. I then left a not so nice note attached to my wire-pair explaining I tested it myself and the problem is on their side. A few weeks later I check and my note removed;) I bet the lineman got a kick out of that one.
1) Buy one of those computer toys that make crashing sounds when thrown at an object.
2) Keep a dart gun handy and fire darts at the monitor.
3) Take a hammer to a unused motherboard. Warning: The fiberglass in these boards can make them hard to destroy. A shotgun may be more entertaining.
4) Get a friend to give you a neck/back massage. Its works wonders
5) Spend the time to setup a stable work environment. The wasted time and frustration do to crashes isn't worth it. (Yes, even some Microsoft boxes can be made somewhat stable with work).
6) Spend some time learning and setting up tricks and shortcuts in your work environment. You might not save time overall, but the convince will be worth it.
7) Take a break every now and then for maintenance, both for yourself (exercise, socialize, learn), you machine (backups, organize files), and your environment (clear off desk, take down sticky notes, clean mouse and monitor).
"Computers don't make mistakes." Obviously you have never dealt with a computer with a bad DRAM chip;) Its was just flaky enough to make life real interesting.
Since you _USED_ to work for the company I just thought of two options:
1) If your current employer will not let you do work for anyone else (check your contract) simply refuse to sign. Why? You must review the materials before signing and that would constitute labor. Since you can't work for anyone else, you can't sign.
2) Tell them you need to review the documents, and you will charge them some exorbitant fee to do so, say $5,000,000. You were willing on doing it, but they were not willing on compensating you.
(BTW I am not a lawyer, get a real opion elsewhere)
If you used to work for them, I see them hard pressed to force you to sign anything, unless your contract required it, and only if those aspects of the contract are still in force after you ended your employment.
A contract that forces you to sign other legal documents regardless of if you support those other documents. Interesting.
I have 24 credits left until I graduate, and I have been dealing with this through my entire collage carrier. The best option is to just deal with it.
1) You need to learn how to LEARN TO USE new tools. If you think what you have is bad, I took a course that required all programs to be written using MFC and Visual C++. Now that was a nightmare (spend 80% of the time trying to find what you need in the docs, 10% actually writing code, and 10% debugging). What made the class even more fun it was my Operating Systems class where we did some basic networking, threading, and deadlock avoidance.
2) You will always have employers asking you to develop using 'Y' platform (X is an overused buzzword). Even though we all know that practically any development environment can be coerced into making any program, you have to do it the way they want it, or you will quickly be looking for another job.
I don't mean to be a pessimist, but for your own sake, avoid starting any type of confrontation. By the way did you ask the professor on the first day of class? In my classes we usually get about 3-4 question on this very topic the first day.
Slashdot Mirror
If anyone ever gets the chance to visit Washington D.C. and has some spare time, definitely go visit the Information Age section of the American History Museum. They show how World War II brought us the information age, not the nuclear age. They go from Morse code, early mechanical computing machines, early T.V, they have a old cross bar switch, Enigma, pieces of the ENIAC, pieces of the UNIVAC, the original apple computer in its wood burned box, and some early TI and Zilog microprocessors. A lot of history in a small space.
When I first read this I was hoping they were working on a conversion of the classic TI-99/4A game Parsec. Unfortunately its completely unrelated (expect that both take place in space, and both involve blowing things up, and both are trying to be state-of-the-art for their time).
ObNostalgia: Anyone else remember playing this game until their hands ached from those black and orange joysticks?
I would also get yourself to a good University library and find articles and books on voice coding. About a year ago I saw some articles on very low rate bit coding for voice. Again it was government/military sponsored work. I remember reading about an experimental coding system that operated in the 40bit/sec range (yes I find that hard to believe too). It should not be hard to find some good material.
There is a small book consisting of nothing but reprints of some of the most important papers in the field of Speech Analysis/Synthesis/Coding. Unfortunatly I don't have the title, but it does have a copy of "Speech Analysis and Synthesis by Linear Prediction of the Speech Wave" by B.S Atal and Suzanne L. Hanauer (Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, volume 50 Number 2) which describes the LPC process.
I would not mind requiring all explicit adult entertainment sites to register under a particular TLD. I hate accidentally visiting them, and it would be easier to block them if they were labeled before I click on the link (or worse yet, sent their by some JavaScript).
I agree that censorware has too many problems, I am not a fan of censorship, but I would appreciate a warning before I have something I might object to displayed on my screen. If I really want to see it, so be it. But if I really don't, at least warn me first.
Classic example: I am looking up information regarding a new security exploit, and some 31137 kiddie's web site pops open 200 windows of XXX porn. Not appreciated. I have ended up disabling JavaScript, Java, and automatic loading of pictures while visiting sites that might pull this stunt.
But back to the point. I don't really want censorship, but I do want user selectable blocking. If _I_ don't want to see it, ask me for my permission. Censorship is when someone else tells me _I_ can't see it. When I tell them I don't want to see it, its just another preference menu.
Someone was concerned that this could create more confusion if a particular site is a .com, .org, or .net. It won't. Why? If enough new TLD's are created then the meaning of TLD will be destroyed. For example if things were setup right you could visit 'coke' instead of 'coca-cola.com'. If you look at the list you will see several TLDs for specific companies, not general categories (.dubai, .yp, etc). Of couse this might take some client hacking to make it work.
ICM Registry, Inc. wants both .kids, and .xxx, and nothing else. I am sure congress is going to have a field day with this one.
What we really need is a free (beer and speech) development environment for the newer console systems.
Most of my early motivation in computers was do to my desire to figure out "How did that do THAT?". Which quickly followed by "How do I do that myself". I am sure many geeks today feel the same way.
Don't forget Sierra on-line was one of the early companies to promote sound boards (especially theRoland MT-32), they stared on-line gaming a long time ago (remember the Sierra Network), and they also became heavily involved in 3-D after they bought Dynamix. They also were early adopters of CD-ROM based games. I have to say part of Sierra's problems was they were ahead of their time by about 2 years. They were in markets that didn't exist yet.
I have to mention that there is a strong Internet bias in the top 10 list. Some of these people I have never heard of. Remember that the Internet only became main stream a few years ago, but games have been main stream much longer (and therefore have influenced more people).
If we are talking about last minute shopping, they need to make e-mailable (is that a word yet?) or printable gift certificates. That way you can buy one on-line at 4:30am Dec 25th.
One thing I would like to see is some form of self-moderation. Why? If I post something as a joke I just wanted someone (perhaps the author of the parent) to get a laugh out of it. But other times I write something that I think has good technical merit and wish it would float a little above the default of 1.
I wish I could think of a way to prevent troll abuse. Perhaps allow users to have a +0.5 and a +1 depending upon karma and make it optional (if the author wants to use it, so be it, if not, don't use it). Or perhaps make it a point pool that depletes (like mod points).
As a reader I would like to see what the author thought of his/her own post. It would be amusing to have pointless (pun intended) message attributes (+0 funny, +0 troll, and -0 just wanted to make the mathematicians whine).
Of course its fake, it was a JOKE! If I really wanted to impersonate DC I would have not used my regular Slashdot account. But apparently it looked good enough to trick some people into checking it out ;^)
Digital Convergence
- Yep, nmap for windows. Pretty cool eh?
Lots of interesting stuff to think about in there (despite the fact that he says its designed for windows). ;)
- It was a no brainier for me, I think you may want to read more of the stories you post CmdrTaco
Its quite technical, and apparently moving fairly quickly forward.
- Quite technical for a newbie windows user, or a serious 12'oclock flasher (someone who has every appliance in the house flashing 12'oclock)
I was tempted to mail in the business reply card ("What do you think of our textbook?") with a story about not being able to buy baby formula because of the $20 price hike for the FREE CD ;)
In my library (collage) they allow you to check out the book, and at the checkout desk they will ask you if you want the CD to go along with it. If you do then they will run back and grab it for you. They pretty much ignore the sticker over the CD pouch.
Typical marketing ploy. Think back to when the N64 came out. The boxes were so scare only 1 parent in 20 was able to get his/her hands on one. Then all of a sudden a ton of the machines showed up at the store 1-2 weeks before Christmas. Can you say conspiracy (its spelled marketing).
This is close to an idea I had. Place web caches/proxies close to major ISP in the network and serve content out of them instead. The Netscape and MSN homepages must be the most heavily hit pages, why not use local caches that update every 2 minutes co-located at major ISP's like Earthlink. More advanced caches could be used for dynamic content like eBay and the various stock services. The end result is faster response time (less traffic, and less distance traveled, but its not like anyone will notice the added 50ms), and a lower network load.
It did take about 3 weeks for the order to be processed (they it would take 3-4 weeks), but it was complete a few days before they said it would be. I had my own DSL modem and I noticed it would connect to something then time out, I assume the line was up but since we didn't have our login/password it could not establish a connection.
When the letter with the login/password arrived (a few days before it was supposed to be activated) we were able to configure the modem and it worked flawlessly. So the point is they got the job done BEFORE they said they would.
Shortly after I installed the modem I noticed that it I had a 640k down-link. USWest later announced that all their 256k customers that are close enough to the Central Office would receive a free 640k upgrade (down-link only). I am not complaining a bit.
On the reliability side we had a single incident of a 4 hour network outage on a Sunday. We have had no other problems. Note that we used USWest as our ISP, not someone else.
I have to say I am impressed with USWest's DSL service. If only their linemen were half as good. Once phone line sounded as if a 120v-power line was crossed with our line. It had a buzz louder than our dial tone on it. After the lineman came out the first time he said he 'fixed' it. When I picked up the phone guess what, sill buzzing. It was real fun trying to explain to the girl at customer service over the buzz that our line was sill messed up. I decided to take the problem into my own hands. I popped open the box at the point of demarcation, found my wire pair, disconnected my apartment from the network and tested the line where it came into the building. The problem was definitely on their side. I then left a not so nice note attached to my wire-pair explaining I tested it myself and the problem is on their side. A few weeks later I check and my note removed ;) I bet the lineman got a kick out of that one.
2) Keep a dart gun handy and fire darts at the monitor.
3) Take a hammer to a unused motherboard. Warning: The fiberglass in these boards can make them hard to destroy. A shotgun may be more entertaining.
4) Get a friend to give you a neck/back massage. Its works wonders
5) Spend the time to setup a stable work environment. The wasted time and frustration do to crashes isn't worth it. (Yes, even some Microsoft boxes can be made somewhat stable with work).
6) Spend some time learning and setting up tricks and shortcuts in your work environment. You might not save time overall, but the convince will be worth it.
7) Take a break every now and then for maintenance, both for yourself (exercise, socialize, learn), you machine (backups, organize files), and your environment (clear off desk, take down sticky notes, clean mouse and monitor).
"Computers don't make mistakes." Obviously you have never dealt with a computer with a bad DRAM chip ;) Its was just flaky enough to make life real interesting.
1) If your current employer will not let you do work for anyone else (check your contract) simply refuse to sign. Why? You must review the materials before signing and that would constitute labor. Since you can't work for anyone else, you can't sign.
2) Tell them you need to review the documents, and you will charge them some exorbitant fee to do so, say $5,000,000. You were willing on doing it, but they were not willing on compensating you.
(BTW I am not a lawyer, get a real opion elsewhere)
OBDontSueMe: I am not a lawyer.
A contract that forces you to sign other legal documents regardless of if you support those other documents. Interesting.
Silicon Valley has developed a new technique to speed software development. Time travel. According to reports Python 1.7 is still due Mid December
1) You need to learn how to LEARN TO USE new tools. If you think what you have is bad, I took a course that required all programs to be written using MFC and Visual C++. Now that was a nightmare (spend 80% of the time trying to find what you need in the docs, 10% actually writing code, and 10% debugging). What made the class even more fun it was my Operating Systems class where we did some basic networking, threading, and deadlock avoidance.
2) You will always have employers asking you to develop using 'Y' platform (X is an overused buzzword). Even though we all know that practically any development environment can be coerced into making any program, you have to do it the way they want it, or you will quickly be looking for another job.
I don't mean to be a pessimist, but for your own sake, avoid starting any type of confrontation. By the way did you ask the professor on the first day of class? In my classes we usually get about 3-4 question on this very topic the first day.