Some people DO have the ability to do fast arithmetical calculations. They are called computing prodigies. I think what is holding us back from doing better, faster math is that humans were built on fault tolerance. If you were designing a computer which architecture would you pick:
A> 99.999% reliability.
or
B> 95% reliability and 100X the density with the ability to grow replacements/route around the problem.
If you picked B, notice what kind of problems are real tough to solve: Long serial ones with no tolerance for error. Notice which problems are easy to solve (remember that 100x density bonus) Large parallel problems that you can vote on the best solution.
P.S. The 100x density is if you calculate it in 3 dimensions and take into consideration cooling. Can someone compute better numbers for this?
I don't expect this lack of quality games to last for long. With projects like Tux racer coming out which can be used as a springboard to bigger projects, I expect open source game projects to start popping up like popcorn at sourceforge. Sure, they might lag behind commercial development by 1 generation, like linux did, but when they come, they will be solid, extensible, widely used, and re-usable.
Ever heard the term slashdotted? Come on, Web pages NEED a distributed solution.
Freenet does support frequently updated content: see here for instructions on web pages on freenet. The solution used is arguable better than the current one, in that older websites/old version of websites are not lost.
Isn't this just another encoding method? Ie. Analog->wav is to wav->MP3 is to MP3->pi ? If you can be sued for the wav version & the mp3 version, why not the pi version?
I seem to remember something in a book "The History of PI" about an algorithm that would start at any given point in pi. (I think you had to know the value of the digit you started at).
How could this be used for encryption? (pi / key) at offset (encrypted data) == Plaintext ? Are there more convenient ways or more convenient numbers to locate the position?
If you wanted plausible deniability, send encrypted data such that decoding it with 1 key gives "innocent" data, & decrypting it with another key give "illegal" data. Oh wait, Pi itself isn't illegal! I suppose it would be awful suspicious to have 50 gigabytes of pi at different locations:)
Mount a strip of tri-color LED's on a spinning blade. Frame buffer circuitry, paying close attention to the timing would give you about 0.7 by 0.7 * the # of leds (if you wanted to display a rectangular image). Spin the sucker up to 60 hz (RPM) & there's no visible flicker. Want it twice as bright? Balance the leds, 1100 on 1 arm, 1100 on the other arm (for 800X800 resolution), instead of 1100 on 1 arm and a counterweight. 4 times as bright? (more blades)
One of the main benefits would be contrast: Paint the arm black & mount it inside a black box. You could also double or quadruple the resolution by running at 120 hz, & change the position of the LED in & out. Don't want a 6 foot arm spinning at 60 rpm? Make 4 smaller ones, syncronize them (stepper motors) so they won't interfere, or stagger them on different planes for an edgeless array. (That way you make 4,6, or 8 smaller ones instead of 1 real big one, ala Video Wall).
A tricky part of the design would be the commutator to feed the signal to the microprocessor mounted on the back side of the blades. Power could be fed to it real easily, but the signal might tend to get broken up by very tiny imperfections or momentary loss of contact. Probably an optical feed would be easier for the signal.
Still can't figure out what shape the pixels would be.
That scheme (locking servos) works fine for flat or smooth slopes, but breaks down when the user steps on an edge. The user expects to be able to rock the boot back & forth keeping the same height. As I understand it, you would have to use active servos to push the toe/heel up & down in response to the forces involved. But hey, this is cool, you could simulate spongy or sticky surfaces really easily.
Yeah, it's those crazy maniacs behind the wheel of those newfangled automobiles that we must outlaw. The Human body won't hold up going faster than 30 miles per hour!
Seriously, cars are dangerous too, really the holdup is #1: Price, #2: landing area. VTOL (helicoptors) to land in small areas (like my work office building roof or parking lot) are wayyy too expensive.
I think by the time we get 100% computer controlled cars, we will have 100% computer controlled planes. (Oh, we'd have to solve those little "AI" and "Vision" problems...)
I would buy:
#1: Half-life. (d/l cstrike & tfc) and yes, it's in the bargain bin
#2: Sim City 2000. (forget simant, simfarm, simearth, simjungle) If you can get it in a combo pack, COOL
#3: Total Annihilation.
#4: MDK (MDK2, but it's not in the bargain bin yet) smooth, liquid, funky, cool + eye candy
#5: Some other funky game you've never heard of that looks cool .
Yes I played Commander Keen. More fun? well I spend a Whole lot more time playing team fortress. The big revolution in games is multi-player over the internet.
New Internet games are more fun.
I agreed with you about Duke Nukem 3D, but only because it wasn't as good as it's 3D competitors.
If that Think NIC cheap linux box had 4 ethernet ports instead of 1 (think "Hub" or "Switch"), I would definitely have bought one of those instead of the $169 cable modem firewalls.
Do you know how many 30 gig drives you can buy for the price of a reliable scsi tape system and tapes?
I use those removable drive bays for IDE. I even set up a computer user that can't read well (dyslexic) with this setup & he loves it. He has 4 drives & backs up & swaps between them. He's fearless because anytime he totally hoses his system, (like installing a new version of Quicken) NO PROBLEMO, pop in the old drive.
I'm gonna buy a kt7-raid motherboard as soon as I can get one locally. Check it out: 4 ide connectors ON board, & IDE Raid to boot! here's the solution: mount 1 hard disk each on the raid channels, then pile on the removable backup HD, bulk storage HD, DVD & rewriteable CD on the slower channels.
Don't bother with warranties, "Rock-Solid" "Brand-Name" PC's with inflated prices, etc. Buy almost cheap generic boxes from people you deal with locally. Don't buy the cheapest stuff from the cheapest place. Buy exact part/model #'s from the cheapest place, full computers from the next-to cheapest place. (The cheapes place definitely put cruddy components in.)
PC's are advancing too fast for warranties or even attempting to trade-in the box to be reasonable. Trickle-down the computers (give to your kids/stone soup supercomputer), until they are about 3-5 generations behind the times, then trash or donate them. It's better and cheaper to buy 1 generation behind the times and upgrade every 2 generations then to buy Brand-New stuff every 4 generations. (That would be equivalent cost). Don't bother buying a dual-cpu motherboard unless you are going to populate both chips when you buy it. By the time you go to buy the cpus to upgrade it, the new ones will be more than 2x as fast for the same price, but you'll need a new mobo. (For SMP, the fewer processors your MIPS are concentrated in the better because there is less overhead.)
These are both heat engines, right? So the bigger the heat difference, the more energy you can get off of both the gas engine, & the Liquid Nitrogen engine. Use them together for greater power output. (Solves the heater & air conditioning needed problems nicely, but you have to put 2 different fuels in it.)
Also, how about refueling via the electric car refueling inductive type plug they have at malls now. Just have a small refrigerator in the car to convert electricity -> liquid nitrogen. (Or is there a better way to do it?)
PS: The car can be "nitro'd" all the time, although you would have to re-design the gas engine to handle it.
Slashdot Mirror
A> 99.999% reliability.
or
B> 95% reliability and 100X the density with the ability to grow replacements/route around the problem.
If you picked B, notice what kind of problems are real tough to solve: Long serial ones with no tolerance for error.
Notice which problems are easy to solve (remember that 100x density bonus) Large parallel problems that you can vote on the best solution.
P.S. The 100x density is if you calculate it in 3 dimensions and take into consideration cooling. Can someone compute better numbers for this?
I don't expect this lack of quality games to last for long. With projects like Tux racer coming out which can be used as a springboard to bigger projects, I expect open source game projects to start popping up like popcorn at sourceforge. Sure, they might lag behind commercial development by 1 generation, like linux did, but when they come, they will be solid, extensible, widely used, and re-usable.
Freenet does support frequently updated content: see here for instructions on web pages on freenet. The solution used is arguable better than the current one, in that older websites/old version of websites are not lost.
"Your current security settings prohibit running ActiveX controls on this page...."
And in 3 years we'll be able to afford a 640 gig hard disk to store all our mp3's, movies ripped from vcr's, but will our internet bw keep up? Naaaah
If you can be sued for the wav version & the mp3 version, why not the pi version?
I seem to remember something in a book "The History of PI" about an algorithm that would start at any given point in pi. (I think you had to know the value of the digit you started at).
How could this be used for encryption? (pi / key) at offset (encrypted data) == Plaintext ? Are there more convenient ways or more convenient numbers to locate the position?
If you wanted plausible deniability, send encrypted data such that decoding it with 1 key gives "innocent" data, & decrypting it with another key give "illegal" data. Oh wait, Pi itself isn't illegal! :)
I suppose it would be awful suspicious to have 50 gigabytes of pi at different locations
Not Gnutell, Freenet!
One of the main benefits would be contrast: Paint the arm black & mount it inside a black box. You could also double or quadruple the resolution by running at 120 hz, & change the position of the LED in & out. Don't want a 6 foot arm spinning at 60 rpm? Make 4 smaller ones, syncronize them (stepper motors) so they won't interfere, or stagger them on different planes for an edgeless array. (That way you make 4,6, or 8 smaller ones instead of 1 real big one, ala Video Wall).
A tricky part of the design would be the commutator to feed the signal to the microprocessor mounted on the back side of the blades. Power could be fed to it real easily, but the signal might tend to get broken up by very tiny imperfections or momentary loss of contact. Probably an optical feed would be easier for the signal.
Still can't figure out what shape the pixels would be.
That scheme (locking servos) works fine for flat or smooth slopes, but breaks down when the user steps on an edge. The user expects to be able to rock the boot back & forth keeping the same height. As I understand it, you would have to use active servos to push the toe/heel up & down in response to the forces involved. But hey, this is cool, you could simulate spongy or sticky surfaces really easily.
Seriously, cars are dangerous too, really the holdup is
#1: Price,
#2: landing area.
VTOL (helicoptors) to land in small areas (like my work office building roof or parking lot) are wayyy too expensive.
I think by the time we get 100% computer controlled cars, we will have 100% computer controlled planes. (Oh, we'd have to solve those little "AI" and "Vision" problems...)
I would buy:
#1: Half-life. (d/l cstrike & tfc) and yes, it's in the bargain bin
#2: Sim City 2000. (forget simant, simfarm, simearth, simjungle) If you can get it in a combo pack, COOL
#3: Total Annihilation.
#4: MDK (MDK2, but it's not in the bargain bin yet) smooth, liquid, funky, cool + eye candy
#5: Some other funky game you've never heard of that looks cool .
The big revolution in games is multi-player over the internet. New Internet games are more fun.
I agreed with you about Duke Nukem 3D, but only because it wasn't as good as it's 3D competitors.
If that Think NIC cheap linux box had 4 ethernet ports instead of 1 (think "Hub" or "Switch"), I would definitely have bought one of those instead of the $169 cable modem firewalls.
Nope, mirroring pales in comparison to Freenet.
I use those removable drive bays for IDE. I even set up a computer user that can't read well (dyslexic) with this setup & he loves it. He has 4 drives & backs up & swaps between them. He's fearless because anytime he totally hoses his system, (like installing a new version of Quicken) NO PROBLEMO, pop in the old drive.
I'm gonna buy a kt7-raid motherboard as soon as I can get one locally. Check it out: 4 ide connectors ON board, & IDE Raid to boot! here's the solution: mount 1 hard disk each on the raid channels, then pile on the removable backup HD, bulk storage HD, DVD & rewriteable CD on the slower channels.
PC's are advancing too fast for warranties or even attempting to trade-in the box to be reasonable. Trickle-down the computers (give to your kids/stone soup supercomputer), until they are about 3-5 generations behind the times, then trash or donate them. It's better and cheaper to buy 1 generation behind the times and upgrade every 2 generations then to buy Brand-New stuff every 4 generations. (That would be equivalent cost). Don't bother buying a dual-cpu motherboard unless you are going to populate both chips when you buy it. By the time you go to buy the cpus to upgrade it, the new ones will be more than 2x as fast for the same price, but you'll need a new mobo. (For SMP, the fewer processors your MIPS are concentrated in the better because there is less overhead.)
Also, how about refueling via the electric car refueling inductive type plug they have at malls now. Just have a small refrigerator in the car to convert electricity -> liquid nitrogen. (Or is there a better way to do it?)
PS: The car can be "nitro'd" all the time, although you would have to re-design the gas engine to handle it.
We already have a standard protocol, connected servers etc. It's called IRC. How about a facelift for MIRC that turns it into an "instant messenger"?