yeah. Also, what's with the elipsis (...) ? As in... From Space? I mean, that's kind of what you expect, right? I mean, he's a god-damn astronaut. If you wrote a headline that says Astronaut Takes Picture... From The Sea Floor, that might require an elipsis. Or maybe "Plumber Takes Picture... From Space " that would be cool. Or maybe even if it was something you wouldn't expect an astronaut to do. Like "Astronaut helps Stranded Motorist Change Tire... From Space." I can see that. But I just don't get the use of... here. I mean even that crazy chick astronaut who had a car full of duct tape and pepper spray didn't get an... in her headlines.
Cool picture, though.
The... give/. its only sense of... drama! (Ha! One better, I used italics!)
Yeah, not thinking this was astronaut on training at the bottom of a pool or in a flight simulator.
We have some astronomers in our club who are now able to take some pretty astounding photographs, thanks to dropping prices and advances in image capture technology. My best, so far was a comet at sunset, nothing like this though.
Don't scroll to the bottom of the page, unless you want to think even less of the site, however. Geez.
How much a Petaflop Climate Super Computers contribute to carbon footprint...
If it ultimately saves CO2, consider this computer's carbon footprint an "investment."
The final word on reducing CO2 will not come from a computer, no matter the processing power, but the sandbag crews as they try to save New York City, San Francisco, London, Tokyo, Shanghai, Sydney, the Netherlands, etc.
Slashdot always has its element of AC fun-seekers.
The hardware is neat, like seeing an incrementally better Ferrari (which is a car, if you don't get out much) The real blood and guts of these systems, though are sensors scattered all over land and sea. A friend worked a year for an agency which monitors ocean currents - trips out to their stations could be months long and working in miserable conditions (not unlike fishermen, whose livlihoods depend upon bringing in a catch) taking readings, inspecting equipment, making repairs or replacing one which got run down by a transport ship. All that data, coming in via satellites, real time -- that's the impressive bit.
5-day forecasts are quite accurate. Check for probabilities, and if they're low, check back in a few days. I've been rarely surprised by weather in the last few years - as in, was expecting a warm, sunny day and got instead cold rain all day.
Depends where you live. Right off the Pacific Ocean a prediction is only good for about a day, sometimes not even that. All depends how directly a cell is moving relative to you position. Finding temperature and direction of ocean currents has a bit to say on the matters and doesn't necessarily move in a 2 Dimensional plane.
Living in the midwest, ah, you could see it coming days away. Very predictable over large land area.
The main problem i have is that electric cars are old tech. They shouldn't be niche items anymore. Hell, i got so sick of waiting, i built my own. For under $3,000.
This is where we need a Hearth Kit like company - send you a bunch of boxes and you build it yourself in your garage (do not build it in your cellar!) The aftermarket for tweaking these things should be becoming awesome, soon.
Having a smart phone != having an expensive plan. I am on a simple pay as you go plan, and have a Nexus S. It's capabilities are far and above being just a phone.
PaYG plans are about the only way I'd consider going. It's not often I need the full connectivity experience. My dumb PAYG mobile has done well enough for 6+ years and saved me enough to buy a car.
I have an iPhone - wait for it - without a contract. It's on AT&T's GoPhone style pay as you go service.
So once you get past the initial hardware, which then comes down to a typical hardware decision, I get all the fun of a smartphone in places with wifi (work and McDonalds!) but all the low expenses of a prepaid-as-you-go plan.
$100 in phone service lasts me about 4 months.
That's the direction I've been figuring I'd go. T-mobile allows you to have a smart phone and buy a week or month of connectivity as you go, sans contract. It looks attractive.
Man who does not need bells and whistles says bells and whistles not needed. Story at 11.
Some of us not wanting the bells and whistles aren't doing it out of lack of desire for the bells and whistles, but because the costs of plans are, to our way of thinking, a sudden and large monthly expense.
I've been observing people who make a fraction of the pay I do and they go about with these things, sucking $80/mo on up. Good for them. They don't have all the expenses or it's simply their choice to hand over that kind of money each month. Very few of these people have any genuine need for these things, i.e. not an EMT or Doctor, it's their little luxury.
I was an early adopter of mobile phones, having one back in the 1980's (where a mobile phone had range, though wasn't tiny. After a few phones and plans I grew to despise the 2 year leech-like plans and gave up mobile phones. After a cycling injury I decided to get one again, pay as you go, no contract. It works and keeps me in touch when I want to be. Other times it's turned off to save battery. Maybe some day I'll get a smart one, but for now I'm content and watching things develop in technology and businesses.
I like the idea of a smart phone, but I have a greater like for 5 to 10 dollars a month for my mobile expenses. At some point I'll get a smart-ish phone, but only when I get the service I want at a nominal fee without some damn 2 year contract.
Because probability dictates a good chance of a Futurama-like world will exist sometime during that span. If you want to be a part get started on your own stasis chamber, now. Don't forget to take a pizza with you, so you'll have something to eat when you emerge.
In the meanwhile, I'm more worried about the survivors of those dead worlds, who are on their way here.
Write it yourself and that'll really confound them. Write your own browser and office suite, too. Even better, make your own CPU with your very own instruction set, which will really drive them nuts!
Keeps personnel away from threats in dangerous areas. Might have a few vulerabilities if they are radio jammed, though. Hope built-in evasive tactics are better than for that captured drone.
'As we look at all of the new ways we tell our consumer stories,'
What... astroturfing?
Wasn't really telling consumers at CES anyway, but CE industry press. I attended one of these keynotes about in a nutshell Bill Gates was threatening to invade the markets of about half the companies present. He seemt to carry on like it was all a wonderful, bright and shiny future, not realizing he was talking about taking the bread out of attendees mouths with his Microsoft products. Lotsa hogwash anyway, most of his prophecies were never to be realized.
Every time I see one of these domestic drone stories, I'm reminded of that scene in Blue Thunder where Roy Scheider, having seen a demonstration of the deadly helicopter, says something along the lines of "You don't expect to use that thing for law enforcement, do you?" to his government minder. The guy just looks creepily at him and replies "Well, that would depend on the CIRCUMSTANCES, wouldn't it?"
No problem. I'll just go around, hiding under a cardboard box. I have a feeling there will be a lot of us doing this.
All you have to do is blitz the raido waves with garbage, wait for it to go into "home" mode, spoof the GPS signal, and you got yourself a hot sell on ebay.
How do you propose to sell one on eBay?
For sale: 1 Mobile Airborne Surveillance uh thing 10,000 Buy it now No returns (I won't be here.)
Although possibly enough to expand a short circuit, turning that supposed battery saving miracle into a cascading disaster, blowing your leg off instead of just setting your pocket on fire.
This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang or a whimper, but a BZZOWNNT!!!
The hope was that Google buying Motorola would create enough balance between the portfolio's of Google, MS, and Apple that it would be in all of their interests to return to some form of truce.
The defensive patents argument was only a "hope" on pro-Google Slashdot; everyone else in the world knew that Google was just after patents like everyone else, and that was proven correct when Google-owned Motorola won a preliminary injunction to block sales of iPhones and iPads in Germany.
What began with all the marks of a gentlemens agreement, curt nods, calm words of assurance patents were only being acquired defensively, taut little smiles and going about business has blossomed into an all out mudwrestling contest. It may be interesting, but it isn't entertaining and bodes particulalry poorly for those closest to the ring side.
I'm a huuuuuuuuge fan of Terry Pratchett's work... you could really start anywhere in his Discworld series and be smiling in minutes. Vonnegut is another favorite of mine, as well as Douglas Adams. Oh, and Dave Barry has some incredible collections of laugh-inducing work, too... I'm a big fan of humorous works, if it isn't obvious.:) I also like Neil Gaiman (though I enjoyed his work in the Sandman comics the most), and I'm now starting in on Game of Thrones, which is looking like it will occupy a welcome spot on my kindle. Hope my list inspires someone to pick up a good book, whatever the format!
Picked up Snuff and read it, I've read about everything he has. Re-reading Hogfather, as it's the season!
Worst month for writing buggy code? What's worse about writing buggy code in those months versus writing buggy code in any other month?
It's a good question. Distraction of holidays, travel, stress, Greg Bell and his festival of tired and oft-repeated Christmas Specials on Sirius/XM,
with possibly a little monetary discomfort as coders discover there's no bonus (for them like the other of the 99%), possibly also being dragged from your work, constantly for work parties so you lose track of those little things you needed to address before rolling out the final code.
I generally find Winter (northern hemisphere) is great for coding, while heat and humidity of Summer are a real drag.
Slashdot Mirror
That's tails plural. one for dust, one for gas ;)
yeah. Also, what's with the elipsis (...) ? As in ... From Space? I mean, that's kind of what you expect, right? I mean, he's a god-damn astronaut. If you wrote a headline that says Astronaut Takes Picture ... From The Sea Floor, that might require an elipsis. Or maybe "Plumber Takes Picture ... From Space " that would be cool. Or maybe even if it was something you wouldn't expect an astronaut to do. Like "Astronaut helps Stranded Motorist Change Tire ... From Space." I can see that. But I just don't get the use of ... here. I mean even that crazy chick astronaut who had a car full of duct tape and pepper spray didn't get an ... in her headlines.
Cool picture, though.
The ... give /. its only sense of ... drama! (Ha! One better, I used italics!)
Yeah, not thinking this was astronaut on training at the bottom of a pool or in a flight simulator.
We have some astronomers in our club who are now able to take some pretty astounding photographs, thanks to dropping prices and advances in image capture technology. My best, so far was a comet at sunset, nothing like this though.
Don't scroll to the bottom of the page, unless you want to think even less of the site, however. Geez.
If it ultimately saves CO2, consider this computer's carbon footprint an "investment."
The final word on reducing CO2 will not come from a computer, no matter the processing power, but the sandbag crews as they try to save New York City, San Francisco, London, Tokyo, Shanghai, Sydney, the Netherlands, etc.
the blasted Solano link, take two.
Very little, if it's powered from nuclear power (or solar/wind/geothermal).
Which is still a tiny % of power generation. But I remain hopeful.
Have a peek at this in Solano County, California or have a peek via Google Maps Very impressive area to drive through.
I just hope these advances in super computing are taking best advantage of low power processors
Slashdot always has its element of AC fun-seekers.
The hardware is neat, like seeing an incrementally better Ferrari (which is a car, if you don't get out much) The real blood and guts of these systems, though are sensors scattered all over land and sea. A friend worked a year for an agency which monitors ocean currents - trips out to their stations could be months long and working in miserable conditions (not unlike fishermen, whose livlihoods depend upon bringing in a catch) taking readings, inspecting equipment, making repairs or replacing one which got run down by a transport ship. All that data, coming in via satellites, real time -- that's the impressive bit.
5-day forecasts are quite accurate. Check for probabilities, and if they're low, check back in a few days. I've been rarely surprised by weather in the last few years - as in, was expecting a warm, sunny day and got instead cold rain all day.
Depends where you live. Right off the Pacific Ocean a prediction is only good for about a day, sometimes not even that. All depends how directly a cell is moving relative to you position. Finding temperature and direction of ocean currents has a bit to say on the matters and doesn't necessarily move in a 2 Dimensional plane.
Living in the midwest, ah, you could see it coming days away. Very predictable over large land area.
How much a Petaflop Climate Super Computers contribute to carbon footprint...
The main problem i have is that electric cars are old tech. They shouldn't be niche items anymore. Hell, i got so sick of waiting, i built my own. For under $3,000.
This is where we need a Hearth Kit like company - send you a bunch of boxes and you build it yourself in your garage (do not build it in your cellar!) The aftermarket for tweaking these things should be becoming awesome, soon.
Having a smart phone != having an expensive plan. I am on a simple pay as you go plan, and have a Nexus S. It's capabilities are far and above being just a phone.
PaYG plans are about the only way I'd consider going. It's not often I need the full connectivity experience. My dumb PAYG mobile has done well enough for 6+ years and saved me enough to buy a car.
I have an iPhone - wait for it - without a contract. It's on AT&T's GoPhone style pay as you go service.
So once you get past the initial hardware, which then comes down to a typical hardware decision, I get all the fun of a smartphone in places with wifi (work and McDonalds!) but all the low expenses of a prepaid-as-you-go plan.
$100 in phone service lasts me about 4 months.
That's the direction I've been figuring I'd go. T-mobile allows you to have a smart phone and buy a week or month of connectivity as you go, sans contract. It looks attractive.
Man who does not need bells and whistles says bells and whistles not needed. Story at 11.
Some of us not wanting the bells and whistles aren't doing it out of lack of desire for the bells and whistles, but because the costs of plans are, to our way of thinking, a sudden and large monthly expense.
I've been observing people who make a fraction of the pay I do and they go about with these things, sucking $80/mo on up. Good for them. They don't have all the expenses or it's simply their choice to hand over that kind of money each month. Very few of these people have any genuine need for these things, i.e. not an EMT or Doctor, it's their little luxury.
I was an early adopter of mobile phones, having one back in the 1980's (where a mobile phone had range, though wasn't tiny. After a few phones and plans I grew to despise the 2 year leech-like plans and gave up mobile phones. After a cycling injury I decided to get one again, pay as you go, no contract. It works and keeps me in touch when I want to be. Other times it's turned off to save battery. Maybe some day I'll get a smart one, but for now I'm content and watching things develop in technology and businesses.
I like the idea of a smart phone, but I have a greater like for 5 to 10 dollars a month for my mobile expenses. At some point I'll get a smart-ish phone, but only when I get the service I want at a nominal fee without some damn 2 year contract.
Thats like 1 in every 3000 people having created something worthy of a patent.
I call bullshit on that.
Yeah, the USA rate of 1 patent in every 1000 people , per year, is much more reasonable. The Chinese are slacking.
Patent Applied for: Left-handed Veeblefetzer goes 10 feet, stops.
Patent Applied for: Left-handed Veeblefetzer goes 10 feet, turns left.
Patent Applied for: Left-handed Veeblefetzer goes 10 feet, turns rightt.
Patent Applied for: Left-handed Veeblefetzer goes 10 feet, goes down.
Patent Applied for: Left-handed Veeblefetzer goes 10 feet, goes up.
Patent Applied for: Left-handed Veeblefetzer goes 10 feet, turns around, goes 10 feet.
Patent Applied for: Right-handed Veeblefetzer goes 10 feet, stops.
Patent Applied for: Right-handed Veeblefetzer goes 10 feet, turns left.
Patent Applied for: Right-handed Veeblefetzer goes 10 feet, turns rightt.
Patent Applied for: Right-handed Veeblefetzer goes 10 feet, goes down.
Patent Applied for: Right-handed Veeblefetzer goes 10 feet, goes up.
Patent Applied for: Right-handed Veeblefetzer goes 10 feet, turns around, goes 10 feet.
Patent Applied for: Left-handed Veeblefetzer goes 20 feet, stops.
Patent Applied for: Left-handed Veeblefetzer goes 20 feet, turns left.
Patent Applied for: Left-handed Veeblefetzer goes 20 feet, turns rightt.
Patent Applied for: Left-handed Veeblefetzer goes 20 feet, goes down.
Patent Applied for: Left-handed Veeblefetzer goes 20 feet, goes up.
Patent Applied for: Left-handed Veeblefetzer goes 20 feet, turns around, goes 20 feet.
Patent Applied for: Right-handed Veeblefetzer goes 20 feet, stops.
Patent Applied for: Right-handed Veeblefetzer goes 20 feet, turns left.
Patent Applied for: Right-handed Veeblefetzer goes 20 feet, turns rightt.
Patent Applied for: Right-handed Veeblefetzer goes 20 feet, goes down.
Patent Applied for: Right-handed Veeblefetzer goes 20 feet, goes up.
Patent Applied for: Right-handed Veeblefetzer goes 20 feet, turns around, goes 20 feet.
...
Yeah, they'll lock up all the Veeblefetzer and you'll be stuck making do with a Potrzebie
Who the *beep* cares? Seriously....
Because probability dictates a good chance of a Futurama-like world will exist sometime during that span. If you want to be a part get started on your own stasis chamber, now. Don't forget to take a pizza with you, so you'll have something to eat when you emerge.
In the meanwhile, I'm more worried about the survivors of those dead worlds, who are on their way here.
But, who writes the operating system then?
Write it yourself and that'll really confound them. Write your own browser and office suite, too. Even better, make your own CPU with your very own instruction set, which will really drive them nuts!
Keeps personnel away from threats in dangerous areas. Might have a few vulerabilities if they are radio jammed, though. Hope built-in evasive tactics are better than for that captured drone.
What... astroturfing?
Wasn't really telling consumers at CES anyway, but CE industry press. I attended one of these keynotes about in a nutshell Bill Gates was threatening to invade the markets of about half the companies present. He seemt to carry on like it was all a wonderful, bright and shiny future, not realizing he was talking about taking the bread out of attendees mouths with his Microsoft products. Lotsa hogwash anyway, most of his prophecies were never to be realized.
Every time I see one of these domestic drone stories, I'm reminded of that scene in Blue Thunder where Roy Scheider, having seen a demonstration of the deadly helicopter, says something along the lines of "You don't expect to use that thing for law enforcement, do you?" to his government minder. The guy just looks creepily at him and replies "Well, that would depend on the CIRCUMSTANCES, wouldn't it?"
No problem. I'll just go around, hiding under a cardboard box. I have a feeling there will be a lot of us doing this.
Video games: You can learn a lot from them!
All you have to do is blitz the raido waves with garbage, wait for it to go into "home" mode, spoof the GPS signal, and you got yourself a hot sell on ebay.
How do you propose to sell one on eBay?
For sale: 1 Mobile Airborne Surveillance uh thing 10,000 Buy it now No returns (I won't be here.)
Used in very tiny proportions.
Although possibly enough to expand a short circuit, turning that supposed battery saving miracle into a cascading disaster, blowing your leg off instead of just setting your pocket on fire.
This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang or a whimper, but a BZZOWNNT!!!
The defensive patents argument was only a "hope" on pro-Google Slashdot; everyone else in the world knew that Google was just after patents like everyone else, and that was proven correct when Google-owned Motorola won a preliminary injunction to block sales of iPhones and iPads in Germany.
What began with all the marks of a gentlemens agreement, curt nods, calm words of assurance patents were only being acquired defensively, taut little smiles and going about business has blossomed into an all out mudwrestling contest. It may be interesting, but it isn't entertaining and bodes particulalry poorly for those closest to the ring side.
To consider, to look, to evaluate.. and ultimately not to.
I'm a huuuuuuuuge fan of Terry Pratchett's work... you could really start anywhere in his Discworld series and be smiling in minutes. Vonnegut is another favorite of mine, as well as Douglas Adams. Oh, and Dave Barry has some incredible collections of laugh-inducing work, too... I'm a big fan of humorous works, if it isn't obvious. :) I also like Neil Gaiman (though I enjoyed his work in the Sandman comics the most), and I'm now starting in on Game of Thrones, which is looking like it will occupy a welcome spot on my kindle. Hope my list inspires someone to pick up a good book, whatever the format!
Picked up Snuff and read it, I've read about everything he has. Re-reading Hogfather, as it's the season!
Worst month for writing buggy code? What's worse about writing buggy code in those months versus writing buggy code in any other month?
It's a good question. Distraction of holidays, travel, stress, Greg Bell and his festival of tired and oft-repeated Christmas Specials on Sirius/XM,
with possibly a little monetary discomfort as coders discover there's no bonus (for them like the other of the 99%), possibly also being dragged from your work, constantly for work parties so you lose track of those little things you needed to address before rolling out the final code.
I generally find Winter (northern hemisphere) is great for coding, while heat and humidity of Summer are a real drag.