Er, no-one rips out safety measures when adapting cars for drivers with physical impairments! Typically adaptations are for drivers with mobility issues in regards to their legs ; of course you need able arms to operate a steering wheel so that's a given. Generally this is a case of fitting hand controls to the steering wheel for accelerator and/or for brake.
I couldn't tell you much about how modern fly by wire cars get adapted but for older vehicles it's just a case of the accelerator cable being linked to thumb controls. Brakes are different as they need significant servo assistance to generate the required pressure from a finger movement.
On the ability to have used brakes, consider this ; The brakes were reported as "malfunctioning" - someone with an adapted car (especially if they're older) is more unlikely to have strong hands and thus won't be able to just force on hydraulic brakes. Physically they may not have the strength even if that might have been a possibility...! In fact without the assistance I doubt I'd have the strength to use a hand control to operate brakes and I'm pretty strong...!
Interestingly this actually happened to me (as a passenger) aged around six about thirty years ago. My Aunties adapted minivan (a ford escort van IIRC) stuck on full throttle on the motorway but luckily she could bring it to a stop and kill it with a key. It turned out that a small twig with leaves on had blown up under the bonnet and managed by fluke to wedge itself into the carburettor assembly holding the throttle open. Luckily she had strong hands then and could brake us against the engine to slow. Lucky escape!
But also most significantly activity level! If you're sat at your desk and never exercise your body takes a lot longer. If you're active and doing lots of exercise, gone much faster!
This is very interesting in the context of the recent US ban on unlocking. As I understand it, the argument for banning unlocking has to do with the carriers wishing to retain at least partial ownership over your handset. As such, surely they're responsible for security implications? However, they're never keen on the effort involved in keeping older devices secure (which is more of a new threat in the age of android smartphone than it was on older proprietary non-app, non-data handsets).
So what happens when the handset is still in use but old enough that the carrier can't be bothered to support any more? Will they be faced to take responsibility for security issues? I don't know the average expected life of phones these days but I expect that a couple of years ties in with max contract length so is likely to be the support period.
In the UK, the sale of goods act covers the quality of goods sold and they must be "sufficiently durable" - if you can prove the manufacturers goods aren't up to snuff they have to fix them for you. Certainly in a phone I'd expect that leaving a known security hole with no patch should fall into this remit. And how long do the goods need to be "sufficiently durable"? Six years. That could prove a major headache here at least. I'm not sure what equivalent consumer protection laws there are in the US that could cover the same eventualities?
PCs have forever been shipped with loads of extra crap you don't care about. I'm sure many of you would have had your own procedures for undoing this? Deleting intro videos, AOL trials, stupid 'value add' software no-one wants, pre-imaged recovery images that can be archived to DVD, demo audio files, office trials etc... This has always been the Microsoft way.
However, it's never been hard to delete them off the hard drive (although there should have been a first boot wizard that gives you a list of extra software and a checkbox as to whether you wish to allow it to stay in your install). As the surface pro should be full windows we should anticipate you only need to do your normal "add/remove features" to get rid of much of the crap. However it's still a dumb approach....
It says something about the legal systems that these banks are just getting fined a fixed sum. Why isn't it that they get fined for an estimation of the profits they made from this behaviour (as would other criminals losing the proceeds of crime) plus say, 10% - 30% for punitive damages? Does anyone know estimates of how much they profited monetarily from this in comparison to the fines?
Now NASA I think have a pretty good track record of thinking technologies through carefully... (By the by, did you know that GS Yuasa also have a contract to supply their li-ion batteries to NASA for use in the ISS?)
Also, did you know that prior to the 787 the Cessna CJ4 was the first civili aircraft to utilise li-ion batteries (supplied by a123). In 2011 there was a fire onboard one whilst it was connected to a ground power unit. As a result the FAA ordered all 42 in operation to be changed to conventional ni-cd or lead acid. http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2011-11-01/html/2011-27596.htm
This is interesting as it's similar i.e. on the ground. This of course *could* be coincidental.
All interesting stuff. Personally I think they shouldn't have been allowed to 'trial' li-ion on such a big aircraft especially after the cessna incident. Trying so many new tricks at once isn't wise - as engineers always say, just change one thing at a time...
Not true. I've had bulimia for many years and not told anyone about it. I'm overweight by about 15Kg and tubby but not your typical fatty. I've certainly never had anorexia or even been close.
Yes I know it's ironic, "Hi internet." The geek psyche is weird isn't it? It seems less concerning to me to disclose publicly what I guess is a fucked medical problem in a public forum than it is to let someone make an incorrect comment on slashdot. I think XKCD nailed it with : http://xkcd.com/386/
Well, it's nice in principle. But I'm not convinced.
Did you know that bullimia (lets call it what it is) will rot your teeth super quick? It'll also give you heartburn like you wouldn't believe. Most importantly though it will shaft the electrolyte balance in your body ; this can (will) eventually cause problems like muscle weaknesses, irregular heartbeat and possibly heart attacks etc.
You just rejected a lot of perfectly qualified people due to your views in the Brace Style Holy Wars that have nothing at all to do with competence, since, as far as I can tell you never specified K&R style as a requirement. For example, programmers who code more Java than C will tend towards Allman style over K&R, because a lot of books and standard libraries use that, while programmers who like to tinker with GNU code will go with the GNU / RMS brace style.
Actually, the only person I would have rejected was yourself unfortunately for the epic fail of not spotting the obvious humorous reference:-D
...is another question : "do you care about how fast they programme or how well they programme?"
If you have to do after the fact debugging or re-factoring this will use up far more time that you think you've saved by them writing it speedily or not.
For example for the FizzBuzz test, as a basic test it's a great idea. However, there are lots of considerations beyond just the ability to write a solution :
- Is the defined limit of 100 coded as a const / #define or is it hard-coded value in-line?
- Why do you want to generate 100 values? Shall I code in a function with top limit as a parameter?
- Are you going to generate the results live in a loop or generate a 100 element array first and print it after i.e. generate a lookup table first (and indeed if that's a solution, how does the candidate decide between static array or malloced array)
- Do you care about further optimisation for size / speed in the intended application?
- Do you want the table printed to stdout or stderr?
- What's their coding style look like? (If they're not using K&R brace style end the interview immediately) I'd expect an experienced candidate to ask at least one even if jokingly knowing it's a mickey mouse test to start some interesting conversations about coding that are much more revealing than the ability to write one solution. The way they think about the above should tell you a lot more about how much maintenance they're going to need...!
~Pev
I'd want a candidate to ask me questions before solving such as
As I understand it from the news last night, it's currently been trialed as an opt-in system but will be rolled out as compulsory in the new year.
I'm very much liberal but in two minds about it. I've never intentionally signed on except for an educational experience once where I was forced to in order to receive redundancy compensation for months of wages owed when an employer went into liquidation. Now I should explain that I'm an embedded systems engineer and live in a small town in somersetThe experience was fascinating but their system was catering to more laboring jobs than professional. I had to jump through the hoops (despite not wanting to sign on!) so had them trawling through their vacancies. They found me roles as cook, HGV driver, forklift operator, street sweeper... So I suggested searching for more useful terms such as "computer", "software" etc... I think the closest they ever got was IT helpline support in a company a two hour drive away.
Anyway, my point is, if I *did* find myself unemployed and forced to take the JSA, would I want it dependent on a well intentioned but ultimately useless system deciding that I'm not eligible to get the money for support that I need because I won't apply for jobs that would never be on their system in the first place? Er... No.
Having said that, the principle is laudable. I know a couple of people that work the system and have never worked an honest days work in their life and have no intention of doing so as they're quite happy on the JSA. But then, they're crafty and any system that's going to work and do the right thing for the majority of people probably wouldn't be capable of forcing them into work anyway.
Interestingly, see my previous post about the TLS podcast. Listen to the interview with Molly Stephens and then reconsider whether that's such an economical approach...!
He was interviewed this week on Radio 4's "The Life Scientific" and you can download the interview as.mp3. And yes, I think you peeps outside the UK are treated to this as well even though it's the BBC.
I can also *highly* recommend Slashdotters have a dig through the TLS archive for other interviews ; it's full of incredible scientists talking about their life and work. Proper fascinating. For my money I can reccommend the first three as starting points Paul Nurse, Stephen Pinker, Jocelyn Bell-Burnell.
An extra special mention goes to the interview with Molly Stephens. She is doing the most incredible things that blew my mind when I heard the interview. Not only that but she's assembled a really unusual collection of people with skills across so many different fields to look at the one goal in a the pragmatic way that so many organisations fail to. Oh, and she comes across as a genuinely lovely and interesting lady. Wow. I just realised that I have the most immense geek crush on her. I hope she doesn't read Slashdot... Actually, if you do, fancy a drink?:-D
When you say man-in-the-middle, I think you mean tower in the middle. (Previously reported a while back but will be a bit before your time for many readers!)
Of course with old technology comes old techniques...
The whole concept of high frequency trading and trying to out-do competition using algorithmic trading beating competition by microseconds just sounds like a future disaster guaranteed to happen. The cock-up earlier in the year by Knight Capital should be viewed as only an overture of things to come.
Now, I understand the concepts behind how algorithmic trading works in principle and what potential it has for fuck ups and to me it seems like the best way to attempt to avert such things would be to enforce an artificial rate cap on trading speed. For example, electronic trades could be enforced to only be allowed to occur (for everyone) at 10ms intervals. This would kill dead all the potential for crazy algorithmic loops at massive speed (well, still what I'd think of as high speed I suppose!) but not affect normal trading. Can someone with a proper knowledge of the way the stock markets work explain (briefly) why this would or wouldn't work?
...maybe buy a copy of James Gleick's "The Information" and see if any of it piques her interest? I have a sneaky suspicion that some of the concepts described that are broader may catch her imagination. Or read it yourself to explain some of the ideas in your own words to start with. I'd start with getting the _ideas_ across and let that fire up her imagination before trying to explain existing protocols too far. Maybe try and explain why the 7 layer OSI model is why it is but don't start with trying to detail TCP/IP!
No, what the wallets want is good games, end of story.
However, human beings are risk adverse and if they know a game was good when hedging bets on next (expensive these days!) games purchase they will instinctively head to a sequel of one they enjoyed. However, if they play something new that's really good they'll buy that. That's why games demos / sharing and dare I even sugest piracy is good - it may detract a little from the sales of the production line sequels but it massively raises awareness of different games that people would instinctively avoid as unknown quantities and I believe they generate sales too.
I'd never even considered doing that in the first place?! (OK, ignoring me being vegetarian that is...!)
How many Slashdotters had that cross their mind? Do our American cousins not get taught cookery basics at school? Should they be doing demo videos of why one shouldn't also cook turkeys using [ petrol / napalm / thermite ] as well just in case?
... Looked at the cost of SMS messages comparing price vs bytes?! According to wikipedia, average cost is around $0.11 per 160 char message. So, excluding headers and taking k as 1024, thats $738,197 per gigabyte. Now think about what a roaming message costs... Maybe triple that? Thats got to be a great little earner for the telcos...! Not to mention, sms was designed to take advantage of unused bandwidth space anyway, so its all gravy!
Some of us quite like reading about interesting technology, especially those that ride motorcycles! It's also interesting to hear about lone developers working on things that were previously only in reach of professionals with large budgets i.e. race teams with money to spend. Oh, and of course theres a good healthy slice of physics involved too. Great stuff.
On another note, slashdot would be REALLY dull if it never mentioned products that you have to pay for! Of course if you don't like it, you can always filter your feed to only include open source stories and you'll be blissfully ignorant of the other stories...
A typical location within the U.S. gets an annual average of 5 full-sun-equivalent hours per day.
You do realise that there is a whole world outside of the US that does not have the same weather as the US? It is conceivable that the rest of us in the world (including us UK folks with, er, not as sunny weather) are interested in more efficient solar panels too.
As a second point, no improvements in science (or manufacturing tech) ever got made by people saying "Oh, the stuff we've got now works alright so lets not bother trying to improve it..."
IMHO anyone that invests the same amount of money as a house in a motorhome really needs their head looking at:-D Seriously, you could build an amazing van for less than the price of a new family hatchback car. Each to their own of course!
It's not that different here really - the difference is that we head off into Europe (and Africa & Asia!) from the UK overland. Not really different to going between states in the USA except it's much more interesting (!) because of differences in cultures, languages, scenery, shops and general fun to be had. Sorry, I know that sounds like a troll but really, come and visit and find out for yourself:-D
Yes, we do have gas powered fridges too (both propane and more commonly, butane) but I was avoiding talking about them. As you've identified, they run out quickly which adds costs up pretty fast. In my van the maths looks like this : 10 days max for 7kg butane. (ignoring water / cooking gas use) over 365 days that's 36 bottles at £20 a pop - i.e. £720 which is $1,143 at todays conversion rate. Just to keep your fridge running. IMO, more to the point is that most gas fridges in vans are VERY intolerant of un-even ground. This makes them a massive pain in the arse as if you're a little off flat when moving around, later you find out the coolant isn't pumping and the food's gone off. I've lost a fair bit of food that way in the past. Modern compressor fridges such as those made by Waeco et al. don't suffer from this nearly as badly.
As for people parked up in trailer parks - I'd ignore them. That's really not that much different to being in a house which I don't think the OP was referring to. Having the availability of running water and electric hook-up gives you a very different (and much lower) level of criteria for the van design.
This is a topic close to my heart as I've been living out of a small motorhome (RV to my American cousins) on and off for a few years as I balance out my desk-flying tech work by running away in the van as often as possible and being on the road working at festivals in the UK.
One of the things I've learnt is that ready-rolled motorhomes are generally designed for pension age weekend trippers not for hardcore long-term living. The fixtures are often cheap, they're not designed to live easily 'off-grid' and there's never enough storage. If this kind of living interests you I can highly reccommend any geek to consider building your own. It's not hard, it's more satisfying and you can customise to exactly what you really need.
I'd suggest the first port of call to be to buy a copy of John Speed's excellent "Travel Vans" book :
http://www.travelvans.co.uk/
I'd then have a really good read of the Silk Road site. It's aimed at overlanders but while you might not need to care about issues such as angles of lift-off, at least 80% of the issues of long term living in a van are exactly the same :
http://www.xor.org.uk/silkroute/equipment/choosevan.htm
Next, the UK base Self-Build Motor Caravan Club (SBMCC) have lots of great examples of members projects :
http://www.sbmcc.co.uk/
Lastly, to get your juices flowing, have a look at some nice Van porn courtesy of Unicat and Action Mobil. Gives a lot of food for thought!
http://www.unicat.net/en/
http://www.actionmobil.at/
For anyone still reading this far and not bored yet, a few personal suggestions from my experience so far :
- MOST IMPORTANT : Make sure you have a permanent fixed bed and not one you have to put up and down. Its a right hassle after the first few weeks!
- Only use a small fridge. A modern compressor fridge can potentially run of 12v with enough batteries and solar (250+ Ah & 250W min solar) but the older ones won't.
- Have double the storage space you think you'll need. If not triple. Crap always accumulates.
- Allow some 'outside' storage space to store larger or dirty items.
- Have plenty of worktop & secured shelves to have things to hand.
- Showers in vans are a pain - they empty water tanks fast. Use other peoples facilities if poss.
- Find a friend who's address you can use as a permanent post-drop and registered address for bills such as wifi etc. Being no fixed abode can cause problems.
But give it a go. The freedom it offers is incredible and being able to randomly just head off anywhere you fancy is superb.
Just wonder whatll happen spending hours every day pressing a surface with no give in it. I know it doenst take long for my finger tips to go a bit numb, nut after years of use? I doubt it'll be good...
Slashdot Mirror
Er, no-one rips out safety measures when adapting cars for drivers with physical impairments! Typically adaptations are for drivers with mobility issues in regards to their legs ; of course you need able arms to operate a steering wheel so that's a given. Generally this is a case of fitting hand controls to the steering wheel for accelerator and/or for brake.
I couldn't tell you much about how modern fly by wire cars get adapted but for older vehicles it's just a case of the accelerator cable being linked to thumb controls. Brakes are different as they need significant servo assistance to generate the required pressure from a finger movement.
On the ability to have used brakes, consider this ; The brakes were reported as "malfunctioning" - someone with an adapted car (especially if they're older) is more unlikely to have strong hands and thus won't be able to just force on hydraulic brakes. Physically they may not have the strength even if that might have been a possibility...! In fact without the assistance I doubt I'd have the strength to use a hand control to operate brakes and I'm pretty strong...!
Interestingly this actually happened to me (as a passenger) aged around six about thirty years ago. My Aunties adapted minivan (a ford escort van IIRC) stuck on full throttle on the motorway but luckily she could bring it to a stop and kill it with a key. It turned out that a small twig with leaves on had blown up under the bonnet and managed by fluke to wedge itself into the carburettor assembly holding the throttle open. Luckily she had strong hands then and could brake us against the engine to slow. Lucky escape!
But also most significantly activity level! If you're sat at your desk and never exercise your body takes a lot longer. If you're active and doing lots of exercise, gone much faster!
This is very interesting in the context of the recent US ban on unlocking. As I understand it, the argument for banning unlocking has to do with the carriers wishing to retain at least partial ownership over your handset. As such, surely they're responsible for security implications? However, they're never keen on the effort involved in keeping older devices secure (which is more of a new threat in the age of android smartphone than it was on older proprietary non-app, non-data handsets).
So what happens when the handset is still in use but old enough that the carrier can't be bothered to support any more? Will they be faced to take responsibility for security issues? I don't know the average expected life of phones these days but I expect that a couple of years ties in with max contract length so is likely to be the support period.
In the UK, the sale of goods act covers the quality of goods sold and they must be "sufficiently durable" - if you can prove the manufacturers goods aren't up to snuff they have to fix them for you. Certainly in a phone I'd expect that leaving a known security hole with no patch should fall into this remit. And how long do the goods need to be "sufficiently durable"? Six years. That could prove a major headache here at least. I'm not sure what equivalent consumer protection laws there are in the US that could cover the same eventualities?
PCs have forever been shipped with loads of extra crap you don't care about. I'm sure many of you would have had your own procedures for undoing this? Deleting intro videos, AOL trials, stupid 'value add' software no-one wants, pre-imaged recovery images that can be archived to DVD, demo audio files, office trials etc... This has always been the Microsoft way.
However, it's never been hard to delete them off the hard drive (although there should have been a first boot wizard that gives you a list of extra software and a checkbox as to whether you wish to allow it to stay in your install). As the surface pro should be full windows we should anticipate you only need to do your normal "add/remove features" to get rid of much of the crap. However it's still a dumb approach....
It says something about the legal systems that these banks are just getting fined a fixed sum. Why isn't it that they get fined for an estimation of the profits they made from this behaviour (as would other criminals losing the proceeds of crime) plus say, 10% - 30% for punitive damages? Does anyone know estimates of how much they profited monetarily from this in comparison to the fines?
I did a load of background reading on this yesterday so here's some interesting related material. One interesting source is the NASA guidelines for li-ion use in space :
http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20090023862_2009023573.pdf
Now NASA I think have a pretty good track record of thinking technologies through carefully... (By the by, did you know that GS Yuasa also have a contract to supply their li-ion batteries to NASA for use in the ISS?)
Also, did you know that prior to the 787 the Cessna CJ4 was the first civili aircraft to utilise li-ion batteries (supplied by a123). In 2011 there was a fire onboard one whilst it was connected to a ground power unit. As a result the FAA ordered all 42 in operation to be changed to conventional ni-cd or lead acid.
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2011-11-01/html/2011-27596.htm
This is interesting as it's similar i.e. on the ground. This of course *could* be coincidental.
Next up are lots of interesting pictures from the NTSB investigation. Much as I HATE to link to the Daily Mail (normally a pretty retarded publication) I couldn't find any other pic sources. Bizarre :
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2268152/Boeing-787-Dreamliners-burnt-battery-spewed-molten-electrolytes-reveal-investigators.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
And some great source material from the NTSB themselves :
http://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/2013/boeing_787/boeing_787.html
And the NTSB update on the investigation (including some samples of their cell CT scans) :
http://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/2013/boeing_787/JAL_B-787_1-24-13.pdf
NTSB Primer on li-ion battery tech :
http://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/2013/boeing_787/Primer_LIB_Technology.pdf
One of the theories being talked about are the fact that the li-ion batteries that Boieng (via Thales) decided on are based on a lithium cobalt oxide cathode which is old tech and regarded as not exactly the safest variant of li-ion technology out there : :
http://www.designnews.com/document.asp?doc_id=257987
and via a translation
http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=no&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tu.no%2Findustri%2F2013%2F01%2F17%2Fher-er-dreamliner-problemet
This EEtimes article has some interesting comments :
http://cdn.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4405441/787-Dreamliner-investigation-probes-battery-charging-electronic
And some info from GS Yuasa :
http://www.s399157097.onlinehome.us/SpecSheets/LVP10-65.pdf
All interesting stuff. Personally I think they shouldn't have been allowed to 'trial' li-ion on such a big aircraft especially after the cessna incident. Trying so many new tricks at once isn't wise - as engineers always say, just change one thing at a time...
Not true. I've had bulimia for many years and not told anyone about it. I'm overweight by about 15Kg and tubby but not your typical fatty. I've certainly never had anorexia or even been close.
Yes I know it's ironic, "Hi internet." The geek psyche is weird isn't it? It seems less concerning to me to disclose publicly what I guess is a fucked medical problem in a public forum than it is to let someone make an incorrect comment on slashdot. I think XKCD nailed it with : http://xkcd.com/386/
Well, it's nice in principle. But I'm not convinced.
Did you know that bullimia (lets call it what it is) will rot your teeth super quick? It'll also give you heartburn like you wouldn't believe. Most importantly though it will shaft the electrolyte balance in your body ; this can (will) eventually cause problems like muscle weaknesses, irregular heartbeat and possibly heart attacks etc.
AS the romans would say : "Caveat Emptor".
Actually, the only person I would have rejected was yourself unfortunately for the epic fail of not spotting the obvious humorous reference :-D
...is another question : "do you care about how fast they programme or how well they programme?"
If you have to do after the fact debugging or re-factoring this will use up far more time that you think you've saved by them writing it speedily or not.
For example for the FizzBuzz test, as a basic test it's a great idea. However, there are lots of considerations beyond just the ability to write a solution :
- Is the defined limit of 100 coded as a const / #define or is it hard-coded value in-line?
- Why do you want to generate 100 values? Shall I code in a function with top limit as a parameter?
- Are you going to generate the results live in a loop or generate a 100 element array first and print it after i.e. generate a lookup table first (and indeed if that's a solution, how does the candidate decide between static array or malloced array)
- Do you care about further optimisation for size / speed in the intended application?
- Do you want the table printed to stdout or stderr?
- What's their coding style look like? (If they're not using K&R brace style end the interview immediately)
I'd expect an experienced candidate to ask at least one even if jokingly knowing it's a mickey mouse test to start some interesting conversations about coding that are much more revealing than the ability to write one solution. The way they think about the above should tell you a lot more about how much maintenance they're going to need...!
~Pev
I'd want a candidate to ask me questions before solving such as
Sorry, bad grammar, I meant to type "can't apply for relevent jobs through their system as the jobs wouldn't be on their system in the first place" ...
*pesky faulty brain-finger interface*
As I understand it from the news last night, it's currently been trialed as an opt-in system but will be rolled out as compulsory in the new year.
I'm very much liberal but in two minds about it. I've never intentionally signed on except for an educational experience once where I was forced to in order to receive redundancy compensation for months of wages owed when an employer went into liquidation. Now I should explain that I'm an embedded systems engineer and live in a small town in somersetThe experience was fascinating but their system was catering to more laboring jobs than professional. I had to jump through the hoops (despite not wanting to sign on!) so had them trawling through their vacancies. They found me roles as cook, HGV driver, forklift operator, street sweeper... So I suggested searching for more useful terms such as "computer", "software" etc... I think the closest they ever got was IT helpline support in a company a two hour drive away.
Anyway, my point is, if I *did* find myself unemployed and forced to take the JSA, would I want it dependent on a well intentioned but ultimately useless system deciding that I'm not eligible to get the money for support that I need because I won't apply for jobs that would never be on their system in the first place? Er... No.
Having said that, the principle is laudable. I know a couple of people that work the system and have never worked an honest days work in their life and have no intention of doing so as they're quite happy on the JSA. But then, they're crafty and any system that's going to work and do the right thing for the majority of people probably wouldn't be capable of forcing them into work anyway.
Interestingly, see my previous post about the TLS podcast. Listen to the interview with Molly Stephens and then reconsider whether that's such an economical approach...!
He was interviewed this week on Radio 4's "The Life Scientific" and you can download the interview as .mp3. And yes, I think you peeps outside the UK are treated to this as well even though it's the BBC.
I can also *highly* recommend Slashdotters have a dig through the TLS archive for other interviews ; it's full of incredible scientists talking about their life and work. Proper fascinating. For my money I can reccommend the first three as starting points Paul Nurse, Stephen Pinker, Jocelyn Bell-Burnell.
An extra special mention goes to the interview with Molly Stephens. She is doing the most incredible things that blew my mind when I heard the interview. Not only that but she's assembled a really unusual collection of people with skills across so many different fields to look at the one goal in a the pragmatic way that so many organisations fail to. Oh, and she comes across as a genuinely lovely and interesting lady. Wow. I just realised that I have the most immense geek crush on her. I hope she doesn't read Slashdot... Actually, if you do, fancy a drink? :-D
When you say man-in-the-middle, I think you mean tower in the middle. (Previously reported a while back but will be a bit before your time for many readers!)
Of course with old technology comes old techniques...
The whole concept of high frequency trading and trying to out-do competition using algorithmic trading beating competition by microseconds just sounds like a future disaster guaranteed to happen. The cock-up earlier in the year by Knight Capital should be viewed as only an overture of things to come.
Now, I understand the concepts behind how algorithmic trading works in principle and what potential it has for fuck ups and to me it seems like the best way to attempt to avert such things would be to enforce an artificial rate cap on trading speed. For example, electronic trades could be enforced to only be allowed to occur (for everyone) at 10ms intervals. This would kill dead all the potential for crazy algorithmic loops at massive speed (well, still what I'd think of as high speed I suppose!) but not affect normal trading. Can someone with a proper knowledge of the way the stock markets work explain (briefly) why this would or wouldn't work?
...maybe buy a copy of James Gleick's "The Information" and see if any of it piques her interest? I have a sneaky suspicion that some of the concepts described that are broader may catch her imagination. Or read it yourself to explain some of the ideas in your own words to start with. I'd start with getting the _ideas_ across and let that fire up her imagination before trying to explain existing protocols too far. Maybe try and explain why the 7 layer OSI model is why it is but don't start with trying to detail TCP/IP!
No, what the wallets want is good games, end of story.
However, human beings are risk adverse and if they know a game was good when hedging bets on next (expensive these days!) games purchase they will instinctively head to a sequel of one they enjoyed. However, if they play something new that's really good they'll buy that. That's why games demos / sharing and dare I even sugest piracy is good - it may detract a little from the sales of the production line sequels but it massively raises awareness of different games that people would instinctively avoid as unknown quantities and I believe they generate sales too.
I'd never even considered doing that in the first place?! (OK, ignoring me being vegetarian that is...!)
How many Slashdotters had that cross their mind? Do our American cousins not get taught cookery basics at school? Should they be doing demo videos of why one shouldn't also cook turkeys using [ petrol / napalm / thermite ] as well just in case?
I'm flummoxed.
... Looked at the cost of SMS messages comparing price vs bytes?! According to wikipedia, average cost is around $0.11 per 160 char message. So, excluding headers and taking k as 1024, thats $738,197 per gigabyte. Now think about what a roaming message costs... Maybe triple that? Thats got to be a great little earner for the telcos...! Not to mention, sms was designed to take advantage of unused bandwidth space anyway, so its all gravy!
Some of us quite like reading about interesting technology, especially those that ride motorcycles! It's also interesting to hear about lone developers working on things that were previously only in reach of professionals with large budgets i.e. race teams with money to spend. Oh, and of course theres a good healthy slice of physics involved too. Great stuff.
On another note, slashdot would be REALLY dull if it never mentioned products that you have to pay for! Of course if you don't like it, you can always filter your feed to only include open source stories and you'll be blissfully ignorant of the other stories...
You do realise that there is a whole world outside of the US that does not have the same weather as the US? It is conceivable that the rest of us in the world (including us UK folks with, er, not as sunny weather) are interested in more efficient solar panels too.
As a second point, no improvements in science (or manufacturing tech) ever got made by people saying "Oh, the stuff we've got now works alright so lets not bother trying to improve it..."
IMHO anyone that invests the same amount of money as a house in a motorhome really needs their head looking at :-D Seriously, you could build an amazing van for less than the price of a new family hatchback car. Each to their own of course!
It's not that different here really - the difference is that we head off into Europe (and Africa & Asia!) from the UK overland. Not really different to going between states in the USA except it's much more interesting (!) because of differences in cultures, languages, scenery, shops and general fun to be had. Sorry, I know that sounds like a troll but really, come and visit and find out for yourself :-D
Yes, we do have gas powered fridges too (both propane and more commonly, butane) but I was avoiding talking about them. As you've identified, they run out quickly which adds costs up pretty fast. In my van the maths looks like this : 10 days max for 7kg butane. (ignoring water / cooking gas use) over 365 days that's 36 bottles at £20 a pop - i.e. £720 which is $1,143 at todays conversion rate. Just to keep your fridge running. IMO, more to the point is that most gas fridges in vans are VERY intolerant of un-even ground. This makes them a massive pain in the arse as if you're a little off flat when moving around, later you find out the coolant isn't pumping and the food's gone off. I've lost a fair bit of food that way in the past. Modern compressor fridges such as those made by Waeco et al. don't suffer from this nearly as badly.
As for people parked up in trailer parks - I'd ignore them. That's really not that much different to being in a house which I don't think the OP was referring to. Having the availability of running water and electric hook-up gives you a very different (and much lower) level of criteria for the van design.
This is a topic close to my heart as I've been living out of a small motorhome (RV to my American cousins) on and off for a few years as I balance out my desk-flying tech work by running away in the van as often as possible and being on the road working at festivals in the UK.
One of the things I've learnt is that ready-rolled motorhomes are generally designed for pension age weekend trippers not for hardcore long-term living. The fixtures are often cheap, they're not designed to live easily 'off-grid' and there's never enough storage. If this kind of living interests you I can highly reccommend any geek to consider building your own. It's not hard, it's more satisfying and you can customise to exactly what you really need.
I'd suggest the first port of call to be to buy a copy of John Speed's excellent "Travel Vans" book :
http://www.travelvans.co.uk/
I'd then have a really good read of the Silk Road site. It's aimed at overlanders but while you might not need to care about issues such as angles of lift-off, at least 80% of the issues of long term living in a van are exactly the same :
http://www.xor.org.uk/silkroute/equipment/choosevan.htm
Next, the UK base Self-Build Motor Caravan Club (SBMCC) have lots of great examples of members projects :
http://www.sbmcc.co.uk/
Lastly, to get your juices flowing, have a look at some nice Van porn courtesy of Unicat and Action Mobil. Gives a lot of food for thought!
http://www.unicat.net/en/
http://www.actionmobil.at/
For anyone still reading this far and not bored yet, a few personal suggestions from my experience so far :
- MOST IMPORTANT : Make sure you have a permanent fixed bed and not one you have to put up and down. Its a right hassle after the first few weeks!
- Only use a small fridge. A modern compressor fridge can potentially run of 12v with enough batteries and solar (250+ Ah & 250W min solar) but the older ones won't.
- Have double the storage space you think you'll need. If not triple. Crap always accumulates.
- Allow some 'outside' storage space to store larger or dirty items.
- Have plenty of worktop & secured shelves to have things to hand.
- Showers in vans are a pain - they empty water tanks fast. Use other peoples facilities if poss.
- Find a friend who's address you can use as a permanent post-drop and registered address for bills such as wifi etc. Being no fixed abode can cause problems.
But give it a go. The freedom it offers is incredible and being able to randomly just head off anywhere you fancy is superb.
~Pev
Just wonder whatll happen spending hours every day pressing a surface with no give in it. I know it doenst take long for my finger tips to go a bit numb, nut after years of use? I doubt it'll be good...