I'm pretty sure that Subaru's WRC rally cars have an efficency-increasing trick that, although not as scientifically interesting as the concept peresented in the story, would improve a car's effeciency.
AFAIK, there is a heated plate in between the engine exhaust outlet and the turbo turbines. This plate heats up any uncombusted fuel in the exhaust (there's generally a fair amount of uncombusted fuel left over) and it ignites, thus giving more power to the turbines. Of course, in the rally cars, it is tuned towards power (it does wonders to decrease low-end lag, I guess).
I bet this would be a great thing to add to, say, a high-efficency economy turbocharged engine. Also, it doesn't seem that complicated to implement. Anybody ever try adding a similar mod to their car?
The whole "monetary investment" concept is hitting the nail on the head.
Scenerio one:
-- Arthritis is, by nature, a waxing and waning problem for people who experience it. This means that half the time it hurts and half the time it doesn't on average. The medications for it aren't always that good, and barely affect the 50/50 chance of improvment.
-- Let's say a filthy-rich golfer buys a copper bracelet for 100 dollars to cure his arthritis, and he experiences a decrease in pain! Note that this decrease in pain is likely to be a naturally-occuring decrease. Nonetheless, he attributes this decrease in pain to the copper bracelet.
-- Now, another filthy-rich golfer also bought a copper braqcelet for 100 dollars to cure her arthritis, and she experiences an increase in pain. In other words, the bracelet appears to have done nothing for her arthritis. She paid 100 dollars for it, so she doesn't really feel like admitting her foolishness for buying the bracelet, of course!
-- In summary, about 50% of the people who buy copper bracelets go on to recommend them to friends, and 50% of them are too embarassed to say anything bad about them.
Now, go next door, and talk to your neighbor about their computer's operating system and computer that they just put down a few month's salary on. Are they going to say anything bad about the super-duper Wintel machine they just drained their wallets for? I doubt it. Also, what are they going to compare it to?
People feel a lot better having to pay for a product and seeing a smooth interface and knowing that their company endorses it. This seems to be a fact of capitalism. I really hope this fact becomes fiction...
Footnote: The copper-bracelet example is from some medical/doctor journal/magazine article. Sorry, but I can't remember the issue number or title. Anybody know the article I'm thinking of? I hate using nifty ideas and not giving due credit:)
Dude, you're so right! I'm still confused about how this became slashdot-caliber (don't laugh) news when there are thousands and thousands of other OSS projects that are even more active than this one that go unsung. There are even lots of other portal-related apps like SIPS or PHP-Nuke or PHP-j00k that are being hacked and whacked day in and day out, with very little media recognition.
Maybe/. can have a special Announce-back blurb once every week or so, mentioning some nifty program releases or updates. Or, just have a freshmeat slashbox or whatever. Or, just don't care like I do.
Not to say that mod_perl is bad or anything, but it DOES add a few more megs of memory to each forked apache process. Coding a module in C doesn't do this.
Saying that Mozilla shouldn't have a larger source tree than X11 should is like saying that it's ludicrious for any userland program to be bigger than a kernel.
argument 1: Ever heard of "Modularity" before?:) Having a small base, and then building on this base, is generally a good thing with computers. Look at kernel / runtime-loading modules, or even the good ol' eggdrop with modules. Small base API, lots of extra potential with modules.
argument 2: Mozilla is using its own set of specialized libs at the moment. This means that there is less dynamic linking going on, and this increases the source tree's size. The team is doing this for more cross-platform support, i think. I have to hope that this situation will improve;)
I do agree with your point about the inclusion of beta code. I could go on a freshmeat.net download spree, and come up with gigabytes upon gigabytes of shit-poor programs. That'll increase the SLOC, wouldn't it?!
Using RedHat as a distro for this project isn't that good of an idea. Aside from the requisite bitching that goes on about it (corporate design, beta software that can't even compile itself), it's just an unrepresentative mass of programs and code! I can safely say that most Redhat users will never use about one-quarter of the programs in their distribution, especially if they install programs with RPM.
Instead of using a binary-based distro, why not make a base system from scratch? This would nix the whole problem of making sure that you have all the original source packages, and, at the same time, you wouldn't have to worry about taking off SLOC for the RPM utilities and whatever other GUI-interface stuff Redhat happens to throw into their distribution.
Anyhow, this is a cool concept, and I'd love to see, for example, how the Apache web server compares with IIS in this arena:)
Heh, it's nice to see that some geeks are riding bikes. I know but a few people with that funny urge to travel around the world on a bike, with a wireless 'net connection!
Anyways, I hope that more bikers get into puters, and vice versa. Maybe then, I'll get a chance to have a microchip-controlled rear derailleur (and don't recommend the shimano crap)
I've used both GPG and PGP, and there isn't much commandline-level difference. It's been treating me just as well as anything can, and with pgp4pine, there is seamless integration with the pine mailer.
I'm not sure of the integration of it and GUIs besides GNOME, because i'm a console kind of person... If you're using pine, it'll work fine!
Just the fact that GPG is open-source software is enough to choose it over PGP if you use pine.
Can it be created on a grassroots level? The only way that I'd use a wireless 'net is if it's similar to the now-dead (?) GeurillaNet project. It was to be a completely WWW, seperate from the "real" internet, with full encryption and anonymity. I have been thinking about starting something like this, first running on the present networks, but then moving to a seperate wireless 'net. But, to do this, requires LOTS of money and time... maybe after exams...
Slashdot Mirror
check out OpenBSD's systrace:r ace&apropos=0&sektion=0&manpath=OpenBSD+Current&ar ch=i386&format=html
http://www.citi.umich.edu/u/provos/systrace/
http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=syst
I'm pretty sure that Subaru's WRC rally cars have an efficency-increasing trick that, although not as scientifically interesting as the concept peresented in the story, would improve a car's effeciency.
AFAIK, there is a heated plate in between the engine exhaust outlet and the turbo turbines. This plate heats up any uncombusted fuel in the exhaust (there's generally a fair amount of uncombusted fuel left over) and it ignites, thus giving more power to the turbines. Of course, in the rally cars, it is tuned towards power (it does wonders to decrease low-end lag, I guess).
I bet this would be a great thing to add to, say, a high-efficency economy turbocharged engine. Also, it doesn't seem that complicated to implement. Anybody ever try adding a similar mod to their car?
The whole "monetary investment" concept is hitting the nail on the head.
:)
Scenerio one:
-- Arthritis is, by nature, a waxing and waning problem for people who experience it. This means that half the time it hurts and half the time it doesn't on average. The medications for it aren't always that good, and barely affect the 50/50 chance of improvment.
-- Let's say a filthy-rich golfer buys a copper bracelet for 100 dollars to cure his arthritis, and he experiences a decrease in pain! Note that this decrease in pain is likely to be a naturally-occuring decrease. Nonetheless, he attributes this decrease in pain to the copper bracelet.
-- Now, another filthy-rich golfer also bought a copper braqcelet for 100 dollars to cure her arthritis, and she experiences an increase in pain. In other words, the bracelet appears to have done nothing for her arthritis. She paid 100 dollars for it, so she doesn't really feel like admitting her foolishness for buying the bracelet, of course!
-- In summary, about 50% of the people who buy copper bracelets go on to recommend them to friends, and 50% of them are too embarassed to say anything bad about them.
Now, go next door, and talk to your neighbor about their computer's operating system and computer that they just put down a few month's salary on. Are they going to say anything bad about the super-duper Wintel machine they just drained their wallets for? I doubt it. Also, what are they going to compare it to?
People feel a lot better having to pay for a product and seeing a smooth interface and knowing that their company endorses it. This seems to be a fact of capitalism. I really hope this fact becomes fiction...
Footnote: The copper-bracelet example is from some medical/doctor journal/magazine article. Sorry, but I can't remember the issue number or title. Anybody know the article I'm thinking of? I hate using nifty ideas and not giving due credit
Dude, you're so right! I'm still confused about how this became slashdot-caliber (don't laugh) news when there are thousands and thousands of other OSS projects that are even more active than this one that go unsung. There are even lots of other portal-related apps like SIPS or PHP-Nuke or PHP-j00k that are being hacked and whacked day in and day out, with very little media recognition.
/. can have a special Announce-back blurb once every week or so, mentioning some nifty program releases or updates. Or, just have a freshmeat slashbox or whatever. Or, just don't care like I do.
Maybe
Not to say that mod_perl is bad or anything, but it DOES add a few more megs of memory to each forked apache process. Coding a module in C doesn't do this.
Saying that Mozilla shouldn't have a larger source tree than X11 should is like saying that it's ludicrious for any userland program to be bigger than a kernel.
:) Having a small base, and then building on this base, is generally a good thing with computers. Look at kernel / runtime-loading modules, or even the good ol' eggdrop with modules. Small base API, lots of extra potential with modules.
;)
argument 1: Ever heard of "Modularity" before?
argument 2: Mozilla is using its own set of specialized libs at the moment. This means that there is less dynamic linking going on, and this increases the source tree's size. The team is doing this for more cross-platform support, i think. I have to hope that this situation will improve
I do agree with your point about the inclusion of beta code. I could go on a freshmeat.net download spree, and come up with gigabytes upon gigabytes of shit-poor programs. That'll increase the SLOC, wouldn't it?!
Using RedHat as a distro for this project isn't that good of an idea. Aside from the requisite bitching that goes on about it (corporate design, beta software that can't even compile itself), it's just an unrepresentative mass of programs and code! I can safely say that most Redhat users will never use about one-quarter of the programs in their distribution, especially if they install programs with RPM.
:)
Instead of using a binary-based distro, why not make a base system from scratch? This would nix the whole problem of making sure that you have all the original source packages, and, at the same time, you wouldn't have to worry about taking off SLOC for the RPM utilities and whatever other GUI-interface stuff Redhat happens to throw into their distribution.
Anyhow, this is a cool concept, and I'd love to see, for example, how the Apache web server compares with IIS in this arena
Heh, it's nice to see that some geeks are riding bikes. I know but a few people with that funny urge to travel around the world on a bike, with a wireless 'net connection!
Anyways, I hope that more bikers get into puters, and vice versa. Maybe then, I'll get a chance to have a microchip-controlled rear derailleur (and don't recommend the shimano crap)
I've used both GPG and PGP, and there isn't much commandline-level difference. It's been treating me just as well as anything can, and with pgp4pine, there is seamless integration with the pine mailer.
I'm not sure of the integration of it and GUIs besides GNOME, because i'm a console kind of person... If you're using pine, it'll work fine!
Just the fact that GPG is open-source software is enough to choose it over PGP if you use pine.
Can it be created on a grassroots level? The only way that I'd use a wireless 'net is if it's similar to the now-dead (?) GeurillaNet project. It was to be a completely WWW, seperate from the "real" internet, with full encryption and anonymity. I have been thinking about starting something like this, first running on the present networks, but then moving to a seperate wireless 'net. But, to do this, requires LOTS of money and time... maybe after exams...
If anybody's interested in helping, mail me.
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% fortune -o