Back in the 80s Soviet Russia and East Germany (V.E.B. Robotron) both tried to build their own 8 bit microprocessors for their own microcomputers. I heard also about an attempt in what was then Czechoslovakia to build their own microcomputer based on an Z80 clone. In Poland there was the Meritum microcomputer (built in 1983 btw).
These were interesting machines from the point of view of computing history - and I think that today a working specimen of one of those might be of higher value than a working C64. But it was the C64 (and the ZX Spectrum, and the Ataris) that flooded Poland, Czechoslovakia and East Germany in late 80ies so that even local geeks hardly remember that their own microcomputers ever existed. Why? Well, because computers designed and produced by state run enterprises didn't fit into people's needs, their quality was poor, availability limited to the people - and they were dull as they lacked sound and graphics capabilities.
I think that this example from the past shows that Dragon's fate is doomed from the start. Yes, China benefits from the effect of scale and quality of their chips should be better but ultimately these processors would be used mainly in government systems and installations. And in say twenty years from now a working Dragon will be worth more than a working Pentium-IV.
As to missile silo home - it's interesting whether Russians took notice that it's now someone's home and removed this place from their SS-20s target list.
I don't think so, because their salesmen have been showing working Z100s to operators for a few months now giving shipping dates and prices for the ops. Also, a program for developers was in place that allowed purchasing Z100s for some time now - and the program started exactly when they said it would. All in all - this would be a huge setback for Sendo itself, although they already produce other (simpler) handsets at competitive prices.
There must be something very big at stake, even a delay wouldn't justify such a drastic move - deleys are no big deals in this industry anyway. It's rather possible that some financing has dried up.
You forget that once you have the wires in the ground you don't have to maintain them, while GSM network requires costly day-to-day maintainance and tuning.
Can material described in the article really be called "concrete"?
As it is written there its only resemblance to concrete is that it consists of coarse aggregate, fine aggregate and binding agent. But this is not a recipe for concrete only - also for other materials. Also, Dr. Price's secret material can't be poured or produced on site - one the main reasons of traditional concrete popularity. It would probably find its use in form of blocks of translucent material, that could be used to enhance possibilities for architects but what Dr. Price is trying to do is another building material, which is very interesting indeed but can hardly be called "concrete".
OK, how long would it take to deliver pure hydrogen in bottles outside US? After all such a device could be an interesting option in places beyond the reach of power grid. At $8k it can hardly replace UPSes at home.
Everything about this product is here on the Apple's site.
A nice toy, but way, way too expensive. All mp3 players available right now are just too expensive - such a think should cost no more than $200 to be a good buy...
And if you think that Apple is expensive in the US think about other countries - for the price of an iBook I can buy a top-of-the-line Intel notebook here in Poland...
> Those few who infiltrate will grow accustomed to the softness of the new lifestyle, and be unwilling to make the sacrifices necessary to fight their cause.
I wouldn't count on that. One of the guys who piloted one of those planes trained for two years in the US and those two years spent in the normal, civilized society didn't change his resolve.
At my company (in fact it's a local branch of an US based corporation) we have similar problem. There is a team here developing a system designed specifically for a customer. As one can expect along with such a system goes all the documentation - everything you could expect starting from the analysis, through functional specification and coding guidelines to end user and administrator's manuals. To make things more complicated part of the development - and the documentation - is being done by a subcontractor (which happens to be on another hemisphere) - and it is being prepared in English, but some parts of it (especially the manuals) have to be translated into local language.
Up until now it has been a growing mess with documentation being written in Word (with all the usual problems Word has with large files, with lots of graphics - screens, no versioning etc.), with no standards, with people getting into one another's way while trying to update the numerous documents.
Recently together with a friend we have came up with the idea to switch all that into neat XML/SGML files, with CVS based versioning and everything based on open standards and free software as much as possible. To our surprise the management liked the idea and we got a green light to do some research. And then the problems have begun.
First, the editor. Coding XML files with vi or alike might be nice for a hacker - and is great for creating and testing XML formats used then for data storage etc. - but it is out of the question for documentation authors. And it is pretty understandable - to be able to concentrate on the content, on the text itself, the author needs to see only the contents, as nicely rendered as possible - no tags getting into way in each sentence, no learning for years how to use the editor (thus Emacs with its psgml mode is not an option - don't flame me, it's just a fact).
After a long search I have to say that there is no working, finished GNU/free editor that would match our requirement of almost-WYWSIG presentation of an XML/SGML file. As to commercial ones the only two that look good are XML Spy 4.0 - but it is just a poorely working beta for now - and Arbortext'sEpic - which is almost exactly what we need, but is a bit expensive at around $700 a license.
Nevertheless, with no other options left we decided to go for the Epic when it comes to the editing side. We got an evaluation package and begun testing.
Now, we were from the start convinced that DocBook DTD & tools that go along with it are the best choice for the kind of problem we faced. Epic supports the DocBook but comes along with their own version, which in turns doesn't work well with the Linux sgml tools that we use for translating the XML/SGML files to useful end formats.
On the other hand not all Epic's features can be used when one just tries to edit the document based on an "external" DTD. To enable things like being able to see the graphics files inserted into the document one has to hm... "customize" the Epic by creating some additional configuration files (like.FOS files) using yet another expensive tool Arbortext sells - the Epic Architect.
But that is not the end of the problem, because the stylesheets currently available for translating the Docbook based XML/SGML files into useful formats are not well documented and partially don't work (for example tags related to inserting pictures in the document are ignored when trying to generate a printable document). There is for example a project on Sourceforge that develops XSLTs and DSSSLs for translating Docbook based XML into various formats, but so far I was not able to make them work - and there is no documentation. Also the DSSSL based machinery for translating SGML files that comes with various Linux distros is far from perfect - HTMLs are generated mostly OK, but printed documents (.tex and.pdf) leave much to be desired.
So, from our point of view it looks like we will have to buy an expensive editor and then someone would have to spend a month or so tweaking the editor, modifying the stylesheets for our needs, developing procedures and so on. And that someone would have to be quite a competent person (with deep knowledge of the subject), someone, who could be probably better used directly in the development project.
As for now the future of our little plan of switching from mess to neat XML based solution is uncertain. Mainly because we would have to build that neat solution ourselves, as what we can get from outside at the moment are some bits and pieces that - although nice by themselves - just don't fit together.
(And, BTW, I haven't even touched the nice catch with CVS - to be really useful in the kind of environment that we envisioned it would have to be integrated with the editor - and that doesn't seem likely).
I am sure most things are in baggies and you just toss it into the "nuker,"... but who knows...
Exactly. In all books about space flight that I've read meals they eat are described as precooked and ready to eat. So - it's just a bag to put into an oven (if you want it hot) or eat right away. No bread to slice, no potatoes to cook etc. 6 hours is quite long if you take that into account.
But leaving this particular example aside - if we are sending people somewhere to perform a task (here: space, scientific research) and some "mundane tasks" are seriously in their way - then something should be done about it, don't you think?
Now - if a language is an intellectual property of a loosely defined group called "nation", then what about learning that language by people who are not members of that group ("foreigners")? Are people all over the world infringing on the intellectual property of the nice folk living in England by learning English?
Since all space missions so far have been financed by a state (be it US or Russia or whatever) the astronauts are just state office workers. If everything is financed by the state (so the money is anonymous and no one would really ask how it was spent) and controlled by huge administration (the way NASA runs space flight) then there is no push for performance or real results. That's why no one thought that for example it might be a good idea to do something about just serving meals - 6 hours to prepare them is quite a time, even in space.
I think Tito's observations are very interesting, because he is really the first man in space who can openly talk about what he saw - he paid for his ticket, he has no obligations whatsoever towards a "space agency" for sending him there.
To be clear. What I ment was I just spent a summer working with one of the best web severs ever written. It would be grossly unfair to apply what I had learned to Fnord and release the result of that GPL.
Interesting. So you found it unethical to share what you have learned with others (by means of improving your GPL-ed code) but you surely won't find it unethical to apply the same knowledge while working for some other company should you ever change job.
So maybe the point here is that it is unfair to share what one has learned unless paid for it?
Emin
Re:This is why I drive a 4 door 4 cylinder family
on
Hi-Tech Repo Man
·
· Score: 2
Regardless of who or how, the problem will be solved. One day, people will pay only the cost of the transceiver, and they will get free internet, phone, you name it. I told this to my Dad, who owns stock in the phone company and it made him a bit nervous. I told him not to sell yet, but in 20 to 30 years you might not want to be holding stock in any of the companies that sell bandwidth.
Ekhm... OK, so where would those people get Internet from with their LOS devices? Maybe your dad should stick with those shares for some time...
Slashdot Mirror
Interesting - could you write something more about how it is possible to set up such a cooperative?
Back in the 80s Soviet Russia and East Germany (V.E.B. Robotron) both tried to build their own 8 bit microprocessors for their own microcomputers. I heard also about an attempt in what was then Czechoslovakia to build their own microcomputer based on an Z80 clone. In Poland there was the Meritum microcomputer (built in 1983 btw).
These were interesting machines from the point of view of computing history - and I think that today a working specimen of one of those might be of higher value than a working C64. But it was the C64 (and the ZX Spectrum, and the Ataris) that flooded Poland, Czechoslovakia and East Germany in late 80ies so that even local geeks hardly remember that their own microcomputers ever existed. Why? Well, because computers designed and produced by state run enterprises didn't fit into people's needs, their quality was poor, availability limited to the people - and they were dull as they lacked sound and graphics capabilities.
I think that this example from the past shows that Dragon's fate is doomed from the start. Yes, China benefits from the effect of scale and quality of their chips should be better but ultimately these processors would be used mainly in government systems and installations. And in say twenty years from now a working Dragon will be worth more than a working Pentium-IV.
ShortURL requires users to register. Make-a-shorter-link just produces shorter links.
For more data about the whole project go to Virtual Planetary Laboratory Homepage.
As to missile silo home - it's interesting whether Russians took notice that it's now someone's home and removed this place from their SS-20s target list.
Just couldn't resist...
I don't think so, because their salesmen have been showing working Z100s to operators for a few months now giving shipping dates and prices for the ops. Also, a program for developers was in place that allowed purchasing Z100s for some time now - and the program started exactly when they said it would. All in all - this would be a huge setback for Sendo itself, although they already produce other (simpler) handsets at competitive prices.
There must be something very big at stake, even a delay wouldn't justify such a drastic move - deleys are no big deals in this industry anyway. It's rather possible that some financing has dried up.
Does your proxy support ICQ? ICQ uses same AIL servers as AIM anyway...
Logical next step for AOL would be to offer encryption plug-ins to employees.
Yep, they invented a way to dominate a whole industry. Isn't that creative?
You forget that once you have the wires in the ground you don't have to maintain them, while GSM network requires costly day-to-day maintainance and tuning.
Can material described in the article really be called "concrete"?
As it is written there its only resemblance to concrete is that it consists of coarse aggregate, fine aggregate and binding agent. But this is not a recipe for concrete only - also for other materials. Also, Dr. Price's secret material can't be poured or produced on site - one the main reasons of traditional concrete popularity. It would probably find its use in form of blocks of translucent material, that could be used to enhance possibilities for architects but what Dr. Price is trying to do is another building material, which is very interesting indeed but can hardly be called "concrete".
Picture of the device can be seen on the Popular Science's website here.
OK, how long would it take to deliver pure hydrogen in bottles outside US? After all such a device could be an interesting option in places beyond the reach of power grid. At $8k it can hardly replace UPSes at home.
Everything about this product is here on the Apple's site.
A nice toy, but way, way too expensive. All mp3 players available right now are just too expensive - such a think should cost no more than $200 to be a good buy...
And if you think that Apple is expensive in the US think about other countries - for the price of an iBook I can buy a top-of-the-line Intel notebook here in Poland...
Emin
> In those recent Gateway TV commercial a cow has been telling the Gateway CEO how to run his business.
Was this cow tested for the BSE?
Emin
> Those few who infiltrate will grow accustomed to the softness of the new lifestyle, and be unwilling to make the sacrifices necessary to fight their cause.
I wouldn't count on that. One of the guys who piloted one of those planes trained for two years in the US and those two years spent in the normal, civilized society didn't change his resolve.
Emin
At my company (in fact it's a local branch of an US based corporation) we have similar problem. There is a team here developing a system designed specifically for a customer. As one can expect along with such a system goes all the documentation - everything you could expect starting from the analysis, through functional specification and coding guidelines to end user and administrator's manuals. To make things more complicated part of the development - and the documentation - is being done by a subcontractor (which happens to be on another hemisphere) - and it is being prepared in English, but some parts of it (especially the manuals) have to be translated into local language.
Up until now it has been a growing mess with documentation being written in Word (with all the usual problems Word has with large files, with lots of graphics - screens, no versioning etc.), with no standards, with people getting into one another's way while trying to update the numerous documents.
Recently together with a friend we have came up with the idea to switch all that into neat XML/SGML files, with CVS based versioning and everything based on open standards and free software as much as possible. To our surprise the management liked the idea and we got a green light to do some research. And then the problems have begun.
First, the editor. Coding XML files with vi or alike might be nice for a hacker - and is great for creating and testing XML formats used then for data storage etc. - but it is out of the question for documentation authors. And it is pretty understandable - to be able to concentrate on the content, on the text itself, the author needs to see only the contents, as nicely rendered as possible - no tags getting into way in each sentence, no learning for years how to use the editor (thus Emacs with its psgml mode is not an option - don't flame me, it's just a fact). After a long search I have to say that there is no working, finished GNU/free editor that would match our requirement of almost-WYWSIG presentation of an XML/SGML file. As to commercial ones the only two that look good are XML Spy 4.0 - but it is just a poorely working beta for now - and Arbortext's Epic - which is almost exactly what we need, but is a bit expensive at around $700 a license.
Nevertheless, with no other options left we decided to go for the Epic when it comes to the editing side. We got an evaluation package and begun testing.
Now, we were from the start convinced that DocBook DTD & tools that go along with it are the best choice for the kind of problem we faced. Epic supports the DocBook but comes along with their own version, which in turns doesn't work well with the Linux sgml tools that we use for translating the XML/SGML files to useful end formats. On the other hand not all Epic's features can be used when one just tries to edit the document based on an "external" DTD. To enable things like being able to see the graphics files inserted into the document one has to hm... "customize" the Epic by creating some additional configuration files (like .FOS files) using yet another expensive tool Arbortext sells - the Epic Architect.
But that is not the end of the problem, because the stylesheets currently available for translating the Docbook based XML/SGML files into useful formats are not well documented and partially don't work (for example tags related to inserting pictures in the document are ignored when trying to generate a printable document). There is for example a project on Sourceforge that develops XSLTs and DSSSLs for translating Docbook based XML into various formats, but so far I was not able to make them work - and there is no documentation. Also the DSSSL based machinery for translating SGML files that comes with various Linux distros is far from perfect - HTMLs are generated mostly OK, but printed documents (.tex and .pdf) leave much to be desired.
So, from our point of view it looks like we will have to buy an expensive editor and then someone would have to spend a month or so tweaking the editor, modifying the stylesheets for our needs, developing procedures and so on. And that someone would have to be quite a competent person (with deep knowledge of the subject), someone, who could be probably better used directly in the development project.
As for now the future of our little plan of switching from mess to neat XML based solution is uncertain. Mainly because we would have to build that neat solution ourselves, as what we can get from outside at the moment are some bits and pieces that - although nice by themselves - just don't fit together.
(And, BTW, I haven't even touched the nice catch with CVS - to be really useful in the kind of environment that we envisioned it would have to be integrated with the editor - and that doesn't seem likely).
...is here in case someone would be really willing to pay them $50 for an illusion of space flight. They say Arthur C. Clarke already did.
I am sure most things are in baggies and you just toss it into the "nuker," ... but who knows...
Exactly. In all books about space flight that I've read meals they eat are described as precooked and ready to eat. So - it's just a bag to put into an oven (if you want it hot) or eat right away. No bread to slice, no potatoes to cook etc. 6 hours is quite long if you take that into account.
But leaving this particular example aside - if we are sending people somewhere to perform a task (here: space, scientific research) and some "mundane tasks" are seriously in their way - then something should be done about it, don't you think?
Now - if a language is an intellectual property of a loosely defined group called "nation", then what about learning that language by people who are not members of that group ("foreigners")? Are people all over the world infringing on the intellectual property of the nice folk living in England by learning English?
That's insane...
Since all space missions so far have been financed by a state (be it US or Russia or whatever) the astronauts are just state office workers. If everything is financed by the state (so the money is anonymous and no one would really ask how it was spent) and controlled by huge administration (the way NASA runs space flight) then there is no push for performance or real results. That's why no one thought that for example it might be a good idea to do something about just serving meals - 6 hours to prepare them is quite a time, even in space.
I think Tito's observations are very interesting, because he is really the first man in space who can openly talk about what he saw - he paid for his ticket, he has no obligations whatsoever towards a "space agency" for sending him there.
To be clear. What I ment was I just spent a summer working with one of the best web severs ever written. It would be grossly unfair to apply what I had learned to Fnord and release the result of that GPL.
Interesting. So you found it unethical to share what you have learned with others (by means of improving your GPL-ed code) but you surely won't find it unethical to apply the same knowledge while working for some other company should you ever change job.
So maybe the point here is that it is unfair to share what one has learned unless paid for it?
Emin
Looks like you should read this.
Emin
Ekhm... OK, so where would those people get Internet from with their LOS devices? Maybe your dad should stick with those shares for some time...
Emin
Maybe that's exactly why aD failed.
Emin