I'm not confusing the two - I just believe that you need knowledge in order to cultivate intelligence, at least to some extent, and that neither intelligence or knowledge is something you're born with.
I was merely pointing out the absurdity of saying that intelligence in the universe is constant. It simply does not make any sense.
There is no equivalent to the first law of thermodynamics implying conservation of intelligence. For example, you can increase your own intelligence through study and mental excersizes etc, without "draining" that from anybody else.
In fact, a more applicible law is the second law of thermodynamics. (The one about entropy.)
Finally, how can you say there were proportionally more intelligent people in 1750 than today? Back then, most people couldn't even read or write, and were stuck subsistence farming. Sure, most people you may have read about from that time period may seem to be a rather intelligent guy, but that's a skewed sample. Unremarkable people are just forgotten.
Intelligence in the universe is a constant. The population is growing. You do the math if you still can.
Riiiight... so... let's see here.
Today, the population of the Earth is just over 6 billion. About 250 years ago, it was closer to 800 million. (These figures are probably close to the truth, if not exact.)
So, 250 years ago, people had on average 6000/800 = 7.5 times more intelligence than they do now? Now, go back even further than that, when the population of the earth was dramatically even much smaller. Those first people out there must really have been pretty damn intelligent!:-)
You're making the assumption that they want to pipe all their raw video feeds directly to some massive central mainframe which performs the processing.
Which, if it were the case, would be massively retarded, unreliable and expensive.
If I wanted to implement a traffic camera system, I'd equip every traffic camera with a general-purpose embedded computer running Linux or some other suitable operating system, a camera module, and a GSM/GPRS and/or 3G cellular data module. Also, I'd equip the unit with some high-speed flash memory to store images.
The unit would then use software that connects to a central hub server. (Something similar in architecture to IRC or Direct Connect comes to mind.)
The camera itself would contain the software performing image processing on images. It would report to the hub only which cars pass the camera. It would also store the images on the flash memory, removing old images as the card fills up.
The license plate data I could estimate would be like 10 bytes per data point. Assuming 1 car per second, that's like 10 bytes/second per traffic camera. Using the data from the article, 35 million number plate reads per day, the licence plate database would only need about 350 MB per day. You could fit a week worth of data for all of the UK on one single DVD-R (actual images excluded.) The average data rate for the entire UK would be 5 kB/s or so, though it would peak rather violently. Still, you would be able to fit all that data into a single high-speed residential broadband connection in a pinch, or even to a 56 k modem if you don't mind it taking 12 hours or so for information to get flushed out of the queue.
If a certain image needs to be viewed, the hub server can send an image transfer request to the camera, and the image would be transmitted over the cellular link. That would mean it'd take about 10 seconds (or less with 3G) to retrieve a single medium-quality image from any one traffic camera. Of course, typically, you'll only need to retrieve 10 or so images from any one traffic camera, so if you're sneaky and run a lot of requests in parallell you can probably retrieve all images of a certain car during a time period of a week or so in mere minutes.
This system I describe is fairly cheap, uses existing infrastructure (cellular), and is reasonably self-contained. It can operate for some time independent of a hub server (simply storing data, not transmitting it) in case of a cellular or hub outage, and does pretty much any responsible government needs, without leaving too much wiggle room for more casual civil liberties violations.
The general idea scales rather well too. You might implement this slightly different, with one typical server-level machine processing multiple camera feeds coming from a dumb coaxial pre-existing well understood CCTV video infrastructure, reporting back the licence plate data to a hub server.
I don't like the idea of cameras at all. I don't trust government today, and I sure as hell am not putting trust into as of yet unelected politicians, but the point is that it's not at all infeasible technically. In fact, with recent technology only developed a few years ago, it's just becoming feasible and even relatively cheap right now.
Here in Sweden, we have our mains at 230 V (RMS) at 50 Hz.
P = 50 kW, U = 230 V. I = P/U = 50 kW / 230 V = 220 A.
Now, if you live in a country where you use 115 V: P = 50 kW / 115 V = 440 A. That's a lot of current.
Now, of course, the duty cycle won't be 100%, but neither will the efficiency. So for the sake of getting a ballpark figure, you can assume that's about as much current you'll need on average.
It's safe to say you'd need a service line upgrade, especially since you probably won't want to be running your 50 kW amp off 230 V anyway. (Unless you like bulky wires carrying a ridiculous amount of current.)
The main question on my mind is whether it's cost-effective.
From what I've heard, the current Space Shuttle is actually more expensive to operate than an equivalent single-use vehicle, partially because of the amount of work that has to be put into making the Shuttle operational again after landing.
Those 50 kW of power won't come from thin air you know. Ignoring for the moment the fact that it'd be very expensive to run that kind of power capacity into your typical home -- who is going to sell you the power? The power company! Damn, they win again. They get money from people using power lines to use the Internet, and they get money from people needing more power to get through their interference. Damn their well-thought out monopolizing plans.:-)
Well, I hate to out-pedant the pedant out-pedanting... out-pedanter... person. (Well, no I don't. But I just had to say it.)
Anyway, I don't think your definition is narrow enough. The year has to fall within the intersect of the set of numbers zero to infinity step 4, and the set of years where elections have been held in the United States.
This is of course, assuming that US election years have always been placed on years evenly divisible by 4 throughout history. So if anyone wants to out-pedant the out-pedanter of the out-pedanting parent pedant, go right ahead.
Maybe a more concise way to put it would be: "Depends on whether it's an election year."
It's probably fair to keep in mind that BART is rather unique for being a "medium-range" transit system
I don't really agree with that assessment. Here in Stockholm, Sweden, we have what's known as the Pendeltåg (Commuter Train) which can take you over 90 km. (The longest distance from Gnesta to Nynäshamn).
A trip similar to what you describe would be Märsta to Södertälje centrum (73,4 km, or 45,6 miles for the metrically challenged).
A trip of that distance would set you back 5 "kuponger", costing you 15 * 5 = 75 kronor (about $9,40) if you pay cash. However, nobody here in Sweden is stupid enough to pay cash for that kind of trip, because you can buy 20 "kuponger" for a price of 145 kronor, meaning a trip will in practice cost 36.25 kr ($4,50). So, very comparable.
However, the Stockholm Pendeltåg is different in that it will let you take any connections within the Stockholm local transport system (buses etc) on the same ticket, effectively giving you more value for your money. (No paying for connecting buses on either end.) Also, a month pass for the entire Stockholm local transport network (giving you unlimited travel within the entire region, except to Bålsta and Gnesta) will set you back only 600 kr ($75,25 or so).
Now, the Stockholms Pendeltåg has its own drawbacks, not in the least that it won't do a very good job of taking you to Walnut Creek from Fremont.;-) Also, the Pendeltåg uses slower trains than the BART, so that 1 hour trip would take about 1 hour 20 minutes with the Pendeltåg.
Also, I don't take them very often, but they have their own problems, as with any rail network (leaves on the line, train worker strikes, breakdowns and delays) but from what I've seen on the rare occasion I do take a trip with a Pendeltåg, they're usually pretty clean and resonably comfortable.
Still, I just wanted to point out that the BART is in no way unique in its role as a medium-distance commuter train system.
I find a little insanity helps me from becoming catastrophically dull, but I find that the K750i has many redeeming qualities that make it worthwhile:
- A comparatively good Bluetooth implementation (at least compared to the Siemens S65 I had before) that you can actually leave on permanently without it running the battery flat in less than a day.
- A nice and quick interface for the phone book. (Up-down to choose a person, left-right to choose which number to dial.)
- A camera that sucks considerably less than most mobile phone cameras. This has actually, surprisingly been more useful than I thought when I got the phone. I've gotten into the habit of taking a picture of stuff rather than writing stuff down. Less error-prone too.... but the one killer feature:
- BUILT-IN FLASHLIGHT! I can't count the number of times this feature has been very handy.
The slashdot effect never seems to extend to sites posted in comments. I guess the silent majority never even venture into the comments, just reading the front page.
Glad to hear I'm not the only one that has forgotten about Belkin's shenanigans.
I've bought a fair deal of wireless network equipment for work, and I might actually have considered Belkin's stuff for some of the purchases if I weren't boycotting them.
I also have been reluctant to buy Sony in the past, and will avoid Sony for most stuff, except for mobile phones. Sony Ericsson simply makes the best mobile phones on the market currently, and besides the fact that they use Memory Stick, I don't really have any complaints about them. (Not to mention the misplaced sense of national pride of buying Ericsson, being from Sweden and all.)
Re:Criminal charges against Microsoft too.
on
Bad Day To Be Sony
·
· Score: 1
Actually, the fact that an optical music disc contains DRM software doesn't necessarilly mean that it's not a CD.
I believe that the CD standard specifically permits CD:s containing both data and audio tracks, and you could probably make a completely valid CD which would contain autorunning DRM malware.
That's of course assuming that the autorunning malware was the only anti-copying measure in place, and that they didn't also sabotage the TOC etc.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm not confusing the two - I just believe that you need knowledge in order to cultivate intelligence, at least to some extent, and that neither intelligence or knowledge is something you're born with.
Right. I can agree with some of that.
How does any what you said contradict any of what I said, though?
"Everybody time you go to class, God makes a Martian dumb. Please, think of the Martians!" :-)
Now, we just need to start referring to going to class as "dumbing Martians". (Dumbing? Endumbening? Dumboobleizing?)
And slacking can of course be referred to as "thinking of the Martians".
I was merely pointing out the absurdity of saying that intelligence in the universe is constant. It simply does not make any sense.
There is no equivalent to the first law of thermodynamics implying conservation of intelligence. For example, you can increase your own intelligence through study and mental excersizes etc, without "draining" that from anybody else.
In fact, a more applicible law is the second law of thermodynamics. (The one about entropy.)
Finally, how can you say there were proportionally more intelligent people in 1750 than today? Back then, most people couldn't even read or write, and were stuck subsistence farming. Sure, most people you may have read about from that time period may seem to be a rather intelligent guy, but that's a skewed sample. Unremarkable people are just forgotten.
Today, the population of the Earth is just over 6 billion. About 250 years ago, it was closer to 800 million. (These figures are probably close to the truth, if not exact.)
So, 250 years ago, people had on average 6000/800 = 7.5 times more intelligence than they do now? Now, go back even further than that, when the population of the earth was dramatically even much smaller. Those first people out there must really have been pretty damn intelligent!
Now you're getting it!
If you apply Sturgeon's law recursively:
Yes, that makes everything I write crap too. But so are you. So there!
You're making the assumption that they want to pipe all their raw video feeds directly to some massive central mainframe which performs the processing.
Which, if it were the case, would be massively retarded, unreliable and expensive.
If I wanted to implement a traffic camera system, I'd equip every traffic camera with a general-purpose embedded computer running Linux or some other suitable operating system, a camera module, and a GSM/GPRS and/or 3G cellular data module. Also, I'd equip the unit with some high-speed flash memory to store images.
The unit would then use software that connects to a central hub server. (Something similar in architecture to IRC or Direct Connect comes to mind.)
The camera itself would contain the software performing image processing on images. It would report to the hub only which cars pass the camera. It would also store the images on the flash memory, removing old images as the card fills up.
The license plate data I could estimate would be like 10 bytes per data point. Assuming 1 car per second, that's like 10 bytes/second per traffic camera. Using the data from the article, 35 million number plate reads per day, the licence plate database would only need about 350 MB per day. You could fit a week worth of data for all of the UK on one single DVD-R (actual images excluded.) The average data rate for the entire UK would be 5 kB/s or so, though it would peak rather violently. Still, you would be able to fit all that data into a single high-speed residential broadband connection in a pinch, or even to a 56 k modem if you don't mind it taking 12 hours or so for information to get flushed out of the queue.
If a certain image needs to be viewed, the hub server can send an image transfer request to the camera, and the image would be transmitted over the cellular link. That would mean it'd take about 10 seconds (or less with 3G) to retrieve a single medium-quality image from any one traffic camera. Of course, typically, you'll only need to retrieve 10 or so images from any one traffic camera, so if you're sneaky and run a lot of requests in parallell you can probably retrieve all images of a certain car during a time period of a week or so in mere minutes.
This system I describe is fairly cheap, uses existing infrastructure (cellular), and is reasonably self-contained. It can operate for some time independent of a hub server (simply storing data, not transmitting it) in case of a cellular or hub outage, and does pretty much any responsible government needs, without leaving too much wiggle room for more casual civil liberties violations.
The general idea scales rather well too. You might implement this slightly different, with one typical server-level machine processing multiple camera feeds coming from a dumb coaxial pre-existing well understood CCTV video infrastructure, reporting back the licence plate data to a hub server.
I don't like the idea of cameras at all. I don't trust government today, and I sure as hell am not putting trust into as of yet unelected politicians, but the point is that it's not at all infeasible technically. In fact, with recent technology only developed a few years ago, it's just becoming feasible and even relatively cheap right now.
Oh, just a simple application of P = UI.
Here in Sweden, we have our mains at 230 V (RMS) at 50 Hz.
P = 50 kW, U = 230 V. I = P/U = 50 kW / 230 V = 220 A.
Now, if you live in a country where you use 115 V: P = 50 kW / 115 V = 440 A. That's a lot of current.
Now, of course, the duty cycle won't be 100%, but neither will the efficiency. So for the sake of getting a ballpark figure, you can assume that's about as much current you'll need on average.
It's safe to say you'd need a service line upgrade, especially since you probably won't want to be running your 50 kW amp off 230 V anyway. (Unless you like bulky wires carrying a ridiculous amount of current.)
The main question on my mind is whether it's cost-effective.
From what I've heard, the current Space Shuttle is actually more expensive to operate than an equivalent single-use vehicle, partially because of the amount of work that has to be put into making the Shuttle operational again after landing.
Will the Silver Dart actually fare any better?
What's next? Power over fiberoptic?
I guess you could run a powerful lasers over the fiberoptic cable...
(Insert witty Dr. Evil joke here.)
Those 50 kW of power won't come from thin air you know. Ignoring for the moment the fact that it'd be very expensive to run that kind of power capacity into your typical home -- who is going to sell you the power? The power company! Damn, they win again. They get money from people using power lines to use the Internet, and they get money from people needing more power to get through their interference. Damn their well-thought out monopolizing plans. :-)
de SM0YUF
Wrong.
At least here in Europe, every flight I've ever been on has had Business Class in the front and Economy Class in the back.
Well, I hate to out-pedant the pedant out-pedanting... out-pedanter... person. (Well, no I don't. But I just had to say it.)
Anyway, I don't think your definition is narrow enough. The year has to fall within the intersect of the set of numbers zero to infinity step 4, and the set of years where elections have been held in the United States.
This is of course, assuming that US election years have always been placed on years evenly divisible by 4 throughout history. So if anyone wants to out-pedant the out-pedanter of the out-pedanting parent pedant, go right ahead.
Maybe a more concise way to put it would be: "Depends on whether it's an election year."
Luxury!
I don't really agree with that assessment. Here in Stockholm, Sweden, we have what's known as the Pendeltåg (Commuter Train) which can take you over 90 km. (The longest distance from Gnesta to Nynäshamn).
A trip similar to what you describe would be Märsta to Södertälje centrum (73,4 km, or 45,6 miles for the metrically challenged).
A trip of that distance would set you back 5 "kuponger", costing you 15 * 5 = 75 kronor (about $9,40) if you pay cash. However, nobody here in Sweden is stupid enough to pay cash for that kind of trip, because you can buy 20 "kuponger" for a price of 145 kronor, meaning a trip will in practice cost 36.25 kr ($4,50). So, very comparable.
However, the Stockholm Pendeltåg is different in that it will let you take any connections within the Stockholm local transport system (buses etc) on the same ticket, effectively giving you more value for your money. (No paying for connecting buses on either end.) Also, a month pass for the entire Stockholm local transport network (giving you unlimited travel within the entire region, except to Bålsta and Gnesta) will set you back only 600 kr ($75,25 or so).
Now, the Stockholms Pendeltåg has its own drawbacks, not in the least that it won't do a very good job of taking you to Walnut Creek from Fremont.
Also, I don't take them very often, but they have their own problems, as with any rail network (leaves on the line, train worker strikes, breakdowns and delays) but from what I've seen on the rare occasion I do take a trip with a Pendeltåg, they're usually pretty clean and resonably comfortable.
Still, I just wanted to point out that the BART is in no way unique in its role as a medium-distance commuter train system.
"At this company, doing a good job, is a lot like peeing your pants in a dark suit. You get a warm fuzzy feeling, but nobody notices."
I find a little insanity helps me from becoming catastrophically dull, but I find that the K750i has many redeeming qualities that make it worthwhile:
... but the one killer feature:
:-)
- A comparatively good Bluetooth implementation (at least compared to the Siemens S65 I had before) that you can actually leave on permanently without it running the battery flat in less than a day.
- A nice and quick interface for the phone book. (Up-down to choose a person, left-right to choose which number to dial.)
- A camera that sucks considerably less than most mobile phone cameras. This has actually, surprisingly been more useful than I thought when I got the phone. I've gotten into the habit of taking a picture of stuff rather than writing stuff down. Less error-prone too.
- BUILT-IN FLASHLIGHT! I can't count the number of times this feature has been very handy.
Flashlight trumps slightly annoying joystick, imo.
Sysprep.
The slashdot effect never seems to extend to sites posted in comments. I guess the silent majority never even venture into the comments, just reading the front page.
Still, a nice sentiment.
Glad to hear I'm not the only one that has forgotten about Belkin's shenanigans.
I've bought a fair deal of wireless network equipment for work, and I might actually have considered Belkin's stuff for some of the purchases if I weren't boycotting them.
I also have been reluctant to buy Sony in the past, and will avoid Sony for most stuff, except for mobile phones. Sony Ericsson simply makes the best mobile phones on the market currently, and besides the fact that they use Memory Stick, I don't really have any complaints about them. (Not to mention the misplaced sense of national pride of buying Ericsson, being from Sweden and all.)
Actually, the fact that an optical music disc contains DRM software doesn't necessarilly mean that it's not a CD.
I believe that the CD standard specifically permits CD:s containing both data and audio tracks, and you could probably make a completely valid CD which would contain autorunning DRM malware.
That's of course assuming that the autorunning malware was the only anti-copying measure in place, and that they didn't also sabotage the TOC etc.
Slashdot? Journalistic integrity?
Pull the other one.
Another way to screw your server up would be to paste random one-liners certain people have in their signatures.