The Unicode organization seems pretty disciplined to me! To encode all the asian characters in active use, they needed a character space bigger than 2^16. So, they've chosen a 21-bit system that maps very easily to 16-bits for most of the characters. And UTF-8 maps the whole Unicode space down to 8-bits for most US-ASCII characters.
If a filename is encoded in UTF-8, there's still a maximum number of bytes allowed in the name, it's just that in Unicode that could be a variable number of "characters", though strictly less than the number of bytes.
Then there's always UTF-32, which just directly maps the 21-bit Unicode character number onto a longint. Easy to deal with those...
and again, UTF-16 was good enough
You mean a previous version of Unicode that was limited to a 16-bit representation? That'd be way back at Unicode version 1. Unicode version 2.0 brought with it the UTF-x encodings and the 21-bit character space. It's been that way ever since!!!
The point is, 16 bits was not enough for the world's actively used languages.
Once expanded past 16 bits, there was enough room for all the active languages, and also room for some lesser used scripts, like Linear B.
They're not even taking ALL possible scripts and languages, even if the proper channels have been used to propose them. For example, Klingon was rejected, even though it can be argued that it is a scholarly language worthy of study.
No, Unicode is a very well planned and thought out standard, and it is now THE standard for international text.
Or increase the MTU (bigger packets), which may not be a big problem if you're on DSL (short hop) connected to a fiber link (low error rate), set MTU discovery off, and clear the DF bit.
Increasing the MTU will not necessarily improve throughput.
If anything, a lower MTU could conceivably improve TCP throughput, since smaller packets get to the far end more quickly and would thus be acknoledged sooner, and much less total bandwidth is wasted on retransmissions of the (smaller) lost packets.
Imagine a worst case: Setting the MTU to 32000 with the TCP Window also at 32000. The sending machine would send one packet, and sit idle waiting until it was acknowledged before sending the next packet. That's what XMODEM did, and it was awful.:)
As far as I can tell from various reports out there, there are enough technical difficulties with cellphone-to-ground service on planes that they are not simply going to allow regular cell phone use:
Ars Technica reports that there are two bans in place: the FAA for flight safety reasons, and the FCC for cellphone network interference reasons. (A cell phone can reach too many towers at once, thus interfering with towers other than the one it's actually communicating with) The USA Today article quoted by the Ars article discusses all this pretty well.
So, companies are trying to come up with a solution. One company, AirCell, has been granted "a patent" (US Pat 6,408,180) for facilitating cell phone use in planes. AirCell has a press release touting their patent and technology. USA Today said Aircell would charge a roaming fee to use their network.
The patent discusses the various methods used to reduce interference with ground stations, like antenna polarization.
It also seems to discuss an additional cell site on the plane itself, that is designed to convince all the passengers' phones to talk to it, so that it can efficiently relay the signals in a non-interfering mannor down to the ground.
It ALSO seems like they talk about redesigned ground sites to facilitate this, so you have to wonder what the involvement of each of the cell phone providers will have to be.
It just hurts to think about the infrastructure investment in all these different, competeing cell technologies in the US. Wouldn't it make lots of sense to just GIVE UP and legislate/regulate a single standard. Say, GSM for example. Works for Europe...:)
I'm sorry. This just canNOT go unanswered. Nay, we must resort to blatant copyright violations to cure this NOW. The quote is from the late Douglass Adams's book, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Geeks around the world resonate with Adams's humor, such that a good number of/. references are to his work.
So go read the book! Now! Meanwhile, to whet your whistle, and explain the 42 reference, here are the pertinant excerpts from Hitchhiker's guide:
Chapter 25: There are of course many problems connected with life, of which some of the most popular are Why are people born? Why do they die? Why do they want to spend so much of the intervening time wearing digital watches?
Many many millions of years ago a race of hyperintelligent pan-dimensional beings (whose physical manifestation in their own pan-dimensional universe is not dissimilar to our own) got so fed up with the constant bickering about the meaning of life which used to interrupt their favourite pastime of Brockian Ultra Cricket (a curious game which involved suddenly hitting people for no readily apparent reason and then running away) that they decided to sit down and solve their problems once and for all.
And to this end they built themselves a stupendous super computer which was so amazingly intelligent that even before the data banks had been connected up it had started from I think therefore I am and got as far as the existence of rice pudding and income tax before anyone managed to turn it off.
It was the size of a small city.
Its main console was installed in a specially designed executive office, mounted on an enormous executive desk of finest ultramahagony topped with rich ultrared leather. The dark carpeting was discreetly sumptuous, exotic pot plants and tastefully engraved prints of the principal computer programmers and their families were deployed liberally about the room, and stately windows looked out upon a tree-lined public square.
On the day of the Great On-Turning two soberly dressed programmers with brief cases arrived and were shown discreetly into the office. They were aware that this day they would represent their entire race in its greatest moment, but they conducted themselves calmly and quietly as they seated themselves deferentially before the desk, opened their brief cases and took out their leather-bound notebooks.
Their names were Lunkwill and Fook.
For a few moments they sat in respectful silence, then, after exchanging a quiet glance with Fook, Lunkwill leaned forward and touched a small black panel.
The subtlest of hums indicated that the massive computer was now in total active mode. After a pause it spoke to them in a voice rich resonant and deep.
It said: "What is this great task for which I, Deep Thought, the second greatest computer in the Universe of Time and Space have been called into existence?"
[...]
"O Deep Thought Computer," he said, "the task we have designed you to perform is this. We want you to tell us..." he paused, "... the Answer!"
"The answer?" said Deep Thought. "The answer to what?"
"Life!" urged Fook.
"The Universe!" said Lunkwill.
"Everything!" they said in chorus.
Deep Thought paused for a moment's reflection.
"Tricky," he said finally.
"But can you do it?"
Again, a significant pause.
"Yes," said Deep Thought, "I can do it."
"There is an answer?" said Fook with breathless excitement."
"A simple answer?" added Lunkwill.
"Yes," said Deep Thought. "Life, the Universe, and Everything. There is an answer. But," he added, "I'll have to think about it."
[...]
Fook glanced impatiently at his watch.
"How long?" he said.
"Seven and a half million years," said Deep Thought.
Nah... it's just too much fun to use metonymy with our two favorite computer companies. And the more familiar you make it sound, the more entertaining it is.
So I just refer to Microsoft and Apple as "Uncle Bill" and "Uncle Steve".
I occasionally really confuse my poor users though, usually as I'm disgustedly muttering something about Uncle Bill.:)
As text is a key element in wireless communications, the 3GPP specification includes support for 3G Text (TX3G). This text is time-based, meaning it can be appropriately synchronized with audio and video tracks for titling, captioning, and even karaoke. QuickTime 6.3 includes support for importing and exporting 3G Text as well as XML. In addition, nearly any ASCII text file can be imported into QuickTime Pro and exported as 3G Text in a.3gp file.
> Also, the higher temperatures will form more carbon monoxide vs dioxide ratios than normal
Carbon compounds are not much of a problem, since there's no carbon involved! I don't think any carbon dioxide from the ambient air would get converted to carbon monoxide, and there's no other source of carbon.
Meanwhile, there are ways of dealing with the nitrogen problem. The promotional materials for this hydrogen scooter don't specify if they use a catalytic converter, which dramatically reduces the emission of nitrogen compounds. A good converter would probably do the trick.
Just think for a moment about how dependant we are on GPS for a whole bunch of things now...
It is a complex system, and if computer science has taught us nothing else (and it hasn't), we know that complex systems can never be immune to failure.
If there were a totally redundant system of different design, I for one would want to require planes and ships to carry recievers for BOTH systems. Then you can check for agreement or be in much better shape if either system failed for whatever reason.
- Peter
(extra points to anyone who sees my failed attempt at a Simpsons reference)
Re:More Than Meets The Eye?
on
Gas Goes Solid
·
· Score: 1
PLEASE, take the time to make a link a link. It's really not hard, saves people time (and the frustration of the extra spaces in URLs) and it makes the world a better place*.
Certain cells are NOT replaced regularly in our bodies, most importantly the central nervous system cells.
The nerve that runs from a motor neuron in your brain down to a muscle in your lower leg is ONE cell, and that cell doesn't regenerate if it dies.
This is why spinal cord injuries are such bad news, and why stem cell research (cells that DO grow) is so neat.
So when you're 80 years old, some of your most important cells are also 80 years old! I think this will be the most limiting factor in exending human life span -- we'll figure out how to reset telomeres to cause infinite regeneration of cells, so your skin, muscles, bones will all stay 20 years old forever. But those pesky CNS cells... aren't used to dying and being replaced.
But maybe they WILL be able to convince CNS cells to die, and get new ones to grow in their place. Conceivably, every 40 years you'd need a CNS cell flush, along with some rehabilitation to train in the new cells to function properly.
Memory could even be preserved! What was the/. article a while ago about how every time we "remember" a memory, it's actually re-written in our cells? Sort of like a DRAM refresh process. So you get some new frontal-cortex cells grown, somehow walk through your memories, thus getting them resaved into the new cells, before you weed out the old ones.
Except that if you use your entire bandwidth 24/7, the ISP will probably try to move you to a more appropriate price level, maybe a "business" level account, or discontinue your service with their apologies -- entirely in their rights. They like being able to offer such high bandwidth on an intermittent basis, but they cannot sustain constant high-use.
Of course ISPs oversell their bandwidth. Do the math!
The telephone companies oversell their capacity, as do all public utilities.
Some ISPs are a little more forthcoming of their exact expectations for "fair use", and do advanced rate-shaping so that you'd get 1Mbps for three hours, but then only 250kbps after that, or something.
Mighty hard for them to stay in business if they don't. Getting big pipes is still expensive! I'm actually surprised how much bandwidth costs have NOT fallen, given how much dark fiber there is.
No, the poster is asking how the apartment complex can be their own cable internet provider -- reread the quesion:
is there any way the front office folk could get broadband service (T1 or fractional) which they could (via a router and multiplexer) then send down the wire with the regular TV signal like cable companies do?
... if I write a letter to my congresscritter supporting an issue, I support that issue whether or not the original words are entirely mine. After all, presidents use speechwriters -- and this is entirely accepted as the norm (though Lincoln often wrote his own, but that's an abberation.) And yet we say that the president himself (or herself, someday in the future) supports the issue. Why should members of the public be ignored just because they have speechwriters, of a sort? It's the opinion that matters, not the form of the opinion, as long as it's not threatening or rude to another person.
Firewire is NOT designed to replace networking. It's a short-range peripheral connection system.
There are a number of different media types that IEEE 1394x can use. But for full-speed of 800Mbps or 1.6Gbps, only STP (short twisted-pair) or expensive multi-mode fiber can be used.
Yes, there are experiments implementing IP over firewire, but nobody is advocating that it replace any kind of Ethernet solution.
Now, on the otherhand, Rendezvous could make Ethernet replace Firewire as a way of connecting peripherals. At some point soon, rendezvous-on-a-chip will make it easy for scanner manufacturers, for example, to allow a scanner to merely be plugged in to an ethernet network and use zero-conf IP to move data.
Think about it:
State-of-the-art ethernet is at 1Gbps full-duplex, with very flexable (& cheap!) cabling requirements. I'm really surprised that nobody is using this signalling technology for peripherals. 1Gbps is faster than even the 800Mbps that 1394b will advertize.
It's the complex interplay of different technology layers, and how to get them to work toegether, that makes this tricky. At the signalling level, i.e. bits on copper or glass, you've got various ethernets, usb, firewire.
Next, how you arrange for multiple devices to share access to the copper or glass; again you've got different methods with ethernets, usb, or firewire.
And then what protocol arranges the bits together to convey information. Firewire and USB include specifications for time-sensitive bits (isochronous) and bus management that ethernet doesn't provide... instead, in networks other protocol layers take care of device discovery and congestion etc.
Which combination of layers is best for various applications has yet to be proven. And they're all moving targets, too!
Once you get up around 1Gbps, the bottleneck is assembling the data to feed to the wire -- if the packets aren't made much bigger, you have to have hefty CPU power to pump that many tiny packets per second and reassemble them...
Linux may be free, but you're looking for something that costs money and comes with support...
Apple's XServe servers aren't a bad deal. OS X is based on FreeBSD, so don't think that Apple is still in their proprietary little world any more. They're certainly better at embracing open standards than that silly Redmond company.:)
Naming this movie "The Two Towers" is hate speech, according to the folks at www.twotowersprotest.org.
Why?
You insensitive clod, it's because "The Two Towers" somehow reminds us of the World Trade Center towers. (Never mind that the towers never went by that name. They were the "Twin Towers" in some circles. I never heard "Two Towers")
I can't find any references to protests about the title of "K19: Widowmaker" -- talk about an insensitive title!
Sigh.
I'm wandering even farther off topic, please excuse me:
My grandfather just passed away, and he was cremated. Garrison Keillor, in his "News from Lake Wobegon" tonight on the Prairie Home Companion radio show, told an extended joke about a grandma who would take "grandpa" (an urn) down off the shelf around christmas time, so he could spend time with the family. Think about it -- this can be quite funny, all the odd situations that go on with an urn in the picture.
Obviously, I had rather mixed feelings hearing this, given my family's recent loss.
But should I be mad at Keillor for telling this joke? Is it in poor taste?
I'm willing to say of course not! Humor, art, literature, movies talk about stuff that happens in life.
You could try to restrict the content of art forms so as not to offend anybody... but you'd never succeed.
This two towers thing is JUST A COINCIDENCE, and not to obvious a one at that. It never even ocurred to me until I'd read about this protest.
Stop to consider that sometimes protests like this just make the whole situation worse.
Off the soapbox... sorry for the rant...
(Go out and enjoy the movie!!! I got my tickets already.:)
The terms "viral antibiotic" or "antiviral antibiotic" are silly. If the drug is designed to kill bacteria, it is an antibiotic. If it's designed to be active against viruses, it's "antiviral".
Some antibiotics might also be active against some viruses, and some antivirals might be active against some bacteria... but I doubt any would be used for both.
Well, then of course you've got a class of substances that definitely kill both. Bleach, for example.:)
(Same with fungi -- there are antifungal agents designed just for fungi. We don't call those fungal antibiotics.)
I'm sure they do have a good amount of telemetry, and will be able to release more details about the failure.
But why did they blow it up? As soon as some system on board or on the ground detected whatever major problem it was, it triggered a self-destruct, according to the article.
Given nearly half a billion euros' worth of payload, wouldn't some sort of safe abort procedure make sense? Jettison the payload along with a big parachute?
Seems almost silly just to intentionally blow it all up -- unless they know that it's much safer to do that than risk it falling to earth intact. One of those rocket-science decisions...:)
Slashdot Mirror
Am I the only one unhappy with the current Unicode? The problem is that there's just not one Unicode -- there's THREE (UTF-8, UTF-16, and UTF-32).
No, there is just one Unicode. There are three different ways to represent Unicode data, UTF-8, -16, and -32 as you mentioned.
The Unicode organization seems pretty disciplined to me! To encode all the asian characters in active use, they needed a character space bigger than 2^16. So, they've chosen a 21-bit system that maps very easily to 16-bits for most of the characters. And UTF-8 maps the whole Unicode space down to 8-bits for most US-ASCII characters.
If a filename is encoded in UTF-8, there's still a maximum number of bytes allowed in the name, it's just that in Unicode that could be a variable number of "characters", though strictly less than the number of bytes.
Then there's always UTF-32, which just directly maps the 21-bit Unicode character number onto a longint. Easy to deal with those...
and again, UTF-16 was good enough
You mean a previous version of Unicode that was limited to a 16-bit representation? That'd be way back at Unicode version 1. Unicode version 2.0 brought with it the UTF-x encodings and the 21-bit character space. It's been that way ever since!!!
The point is, 16 bits was not enough for the world's actively used languages.
Once expanded past 16 bits, there was enough room for all the active languages, and also room for some lesser used scripts, like Linear B.
They're not even taking ALL possible scripts and languages, even if the proper channels have been used to propose them. For example, Klingon was rejected, even though it can be argued that it is a scholarly language worthy of study.
No, Unicode is a very well planned and thought out standard, and it is now THE standard for international text.
- Peter
If anything, a lower MTU could conceivably improve TCP throughput, since smaller packets get to the far end more quickly and would thus be acknoledged sooner, and much less total bandwidth is wasted on retransmissions of the (smaller) lost packets.
Imagine a worst case: Setting the MTU to 32000 with the TCP Window also at 32000. The sending machine would send one packet, and sit idle waiting until it was acknowledged before sending the next packet. That's what XMODEM did, and it was awful.
- Peter
As far as I can tell from various reports out there, there are enough technical difficulties with cellphone-to-ground service on planes that they are not simply going to allow regular cell phone use:
:)
Ars Technica reports that there are two bans in place: the FAA for flight safety reasons, and the FCC for cellphone network interference reasons. (A cell phone can reach too many towers at once, thus interfering with towers other than the one it's actually communicating with) The USA Today article quoted by the Ars article discusses all this pretty well.
So, companies are trying to come up with a solution. One company, AirCell, has been granted "a patent" (US Pat 6,408,180) for facilitating cell phone use in planes. AirCell has a press release touting their patent and technology. USA Today said Aircell would charge a roaming fee to use their network.
The patent discusses the various methods used to reduce interference with ground stations, like antenna polarization.
It also seems to discuss an additional cell site on the plane itself, that is designed to convince all the passengers' phones to talk to it, so that it can efficiently relay the signals in a non-interfering mannor down to the ground.
It ALSO seems like they talk about redesigned ground sites to facilitate this, so you have to wonder what the involvement of each of the cell phone providers will have to be.
(skimming patents is not easy... I might be wrong, but the images help. In TIFF format: diagram of relay system on the plane, special cell sites vs normal cell sites)
It just hurts to think about the infrastructure investment in all these different, competeing cell technologies in the US. Wouldn't it make lots of sense to just GIVE UP and legislate/regulate a single standard. Say, GSM for example. Works for Europe...
- Peter
I'm sorry. This just canNOT go unanswered. Nay, we must resort to blatant copyright violations to cure this NOW. The quote is from the late Douglass Adams's book, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Geeks around the world resonate with Adams's humor, such that a good number of /. references are to his work.
..." he paused, "... the Answer!"
So go read the book! Now! Meanwhile, to whet your whistle, and explain the 42 reference, here are the pertinant excerpts from Hitchhiker's guide:
Chapter 25: There are of course many problems connected with life, of which some of the most popular are Why are people born? Why do they die? Why do they want to spend so much of the intervening time wearing digital watches?
Many many millions of years ago a race of hyperintelligent pan-dimensional beings (whose physical manifestation in their own pan-dimensional universe is not dissimilar to our own) got so fed up with the constant bickering about the meaning of life which used to interrupt their favourite pastime of Brockian Ultra Cricket (a curious game which involved suddenly hitting people for no readily apparent reason and then running away) that they decided to sit down and solve their problems once and for all.
And to this end they built themselves a stupendous super computer which was so amazingly intelligent that even before the data banks had been connected up it had started from I think therefore I am and got as far as the existence of rice pudding and income tax before anyone managed to turn it off.
It was the size of a small city.
Its main console was installed in a specially designed executive office, mounted on an enormous executive desk of finest ultramahagony topped with rich ultrared leather. The dark carpeting was discreetly sumptuous, exotic pot plants and tastefully engraved prints of the principal computer programmers and their families were deployed liberally about the room, and stately windows looked out upon a tree-lined public square.
On the day of the Great On-Turning two soberly dressed programmers with brief cases arrived and were shown discreetly into the office. They were aware that this day they would represent their entire race in its greatest moment, but they conducted themselves calmly and quietly as they seated themselves deferentially before the desk, opened their brief cases and took out their leather-bound notebooks.
Their names were Lunkwill and Fook.
For a few moments they sat in respectful silence, then, after exchanging a quiet glance with Fook, Lunkwill leaned forward and touched a small black panel.
The subtlest of hums indicated that the massive computer was now in total active mode. After a pause it spoke to them in a voice rich resonant and deep.
It said: "What is this great task for which I, Deep Thought, the second greatest computer in the Universe of Time and Space have been called into existence?"
[...]
"O Deep Thought Computer," he said, "the task we have designed you to perform is this. We want you to tell us
"The answer?" said Deep Thought. "The answer to what?"
"Life!" urged Fook.
"The Universe!" said Lunkwill.
"Everything!" they said in chorus.
Deep Thought paused for a moment's reflection.
"Tricky," he said finally.
"But can you do it?"
Again, a significant pause.
"Yes," said Deep Thought, "I can do it."
"There is an answer?" said Fook with breathless excitement."
"A simple answer?" added Lunkwill.
"Yes," said Deep Thought. "Life, the Universe, and Everything. There is an answer. But," he added, "I'll have to think about it."
[...]
Fook glanced impatiently at his watch.
"How long?" he said.
"Seven and a half million years," said Deep Thought.
[... skip ahead to chapter 27, seven a
Nah... it's just too much fun to use metonymy with our two favorite computer companies. And the more familiar you make it sound, the more entertaining it is.
:)
So I just refer to Microsoft and Apple as "Uncle Bill" and "Uncle Steve".
I occasionally really confuse my poor users though, usually as I'm disgustedly muttering something about Uncle Bill.
- Peter
- Peter
> Also, the higher temperatures will form more carbon monoxide vs dioxide ratios than normal
Carbon compounds are not much of a problem, since there's no carbon involved! I don't think any carbon dioxide from the ambient air would get converted to carbon monoxide, and there's no other source of carbon.
Meanwhile, there are ways of dealing with the nitrogen problem. The promotional materials for this hydrogen scooter don't specify if they use a catalytic converter, which dramatically reduces the emission of nitrogen compounds. A good converter would probably do the trick.
- Peter
> I want my points.
Hey, you got 'em!
- Peter
Just think for a moment about how dependant we are on GPS for a whole bunch of things now...
It is a complex system, and if computer science has taught us nothing else (and it hasn't), we know that complex systems can never be immune to failure.
If there were a totally redundant system of different design, I for one would want to require planes and ships to carry recievers for BOTH systems. Then you can check for agreement or be in much better shape if either system failed for whatever reason.
- Peter
(extra points to anyone who sees my failed attempt at a Simpsons reference)
Bah weep, grah nah weep. Nini bong!
- Peter
>>>>For the love of GOD, the word is "ITS", not "IT'S"!
>>>Hey, its not there fault.
>>Your funny.
>Here here!
This is hilarious! Someone should really put it on a web sight.
- Peter
PLEASE, take the time to make a link a link. It's really not hard, saves people time (and the frustration of the extra spaces in URLs) and it makes the world a better place*.
The link is to:
An article about IBM research
- Peter
*hyperbole
Certain cells are NOT replaced regularly in our bodies, most importantly the central nervous system cells.
/. article a while ago about how every time we "remember" a memory, it's actually re-written in our cells? Sort of like a DRAM refresh process. So you get some new frontal-cortex cells grown, somehow walk through your memories, thus getting them resaved into the new cells, before you weed out the old ones.
The nerve that runs from a motor neuron in your brain down to a muscle in your lower leg is ONE cell, and that cell doesn't regenerate if it dies.
This is why spinal cord injuries are such bad news, and why stem cell research (cells that DO grow) is so neat.
So when you're 80 years old, some of your most important cells are also 80 years old! I think this will be the most limiting factor in exending human life span -- we'll figure out how to reset telomeres to cause infinite regeneration of cells, so your skin, muscles, bones will all stay 20 years old forever. But those pesky CNS cells... aren't used to dying and being replaced.
But maybe they WILL be able to convince CNS cells to die, and get new ones to grow in their place. Conceivably, every 40 years you'd need a CNS cell flush, along with some rehabilitation to train in the new cells to function properly.
Memory could even be preserved! What was the
- Peter
Except that if you use your entire bandwidth 24/7, the ISP will probably try to move you to a more appropriate price level, maybe a "business" level account, or discontinue your service with their apologies -- entirely in their rights. They like being able to offer such high bandwidth on an intermittent basis, but they cannot sustain constant high-use.
Of course ISPs oversell their bandwidth. Do the math!
The telephone companies oversell their capacity, as do all public utilities.
Some ISPs are a little more forthcoming of their exact expectations for "fair use", and do advanced rate-shaping so that you'd get 1Mbps for three hours, but then only 250kbps after that, or something.
Mighty hard for them to stay in business if they don't. Getting big pipes is still expensive! I'm actually surprised how much bandwidth costs have NOT fallen, given how much dark fiber there is.
- Peter
- Peter
So... this would be a smokable drug-delivery device that delivers... no drug?
Sounds like a winner!
- Peter
The US is able to jam GPS in a country by telling the satellites themselves not to transmit while over the area in question.
Better yet, they can disable the "civilian" use transmissions, while continuing the encrypted military-use signals.
That's not jamming, it's full control over the transmissions.
- Peter
> Does anyone know anymore about this.
This is completely off topic, but is anyone else really irritated when people don't use question marks?
It just hurts. It's like hearing fingernails on a chalk-board coming from the back of my eyeballs.
Sorry. I'm done now. Carry on...
- Peter
Firewire is NOT designed to replace networking. It's a short-range peripheral connection system.
:p
There are a number of different media types that IEEE 1394x can use. But for full-speed of 800Mbps or 1.6Gbps, only STP (short twisted-pair) or expensive multi-mode fiber can be used.
Yes, there are experiments implementing IP over firewire, but nobody is advocating that it replace any kind of Ethernet solution.
Now, on the otherhand, Rendezvous could make Ethernet replace Firewire as a way of connecting peripherals. At some point soon, rendezvous-on-a-chip will make it easy for scanner manufacturers, for example, to allow a scanner to merely be plugged in to an ethernet network and use zero-conf IP to move data.
Think about it:
State-of-the-art ethernet is at 1Gbps full-duplex, with very flexable (& cheap!) cabling requirements. I'm really surprised that nobody is using this signalling technology for peripherals. 1Gbps is faster than even the 800Mbps that 1394b will advertize.
It's the complex interplay of different technology layers, and how to get them to work toegether, that makes this tricky. At the signalling level, i.e. bits on copper or glass, you've got various ethernets, usb, firewire.
Next, how you arrange for multiple devices to share access to the copper or glass; again you've got different methods with ethernets, usb, or firewire.
And then what protocol arranges the bits together to convey information. Firewire and USB include specifications for time-sensitive bits (isochronous) and bus management that ethernet doesn't provide... instead, in networks other protocol layers take care of device discovery and congestion etc.
Which combination of layers is best for various applications has yet to be proven. And they're all moving targets, too!
Once you get up around 1Gbps, the bottleneck is assembling the data to feed to the wire -- if the packets aren't made much bigger, you have to have hefty CPU power to pump that many tiny packets per second and reassemble them...
and now I'm just rambling.
- Peter
Linux may be free, but you're looking for something that costs money and comes with support...
:)
Apple's XServe servers aren't a bad deal. OS X is based on FreeBSD, so don't think that Apple is still in their proprietary little world any more. They're certainly better at embracing open standards than that silly Redmond company.
- Peter
Bummer.
So, um... get this:
:)
Naming this movie "The Two Towers" is hate speech, according to the folks at www.twotowersprotest.org.
Why?
You insensitive clod, it's because "The Two Towers" somehow reminds us of the World Trade Center towers. (Never mind that the towers never went by that name. They were the "Twin Towers" in some circles. I never heard "Two Towers")
I can't find any references to protests about the title of "K19: Widowmaker" -- talk about an insensitive title!
Sigh.
I'm wandering even farther off topic, please excuse me:
My grandfather just passed away, and he was cremated. Garrison Keillor, in his "News from Lake Wobegon" tonight on the Prairie Home Companion radio show, told an extended joke about a grandma who would take "grandpa" (an urn) down off the shelf around christmas time, so he could spend time with the family. Think about it -- this can be quite funny, all the odd situations that go on with an urn in the picture.
Obviously, I had rather mixed feelings hearing this, given my family's recent loss.
But should I be mad at Keillor for telling this joke? Is it in poor taste?
I'm willing to say of course not! Humor, art, literature, movies talk about stuff that happens in life.
You could try to restrict the content of art forms so as not to offend anybody... but you'd never succeed.
This two towers thing is JUST A COINCIDENCE, and not to obvious a one at that. It never even ocurred to me until I'd read about this protest.
Stop to consider that sometimes protests like this just make the whole situation worse.
Off the soapbox... sorry for the rant...
(Go out and enjoy the movie!!! I got my tickets already.
- Peter
The terms "viral antibiotic" or "antiviral antibiotic" are silly. If the drug is designed to kill bacteria, it is an antibiotic. If it's designed to be active against viruses, it's "antiviral".
:)
Some antibiotics might also be active against some viruses, and some antivirals might be active against some bacteria... but I doubt any would be used for both.
Well, then of course you've got a class of substances that definitely kill both. Bleach, for example.
(Same with fungi -- there are antifungal agents designed just for fungi. We don't call those fungal antibiotics.)
- Peter
I'm sure they do have a good amount of telemetry, and will be able to release more details about the failure.
:)
But why did they blow it up? As soon as some system on board or on the ground detected whatever major problem it was, it triggered a self-destruct, according to the article.
Given nearly half a billion euros' worth of payload, wouldn't some sort of safe abort procedure make sense? Jettison the payload along with a big parachute?
Seems almost silly just to intentionally blow it all up -- unless they know that it's much safer to do that than risk it falling to earth intact. One of those rocket-science decisions...
- Peter