Richard Feynmann once proposed a perpetual motion machine that should work in theory (on a small scale governed by the heisenburg uncertainty principle) even though we do not have the technology needed to make it. It works as follows:
I thought it involved a cat with a slice of buttered toast strapped to it.
TWC has been test marketing these here in Rochester, and I have had one for six months. Disclaimer: I've never had a TiVo or ReplayTV or any other DVR but this one.
Good: Recording selection is integrated into the box's program guide. I can schedule recordings as far in the future as the cable guide will let me scroll. Records up to two programs simultaneously, while playing back a third. Can record any of the analog or digital cable channels. Can FF through commercials during playback. S-Video, stereo out has decent signal quality (also puts out composite and modulated signals).
Bad: No SkipAhead button for commercial skips (you have to FF through them). Response to remote can be slow -- sometimes up to 4-5 seconds delay while it churns. Occasionally drops frames or loses frame integrity on recordings. Box is rented rather than purchased, so I pay extra $$$ every month on the cable bill for the service.
So-so: Unit is somewhat noisy -- I can hear it whirring and humming even when "off" -- non-DVR digital cable box is silent. No way to schedule recordings over the network from a remote location. No component video out.
In general, I like it a lot and use the DVR features all the time now. I wish it was quieter and had better response time, but I can live with it.
The networks, forgetting that the Panhandle jutted into the Central timezone, called Florida for Gore fifteen minutes before the polls in the Panhandle closed. (They thought the polls had closed forty-five minutes before, and were desperately trying to make a call quickly.)
For the "30,000" figure to be correct, there had to be that many last-minute Bush voters, on their way to -- or standing in line at -- the polls while watching TV, saw the state called for Gore, and en masse turned around and went home (instead of voting).
Occam's Razor suggests that the "30,000 votes for Bush" theory was just Republican spin to cover their shameless actions in the Florida recount.
But you don't even mention the African-Americans whose voter registrations were wrongly deleted by Katherine Harris before the election, which is well documented. --
The official Wallstreet / Whitehouse message is now, "There's nothing we can do about it and it would be too expensive to try. It'll hurt the economy so we'll just have to adapt. So go about your business and, oh, hey look, a Cadillac Escalade!" When these guys admit that the argument against climate change can be dismissed as a canard...
This is the defense of the status quo. The only way this can change is if there is widespread, grassroots support for reducing greenhouse emissions (promised by Candidate Bush, promise broken), high-fuel efficiency vehicles (Clinton-era program killed by the Bush Administration before it could complete the new engine technology), international carbon credit trading (zealously opposed by the Bush Admin), etc.
This is the most anti-environmental White House in the history of the nation. They read polls, and so far, a sufficient number of Americans just don't care, and want to keep driving SUVs everywhere. Price of gas too high? Invade Iraq, and fill 'er up.
Books like this are created and touted by conservatives to give themselves intellectual cover for their indefensible policies; the truth is, climate change, and humanity's role in it, is no longer disputed by any reputable scientific authority, including the Bush/Whitman EPA.
No, what the FSF wants is for the W3C standard to be defined in a way that GPL'ed software can comply with. If complying with the W3C standard requires the use of any restricted software technology, then there might not be compliant GPL browsers and servers, and everyone loses.
If the patent owners don't want to release their IP, then the patented technology shouldn't be part of the standard. Period.
Not only is the remote keyless entry unsafe, but driving cars is inherently unsafe. You could be struck and killed. Stay off the roads. Hide in your basement. Wear tinfoil.
Yes. In fact, AMD is probably quietly hoping that Intel wins, so that they (AMD) can also use this technology without paying. Observe that Intel and Intergraph have already completed negotiations over price and royalties. Intel now needs a court to uphold the patent to make their $100M ($250M?) investment in the IP worthwhile. If Intel wins, they (and AMD) save hundreds of millions of dollars, but if they lose, they get access to technology that AMD may have to bankrupt itself to emulate.
Kvetching on/. is therapeutic, but accomplishes little. If the sorry state of IP & patent law bothers you, support a lobbying group that will fight to change it. How about the League of Programming Freedom?
One, this system will be crackable by hardcore pirates. Not legally, under the DMCA, but all the pirate has to do is intercept the decryption key coming off the embedded card, and decrypt the disk image in memory before burning the illegal copies.
Two -- hasn't the market already proven to the software publishers that tricky copy protection always limits sales? There's just tons of technology schemes to enforce licenses, from dongles to license files to whatnot -- but for mass market s/w (Word, NWN, Mavis Beacon, etc.), paying customers (the target market) will almost always go for the non-copy-protected alternatives (even if they don't intend to pirate the disks to all their friends).
I'm confused. Are they writing a 4GL-to-J2EE translator, or are they porting the 4GL compiler to J2EE?
The big decision for you and your board is whether you think the contractor is going to get you where you want to go, faster and cheaper than if you fired them and hired somebody else (like me!;-)
It sounds like you are unhappy with their design, implementation, project management, and QA -- and that's just about everything a contractor offers.
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Everyone wanted to play a barber.
NASA employs many smart engineers...surely they can come up with a more expensive solution!
Bose is german for Evil? That explains why I'm strangely drawn, Boromir-like, to their overpriced audio equipment...my precious...
I thought it involved a cat with a slice of buttered toast strapped to it.
Article Here.
TWC has been test marketing these here in Rochester, and I have had one for six months. Disclaimer: I've never had a TiVo or ReplayTV or any other DVR but this one.
Good: Recording selection is integrated into the box's program guide. I can schedule recordings as far in the future as the cable guide will let me scroll. Records up to two programs simultaneously, while playing back a third. Can record any of the analog or digital cable channels. Can FF through commercials during playback. S-Video, stereo out has decent signal quality (also puts out composite and modulated signals).
Bad: No SkipAhead button for commercial skips (you have to FF through them). Response to remote can be slow -- sometimes up to 4-5 seconds delay while it churns. Occasionally drops frames or loses frame integrity on recordings. Box is rented rather than purchased, so I pay extra $$$ every month on the cable bill for the service.
So-so: Unit is somewhat noisy -- I can hear it whirring and humming even when "off" -- non-DVR digital cable box is silent. No way to schedule recordings over the network from a remote location. No component video out.
In general, I like it a lot and use the DVR features all the time now. I wish it was quieter and had better response time, but I can live with it.
It looks like he's digested everything that's been on Slashdot for the last six months to a year (without the In Soviet Russia jokes).
It should be if it is used to avoid prosecution for violating a state's Do Not Call registry...
Let's look at this.
The networks, forgetting that the Panhandle jutted into the Central timezone, called Florida for Gore fifteen minutes before the polls in the Panhandle closed. (They thought the polls had closed forty-five minutes before, and were desperately trying to make a call quickly.)
For the "30,000" figure to be correct, there had to be that many last-minute Bush voters, on their way to -- or standing in line at -- the polls while watching TV, saw the state called for Gore, and en masse turned around and went home (instead of voting).
Occam's Razor suggests that the "30,000 votes for Bush" theory was just Republican spin to cover their shameless actions in the Florida recount.
But you don't even mention the African-Americans whose voter registrations were wrongly deleted by Katherine Harris before the election, which is well documented.
--
The official Wallstreet / Whitehouse message is now, "There's nothing we can do about it and it would be too expensive to try. It'll hurt the economy so we'll just have to adapt. So go about your business and, oh, hey look, a Cadillac Escalade!" When these guys admit that the argument against climate change can be dismissed as a canard...
This is the defense of the status quo. The only way this can change is if there is widespread, grassroots support for reducing greenhouse emissions (promised by Candidate Bush, promise broken), high-fuel efficiency vehicles (Clinton-era program killed by the Bush Administration before it could complete the new engine technology), international carbon credit trading (zealously opposed by the Bush Admin), etc.
This is the most anti-environmental White House in the history of the nation. They read polls, and so far, a sufficient number of Americans just don't care, and want to keep driving SUVs everywhere. Price of gas too high? Invade Iraq, and fill 'er up.
Books like this are created and touted by conservatives to give themselves intellectual cover for their indefensible policies; the truth is, climate change, and humanity's role in it, is no longer disputed by any reputable scientific authority, including the Bush/Whitman EPA.
Line and circle rendering algorithms. Probably in every graphics driver ever written.
No, what the FSF wants is for the W3C standard to be defined in a way that GPL'ed software can comply with. If complying with the W3C standard requires the use of any restricted software technology, then there might not be compliant GPL browsers and servers, and everyone loses.
If the patent owners don't want to release their IP, then the patented technology shouldn't be part of the standard. Period.
What about activating the magic terraforming machine the aliens left us?
Not only is the remote keyless entry unsafe, but driving cars is inherently unsafe. You could be struck and killed. Stay off the roads. Hide in your basement. Wear tinfoil.
Yes. In fact, AMD is probably quietly hoping that Intel wins, so that they (AMD) can also use this technology without paying. Observe that Intel and Intergraph have already completed negotiations over price and royalties. Intel now needs a court to uphold the patent to make their $100M ($250M?) investment in the IP worthwhile. If Intel wins, they (and AMD) save hundreds of millions of dollars, but if they lose, they get access to technology that AMD may have to bankrupt itself to emulate.
I can see this technology being used in civilian life...
"Where do you want to put the TV screen?"
"How about this wall here?"
"Good choice, hand me the spray bottle..."
http://www.iceboxllc.com/home.html
Echelon, Carnivore, and other BigBrotherWare.
ImhotepBot crushes the puny Pyramid Rover.
Kvetching on /. is therapeutic, but accomplishes little. If the sorry state of IP & patent law bothers you, support a lobbying group that will fight to change it. How about the League of Programming Freedom?
One, this system will be crackable by hardcore pirates. Not legally, under the DMCA, but all the pirate has to do is intercept the decryption key coming off the embedded card, and decrypt the disk image in memory before burning the illegal copies.
Two -- hasn't the market already proven to the software publishers that tricky copy protection always limits sales? There's just tons of technology schemes to enforce licenses, from dongles to license files to whatnot -- but for mass market s/w (Word, NWN, Mavis Beacon, etc.), paying customers (the target market) will almost always go for the non-copy-protected alternatives (even if they don't intend to pirate the disks to all their friends).
Will it be able to play Neverwinter Nights at a LAN party? ;-)
I'm confused. Are they writing a 4GL-to-J2EE translator, or are they porting the 4GL compiler to J2EE?
The big decision for you and your board is whether you think the contractor is going to get you where you want to go, faster and cheaper than if you fired them and hired somebody else (like me! ;-)
It sounds like you are unhappy with their design, implementation, project management, and QA -- and that's just about everything a contractor offers.
...is that R2D2 and C3PO's memories are accidentally wiped during a bungled attempt to upgrade their firmware in Flash ROM...
If they run the probe with Intel chips it should generate enough heat...