Finally, before signing off, I should clarify my earlier remarks to the effect that I don't think that Apple will use this CPU. I originally based this assessment on the fact that I knew that the SPUs would not use VMX/Altivec. However, the PPC core does have a VMX unit. Nonetheless, I expect this VMX to be very simple, and roughly comparable to the Altivec unit o the first G4. Everything on this processor is stripped down to the bare minimum, so don't expect a ton of VMX performance out of it, and definitely not anything comparable to the G5. Furthermore, any Altivec code written for the new G4 or G5 would have to be completely reoptimized due to inorder nature of the PPC core's issue.
So the short answer is, Apple's use of this chip is within the realm of concievability, but it's extremely unlikely in the short- and medium-term. Apple is just too heavily invested in Altivec, and this processor is going to be a relative weakling in that department. Sure, it'll pack a major SIMD punch, but that will not be a double-precision Alitvec-type punch.
Due to the new cooperation between Google, Inc, and Mapsolute GmbH, maker of the unique mapping portal Map24.com, it is now possible to search for city maps in all European Google search engines. If you enter a city name into Google.co.uk, the first result list entry is a special link to Map24.com that brings up the corresponding city map. On the result page, for sure, the full set of the rich Map24 options is available to the users.
With the caliber of the majority movies on the list I know I have seen many of these in the bargain binat walmart for $5.50, what's to stop me from picking up a couple hundred/thousand of these and making a nice profit? Besides the obvious amount of work involved, and the fact I'd most likely have topay for shipping in both directions?
I thought this guy made some interesting points, and his delivery method was borderline brilliant, but the question I have is what can we do?
I was recently having a discussion with my mother, who in the last few years has eschewed the television almost entirely, but while she was visiting my aunt found herself watching the news. Her near immediate reaction was what the hell is this? The news she had grown up with had at least seemed solid, fair, unbiased, and if anything viewed the entirety of the political machine with skepticism. "Human interest" stories were almost non-existant, there was no sensationalism, and comercialism hadn't yet sunk its claws into the medium.
The question I now have is when did profit become the business of news, or am I naive for thinking it ever wasn't? How can a fair media exist if as I see it there are only three means of supporting itself: fees from subscribers, fees from advertisers, or being state sponsered?
If the majority of people are not inclined to want "real" news, a premire news outlet cannot rely on subscription fees alone, and the other two alternitives I can only see as cripling to the objectivity of the source, or am I now being too jaded?
I like to think in the year 2014 I'll be able to use whatever is in place to be the best educated citizen I can be, but am I wrong in wondering what the point is, if as I suspect 90% of the people out there are only hearing what they want to hear, truth be damned?
Never in my life have I felt the sting of being a minority, I'm a white male in Minnesota, but I fear a change is coming in which the intellectuals of this country are beholden to the whims of the ignorant and uneducated.
I fear the last election, the current war in Iraq, and the broad spectrum line-up of "reality" TV is just the tip of the iceberg, in the long decline of our society.
I for one do not welcome our new, ignorant and sedate majority overlords.
Grammer Nazis -- I am sorry about the typo, I do understand the difference between the contraction for they are and the possesive their, I just mistyped and didn't bother to preview. Once again sorry, and flame on.
Could this tech be used to help robots, or any computer really better understand it's evironment visually? As I understand it one of the problems facing robot optics is the lack of depth perception and identifying object bounderies, if they used optics in the nonvisable spectrum and basically walked around with they're flashes strobing happily along would that help these problems? The only problem I see with that is multiple robots flashes interfering with each other, so maybe it's only be used sparingly when absolutely needed? Or is this technology completely inappropriate for this application?
They'll develop a working missile defense system. All kidding aside how hard is it going to be to position this giant copper bullet in the path of a speeding comet? How acurately can they predict the comets path (whenever I here about near earth passes they are always given in wide ranges as to how near they actually came). So maybe I just naieve but the idea that we could hurl a giant block of metal into a comet traveling 23,000 miles per hour millions of miles away, I feel like a kid again at the wonderment.
Fuck you George... Fuck you you God-Damned hollywood-grassfucker... I hate you and I hope you die of some really bad VD that has yet to be discovered. You piece of shit money-grubbing whore.
Talking about the films being unfinished before and just needing you to throw millions of dollars at them and your fancy special effects computers to churn away on them. I call bullshit.
Did you not have enough money in 1976 to make Greedo shoot first, was the technology not available at the time, was that it?
George: Harrison, sorry, um yeah, well see here's the thing, we just don't have enough laser special effects to have Greedo shoot at you first so we'll just have to have you kill him in cold blood.
Harrison: But won't that make my character an "anti-hero"?
George: Yeah, I'm really sorry about that. I solemly swear to fix it in post-production 20 years later restoring bland noble virtue to your white hat wearing space cowboy.
Harrison: Um, okay George.
There is a place for you in Hell you pedantic fuck, I hate you.
I certainly mean no offense; I think the outcome of the USA presidential election is of far mor interest to the world than that of Brazil. I know I am sounding terribly USA-centric here and I'll probably be flamed into the groud for this. The US has many more enemies than any other country I can think of, both within and without. So increasing the potential risk of tampering in the electoral process of arguably the most powerful/hated nation in the world is something I as an United States-ian am not comfortable with.
A similar point is this, poeple write more exploit code for Windows than for Linux, why? Because it's a bigger target.
Without going too deeply into whether or not bits have value (at least not just yet), your post has been labeled "Insightful" and I must disagree.
I am not saying it is not a valid opinion just that it is not insightful in the least.
What you have stated is simply a revised version of the Sorites Paradox, which poses the series of questions: Would you describe a single grain of wheat as a heap? No. Would you describe two grains of wheat as a heap? No.... You must admit the presence of a heap sooner or later, so where do you draw the line?
This is a fallacy of logic often committed by people with little or no formal training in logical reasoning.
Another example: Is it an assault for me to forcibly remove 1 hair from your head? No. Two then? Surely not. Alright, 3? What then if I remove 10? Unpleasent to be sure, but assault? Definately not. A whole handful? Perhaps. If I systematically remove handful after handful until you are bald? Almost certainly. Then I implore you, tell me how many hairs I can remove without assaulting you.
It is not so cut and dry is it. If we incrementally go up from 1, 1 at a time where is the division. If it doesn't exist at any given point then I must surely be able to pull hair at will without concern for recourse.
The articles specifically mention use in ultralightweight springs, as one example, or other "precision instruments for use in rugged environments such as in outer space". My question is would this new alloy be so limited to these applications or could an alloy like this affect the design of buildings or bridges? Or have greater effect in making lightweight cars or other common products.
I am neither a metallugist or an engineer, but I could only imagine this being used in a few years for just about everything much as "aircraft aluminum" is used in making canoes and ski poles.
I'd think the uses for this could be very far reaching if it can be made affordable enough for common use. I see lighter more durable touring bikes, motorcycles, cars, planes from jets to gliders, to just about anything made of metal I'd suppose.
Are there any reasons why this metal wouldn't be a good choice for other applications?
I agree with you to a certain extent. This administration likely does not care about "the voice of the people", however I think mentioning Al Gore shows a hint of bias. I would extend your statement to say Government in general has little regard for "the voice of the people".
This is not a new thing. The framers of the Constition created the electoral college to ensure against the layperson having the same weight of voice as the more worldly and educated of their day.
Personally I think this is a better system. True democracy is a great theory, much as a Benign Dictatorship, Communism, Utopia, or Anarchy are. And each of these has it's place, generally in very small populations. Representative democracy, on the other hand, is more well suited the governing of a large, widespread, and diverse population.
The difference I see is this. Historically there has alway been the pretense of caring. People could rant all they wanted and no-one in government had the audacity to say they were going to ignore a particular group.
My point is this sets a dangerous precedent. If the government can choose to ignore a group of people based on their method of communicating, how far can they take it? Can they dictate it must be in English? Probably. Can they say it must be in blue or black ink on 8 1/2 x 11 paper, which is made of at least 90% recycled material, mailed in a manilla colored envelope, with an American flag stamp, placed upside down, centered vertically, one inch from the right hand edge, mailed from a location where the first letter of the postmark is an "M"? Probably not.
There is a world of difference between the two senarios, and I don't like either of them or anything in between.
It seems really foolish to me they would discount electronic communication as a legitimate conduit for the voice of the people.
There are many advanages as well as a couple of disadvantages I can see.
Pluses: 1. The ease of use for most people is considerable. Just type and click. Many people, myself included, are too lazy or busy to sit down and write a letter, put it in an envelope with a stamp, then put it in the mail.
2. It's easily manageable. They can filter it electronically. They can make back-ups. They can measure percentages. They can quickly re-distribute messages. They can make the information readily available for the masses.
3. It's immediate. Feedback can be received on issues immediately, as they occur.
Minuses: 1. It could be flooded with astroturf, spam, junk, or just someone down the street with an agenda could write 30 messages a day skewing the data.
2. It's impersonal. If you REALLY cared you'd take the time to write or call your legislator personally.
Overall though I think the communication is what is important. I cannot see how the method of transmission can enhance or diminish the value of the thoughts or feelings contained therein.
It would be a bad policy, and a poor precedent to set, to blanketly ignore the voices of people who for whatever reason use a particular technology to speak their mind.
If the virus makes defective copies of itself is there a lessened chance of transmission? It seems they would still be a carrier of the disease but could they transmit it? If the virus is crippled and could not infect new cells it would seem contact with contaminated blood would be much less dangerous.
I remember playing the old TSR Dark Sun game, and discovering you could get unlimited Dragonlances/money/whatever if you loaded up one player and droped him from your group then did a hard shut down on the system. When the game came back up the players who originally had the items/money/whatever would still have it and you could have the other rejoin your group with all the goodies. Granted it was a one player game and it was pretty lame running around with 8+ dragonlances after awhile, but as we always used to say:
It's not cheating if the computer will let you do it.
I say reward those who can think out side the box and be at least marginally creative, it's a rare enough quality in the world today. Of course those who just use someone elses methods are lame posers/cheaters who should be flayed.
I have no idea what this "experiment" would be called, nor do I fully understand the principals behind it, but here it is.
Equipment needed: 1) 1 round Bic (tm) pen. 2) 1 flat, hard, and smooth surface (wood laminate or glass table works well) 3) several yards of room with high ceiling space
Set up: 1) careful as to avoid damage to the pen casing remove the pen tip and end piece from the shaft
Method: 1) Place pen, lying down, on hard surface 2) Place two fingers, one one each end of the pen 3) Press down with a significant amount of force with your fingers 4) slowly roll your fingers back toward you with the intent in mind of causing the pen to "shoot out" from under your fingers 5) watch as the pen floats away, looping gracefully through the air.
It can be tricky to do right when first starting out, but soon you will be wasting several minutes/hours/days having fun with floating pens. Or maybe not.
In related news: Through selling their fat to science, millions of fat, ugly, poor people became slender, beautiful, rich people, tusly throwing off the delicate natural balance where 90% of the population is unfit (Darwinally speaking) to breed, leading to a previously unimaginable population boom as people proceed to "get it on", which causes widespread overpopulation (although skinny people do admittedly take up significantly less room than their beefier counter-parts), mass starvation (which in a poetic justice sort of way leads to more skinny people, sex, and babies, rinse, lather, repeat), and ultimately the demise of Western Civilization. But what a way to go;)
Slashdot Mirror
Full Sail
From the article:
The Cell and Apple
Finally, before signing off, I should clarify my earlier remarks to the effect that I don't think that Apple will use this CPU. I originally based this assessment on the fact that I knew that the SPUs would not use VMX/Altivec. However, the PPC core does have a VMX unit. Nonetheless, I expect this VMX to be very simple, and roughly comparable to the Altivec unit o the first G4. Everything on this processor is stripped down to the bare minimum, so don't expect a ton of VMX performance out of it, and definitely not anything comparable to the G5. Furthermore, any Altivec code written for the new G4 or G5 would have to be completely reoptimized due to inorder nature of the PPC core's issue.
So the short answer is, Apple's use of this chip is within the realm of concievability, but it's extremely unlikely in the short- and medium-term. Apple is just too heavily invested in Altivec, and this processor is going to be a relative weakling in that department. Sure, it'll pack a major SIMD punch, but that will not be a double-precision Alitvec-type punch.
From the map24 website:
Due to the new cooperation between Google, Inc, and Mapsolute GmbH, maker of the unique mapping portal Map24.com, it is now possible to search for city maps in all European Google search engines. If you enter a city name into Google.co.uk, the first result list entry is a special link to Map24.com that brings up the corresponding city map. On the result page, for sure, the full set of the rich Map24 options is available to the users.
The Happy Fun Ball is not ammused...
If the company was founded in 2004 as per their website, why areall the pages on their website copyright 2003?
With the caliber of the majority movies on the list I know I have seen many of these in the bargain binat walmart for $5.50, what's to stop me from picking up a couple hundred/thousand of these and making a nice profit? Besides the obvious amount of work involved, and the fact I'd most likely have topay for shipping in both directions?
In case someone else tries to?
I thought this guy made some interesting points, and his delivery method was borderline brilliant, but the question I have is what can we do?
I was recently having a discussion with my mother, who in the last few years has eschewed the television almost entirely, but while she was visiting my aunt found herself watching the news. Her near immediate reaction was what the hell is this? The news she had grown up with had at least seemed solid, fair, unbiased, and if anything viewed the entirety of the political machine with skepticism. "Human interest" stories were almost non-existant, there was no sensationalism, and comercialism hadn't yet sunk its claws into the medium.
The question I now have is when did profit become the business of news, or am I naive for thinking it ever wasn't? How can a fair media exist if as I see it there are only three means of supporting itself: fees from subscribers, fees from advertisers, or being state sponsered?
If the majority of people are not inclined to want "real" news, a premire news outlet cannot rely on subscription fees alone, and the other two alternitives I can only see as cripling to the objectivity of the source, or am I now being too jaded?
I like to think in the year 2014 I'll be able to use whatever is in place to be the best educated citizen I can be, but am I wrong in wondering what the point is, if as I suspect 90% of the people out there are only hearing what they want to hear, truth be damned?
Never in my life have I felt the sting of being a minority, I'm a white male in Minnesota, but I fear a change is coming in which the intellectuals of this country are beholden to the whims of the ignorant and uneducated.
I fear the last election, the current war in Iraq, and the broad spectrum line-up of "reality" TV is just the tip of the iceberg, in the long decline of our society.
I for one do not welcome our new, ignorant and sedate majority overlords.
Thanks, too damn early, I'm going back to bed...
Grammer Nazis -- I am sorry about the typo, I do understand the difference between the contraction for they are and the possesive their, I just mistyped and didn't bother to preview. Once again sorry, and flame on.
Could this tech be used to help robots, or any computer really better understand it's evironment visually? As I understand it one of the problems facing robot optics is the lack of depth perception and identifying object bounderies, if they used optics in the nonvisable spectrum and basically walked around with they're flashes strobing happily along would that help these problems? The only problem I see with that is multiple robots flashes interfering with each other, so maybe it's only be used sparingly when absolutely needed? Or is this technology completely inappropriate for this application?
They'll develop a working missile defense system. All kidding aside how hard is it going to be to position this giant copper bullet in the path of a speeding comet? How acurately can they predict the comets path (whenever I here about near earth passes they are always given in wide ranges as to how near they actually came). So maybe I just naieve but the idea that we could hurl a giant block of metal into a comet traveling 23,000 miles per hour millions of miles away, I feel like a kid again at the wonderment.
It's been my experience you can only pick one of those.
Fuck you George... Fuck you you God-Damned hollywood-grassfucker... I hate you and I hope you die of some really bad VD that has yet to be discovered. You piece of shit money-grubbing whore.
Talking about the films being unfinished before and just needing you to throw millions of dollars at them and your fancy special effects computers to churn away on them. I call bullshit.
Did you not have enough money in 1976 to make Greedo shoot first, was the technology not available at the time, was that it?
George: Harrison, sorry, um yeah, well see here's the thing, we just don't have enough laser special effects to have Greedo shoot at you first so we'll just have to have you kill him in cold blood.
Harrison: But won't that make my character an "anti-hero"?
George: Yeah, I'm really sorry about that. I solemly swear to fix it in post-production 20 years later restoring bland noble virtue to your white hat wearing space cowboy.
Harrison: Um, okay George.
There is a place for you in Hell you pedantic fuck, I hate you.
I certainly mean no offense; I think the outcome of the USA presidential election is of far mor interest to the world than that of Brazil. I know I am sounding terribly USA-centric here and I'll probably be flamed into the groud for this. The US has many more enemies than any other country I can think of, both within and without. So increasing the potential risk of tampering in the electoral process of arguably the most powerful/hated nation in the world is something I as an United States-ian am not comfortable with.
A similar point is this, poeple write more exploit code for Windows than for Linux, why? Because it's a bigger target.
Beautiful, simply beautiful... I got goosebumps.
Without going too deeply into whether or not bits have value (at least not just yet), your post has been labeled "Insightful" and I must disagree.
... You must admit the presence of a heap sooner or later, so where do you draw the line?
I am not saying it is not a valid opinion just that it is not insightful in the least.
What you have stated is simply a revised version of the Sorites Paradox, which poses the series of questions: Would you describe a single grain of wheat as a heap? No. Would you describe two grains of wheat as a heap? No.
This is a fallacy of logic often committed by people with little or no formal training in logical reasoning.
Another example: Is it an assault for me to forcibly remove 1 hair from your head? No. Two then? Surely not. Alright, 3? What then if I remove 10? Unpleasent to be sure, but assault? Definately not. A whole handful? Perhaps. If I systematically remove handful after handful until you are bald? Almost certainly. Then I implore you, tell me how many hairs I can remove without assaulting you.
It is not so cut and dry is it. If we incrementally go up from 1, 1 at a time where is the division. If it doesn't exist at any given point then I must surely be able to pull hair at will without concern for recourse.
The articles specifically mention use in ultralightweight springs, as one example, or other "precision instruments for use in rugged environments such as in outer space". My question is would this new alloy be so limited to these applications or could an alloy like this affect the design of buildings or bridges? Or have greater effect in making lightweight cars or other common products.
I am neither a metallugist or an engineer, but I could only imagine this being used in a few years for just about everything much as "aircraft aluminum" is used in making canoes and ski poles.
I'd think the uses for this could be very far reaching if it can be made affordable enough for common use. I see lighter more durable touring bikes, motorcycles, cars, planes from jets to gliders, to just about anything made of metal I'd suppose.
Are there any reasons why this metal wouldn't be a good choice for other applications?
I agree with you to a certain extent. This administration likely does not care about "the voice of the people", however I think mentioning Al Gore shows a hint of bias. I would extend your statement to say Government in general has little regard for "the voice of the people".
This is not a new thing. The framers of the Constition created the electoral college to ensure against the layperson having the same weight of voice as the more worldly and educated of their day.
Personally I think this is a better system. True democracy is a great theory, much as a Benign Dictatorship, Communism, Utopia, or Anarchy are. And each of these has it's place, generally in very small populations. Representative democracy, on the other hand, is more well suited the governing of a large, widespread, and diverse population.
The difference I see is this. Historically there has alway been the pretense of caring. People could rant all they wanted and no-one in government had the audacity to say they were going to ignore a particular group.
My point is this sets a dangerous precedent. If the government can choose to ignore a group of people based on their method of communicating, how far can they take it? Can they dictate it must be in English? Probably. Can they say it must be in blue or black ink on 8 1/2 x 11 paper, which is made of at least 90% recycled material, mailed in a manilla colored envelope, with an American flag stamp, placed upside down, centered vertically, one inch from the right hand edge, mailed from a location where the first letter of the postmark is an "M"? Probably not.
There is a world of difference between the two senarios, and I don't like either of them or anything in between.
It seems really foolish to me they would discount electronic communication as a legitimate conduit for the voice of the people.
There are many advanages as well as a couple of disadvantages I can see.
Pluses:
1. The ease of use for most people is considerable. Just type and click. Many people, myself included, are too lazy or busy to sit down and write a letter, put it in an envelope with a stamp, then put it in the mail.
2. It's easily manageable. They can filter it electronically. They can make back-ups. They can measure percentages. They can quickly re-distribute messages. They can make the information readily available for the masses.
3. It's immediate. Feedback can be received on issues immediately, as they occur.
Minuses:
1. It could be flooded with astroturf, spam, junk, or just someone down the street with an agenda could write 30 messages a day skewing the data.
2. It's impersonal. If you REALLY cared you'd take the time to write or call your legislator personally.
Overall though I think the communication is what is important. I cannot see how the method of transmission can enhance or diminish the value of the thoughts or feelings contained therein.
It would be a bad policy, and a poor precedent to set, to blanketly ignore the voices of people who for whatever reason use a particular technology to speak their mind.
If the virus makes defective copies of itself is there a lessened chance of transmission? It seems they would still be a carrier of the disease but could they transmit it? If the virus is crippled and could not infect new cells it would seem contact with contaminated blood would be much less dangerous.
Read the article, Hepatitis C Breakthrough...
I remember playing the old TSR Dark Sun game, and discovering you could get unlimited Dragonlances/money/whatever if you loaded up one player and droped him from your group then did a hard shut down on the system. When the game came back up the players who originally had the items/money/whatever would still have it and you could have the other rejoin your group with all the goodies. Granted it was a one player game and it was pretty lame running around with 8+ dragonlances after awhile, but as we always used to say:
It's not cheating if the computer will let you do it.
I say reward those who can think out side the box and be at least marginally creative, it's a rare enough quality in the world today. Of course those who just use someone elses methods are lame posers/cheaters who should be flayed.
I have no idea what this "experiment" would be called, nor do I fully understand the principals behind it, but here it is.
Equipment needed:
1) 1 round Bic (tm) pen.
2) 1 flat, hard, and smooth surface (wood laminate or glass table works well)
3) several yards of room with high ceiling space
Set up:
1) careful as to avoid damage to the pen casing remove the pen tip and end piece from the shaft
Method:
1) Place pen, lying down, on hard surface
2) Place two fingers, one one each end of the pen
3) Press down with a significant amount of force with your fingers
4) slowly roll your fingers back toward you with the intent in mind of causing the pen to "shoot out" from under your fingers
5) watch as the pen floats away, looping gracefully through the air.
It can be tricky to do right when first starting out, but soon you will be wasting several minutes/hours/days having fun with floating pens. Or maybe not.
In related news: Through selling their fat to science, millions of fat, ugly, poor people became slender, beautiful, rich people, tusly throwing off the delicate natural balance where 90% of the population is unfit (Darwinally speaking) to breed, leading to a previously unimaginable population boom as people proceed to "get it on", which causes widespread overpopulation (although skinny people do admittedly take up significantly less room than their beefier counter-parts), mass starvation (which in a poetic justice sort of way leads to more skinny people, sex, and babies, rinse, lather, repeat), and ultimately the demise of Western Civilization. But what a way to go ;)